Bad Week for Raul

NOT a good week for the totalitarians in Havana.

Their boy in Caracas is clearly on the defensive.

Yes, they got the UN to vote against the US embargo, again, but this time, it wasn’t just the US that made a case as to why the embargo is in place. Along comes Australia with a resolution calling for Cuba to release its political prisoners and criticizing its human rights record. 51 countries including most of the European Union and most of the Ex-Warsaw pact countries voted for the amendment. Sadly, no Latin American country supported the Australians.

Those infamous unnamed sources in the US government are saying that Castro doesn’t have long to live. Apparently, they weren’t very impressed by his Dictatorcizes video.

Cuban government officials continue to give ambiguous and conflicting statements as to when Castro will return to the dictator’s seat or even if he will be well enough to attend a Dec 2 celebratory parade in Havana. Expect a new video out very soon.. The next video will feature Castro wearing his customary olive fatigues and will show Castro and a few Cuban government officials discussing government business in a staged meeting at the CIMEQ.

The US government continues its not too covert flirting with the Cuban Armed forces trying to lure them away from supporting the ascension of Raul following the tyrants death. Can you imagine what’s going on behind the scenes?

The Swiss have lost their patience with the Cuban government and their rogue nation business practices. Two banks, Credit Suise and USB, have announced they are ceasing to do business with Havana.

Young Cynics

After Hurricane Wilma, I made the acquaintance of Raul, a young Cuban REFUGEE who had recently fled Cuba. He came around in a pickup truck about a week after the storm and asked if I needed any repairs. We were lucky to only have minimal roof damage, but I had a lot of loose capping tiles and hired Raul and his family to re–cement them in place.

Raul didn’t know crap about fixing roofs, but he had a friend who did and Raul got instructions over a cell phone on how to “resolver”. When my neighbors saw all the Cubans on top of my roof, they flocked over to hire them since there were no roofers to be had anywhere.

Which, like all things do, brings us to Cuba. Raul and his family would quit working at dusk and would sometimes come over for a beer and a chat. Raul, a typical Cuban youth, was a fountain of information about life in Cuba and I bombarded him with questions. Some things, I knew, some things came as a complete shock.

Some of the observations and conclusions I as able to glean from talking to Raul, have been confirmed by an AP article from The Houston Chronicle.

Those of us who were actually subjected to the Cuban educational system, will tell you that it’s merely an indoctrinational system. Emphasis is placed on education for no other reason that it is the most effective vehicle to indoctrinate the young.

They start indoctrinating you in pre school. Society is a big propaganda campaign. Imagine a country run by deranged Madison Ave. executives. Everything is a rhetorical slogan. The political rhetoric is all around you 24/7. After a while, you start to tune it out. You don’t care. You don’t want to hear it anymore, but you can’t change the dial.

I noticed this when I tried to talk to Raul about politics. I found it so odd that he didn’t care about politics, just the current situation of despair his family was suffering. To him, my patriotic zeal was much like the empty words, lies and propaganda that he had been force fed for twenty something years.

Here’s a quote from the article:

There is a profound disconnect between the world of this younger generation and the ideology they see in state media. After 47 years of rule by Castro, many youths say that they are tired of politics and that the official rhetoric doesn't match their reality.

They dream of less propaganda and more material comforts.

The regime, through its constant propaganda, has created a nation of young skeptics that aren’t buying anything that the Cuban government is selling. They know better.

Marxism, Cuban style, has, by nature, a materialistic value system, thus its emphasis on egalitarianism. In Cuba you’re equal, not because of God given rights, but because your material possessions are pretty much the same as everybody else’s. You measure the worth of a human by his possessions, by material things. Those with more stuff have more rights.

Many young Cubans certainly embrace the current system, actively participating in the Communist Youth Union and responding to efforts by the government to nurture a new generation of leaders.

