Claudia4Libertad

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year to all of you and I hope that all Cubans, by birth or by blood, both here and abroad, will be able to return to their madre patria this year- but to a free and democratic Cuba!

I wish everyone a happy and healthy 2008!

Feliz Navidad y Gracias

Dear Readers:

I would like to wish you all a joyous Christmas season together with your loved ones and the people who matter most to you.  Thank you all for visiting my blog and for all of your many emails in which you encourage me and constantly bestow upon me the title of Honorary Cubana. I wear the title with pride because I am happy to be able to use my voice to help spread the truth to those who do not know it. Thank you to all those who have ordered some 600 CAMBIO bracelets to show your support for a free and democratic Cuba and by doing so, are helping Dr. Oscar Biscet's cause for human rights.

Thank you for your devoted readership and your ideas for new articles.  I am grateful for the dozens of Cuban-Americans I have spoken to or met since February and who have helped me understand that it is not just a Cuban cause, that of freedom, but everyone's cause.  Someday the rest of America will wake up.

Que pasen una linda Navidad y que Dios les bendiga siempre.

Claudia

With Friends Like That...

Max Lesnik, who 47 years ago in Cuba was a radio host and had helped castro spread propaganda about the revolution, decided one day to tell his listeners that he was not a communist. Then he hopped on a boat and, leaving his wife and kids behind, headed to Miami.

Fast forward to 2007 where Lesnik is now a Miami-based radio host who returns to Cuba frequently and stays in luxury hotels and dines in fine restaurants where as a resident of Cuba he was not allowed to enter.  Yes, Max Lesnik hates communism, but as a friend of fidel castro and no longer a Cuban citizen, he can go to Cuba whenever he wants on his press visa and smoke puros and soak up the sun on the beaches that the average Cuban cannot. He can reap the benefits of castro's communist "paradise" without having to pay for it with his own freedom.

 

However, back in Miami he dines in restaurants facing the door, afraid the Miami Mafia will get him for his treason and he carries a gun for protection.  His "Replica" magazine offices in Little Havana were bombed 11 times- he alleges the anti-castro community was behind it. Wouldn't it be easier if he just moved back to Cuba?

Lesnik is vociferously anti-embargo and is quoted by the Miami New Times as saying:

"I know there are shortages and hardships there. No es facil. But the problems of the Cuban people are the direct result of the U.S. embargo. The embargo has forced Castro to take the measures he has."

Obviously Mr. Lesnik is unaware that Cuba can, and does, trade with every other country in the world (besides Israel and the U.S.).  How the shortages that he and other anti-embargo fans blame the United States for can be responsible for all of the misery of the Cuban people when castro is free to trade with all of Europe boggles my mind.

How Lesnik can reconcile the fact that castro, not just communism, is responsible for thousands of deaths of his own countrymen, is beyond me.  How he can call castro a friend when the truth is, he is lucky he left Cuba alive in 1961 and wasn't made to disappear like another castro "friend", Camilo Cienfuegos, is puzzling. About his "friend," Lesnik has also said:

"Fidel Castro can be a very charming person, he can talk about anything -- food, wine, science, politics. It is not Castro's fault that he is an intelligent person. Or that his enemies are so stupid."

I can think of some other topics fidel can make small talk about: el paredón, draining blood from the bodies of Cubans so he can sell it, acts of repudiation, shooting down civilian aircraft, leaving Dr. Oscar Biscet to rot in an underground jail cell, threatening the families of political prisoners, apartheid, executing dissidents without a (or any) fair trial, selling doctors to Venezuela for oil... Lesnik isn't really getting the full version- he should try to expand his dinner topics when he joins el comandante for dinner in his Havana office.

Oh but wait, since his good buddy became ill, Lesnik has not been able to join fidel for those dinners in his office, or even for some hospital grub. I guess Lesnik is just not that far up on the totem pole to get invited to castro's bedside.  Shucks, that must hurt. I mean, if you can't get in to see your murderous, oppressive, totalitarian dictator friend when the chips are down, what good are you?

