"Los herederos del Che ". Mito y realidad de una leyenda
"Los herederos del Che ". Mito y realidad de una leyenda2007-11-29Por GALSIC.
En ocasión del 40 aniversario de la muerte de Ernesto Guevara, más conocido por el Che, la editorial francesa Presses de la Cité, ha publicado un libro, Les héritiers du Che, de Canek Sánchez y Jorge Masetti, que se ha agregado a la larga lista de los editados este año con ese pretexto. Una efemérides que, paradójicamente -por lo que pretendidamente representaba el Che- se ha convertido en una de las más
El presidente boliviano René Barrientos debía estar muy lejos de imaginar que, al ordenar la ejecución del Che y hacerlo enterrar secretamente el 8 de octubre de 1967 en los alrededores de un pueblito de la sierra boliviana, lo convertía en mártir y contribuía decisivamente a forjar una de las leyendas más mediatizadas y mundializadas del siglo XX. Una leyenda transformada rápidamente en mito y culto ideológico entre los jóvenes en rebeldía de los cinco continentes; pero también en una fuente inagotable de explotación mercantil de la idolatría juvenil por los iconos mediáticos que la sociedad de consumo ha extendido por todo el planeta globalizado.
El hecho es que, mientras los homenajes al célebre guerrillero, "heraldo de la lucha contra el capitalismo y el imperialismo", se han quedado reducidos a los actos que ritualmente organizan los Castro, Chávez y compañía para hacer creer que siguen su senda, la efigie del Che está cada vez más presente en los comercios y mercados del mundo entero, adornando toda clase de objetos y vestimentas: desde pañuelos, bufandas, camisetas, playeras y prendas diversas de los grandes costureros, hasta mecheros, cartas postales, etiquetas de vino y artículos de uso corriente, como platos, cafeteras, bandejas, hueveras, etc.
La paradoja de esta leyenda no es sólo el haberse quedado reducida a una aureola mesiánica sino que, además, el mito es interpretado de mil maneras diferentes y en la mayoría de los casos únicamente por interés partidista o codicia mercantilista. No obstante es verdad también que, para algunos sectores de las nuevas generaciones con conciencia política, el nombre del Che les suena y recuerda un rebelde contra las injusticias de este mundo, y que por ello lo reivindican en sus protestas contra la mundialización capitalista. Inclusive entre los sectores más alérgicos al mesianismo y al dogmatismo marxista suele aún manifestarse esta simpatía hacia el rebelde que, abandonando los privilegios y vanidades del poder instituido en Cuba, fue a morir luchando en los Andes bolivianos para "liberar el continente americano de las garras del imperialismo yanqui".
Pues bien, aunque ya en algunos libros dedicados anteriormente al Che ha sido puesta en evidencia la personalidad profunda de este icono revolucionario, los testimonios de Canek Sánchez Guevara, nieto del Che, y de Jorge Masetti, hijo de uno de los compañeros de armas más cercano al Che y ex agente de los servicios conspirativos cubanos, aportan informaciones sorprendentes y enfoques muy valiosos sobre este arcángel a doble cara. Sobre todo para no olvidar su rigidez ideológica y una severidad insospechable tras su cara de ángel ; pero también para comprender la verdadera naturaleza del régimen dictatorial cubano, que también era el modelo del régimen que el Che quería instalar en el resto del continente.
En diferentes periodos, Canek y Jorge vivieron en Cuba cuando eran jóvenes y saben por experiencia propia cómo vivía la juventud cubana la realidad cotidiana de esa Revolución impuesta desde arriba, que rápidamente quedó reducida a lemas publicitarios y desfiles para aclamar a sus jefes y a los mártires de la lucha revolucionaria.Lejos de la visión mitológica del Che y del régimen cubano, Canek Sánchez Guevara y Jorge Masetti esbozan una imagen muy diferente de la mitificada por los servicios de propaganda pro castristas, mostrando la dureza implacable de los jefes revolucionarios, las mentiras y timos de la casta de privilegiados y los brutales comportamientos de un mundo policiaco omnipresente y represivo. Sus testimonios revelan la existencia de una sociedad petrificada en un apartheid social y de un sorprendente "underground" en el que los jóvenes rebeldes se identifican más a la cultura rock, punk o hippie que al martirologio oficial y a los códigos de la burguesía castrista. Una juventud que aspira a la libertad y a la que hace reír la gesta guevarista promocionada y explotada por la oligarquía revolucionara para su provecho exclusivo. Estos testimonios hacen caer las máscaras y desmitifican la leyenda del Che y su guerrilla, pero sobre todo la de la Revolución cubana.