But others resist the formula. Free speech limits are among their sore points. Restricted Internet access generally is available only through government centers and universities, and Cubans risk fines and confiscation of equipment if they wire up illegal satellite dishes to watch MTV or CNN.

"I feel blind and manipulated," said a 30-year-old who would identify himself only as Luis for fear of losing his job at a state-run art institute.

In a shrinking world, Cuban youth feel isolated and left behind. They know the wonders and promise of modern technology, but are denied the opportunity to expand their minds and nurture their dreams.

"I want more technology, to be somewhere that feels more advanced," said Tony, a 20-year-old music producer with long, gelled hair and a black leather bracelet with studs.

Like many young Cubans, he wouldn't reveal his last name, fearing retribution for speaking candidly. "I want to open my mind," he said.

The author of the Article, Vanessa Arrington, astutely states “Whether the handful of leaders filling in for the ailing 80-year-old Castro can surmount this apathy is among many questions facing Cuba”. I’m not sure its apathy that the Cuban youth suffer from. I think I’d like to call it “Pragmatic Cynicism” It’s good to see some truth coming out of Cuba from the MSM. I intend to e-mail Ms Arrington and encourage her to keep up the good work.

Information Technology Ironies

The third Convention of Information and Trends in Information Technology and Communications was held in Havana, Mecca of technology and information in the west.

At a meeting on Thursday, Cuban Science, Technology, and Environment Minister Fernando Gonzales said that producing competitive software for the international market is the only way for poor countries to overcome dependence in information technology and communication.

Lookout Microsoft: Ramiro Valdez, who attended the opening ceremony has you in his sights.

And..you can’t make this up…Gonzales said “the information-technology divide among nations is relative to their economic achievements, and we should speak about computerization in terms of info-rich or info-poor States.

That statement is almost as ironic as holding an Information Technology convention in Havana. Cuba would have to be classified as an info-poor state since it is illegal for Cubans to look outside government sources for information. In fact, Reporters Without Borders considers Cuba an internet “Black Hole” and ranks it as the 4th worst enemy of reporters worldwide.

Cuba, with its vast number of under and unemployed well educated technical professionals, has recently entered into contracts with Canadian firms to "software adaptation and localization services” to Latin America.

Will He or Won't He?

So you have no clue was going on with you least favorite tyrant?

Well, it seems that neither do high ranking officials within the Cuban government. Or at least they’re having a hard time getting their story staright.

Cuban government officials keep giving conflicting statements to the press about the bearded one. In the past week we have been treated to dueling statements from different officials as to whether Castro will return to power. But the really big mystery is whether they’re going to be able to stuff the ex-dictator into his fatigues for a parade that’s being held on Dec 2.

When asked about his ex-boss and mentor, Felipe Perez Roque, basically threw the old man under the bus by saying that everything was great without him. He stopped short of asking “Fidel, who needs Fidel?” but it was clear that he was trying to say that even if Fidel didn’t return, the status quo would continue.

A few days later, a ranking communist party official, Fernando Remírez Estenoz,. said that rumors that Castro would not be able to attend his birthday parade were “not true”.

The committee organizing the parade and other celebrations, la Fundación Guayasamín, said that they didn’t know, and that Castro himself probably didn’t know, at what point of the parade he would come and that it would depend on the circumstances at the time.

Then yesterday, according to the Washington Post, Alarcon said that the ex-dictator would definitely return to power and continue the oppression of the Cuban people and the destruction of what’s left of Cuba, but hedged about the parade appearance.

I have no doubt that Castro will be propped up somewhere on Dec 2. I’m just wondering whether he’ll be in his Adidas warm-up or his old fatigues.

Cubanita Guapa

Cubanas Verdaderamente Guapas

The Vice-President of the European parliament, Edward McMillan, who was visiting Havana on an unofficial visit, met with the world famous Ladies in White in Havana.

The heroic Ladies in White are made up of the wives and mothers of Cuban political prisoners.

