09 November 2006

Same 'ol Same 'ol but Worse

Remember a few weeks ago, Juventud Rebelde, started doing “investigative reporting” In Cuba to get to the bottom of the ineptitude and poor service in the State run businesses. Even the government had to admit that the system may be to blame for the pilfering and poor service and they started “conducting a study” of the Socialist model.

Well apparently, the conclusion was that the Socialist system had strayed to far from it Soviet-Style roots and the regime has been “squeezing” the people of late in a series of moves that are moving the country closer to Marxist Orthodoxy than towards free markets.

“Volunteer Labor” is back, in the form of the massive worker mobilizations of old.

A Soviet -Style military parade is slated for Dec 2 commemorating the beaching of the Granma at an Oriente Swamp but its being used to serve as Raul’s Coronation/Fidel’s last birthday and farewell party.

From Havana we learn that the police has started to crack down on street vendors, harassing, confiscating their wares and levying heavy fines of 1,200 pesos for selling products in street corners.

The crackdown on independent libraries and journalist has been stepped up. Just yesterday we learned that Guillermo Espinosa Rodriguez was sentenced to two year’s house arrest.

There are independent reports of preparations being made in the whole island to lock it down once Castro dies to prevent any kind of popular uprising or even celebration. This operation is codenamed “Coco Rojo” and its aim is to swiftly and brytally squelch and neutralize any and all dissidents. The interior ministry is now busy gathering intelligence on all potential “troublemakers”. All is in place for the repressive wave. According to the reporter, everything is ready to go and they are just waiting for Raul to give the word.

Meanwhile, the UN, those brave souls that won’t lift a finger to stop the slaughter of innocents in Dafur, have all come together to condemn the US’s 45 yr embargo of Cuba. When Australia wanted to add an amendment to the resolution mandating Cuba to “to release unconditionally all political prisoners, cooperate fully with international human rights bodies and mechanisms, respect the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and comply fully with its obligations under all human rights treaties to which it is a state party” , the brave diplomats, sans the European Union, balked and the amendment was tabled.

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