In the spirit of the season, a very Happy Hanukkah gift from Bibi Netanyahu.  It's a thorough dressing down of the unethical rag--enjoy!

From Aish.com

Bibi Rejects the New York Times
by Ron Dermer, Senior Advisor to the Israeli Prime Minister

Why Netanyahu refuses to publish an op-ed in the so-called “newspaper of record.”

 Ron Dermer is a senior advisor to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The following letter was written to the editorial board of the New York Times.

I received your email requesting that Prime Minister Netanyahu submit an op-ed to the New York Times. Unfortunately, we must respectfully decline.

On matters relating to Israel, the op-ed page of the "paper of record" has failed to heed the late Senator Moynihan's admonition that everyone is entitled to their own opinion but that no one is entitled to their own facts.

A case in point was your decision last May to publish the following bit of historical revision by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas:

It is important to note that the last time the question of Palestinian statehood took center stage at the General Assembly, the question posed to the international community was whether our homeland should be partitioned into two states. In November 1947, the General Assembly made its recommendation and answered in the affirmative. Shortly thereafter, Zionist forces expelled Palestinian Arabs to ensure a decisive Jewish majority in the future state of Israel, and Arab armies intervened. War and further expulsions ensued.

This paragraph effectively turns on its head an event within living memory in which the Palestinians rejected the UN partition plan accepted by the Jews and then joined five Arab states in launching a war to annihilate the embryonic Jewish state. It should not have made it past the most rudimentary fact-checking.

The Times consistently ignores the steps Israel has taken to advance peace.

The opinions of some of your regular columnists regarding Israel are well known. They consistently distort the positions of our government and ignore the steps it has taken to advance peace. They cavalierly defame our country by suggesting that marginal phenomena condemned by Prime Minister Netanyahu and virtually every Israeli official somehow reflects government policy or Israeli society as a whole. Worse, one columnist even stooped to suggesting that the strong expressions of support for Prime Minister Netanyahu during his speech this year to Congress was "bought and paid for by the Israel lobby" rather than a reflection of the broad support for Israel among the American people.

Yet instead of trying to balance these views with a different opinion, it would seem as if the surest way to get an op-ed published in the New York Times these days, no matter how obscure the writer or the viewpoint, is to attack Israel.

Even so, the recent piece on "Pinkwashing," in which Israel is vilified for having the temerity to champion its record on gay-rights, set a new bar that will be hard for you to lower in the future.

Not to be accused of cherry-picking to prove a point, I discovered that during the last three months (September through November) you published 20 op-eds about Israel in the New York Times and International Herald Tribune. After dividing the op-eds into two categories, "positive" and "negative," with "negative" meaning an attack against the State of Israel or the policies of its democratically elected government, I found that 19 out of 20 columns were "negative."

The only "positive" piece was penned by Richard Goldstone (of the infamous Goldstone Report), in which he defended Israel against the slanderous charge of Apartheid.

Yet your decision to publish that op-ed came a few months after your paper reportedly rejected Goldstone's previous submission. In that earlier piece, which was ultimately published in the Washington Post, the man who was quoted the world over for alleging that Israel had committed war crimes in Gaza, fundamentally changed his position. According to the New York Times op-ed page, that was apparently news unfit to print.

Your refusal to publish "positive" pieces about Israel apparently does not stem from a shortage of supply. It was brought to my attention that the Majority Leader and Minority Whip of the U.S. House of Representatives jointly submitted an op-ed to your paper in September opposing the Palestinian action at the United Nations and supporting the call of both Israel and the Obama administration for direct negotiations without preconditions. In an age of intense partisanship, one would have thought that strong bipartisan support for Israel on such a timely issue would have made your cut.

So with all due respect to your prestigious paper, you will forgive us for declining your offer. We wouldn't want to be seen as "Bibiwashing" the op-ed page of the New York Times.

 

While the MSM continues to parrot Cuban state press run by a murderous outlaw dictator, they ignore the brutal violent acts of repression against Cuba's peaceful dissidents. 

The life of Cuban opposition leader Jorge Luis García Pérez (Antúnez) is in danger.

I am pleading with the MSM and international human rights organizations to please speak out on behalf of this peaceful dissident. Look around our world; dissent and protest is universally celebrated, the Arab Spring, the OWS, the European demonstrations. Whether or not if you agree with their agendas, we should all agree that no one should be denied the right of free speech.

The above referenced acts of dissent have enjoyed wide coverage in the media. I ask, I plea and beg, why are the Cuban people excluded from international media? Are they not responsible for exposing the truth about violations of universally accepted rights? Are they no longer the so-called 5th estate? Why are peaceful Cuban dissenters, including women, and the elderly allowed to be subjected to the most agregious violations of their human rights; torture, beatings, intimidation, threats, imprisonment, and murder. Why is that when their stories are presented to international media and human rights organizations in multiple lanugages, the response is for the most part silence.

Please, please speak out in support of human rights for the Cuban people. You may save a life.

From tireless defender of rights and justice for the Cuban people Marc Masferrer at Uncommen Sense:

Antúnez on Nov. 8 was arrested, beaten and thrown into a jail cell at the police station in his hometown of Placetas. His wife, Iris Tamara Pérez Aguilera, a leading activist in her own right, told CubaEncuentro.com that she has been told that Antúnez is in poor health, suffering from chest pains and headaches.

Meanwhile, officials have threatened to hold Antúnez, one of the most forceful activists on the island, in jail indefinitely.

Pedazos de la Isla has a personal appeal from Iris:

Attention! The activist and brother of Jorge Luis Garcia Perez Antunez just arrived to my home. He tells me that officials in the Placetas Police Unit informed him that his brother is in critical condition right now. They said that Antunez is suffering from very low blood pressure and very low sugar levels. I am calling on all those people of goodwill so that they raise their voices for my husband.

Frances Martel at Mediaite has written a lengthy article interviewing CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta in Havanna, Cuba. Dr. Gupta is in Cuba to investigate for himself the facts about Cuba's healthcare system that everyone seems determined to hold up as a prime example of a successful government/state-run system. Democrats, Hollywood celebrities such as Michael Moore and Oliver Stone, and the American media have selectively shown only one elitist aspect of CastroCare, deliberately omitting the entire cold harsh facts about the average Cuban who must depend on the government for its every medical need. Here is just a bit of Martel's report, but as I said it's lengthy so read the full article at the link above or in the box-quote:

90 miles and decades removed from the United States, the island of Cuba persists as a stubbornly living relic of the Cold War, excommunicated from the Western world just enough to make everything from its music to policy to its health care system a mystery. It was to explore this latter element that CNN’s Dr. Sanjay Gupta found himself Havana last week, from where he told Mediaite his first impressions and expectations on the island, and worked on an upcoming documentary on swimmer Diana Nyad’s attempt to traverse the stretch of water from Havana to Florida.

Many have argued that the Cuban health care system is somewhat of a marvel compared to the rest of the island’s industries– not the least due to the fact that the government made a very public push to make doctors its greatest export. This has led to both strong criticism from those that perceive it as a distraction from the goings-on otherwise on the island, or see it as a ploy for the nation to ingratiate itself internationally with nation’s that simply cannot afford good medical education. On the other hand, those who praise it cite numbers (mostly from the Cuban government) that show the average life of a Cuban to be, at least on paper, more disease-free than many in the Western world. To this end, Dr. Gupta traveled to the island to take a look himself and try to speak to as many people on the ground there as he could.

Journalistic missions like these, even if explicitly avoiding the political situation on the island, nevertheless touch on an emotional, political wound that hasn’t stopped bleeding for more than half a century. The relationship between Cuba, the Cuban exile community, and the American mainstream media is a tenuous one, and as a member of the Cuban exile community, this topic is particular is personally difficult for me. I grew up with an acute understanding of the systematic physical and psychological destruction the regime is to blame for– it is plain to see every day in the faces of our loved ones, and the former prisoners of conscience in our communities who huddle in cafes to reminisce about the time they served in brutally inhumane conditions for having complimented America once, or written a defiant essay, or even worn their hair long or listened to “yanqui” music. The pain is inked in the headlines of our media that dare publish stories of families of political prisoners being beaten and scorned on the streets.

In this context– and in the context of the mainstream media’s history with the communist dictatorship (from Herbert Matthews to 1990s Lou Dobbs to Michael Moore to Oliver Stone)– justifying a look at the health care system at face value is about as acceptable as an in-depth report on Mussolini-era Italy’s efficient train system. Regime sympathizers have used it as a smokescreen to shield eyes from the atrocities of the regime, and thus the distrust in the community is very high when such analyses come to the fore. But in the post-USSR, post-internet world, in a world where the demand for Happy Meals and iPods has proven a far more powerful political motivator than the temptations of abstract fundamental human rights, opening governments requires shining spotlights and exchanging culture. Even apolitical reports like Dr. Gupta’s force the regime to exhibit a candor with which it is unfamiliar, and serve to remind the world of the inconvenient fact that Cuban people, so many decades later, still live under the yoke of the Revolution’s dilapidated, rabid haughtiness.

With this heavy in mind, I spoke to Dr. Gupta earlier this week from Havana–who, as you will read, came into the experience acutely aware of the nature of the government, no agenda and plenty of curiosity. I found in him a refusal to subscribe to the Oliver Stone/Michael Moore school of willful blindness, admitting there were breathtaking elements to the island while acknowledging the scattering of asterisks and conjectures surrounding the statistics of the health care system, and the inability of journalists to paint a full picture.

Continue...

