A Year After Obama’s Visit, Cubans Feel Disillusioned With His Legacy
It rained when the presidential plane touched down on the tarmac at Havana’s Airport. On 20 March 2016, Barack Obama began a historic visit to the island that awakened hopes and sparked questions. One year after that visit, Cubans are taking stock of what happened and, in particular, what did not happen.
The tenant of the White House evoked waves of enthusiasm during his tour of Havana’s streets. His official agenda included talking with young entrepreneurs, he appeared on a comedy TV show, he visited a private restaurant, and he met with representatives from civil society. They were intense days during which popular illusions reached historic records.
However, Obama’s decision to eliminate the wet foot/dry foot policy before the end of his term in January, caused that sympathy to plummet. Now, inquiring about his legacy on Cuban streets leads to answers mostly filled with criticism, resentment or a sense of betrayal.
“I lost my life,” Luis Pedroso, a soundman by profession, tells 14ymedio, He sold all his property to pay for an illegal trip to the United States. He left Cuba for the Dominican Republic, and then crossed Mexico and arrived at the border in Nuevo Laredo, on 12 January when the immigration policy that benefitted Cubans was no longer in force.
“What did he do that for?” asks Pedroso, about the act of the Democrat. “We Cubans gave him our hearts and he betrayed us,” he says. The man sleeps on the couch of his sister’s house waiting to “make money again to leave.” He thinks “Trump is less sympathetic,” but perhaps, “will get more loyal.”
The months following the presidential visit, the emigration of Cubans to the United States continued its growing trend. More than 50,000 Cubans entered US territory during fiscal year 2016, according to the Office of Field Operations of the Customs and Border Protection Service.
Norma works as a saleswoman in a private coffee shop in Havana’s Chinatown. She recalls that in the days when Obama was on the island, “people were going crazy all over to try to see him.” She was among the hundreds of people who crowded along the Paseo del Prado when word spread that The Beast (Obama’s armored car) would pass by with the presidential family.
The woman was especially hopeful about the economic benefits that could come from the trip. “It seemed that everything would be fixed and that we self-employed workers would be able to import and bring products from over there,” she reflects. But, “everything is stuck,” is continues.
The entrepreneur would like to bring an “ice cream machine” from the United States, and “ask for a loan or find an investor who wants to put money into a small business.” However, the customs restrictions imposed on the Cuban side make commercial imports difficult, and there is no easy way to send supplies to the island from the United States.
The first Cuban political cartoon was born in 1848. It took place in the shadows; from the bathroom of the Tacón Theater. Before the performance started on that night, someone named Cirilo Villaverde began passing out flyers with a cartoon. The image was a cow with Cuba written on it being milked by the recently appointed governor General Federico Roncaly. To the left the previous governor, Leopoldo O’Donnell was walking away quite satisfied while other members of the colonial administration waited for their turn to milk the poor animal. The cartoon was well received by the public. To whoever asked him, Villaverde claimed he had found the flyers in the bathroom. He said he felt it would have been a shame to leave them in that humid place, so he passed them out to the joy of the audience.
For years the mainstream media trumpeted the Castro-Family-and-Military-Crony-Fiefdom (which they habitually mislabel as “Cuba”) as the hottest tourist destination conceivable for Americans!–a combination Cancun/Cabo/Paris/St Tropez……
AH! if only those horribly-deprived American tourists could go!….
AH! if only those INSUFFERABLE(!!!) right-wing Cuban-American mafiosi hard-liners didn’t impose the “cruel, archaic, vindictive, ineffective, irrational, embargo!” against the wishes and vacation-longings of EVERY apple-pie-eating, red-blooded American!
Well, the airlines fell for the Castroite scam–and now–as recently reported all over the media–they’re (literally) paying for it–BIG TIME!
Now if only catching-on to THIS most recent Castroite scam/hype would make most Americans wake-up to the multitude of Castroite scams perpetrated on them for over half a century!
In fact, practically EVERYTHING they’ve ever read in the mainstream media about Castro’s Cuba is a scam:
From the SCAM of a massive “guerrilla war!” that toppled Batista.
