In a meeting today with Brazilian legislators, Yoani Sanchez called for the end of U.S. sanctions against the criminal Castro dictatorship and the release of five Cuban spies currently serving sentences in the U.S. for espionage and the murder of four innocent Americans.
It is not a surprise Yoani Sanchez would call for the end of sanctions; that has always been her position and personally, I support her right to express that opinion as misinformed and incorrect as it is. But I find it quite disturbing and distasteful that with less than a week away from the anniversary of the Brothers to the Rescue shoot down, she would be advocating and lobbying for the unconditional release of the five Cuban spies behind the murder of four innocent human rights activists shot down by Cuban MiGs over international waters.
Even more disturbing is her reasoning…
Via Punt de Vista (my translation):
Yoani Sánchez calls for the release of the five Cuban spies and the end of the embargo
Brazilian lawmakers from almost all political parties welcomed her and some predicted that it would not be long before the blogger would take political “command” of Cuba in the future
(Foto: @LidPSDBsenado Twitter oficial da Liderança do PSDB no Senado Federal)Today, blogger Yoani Sanchez asked for the end of the economic embargo of the U.S. against Cuba in front of Brazilian senators. “The embargo should end now, as soon as possible,” she said. At the same time, she expressed that she was in favor of the release of the five Cuban spies currently serving prison sentences in the U.S. so the Cuban government will stop spending money on its campaign to have them returned to the island.
[…]
Regarding the embargo
“… My position regarding the blockade is that it should end now, as soon as possible. It is not only my position now, but it has always been my position. In every interview and in every place I have been asked I have always responded the same way. What is my opinion that I believe it should end? There are other opinions, which I respect. Because it is a policy of interference that wants to change an internal situation within another country. Secondly, because it has not worked if its original intent was to create popular unrest so the people would take to the streets and change the totalitarian government. It has not worked. As a form of pressure, it is a failure. The third reason – and these are not in order of importance – it should be ended as soon as possible is because today it is the fundamental excuse the Cuban government uses to explain the failure of the economy as well as political and social repression.”
Regarding the five Cuban Spies
“In regards to the five members of the Interior Ministry who are imprisoned in the U.S., we must make very clear that there was not just five of them. The Wasp spy network was a network made up of a dozen individuals. This is very important to know because the rest of them testified during the trials, admitted guilt, and from the 12 persons, only five are in prison. In reality, however, the network was bigger. The amount of money that my country’s government is spending on its campaign of trips all over the world, advertising in the international press in a campaign for the five members of the Interior Ministry, the amount of hours wasted in schools talking about those five people, in the interest of this ending, they should be released. I am worried about the treasury of my country and would prefer they be liberated and see if we can save some money because there are more important matters to deal with.”
Read Punt de Vista’s entire report (in Spanish) HERE.
Well, it did not take long for the Fidelista sin Fidel Yoani to take the mask off…
The anti-Communist, hardliner, intransigent Miami-Mafia is proven right one more time…
I just threw up in my mouth a little bit. By promoting freeing the “Cuban Five,” YS is beyond useful idiocy and squarely in regime-tool territory. She need not be a formal Castro agent; she may just be shallow (very) and amoral, but I don’t much care what her motivation is–a tool is a tool is a tool. Unfortunately, this is hardly shocking. Among other things, as she herself has disclosed, her mother was a “miliciana,” a militant pro-Castro partisan, which must have colored her upbringing. Even aside from that, she is the product of a perverse and highly pathological society where morality was abandoned long ago as essentially irrelevant. We’re definitely not talking trigo limpio here. Frankly, if she’s going to be publicly anti-embargo and pro-Cuban Five, she’s practically doing a Mariela Castro number, so we’re left with what amounts to a “good cop, bad cop” scenario. I’d never qualify as an official Cuba “expert,” but that is not what Cuba needs.
She actually uses the term “blockade,” about which she seems painfully misinformed. Lord have mercy.
