BREAKING NEWS:
Local news is reporting that fidel castro has “temporarily” handed power of the communist nation over to his brother Raul. Details are sketchy at the moment, but reports are that he was suffering from “intestinal ailments.”
Maybe Presidents Bush’s visit to Miami today gave the bearded bastard a bad case of runs. Whatever the outcome, lets all hope castro is presently wallowing in severe pain.
Remember folks, in the event that the dictator has finally begun to sing El Manisero, the public will not be informed until all elements of the government are in place to keep the Cuban people under strict and total control.
Ill be posting updates as news develops.
Update: All local stations are dispatching reporters to Little Havana as we speak. It is being reported that after the surgery, fidel castro would be out of commission for two months. Anyone that has had an elderly family member in the hospital knows that their frailty can and does lead to complications. Again, let’s all hope that the complications are many and their outcomes fatal.
Update: Lots of talking heads on local tv now, lots of speculations and what ifs being tossed around. I feel I must urge everyone to take this news – however absolutely grand it is – with a grain of salt. castro has “died” many times before, only to then reappear like genital herpes. Let’s all keep the champagne chilled, but let’s not be popping any corks just yet.
Update: People have taken to the streets in Little Havana in Miami. Calle Ocho is packed with Cubans celebrating the news. Our phones here havent stopped ringing and we’re unable to communicate with anyone in Cuba. Versailles Restaturant is packed with folks honking, screaming and waving flags. My wife insists that castro is dead.
On a personal note, I truly hope the bearded dictator bleeds, as Henry put it to me just now, like a stuck pig and that today, July 31, 2006 is the beginning of Cuba’s future.
This may not turn out ultimately to be the occassion for me to write ‘The Post”, but at least I know now that day is getting closer rather quickly. Id like to ask you all out there to collect your thoughts about the death of the tyrant and what it means to you, to your loved ones and to Cuba. Write them down and send them to me. On the day that bastard finally kicks the damned bucket, Id like to post all of these so that everyone that comes here on that wonderful day gets the truth straight from all of you.
The Mrs. has just made a colada of cafe as I know I’ll be here all night. There will be no sleep in Miami tonight.
Update: Good friend and blogger Enrique Rubio will be on Notiuno radio in a few minutes from Puerto Rico discussing this breaking news. You can listen live here.
Update: One guy at Calle Ocho being interviewed by local news said everything that needs to be said: “While we celebrate here, I urge the Cuban people in Cuba to take to the streets. This is the opportune moment. Now is the time.”
Update: We have been unable to contact anyone on the island as yet. if any readers out there have communicated with their families or loved ones in Cuba, please shoot me an email and let me know what youve been told. Ill withhold all names for their safety.
Update: Congreswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen is urging all Cubans in Miami with boats to NOT attempt to go to Cuba to bring family members over or for any other purpose. All vessels will be intercepted at sea.
Update: Bird Road in Miami is now reportedly closed because of the impromptu celebrations. WFOR has streaming video of the celebrations in Miami here.
Update: There are thousands of Cuban-Americans out on the streets of Miami right now, all of them celebrating the possible demise of fidel castro. All of them cheering and carrying Cuban flags alongside Old Glory. You can here the shouts of “Libertad! Libertad! Libertad!’ in the background on the news reports. It is, indeed, a joyous occassion. But I’d like all of you to know that behind each celebratory scream, behind every smile, behind every feeling of unbridled joy and desperate happiness, there are 47 years of tears. Forty seven years of frustration. Of anger. Of pain. Of loss. Of separated families and drowned brothers and sisters. These celebrations have been paid for in blood. And they are more than well deserved.
Viva Cuba libre coño!
Update: Via Michelle, the following from AP:
Does that even look like castro’s chicken scratch signature?
Delicious Irony Update: Aint it unbelievably ironic that today, of all days, President George W. Bush was in Miami, in Little Havana, and stopped to enjoy un cafecito cubano? Today. Of all days.
More:
Cuban American Pundit
Killcastro
26th Parallel
A Double Whammy from Michelle Malkin
Captain’s Quarters
Dean Esmay
Ya No Mas!
It Comes in Pints?
Critical Miami
My blog brother David J. at Resurrection Song.
Plains Feeder
SondraK
Small Dead Animals
Das ende.
that’s because he has too much bull shit inside,,or better..he is made of bull shit..hope he drowns in it.
VAL! VAL! Where are you?
Stuck on the Palmetto??
I hope he is in a lot of pain and takes a while to die so that he can suffer here before he arrives in HELL!!!!!!
I’m trying to get through to somebody who would know, but MY intestines feel tingly this time.
Anyone care to speculate with the Castro Mafia decided to publicly announce the foul barbudo’s ’emergency surgery’, and not keep it underwraps until the surgery was over?
It could be a test run for Raul… checking if Cubans will get as excited over this as we are.
Should unrest break out he could reappear
Shall we revisit the castro death pool???
coño. i hope this is finally it.
Looks like Cao’s question to fidel last week made him bust a gut, literally.
The end is near… Keep la botellita chilled.
I got through to one of my contacts
As soon as I asked a question…
HE HUNG UP IMMEDIATELY
He has never done it before and it was not a line cut.
I tell you some people are nervous, very nervous. I’m working the phone.
That is why I never take the botellita out of the fridge. Lo bueno fuera que se muera de envenamiento de mierda, la misma que le ha estado sirviendo al pueblo cubano hace 47 anos.
Si pero quedara la mierda de Raul
*patiently waits*
Maybe it was the stench in Che’s house?
If we can’t have a free Cuba right away, let’s at least be grateful for a dead Castro.
I’m going nuts so far away…I need to be in Miami!!
Hey, Val! I hope that bearded bastard is suffering right now … better yet, I hope he is DEAD!
Bully for us!
Un abrazo,
~M~
If el sumo hijo de puta is knocked out for days if not weeks this could spark events Raul cannot control but with tanks.
I do hope that the beast suffers unspeakable anguish before Puzuzu drags him down screaming and crying to the deepest darkest recess of Hell! A Good death would be for him to be completely paralyzed from the mouth down, but fully conscious and not able to tell the doctors, Raul or any of his cronies that he is in excrutiating anguish, while the doctors refuse to administer morphene because it might kill him.