To the SCAM of Batista as “U.S.-backed dictator!”
To the SCAM of pre-Castro Cuba as an “impoverished, oppressive, mafia-run banana-republic!”
To the SCAM of how “Mean-ole Uncle Sam bullied poor-innocent little Castro into the arms of Mother Russia!…”
To the SCAM of how Fidel–the plucky David–DEFIED 11 American Presidents!
To the SCAM of Castroite Cuba’s “free and fabulous healthcare!…”
To the SCAM of “Raul-the-Reformer!”…and on..
And on…and on….and on…and on…
“Humberto Fontova is a gifted polemicist who pulls no punches. A great service for liberty, justice and truth.” (The Weekly Standard on Fidel; Hollywood’s Favorite Tyrant.)
Carlos Martí, manager of Team Cuba at the World Baseball Classic.
Cuba’s collapse at the World Baseball Classic is great news for several reasons.
First, because at times it is beneficial to hit rock bottom. A national team outperformed in every aspect of the game reveals the true extent of the debacle. The few victories in recent years had helped to sustain the fallacy that things were not really that bad.
Second, because what happened is a clear metaphor for what is happening in Cuba. No country can afford to squander the best of its talent and its youth. As long as Cuban professionals cannot invest knowledge and resources in their own country, Cuba will continue to be a nation unlikely to be able to compete against the community of free nations and achieve prosperity. Barring Cuban baseball players who are now playing in the US Major Leagues from representing their country is like preventing doctors, architects, scientists, academics and engineers from benefitting all Cubans outside the overview of the State.
Third, because the culprits are exposed. The task of the political class that still governs Cuba should not be to keep watch over and control the gates of the country based on its interests and loyalties, but to open those doors for all Cubans to freely come and go and contribute their as best they can and wish to. True to itself, and no one else, that political class now seeking to establish State capitalism, after spending years spouting bombastically patriotic discourse based, among other thing, on sports, is what is keeping the country mired in a permanent political, social and economic crisis.
Baseball in Cuba, since its inception, has been linked to independence and national identity. Today it continues to be, but only to portray, like few other things, the magnitude of the disaster engendered by the Castro regime. It was Fidel Castro who introduced the theory of the superiority of “free ball” over “slave ball.” Today we must recognize that he was right, though acknowledging that “slave ball” is what the regime promotes, and always has.
On the eve of the 56th anniversary of the Bay of Pigs fiasco, JFK’s betrayal of the Cuban people is highlighted in a very unlikely place.
In an article on President Trump’s “paranoia” in The Columbia Journalism Review, author Gareth Milner brings up Kennedy as an example of a president who complained about journalists even though he had them all in his back pocket.
Comparing Trump’s “incompetence” to Kennedy’s, Milner focuses on JFK’s decision to abandon Brigade 2506 after they had already landed in Cuba, and how that disaster never kept the press from loving him.
So, in addition to exposing Kennedy’s villainy and cowardice Milner also openly admits that journalists have a long history of being biased.
Admissions of this sort are very rare.
The article itself — titled “Trump Sets a New Bar for Presidential Paranoia”– is a shining example of leftist media bias, but at least it’s honest.
Mil gracias, comemierda….
Here is the excerpt in question:
As president, Trump starts off in a hole with a disapproval rating of 55 percent of Americans interviewed. And he seems to be digging it deeper every day. “Any negative polls are fake news,” he tweeted. While Trump seems immersed in incompetence, some of his mishaps may be attributed to inexperience.
Just as wobbly was President John F. Kennedy. The ill-fated Bay of Pigs fiasco in 1961 led to the 1962 Cuba Missile Crisis. Originally, the invasion was the work of President Dwight D. Eisenhower, who knew something about such an exercise after commanding the D-Day invasion of Normandy.
Under Ike’s plan, once the Cubans landed at the Bay of Pigs, he predicted Castro would lead a counter-attack from Havana. En route, Castro and his army would be destroyed. Waiting to pounce were the Blue Blasters, the Navy’s fighter-bomber squadron aboard the USS Essex hiding just over the horizon. Kennedy vetoed the carrier strike and the Cuban invaders were killed and captured by Castro.