Un libro a leer y a recomendar su lectura.Octavio Alberola
Cuba calls for end to EU sanctions
Cuba calls for end to EU sanctionsBy IANSThursday November 29, 03:25 PM
Havana, Nov 29 (IANS) Cuba has called for an end to sanctions imposed on it by the European Union (EU) to pave the way for improving bilateral relations, Spanish news agency EFE said Thursday.
Deputy Foreign Minister Eumelio Caballero told a gathering here Wednesday that Havana appreciated the willingness expressed by the EU Council of Ministers to hold a comprehensive and open dialogue with Cuba, but denounced the political sanctions imposed by the bloc and called the so-called 'common position' adopted in 1996 'interference'.
The 27-member EU has put Cuba under political sanctions in 2003 to protest Havana's repression of dissidents and the execution of three men who attempted to hijack a passenger ferry for a voyage to the US.
'In light of such conditions, it is not possible to sustain a respectful dialogue among equals, and so it is essential that (there be) the definitive and unconditional elimination of the sanctions,' Caballero said at the conference.
Many observers expect acting president Raul Castro, who stepped in nearly 16 months ago when elder brother Fidel was stricken with a serious illness, to try to reform and invigorate Cuba's economy without relinquishing the Communist Party's monopoly on power.
Venezuelan leader’s power play has echoes of Castro
Venezuelan leader's power play has echoes of CastroBy Chris Hawley, USA TODAY
CARACAS, Venezuela — If Hugo Chávez gets his way, he'll be calling U.S. presidents "donkeys" and "drunkards" for another 20 years — at least.
A nationwide referendum set for Sunday could allow the colorful Venezuelan president to stay in office indefinitely. That would let Chávez, 53, continue reshaping Venezuela's economy in the mold of Cuba, and follow Fidel Castro as the self-anointed lifetime leader of an increasingly combative global alliance against the United States.
The consequences could be far more serious than the one-liners, clownish antics and occasional gaffes that have made Chávez a staple on YouTube.
"Venezuela is going to be a big, big headache" for Washington if Chávez wins the referendum, says Javier Corrales, a political science professor and Chávez watcher at Amherst College.
Corrales says an emboldened Chávez could drive up energy prices through his control of Venezuela's oil industry, refuse to cooperate with U.S. anti-drug efforts and undermine the fight against Islamist militants through his economic partnership with Iran, a state sponsor of terrorism.
In Venezuela, tensions have started to boil over as polls show the referendum's outcome is in doubt. Clashes between supporters and opponents have repeatedly turned violent, and one protester was killed Monday. Using his trademark hyperbole, Chávez told a crowd of students last week they could "save the world" by voting in his favor.
Critics fear that a "yes" vote would cement Chávez as a de facto dictator and lead to more of the problems that have begun to plague his self-styled socialist revolution. The economy is still expanding thanks to record prices for Venezuela's oil, but there are growing shortages of basic goods such as milk, pasta and sugar. The exchange rate for the currency is so distorted that passengers arriving at the Caracas airport are immediately besieged by black-market traders desperate for U.S. dollars.
Even some longtime supporters say Chávez has gone too far in trying to cement his control over daily life. The government is "confiscating the rights of the people," says Ismael Garcia, a member of the National Assembly who helped Chávez regain power after an attempted coup in 2002 but now is campaigning against the referendum. "It's not democratic," Garcia says.
Chávez says the changes will allow him to implement a centralized socialist state better equipped to improve the lives of Venezuela's poor. The reforms would remove presidential term limits, cut the workday to six hours and make it easier for the state to seize private property. "Communal cities" would be established under presidential control, which could allow Chávez to ignore elected local officials. The president also would be able to suspend civil rights in emergencies.
Venezuela's poorest people have been the biggest beneficiaries of the health and education programs that Chávez has financed with record oil revenue. The former paratrooper is counting on their support to stay in power long enough to rival his mentor Castro, who has tormented Washington for 47 years.
"I'm ready. I have the moral strength, the physical strength and the will to continue with you at the helm until at least 2020," Chávez told supporters last week. "And if the strength continues with me, and God wills it, then I'll probably go on to 2027."
A year after calling President Bush "the devil" at the United Nations, Chávez has begun to couple his barbed attacks with words explicitly targeted at damaging the U.S. economy. After meeting with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in Tehran last week, Chávez said the falling dollar was "a sign the U.S. empire is coming down," and called on OPEC countries to use the euro instead. His comments helped push oil prices closer to $100 a barrel.
U.S. companies such as Heinz, AES and Verizon have been damaged by Chávez's recent economic changes, which included nationalizing Venezuela's electricity sector and buying out many other companies.
Chávez's office did not respond to a request for an interview. Saul Ortega, a Chávez ally and president of the foreign relations panel in the National Assembly, notes that U.S. companies still do billions of dollars of business a year in Venezuela and says Washington has nothing to fear.