During the meeting with McMillan, they informed him about the conditions that prisoners of conscience are subjected to in Cuban jails.

In the meeting which took place on October 29, The Ladies in White thanked the European Parliament for honoring their organization with the 2005 Sajarov Prize for Freedom of Conscience. They also vowed to continue their struggle until all dissidents currently in prison are released.

Las Damas de Blanco, were also awarded the 2006 Human Rights prize from the US’s Human Rights First. The Ladies in White were unable to travel to the US to claim their prize which was accepted by a member, Yolanda Vasquez Portal, who fled Cuba and now breathes the free air of the US.

State Sponsored Terrorism in Cuba

Manuel Cuesta Morúa

A Cuban opposition group, Arco Progresista, insisted that the communist Cuban regime stop the acts of repudiation against dissidents. The acts of repudiation, known in Cuba as “actos de repudio” are organized by government agents and consist of either other government operatives or communists sympathizers who go out in mobs to harass and beat dissidents and their families.

The declaration, issued in Havana by the organization’s spokesperson, Manuel Cuesta Morúa, labeled the acts of repudiation as State Sponsored Terrorism and called for the communist regime to cease and desist immediately and irreversibly form any act of terrorism against its citizens.

Morúa reminded the regime that it had agreed with Special Communiqué of Support to the War on Terror issued at the Sixteenth Ibero-American summit that just concluded in Montivideo, Urugay that condemned any such act as criminal and unjustifiable. He also reminded the Cuban government that they cannot have it both ways, asking other countries to adhere to international accords regarding terrorism while they ignore the accords.

In the Cuban totalitarian regime, there are of course, no civil rights, but the acts of repudiation are especially repugnant tactics to terrorize the populace into submission. They are perpetrated on citizens who are singled out because of their unwillingness to accept the violations of their civil rights and in one way or another protest. These folks are then harassed and beaten by a government apparatus called fast action brigades which swarm on the dissidents to intimidate and terrorize them into keeping quiet. These goon squads are either government operatives or are recruited, organized or trained by the government. Their sole purpose is to terrorize the citizenry into submission. Therefore, it fits the definition of State Sponsored Terrorism and should be condemned by all Nations.

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.

Perpective

Another Cuban was telling me today he couldn’t believe the election results and that he was thinking of moving to Australia. I told him he sounded like a whinny Liberal after the 2004 Presidential election when W won his second term.

We agreed it’s just an election, one of hundreds. We have the power to change the direction of our government as we just found out. A bunch of people we don’t agree with just proved it to us.

I said to him that I just wish that my captive brothers and sisters in Cuba could feel what I feel today. I wish they could feel the bitter disappointment of going out to vote and to loose. Of having your ideas go down in flames. But most importantly, to feel the hope that comes with knowing that citizens can force the government to listen to them every two years.

Then, he smacked me.

Now What?

Democratic priorities in Congress
By The Associated Press November 8, 2006

Some priorities set by Democrats in Congress:

--Military: Force an immediate drawdown of troops in Iraq and conduct oversight hearings on missteps on the war.

--Intelligence: Increase attention given to emerging terrorist threats in Africa and Southeast Asia and devote more resources to North Korea and Iran. More oversight of terrorism and government surveillance.

--Homeland security: Boost security for rail and mass transit systems. Tougher oversight of the Department of Homeland Security, potential restructuring of the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

--Judiciary: Conduct oversight hearings on treatment of terrorism detainees, domestic surveillance programs and President Bush's use of "signing statements" affecting some requirements in the laws he signs.

--Minimum wage. Pass legislation to raise the minimum wage from the current $5.15 an hour to $7.25.

--Veterans affairs: Increase oversight with detailed budget accountings. More funding for veterans' health care, including additional mental health counseling for vets returning from Iraq and Afghanistan.

--Health: Allow the Medicare program to negotiate directly with drug companies for lower prices. Pass a vetoed embryonic stem cell research bill again. Require insurance companies to provide benefits for treating mental illnesses equal to other medical and surgical benefits.