Eisenhower came to Kennedy’s support as he was pounded by the press and Republicans in Congress for the Bay of Pigs fiasco, but his support came with a slice of humiliation. The five-star general took the young Navy lieutenant to task during a walk in the woods of Camp David.
He challenged Kennedy’s refusal to order the nearby US Navy armada to wreck Castro and his army as they repelled the CIA-organized invasion of Cuba. Kennedy said the use of carrier-based warplanes would have exposed American involvement. “My advice was that we must try to keep our hands from showing in this affair,” Kennedy said.
Ike was incredulous. “How could you expect the world to believe that we had nothing to do with it?” Ike said. Where did the invasion ships come from? Where did the invaders get weapons? “I believe there is only one thing to do when you go into this kind of thing: It must be a success,” Ike told Kennedy.
Kennedy’s youth, wit, and intellect displayed in his speeches, created an image almost invulnerable to voter disapproval. When his approval rating soared to 85 percent, Kennedy could only wonder. “The worse you do, the better they like you,” he said. Kennedy’s charm and sincere personal exchanges with reporters transformed the White House press from adversaries to advocates.
Despite having a real-life example in Venezuela of the misery and destruction caused by socialism, Berniebots and liberals in America still swear the seriously flawed ideology will cure all they think is wrong with America. Then again, these are the same folks who casually dismiss the 100-million+ murdered by socialism/communism over the past century.
Venezuela has a bread shortage. The government has decided bakers are the problem.
Venezuelan authorities escort an errant bread-maker out of a shop in Caracas.
Facing a bread shortage that is spawning massive lines and souring the national mood, the Venezuelan government is responding this week by detaining bakers and seizing establishments.
In a press release, the National Superintendent for the Defense of Socioeconomic Rights said it had charged four people and temporarily seized two bakeries as the socialist administration accused bakers of being part of a broad “economic war” aimed at destabilizing the country.
In a statement, the government said the bakers had been selling underweight bread and were using price-regulated flour to illegally make specialty items, like sweet rolls and croissants.
The government said bakeries are only allowed to produce French bread and white loaves, or pan canilla, with government-imported flour. However, in a tweet on Thursday, price control czar William Contreras said only 90 percent of baked goods had to be price-controlled products.
Two bakeries were also seized for 90 days for breaking a number of rules, including selling overpriced bread.
Juan Crespo, the president of the Industrial Flour Union called Sintra-Harina, which represents 9,000 bakeries nationwide, said the government’s heavy hand isn’t going to solve the problem.
“The government isn’t importing enough wheat,” he said. “If you don’t have wheat, you don’t have flour, and if you don’t have flour, you don’t have bread.”
He said the country needs four, 30,000-ton boats of wheat every month to cover basic demand.
The notion that bread could become an issue in Venezuela is one more indictment of an economic system gone bust. The country boasts the world’s largest oil reserves but it has to import just about everything else. Facing a cash crunch, the government has dramatically cut back imports, sparking shortages, massive lines and fueling triple-digit inflation.
This past Sunday, which was the 14th anniversary of Cuba’s Black Spring, State Security agents of the apartheid Castro dictatorship came out in full force. Thugs dispatched by the Cuban regime beat peaceful protestors and arrested 45 Ladies in White. The anniversary of the Black Spring is an important event for the Ladies in White since it was the arrest of 75 dissidents and independent journalists during that brutal wave of repression that spawned the all-women dissident group.
45 Ladies in White arrested on the 14th anniversary of the Black Spring
Some 45 Ladies in White were arrested in various provinces this Sunday when they came out in commemoration of the 14th anniversary of the wave of repression that took place on March 18, 2003 and sent 75 dissidents to prison. It was this event which inspired the women’s movement.
Angel Moya informed Diario de Cuba that in Havana, 22 women were arrested when they attempted to attend church, reach the Ladies in White headquarters or take part in the #TodosMarchamos (We all march) campaign for the release of political prisoners.