On YouTube you will find videos of Dr. Gupta's heated interview on CNN with Michael Moore on the heels of his pro-CastroCare movie "Sicko" in 2007 as the U.S. political season geared-up for the 2008 POTUS campaigns and government-run healthcare was a primary focus of the democrats running.

Here's more on Estela Bravo, currently on a propaganda tour peddling the regimes version of Operation Pedro Pan.  Agustin Blazquez takes a revealing look back at Ms. Bravo's long association with the bloody Castro regime.

The 2005 article is about a pro-Castro documentary shown on PBS by filmmaker Estela Bravo, a known collaborator with the Castro regime.  It's quite long, so most of it is posted below the fold.  Please read the whole truth-loaded article, as every word is a bull's-eye.  Agustin takes on the despicable character assassination of the Cuban exile community, the Cuba lobby's efforts to lift the embargo, PBS hypocrisy, and so-called Cuba "expert" Wayne Smith.  It's a primer on los pandilleros de Castro.

From Misceláneas Culturales, 'Miami - Havana' A Misguided Trip:

Dedicated to Reed Irvine

by Agustin Blazquez with the collaboration of Jaums Sutton

The New York Times, the creator of Castro’s myth (thanks to the famous Herbert Matthews series of articles that began in February 1957) and according to the tyrant himself, “I owe my job” to that newspaper, is one of the sponsors of this pro-Castro propaganda film festival that showed on April 18, 2005, the documentary “Miami-Havana.”

While talking to a Cuban defector, I mentioned that I had seen on the local PBS station in Washington, DC the 1992 documentary “Miami-Havana” during the 1993 season.  To my surprise she said, “Oh yeah, Estela Bravo.  She is a Castro collaborator.”

Being Cuban also, and knowing the different outlook and perspective firsthand experience inside a totalitarian communist society brings, I thought that this defector – who was involved in the performing arts in Cuba – might have a point.  At the same time, that statement worried me, since our perspective as non-pro-Castro has been so harshly criticized and misunderstood by the U.S. media and so many in the U.S.

So I decided to get some information from the Institute for Policy Studies (IPS), the Washington, DC, distributor of Estela Bravo’s documentary.

What I received from Arwen Donahue, the documentary publicist at the IPS was revealing.  It was Estela Bravo’s curriculum and an article by Andres Viglucci published by The Miami Herald on September 24, 1993, about the showing of her documentary on PBS.

Almost everything in this curriculum, and details in the article, fits the profile of what the defector implied when calling her a “collaborator.”

It’s going to be difficult to explain what the defector meant, unless you come from the inside and are acquainted with the mechanisms of a communist society.  According to my experience in the U.S., it’s very difficult for Americans to comprehend or relate to the complex daily survival routine of people trapped inside a regime like the one Castro imposed upon Cuba.  As a friend of mine still in Cuba hinted in a letter, it’s “totally surrealist.”

In my attempt to understand where this documentary came from, I found that Estela Bravo – who is an American born in New York City in 1933, has, since 1963, been dividing her time between Havana and New York.

I must explain: in the early 1960s many so-called “true believers” of the Castro revolution began arriving in a sort of pilgrimage to Cuba.  Castro gave his true believers coveted jobs, expropriated houses and apartments in exclusive areas, access to foreigner-only stores and schools for their children and other privileges not allowed to ordinary Cuban citizens (the beginning of apartheid in Cuba).

Please continue reading below the fold.

That explains Estela Bravo’s privilege of commuting between Havana and New York since 1963 in opposition to Cubans who lost that simple freedom after Castro.

I learned that Estela Bravo briefly had a folk music radio show in Cuba and that she worked for the Cuban government in a cultural institute.  Also, her Argentinean husband, Ernesto Bravo, a biochemistry professor she married in 1956 and who collaborated on all her films, was given a job in 1963 at the University of Havana as professor of medicine.

There is nothing wrong with any of this in any free and democratic society, but Castro’s Cuba is neither.  But if you are a Cuban and you know the mechanism behind all these shenanigans, you understand perfectly what the defector meant.

With the knowledge I have of the Cuban situation after Castro I ask myself, where are the sympathies of this foreign couple?  They joined the heard of true believers and went to work for Castro’s regime.  Therefore he awarded them with privileges and desirable jobs.  Never mind all the freedoms and human rights Castro castrated.

Apparently Castro became the leader of their new cult.  That’s the only way I can explain joining something like that of your own accord.  The defector’s comment seems not so far fetched after all.

Then I remembered that the defector also said that Estela Bravo is very well known in Cuba and that her documentaries are shown regularly on government controlled Cuban TV.  That means a lot, since in that heavily censored propaganda machine (the Cuban media), when something is shown regularly it means that it is beneficial to Castro’s goals.

Sorry that I have to be so blunt, but just that’s the way it is.  It’s a fact of life in Castro’s Cuba and Cubans are very much aware of it.

In Estela Bravo’s list of documentaries I see a lot of familiar far left militant themes.  She has been reviewed and recognized by the official Cuban Communist Party newspaper Granma.  Comments from leftie American folk singer Pete Seeger, “Deep down is her wonderful internationalist outlook . . ..”  I must clarify that in the communist jargon “internationalist” means: a person who goes to other countries to work and fight for the advancement of the Communist cause.

She received glowing comments from Castro’s official filmmaker, the late Tomas Gutierrez Alea and official national poet, the late Nicolas Guillen.  You don’t get those kind of official accolades unless you belong to Castro’s fan club and serve his goals.

I also found good comments by leftie American writer and filmmaker Saul Landau, who because of his pro-Castro views has been referred as “an incurable Fidelista” by analyst Don Kowet.

In The Miami Herald article Estela Bravo wouldn’t discuss her specific political views or sympathies for Castro’s regime.  That also fits the profile of the true believer or collaborator.  They invariably duck the question and dive away through a tangent line.  She said, “I believe I was honest in making this documentary.”  If she is really “honest,” why does she duck this most relevant question?

“We didn’t want to be political,” she said.  However, the end result of “Miami-Havana” is a very much pro-Castro, anti-U.S., politically left-leaning documentary.

“We want to show the human cost of this terrible war.”  What war?  Unless she is referring to the war Castro declared against the Cuban people since 1959!  But somehow I doubt very much that is what she meant.  I think she meant – echoing Castro – the war that the Yankees declared on Cuba.  What war?

I must point out that the slogan featured in this documentary “Cuba Si, Yankees No!” was created by Castro for the Communist international parade on May 1, 1960, just 15 months after he took control in Cuba and three months prior to his appropriation of all American properties in Cuba.

Even prior to that, Castro had already declared his own war against the U.S. to “fulfill his destiny,” as he wrote to his secretary, the late Celia Sanchez, on June 1958.  Now we know what war.

Estela Bravo made “Miami-Havana” while, as a privileged foreigner in Cuba, she has the freedom of traveling between Havana, Miami and New York pitching Castro’s survival scheme: to lift the U.S. embargo.  That is the political message and objective of her documentary – and, conveniently, Castro’s current goal.  So it is a political documentary after all.

In this 1992 anti-U.S. embargo and pro-relations with good-old-Castro documentary, Estela Bravo also conveniently ignores the fact that Castro has been circumventing the U.S. embargo for years.  Castro has been buying through Canada, Mexico, France, Spain, Italy, Japan and other capitalist countries.

I’m sure that Estela Bravo and her husband didn’t experience the same scarcity in Cuba as the typical Cuban citizen for 46 years.  Don’t they feel any guilt about this peculiar duality?  This documentary doesn’t explain that before Castro, Cuba produced its own food for consumption and even export.  Can Estela Bravo explain what happened to pre-Castro productivity?

The problem obviously is not the U.S. embargo as Castro’s propaganda has been claiming for decades.  Estela Bravo through her “honest” documentary keeps reinforcing ad nauseam Castro’s repetitive claim to dupe American audiences yet again.

The clear political objective this documentary pursues is to appeal to the uninformed American audience at the grassroots level so they start lobbying the U.S. government for the lifting of the embargo and to allow Americans to visit Cuba as tourists and investors - just what Castro needs to continue his reign of terror.  Never mind the real feelings and desires of the oppressed little Cuban people.

Estela Bravo even asserts, speaking for over a million exiles in the U.S. alone (about 3 million world wide) that “I believe the majority of people want to normalize relations.”  Somehow I don’t think so in Estela-Fidel terms.  We want to see our loved ones living with dignity, human rights, freedom in a democratic society, but that is Castro’s anathema.

Echoing Castro’s claims, Estela Bravo’s documentary portrays the Cubans as being lured from their paradisiacal island by the bad exiles and U.S. propaganda.  That’s got to be a joke!  Estela, in your zeal, I think you went a tad too far.  In the years I have been out of Cuba in Canada, Europe or the U.S., I have never met a Cuban who was lured in the fashion this “honest” documentary implies.

All the Cubans I know have left everything and risked their lives to escape in shark-infested waters are in search of freedom (about 77,824 documented deaths trying to escape in the Florida Straits).  Those escapes and defections are symptomatic of all Communist tyrannies around the globe.  Historically, human beings can’t stand to live under so much oppression.  That is a fact of life.  Sorry Estela, humans are humans.

All throughout this “honest” documentary - selected as one of the 10 Best Documentaries of 1992 by the PBS-POV (Point Of View) series – we are “tricked or treated” with the multiple incursions of “expert” Wayne Smith (the Dean of American apologists of Castro from the IPS), espousing the message of lifting the U.S. embargo.