So the “blockade” is “a policy of interference that wants to change an internal situation within another country.” Check. Gee, I wonder if that applies to the concerted (and successful) international efforts to topple the apartheid government in South Africa? Does she think that was wrong? Even if she is sincere in her reasoning, such as it is, I’m afraid she’s “bastante escasa,” as my mother would say.
She also denounced our Gitmo base as a “place of illegality.” She read the list right off! Couldn’t she have spaced the talking points out a bit for better effect?
But of course, I’m overreacting. I expect Wenski would look at me and, dripping with condescension, tell me to get over myself, because I’m not “on the ground.”
She has the PC package in good order, perfectly tailored to her target audience. She knows her fan base.
Once again, I get the old sinking feeling that Cubans deserve what they have.
YS to Obama: “Mr. President, you shouldn’t have wasted money on killing bin Laden. That money should have gone to reduce the national deficit.” Sheesh.
Now listen for the exile mantra: “pero nos engano!” Sure seems to happen often to Cubans…unreal.
I just had an awful thought: Ingrid Betancourt.
Nada que she is a 21st century socialist dissident, wait till she gets to the capital of exile,
“I am worried about the treasury of my country and would prefer they be liberated and see if we can save some money because there are more important matters to deal with.” Tell that to the families of Armando Alejandre,
Carlos Costa, Mario de la Peña and Pablo Morales. Yes, the Castro treasury needs more money to keep the plantation. I can´t wait to hear her Freedom Tower speech.
For you Miamians: How far is the Freedom Tower from the monument to the BTTR martyrs? Hope she knows.
About thirteen miles.
Yoani Sanchez’ latest comments show vividly that “los de allá” y “los de aquí” who belong to the Historic Exile are not “un mismo pueblo!”
Yoani Sanchez’ comments demonstrates that she’s an ally of the Castro tyranny disguised as “dissident”…
OMG, I just read this and am …..I don’t know what to say that is strong enough. Shocked, disgusted, betrayed, angry…For sure I’m taking her off my most admired people on Facebook. What stupidity. Now she cares about the dictatorship’s pocketbook? Yeah, she’s worse than Mariela Castro.
Can we send her back?
Okay, so for those that were wondering why the tyranny allowed her [an alleged dissident] to travel outside of Cuba, you have your answer right there in her very own words. And yes, Asombra, you are correct. Two names come to mind: Mariela Castro and Ingrid Betancourt.
Can’t wait for the rude awakening and fireworks on April 1st! Before 1980 and after 1980, apples and oranges. two different types of Cubans, to totally different people. Lets see how the news media covers this event in english and spanish.
As the saying goes: you wait long enough, ALL things come out in the wash. I’ve always wandered about her……no more. Great theater fooling the world all these years. But it never made any sense to me — no jail, no blocking the web access except for sporadic breaks, a mobile phone, a Twitter account, a FBook page, an apartment better than most…… yeah, 2+2=4 don’t you know.
I’d like to see the crowd that greets her at the Freedom Tower. Most likely full of her “compatriots” (i.e. Cubanoids) applauding all her pro-Castro policies. To have that worthless POS stand in front of the Tower pains me to no end. I can’t believe what those scoundrels have done to this once proud community. Once again, I submit that the Castro’s are laughing there asses off. They got over on everybody, but the most painful of all is how they’ve destroyed this community by injecting us with their ‘poison’. Gee wiz, God Almighty, how sick, sad, and pathetic.
Gigi,
Exactly only I figured it out before this. This just puts it in stone.