Shortly before being arrested herself, Berta Soler, the leader of the women’s organization, denounced the “violent” apprehension of Micaela Roll and Yamila Lamorth when they tried to reach the group’s headquarters located in Lawton.
“They have given them a severe beating, dragging them down the street, agents from State Security and uniformed police, both men and women,” said Soler.
When asked about the differences between today and 2003 when mothers, wives, sisters, and other family members of the prisoners of the Group of 75 came together to create the Ladies in White to publicly demand the release of their family members, Soler said that back then the women were “threatened with prison, and 14 years later, the regime is following through with its threat.”
“At this moment they are throwing us into the dungeons, they lock us up with dangerous prisoners, both men and women beat us, they release us miles away from our homes,” said Soler.
“They have wanted to put an end to the Ladies in White and now they are targeting our families, our children and husbands, to put an end to us,” she added.
She mentioned that at this moment there are four Ladies in White imprisoned, three of them without a trial.
According to his brother [Raul Castro], later endorsed by the docile National Assembly of People’s Power, the “historic leader” [Fidel Castro] ordered that there would be no public establishment, street, avenue, park or building named after him, nor any monuments erected to him.
At first glance it seems a gesture of humility and modesty at the end of his life after a lifelong display of a overwhelming ego. However, there was no order with regards to the media, perhaps betting he would stay alive in them.
At least that is what emerges from the monumental and interminable media campaign about his figure and thinking, initiated before his death and continuing “in crescendo” to the present. Spectacles of all type, conferences, festivals, dances, songs, documentaries, expositions, and every kind of thing in that sphere, dedicated to him, offer reliable proof.
Should there be any doubt, the Book Fair, which is now touring the provinces, has surpassed all signs of servility with a sick personality cult; colloquia, conversations, workshops, expositions and much more, all in his honor and, in addition, the presentation by different Cuban publishers of 24 titles by him and about him, including three comic books about his life. No world personality, including Cervantes and Shakespeare, has had so many books on the stands of the fair, in addition to the official presentations each and every one of which is filled with the usual words of praise.
A close friend told me, “We are ruled by a dead man.” It appears he is right!
A sunburn is not the only thing foreigners have to worry about when they decide to move to Cuba and become business partners with Cuba’s totalitarian dictatorship.
‘From now on you have no name. You are prisoner 217’: life in a Cuban jail
A brutal high-security prison was the last place Stephen Purvis expected to end up when he moved to Havana. Stephen Gibbs tells his story
If you happened to go to a British embassy reception in Havana in the early 2000s, you would likely have met Stephen Purvis. You could not miss him. Six foot four, cropped grey hair, rum in hand, a broad smile and no shortage of good stories.
Purvis loved Cuba. Escaping what he saw as the risk of a “pre-ordained suburban middle-class life” in Wimbledon, the architect and his wife seized the opportunity to move to the island 17 years ago. He had been offered a job as development director with Coral Capital, an investment and trading company. It was one of several small foreign firms – almost all led by maverick, adventurous individuals – that were setting up in Cuba as the country sought international partners following the collapse of the Soviet Union. Purvis’s job was to look for joint venture opportunities with the Cuban government. The planned projects included the first golf course to be constructed there since the 1959 revolution, and the revamp of a formerly glamorous hotel, the Saratoga.
[…]
On 8 March 2012 they came for him. Shortly after dawn, a fleet of unmarked Ladas drew up outside his home. The Purvis children were hastily packed off to school, told by their mother that the commotion was because “Dad needs to answer some questions about work.”
Purvis was taken away, handcuffed, his head forced between his knees, to an anonymous art deco house close to the airport. There, he was provisionally charged with being an “enemy of the state”. He was advised not to hire a lawyer and to co-operate immediately. Agreeing to that, he was then taken to the notorious Cuban state security prison known as Villa Marista, for what was described, euphemistically, as “further instruction”.