And we are forced to see and hear Wayne Smith, wearing his promotional t-shirt of the Pan American Games (an event Castro happily used to advance his propaganda) asserting, “If elections were held today he probably still would win.”  (“Still”?  He has never been democratically elected to anything in Cuba!)

“He probably still has the support, it may be resigned support, but the support.  Another thing is that the Cuban people see no alternatives.”  Facing such speculation from “expert” Wayne Smith, I would like to pose the question: If he is so popular, why did he announce on April 9, 1959, that there would be no elections – a time when he supposedly was at the peak of his popularity?

And, why do “the Cuban people see no alternatives”?  I think I can answer that:  Because Castro has made sure there are none.

Another characterization we have to sit through in this documentary, again from Wayne Smith’s World (now referring to pro-Castro Cubans) is, “Cubans morally are very sensible, moderate people.  You don’t have these extremes.”  And referring to Cuban exiles, “But what you have in Miami, I think, is a very extreme ultra right group who want no kind of improvement on relations between the two countries.”

Well, well, well Wayne and Estela, for your information – as if you really care – the only thing Cubans ever wanted since 1959 was a return to a democratic form of government as originally promised by Castro, with respect for law, order, freedom and human rights for all and respect for family, private property and private enterprise.  We also wanted our 1940 Constitution, one of the most modern and progressive in the world that Castro discarded on February 7, 1959, when his regime was just 38 days old!

Just for these simple desires, we have been chastised, vilified, accused of being reactionary and “extreme ultra right.”  I guess the majority of Americans can be classified that way, too.

Why do Estela and her husband live and work in Cuba, a country whose un-elected ruler formed an illegitimate Mafia-like government, discarding the Constitution?

I don’t think I have enough space to continue dissecting all the inaccuracies, misinformation and propaganda contained in this documentary on an issue that it so obviously misrepresents.  I don’t even think that it qualified for the PBS-POV TV series, because according to Marc Weiss, co-executive producer for POV, in the Miami Herald article, the documentaries in that series, “Are supposed to carry ‘a’ strong point of view.”

He explains that it doesn’t have to be “journalistically balanced in the traditional sense.”  However, in the same article Estela was quoted saying, “We represented all views as much as we could.”  So, how can the documentary represent “a” point of view and “all views” at the same time?  I’m lost now.

As a friend of the late Oscar winning cinematographer, filmmaker and writer, Nestor Almendros, I am familiar with his trials and tribulations in his attempt to get financing and airtime on PBS for his documentaries “Improper Conduct” and “Nobody Listened.”

The first one, while shown and praised all over the world, was aired by just a few local U.S. PBS stations but not by PBS nationally.

The second one, which also received international acclaim, was finally aired by PBS in August 1990, after a lot of hassle, in a truncated hour-long edition (contrary to what its creator intended), in tandem with a Saul Landau pro-Castro documentary.

It is very revealing that when PBS has to choose between documentaries ridden with misinformation and propaganda covering up Cuba’s tragedy (the “charismatic” Castro version) rather than those exposing the true nature of the facts, the fantasy always wins.

Even PBS’s FRONTLINE rejected “Nobody Listened” by stating, “FRONTLINE doesn’t produce anti-Communist programs.”  Apparently, PBS’s FRONTLINE is not “journalistically balanced” either.

Nestor Almendros said in 1990, that he believed, when it comes to documentaries, the taxpayer-funded network leans unashamedly toward the political left.  “The only country that resisted [showing his documentaries], the only place where was still strong pro-Castro sentiment, was the U.S.”

When Nestor Almendros tried to get “Nobody Listened” on the PBS-POV series, after a lot of back and forth games, it was rejected for one reason or another.  Marc Weis noted, “I never supposed I’d get such a strong negative response from the committee.”

In reference to the last rejection of PBS to include “Nobody Listened” because or was “to late” for POV’s upcoming season, Almendros said, “There is something very wrong somewhere when PBS, founded by American people who are the world’s greatest enemy of communism, refuses to broadcast by itself a film about Cuba’s Communist dictator.”

PBS appears to be not so finicky when dealing with documentaries of Estela Bravo’s political persuasion – even though she doesn’t want to talk about it and claims her documentary to be apolitical.

And literally finishing off “Miami-Havana,” I must not overlook the incredible ending sequence of the returning Mariel “excludables.”   Estela doesn’t even mention that one of the demands following riots in the U.S. jails where they were in detention, was that they REMAIN IN U.S. JAILS RATHER THAN BE RETURNED TO CUBA.  How conveniently forgotten!  Brava Estela Bravo!

In her myopic version she interviewed some of them on their ominous trip back to Cuba.  Cubans, very much aware of what they have to say in order to save their skins, blamed everything on the U.S. and have to express relief, finally being on the way back to their beloved Castroland.

After landing on the real promised land, they are shown being liberated from the U.S. shackles by friendly Cuban police at the airport while Estela uses on the sound track a known-to-be-Castro-official Cuban singer setting the mood.  Then the happy ex-excludables (whom Castro forced to the U.S. in 1980) are shown leaving the Combinado del Este prison east of Havana while the same happy music plays.

Then incredibly and to my astonishment, Estela showed them going inside police cars and being delivered to their individual families for a happy reunion!

As a Cuban accustomed to these kinds of displays of “humanity” from Castro’s authorities, I started laughing.

But wait a moment.  Should I be cynical or thankful?  Probably thankful; because if it had not been for the opportune presence of friendly Estela’s camera, I could not have witnessed this “realistic” staging of the facts.  Estela strikes again!  Bravo PBS-POV, certainly a transparent and honest documentary about Estela’s belief!

However, Estela has the right to make her documentary and taxpayer funded PBS and the National Endowment for The Arts have the right to sponsor the POV broadcast in 1993, and now this New York Times’ pro-Castro film festival in New York City to show it.  But being free in the U.S. I have the right to criticize this dishonest piece of pro-Castro political propaganda.

There is nothing like freedom.  One day, not far in the future, I hope, in Cuba, Cubans will enjoy freedom in spite of the efforts of collaborators like Estela Bravo.

© 2005 ABIP

Agustin Blazquez, Producer/director of the documentaries

COVERING CUBA, CUBA: The Pearl of the Antilles, COVERING CUBA 2: The Next Generation & COVERING CUBA 3: Elianpresented at the 2003 Miami Latin Film Festival and the 2004 American Film Renaissance Film Festival in Dallas, Texas and released on April 15, 2005, COVERING CUBA 4: The Rats Below and Dan Rather ’60 Minutes’ an inside view, COVERING CUBA 5: ACT OF REPUDIATION, COVERING CUBA 6, CURACAO, COVERING CUBA 7: CHE, THE OTHER SIDE OF AN ICON.

Documentaries available at: http://www.cubacollectibles.com/cuba.mv?p=108-CC4

Author with Carlos Wotzkow of the book COVERING AND DISCOVERING and translator with Jaums Sutton of the book by Luis Grave de Peralta Morell THE MAFIA OF HAVANA: The Cuban Cosa Nostra

For previews of all my productions: www.YouTube.com/JAUMS

Thanks to the inimitable Paquito D'Rivera for shedding light on this phenomenon, because I've been unable to understand how it is beneficial for Americans to spend their hard-earned, and increasingly hard to acquire dollars on propaganda shows produced by tyrannical dictators who enslave their people and hate us. While it's easy to understand why the dictator's agents of influence would promote such events, I have a hard time understanding why respected institutions of culture agree to participate, or why someone who escaped the plantation is now willing to dance for the former master, or why a son of an exile would dishonor his  father.

Yes… Libya!

By Paquito D'Rivera

Years ago, Miami’s Willy Chirino had a hit song—a cute Cuban Guaracha— with a chorus that went: “If she wears a Bikini… punish her!, If she wears a mini-skirt… punish her!” The song was about a tycoon whose wife was kind of loose. Each time she slipped, her husband would “punish” her by buying her a mansion, the latest model sports car, or a vacation with her girlfriends in The Bahamas.

Apparently the US government has taken Chirino’s parody too seriously, or perhaps someone has convinced them to apply such a peculiar disciplinary concept to the most cruel and dangerous of dictatorships in this convoluted world of ours. In a friendly and conciliatory gesture, on February 2008, the Bush administration sent the New York Philharmonic Orchestra to a gala concert in North Korea. Naturally, the despotic Kin Jon-Il didn’t even bother to attend. His answer was to increase even more his threatening atomic arsenal. Two years later, among a myriad of atrocities taking place in Cuba, pacifist Afro-Cuban doctor Oscar Elias Biscet, a devoted follower of Dr. Martin Luther King’s ideas, was sentenced to 25 years in prison; Orlando Zapata-Tamayo’s death in a hunger strike; the physical and mental abuse of his mother Reina Luisa Tamayo and to the self-sacrificing Ladies in White; the incarceration of hundreds of dissidents and even the arbitrary detention of American citizen Alan P. Gross.

It seems like to celebrate such horrors, the New York City Ballet, the Wynton Marsalis Orchestra, and also Chico O’Farrill’s orchestra, under his son Arturo’s direction, traveled to Cuba. The Ministry of Culture of the oldest (and most ridiculous) dictatorship in the hemisphere invited them. “Ours is not a political visit. It is strictly musical”, the travelers simply affirmed as if in a totalitarian country like Cuba, everything, absolutely everything, didn’t have markedly political intentions.