Unlike Castro's Cuba, where dissent is not tolerated, Venezuela is not a police state. Media are allowed to criticize Chávez, although he shut down an independent TV station this year, sparking massive protests. Venezuelans are also free to leave the country anytime, something that thousands have done in recent months to places such as Panama and Florida.
"We're finding our own path," Ortega says. "It's going to be a democratic, free, prosperous, beautiful country, not subject to any external domination."
Revolutionary hub
Visitors to Caracas are aware of the referendum's high stakes from the moment they arrive at Caracas' international airport, where a huge 3-D sign celebrating socialism hangs above baggage claim. From there, the onslaught of revolutionary slogans and crimson banners never lets up.
"Nothing stops the revolution," says one sign hanging from a building downtown. "Full-speed revolution toward socialism!" say signs in the subway.
Chávez's supporters credit him with giving them more of a share of Venezuela's booming economy, which has grown about 10% a year since a massive collapse in 2002. Poverty has fallen from 42.8% in 1999 to 33.9% in 2006, according to Venezuela's census bureau, although progress on unemployment has been mixed.
"The comandante has done so many good things for this country," Aura Eslada, 54, a secretary who wore a red cap and a "yes with Chávez" T-shirt, said during a march Tuesday. "There's no other leader like him. The opposition doesn't have anybody better to offer."
However, María Elena Sánchez is one of many Venezuelans who are growing frustrated by the economic problems created by Chávez's policies.
"I haven't been able to buy liquid milk in three months," Sánchez says, standing in front of an empty cooler at the Sud-America Supermarket. "This isn't supposed to happen in Caracas, right? The capital is supposed to have everything."
Strict price controls on food items have discouraged companies from producing enough of some goods because they can't turn a profit on them. Controls on buying dollars, in place since 2003, have simultaneously made it difficult for importers to buy abroad.
"Pasta, milk, rice, sugar, wheat flour, sometimes even salt is hard to get," says Wilfredo Chacón, shift manager of the Sud-America. "Sometimes all the deliveryman gives me is one box of 9 liters of milk."
A poll released Saturday by Datanalisis, a respected local pollster, showed 46% of Venezuelans blame the government for the shortages, while 31% blamed businesses. Six months ago, 65% blamed businesses.
Some of the economic distortions border on the bizarre. Airline tickets to and from Caracas are increasingly hard to come by because so many seats are being bought up by Venezuelan currency speculators who can make an easy profit by manipulating the financial system.
The speculators fly to nearby Panama, Aruba and Curacao, where they can charge up to $5,000 to their credit cards and receive U.S. dollars in return from local businesses. Upon returning to Venezuela, the travelers then sell their dollars on the black market at twice the official rate — making thousands of dollars.
"You can't get a flight to those places at any price now," said Eduardo Ablan, a travel agent at Festival Tours in Caracas. "It's all because of the black market."
Even some Chávez supporters wonder just how far he will go. "I think health, education, that's all gotten better," taxi driver William Batista says. "But when he says he wants a socialist state, I honestly don't know what he means."
Wrong place, wrong time?
Even if the vote swings in Chávez's favor Sunday, he may not be able to fully carry out his move to socialism, says Michael Shifter, an analyst at the Interamerican Dialogue, a Washington think tank.
"Venezuelan society is too individualistic, is too chaotic and is not amenable to those tight controls that he wants," Shifter says. "There's a real difference between where he wants to take the country and how far the country wants to go with him."
Chávez blames Bush for not opposing the short-lived 2002 coup against him, and constantly talks of the threat of a U.S. invasion. Washington strongly denies any such plans, and has in recent years mostly chosen to ignore Chávez's rhetoric.
Chávez's continuing demands for higher oil prices and his suspicion of U.S.-led trade pacts could disrupt attempts to form trade alliances that could counter the European Union and China.
"He would like to establish Venezuela as an alternative to the U.S. model of how to do things," says Terry McCoy, a political science professor at the University of Florida.
A recent study by pollster Latinobarometro — as well as an outburst this month by Spain's normally mild-mannered King Juan Carlos, who told Chávez to "shut up" — suggest his influence in the region could be waning. On Wednesday, Chávez said he would no longer have "any type of relations" with neighboring Colombia, calling its pro-U.S. leader "a pawn of the empire."
Venezuela's growing economic relationship with Iran is most worrisome, especially at a time when the United States and the European Union are deliberating more sanctions on Iran because of its nuclear program, Shifter and McCoy say.
On Monday, Chávez presided over the delivery of 200 cars built by Venirauto, a joint venture between the two countries, to health workers and local government officials. Iran and Venezuela also have cooperated in producing petrochemicals, housing and tractors.
Whether relations between Venezuela and the United States improve may depend on Bush's successor. Chávez has professed to getting along better with President Clinton than "the Texan who walks around shooting from the hip."