By the way, the interesting thing about all of this is that the Cuban government has mentioned that he is ill. They usually try to hide his frequent health crisises. Why would they say that he is in a hospital? Maybe it is worst than they lead us to believe. Maybe he has a cerebral hemorrage and not an intestinal one???
He could well be dead already
Gosh I hope so. That creep should have been dead years ago.
I wish to all heaven that there is at least one (1) Huber Matos left in the Cuban military right now to take matters into his own hands ‘FOR THE PEOPLE’!
The post article says his gut is bleeding due to stress. Maybe the incident with the reporter contributed….
I hope his lungs fill with fluid so he drowns slowly…like his victims
That would be the only way to stop Raul slaughtering people
As I type this, the local Miami Univision affiliate is interviewing Marta Beatriz Roque live and she is stating how “quiet” her neighborhood is right now and how nothing is going on. To the contrary, the local Miami reporter is telling her that Miami is already going nuts. Calle Ocho is already buzzing!
First person I have spoken to in Cuba (ordinary Cuban) says she has heard nothing yet?
Talked to a friend who talked to family in Cuba. Cuban State TV is telling pretty much the same story we’re getting here.
Ay, mamacita!!! What a day!
After almost 3 months that I’ve been away, in part due to computer problems, the day I get a brand-new, beautiful DELL computer in the post, EL MONSTRO SE FUE!!!!
What a wonderful, beautiful day, Val, Robertico, and Jose.
I am heading to Versailles ahora mismo!
Cheers,
Victoria
of course Fidel will get the best of care he offers to the Cubans? die a ssssslow miserable death Fidel.
http://www.therealcuba.com/Page10.htm
wonder how long it would take, to overtake his brother Raul?
Wish i knew how to make a Cuban sandwhich, it sounds good right about now.
Castro is as good as dead otherwise this surgery would have been kept under wraps. He’s either brain dead or REALLY, really, really dead.
God, hear our prayer…
UPDATE: Police presence sharply up in Centro Habana, friend I called tells me “son de la brigada de respuesta rapida”… says he has seen about 15 running down Calle Lealtad
SOMEONE PLS CONFIRM ‘rumors’ about people taking to the streets in HABANA right now.
Callers into Radio Mambi in Miami are saying that they have called Habana and are being told that people are taking to the streets in celebration!
What if it’s all a plan to fake everyone out and see if the people rise up? Is he insane enough to do something like that? Why would the government show its hand and reveal a chink in its armor?
On the other hand, what if he is in so much pain that morphine can’t even relieve it? Or he’s drowning in his own blood? Or his intensines EXPLODED? I think I’m enjoying this too much.
¡VIVA CUBA LIBRE!
Claudia
Yeah, it’s very probable that the episode with Cao — plus all those nights with Chavez — have triggered the @$&^#! that has now hit the fan. Uuuugh. Wonder which hole he’s bleeding out of, he’s always had diahrrea of the mouth.
My dear and darling mom has outlived most of the British royals, several US presidents, and as she says, even Superman …. tonight, she’s all excited she might have her star accomplishment yet, and outlive the Pig. Let’s hope so, guys.
Gigi,
My your loving Mom outlive the pig by decades!
con suerte él muere esta noche
been a very longtime since I used my spanish, forgive grammatical errors please.
I wish that those celebrating in Miami wait until the bastard dies before celebrating.
My friend in Centro says no celebration yet but fears the brigadas are out to arrest the suspects
Brigadas are out on Galiano y San Rafael
I wonder how MINI-Me and MINI-MINI-Me are taking the news??????
I posted this a few minutes ago on a thread from yesterday that seems to have died. (May Castro be just as dead!!!) I apologize for posting it again here, but I wanted to make sure George and friends received my sincere gratitude. I wrote, inelegantly, the following:
I belive.. he must be dead already BBUUUTTT as val says im taking it with a grain of salt.. im staying calm and holding the joy in.. im not 21 yet (only 18) but the day its OFFICIAL i will be gettin plastered on calle ocho holding my cuban flag!! I have 1 other friend who is like me in the sense that we both talk about cuba and its politics all the time and we are both hoping its 4real this time…
But one thing is clear.. i dont want the US turning us into another puerto rico.. i want us to FINALLY be COMPLETELY FREE! (i hope you all agree :-D)
Christy
oh one more thing.. i think these people are celebrating a bit too early
Maybe but Castro will be dead when people in Havana BELIEVE he’s dead… so let’s help them…
Let’s create a situation they can’t ignore
Rapid response brigades are also out in Santa Clara. I fear for those in Cuba.
con suerte él muere esta noche
with luck, he dies tonight.
hopefully the Rapid response brigades will set down thier arms and celebrate too when word of his death is out???
Is anyone taking pictures around Miami, for those of us who are so far away?
I have to say as a southern girl, Cuba was never much on my radar. Val, you and your writings have certainly brought it all home to me. I have felt drawn to read about this struggle and heartache of the Cuban people.
I feel excited for you guys.
The world is changing. Why not Cuba too???!!!
Two words for all my amigos- Say it loud and proud-
Rigor mortis!!!!!
pjb, they may be the very last to do so… they are the biggest assholes and killers… they are more likely to be lynched by the people.
I’m communicating via SMS with several people in Havana now
Rigor Mortis!! hahahahaha
Could it be? I just talked to my relatives and asked if the botellitas estan fria. My mom said in no uncertain terms that if this happens I HAVE to come down to Miami. My foot’s already out the door!
Oh man, the only thing that would make this even sweeter would be the irony of the f*cker dying under the knife of “the best medical care system in the world.” He he.
I too share the opinion that he’s already dead. My hunch is that they haven’t quite figured out how to break the news. Well, I guess I’ll be watching the news all night long…
castro attributed his illness to the stress experienced in Argentina. Three cheers for Cao. maybe we can get Cao to visit him in his hospital and finish him off.