The examples of “friendly aggressions” of Americans against ill-governed nations by never ending tyrannies have been quite many. Of the shameful case of China business affairs we better not even talk about. But we must recognize that the massive repressive escalation of the Castro brothers’ dictatorship, finally gained the support of many more nations that united to condemn these five decades plus of abuse and arbitrariness. In the meantime, President Obama’s administration, following the Chirino song’s chorus, “punishes” the repressor by encouraging travel and cultural exchanges (unilateral of course) of American artists and their counterparts (in what is left) of the island in ruins. This basically translates into considerable new revenue of extra cash for the Castro government. Also the sponsorship of a huge Cuban festival in the city of the skyscrapers, facilitating the free use of US territory as an enormous exhibit warehouse, where they will showcase only what they decide people should see.

As we expected, in the expo named “¡Sí Cuba!”, or Yes Cuba!”, the valuable contributions of Celia Cruz, Cachao, Guillermo Cabrera Infante, Zoé Valdés, Andy García, Gloria Estefan, Olga Guillot, Carlos Alberto Montaner, Bebo Valdés and so many other giants of our national culture will be absent. They have been systematically deleted from our suffering country’s history books because they oppose communism.

So, following the above mentioned examples, now that the Libyans, with the support of the civilized world, are liberating a crucial battle against Muhammar Gaddafi (or however the hell it’s spelled), I propose that –through the Libyan Embassy in Washington DC– we request that the Bedouin Coronel’s Ministry of Culture, organize the “Yes Libya!” festival. It’ll be pretty much like Fidel’s, but instead of mambos and rhumbas, they can play their own nawbah and takambas; musical styles danced by Libyans (at least by those who are still alive).

I suggest the festivities to begin with a great demonstration on camelbacks and dromedaries, loaned by the nation’s zoos that house those particular species. The camel riders, dressed as they do in the dessert, will be carrying curved swords, daggers, hand-grenades, anti-yankee placards, life size posters of the brother leader of the revolution and AKG rifles, fired occasionally by the cavalry men. (About the possible throwing of hand-grenades and other explosives against opposing demonstrators, we would submit this option to a democratic vote from the Libyan government’s organizing committee).

The cavalcade, preceded by the RPSBB (Retired Palestinian Suicide Bombers Band) and by women covered with veils and burkas, would march from Times Square to Ground Zero’s esplanade, where counting on the voluntary assistance of Casa de las Americas, Pastors for Peace, the Venceremos Brigade and the diplomatic representation of Venezuela, Cuba and Nicaragua, would put up the dictator’s (pardon me, the leader’s) legendary Bedouin tent. Once in the neighborhood, there will be a prayer on the site of the mosque that was to be built there and had caused so much controversy among the intolerant families of the twin towers’ victims; little incident that occurred so long ago. At the end of the prayers, there will be free shish kebab, couscous with chickpeas and barbecued goat testicles. Passages of the Koran will be read and there will be a give-away of the famous green book, autographed by the remarkable author, father of the revolution. A Libyan boy, wearing a Che Guevara T-Shirt, machine gun in hand, will unveil a beautiful statue of Benjamin Netanyahu hanging from an olive tree in the heart of the historical plaza, once home of the twin towers, a symbol of capitalism. At the end of the ceremony, Mayor Bloomberg will read a proclamation declaring the official day of Tripoli in New York. As evidence of Islamic tolerance, accompanied by the Retired Palestinian Suicidal Bombers Band, Louis Fahrakan will interpret the Arab version of Willy Chirino’s “Punish Her,” especially orchestrated by Robert Mugabe for this occasion. To close with a golden seal, 100 members of the Palestinian band, activating their explosive vests at the cry of “Yes Libyaaa!” would blow to pieces and in the name of the eternal brotherhood between our people, 40 American flags will be burned along with 49 Israeli flags and a Cohiba cigar. Allah-Akbar!

Paquito D’Rivera.
Bern, Switzerland,
April 27-2011

Darn! What a bummer. The socialist paradise on the Caribbean is being sucked into a 52 year – wide black hole of its own creation and some self centered “reporter” by the name of Portia Siegelbaum, who must have graduated from the Anita Snow School of communist propaganda regurgitation, is so bummed she felt compelled to write about it for CBS News.

Poor Portia seems peeved that some of the Cubans who once had enough sense to pin their “hope” on [f]idel are now “pooh pooh-ing” the slow pace of the “second revolution” (?!?) because the “contemplated changes” are not going “far or fast enough.” The nerve of these pissant proletariats to expect their leaders to act after …I don’t know…a half century?!?!

The Cuban people just don’t get it, you see. They, unlike Portia, don’t understand that they are a burden to the state:

As the Communist Party convenes its 6th Congress this weekend its stated priority is revamping the economy to increase production and efficiency, while implementing austerity measures to ease the burden on this long-time paternalistic State.

The State is “paternalistic” not totalitarian, autocratic, militaristic or even authoritarian. PATERNALISTIC. The 52 year beating it’s been giving the Cuban people was for their own good and it hurt [f]idel more than it hurt its victims…and this of course is burdensome. Wow.

And those burdensome revolutionary fledglings that are about to kicked out of the collective nest, they are panicked:

The older generations who have been told to live a certain way for more than five decades cannot suddenly wrap their minds around a new approach to life that demands they fend for themselves.

To Portia, it’s not the unfeasibility and the illegitimacy of a system that has to force its citizens to participate in its absurdity that makes it not work and crumble under its own bloated weight. No, to her, it’s the lack of “idealism” and “sprit of unity” (oh boy…she forgot to mention lack of willingness to sacrifice-what an amateur…) of the “new man” and uncontrollable outside factors, (reality), that is perverting the ideals of [c]astro’s (forced) utopia. Gee, not falling for a tired line of crap and a bankrupt ideology is called intelligence, but to members of a cult, reason doesn’t exist. And don’t worry, Portia “papa” is still going to tell the Cuban people what to do.

Some of the outside factors are:

Cuban exiles who send money to their family in friends thus creating a new class in the classless society where only the ruling class and sycophantic foreign journalists have hard currency.

Then there’s technology…the internet…the wild colt that must be tamed… corralled… because of it those un-idealistic and materialistic young Cubans know that they’ve been forced to ingest a life long crap sandwich while the escaped friends abroad eat steak.

It must take a very special person to experience life in Cuba today, write about it, and not once mention repression, oppression, abuses, hunger, pain and suffering.

It must take an even more special person to blame the victims- the kind that feels good about herself by freely walking around a prison, going to the manicurist with a pocket full of hard cash and a belly full of fine food and resenting the inmates for wanting to change the system that makes her feel so good about herself.

Once again, the MSM shows that it  is either incapable of, or refuses to report about Cuba within the realm of reality.  The AP headline   reads, "Cuba embraces 2 surprising free-market decrees." 

Either the AP writer is deliberately obscuring the facts, or is ignorant of basic economic principles.  "Free Market", simply defined is, " business governed by the laws of supply and demand, not restrained by government interference, regulation or subsidy."  Considering the well-known fact that in Cuba, for a half-century, all international economic trade has been controlled by the state, you'd think that AP writers would be up to speed by now.  Perhaps AP's Havana bureau personnel are too busy drinking mojitos with Cuban "government" elites.

Excerpt:

HAVANA — Cuba has issued a pair of surprising free-market decrees, allowing foreign investors to lease government land for up to 99 years — potentially touching off a golf-course building boom — and loosening state controls on commerce to let islanders grow and sell their own fruit and vegetables.

The moves, published into law in the Official Gazette on Thursday and Friday and effective immediately, are significant steps as President Raul Castro promises to scale back the communist state's control of the economy while attempting to generate new revenue for a government short on cash.

"These are part of the opening that the government wants to make given the country's situation," said Oscar Espinosa Chepe, a state-trained economist who is now an anti-communist dissident.

Cuba said it was modifying its property laws "with the aim of amplifying and facilitating" foreign investment in tourism and that doing so would provide "better security and guarantees to the foreign investor."

 

Dear Sir or Madam:

We write to you worried about the police and paramilitary harassment denounced from Banes, a small town in the Cuban province of Holguín, by Reina Luisa Tamayo. She is the mother of Orlando Zapata Tamayo the prisoner of conscience who died on 23 February after a prolonged hunger strike that up to its tragic and fatal outcome had little coverage in the international press.

Every Sunday, we receive, mostly through phone interviews broadcast by the US-based Radio Martí, the same report from Reina Luisa describing how she is beaten, insulted and how [the government directed mob] prevents her from going to the town’s church to pray for her son and the health of all Cuban political prisoners still in jail. The repressive organs of the Cuban regime also impede her to visit her son’s tomb.

It is surprising to us that despite the wide coverage dedicated to Cuban topics, your organization has not reported on this. We know of the limitations to movement within Cuba, but we also understand that any foreign reporter has the means and resources to travel to the Eastern part of the island and give an eyewitness report of what happens there, in front of Reina Luisa Tamayo’s home.

We do not wish to tell the media what they should do, but to share with you our concern for the life of a woman who has lost her son in unjust circumstances and is clamoring for the world’s help to avoid more deaths.

We, the promoters of the #OZT: I accuse the Cuban government Campaign that demands the unconditional and immediate release of all peaceful political prisoners in Cuba and the respect of all Cubans’ human rights; write to you because we know that the international press in Cuba not only bears witness to what happens there, but can also help prevent and stop harassment incidents like those suffered by the Ladies in White in March of this year.

We would also like to know if there is any kind of legal hindrance or of any other sort that prevents your reporter in La Habana from traveling to other regions of Cuba.

We thank you in advance for your reply.