Opposition leaders would rather start the relationship over.
"We are fighting for the future of Venezuela, for the world of our grandchildren," says Garcia, the former Chávez supporter. "If in 10 years I have a grandchild and he sits on my knee and he says, 'Grandpa, you were there, and what did you do with my country?' What am I going to say?
"That's why we're fighting this with such passion."
Hawley is Latin America correspondent for USA TODAY and The Arizona Republic
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2007-11-28-Chavez_N.htm?csp=34
Castro biography a lost opportunity
Castro biography a lost opportunity5:00AM Friday November 30, 2007By Jason Burke
My Life by Fidel Castro, with Ignacio Ramonet, translated by Andrew Hurley Published by Allen Lane
In the early afternoon of December 5, 1956, Fidel Castro, then aged 30, and around 80 followers settled down to spend the night on a small hill surrounded by sugarcane fields and woods in Cuba's Alegria de Pio. Three days earlier, they had disembarked from a motor yacht, the Granma, ending an exile that started on their release from prison a year previously after a failed and bloody attempt to overturn the corrupt, inegalitarian regime of Fulgencio Batista. Now, they hoped to succeed where they had failed before.
The group had been resting only a short time when a government spotter plane flew overhead. Then fighter jets buzzed the woods where they were hiding. An hour later, the first shots came as government infantry closed in. Castro's men were scattered in the ensuing fighting. By nightfall, the young revolutionary's force was reduced to three men, with two rifles and 120 rounds.
After three more years of guerrilla activity, Castro seized power in Cuba and, having survived the CIA-sponsored Bay of Pigs invasion, the Cuban missile crisis and around 650 assassination attempts, he is still at the head of the small island nation.
Castro is now 81 and ailing. The young man who was caught in the woods by government soldiers in 1956 is still President, but his powers are delegated to his brother Raul. Cuba and the world are preparing for the post-Castro era. It is far from certain the transition will be smooth.
Castro has always fascinated observers. Cuba's continued opposition to the United States, its links with Moscow, his role in the non-aligned movement and the life and legend of Che Guevara, have all vested the country's recent history with a value that far exceeds its actual historical importance.
Yet, like the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Cuba has become a symbol of a world view and an ideology, a standard-bearer and a standard at the same time.
Ignacio Ramonet, editor of the dogmatically left-wing Le Monde Diplomatique, has secured astonishing access to the Cuban leader. Ramonet tells us, rightly proud, that Castro sat reading proofs of his book following critical surgery on his intestines last year. Sadly, the result of the hundreds of hours that Ramonet spent with Castro is disappointing.
An opportunity to write the definitive biography of one of the world's most important historical leaders has gone whistling. Instead, we have 700 pages of straight question and answer interviews which, not aided by a fairly leaden translation from the original Spanish, somehow succeed in being of limited interest, not an easy task given the nature of the raw material.
To say that Ramonet is uncritical would be an understatement. Occasionally, he poses a more difficult question to Castro, who has ruled a single-party state for nearly 50 years, mentioning that some dare to call the Cuban leader a "dictator", and raising the political repression that has been a persistent feature of his rule. Yet as the introduction makes abundantly clear, the author is a fan.
"Few men have known the glory of entering the pages of both history and legend while they are still alive. Fidel is one of them," Ramonet tells us on the third page. We also learn, fairly predictably, that "ideas bubble in a brilliant stream" from this "quick strategic thinker" who is "moved by humanitarian compassion and internationalist solidarity" and "likes precision, accuracy, exactitude, punctuality".
We learn that "under [Castro's] leadership, his little country has even stared down the United States, whose leaders have not been able to overthrow him or kill him, or even jostle the revolution off its path".
We learn, that Castro is a man who in private is affable, courteous, considerate and frugal.
Thankfully, Castro is a good raconteur and not averse to speaking at length about episodes such as the battles in the mountains that led him to power. This breaks up the long, slow plod through fairly turgid Marxist interpretations of world history, sophomoric anti-Americanism and some fairly haphazard analysis of contemporary foreign affairs: "In England, the jails are full of Irish prisoners who had political, patriotic motives."
Castro's account of dragging an asthmatic Guevara through the Cuban hills in a downpour with hundreds of government troops in wet, cold pursuit is genuinely gripping and, in later parts of the book, his thumbnail sketches of other world leaders, are entertaining. Castro's thoughts are also stimulating when he talks about guerrilla warfare.
It was, he tells Ramonet, Hemingway's great Spanish Civil War novel, For Whom the Bell Tolls, that allowed him and his fighters "to actually see the experience of an irregular struggle, from the political and military point of view".
"'That book became a familiar part of my life. And we always went back to it, consulted it, to find inspiration," Castro says. And it is this image – of the ragged, bearded revolutionary, carbine to hand, reading Hemingway in the Cuban hills – that has always clung to Castro and has aided him hugely.