For your information: Yoani has been twitting late tonight that her comments were misinterpreted:
“#Cuba No creo que sean inocentes y por otro lado estoy en contra de los enormes recursos que el estado cubano utiliza en esa campaña
#Cuba Evidentemente no se captó la ironía tremenda de mi frase, así que aclaro en próximos tweets mi posición
#Cuba Para mi sorpresa hoy he visto varios titulares en prensa cubana del exilio diciendo que yo pedía la liberación de los 5 espías”
This is what Yoani told El Nuevo Herald tonight: “En ningún momento pedí en Brasil la liberación de esos ‘cinco miembros de Ministerio del Interior’. Utilicé la ironía para decir que si los liberaban ahora mismo el país se ahorraría todos los millones que se gasta en su campaña que ya dura quince años. De ahí a ‘pedir la liberación’ va un trecho enorme. Si la ironía no funcionó bien, si el nerviosismo o las palabras usadas no dejaron claro el mensaje, ruego me disculpen. Mi posición sigue siendo que no son inocentes. Abrazos desde Sao Paulo, Yoani Sánchez”.
Read more here: http://www.elnuevoherald.com/2013/02/20/1412402/yoani-sanchez-pide-libertad-de.html#storylink=cpy
Ohhhhhhhhhhhh, okay. Now we see why she is the one comfortably blogging from her living room and touring the world while Dr. Biscet gets incarcerated and can’t even leave his house.
It clearly explains how in a Stalinist state where no one is permitted to have an internet connection in their home, except party members, she “a dissident” is surprisingly permitted to have internet. Hey, it might also explain those mysterious bruises that are claimed but never seen.
I always had some reservations about her do to previous stupidities I had read from her. They stopped me from ever being an advocate of hers or ever caring about her blog but I was still giving her the benefit of the doubt and not willing to be too vociferous about it.
It was like suspecting someone of faking a sickness but not being totally certain as to call them out for it and not be a cruel jerk. However, this confirms the material at hand and the fact that it’s all no more than a distractive charade.
Yet, I am not totally certain she is an agent. Judging by her looks and words I lean more to think the woman is simply a dummy who the communist have propped and used as tool (it’s more convincing and safer that way).
You took it out of my fingertips Asombra, Ingrid Betancourt. Indeed, she always reminded me of that idiot of Ingrid Betancourt who after being kidnapped by the communists of the FARC (as the result of being a stubborn idiot) started to gabble, downplay the FARC, and denounce the Colombian government for compensatory payment (the government that financed and risked blood to rescued her stupid ass after telling her not to go where she got kidnapped).
That Betancourt didn’t talk more stupid trash because a day only has 24 hours. I would have left her kidnapped.
But again, agent or idiot, the woman is shit either way. After 54 years of Castro we really should not have time, patience, nor reason to be validating this comemierderia.
If what’s left of the exilio had any dignity they would cancel her event in Miami’s Tower of Freedom and tell her to go to hell with her bullshit. After all we have been betrayed, obstructed, and slandered by this nation in conjunction with Castro, who gives a crap about what critics may say anyhow. As my grandpa used to say – “Si te acusan falsamente de hijo de puta, aprovecha y se hijo de puta”.
“If what’s left of the exilio had any dignity they would cancel her event in Miami’s Tower of Freedom and tell her to go to hell with her bullshit.”
We should, but we won’t.
Hello? It was IRONY. Unfortunately, irony can be easily misunderstood and Yoani meant the OPPOSITE of what many think. She is actually AGAINST the freeing of the spies. I can really sympathize here since your humble correspondent once wrote a tongue in cheek article calling for a ban on “dangerous” cartoons. An avalanche of hate mail revealed that my irony was complete misunderstood as was the case for Yoani.
So everybody TAKE A DEEP BREATH and relax. Yoani Sanchez did NOT call for the freeing of the spies.
PJ, with all due respect, I don’t think so. Yoani is NOT a writer known for irony. If she were I could buy your argument. I think she opened her mouth, said what she believed, and then realized the shit sandwich she had made for herself and spat it out. She’s a tool. Plain and simple.