Ay al fin there is a light at the end of the tunnel. Let’s hope and pray that Raul will do what’s right, although I’m not counting on it. Thank God this bastard is going through this. I hope he suffers for what he’s done to millions of people, especially my family. I only wish my grandfather were still alive to see this so he could be just as happy as I am after what this “regime” did to him.
IT’S OFFICIAL: my flight to Miami is Wednesday night…
que se muera el comemierda!
Has he ever done this with Raul before?
have fun lucky lady.. i know it will be a great flight knowing u r coming home :-p
oops i ment machete hahaha
No he has never, at least not in public, thats the deal
Don’t know if anyone’s posted the link already, but if you’re willing to venture into castrolandia, the text of the proclamation can be found here (in Spanish):
http://www.prensa-latina.com/Article.asp?ID={86655661-1E63-4453-8385-553E9AD49582}
Sounds like a Final Will & Testament, not a provisional thing.
Greetings Val –
I have lurked here for a long time, completing my education about the island of Cuba and its native sons and daughters in Florida. I am unable to read at work (nasty lil’ firewall)and I am just now catching up on several days’ worth of reading!!
I find it very amusing that in my town (and apparently nationwide), the only channel that has anything on this is CNN… Headline News, nothing… FoxNews has O’Reilly.. CNBC has some stock crap.. MSNBC has some hard crime/prison show.. snicker. Generally I have no use for CNN but wouldn’t it be weird if they scooped everyone..
Thanks to WFOR ~ the link allows us who are far away to watch the celebration. I say, even if it isn’t official yet, let them BOOGIE all they want. Can you imagine what it’ll be like when it DOES become official?!??!! See the faces of some of the older people who’ve worked so hard and waited so long, some probably lost relatives at sea ……. it’s worth it just for them.
that is exactly what i told my father.. about how it will be when it is official.. i sure wont be on the computer 😀 lol
I notice how The Associated Press is reporting how Castro “erased illiteracy” in Cuba. That has got to be the most exaggerated claim in history.
Oh, and we’re reminded how Castrol introduced the “universal health care system.” Universally bad health care. Instead of Doctors Without Borders, Cuba has Doctors Without Medicine. Some “system.”
He saved all the medicine for himself.
Easy to scoop if you are just watching Cuban TV like CNN probably did
I have two computers going. One on Radio Mambi, one on Radio Marti, and the TV on CNN, while browsing the blogs.
Mambi has some decent coverage:
http://www.univision.com/content/channel.jhtml?chid=9514&schid=9818
Folks, keep the news from family/friends/contacts on the island coming! What is happening in Cuba tonight?!
Yoan, it sure does doesn’t it? I’ve been sitting here listening to Chirino’s Ya Viene Llegando over and over again and crying like a fucking fool. My tears, the tears of all of us born there, are a mix of the bitter of what our islita has gone through and the sweet azucar of its impending resurrection after the long and painful epoch of fidel’s evil rule. This first of the day of days has been a long time coming… and the real celebrations are yet to happen.
Yeah, now the Commie-Pinko mainstream media is already preparing their detestable bio pieces, just in case….. “a look back”, dice el Wash Post rag. Asquerosos. Once this Pig is GONE to the PIT where he belongs, watch the collective depression by the MSM moonbats who will be looking elsewhere for a dictator to worship …. gee, Che’s dead, what do we do??
I don’t have any other Cuban music to listen to tonight, all I have is Gloria Estefan. I wonder what authentic cuban music sounds like?
George, compadre, I feel exactly the same way. The first thing that came to mind was YA VIENE LLEGANDO, YA TODO EL MUNDO LO ESTA ESPERANDO.
My guess is we won’t hear about his death for hours and hours after from the MSM. Remember how long it took for the MSM to report Zarqawi’s death? And the Cuban gvt will probably brief that other pig Hugo Chavez.
Yes the Fat Lady hasn’t sung yet but she for sure is clearing her throat.
Latest news I have is that streets are not agitated. Friend says people are very suspicious and think the Beard is up to one of his tricks. Says he hasn’t seen that many Brigadas since the major crackdown against jineteras years ago in 1999
I posted the lyrics below this post.
Everyone here in Miami is a mixture of happiness, relief, and sadness over the loss. I’m listening to police scanners now, and there are just so many people out on the streets, they don’t know how to control it. Thankfully it’s a peaceful celebration. My grandmother is in tears to George. Her islita with her memories of her now dead son, and her dead husband holds a lot of memories for her, family that is still there, and hopes and dreams for the future for us, her grandchildren, and our children to come. It will be great again.
Oh and we will hear a lot of “Yes he was a dictator BUT… ”
I’m not going to celebrate until it’s official.
It may not be official yet DC, but this is a close as it’s ever come!
“It may not be official yet DC, but this is a close as it’s ever come!”
True. Hell, I don’t think I’m going to sleep tonight because I’ll be glued to the tv.
You and me both! T.V., laptop, police scanner, anything I can listen to! I’m multi-tasking tonight!
Read what I wrote above. This is the first of the day of days, certainly not the day of days. What you saw tonight was an impromptu celebration of the hope that Cuba can be herself again. Just a little taste of the glorious libations we will be enjoying when the Beast is finally with his master in Hell. I can’t wait for the gnashing of teeth and renting of sackcloth of the libs/lefties when their fucking murderer hero is finally officially dead. Fuck all of them for supporting such evil.
I am waiting and hoping.
If it’s true, then I pray Cuba can be restored easily and peacefully to her former grandeur.
I hope it’s true this time.
Por favor pongan cualquier noticia o conversacion que tengan directamente de Cuba…Gracias
If he is dead you won’t have an official confirmation for days and even weeks.
They need to make sure that Raul can control the situation. People in Iraq still feared Saddam for months after he was gone.
The next two months are going to last a lifetime. What will happen if the news folds within the next few days.
Florida Speed boats heading south. Geoffrey
If the beard is dead, we’ll find out quick because Cubans can’t keep a secret.
You’ll know the jig is officially up when the Cuban version of Baghdad Bob says things like: “He will live to fight the imperialists another 40 years!” That’s the point where I think we should all start getting the glasses ready…
Better late than never.