--Transportation: Consolidate air traffic control facilities. Allow more foreign control of airlines. Limit the number of Transportation Security Administration airport screeners to 45,000. More oversight hearings on the Federal Aviation Administration.

--Taxes: Increase education-based tax breaks. Close the so-called $345 billion tax gap, the estimated amount that people and companies owe but avoid paying each year.

--Trade: Let a law expire that forbids Congress from amending trade agreements negotiated by the president. Create a chief enforcement officer in the office of the U.S. trade representative.

--Energy and environment: Increase incentives for biodiesel, ethanol and other alternative fuels as well as wind, solar, geothermal and other sources of alternative energy. Renegotiate oil and gas leases that waived royalty payments to the government. Impose a national cap on industrial carbon dioxide emissions. Resist Bush's efforts to open more public lands to oil exploration.

--Agriculture: Increase conservation programs and require more corn-based ethanol in motor fuel blends.

Forced "Voluntary" Labor a la Che

Cuba has started to mobilize thousands of workers to perform “volunteer work” and help in massive agricultural, construction and cleaning projects throughout the island, according to Granma, official organ of the Cuban Communist party. Not "volunteering" when called upon often results in reprisals form your employer, Big Brother.

The nacional effort to mobilize the volunteer workers will last until November 26, and will commemorate the first volunteer work campaign, which was the brainchild of capitalist t-shirt icon, Ernesto Guevera back in 1959.

María Ramírez, speaking for the CTC, Cuba’s only legal syndicate or union, said that the volunteers will also be used to destroy the breeding grounds of the Aedes Agyptis mosquito, the transmitter of Dengue, a hemorrhagic fever. The communist regime of Cuba has admitted that Cuba is in the midst of a Dengue epidemic, but has not revealed any specifics about the size, scope or number of victims.

The mobilization of “volunteer” laborers is a throwback to old school Soviet-Style-Socialism and along with other recent campaigns in Cuba, it points to a shift in policy towards Marxist Orthodoxy, rather than towards free-market reforms as many were hoping the Raul Castro led regime to do.

If you’re fluent in Spanish, check out El Guinero's, who blogs from inside Cuba, take on this. It’s brilliant writing. He calls it Un Apreton.

Bienvenidos a los lectores de La Estancia Cubana a nuestro humilde blog.

Insistencias Estadounidenses

Condoleezza Rice, secretaria de Estado estadounidense y fantasía sexual del presidente de la Republica Bolivariana de Venezuela, Hugo Chávez, declaro hoy en una entrevista con Fox News que EE.UU. rechaza el traspaso del poder de Castro a ReCastro. Rice agrego de que la transición ya esta en camino. Si ya esta en camino parece que viene por un camello habanero por que se esta demorando demasiado.

También dijo la Srta. (ajem) Rice que para EE.UU. es importante de que los cubanos elijan sus gobernantes como el resto de la gente en América Latina. Bueno, ójala que lo hagamos un poquito mejor que Venezuela, Brasil, Nicaragua, Bolivia, Chile, etc., etc.

Rice, afirmo de que el papel de EE.UU. es “insistir en que los cubanos tengan una verdadera oportunidad para una autentica democracia y que el poder no solo sea transferido a otro miembro del régimen comunista”. No ven, los americanos están insistiendo, así que la semana que viene, a lo más tardar, se acabo el comunismo, el hambre y la miseria en Cuba.

La secretaria de Estado no hizo ningún comentario hacia que tipo de insistencia se va a llevar acabo. La última vez a que los americanos le tomaron una de sus insistencias sobre la democracia en serio, le tuvieron que mandarle a Saddam Hussein 1,000,000 bombas y 150,000 tropas.