For Ramonet, like millions of others, Castro is not a controversial dictator with a mixed record who has traced an interesting historical course, but the figurehead of opposition to the global hegemony of the US and the other great, related bogeyman of the European left. And wreathed in legend, he can do no wrong. There is, of course, no discussion of whether "neoliberal globalisation" – a nefarious attempt to impose unbridled capitalism on the world's suffering, impoverished masses – actually exists; it is taken as a given.
Towards the end of the lengthy introduction, Ramonet comments on the role of the journalist. "Apparently, some people believe that journalistic courage consists of lazily repeating the 'facts' and interpretations sung in chorus by the mass media over the past five decades," he says, clearly implying that he is of a different stamp. A few paragraphs later, the reader learns that "this … book has … been totally revised, amended and completed personally by Fidel Castro".
- Observer
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/category/story.cfm?c_id=134&objectid=10479136&pnum=0
Ambassador says Mexico will re-negotiate Cuban debt to improve relations
Ambassador says Mexico will re-negotiate Cuban debt to improve relationsThe Associated PressPublished: November 28, 2007
HAVANA: Mexico's new ambassador to Cuba said Wednesday that his country will re-negotiate US$500 million (€337 million) in debt that the communist-run island owes Mexico to improve strained relations between the nations.
Ambassador Gabriel Jimenez said both sides will meet several times next month and hope to reach a debt settlement plan by the end of the year, marking the first public acknowledgment of talks on the issue.
"I'm very optimistic," said Jimenez, who became ambassador in September. "I arrived at an absolutely fragile moment in Mexican relations with Cuba, and little by little, we're expressing the wishes of both governments to begin to get to know one another again."
Jimenez, a friend of Mexican President Felipe Calderon, said he has reassured his government that Havana has every intention of paying off its debt in time.
"Cuba wants to meet its obligations," he told reporters.Today on IHT.comEuropeans feel the pinch of higher prices this holiday season'Caught in the middle' of French unrestWith opponents divided, Iran continues nuclear effort
Debt discussions are likely to lead to bilateral talks on other thorny issues, including illegal immigration and human rights, as both sides are "now getting serious" about reconciliation, Jimenez said.
Mexico has historically been friendly with Cuba, and is the only Latin American country to never break ties with its government — despite U.S. pressure.
But the countries' relationship soured in 2002 when the government of then-President Vicente Fox backed a U.N. Human Rights resolution condemning Cuba.
Cuba released a recording of Fox urging Fidel Castro to leave a summit to avoid confronting U.S. President George W. Bush later that year, embarrassing the Mexican leader. In 2004, the two nations temporarily withdrew their ambassadors.
Calderon, a member of Fox's conservative National Action Party who took office in 2006, since said he wants to improve relations with Cuba.
Mexico would like to sign an immigration accord that might help repatriate Cuban migrants detained in Mexico or while trying to reach it, Jimenez said.
U.S. officials say as many as 10,000 Cubans now sneak off the island every year bound for Mexico, and then make their way by land to the U.S., where most are allowed to stay by law. The route has become popular with people-smuggling gangs that use souped-up speed boats to ferry migrants.
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/11/29/news/CB-GEN-Cuba-Mexico.php
More Cubans seized off US coast
More Cubans seized off US coastThe US Coast Guard says it has intercepted almost 3,000 Cuban migrants off the Florida coast this year, the highest figure for more than a decade.
It says more Cubans are paying gangs to try to reach Florida on fast launches rather than using home-made rafts.
The US is starting a temporary visa programme for Cubans to cope with delays in issuing regular papers.
But experts say the situation is not comparable to a mass exodus from the island in 1994.
About 37,000 Cubans were arrested at sea that year in what became known as the "rafters' crisis".
As of Tuesday, the Coast Guard had intercepted 2,988 Cubans this year – surpassing the figure for 2005.
Coast Guard spokesman Luis Diaz said that – rather than reflecting a sharp rise in migration – the figures showed the US authorities were doing a more effective job.
"For us, this means that our units and the national security agencies are working harder and intercepting more migrants than in previous years," he told the BBC.
Visa changes
Washington currently allows 20,000 Cubans to join relatives in the US every year, but they experience long bureaucratic delays while waiting on the island.
The new system – which the US immigration service hopes will "discourage dangerous and irregular maritime migration" – means that successful applicants won't need full resident status before leaving for Florida.
Cuban citizens are marginalised… so their only hopes is to leave the countryOmar LopezExile spokesman
The latest figures are causing controversy among Cuba watchers in the United States.
"There are obviously more rafters," said Omar Lopez, an exile from the Miami-based Cuban-American National Foundation.
"Cuban citizens are marginalised from political, economic and social life – so their only hope is to leave the country."