Sincerely,

#OZT: I accuse the Cuban government Campaign

DIRECCIONES DE MEDIOS DE ESPAÑA:

escribanos@bbc.co.uk ( en "asunto" poner "mensaje para BBC Mundo)
cartasdirector@elpais.es
cartas.director@elmundo.es
cartas@abc.es
internacional@abc.es
internacional@elmundo.es
espanaexterior@efe.es
iberoamerica@europapress.es
noticias@europapress.es
director@libertaddigital.com
internacional@larazon.es

CONTACTO CON LA OFICINA PRINCIPAL DE AMNISTIA INTERNACIONAL DE ESPANA:
Esteban Beltrán- Director Amnistía Internacional – Sección Española
Dirección Secretariado Estatal
Fernando VI, 8, 1º izda.28004 Madrid España
Teléfono
+ 34 902 119 133
+ 34 91 310 12 77 (información general)
Fax
+ 34 91 319 53 34
Correo- e info@es.http://www.facebook.com/l/d02a0t3Xy_KBspVEkowL6dP3OuQ;amnesty.org
Para Asociarte a Amnistia Internacional: http://www.facebook.com/l/d02a02250XAqSzyb5guRJFqS1xw;www.es.amnesty.org/inicio/

En español abajo/In Spanish below

Carta abierta a directores de medios de prensa acreditados en Cuba

Sr. Director:

Nos dirigimos a usted preocupados por la situación de acoso policial y paramilitar que denuncia desde Banes ?un pequeño poblado cubano de la provincia de Holguín?, Reina Luisa Tamayo, madre de Orlando Zapata Tamayo, preso de conciencia fallecido el pasado 23 de febrero tras una huelga de hambre que, hasta su fatal y trágico desenlace, tuvo escaso impacto en la prensa internacional.

Cada domingo nos llega a través de conversaciones telefónicas, casi siempre de la emisora estadounidense Radio Martí, el parte de Reina Luisa, en el que invariablemente describe cómo la golpean, la insultan y le impiden acercarse hasta la iglesia del pueblo a rezar por su hijo y por la salud del resto de los presos políticos que permanece en las cárceles de la isla. De igual modo, los órganos represivos del gobierno cubano le impiden visitar la tumba de su hijo.

Nos sorprende que a pesar de la amplia cobertura que su medio está dando al tema Cuba, todavía no haya reportado sobre este particular. Sabemos de las limitaciones de movimiento que existen en Cuba, pero también entendemos que cualquier corresponsal extranjero tiene medios y recursos para trasladarse, acaso por un par de días, hasta el otro extremo de la isla para contar de primera mano qué ocurre allí, frente a la casa de Reina Luisa Tamayo.

En nuestro ánimo no está el indicarles a los medios qué deben hacer, sino compartir con usted nuestra preocupación por la vida de una mujer que ha perdido a su hijo en unas condiciones injustas y que está clamando por la ayuda del mundo para evitar “más muertes”.

Nosotros, promotores de la campaña #OZT: yo acuso al gobierno cubano, que reclama la excarcelación inmediata y sin condiciones de todos los presos políticos pacíficos en Cuba y el respeto a los derechos humanos de todos los cubanos, le escribimos desde el convencimiento de que los ojos de la prensa extranjera acreditada en Cuba no sólo sirven para contar lo que pasa, sino también para evitar y frenar episodios de acoso como el vivido por las Damas de Blanco en La Habana durante el pasado mes de marzo.

Nos gustaría saber, asimismo, si existe algún impedimento legal o de otra índole para que su corresponsal en La Habana pueda dirigirse a otras zonas del territorio cubano.

Gracias de antemano por su respuesta,

#OZT: yo acuso al gobierno cubano
--------------------

 The first thing that caught my eye in today's Cuba news feed is a speculative article about Hillary Clinton traveling to Cuba to help gain the release of Alan Gross. You can bet this rumor is just a tickler put out to ensure that when the actual event takes place it will have the correct "buzz," and you know the MSM will make certain that it does.   So there you have it folks, the final act in this years big con.

One thing about  the old cadaver, he’s possibly the best grifter ever.  Why he's got his victims working overtime to hand over the cash.  I know it's a given that con men can always count on greed to help them along, but this is, as Humberto would say "unbelievable."

The team:  Ortega and the Catholic Church, the Spanish Government, the U.S. Government, the official so-called Cuba Experts, and the MSM.

 The pawns:  54 Cuban “dissidents”, the official political prisoners, and Alan Gross.

 The mark:  The U.S., and the European Union.

 The job:  An end to U.S. trade sanctions and billions of dollars to castro inc.

Collateral damage: The Cuban people, and the suffering is incalculable as they face a future of brutal enslavement without even the appearance of an ally.

 The grifter's only adversary, the marginalized Cuban exiles; they exposed the con at each step of the game, and predicted the payoff, but I doubt they have the power to stop it.

 It’s a hell of a world we live in friends.

The rumor is here.

CubaNet reports that at checkpoints on entrances to Havana,  the PNR (Agentes de la Policía Nacional Revolucionaria) stopped citizens transporting seafood to Havana, and seized fish, lobster, and other products.  They also arrested  some citizens because they possessed more than their allowed limit of of food items- onion, garlic, fish, yogurt, alleging that the objective was to sell them in the black market.

Detienen a ciudadanos por trasladar productos del mar a La Habana
LA HABANA, Cuba, 13 de julio, (Roberto de Jesús Guerra Pérez / Hablemos Press / www.cubanet.org) -Agentes de la Policía Nacional Revolucionaria (PNR) decomisaron varios kilogramos de pescado, langosta y otros productos, el sábado 10 de julio, a ciudadanos que viajaban desde Batabanó a la capital.

Los decomisos se realizaron en el punto de control ubicado en el cruce de la circunvalación 6 vías y entronque de la carretera Managua, cuando de regreso de dicho municipio un camión particular que trasportaba pasajero fue detenido por la policía. Este reportero fue testigo de los hechos.

También la policía arrestó a algunos ciudadanos debido a que llevaban más del límite permitido de diferentes productos (cebolla, ajo, pescado, yogurt), alegando que el objetivo era venderlos en el mercado negro.

Las autoridades han establecido en las entradas a La Habana puntos de control con el fin de incautar los productos antes mencionados y tambien tabaco, queso y viandas.

Según fuentes que pidieron anonimato, la semana pasada fueron decomisados en Santiago de las Vegas, a pequeños agricultores e intermediarios, cuatro camiones que transportaban viandas y hortalizas.

My God, how many thousands of Cubans are serving sentences imposed without due process for having contraband onions or garlic, or beef, or as in the case of Dr. Darsi Ferrer, "unauthorized" cement in their possession?   But don't go thinking these are political prisoners, no sir these are bona fide criminals according to the court of castro.

George (and hopefully Alberto) will be on my BTR show tonight, "Infidel's Watch", to discuss the background, details, and political aspects of the developing Cuban prisoner release.

You can listen to the show here starting @ 10:00pm eastern time (7pm west coast).

If you aren't already registered @ Blog Talk Radio you can do so for free. This enables you to join in the chat room conversation ... and since George and the Babalu Boys are planning on hitting the airwaves with "Babalu Radio" again soon you should head over to BTR and register anyway.

The Cuban political prisoners that reportedly are being freed and allowed to leave are neither.  They are mere slaves in a $cam to prop up a murderous dictator for the $ake of business as usual.  How is the current practice of the state selling the labor of Cuban workers , more here, and here, to the highest bidder any different than past slave masters renting the labor of their slaves?  They work if they want to eat, and keep their mouths shut if they want to avoid punishment.  

Ending five-hundred plus years of exploitation is something the Spanish government is unwilling to do.  Not as long as it is profitable and they get by with it. 

How nice of Spain to to accept Cuba's unwilling cast offs. I wonder, is the payoff is a bigger piece of the anticipated U.S. tourist pie as reward, or are they merely protecting their current business interests?

 As Rayarena commented on Alberto's post below, " Can you imagine if Mandela had been released only to be exiled? The roaring condemnations from the MSM would be deafening."

When it comes to Cuban political prisoners,  it is the MSM's silence that is deafening.  ¡Ya no más!

In light of the MSM's continued coddling of brutal dictators, even going so far as to circulate without question raul castro's "regret" for a death he himself is responsible for, (to understand the degree of insult and pain this cruel parroting inflicts on survivors and their families, imagine how Jews would feel if say the NYT's had quoted a similar response from Hitler upon the liberation of the camps).

I think it's time for a reminder of exactly who raul castro is, and that there has never been any statements expressing "regret" for these crimes against humanity. Neither has there been justice for the victims.

From the Cuban Archive:

RAUL CASTRO’S LONG HISTORY OF CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY

February 24, 2008.
 
Summit, New Jersey. The Cuban National Assembly has named longtime Minister of Defense, Raúl Castro, President of Cuba. As second-in-command of a 49-year old dictatorship, he is directly responsible for crimes against humanity on countless thousands in Cuba and worldwide.

 Raúl Castro, as longtime member of Cuba’s Council of State, has been signing execution orders for years. But, his killing career began early on. In 1956, while in exile in Mexico, he murdered a former comrade. During the revolutionary struggle in the mountains, he executed deserters and informants. In the early days of the Revolution, while in charge of the Oriente province, he had hundreds of men killed. In one day alone, he ordered at least 72 men executed without trial in the city of Santiago. All throughout the night of January 12, 1959 and into the following day, successive groups of men were lined up in front of ditches at San Juan Hill and shot by firing squads. Raúl is reported to have gleefully delivered the coup d’grace on a few. Afterwards, a bulldozer was brought in to cover the mass graves. Among the victims was policeman Benito Cortés, an American citizen born in Puerto Rico and father of five. In 1966, Raúl had the bodies exhumed, encased in concrete, and dumped into deep waters off the coast of Cuba.