Un cubano que es ex-militar, conocido en todo Hialeah como “Cuco” y que tiene a un primo que le dicen “Chicho” en el Army, dice de que el primo le dijo que el Pentágono piensa que la mejor oportunidad para insistir que en Cuba haya una verdadera transición, seria el dos de Diciembre cuando las Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias van estar jugando a los soldaditos en la Habana celebrando el atascamiento del Granma en un pantano Oriental hace 50 años.

Not that there's anything wrong with it.....

Cuba’s telenovela, The Hidden Side of the Moon, which according to The Miami Herald was the most watched show in Cuban TV history. Don’t ask how they know. Maybe comrade Chismosa at the CDR goes around peeking into people’s homes and reports on which of the two channels they’re watching. Article here.

The big deal: they had , gasp.., homosexuals.

According to The Herald, via 247Gay.com, Raul’s daughter, Mariela advocated for the controversial program to be on TV.

So that’s what controlling all communication is called, “advocating”?!?

According to the article,“ Mariela runs the National Center for Sex Education, from which she publicly promotes lesbian, gay and transgender rights”

If gays get “rights” in Cuba, there’s going to be a lot of men feigning a lisp and putting on make-up.

Hmmm…. Raul’s daughter promoting acceptance of gays… I wonder why?

The lunatic is on the grass
The lunatic is on the grass
remembering games and daisy chains and laughs
got to keep the loonies on the path

The lunatic is in the hall
the lunatics are in the hall
the paper holds their folded faces to the floor
and every day the paper boy brings more

And if the dam breaks open many years too soon
and if there is no room upon the hill
and if your head explodes with dark forebodings too
I'll see you on the dark side of the moon
The lunatic is in my head
The lunatic is in my head
you raise the blade, you make the change
you rearrange me ' till I'm sane
you lock the door
and throw away the key
there's someone in my head but it's not me

And if the cloud bursts, thunder in your ear
you shout and no one seems to hear
and if the band you're in starts playing different tunes
I'll see you on the dark side of the moon

Roque Rock Throwing

Felipe Perez Roque, Cuba's foreign minister, was quoted by the Associated Press as saying “I have no questions in my mind that we will be able to celebrate his birthday in December as he deserves.''

Felipe, we can celebrate anybody’s birthday, dead or alive, every year.

As usual, Roque assures the enemies of the Revolution that the tyrant is getting better and WILL return to power, but that the Revolution doesn’t really need him anyway because everything, (other than a few buildings in Havana), hasn’t collapsed since Castro’s sudden state secret – type illness forced the dictator to hand the whip over to his younger Brother Raul.

Cuba is preparing for a big, gigantic Soviet Style Military Parade that is meant to celebrate both Castro’s August 13th birthday and the 50th anniversary of the beaching of the Granma in an Oriente swamp. The parade will also show the enemy that the regime’s scary military capabilities are always prepared to defend the communist fatherland.

I’m sure come December 2, they’ll prop the “Mascot of the Revolution” up on a reviewing stand so he can waive at the masses and salute the goose-stepping Rebel Armed Forces. If they can’t prop him up, maybe they’ll get a double up there since nobody will be close enough to tell the difference.

Roque would not speculate on when Castro will resume his reign of terror, but added that the communist government’s critics that believed that the regime would collapse after Castro was no longer around “have learned a good lesson” in the last few months. Since the destruction of the once prosperous island has continued unabated, one would have to agree. We have learned that the rest of the crew is just as repressive and incompetent as their ex-boss who turned out to be very expendable.

A Decade Late And A Peso Short

In a press release from four Latin American ex-presidents, Patricio Aylwin, from Chile; Armando Calderón, from El Salvador; Luis Alberto Lacalle, from Uruguay; y Luis Alberto Monge, from Costa Rica, pledged solidarity with the Cuban people and regret that the communist government of Cuba has not adhered to an agreement it signed in 1996 in the Viña del Mar declaration that guarantees democracy, freedom and human rights.