Well, anyway, with a friend like castro, who needs enemies?

Read the whole arroz con mango HERE

By the way, if you'd like to read Lesnik's daughter's very eloquent post entitled "Who the F*** is Bombing My Dad?" from April 2007 on the Huffington Post, here is the link, so you can read the Lesnik family's side about how Lesnik only wants "dialogue" with the murderous beast.   She is making a film about her dad's desire to bring both Havanas together.  I wonder if it will get an "R" rating for language, like her article.

Today I came across D.C. attorney Jason Poblete's new website. Jason is Cuban-American and has written some very informative articles about US-Cuba policy which can be found on the site. Jason is also the co-author (with University of Miami professor, Dr. Jaime Suchlicki) of "When Should the US Change Policy Toward Cuba?" He told me today that he plans to become a little more public this coming year and include more offerings on his site. I'm happy to hear this because his site is different from what is out there because of his experience as a senior Congressional staffer and his work in U.S. economic sanctions policy, free trade agreements and export controls, among other areas.

You can read more about Cuba on Jason's site here.

Update on Dario- GREAT NEWS

There are such things as Santa Claus and Christmas miracles!

Not only are there SIX bone marrow matches for Dario Martinez, the young Cuban medical student and father (read my post on him HERE) but the hospital has agreed to perform the transplant for free! Dario will now have a chance to see his baby girl born and watch his son grow up.  In just one week, generous people donated over $10,000 via Paypal ALONE (not counting donations sent directly to his WaMu account).  From the website:

"The hospital has agreed to do Dario's transplant as a charity!!! The transplant will be free of charge!! Thanks to all the media and people involved in fighting for Dario, we have made this miracle come to life. Dario will be choosing a donor on Wednesday and when all the details are set up, will be flying to Tampa for the bone marrow transplant. We still need to keep raising funds for him, because his medical expenses do not stop here. It will take months of special care and years of extra care to manage his health after the transplant. He is already $600,000 in debt with Memorial Hospital from his treatment up until now, and will occur more in the months and years to come. I will keep you updated as the week continues. Thanks for all your help and consideration!"

Please do what you can to help Dario- if you have Paypal it's easy- just click HERE. 

You can get updates on this brave man's fight for life at this site which a friend of his set up and keeps updating regularly.  I don't think Dario is up to keeping current with the other one I posted a few days ago.

HEAL DARIO

If you would like to post your encouragement to Dario on the google group site, please click here.

The United States=Dictatorship of World Capitalism

Ya gotta love Hugo Chavez.  Ok, no you don't.  But he's good for a laugh.  He "presided" over the regional petroleum summit in Cuba yesterday, a job formerly held by his BFF, fidel castro, and made all kinds of promises to the leaders of the Latin American countries.  As long as oil is above $40 per barrel, President Hugo Chávez will barter the oil for services for Venezuela, just like castro does now with thousands of Cuban doctors who are sold sent to Venezuela to help the poor in exchange for 100,000 barrels of subsidized oil a day. 

In Chavez's quest to make oil available and affordable to his compadres in Latin America, just what will he bartering for? He wants locally produced products or services in exchange for the oil.   Are the poor Latin American countries big exporters of anything that Chavez needs?  I can see a trade for Peru's gold, copper and zinc, if they are willing to trade it.  If not, maybe Hugo has a big need for Peruvian textiles, another of Peru's exports.  Maybe Ecuador (who has some oil) can trade bananas, flowers and shrimp with Hugo? And Guatemala can send more bananas and some coffee.  El Salvador can send some more coffee.  Honduras, one of the poorest countries in the Western Hemisphere, can send even more... bananas. They pretty much only have fruit and tilapia to trade.  How much coffee and bananas will hugo need?  This is what worries me.  Will he require slave labor in exchange for oil?  That's basically what the Cuban doctors are now. They were traded, with no say in the matter, to Venezuela, to work for less than minimum wage, in exchange for cheap oil that castro won't pay for with the money he has.