The Centre for Cuban and Cuban-American Studies at the University of Miami warned in a recent report that "a silent, but increasingly obvious new mass immigration from Castro's Cuba could be under way".
But Phil Peters of the Lexington Institute, a think-tank, said there was no evidence of an imminent crisis.
Experts say a key factor in migration from Cuba is Washington's so-called "Wet Foot, Dry Foot" policy.
This allows any Cuban who reaches US soil to stay in America, but means that most migrants intercepted at sea are sent back to the island.
Story from BBC NEWS:http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/americas/7118992.stm
Published: 2007/11/29 14:32:47 GMT
Cuba is no paradise for blacks
Last modified 11/29/2007 – 6:54 amOriginally created 112907
Cuba is no paradise for blacks
By Special to the Times-Union
As Cuban-Americans living in Florida, we are appalled by Tonyaa Weathersbee's article on blacks in Cuba. The administration of the newspaper obviously did not check to verify the facts stated in it.
Ever since the founding of the Cuban republic in 1901, all public colleges and universities had been free and open to all races. Although, for decades now, one of the slogans the Cuban government has lived by is, "The universities are for the revolutionaries" only.
Weathersbee quoted someone as saying, "It's an undeniable fact that black Cubans have made more advancements in the 47 years under Castro than they ever had before."
However, in Cuba, prior to the revolution, not only could blacks study any profession, but many had been federal senators, representatives, secretaries of governments, Supreme Court justices and even one popularly elected president (Fulgencio Batista, 1940-44).
Today, after nearly 48 years of revolution, the Cuban government can show only one black in high position in the government.
Publishing articles like this one is a disservice to the interest of this country, to the journalism profession and to freedom in general.
It is also a disservice, of course, to the legitimate interests of freedom and democracy for Cuba, and to those who fight to achieve them. It is surely an affront to the good and peaceful racial relations of all Cubans.
In 1961, during the Bay of Pigs invasion (after President Kennedy ordered the U.S. military personnel to return to the U.S., even though their help had been promised to the Cuban freedom fighters), Fidel Castro went to inspect the prisoners and noticed a black soldier approaching him. He asked him: "You're black. What are you doing here? Don't you remember that blacks are not allowed to swim at the beaches?"
That was a veiled reference to the Havana Yacht Club and other private recreational places where blacks were not allowed to be members, although since 1940 all beaches and their adjacent waters were public and accessible to all.
The Cuban fighter, Tomas Cruz, answered: "I came to Cuba to liberate my country, not to swim at the beach."
Of course, there was racial discrimination in Cuba prior to the revolution, but very mild if we compare it with the United States at that time, and insignificant if we compare it with the position of the blacks in Castro's revolution.
Don't Weathersbee and her source know that the most prominent political opponent to the totalitarian Cuban regime (jailed for many years now for simply using his voice against the atrocities of the Cuban Communist tyranny) is black physician Oscar Elias Bicet?
Of course, they know!
Josefa Quintana, Ph.D, a Miami journalist; Evelio Bofill, a Miami Beach physician; Rafael Gomez, a Jacksonville physician; and Otto Rodriguez-Viamonte of Miami.
http://www.jacksonville.com/tu-online/stories/112907/opl_221151670.shtml
Mission to Cuba: revival of faith and 40,000 Bibles
Mission to Cuba: revival of faith and 40,000 Bibles Published 11-29-2007By Pat HatfieldBEACON STAFF WRITER
In November 1991, Fidel Castro's Communist Party in Cuba repealed a ban on religious belief. By the late 1990s, a religious revival was rocking the island.
The biggest explosion was in evangelical and Pentecostal churches, part of a movement still sweeping Central and South America.
Pastor Mike Modica of First Assembly-DeLand saw the religious revolution firsthand during a September mission trip to Cuba.
Modica saw Assemblies of God churches growing at a phenomenal rate. He saw churches of other denominations, such as Methodist, growing similarly.
Most are home churches, now, meeting in living rooms or open-air backyard facilities.
Modica is still flushed with enthusiasm about the trip, a fact-finding and planning mission, in preparation for building new churches for these people. Modica was able to see an Assemblies of God headquarters and seminary already under construction in Havana. It will also house an undergraduate college.
"So many of the small house churches are getting permits to build churches. The only things they need are money and construction crews," the pastor reported.
Missionaries will supply the needed money and labor. A mission team will return to Cuba in February.
Already in place are 40,000 Bibles. Modica and his team took some study Bibles with them, and more came in two shipments.
Modica always had a feeling he would visit Cuba, since he and his wife, Renee, visited churches in Ybor City in 1986.
"It only took 21 years," Modica said, pointing out it often takes time and patience for a vision to be fulfilled.