The four urged that the Ibero-American summit which took place this weekend in Montevideo, Uruguay demand that Cuba submit a plan outlining reforms to guarantee freedom and human rights including free and multiparty elections.

Now I appreciate the kind gesture, but now? Why didn’t these gentlemen make the same demands back in 1997 when it became clear that the tyrant from Havana wasn’t going to honor any agreement? Once you’re not in power it becomes a lot easier to shoot your mouth off a la Jimmy Carter, but it really isn’t any different than me calling for the same thing here on this blog. The time to confront the bully was ten years ago. The time to defend the human rights of Cubans was then. When they were in power and Castro wasn’t on his death bed.

This year's Ibero-American Summit's big news: Condemnation of the US for its plans to build a fence in its southern border with Mexico.

THANKS, GUYS!

We'll hear about your regrets about Cuban dissidents in 2016.

Wish you were here

Wish you were here

So, so you think you can tell
Heaven from hell
Blue skies from pain.
Can you tell a green field from a cold steel rail,
A smile from a veil,
Do you think you can tell?

And did they get you trade
All your heroes for ghosts
Hot ashes for trees
Hot air for a cool breeze
Cold comfort for change
And did you exchange
A walk part in a war
For a lead role in a cage?

How I wish, How I wish you were here
We’re just two lost souls
Swimming in a fish bowl
Year after year
Going over the same old ground
What have we found?
The same old fears……
wish you were here.

Proof of Life

The Miami Herald tells us that Castro “is very sick”. As evidenced by the recently released video that shows Castro performing some rehearsed tricks for the cameras.

The Cuban Ministry of Truth tells the world that Castro is recuperating from intestinal surgery but that his condition remains a “State Secret”. They say that he will return to power soon.

Last month, rumors started circulating that Castro was at death’s door, perhaps even dead, which prompted the Cuban regime to release a “proof of life” video , complete with the day’s newspaper to prove to the Miami Mafia that Castro was indeed alive.

The MSM immediately and gleefully reported that the Cuban Comandante was breathing triumphantly and that he had once again proved his critics “wrong”. Without getting into an ideological condemnation of the MSM, its difficult to understand how they accept “the official truth” released by a totalitarian regime as news and not the propaganda that it is.

An objective analysis of the video and the facts would have yielded quite different headlines, something which is now starting to happen.

The video itself:

On face value, we see a senior citizen, rambling and so short of breath that his sentences fade into inaudibility. Now, let’s put the video and its production into perspective. This video was not continuously shot . It was highly edited and in some cases dubbed over so you could not hear the ex-dictator’s ramblings. This is evidence that they most likely shot lots and lots of video and edited the footage so that was aired showed the aging tyrant in the best possible scenes. That sad and pathetic performance was the best they could get out of Castro, possibly after hours of filming. The highlights! Imagine the out takes? The fatigue clad, mighty revolutionary firebrand is now humiliatingly relegated to appear on Cuban State TV in his new role of “Mascot of the Revolution” in an Adidas tracksuit and slippers. So the video, rather than prove his critics wrong, actually reaffirmed the rumors that Castro’s health is on a downward decline and he will never return to power. The video proved he is not fit to drive a car much less run a totalitarian government. It disproved a rumor he was dead, started by the Cuban ally, Lula da Silva, the Brazilian leftist president and another rumor that he was in a coma, spread by a Contacto, a California magazine which claimed “sources in the circles of power” inside Cuba. So basically, the video proved that rumors that were probably started by the regime itself were wrong. What wasn’t proven wrong are the rumors that Castro is suffering from terminal cancer and Parkinson’s . Smoke, mirrors, propaganda and useful idiots.