Now, I wonder, since PetroCaribe members' debt to Venezuela for oil is already 1.2 BILLION dollars, how much trading will Hugo do. And will he be able to trade flowers and bananas for nice vehicles, Italian shoes and other luxuries that he enjoys?  Will he maybe trade with Morales in Bolivia for those fun red shirts made with traditional Bolivian textiles? 

Chavez also called upon his Latin American brothers to band together against the failed "dictatorship of world capitalism"and "blasted" Washington's proposals for free trade pacts. The evil yankees.  It sounds so familiar, like he has taken a page right out of his mentor's (who is recovering in an "undisclosed location" but sent a note to Chavez to tell him he was "brillant") play book. 

Read the insanity HERE.

Enjoy your bananas, monkey boy.

Can you help Dario?

I received an email today from Alfredo Cabrera of Elcubanocafe, asking to spread the word and to help out a young father who has a special Christmas wish. Dario Martinez, a 31-year old Cuban-born Miami resident, is suffering from a rare type of leukemia and needs a bone marrow transplant to save his life.  His wife is expecting their second child and their son is ten months old. Dario, a medical student, has acute lymphocytic leukemia and his only chance of survival is a bone marrow transplant.

Dario needs two things: money for the transplant that (his health insurance is maxed out) and a bone marrow donor. Because he is not yet a US citizen, he doesn't get medicaid or any other help.  His leukemia is in remission right now so he has a 2 month window to get a transplant.  To say this situation is urgent is an understatement.

Would you consider being tested to see if you are a bone marrow match for Dario or donating to help him get the transplant?  You can call this number Neighbors4Neighbors AT 305-597-4404.

Here is Dario's website where he expains in his own words how badly he wants to live. DAROMARTINEZ

You can donate directly to his account that he and his wife set up:

Washington Mutual Bank Benevolent Account No. 9343737338.

Donations can also be sent to the Northridge Services Center, P.O. Box 1080, Northridge, CA 91328.  Please put the above account number on your check.

Here is the video of the interview that Ileana Varela of cbs4 in Miami did with Dario.  Simply put, it will break your heart.

Please help this man and make his simple Christmas wish- to live- come true.

Por favor ayuda a salvar la vida de Darío Martínez

Dario Martinez es un joven cubano radicado en Miami y padece de leukemia.  Necesita tu ayuda- dinero y un transplante urgente de médula ósea. Sin el transplante, va a morir pronto.  Sin el dinero, no puede tener el transplante costoso ya que se acabó su seguro médico y no puede recibir Medicaid, siendo residente y no ciudadano estadounidense. Si quisieras donar fondos o quieres saber si podrías ser donante de médula ósea, llama a este número Neighbors4Neighbors AT 305-597-4404.

castro's Secret To Maximizing His Time

I just received a "news" alert in my email about Castro.  Excited as I always am when I get one (the only reason I have it set up like this is to find out when he dies), I opened the email to find this headline:

"Ten working days would be lost if I cut my beard, says [c]astro"

So, I read it, curious to see if I, too, could save some time by not shaving, say, my legs.  After all, that's ten extra days I could be blogging, sleeping or eating.  However, I was disappointed.  It's not a revelation about the benefits of being a barbudo, it's about how Ernest Hemingway's book, "For Whom the Bell Tolls," taught fidel how to be a good guerrilla- by joining Batista's army and stealing guns. All of this information was taped for his upcoming autobiography.

You can read the whole screwy thing HERE.

"Collas" vs. "Cambas"- Morales Divides Bolivia

Four of the nine Bolivian provinces have said NO WAY to President Evo Morales'  new constitution which would enable him to redistribute the wealth to the poorer populations in the Andean highlands. The new constitution would also place heavier taxes on these four wealthy provinces, (where 35% of the Bolivian population live) which are the highest natural gas producing regions in the country, (Morales nationalized the gas reserves in Bolivia in 2006) in order to finance his social reform programs.  The new constitution would also allow consecutive five-year presidential terms.  Political leaders in the four regions say the constitution (referred to in photos as the "CPE panfleto") is illegal because it was drawn up during an opposition boycott of parliament last weekend. Morales' new constitution does not take effect until it has passed two referendums.