Cuba, sÃ. Castro, no!
As a died-in-the-wool skeptic, I must wait for the official news.
In the meantime, my prayers are with the Cuban people and all exiles in the US. I will celebrate with all of you when the death is proclaimed.
This poor world is desperately in need of some GOOD NEWS and the demise of the beast will be the GREATEST. May all of your dreams and hopes come true very soon.
Guys,
No hay mal que dure cien años, ni cuerpo que lo resista.
I share Grammy’s thoughts on this: I want to see the death certificate. But my prayers are that the Cuban people will be lifted from their chains and that Fidel’s hold has finally slipped.
I don’t want to celebrate until I hear confirmation of his death, but it is very hard to hold it in. I was born in Cuba, now live in the US, but just returned to visit a few months ago. The day that he dies I am flying to Miami and partying and crying with joy with my fellow Cubans the entire day and night. This will be the happiest funeral in the history of mankind. Let’s hope the bastard dies very very soon!
you know how many people are gonna plop to the floor out of like.. extreme happiness.. i hope no viejos se mueran cuz of la felicidad of la noticia! man… people.. go now b4 the news is official n get a heart check lol :-p pa’ que no te vayas con el imbesil…. and a lot more are ghonna faint and count on it.. a lot of rear endings lol :-p
Does that even look like castro’s chicken scratch signature?
No, it doesn’t. It was the first thing that occured to me too, when I saw it on TV.
I have a theory…maybe I’m way out in left field with this, but I’ll kick myself if I didn’t share it with others, before it was confirmed.
What do you think, when I tell you that Fidel was ousted by his cronies, as he lay dying (if not already dead)?
Like Brezhnev and Andropov, whose deaths were long in being confirmed, despite the rumours which abounded, this tactic is not unknown when a Communist dictator is in extremis, or just plain dead.
That’s when the young Turks around the dictator, decide to take matters into their own hands — and make sure the transition of power includes them.
Certainly, there is no reason why that young guy who announced the news on air, should’ve done so, and not Alarcon or indeed, Raul Castro himself.
(What better way to make people in Cuba feel reassured, but to have the new “Comandante-en-peste” speak on camera, immediately)
I have already spoken to a few of my Cuban-American friends, and they tell me that when THEY spoke to their relatives in Cuba, those people were scared to talk on the phone at that moment, about the transition.
But they are dying to talk…
Pero no se puede, como siempre.
Coup, death, illness, or whatever, I’ll tell you, unless someone fesses up soon, we won’t ever know exactly what happened on 31 July.
P.S.: I just came back from La Calle Ocho which was impenetrable. Pero que hallucinante!! It’s like the Marlins plus the Heat, plus plus!
Cheers,
Victoria
My dear and darling mom has outlived most of the British royals, several US presidents, and as she says, even Superman …. tonight, she’s all excited she might have her star accomplishment yet, and outlive the Pig. Let’s hope so, guys.
Hmm.
Gigi, are you the Gigi/Yiyi Anders who wrote that Auntie Mame-like romp of a memoirs, Jubana!: The Awkwardly True And Dazzling Adventures of a Jewish Cubana Goddess?
(Coincidentally, which I blogged about in my post, “The Cuban-American”, linked by Val and Robert earlier this year)
Because if you are, te la comistes. What a book. What a mother!
If not, oh well. 😉
Cheers,
Victoria
My understanding is that both Fidel Castro’s parents did not live that long. Angel Castro (1875-1956), died at the age of 81 and his mother Lina (1906-1963), was 57! But the media is already beginning to report that Fidel may be alright AFTER ALL his parents lived long lives! I don’t think that 81 and 57 are such long lives! The problem is that they uncritically repeat Castro’s lies and if you listen to Castro and his lies, his parents lived longer than Methuselah! It just goes to show you that a lie repeated a thousand times–as the communist saying goes–becomes truth!
No, I’m not Yiyi Anders …. sorry to disappoint. But my Mom has been battling multiple health problems for many years (since the 1970’s) and has been to the O.R. over 30 times. But God has her alive for a reason ~ if she gets a chance to outlive the beast, we’re all ecstatic. YES!!!!!
Que venga La Pelona y se lo lleve pronto!!!!
This Gringo will celebrate with the Cuban people when that tyrant is dead.
And, G*d forgive me for saying; I hope it is a slow, painful death.
ps ~ the beast tried to kill my mother back in the 1960’s because she was very vocal when la libreta came into existence. El comite was watching her ….. mom was raising two kids and caring for my grandma who was very ill; my dad was away working; we were very poor. And they were trying to snatch her because she complained (en las largas colas para comida) when she couldn’t get what we needed. We eventually fled by boat.
Yep. How sweet it is!! For her and so many others.
Oye, Pelona, apurate ….. don’t get here on Cuban time, mija!!!!!!
Hi, everyone!
I have to tell you all how ecstatic I am right now. What makes it better is that I have just moved back from Italy to the US and am actually in Hialeeeeeeeah! So if it is announced that the old bicho malo finally takes the dirt nap I can celebrate with a whole bunch of people who think like me. Unlike Europe … those bastards are going to cry like they lost a sweet little grandpa.
Glad to be back in the USA with all the free Cubans. I am praying for the old SOB’s demise and going out to buy a botella in a few minutes. Hopefully I will see some of you if there is a celebration for his painful death.
I posted on my blog the original signature and the one on last night’s comuniquée. I think the guy is dead and they were so incompetent hey couldn’t find anyone to imitate castro’s signature.
I am the daughter of a Cuban man who came over when Batista was ousted. He fought in Bay of Pigs and was jailed for trying to free his country. He died in 1982 when I was just six years old from colon cancer. I hope que ese hijo de puta Fidel is suffering even half as much as my Papi suffered… ideally 10 times more.
I understand why people are celebrating. Fidel being down is something that has never happened. In my mind, no matter what happens tomorrow, knowing he’s on his final legs (if not dead already) gives me enough reason to celebrate.