All religious activity was suppressed under the Communist regime, but the Communist stranglehold has relaxed in recent years. The state-engendered anti-American fervor has died down, too.
"We were treated very honorably by the authorities," Modica said. People he met in the street were friendly.
The trip was not about politics, but about the Gospel, he emphasized.
The Assemblies of God headquarters arranged the trip through the State Department, and Modica's team was able to fly directly from Miami to Havana.
Lasting impressions
Modica said going to Cuba was like going back to 1959. It was as if the country had been frozen in time since Castro's takeover.
Most vehicles are old. Modica saw 1957 fishtail Chevys everywhere, along with Soviet vehicles made in the 1960s and '70s.
A congregation of 400 people may include four people who have vehicles.
Cuban people are poor. Most people make $12 or $13 a month in the stagnant economy, Modica said.
Several memories will remain with Modica.
His driver made one of the biggest impressions on the pastor.
She was "a precious woman in her 60s," Modica said, who had an old Soviet vehicle. "She was a mechanic who had come to know Christ, and wanted to serve Christ, using her car."
That car broke down three times as the driver took Modica and others from town to town in Cuba. She would tinker with the spark plugs and get the car going again.
She bought some new spark plugs, but the store gave her the wrong size.
The driver took the old plugs out of the car, wiped them on her best Sunday dress, prayed over them, and put them back in the car.
Modica said, "The car started. It rode perfectly. You couldn't tell her God didn't answer her prayers."
Another lasting impression relates to the scarcity of goods and services in Cuba, and the overall poverty.
Most Cubans aren't allowed to go into the same food stores and restaurants frequented by U.S. and other foreign visitors. Most of the people he met at Cuban home churches had never been in those special establishments.
"We were allowed to invite them, however. Whatever town we were in, we would take them to the local restaurant," Modica said.
One restaurant he took locals to was an American-style buffet.
"They had never seen that," Modica said.
When the Cuban friends were told they could go back for seconds, they thought Modica was teasing them. Their eyes grew as large as the buffet plates, he said, when they looked at all of the food.
Modica said the most lasting impression, though, was seeing people who had gone from having their government offered up as their god to having "that emptiness — no temporal or spiritual hope — replaced with the knowledge of the Lord, personally. To see that transformation takes your breath away."
- pat@beacononlinenews.com
Cuba reclama a la UE eliminar sanciones
Publicado el 11-29-2007Cuba reclama a la UE eliminar sancionesLA HABANA (EFE)
Cuba considera imprescindible la eliminación definitiva de las sanciones políticas de la Unión Europea (UE) para impulsar unas relaciones de "respeto y no injerencia" con la isla, según altos funcionarios cubanos que participan en una Conferencia Internacional de Estudios Europeos.
Durante el encuentro, el vicecanciller cubano, Eumelio Caballero, dijo que el bloque comunitario es vulnerable a las presiones estadounidenses y ha mostrado "incapacidad para mantener una política propia hacia la isla", según la agencia estatal Prensa Latina.
Caballero valoró la voluntad expresada por el Consejo de Ministros de la UE para mantener con Cuba un diálogo "integral y abierto", pero denunció las sanciones políticas aprobadas por el bloque y calificó de "injerencista" la llamada "posición común" adoptada en 1996.
La Unión Europea mantiene suspendidas las sanciones políticas contra la isla aprobadas en 2003 en protesta por la represión de la disidencia y la ejecución de tres secuestradores de una lancha. "Ante tales condiciones, no es posible sostener un diálogo respetuoso, entre iguales, por lo que resulta indispensable la eliminación definitiva e incondicional de las llamadas sanciones", dijo Caballero en la conferencia, a la que no fue convocada la prensa extranjera.
El funcionario cubano insistió en denunciar la estrategia de Washington contra la isla y la política de algunos países europeos de la ex esfera soviética, como la República Checa, Hungría y Polonia.
Asimismo, advirtió que La Habana "sabrá adoptar las medidas oportunas en el país para que no quede impune intento alguno de llevar en suelo patrio acciones contra el orden legal".
Decenas de académicos y parlamentarios participan en el foro, que comenzó el martes en La Habana y concluirá el próximo viernes.
El ex embajador español en Cuba pide al Gobierno abandonar su complacencia con Castro e incentivar a la disidencia
El ex embajador español en Cuba pide al Gobierno abandonar su complacencia con Castro e incentivar a la disidencia
Jesús Gracia Aldaz, que fue embajador de España en Cuba entre 2001 y 2004, cree que la actual política de complacencia del Gobierno de José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero hacia la isla permite al régimen ganar espacio y mantener su rumbo, cuando lo que hace falta es 'incentivar' a los que luchan por sus libertades y por el futuro de una vida sin Fidel Castro en democracia y en libertad.
