Oswaldo Payá died on Sunday in a car accident that has, at minimum, raised some suspicions as to what actually happened.
Payá was a brave man who attempted who established the Varela Project to use Cuba's constitution to effect change. Obviously, it didn't work, but it did expose the procedure for the sham it was.
Rest in peace.
Full disclosure: while I have nothing but contempt for Fidel Castro and his minions, I oppose the US Embargo against Cuba. It is little more than a convenient scapegoat for the powers that be to blame the US for their failed economy.
To the best of my knowledge, no other country has an embargo against trade with Cuba. Cuba is free to trade with every country in the Americas save the USA, the European Union, China, India, Japan, etc. This is precisely why the embargo is both ridiculous and is not harming Cuba:
“Cuba does have problems,” said Kirby Jones, a business consultant, stating the obvious at the start of a meeting last week that brought American travel industry executives and Cuban government officials to Cancún to strategize on what might, and what might not, play out in the years ahead.
Mr. Jones urged potential investors to banish certain words from their minds — Bay of Pigs, dissidents, Elián González, hijackers and socialism, for instance — and to focus on the fact that the Cuban government had already joined more than 200 joint ventures with foreign corporations, none of them American.
“Everyone is there, except us,” he told the travel agents, hoteliers, tour operators, charter companies and others with an eye on Cuba. “There are offices and representatives of over 500 companies around the world. Nobody knows when it will open up for Americans, but it will.”
There are only two groups who benefit from the embargo: the old guard anti-Castro fanatics who believe it's doing any good and the ruling powers in Cuba. Get rid of it.
One of life's ongoing mysteries is the inability of some to see beyond their own blinders or to even gain the slightest bit of knowledge about a partisan issue before bloviating. Here are a couple of examples:
In the comments to this post by Matthew Yglesias, a commenter named Hector in response to this comment:
None of which justified Hugo Chavez once again being a loudmouth ass and pompous underminer of legitimate issues in Venezuela by having to say offensive and uninformed bullshit simply because it seems contradictory to things said ‘in the Empire’.
makes this comment:
Much as i love Chavez, and would not call him a ‘loudmouth ass’ what you say is largely true. He does have a pronounced taste for saying dumb things just to p*ss off the Empire. I wish it wasn’t the case but it is. In fairness, he isn’t a very highly educated man, much as his heart and ideas are in the right place, and some of his occasional sillinesses can be charitably forgiven him on the grounds of lack of education. [my emphasis]
Wow. Perhaps Hector should give some thought as to how one makes it to the rank of lieutenant colonel (Chavez's rank at the time of his attempted coup). Or he could just go to Wikipedia:
At age seventeen, Chávez enrolled at the Venezuelan Academy of Military Sciences. After graduating in 1975 as a sub-lieutenant with a degree in Military Arts and Science, Chávez entered military service for several months. He was then allowed to pursue graduate studies in political science at Caracas' Simón Bolívar University, but left without a degree.
So what does Wikipedia say about the Venezuelan Academy of Military Sciences?:
The Academia Militar de Venezuela ("Venezuelan Academy of Military Sciences"), founded in 1810, is the oldest military academy in Latin America.
So Hector, really has no idea about that which he is braying. Let's take his comments one step deeper. When the subject of lack of education comes about, perhaps Lula would be a better example as he had to drop out of school after the fourth grade. I do not recall Lula praising Idi Amin, Carlos the Jackal or Robert Mugabe.
There is little doubt that the coup that tossed Manuel Zelaya out of the Honduran presidency was very divisive. Indeed one of my regular commenters vigorously embraced the coup, while turning a blind eye towards the fact that the coup government violated Honduran law by throwing Zelaya out of the country and credible allegations of human rights abuses by the Micheletti government. After having posted several comments regarding this on this blog as well as other blogs in which this commenter had commented eliciting no response, I finally pressed the issue in the comments to this post on Greg Weeks' blog. The response? I get falsely accused of having called the commenter a paleocon (something that I cannot recall having done and, the commenter offered no proof of my having done so) and then accused me of engaging in "gringo imperialism" for the sin of having brought up the subject of human rights.