I live in Tampa now and the news all but ignored this. I was watching WSVN on my computer last night and was brought to tears by the celebration. I only wish my father would have lived to see it. I do know he’s watching up in heaven. And my dream of seeing my Papi’s land for the first time may actually come true.
I knew Padrino would outlive that prick!
Gigi:
That’s okay. One Gigi is as good as another. 😉
Oye, Pelona, apurate ….. don’t get here on Cuban time, mija!!!!!!
LOL. Fantastic. Not exactly sure what la Pelona is, unless it’s some hairy female which comes to you when you die — but if so, que venga prontissimo!!
I’m off to La Carreta this time, to celebrate and take pics.
If you see a crazy chick waving the Union Flag, and the Cuban flag, ’tis me.
Cheers,
Victoria
I kid you not–I just returned from Cuba last night, visiting people I pretty much consider to be my other family. Part of me wishes I was still there, so I could have some idea of what’s going on (I was in the aiport in Texas when the announcement was made).
It breaks my heart that I can’t be with those near and dear to me right now, but I am also thrilled at the prospect that hope has been rekindled, that yesterday marked the beginning of the end for Castro’s tyranny.
I also pray that he turns his life over to the Lord. God knows only the Almighty Himself can change his heart of stone! The main-stream-media here is making me ill (though I am thankful we have a free press) with all of their brown-nosing towards Castro’s “legacy.” One can never understand how truly awful things are there until you’ve seen it in person! I know that God has, and has had, a plan for Cuba…but I can’t help but say “Ya! Basta! Enough of this man’s enslavement of 11 million people.”
Several nights ago while still in Cuba, I had a dream that the people rose up and demanded their freedom with shouts of “Abajo, Fidel! Queremos libertad!” Every morning I would wake up on pins and needles, wondering “Is this the day it ends? What’s going on outside today?” How strange it was that on the night I left, Fidel “temporarily” turned over his power.
Many of you Miami-based Cuban-Americans seem to me just like cargo-cultists – sitting in your armchairs waiting for a miracle to happen – do you really think Fidel dying is going to take you all back to the 1950s? That Bush is going to give you your grandparents’ farms back? Do you really imagine that Cubans are going to give up their education, health and social security – privatise it all – and let the Miami gang (perhaps led by Posada Carriles?) take over? Maybe you really have joined the ‘American dream’, telling other people about ‘freedom’ and how to run their lives – or bombing them into ‘democracy’ – dream on ..
Tim,
let me start off by stating what a complete tool you are.
Many of you Miami-based Cuban-Americans seem to me just like cargo-cultists – sitting in your armchairs waiting for a miracle to happen – do you really think Fidel dying is going to take you all back to the 1950s?
No, Tim, of course not. We dont want to take Cuba BACK to the 1950’s, we want to take her FORWARD to the 1950’s being that fidel castro has taken the island back in time, in every way imaginable to the turn of the century.
That Bush is going to give you your grandparents’ farms back?
Um, my grandparents had no farms. My family, as well as many many others here, were blue collar. This is yet another “fable” concocted by the leftist propaganda machine. The majority of the cubans you saw take to the streets are products of the revolution, idiot.
Do you really imagine that Cubans are going to give up their education, health and social security – privatise it all – and let the Miami gang (perhaps led by Posada Carriles?) take over?
the healthcare, education and social progress bulsshit comes in like clockwork. let me ask you Tim, do you have family members in Cuba that write asking for you to send anesthesia and gauze for their upcoming surgeries in the medical utopia that is Cuba? idiot.
Maybe you really have joined the ‘American dream’, telling other people about ‘freedom’ and how to run their lives – or bombing them into ‘democracy’ – dream on ..
there you have it folks, Bush Derangement Syndrome at its apex.
Well said, Val!
Tim, you are an example of the ignorance depended upon by the left. The fact that many, if not most, of us here actually still have family in Cuba and thus know of their suffering is of no importance to you. You only listen to those so-called accademics who preach about the health care system and education system despite the fact that they are worse than before the revolution. You’ve bought into the notion that Cuba was an island filled to the brim with suffering peasants who overthrew a dictator and installed a great man who brought democracy to Cuba. This despite the fact that Cuba is still waiting for the free elections promised to them almost 5 decades ago. Oh, and that it wasn’t a peasant revolution. But you can’t bear to read that, can you?
Yes, Tim, it is sad but true. Castro is a tyrant and we wish him nothing but an eternity of agony for the evil he has done to our families and friends. We here tend to think that all people should have a say in their government and that they should be allowed certain freedoms. Like the freedom to leave if they so desire.
Tim, it is people like you that want to hold others to standards that you won’t hold yourselves to. You are in a free society, I presume. You may do as you please and you may say what you please. You may even leave the moment you feel the urge. But you don’t wish for others to have that same freedom. As long as you, yourself, are free you will make the same noise you accuse us of making. If you are so in solidarity with those fortunate Cubans who have so much to be thankful for why are you not living in Cuba, in that worker’s paradise? Afraid to actually see the truth? I am certain that we could get a fund together here and get you a one-way ticket to Havana in a matter of hours.
So, how about it, Tim? Will you go and be part of the paradise or will you start opening your eyes and ears to people who have been there, are there (smuggling out photos etc.), still have family there and know the reality of what is actually happening in Cuba?
Tim,
Do you really imagine that Cubans are going to give up their education, health and social security – privatise it all – and let the Miami gang (perhaps led by Posada Carriles?) take over?
What education? What health care? What social security? I felt exactly as you did several years ago, until I really and truly had the opportunity to see what Cuba is really like. It’s impossible to know unless you’ve lived and breathed with Cubans. I guarantee you that 99.9% of them would love to come to the United States and have a real education and a job that pays money. It doesn’t matter if every Cuban is literate–if they don’t have the freedom to criticize their own government, then it’s not education. And as far as the “free health care”…it’s nothing like what academia and the left paints it out to be. All of the good medicine and food is being shipped to Venezuela and Bolivia instead of the Cuban people. A Cuban near and dear to me begged for medicine for her heart!
If you could only understand that Cubans look their family in Miami for help, and have nothing of the fear that you speak of “taking over.”