 Cuba Archive has documented dozens of people, including many children, killed attempting to escape Cuba with Raúl in a leading role. His Air Force carried out the Canimar River Massacre of July 6, 1980, when dozens were murdered. Many more unarmed civilians are believed to have suffered similar fate at the hand of special Air Force units dedicated to spotting and sinking rafts. Like countless others, on January 19, 1994, two young men -Iskander Maleras and Luis Angel Valverde- were killed by Cuban border guards stationed around the U.S. Naval Base at Guantánamo operating under Raúl’s direct orders to shoot. He rewarded their deed with medals and promotions.   

 As Defense Minister, Raúl Castro is responsible for war crimes in and out of Cuba. During the rural uprising of the sixties, his armed forces set fire and executed hundreds of prisoners on the spot. During the Bay of Pigs invasion of 1961, five prisoners were executed shortly after their capture; nine were deliberately asphyxiated in a trailer truck. The toll of victims multiplies over the course of decades with Cuba’s international military incursions in Latin America, Africa, and the Middle East. Intentional attacks on civilian populations in Angola are part of his legacy.

 That Raúl’s promotion happens on the anniversary of one of his noteworthy crimes is not without significance. On February 24, 1996, as dozens of members of Cuba’s peaceful opposition were rounded up, Cuban MIGs shot down two unarmed civilian airplanes in international airspace while flying a humanitarian search and rescue mission for the non-profit group “Brothers to the Rescue.”  Three U.S. citizens, including a Vietnam War veteran, and a young man formerly rescued by the group perished. The incident was condemned by the International Civil Aviation Organization in Montreal and the Cuban government was found by a U.S. Superior Court to have committed premeditated murder.

 For more information on victims of the Cuban Revolution, see www.CubaArchive.org.

There was a time when the MSM sometimes did their job vis á vis Cuba.  To all those who want to end the embargo and normalize relations with Cuba, and to all those taking cheap shots at the Cuban exile community because some exercised their free speech rights and complained because they were  offended that lackeys for the butchers came to Miami and played some music, as if there hasn't been 51 years of barbaric brutality in Cuba; well you can shove it up your ass and go straight to hell.

Don't like Gitmo?  Well then I can't wait to hear the demands to shut down Cuba's gulags and free the political prisoners held there.  I can't wait for the demands to end human rights violations in Cuba.

Read this account of life in the tropical gulag circa 1963 from Time, and multiply by decades. 

"...All told, the OAS commission studied 1,350 case histories. It is estimated that there are some 75,000 political prisoners (one out of every 94 Cubans) behind bars. The commission found that they have no human rights, that they are treated in a "humiliating, oppressive and despotic manner," and that the Cuban prison system seems openly designed to degrade its victims to the level of animals.

Verdicts in Advance. Arrests are almost always violent and without warrants; arresting officers rarely show proof that they are agents of the law, but burst into their quarry's home at night, brush off his explanations, wreck his belongings, pocket his valuables and hustle him off to jail in his underwear. Verdicts, said one court stenographer who took part in many of the trials, are "by remote control," the judge's opinion often written in advance.

In old colonial fortresses, says the commission, dungeons flooded by underground seepage and infested with rats have been reopened for political prisoners. A former judge testified that "special-punishment prisoners are put into cells too small to lie down in, where they can never bathe and their physiological functions must be performed on the floor." At a huge prison on the Isle of Pines, off Cuba's south coast, 10,000 prisoners live in a space for 5,000. Those consigned to solitary are dropped naked into pits and regularly drenched with water. Says one Isle of Pines prisoner, confined to solitary for six months: "An individual can't go on being naked. It's really terrible, for one becomes an animal." The place has also been mined—to kill the prisoners in case of invasion.

Fun for the Guards. Common criminals are assigned as trusties in the political prisons, are encouraged to beat the anti-Castro inmates with clubs and lengths of pipe. The regular guards are even worse. At the Isle of Pines during the Bay of Pigs invasion, all prisoners were herded into the open, stripped, forced to kneel and advised to pray. A prisoner named René Santana prayed aloud that the invaders would triumph; a guard blew his brains out. At La Cabaña in Havana, the guards amused themselves by ordering prisoners outside, where they are stripped, beaten with gun butts and jabbed with bayonets. Among those testifying was a woman whose husband was in prison; he had "a bleeding furrow on his wrists," the result of his being "strung up like a ham."

Food is a mockery. Rotten beans—"a special treat"—caused gagging, bloody vomiting and dysentery among 95% of the prisoners on the Isle of Pines. Those who fall sick are usually left to cure themselves, or die. A former Isle of Pines inmate described a typical case: "A man named Yáñez had an attack of epilepsy and fell from the second floor. He remained some ten or twelve hours without attention ... A few hours after he was taken out of there, he died."

This nightmare continues 90 miles off  the US coast, the place travel agents can't wait to sell you a ticket to, the place where members of congress, many having enjoyed the bloody tyrants hospitality, can't wait to sell their states goods.  This is the place where so-called Cuba "experts" talk about reform, and the need to get beyond "cold war thinking and policy." 

I think it's time to stop covering up for mass murdering dictators and demand justice for their victims. 

Read the rest of the article at Time.

While reporting on Cuba has usually been misleading and favorable to the regime, ignoring easily obtainable, publicly known facts reaches a new level of sloppy reporting. Either that or these reporters’ loyalties unabashedly lie with the regime.

Recently, the Seattle Times erred in an editorial about the embargo, stating:

SEN. Maria Cantwell calls our attention to a law, signed by President Obama, allowing Cuba to buy U.S. farm produce and pay after the goods are shipped. The law reverses a Treasury ruling during the Bush years that Cuba had to pay in advance — a ruling that stopped the trade altogether.

Our own wonderful Humberto Fontova corrected the fools with his usual enthusiasm for truth:

$720 million just last year in U.S. exports to Cuba! We're Cuba's BIGGEST food supplier for almost a decade!...and YET..?! ...And YET the editorial staff of an eminently prestigious big-city newspaper was incapable of the ONE Google search that now makes COMPLETE JACKASSES of them ALL!!!

Now AP publishes the following groping statement in reference to Havana’s motives in an article about the American detained in Cuba:

 “As the case has dragged on, speculation has grown that Cuba might want to use him as leverage to highlight the case of five Cuban intelligence agents who are serving long prison sentences in the United States for infiltrating anti-Castro groups Havana says were behind a 1990s bombing campaign against hotels on the island.”

It took less than a minute to access the following facts of the case:

In September 1998, 10 members of the Wasp Network, including the “Cuban Five,” were arrested and accused of crimes under U.S. law in connection with their covert activity in the United States in the service of Cuba’s Directorate of Intelligence (DI). Five of the accused pleaded guilty, while the “Cuban Five” fought the charges. Two of the three “illegal officers” and one U.S.-based agent (Gerardo Hernandez, Antonio Guerrero and the man claiming to be Ramon Labaniño) were convicted of conspiring to commit espionage against the United States. One of the “illegal officers” (Gerardo Hernandez) was convicted of conspiracy to commit first-degree murder based on his role in the February 24, 1996, shoot-down of two unarmed civilian aircraft in international airspace by Cuban Air Force jet fighters, which resulted in the deaths of four people, three of them U.S. citizens. All of the “Cuban Five” were convicted of conspiracy to act in the United States as agents of a foreign government without notification to the attorney general, and to defraud the United States.

Get that AP, the five were legally arrested, tried, and convicted in accordance with US law with all due process, not arbitrarily imprisoned by the US government for “infiltrating” anti-Castro groups, and while you’re at it how about investigating the horrific human rights abuses in Cuba, and the hundreds if not thousands of Cuban political prisoners illegally rotting in Cuba’s hellhole gulag.

Penultimos Dias has word that Yoani Sanchez and other Cuban bloggers have been arrested in Havana.

Yoani Sánchez, Orlando Luis Pardo, Ciro Díaz and Claudia Cadelo among those arrested. Cadelo is reported to have already been released. Details on whereabouts of other dissident bloggers are still sketchy.

UPDATE 6:46 EST: Im told all were picked up, harassed, manhandled and released at some distance away from where the march was to take place. Will keep updating as the news trickles in.

UPDATE 7:15: Penultimos Dias reports the Yoani and Orlando were verbally abused and severely beaten. Yoani was told that "this is as far as she would go."

Ernesto, acabo de hablar con Yoani, Ya está en su casa. Tiene un golpe en un ojo. La han agredido física y verbalmente. A Orlando también. Les gritaban dentro de la patrulla que hasta ahí habían llegado, la pusieron con la cabeza hacia abajo y los pies hacia arriba y les aplicaron golpes de karate. Estaba muy nerviosa. Yo también.

Please help with translation.

UPDATE (translation):

Ernesto, I have just spoken to Yoani. She is now back home. She has bruising around one eye. She has been verbally and physically assaulted. Orlando was too. "This is as far as you're getting!" was repeatedly shouted at them inside a patrol car. She was placed head over heels and subjected to karate blows. She is very nervous. I am too.

WHERE IS THE ARMY OF DAVIDS?

UPDATE 2:04: Here's video of the march the castro monarchical dictatorship just couldn't allow Cuban bloggers to participate in:

UPDATE: Yeah! Let's lift the embargo, dialogue with fidel and raul and co., and allow Americans to travel freely to Cuba so they can witness Yoani and her colleagues be treated like chattel!!