Hello? Hello? Hello? Everybody please RELAX. Yoani Sanchez did NOT call for the freeing of the spies. No more than Rush Limbaugh really gave his mother a can opener to open cans of dog food (remember that incident?). So PLEASE don’t be like Pat Schroeder who stood up in the halls of Congress and denounced Limbaugh for giving his mother a can opener so she could eat dog food. She completely misunderstood his obvious irony just as Yoani is being misunderstood.
George—I read her original statement and to me it was clearly irony. Most definitely. And I’ll give you a personal example here of how Yours Truly was misunderstood years ago which you can read at the following link:
http://www.internet-resources.com/stash/harper.htm
9. Avoid op-ed backfire.
Humor is hard to project in an opinion piece. Satire can bite the writer.
P.J. Gladnick wrote a tongue-in-cheek satire about harmful cartoons for the Los Angeles Herald Examiner. He showed Snow White exploiting short people, Scrooge McDuck engaging in the capitalistic duck-slave trade, the Three Little Pigs abusing the Big Bad Wolf, and more.
That article made him the hero of the National Coalition on Television Violence, who used it to justify censoring Saturday morning TV.
It would almost be better if YS were, in fact, a pseudo-dissident designed to confuse, mislead, and of course advance key objectives of Castro, Inc. like ending the embargo (with her, in a way, as the “good cop” to Mariela Castro’s “bad cop”). However, if she’s more or less on the level, what does that say about Cubans on the island, assuming she’s reasonably typical? And what if she’s not typical, but represents “the best and the brightest” inside Cuba? Think about it. It’s not exactly encouraging.
PJ…good to see you again, it’s been a long time.
Yoani took three positions in her statement:
1. Free the spies (irony too subtle for us lesser beings I guess)
2. End the “blockade”, because it hasn’t worked
3. Defined the “blockade” as “a policy of interference that wants to change an internal situation within another country”.
For whatever reason, she opted walked back the thing on the “spies”, but the rest of her stated opinions point out that her ideological base is solidly grounded on Cuban government positions.
There is no “blockade”…there hasn’t been one for decades. The only people who describe what is essentially a denial of taxpayer secured credit for the Cuban government as a “blockade” are 1) the Cuban government, 2) Cuban government tools, 3) useful idiots, and 4) people whose ideological base, for better or worse, has been shaped by years of carefully controlled government censors and media. The fact that Yoani acknowledges that the Cuban economy is (and has been for a long time) in shambles, is a self-refuting statement of Yoani’s own belief that the blockade hasn’t worked.
She thinks that it hasn’t, because she is accepting the Cuban government’s spin on what the “blockade” was intended to accomplish…an uprising.
If there was an aggressive intent behind the “blockade”, that intent was to wreck he Cuban economy, and in that light (and according to Yoani) the “blockade” has worked magnificently.
I love #3 in my list.
I wonder how much Yoani knows about Angola.
I never said she was being ironic in her opposition to the embargo. I do disagree with her on that but she most definitely was being ironic in her comments about releasing the spies. So perhaps someone (maybe you) could explain your points about the embargo to her when she visits the USA.
However, I am most definitely cutting her slack on the spies comment since to me it was clearly IRONIC. BTW, the most ironic thing about the embargo is the flood of goods and money that does flow into Cuba despite the whining by the Castro regime about a “blockade.” On a personal note I know a Cuban-American woman and her husband that were planning to visit relatives in Cuba and bring them much needed food and other supplies so I gave them some tips on getting such supplies dirt cheap or FREE via coupons (I write the “Coupon Whisperer” blog).
The irony, when filtered through the fact that the rest of her opinions are solidly grounded on Cuban government positions, is questionable at best.
If I have to explain to anyone the duplicity of the Castro government’s position (US economic involvement with Cuba during the years that preceded the Castro “revolution” was the root of everything evil in Cuba vs. the lack of US economic involvement with Cuba in the years since the implementation of the “blockade” is the root of everything evil in Cuba), I don’t think that they are worth the gravitas that we have assigned to them.
Nice plug BTW.