“En este mundo traidor nada es verdad ni es mentira. Todo es segun el color del cristal con que se mira.” These words are written by the Spanish poet, Campoamor. Roughly, they mean: In this treacherous world, nothing is true or false. Everything is relative to the color of the glasses with which you look at it.
Pre-Castro Cubans were divided up into economic and social classes. The majority of Cubans suffered poverty and misery on a par with that found today in Honduras, Guatemala, Brazil, and other such latinamerican countries which are manipulated by the U.S. Even worse, Cuba was manipulated and controlled by the U.S. far more than these other countries are.
I’m Cuban and I recall taking road trips on the Carretera Central, and seeing the “bohios” (palm huts) of the poor, our car passing their barefoot children on the sides of the road, with their swollen bellies from parasites and hunger. These children (and of course their parents) had no access to clean water, to adequate food, and worked long hours for American industries, and industries belonging to the Cuban rich. They were illiterate and had no future. Death pursued them.
There were other Cubans that lived very well. Multi-millionaires like the Bacardi family, the Fanjul family, and others, who had very close ties with the U.S. These and the U.S. were the owners of the industries in Cuba, where labor was incredibly cheap. Americans viewed Cuba as their cheap labor market and brothel. Due to the rampant poverty, many women in order to get a meal for themselves or their family, prostituted themselves. As a matter of fact, many years ago an old man told me that as an executive he enjoyed making many trips to Cuba to gamble and have sex with very young, beautiful women for very little money.
Anytime that Cuba tried to put in power a just, conscience-filled, democratic Cuban man, the U.S. took it upon itself to destroy that by putting in its place a U.S.-friendly dictator. This is what happened with Batista. Batista removed a good man from power. He was a criminal, stupid and a lackey of the U.S., who tolerated no dissent whatsoever. There were many young people “disappeared” by this dictator. His torture police appears to have learned techniques from the Nazis, as there were atrocities committed that are almost hard to discuss. Anyone who protested against Batista and the U.S. was kidnapped, women’s vaginal bones were broken through the use of forceps, people’s nails were yanked out with a special machine, they were stabbed, whipped, electrocuted, thrown from balconies, hung by the neck, and riddled with bullets. Then photos were taken and sent to the family members, so everyone could know what would happen if they disagreed with Batista. Miami Cubans will never tell you this. It’s something they don’t want told, as it might help Castro appear like a hero. I hate these old people for witholding and hiding these facts.
In any case, in the middle of all this, Castro rose like a star in the sky, to overcome Batista’s bloody rule, and to kick the Americans out of Cuba. It took nothing to convince the poor of the land to join Castro, as they had nothing to lose and everything to gain, and that’s exactly what happened. They DID gain.
The rich lost, but not much. The rich never lose much. Batista ran from Cuba like a hunted dog, but not after having stolen all the Cuban treasury money, which during those days was like $40,000,000. Imagine how his offspring is living like today in Miami! The wealth! And I’m sure the “exilio” Cubans here in Miami are friendly to the Batista family. But they’re not alone. Many criminals, rich and Batista-connected cae to Miami and lived or live well. One of the monsters of Batista’s torture police, a man named Ventura, stole money and came to Miami to live, where he was welcomed and taken in affectionately by the Miami Cuban community.
Meanwhile, the Castro forces shot to death many of the Batista assassins and torturers on national TV. All the industries were nationalized, real estate became everyone’s property, and the rich ran away to Miami, from where they began to manipulate the media with the help of the CIA, to get back their property and cushy life.
The CIA began to transmit radio programs to Cuba advising them that Castro would be kidnapping everyone’s kids and sending them to Russia, where they would never be heard from again. Panic broke out among the Cuban middle class. The CIA, the Catholic Church and the Miami Cubans planned a program called “Peter Pan”, whereby Cubans would send their kids to the U.S. by themselves, and they would be adopted by complete strangers, English-speaking ones. Many of these kids grew up to be adults with great psychological problems.
The U.S. put in effect an embargo which is now well over 50 years old, very similar to the one they placed on Spain some time back, which nearly destroyed Spain. The U.S. coerced other countries to follow the example of the U.S., and embargo Cuba. I could go on, but why do it? None of Cuba’s past is told in truth in Miami. Miami-Cubans have been raised in ignorance, and, while many of the old Cubans who came running from the island are now dead, and many are almost dead, the CIA and the mega-rich have in place a propaganda machine which rewards heftily anyone who gets involved in the attempt to overthrow Castro regardless of what the Cubans on the island want. The truth is, most Miami Cubans are too young to know the true story of Cuba, and the older ones refuse to tell it.
Those Cubans in Cuba whose families suffered hunger, ill health, early deaths, illiteracy, endless unrewarded work with no future, those Cubans no longer exist. True, what there is in Cuba is limited. There are no Aventura Malls, but there are no swollen bellies. There are no Publixes, but there is fresh fruit and vegetables, and rations of rice and beans, and occasionally meat rather than hunger. Rather than signing their name with the “X” of illiteracy, the sons of Cubans who previously were starving and illiterate, are now doctors, engineers, agronomists, musicians. Rather than having the highest infant mortality in this hemisphere, Cuba now has the lowest, much lower than that in the U.S.
As I said in the beginning: In this treacherous world, nothing is true or false. Everything is relative to the color of the glasses with which you look at it. Miami-Cubans are desperate to turn Cuba back once again to the country which served as brothel and cheap labor pool for the U.S. It is for this that they congregate on the street and wave the flag. After all, they say they want Cuba back the way it was. And I have no choice but to believe them.
Sarah,
I just have one question in response to your incredibly myopic and, dare I say, propagandish commentary:
WHICH WAY ARE THE RAFTS GOING?
si quieren darse gusto vallan a este lugar y haganle la vida imposible a los hijos de puta comunistas de cuba.
http://www.vanguardia.co.cu/
entren al foro.
I was told by a friend in cuba, that castro died august 1 and that Raul had been shot that same day, but he is not dead.
My friends has a friend that belongs to the escorta of Raul Castro.