'El Gobierno español debería abandonar su posición de complacencia con la actual dirigencia cubana y apoyar inequívocamente a las fuerzas que trabajan por la democracia y las libertades en Cuba', afirma el diplomático en un documento titulado 'La isla suspendida', publicado por la Fundación para el Análisis y los Estudios Sociales (FAES), del ex presidente del Gobierno José María Aznar.
Gracia considera una 'obligación' de las democracias occidentales respaldar a los cubanos que luchan por sus libertades para que el futuro lo decidan ellos mismos y para que ese futuro les permita transitar pacíficamente hacia la democracia. 'La complacencia de España sólo crea en los dirigentes el espejismo de que pueden seguir en el poder con políticas ligeramente maquilladas', precisa.
En este sentido, el que fuera embajador de España en La Habana durante el anterior gobierno de Aznar recuerda que la revolución ha seguido su curso, aprovechando en unos casos las restricciones al comercio y a los viajes 'como coartada de sus desmanes', y en otros sacando ventaja de las políticas dialogantes y complacientes 'para ganar espacio y mantener su rumbo'.
TRANSICION SI, SUCESION NO
Por eso, el diplomático subraya la necesidad de facilitar desde el exterior un entorno favorable al cambio, hacer de la transición y no de la sucesión la salida natural de Cuba, para lo cual cree que es imprescindible incentivar a quienes propugnen cosas tan elementales como el respeto a los Derechos Humanos, a las libertades públicas o a la capacidad de iniciativa de los ciudadanos cubanos.
Gracia explica que 15 meses después del traspaso de poderes de Fidel Castro a su hermano Raúl, el régimen no ha dado señales de cambio y aumenta su dependencia de los petrodólares venezolanos. Pero cree que la desaparición de Fidel puede abrir una oportunidad para que Cuba avance hacia una mayor apertura económica y hacia un régimen de libertades y democracia, 'como ansían los cubanos'.
En otro momento, subraya la importancia de que los cambios vengan 'de dentro' ya que, según dice, nadie desde fuera es capaz de llevar a cabo lo que sólo los cubanos deben hacer, decidir sobre su futuro. 'Es el Gobierno cubano quien debe dar los pasos para incorporar a sus ciudadanos al debate sobre su futuro, a los del exilio, a los emigrantes, a los de la isla y, cómo no, a los disidentes', destaca.
Para Gracia, es 'muy difícil' pensar que Raúl Castro tome un curso político distinto del de Fidel, 'aunque quisiera hacerlo'. Además, considera que hoy día el sistema comunista no puede reformarse, sino como mucho adoptar medidas que le permitan sobrevivir. 'Se necesita algo más que una modesta reforma agraria o una mejora de la gerencia de las empresas estatales', indica.
La clave para fomentar el cambio en Cuba, según el diplomático, es 'incentivar' a los disidentes, hacer llamamientos a la reconciliación y el perdón, y abandonar los discursos 'huecos'. En concreto, se hace eco de una propuesta de FAES sobre un 'fondo internacional para la libertad' que ofrece a los cubanos oportunidades de emprender negocios, invertir en infraestructura y financiar programas sociales.
CHAVEZ ES UN 'PELIGRO' PARA EL FUTURO DE CUBA
'La idea de crear un fondo empresarial para Cuba tiene la virtud de ofrecer a los cubanos una alternativa viable de futuro, alejada de la influencia de Venezuela. No hay mayor peligro para los cubanos que el que, tras 50 años de dictadura comunista, su futuro dependa de nuevo de las veleidades de un caudillo populista', advierte Gracia, en referencia al mandatario venezolano, Hugo Chávez.
Así, insiste en que podrían facilitar el camino para el cambio la presión de las generaciones de jóvenes cubanos y el convencimiento de que una salida democrática es posible, apoyados por una posición de firmeza internacional a la hora de exigir a Cuba el respeto de los Derechos Humanos así como la apertura de un diálogo genuino entre todos los cubanos.
Respecto a la política de Estados Unidos hacia Cuba, el embajador recuerda que una de las demandas más repetidas de los cubanos de dentro y fuera de la isla es la facilitación de los viajes, ya que las actuales restricciones 'posiblemente privan de algunos dólares' al Gobierno cubano pero impiden a muchos cubanos estar en contacto con sus familias tener una relación más estrecha con estadounidenses.
'Como siempre, en un régimen tan cerrado como el cubano las especulaciones están abiertas. Habrá que ver si, efectivamente, éstas y otras propuestas democratizadoras tienen eco en el interior del sistema o son, como en ocasiones anteriores, fuegos de artificio para que todo siga igual. En cualquier caso, es una obligación respaldar a los cubanos que luchan por sus libertades', concluyó.
Terra Actualidad – Europa Press
http://actualidad.terra.es/articulo/cuba_gobierno_castro_2078267.htm
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