There are other clues that can be garnered from the video about Cuba’s governmental situation. For example, in the piece that aired, Castro says that he helps the comrades in the party with their decision making, not his brother Raul. Edited out or forgotten , it doesn’t matter. Raul’s omission from the video is important because it undermines his position of leadership since it suggest that the country’s problems are being handled by a committee of “comrades”. Also, Ricardo Alarcon, President of the Cuban Parliament who just the week before was quoted as saying that when Castro dies, the party will elect a successor , Carlos Lage, Cuban Vice-President and Felipe Pérez Roque Cuban Foreign Affairs Minister, all seemed to be out of the loop about the video’s release when they were asked about it. One can see that, in this context, the video also confirms the persistent rumors that Raul’s coup has not gone as smoothly as he had hoped. Who produced the video and omitted to mention the new dictator or forget to inform the Vice-President and Foreign Minister? Valdez the new Information Minister?

Also the video has shed some light on another source of recent rumors about where Castro is recuperating. An ex-Castro bodyguard, Carlos Sejas now exiled in Miami, confirmed on Mega TV’s Punto a Punto that he was sure that the footage was shot at the fourth floor of the Centro de Investigaciones Médico Quirúrgicas (CIMEQ) facility in Kohly, Habana, Cuba. This facility is just a few miles away from the Castro compound, dubbed “Punto Cero” in Siboney. The fourth floor is exclusively reserved for Castro and his family.

When you compare the Castro images form the recent video shoot to the ones that were released nearly three months ago, it is obvious that rather than recuperating as the Cuban regime claims, Castro's health has actually declined. He appeared less lucid and had more trouble controlling his movements that when he met with Hugo Chavez, for example. A patient who is recuperating from surgery, should get progressively better, not worse as is the case with Castro. In the Miami Herald piece, University of Miami gastroenterologist Dr. Jeffrey Raskin and Dr. Charles Gerson, also a gastroenterologist at Mount Sinai in New York say “that Castro's three-months-and-counting recovery suggest a serious illness, such as cancer.” ''Usually for a benign condition if you have surgery, after a month or six weeks you are back to normal,'' Gerson said. ``Three months after surgery, he should be better.''

So the “proof of life” Castro video, is really a “poof of rumors” video. It is also proof that the Cuban government is in internal disarray and that the different factions are still jockeying for position in a potentially dangerous and deadly power struggle . It is also proof that the regime’s lies and propaganda will continue and that the MSM will gleefully continue to parrot the lies and propaganda as news. The saddest proof however, is that to the totalitarian regime will use the individual, even its ailing ex-leader, to keep tightening its repressive grip on the population. The once mighty Comandante is now “Mascot of the Revolution”. How humiliating! How Fitting!

¡Azuca!

Gina Torres, Cuban-American Actress

Esta es la jeva de Tocororo-Libre. No la miren, que se emberra.

Assembly Pledges Support for Idependent Libraries

René Gómez Manzano (actualmente en prisión), Martha Beatriz
Roque Cabello y Félix Bonne Carcasés, dirigentes de la Asamblea
para Promover la Sociedad Civil en Cuba.

The Assembly to Promote the Civil Society in Cuba continued today its opposition the Cuban Regime by assuring that it will continue to support the functioning of its independent libraries in spite of their books being confiscated and the harassment of its members by the Cuban authorities.

The public announcement by the group, headed by dissident economist Marta Beatriz Roque Cabello, said that its libraries, since their books have been confiscated , will be converted into Socio-Cultural information centers saying that with or without books, they will remain in the Congress for Democracy.

The organization convened its independent libraries, made up of books banned by the communist regime, in the private homes of Cuban Dissidents, to the First National Congress which began October 10 and runs through February 24.

Those libraries that are still operational consider the lending of books, brochures and magazines to the Cuban people as a right to engage in cultural activity.

The Communist regime has aggressively tried to prevent the free and independent libraries and have harassed, accosted, beaten and jailed those who have tried to participate in this most simple of cultural activities. Independent Cuban librarians Orestes Suárez and his wife Nancy González Garcia were victims of the brutal crackdown. The pictures were taken two weeks after they were beaten by Cuban security agents.