If I wrote a book on all the myths, legends, lies, and parades started from machinations by the propagandists in Miami over the past 55 years about Castro, it’d be a bestseller in the comedy aisle or Borders. I still think the only thing that would heal Miami Cubans from all the insanity and infantile mental dwellings, would be a lot of hard work. Maybe that way, they’d turn Miami-Dade from being the poorest county in the United States (which it is), to a better one.
A really interesting article in Saturday edition of Sunday’s Miami Herald pointed out that the middle class is leaving Miami by droves. In 1970, the middle class in Miami was 58%. Now it’s 41% and dropping more rapidly than ever. That really speaks volumes about the demented mentality of Cuban Miami. Bad crime, bad traffic, angry people, poverty, Cuban welfare, broken streets, expensive run-down housing… in short, an ugly mess. People are running out of here. What’s being left behind in Miami is the poor and the multi-millionaires. As a result of the middle class leaving, Miami is turning into what Cuba was before Castro: a majority in misery and the rest living well.
Do something healing: work to improve Miami-Dade.
Sarita, I wonder where you get your information from???
Maybe from a communist newspaper?
Can someone here give this person a piece of their mind. She needs it. Her brain is empty and she has no ability to understand what she reads. Cuban’s WORK….people are leaving DADE county because the high insurance and property taxes. Go back and read the article again.
MIAMI – It is a supreme irony: The most-hated man in Miami is arguably the city’s greatest benefactor and among Florida’s greatest agents of change.
In the 47 years since Fidel Castro seized power in Cuba, unleashing an exodus that continues today, Miami has become the world city dreamed about since Henry Flagler brought his railroad to the wilderness settlement in 1896.
“I always say the arrival of the train and the arrival of the Cuban refugees are the most defining moments of our history,” said Miami historian Arva Moore Parks. “The greatest change (brought by the Cubans) has been in Miami, but their influence can be felt everywhere.”
Few other groups have as profoundly changed Florida as the 700,000-plus refugees who have fled Castro’s oppressive regime by plane, boat and homemade rafts since the now-ailing dictator marched into Havana the first day of 1959. Today, a million Floridians identify themselves as Cuban.
Paving the way for other Spanish-speakers to follow, they helped transform nearly every facet of life in Florida, from the economy to the culture, from politics to foreign policy, from entertainment to sports.
“They created an outpost for Latin America in Miami, which attracted millions of other Latin Americans, which decidedly changed Florida,” said Sergio Bendixen, the nation’s leading pollster on Hispanic opinion. “It’s made it bilingual, bicultural and the economic hub for Latin America.”
Largely from Cuba’s professional class, the first wave of refugees who landed in Miami brought their business acumen, a knowledge of Latin America and the Caribbean, and, of course, Spanish. Coming from bustling, cosmopolitan Havana, many were stunned by what was then a winter playground.
“Miami was a seasonal, sleepy town,” said Tony Villamil, who arrived in 1960 at age 13. “I remember going down Calle Ocho and crying, `What am I doing here?’ It was almost like a country road.”
The Cubans would, of course, turn Eighth Street into the vibrant heart of Little Havana. Initially, taking menial jobs, such as janitors and seamstresses, they became teachers and bankers and opened gas stations, restaurants, hardware stores, pharmacies, law firms and doctor offices.
By the early 1970s, they had created a prosperous enclave where English wasn’t essential, but passionate political conservatism and virulent anti-Castroism was.
Many old-time Miamians, resentful of feeling like strangers in their own town, moved north. But the ability to conduct business in a familiar culture and language was inviting to successive waves of Latin American entrepreneurs and immigrants, many who were escaping economic or political turmoil in their own homelands.
A mixture of South American flight capital and Cuban management skills would become a recipe for the creation of banks and construction companies. By 1979, Cubans owned about half of the major construction companies in Miami-Dade County, according to “City on the Edge,” a book by Alejandro Portes and Alex Stepick.
“Cuba basically exported its professional class to Miami, to Tampa and throughout the state. What you saw was an infusion of human resources with international skills,” said Villamil, now an economist who served as undersecretary of commerce in the administration of the first President Bush. “That was the catalyst that sparked the globalization of Florida that has been going on for 46 years.”
Today, the results are everywhere. Known as Wall Street South, Miami’s Brickell Avenue is home to the largest concentration of international banks in the United States outside of New York. Scores of multinational corporations have planted their Latin American headquarters on Brickell or in nearby Coral Gables or Miami Beach.
Ditto for the Latin entertainment and music industry. MTV’s Latin American headquarters is, for example, on Miami Beach.
Miami International Airport is the No. 1 airport in the United States for international cargo because of its trade with Latin America. It also has the most international flights to Latin America of any airport in the world.
And last year alone, 70 percent of the $95 billion worth of goods that moved in and out of the state’s seaports, primarily in Miami and Tampa, was from the same region.
“Of course, you can’t say the $95 billion is attributable to the Cubans, but their presence was the building block,” Villamil said. “Given our location, we were poised to be a global state, but without the Cubans, it would have been different or slower. Definitely slower.”
So, too, might have been Florida’s political transformation. But once exiles solidified their economic power, they turned their sights on elective office, rallying around Cuban-Americans who often put one issue above all others: ending Castro’s totalitarian grip on their homeland.
“They saw a connection between getting involved in American politics and getting rid of Fidel,” Bendixen said. “They thought if they could elect senators, congressmen, mayors – any elected official – they could use their political clout to accelerate the day that Fidel would be gone.”
A political avalanche followed, one that would contribute to Florida’s transition from a Democrat- to a Republican-controlled state. Miami elected its first Cuban-born mayor, Xavier Suarez, in 1985 and sent its first Republican and the nation’s first Cuban-American member of Congress, U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, to Washington in 1989.
Today, three of Miami-Dade’s four congressional representatives and one of Florida’s two senators, Orlando’s Mel Martinez, are Cuban-Americans – and faithful Republicans.
Feeling betrayed by President Kennedy’s failure to support the doomed Bay of Pigs invasion and beguiled by Ronald Reagan’s hard line against the spread of communism in Central America, many exiles stampeded from the Democratic Party to the GOP.