“The villa”, as it is known by Cuban dissidents, is a former Catholic seminary on the outskirts of Havana. Since 1963 it has been an interrogation centre, using techniques perfected by the KGB. Eventually, they say, everyone “sings” at the villa. Purvis believes he and his boss (who had been transferred to a military hospital by the time his co-director arrived) are the only Englishmen ever to have been held there. For months, he became “Prisoner 217”. His life was entirely controlled by a man known as “the instructor”. He spent almost every hour of the day in a cell the size of a double mattress, with three other inmates (one of whom he believes was a government informant). The four shared an open latrine.
The appalling conditions were only alleviated by the “psychological games” of interrogation that took place day and night. Purvis says he was questioned for hours, often about the details of the lives of other foreigners on the island. The intent was to get him to inform on anyone who might have done something illegal, however minor. Purvis says he refused to do so, probably sparing other expats (some of whom still live and work in Cuba) a similar fate to his own. He does not deny the temptation was there. “You can see why in the end people just go, ‘Oh give a dog a bone. Throw them some names just to get out of there,’” he says.
Thanks to Obama’s policy of appeasement and engagement with Cuba’s brutally repressive apartheid regime, the Castro dictatorship’s tentacles of repression and censorship now reach all the way to New York. I guess that is what they mean by “building bridges.”
Already banned in Cuba, film gets censored in U.S.
A Cuban film based on repression against homosexual writers in the early years of the Revolution, which was recently shown at the Miami Film Festival, has been banned from an awards competition for an upcoming festival in New York.
The Havana Film Festival New York confirmed that Santa and Andrés will not be part of the official awards competition due to “political gossip” surrounding the film.
Cuban director Carlos Lechuga denounced the awards ban as censorship — even though the film will be shown at the festival — and blamed it on pressure by the Cuban government.
“Under nebulous circumstances I have learned that Cuban authorities have tried to get my film out of the festival,” Lechuga posted in Spanish on his Facebook page. “At this moment the film has been removed from official competition, again being excluded because of its political tone.”
[…]
Carole Rosenberg, executive director of the Havana Film Festival New York, told el Nuevo Herald that the removal of the film from official competition was not due to pressure from Havana.
“It has nothing to do with that,” said Rosenberg, who explained that she decided to withdraw it “due to the political tones of what has been posted on the internet,” without giving more details about the problematic posts.
“I do not know how to explain it to you, but our mission is to build bridges and we have always stayed away from the politics of either country. We do not get into political gossip, it’s not how we operate. And all of the sudden this erupted. I simply felt that I did not want to be part of this,” she said in a telephone interview.
“It would be inappropriate to have it in the competition,” Rosenberg added, although she confirmed that the film will be shown at the festival without a shot at receiving an award “because it really does not fit the mission of our organization.”
This weekend marks the 14th anniversary of Cuba’s Black Spring. On a spring morning fourteen years ago, Cuba’s apartheid dictatorship launched an island-wide operation to violently crackdown on Cuban opposition leaders and independent journalists. When it was over, 75 innocent Cubans had been violently arrested. They were quickly put on trial and sentenced to as much as 25 years in a Castro gulag for the counterrevolutionary act of exercising free speech. That day, March 18, 2003, was named and continues to be known as the Black Spring of 2003.
Since that fateful day, not much has changed in Cuba. The only perceivable difference is that the Castro dictatorship appears to have become even more brutal and repressive since then. Political prisoners continue to pour into the gulags where they are tortured and beaten. Every year since that day, human rights activists have been arrested by the thousands while female dissidents from the Ladies in White are viciously attacked and sexually assaulted by Castro State Security forces every Sunday when they try to attend church. And most disturbing of all, the Castro dictatorship continues to murder and assassinate its opponents.
Fourteen years after Cuba’s Black Spring, Cuba continues to suffer under the yoke of the tyrannical Castro regime.
According to his brother [Raul Castro], later endorsed by the docile National Assembly of People’s Power, the “historic leader” [Fidel Castro] ordered that there would be no public establishment, street, avenue, park or building named after him, nor any monuments erected to him.