Let's do some basic research here. Honduras is either a signatory or has ratified the Convention Against Torture, the Covenant for Civil and Political Rights, Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Disctrimination Against Women, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Civil Rights, the Convention on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, the Convention on the Rights of the Child, as well as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
How respect for human rights is gringo imperialism is beyond me. This is basic moral relativism and it's beneath contempt. That's the sort of comment I would expect from a Castro or Pinochet sympathizer.
If one was creating a fair and just society, why would there be the need for suppressing peaceful dissent such as this?
On November 6, Cuba’s most prominent blogger, Yoani Sánchez, together with blogger Orlando Luís Pardo Lazo, were abducted by three men. Sánchez and Pardo were forced into an unmarked vehicle, beaten, and threatened by their captors before being released onto the street.
Some more contemporary accounts here and here.
Congratulations to Cuban blogger Yoani Sanchez, winner of a Maria Moors Cabot Prize from Columbia University for fostering Inter-American understanding. She is the first blogger to win the award.
Unfortunately she wasn't granted an exit visa in order to attend the awards ceremony, but posted a video acceptance:
Apparently it still is's doing the same thing over and over expecting different results as the attempts to strongarm and intimidate Colombian singer, Juanes, from staging one of his Peace Without Borders Concerts in Havana next month.
The differences break down typically along generational lines:
There is some encouraging news here:
The poll also gauged respondents' thoughts on cultural exchanges with Cuba: 50 percent of those surveyed said they supported such exchanges, 33 percent were opposed and 17 percent were undecided.
The strongest unanimity was on the subject of a small exile group that staged a demonstration in Little Havana and burned Juanes' CDs last week.
Overall, 74 percent said the protest by Vigilia Mambisa had a negative effect on the image of Cuban exiles in the United States.
Even Gloria Estefan is taking what I believe is a sensible position:
Good for her. The hardline policy has done absolutely nothing but play into the castro dynasty's hands. It's past time to try a different tack.
Despite the efforts of Venezuela and Bolivia, the Castro government of Cuba has rejected the invitation to reenter the OAS. This certainly strikes me as no surprise and I think that Human Rights Watch's Jose Miguel Vivanco strikes the right note here:
If I were among the leaders of those nations who had been involved in trying to get Cuba readmitted, I'd certainly feel betrayed. While the true believers (i.e. Bolivia and Venezuela) probably knew this all along and applaud it, one wonders if the others aren't more than a bit peeved.
It's in keeping with the Castro brothers form. When things start to thaw, they make sure the chill comes back.
For an explanation see this.
In October of 2007, the Spanish government passed a law called the Law of Historical Memory, designed to address the suffering of those who were victims of the Spanish Civil War, the Franco dictatorship, as well as to eliminate the last sanctioned Francoist relics from Spanish political and cultural life.
It has had an interesting side effect:
The first recipient, 38-year-old cardiologist Norberto Luis Diaz, said he already had his bags packed for a flight on Sunday to Spain, retracing in reverse the journey his grandfather made when he emigrated to Cuba in 1916.
"It's the most important day of my life. I am happy," he said upon receiving his purple-colored passport in the office of Spain's consul general.
The Law of Historical Memory makes grandchildren of Spanish immigrants eligible for citizenship, and Spain has estimated 1 million people around the world, including 200,000 Cubans, could apply.
Cuba was a haven for those who fled Franco's Spain. Now the reverse may very well be true. The numbers have been significant enough to lead some to call the Spanish Embassy in Havana "The Spanish Factory." What has been interesting has been the relative silence on the side of the Cuban government. Are they anticipating remittances going back to Cuba from Spain? I can't imagine that as right now Spain's unemployment is at a twelve year high and the new Spanish citizens may have a difficult time finding employment in Spain. Is it being done to facilitate travel out of Cuba possibly to the US as Spain is one of the participants in the Visa Waiver Program?
I'm guessing that Cuba wants to maintain amicable relations with Spain as Spain has taken a somewhat softer line with Cuba recently than some other EU members and as Spain has extensive tourism and other investments in Cuba.
In any event, I certainly hope that they don't go to my old hometown, Miami. It would be disappointing to say the least to see the descendants of those who fled one dictatorship, leaving another one for a community that finds the banning of disagreeable books to be acceptable.
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