“For me, it was purely foreign policy,” said Martinez, who arrived in Orlando alone as a teenager in 1962. “Abortion was important, but the overriding thing was the fight against communism.”
On a personal level, Martinez said, the Cuban Revolution made him more focused, more disciplined, more driven. But he had no choice. Spirited out of Cuba on a program that delivered nearly 14,000 Cuban children to orphanages and foster care in the United States, he grew up fast.
“I grew up at 15. I had no one to fall back on and no one to go back to,” he said. “It was necessary to be self-reliant.”
Passionate about their cause, Cubans also took their civic responsibility seriously, donating millions to candidates who passed the Cuba litmus test, and turning out in such numbers – often 80 percent in presidential elections – they could decide close races.
Some observers credit Cuban-Americans for handing President Bush his razor-thin victory over Democratic opponent Vice President Al Gore. Florida’s Cuban-Americans voted 6-to-1 for Bush in the contested 2000 election, which the Sunshine State decided by 537 votes.
Few argue that the Cuban clout is directly responsible for establishing Radio and TV Marti and keeping in place what critics view as the failed cornerstone of U.S. policy against the island, the nearly 50-year-old trade embargo and travel ban. Exiles have long argued that lifting the embargo would prop up the gasping Cuban economy, perpetuating Castro’s reign.
“Clearly, the embargo is in place for domestic rather than foreign-policy reasons, the domestic reason being the influence of older exiles,” said Mavis Anderson, senior associate with the Latin America Working Group, a foreign-policy coalition of humanitarian groups that oppose the embargo. “It doesn’t make sense that our policy on Cuba is so different from our policy with other governments that call themselves communist, like Vietnam and China, where we have diplomatic relations and trade.”
While Cuban-Americans have lost few skirmishes in Congress, they suffered an enormous public-relations setback in 2000 in the custody battle over Elian Gonzalez, which allied Castro and the Clinton administration – as well as most Americans – against the exile community.
Plucked from the sea after his mother and 10 others fleeing Cuba drowned, the 5-year-old boy was temporarily placed with relatives in Miami, where exiles demanded he stay. But after a tense seven-month stalemate, dominated by vociferous demonstrations and vigils, federal agents stormed the relatives’ Little Havana home, grabbed the boy at gunpoint and reunited him with his father. They quickly returned to Cuba.
Most Americans agreed that the bond between parent and child trumped politics, but exiles were left reeling. They could not fathom that America would deny Elian what they had won for their own children: a life of opportunity free from political repression and indoctrination.
The Elian affair remains one of the most painful episodes in exile history, but not the most damaging. That came in 1980, when Castro exacted his revenge and opened the Port of Mariel, allowing 125,000 Cubans to sail to Florida in less than six months, overwhelming Miami.
A tiny fraction of the so-called Marielitos were thugs and lunatics emptied from Castro’s jails and asylums, but they arrived amid an infestation of “cocaine cowboys” from Colombia, who wreaked havoc on Miami’s crime rate, and its image. For years, the Marielitos would be painted with the same stereotypic brush: They were all scum.
But like the overwhelming majority of Cuban immigrants, the majority of Marielitos and the waves of refugees who followed them proved to be as industrious and creative as the first wave who laid the foundation for Florida’s transformation.
Now 36, Erich de la Fuente left Cuba in 1983. Today, he is a self-made man. The first in his blue-collar family to attend college, he has worked for multinationals and think tanks around the world but returned to Miami in 2001, where he launched a public-relations firm.
His EDF Communications represents multinationals with business in Latin America, including pharmaceutical giant Pfizer and Visa International. He loves his life and his work here, but he is eager to return to Cuba and do for his homeland what the United States did for him.
“The day I can go back to Havana, I will,” de la Fuente said. “I am grateful for the opportunities here, but I want to contribute to my country. This is not a choice. This is an obligation.”
In Orlando, Martinez said he never truly considered just how much Castro’s rise to power had benefited his new home of Florida.
“It’s so funny,” the senator said. “As a result of all this grief and anger and sadness and hatred, it’s been a good thing for both of us – for the state and for the Cubans who came here.”
WE WORK for what we have today, not like others who have lived and still live of welfare, here or any other part of the USA.
Mamacusa:
I’m getting my information and data about how the middle class in Miami is shrinking (and therefore leaving a large poor population and a small mega-rich one), from the Miami Herald. I provided you with the issue that has the article, so it should not be difficult for you to locate it and read it. I didn’t get you the link to this Sunday’s Herald because you can get that yourself very easily. However, I got another one for you from 2004, showing how the middle class has been consistently shrinking in Miami.
http://www.floridacdc.org/articles/040606-2.htm
What’s more, in the 2000 Census and the 2002 American Community Survey, Miami was shown to be the poorest city in the U.S.
As if that were not enough, Miami is also an angry city. It has the worst road rage in the U.S. http://www.local10.com/news/9223887/detail.html?rss=mia&psp=news
Violent crime rate: Miami has the highest violent crime rate in the nation. This from Sperling’s Best Places to live.
http://www.bestplaces.net/docs/studies/crime1.aspx
Cubans have also sprawled this city to hell by building into the Everglades, destroying a whole area that was pristine once, and leading to horrific sprawl. There are now pled-billed grebes all over Miami, red-billed birds that are germane to the Everglades. The reason for their presence in places they’re not customarily found, is that their habitat has been destroyed by Miami Cubans building further into the Everglades.
Real estate prices are so inflated, that neither can a person new in town buy (unless they’re rich), nor can someone with a home here sell and get into a new one (again, unless they’re rich).
Miami has a horribly low quality of life.
It behooves Miami Cubans to stop inciting Cuban welfare queens to parade all nite on 8th street every time Castro farts, and pay a little attention to what they have done to Miami and see if they can revert it back to what it once was, or what it could be.
It’s ironic that Castro looks set to die a natural death after so many failed assassinations.
See the remarkable http://www.638waystokillcastro.com for all the failed CIA attempts on the cuban leader.
Also amazingly bold confession by Republican congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1MunPrYJWy0