Update 8:15 AM Saturday: From Orlando Luis Pardo, posted at Penultimos Dias:

Miro mi nuca.
No ha sido nada.
Un cinturón de petequias por la demasiada fuerza de un efebo oficial y acaso por mi mala coagulación.
Miro mi nuca en un jpg.
Según se interprete, es insultante o interesante de contar.
En el principio no fue el Verbum, sino la Barbariem.
Violencia extra-verbal a pulso.
Caminar en El Vedado será a partir de hoy una experiencia extrema.
La Avenida de los Presidentes remitirá ahora a una prisión post-principesca.
En segundos, Yoani y yo estábamos de brazos torcidos dentro de un auto importado desde nuestra Madrastra Patria: China.
Mi cabeza contra la alfombra del carro y Yoani casi de patas arriba.
No pude verla, la identifiqué porque no se callaba ni maniatada.
En segundos, la oí gritar con la vehemencia del ser más libre del planeta.
Tenía una rodilla de macho cubano clavada en el pecho y todavía los increpaba.
En segundos, de esa energía chupé fuerzas para sostener un poco mi voz.
Me dijeron que le dijera a Yoani que se callara.
Esa frase, pronunciada por tres desconocidos a nombre del Estado Cubano, resume toda la escenografía obsoleta y obscena de este país:
Díganle a Yoani que se calle.
Díganle a Yoani que se calle.
Díganle a Yoani que se calle.
En segundos, nos depositaron despóticamente en una esquina que confundí con el patio interior de un barracón.
Yo estaba mareado.
Sentí asco, tuve ganas de vomitar.
No podía mover el cuello.
Abracé a Yoani (antes nunca lo había hecho).
Empezó a sollozar.
La mujer más grande de Cuba parecía una niñita de cero años.
Porque Yoani es eso: el futuro de Cuba cristalizado sobre un esqueleto frágil e irrefrenable.
La besé en la cabeza. Su pelo tironeado con odio olía a la libertad.
Una.
Dos.
Diez.
Incontables veces besé su cabeza sin edad.
Pero nunca le dije que se callara.
Pero nunca le dije que se callara.
Pero nunca le dije que se callara.

Orlando Luis Pardo
La Habana

Update 8:38 AM: Ninety-five pound Yoani Sanchez takes a beating for 12 million Cubans and writes:

Cerca de la calle 23 y justo en la rotonda de la Avenida de los Presidente, fue que vimos llegar en un auto negro —de fabricación china— a tres fornidos desconocidos: “Yoani, móntate en el auto” me dijo uno mientras me aguantaba fuertemente por la muñeca. Los otros dos rodeaban a Claudia Cadelo, Orlando Luís Pardo Lazo y una amiga que nos acompañaba a una marcha contra la violencia. Ironías de la vida, fue una tarde cargada de golpes, gritos y malas palabras la que debió transcurrir como una jornada de paz y concordia. Los mismos “agresores” llamaron a una patrulla que se llevó a mis otras dos acompañantes, Orlando y yo estábamos condenados al auto de matrícula amarilla, al pavoroso terreno de la ilegalidad y la impunidad del Armagedón.
Me negué a subir al brillante Geely y exigimos nos mostraran una identificación o una orden judicial para llevarnos. Claro que no enseñaron ningún papel que probara la legitimidad de nuestro arresto. Los curiosos se agolpaban alrededor y yo gritaba “Auxilio, estos hombres nos quieren secuestrar”, pero ellos pararon a los que querían intervenir con un grito que revelaba todo el trasfondo ideológico de la operación: “No se metan, estos son unos contrarrevolucionarios”. Ante nuestra resistencia verbal, tomaron el teléfono y dijeron a alguien que debió ser su jefe: “¿Qué hacemos? No quieren subir al auto”. Imagino que del otro lado la respuesta fue tajante, porque después vino una andanada de golpes, empujones, me cargaron con la cabeza hacia abajo e intentaron colarme en el carro. Me aguanté de la puerta… golpes en los nudillos… alcancé a quitarle un papel que uno de ellos llevaba en el bolsillo y me lo metí en la boca. Otra andanada de golpes para que les devolviera el documento.
Adentro ya estaba Orlando, inmovilizado en una llave de kárate que lo mantenía con la cabeza pegada al piso. Uno puso su rodilla sobre mi pecho y el otro, desde el asiento delantero me daba en la zona de los riñones y me golpeaba la cabeza para que yo abriera la boca y soltara el papel. En un momento, sentí que no saldría nunca de aquel auto. “Hasta aquí llegaste, Yoani”, “Ya se te acabaron las payasadas” dijo el que iba sentado al lado del chófer y que me halaba el cabello. En el asiento de atrás un raro espectáculo transcurría: mis piernas hacia arriba, mi rostro enrojecido por la presión y el cuerpo adolorido, al otro lado estaba Orlando reducido por un profesional de la golpiza. Sólo acerté a agarrarle a éste —a través del pantalón— los testículos, en un acto de desespero. Hundí mis uñas, suponiendo que él iba a seguir aplastando mi pecho hasta el último suspiro. “Mátame ya” le grité, con la última inhalación que me quedaba y el que iba en la parte delantera le advirtió al más joven: “Déjala respirar”.
Escuchaba a Orlando jadear y los golpes seguían cayendo sobre nosotros, calculé abrir la puerta y tirarme, pero no había una manilla para activar desde adentro. Estábamos a merced de ellos y escuchar la voz de Orlando me daba ánimo. Después él me dijo que lo mismo le ocurría con mis entrecortadas palabras… ellas le decían “Yoani sigue viva”. Nos dejaron tirados y adoloridos en una calle de la Timba, una mujer se acercó “¿Qué les ha pasado?”… “Un secuestro”, atiné a decir. Lloramos abrazados en medio de la acera, pensaba en Teo, por Dios cómo voy a explicarle todos estos morados. Cómo voy a decirle que vive en un país donde ocurre esto, cómo voy a mirarlo y contarle que a su madre, por escribir un blog y poner sus opiniones en kilobytes, la han violentado en plena calle. Cómo describirle la cara despótica de quienes nos montaron a la fuerza en aquel auto, el disfrute que se les notaba al pegarnos, al levantar mi saya y arrastrarme semidesnuda hasta el auto.
Logré ver, no obstante, el grado de sobresalto de nuestros atacantes, el miedo a lo nuevo, a lo que no pueden destruir porque no comprenden, el terror bravucón del que sabe que tiene sus días contados.

Yoani Sánchez
La Habana

From Claudia Cadelo:

Friday at the Blogger Academy, we ended the day with a class on Cuban culture with Miriam. Relaxed atmosphere: the Tainos and their myths. Before leaving Ivan told me, “See you at five-thirty.” We had found out from friends we knew that Aldo, Luis Eligio, Amaury and other young people were going to walk today from 23rd and G Street to L Street, with signs against violence. A civic march in a country where citizenship has been kidnapped by the totalitarianism, where power has grown old and the ultimate death rattles of a collapsing system are a blind response, pure temper tantrum.

We stayed, Orlando Luis (Pardo Lazo), his girlfriend, Yoani and I, cleaning up until it was time for the march. We left the house nervous, but confident that we wouldn’t be alone. By G Street Orlando was making jokes that I don’t remember but I was falling out laughing. A man was masturbating in broad daylight in Zapata, Havana looked the same as always.

The bus stop for the P11 was full, at 27th and G, the only corner from where you can catch something to take you to Alamar. The car appeared from nowhere, yellow plates, a new Chinese model: money for repression. “Let’s go in comfort,” Yoani said to me jokingly, and the guys got out with faces that were not pleasant, it must be sad to be a thug. We refused to get in the car, there were three of them and they threatened us:

"Get in the car, now."
"Let us see your documents, or wear a uniform."

Orlando had his cell phone in his hand. “Pardo, don’t record,” said the said the one in the orange shirt, and I got my cell out. Nobody noticed me, I sent the first Tweet…

In less than three minutes a patrol car came up with a couple of cops—a woman and a man—completely dumbstruck by the scene. The carried out their orders almost in slow motion, the woman told me:

"Don’t resist."
"They are undocumented," it occurred to me to enlighten her.

Yoani was clinging to a bush, I was clinging to her waist, and the woman was pulling me by the leg. They had already dragged Orlando off, outside my field of vision. A man stopped, looking on with an expression of terror, people didn’t say a single word. The officer, very young, got me in an armlock that immobilized me, I could have kicked a little but I was too astonished at seeing Yoani’s legs sticking out of the rear window of the State Security car.

They shoved me into the patrol car while I was screaming, “Yoani! Yoani!” But I realized that no one could hear me, everything was hermetically sealed, Orlando’s girlfriend was struggling with the police, Yoani’s body was being pushed headfirst into the car, and Orlando’s telephone flew out through the window… I sent the second Tweet hoping someone would be able to understand it with my terrible typing. The girl cop got in the patrol car and said to me,

“Why did you resist? We don’t want to hit you.”
“You almost ripped my shirt,” said the other PNR (National Revolutionary Police), meanwhile putting Orlando’s girlfriend in the car.

They looked embarrassed, for a moment I thought they were going to apologize:

“Do you have your identity cards handy,” she said, almost sweetly, and passed us Orlando’s phone which wouldn’t stop ringing.

Unfortunately, the one in the orange shirt got in and shut the door… I fell over. The police fell silent and started the dialog.