The pro-autonomy provinces are galvanized and their statues also must pass referendums. In the four eastern provinces seeking autonomy, tens of thousands of pro-autonomy supports took to the streets, in spite of Morales having said he would use force if this took place. 

"The statutes will be ratified," said Oscar Ortiz, Santa Cruz senator. "With a public referendum, the people of our region will legitimize their will."

University student, Cesar Gonzalez, was quoted as saying that Morales, the country's first indigenous president, "is fuelling the racial divide between the darker-skinned mostly indigenous Andean residents, known as "collas", and the lowland residents, known as "cambas".

In his speech to his supporters in La Paz yesterday, Morales spoke of the gas-rich regions and told a largely indigenous crowd:
"They must give back the money they took from us." "We will retroactively investigate all the big fortunes, and the corrupt are now trembling with fear."

Hugo must be so proud of his own little Mini-Me.
To read more about Bolivia's ethnic divide, click HERE.

(The author of this post would like to know 1) is it me or does che look particularly goofy in this poster? and 2) do the people in this picture realize that Bolivia is the country that hunted down and killed che?) displaying his image? 

The Price Just Ain't Right for Spain to Bring castro to Justice

Yesterday, a Spanish court rejected a lawsuit against the castro regime filed by CAD 2506 (Committee to Aid Dissidents-2506), accusing the regime of genocide, crimes against humanity, terrorism and torture after the deaths of nine Cubans in the Bay of Pigs Invasion.  The lawsuit was filed in Spain using Spain's "principle of universal rights" which states that "greivous crimes can be prosecuted in Spain even if they are alleged to have been committed in another country." 

Lawsuits like this one had been previously filed against castro but were also thrown out- they had focused on castro's crimes in general. This one, however, specifically addressed the deaths of nine Cubans who died after suffocating in a farm produce truck en route to the invasion site during the U.S.'s Bay of Pigs Invasion to overthrow castro.  The lawsuit cited genocide because CAD 2506 (named after Brigada 2506 of the Bay of Pigs invasion, by the way) maintains that castro sought to kill all 39 people that had been in the truck by suffocating them.

I realize that when it comes to castro there is not much justice to be had, at least not on this earth, but what gets me is the REASON that the Spanish court cited for throwing out the case- that Castro is a "sitting" (albeit ROTTING) head of state and because of this, under Spanish doctrine, he gets immunity from prosecution.  That is why the group filed in February, thinking that because fidel had turned over power to his brother, they would be able to have him prosecuted. 

So first of all, is he or is he not the head of state?  If he is not, and all signs point to him no longer ruling the roost since nobody has seen him publicly in well over a year, shouldn't the Spanish doctrine not apply?  Which begs the question, if he IS still the commandante, where the hell is he and why isn't he out there pounding the podium, revving up the crowds, saying that the reports of his death are highly exaggerated, letting everyone know he is still the Líder Máximo? 

But that aside, doesn't this all come down to Spain not wanting to piss off the castro regime?  Isn't Spain just too afraid of losing its investments and its lucrative tourism money that it makes off of Cuban apartheid?   After all, Spain has some 50 companies doing business in Cuba, and tourism in Cuba accounts for 90% of Spanish foreign direct investment.  Spain exported $750 million worth of goods to Cuba last year and the Tryp hotel chain of Madrid alone has invested over $50 million dollars in the Cuban tourism industry just as of about ten years ago. As Manny says to Tony Montana in Scarface, "Das not peanuts, mehn."

So of course no court in Spain is going to find fidel castro guilty of genocide.  That's just too big of a price tag for bringing a murderer to justice.