“Claudia, turn off the telephone.”
“Forget it.”
“How disgusting,” said Orlando’s girlfriend.
The rest pure insult, a surrealistic rage.

“Your name is not going to go down in history,” he said.
“I don't care, you don’t even have a name.”
“Then it will be worse.”
“Your threats are your fear. That’s their purpose.”
“Comedian.”

Stepping foot on the corner by Yoani’s house made me dizzy, there was no light in the building, I couldn’t get anyone’s cell, and I was losing my balance. Then the first call came with a 00 international prefix and I knew nothing had been in vain, even if we had all been arrested and the march suspended. When, later, I saw the video that Ciro brought me I knew for certain: They lost, it’s the countdown.

Are you sick and tired of the inescapable groupthink impersonal racist politically correct labels seemingly applied to everything in our society? Then go read Jose Reyes' latest article, "“HITN, Latino and Categorizing,” at Cubanology, and be sure to click on the link there to view Jose's diagram illustrating the connection between the castro regime and all the different communist indoctrinating routes they take.

Excerpt:

It really upsets me and to the highest degree, when any so-called organization with very close ties to any particular political agenda, decide to irresponsibly integrate and unify a particular sex, race, language and/or religion and then create a so-called official standardized title or made up name to “Categorize” them all as one group. I’m referring to the word and term “Latino” and how it is used to categorize anyone who was born in any Caribbean Island, Central American or South American country and who specifically speak the Spanish language. This term misrepresents all involved and diminishes all of our respective traditions. A person from let’s say, Honduras can not be considered or classified the same as someone who was born, let’s say, in Chile. To me, I consider these two individuals to be from two different countries and with their own traditions. These are two individuals who are very proud of their particular culture and their particular ancestry. This idea of placing an imaginary mask on individuals in order to make it easier to control and indoctrinate them is a typical technique used by Far-Left Liberals, Socialists and Communists.

Read the whole thing here.

It's common knowledge, at least to those that understand the laws of the marketplace, that there’s “no such thing as a free lunch.”

But in the socialist worker’s paradise of Cuba, apparently there has been a “free” lunch to go along with the “free” education and healthcare. Really.

Unfortunately though, the “free” lunch is coming to an end in the mythical and quaint island where logic, market rules and even time stands still, according to this AFP article.

Reading these articles is painful and baffling.

[c]astro, you see, performed the miracle of turning lack of freedom into a free lunch through steadfast revolutionary will, but now the evil laws of the free market system are forcing his pragmatic prince of a brother to stop the “free” lunches.

Journalist-activists-dreamers who got their world view from Lennon’s “Imagine” like to believe in a world full of unicorns, egalitarianism, stimulus packages,  cash for clunkers and “free lunches”. But there’s nothing free in the real world, specially in Cuba. And the price of the “free” lunch has been 50 years of suffering, repression and about 150,000, (and counting), dead in Latin America.

Maybe they just don’t know what free means?

The Cuba Research and Analysis Group (CRAG) recently initiated a letter to President Obama  requesting an end to the "Cultural Embargo" against Cuba. The esteemed Paquito D' Rivera, exiled Cuban musician and author responds; published with the authors permission:

Music can Wait
by Paquito D'Rivera (English / Español)

It’s been more than 5 decades since Fidel Castro jumped to power, and upon his arrival, a real army of “defenders of Cuba”, carrying on with an uncontrollable compassioned spirit, started to come out of nowhere and everywhere. Direct descendents of those legendary admirers of so out of fashion figures like Lenin, Stalin, and Mao, after Che Guevarra’s death in the Bolivian jungle in 1967, the image of the argentine bandit fit them like a glove, in substituting those discredited idols of the past. The problem is that this exclusive “Cuban compassion” package seems to apply only to those that sympathize with the longest–lasting dictatorship on the planet, while ignoring the hundreds of thousand of exiled, separated families, people marginalized for their political and/or religious believes, prisoners of conscience, executed, and those who have died at sea trying to escape Castro’s paradise, actual playground of these tourists of foreign revolutions that so often spent their ideological vacations there (paid in dollars) with or without permission of the America authorities. The psychological embargo, we could call it.

Recently, a group of artists, educators, academics, professionals and American impresarios, have written a letter to President Obama, complaining how adversely they have been affected by the embargo imposed by the US government against the Castro dictatorshi p. They demand their right to freely go to the Island, and to welcome any Artist that the Cuban cultural authorities send to the US without any pre–conditions. Not a single word towards the millions of Cubans who wish to exercise their rights to leave and enter their country freely. What an egotistic and uncompassionate position! To speak of the free flow of art, culture, information, ideas and debate, when it is denied to millions of Cubans the access to the internet and other most basic sources of information, and while dozens of independent journalists live threatened or already are serving long jail terms, just to inform and try to be informed.

This really sounds like a bad joke to me. What Cuban citizen or group on the island could possibly send a similar document to Raul Castro, without ending up in jail, after receiving a Marxist and sovereign whipping? If not, ask the poet Maria Elena Cruz Varela, whom they made her swallow the paper on which she had written her denouncement to Fidel Castro.

That this out-of-place petition be signed by the likes of Harry Belanfonte and Carlos Santana, does not surprise me. But the adherence of some of my compatriots and music colleagues, knowing so well what a “respectful dialogue with the government of Cuba” really means, it seems at most, ridiculous. Much more appropriate would be to send a similar petition to the Castro government, demanding the right of ALL Cubans to express themselves without20coaxing, to travel freely in and out of our country, to democratically elect our leaders, and then, ask for the signature of these artists, educators, academics, professional and American impresarios, that are so interested in the free flow of ideas between our peoples. In the meantime, the music can wait. Don’t you think so?

Sincerely:
Paquito D’Rivera
Cuban exiled musician and author.
July 29-2009

In Spanish below:

la Musica, Puede Esperar.

Desde hace casi cinco décadas, a la llegada de Fidel Castro al poder, comenzaron a salir por todos lados, armados de un lastimero e incontrolable espíritu compasivo, una verdadero ejército de “defensores de Cuba”. Eran herederos de los antiguos admiradores de figuras ya desprestigiadas y demodé como Lenin, Stalin y Mao, y quienes tras la muerte del Che Guevara en la selva Boliviana en 1967, la imagen del bandido argentino les vino como anillo al dedo para sustituir a la de sus anticuados, inquietantes e izquierdantes ídolos anteriores. El problema mayor es que esta exclusiva “compasión cubana” parece tocar solamente a los cubanos simpatizantes de la dictadura mas antigua del planeta, ignorando y excluyendo completamente de su área compasiva a los cientos de miles de exiliados, familias separadas, marginados políticos y religiosos, presos, fusilados y muertos en el mar huyendo del paraíso castrista en el que estos turistas de revoluciones ajenas toman sus vacaciones ideológicas (pagadas con=2 0dólares), con o sin prohibición de viajar a la Isla. El embargo psicológico, podríamos llamarle.

Recientemente, un grupo de artistas, educadores, académicos, profesionales y empresarios americanos, han escrito una carta al presidente Obama, quejándose de cómo han sido ellos adversamente afectados por el embargo cultural impuesto por el gobierno estadounidense contra la dictadura castrista. Exigen su derecho inalienable a viajar libremente a la Isla, y a recibir sin condiciones a cuanto artista envíen a puertos americanos las autoridades culturales de la Cuba de Castro. Ni una sola palabra en cuanto a los millones de cubanos que desean salir y entrar libremente de su país. ¡Qué egoísmo caray!, hablar del “desinhibido flujo de arte, cultura, información, ideas y debates”, cuando a millones de cubanos se les niega el derecho a la más básica información a través del Internet, y mientras decenas de periodistas independientes viven amenazados o cumplen ya severas penas de cárcel por el solo delito de informar e informarse. Esto parece una broma. ¿Qué ciudadano cubano o grupo de ellos en la Isla podría enviarle un documento de esta índole a Raúl Castro sin terminar en la cárcel, después de una soberana y marxista pateadura? ¡Sino que le pregunten a la poetisa Maria Elena Cruz Varela, que le hicieron tragar lo que había escrito!

Que esta inoportuna carta de petición lleve las firmas de=2 0Harry Belafonte , Carlos Santana y otros miembros de la incoherente “Izquierda Caviar” americana, no me extraña. Pero la adherencia de algunos de mis compatriotas y colegas músicos, conociendo muy bien lo que significa realmente “un dialogo respetuoso con el gobierno de Cuba”, me parece cuanto menos, ridícula. Mucho mas apropiado sería dirigir una misiva similar al gobierno de los Castro, demandando el derecho de TODOS los cubanos a expresarse sin coacción, entrar y salir sin trabas de nuestro país, elegir democráticamente nuestros gobernantes, y entonces pedir la firma de estos artistas, educadores, académicos, profesionales y empresarios americanos, tan interesados en el libre flujo de las ideas entre nuestros pueblos. Mientras tanto, la música puede esperar, ¿no les parece?

Sinceramente:
Paquito D’Rivera
Músico y escritor cubano exiliado
Julio 28-2009

Kendrick Meek, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Albio Sires, Lincoln Diaz-Balart, Mario Diaz-Balart, and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, all members of the Congressional Cuba Democracy Caucus,  have stepped up to the plate on behalf of Cuban political prisoner Ariel Sigler Amaya.  The lack of action by other members of Congress, as well as international Human Rights organizations, and the MSM, is indicative of their hypocrisy and true disregard for Human Rights.  They are all worthless baggage.

From Capital Hill Cubans, the Congressional letter on Ariel Sigler Amaya: (Click to enlarge)