Cuba Opens Its Jails for First Inmates Sports Olympics

[Say_What]

<clips>

Havana, Feb 25 (Prensa Latina) As part of its prisoners rehabilitation program, Cuba is holding the 1st Inmates Sports Olympics, in which hundreds of convicts from accross the Island are competing in four sports, plus domino and chess.

Prisoners are representing their regions in four geographic divisions with competition heated in this sports-minded Caribbean country: in baseball, basketball, track and field, table tennis.

The Olympic-style sports competition for Cuban prisoners is a joint effort by the Interior Ministry and the Sports Department.

http://www.plenglish.com/article.asp?ID=%7B0176A05C-EC5B-41DE-B7B6-9A76315AAEE4%7D&language=EN

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<clips>

US Opposes Latin American Unity

Havana, Feb 23 (AIN) High ranking US government officials are aiming their guns at Latin America in an attempt to block the winds of change blowing south of the border.

...The analysts explained that although the list of nations that supposedly worries the US government includes Mexico, Colombia and others, the main targets of the offensive are Cuba and Venezuela. It was noted how Bush administration officials are continually making negative statements on the two countries to influence public opinion.

...The Round Table also indicated that efforts to discredit Evo Morales, and the Bolivian Movement towards Socialism he leads, are part of the attacks by the US against social movements in that South American nation.

... According to the analysts, the winds of change in Latin America will get another boost when Tabare Vazquez is sworn in March 1 as the new President of Uruguay, heading a left wing alliance.

As the economic model imposed by the US in the region continues to sputter, the elections to take place in Mexico, Nicaragua, Peru and Colombia during 2006 already have high ranking US officials busy as they jockey to influence the results.

http://www.periodico26.cu/english_new/cuba/unity230205.htm

[Occulus]

1. "Prison pride?"

What are their mascots? :evilgrin:

This could be a good thing, actually, if one stops to really think about it.

[Judi Lynn]

2. What a great idea!

I hope to hear how it goes. That island has produced a lot of Olympic champions, and dominoes and chess have been big faves there forever. Their spirit of community seems very strong.


http://www.ramonorga.com/cuba/2004/imagepages/image89.html
http://www.ramonorga.com/cuba/2004/imagepages/image291.html http://www.ramonorga.com/cuba/2004/imagepages/image314.html http://www.ramonorga.com/cuba/2004/imagepages/image315.html
http://www.ramonorga.com/cuba/2004/imagepages/image326.html

The clickable links seem to be from 2004. The last ones portray anti-Bush demonstrations.

[Imperialism Inc.]

3. And the medal in the 100 yard dash while being chased by a

knife wielding manic goes to.....

Sorry. Couldn't resist. Was expecting an Onion story when I first clicked :evilgrin:

[Judi Lynn]

4. That would do it!

[Imperialism Inc.]

5. Check out the web site

http://www.axisoflogic.com for some great articles on Venezuela lately. I noticed it was mentioned a few times in the second article. One of their editors recently returned from a trip there.

Especially this one:

http://www.axisoflogic.com/artman/publish/article_15785.shtml

but there are others. Here's a clip:

Conventional Arms Threat Reduction Act (CATRA)

Last night, after returning from Venezuela, I read with new comprehension when I reviewed new U.S. legislation sponsored by Richard Lugar, Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in Washington. Washington is calling the legislation the Conventional Arms Threat Reduction Act (CATRA). The new act would create an office in the U.S. State Department for the purpose of eliminating small arms around the globe and particularly in Latin America. This ambitious move in Washington is clearly conceived - at least in part - as a response to Venezuela's recent arms purchase from Russia and other Venezuelan foreign policy.

A Deadly Game

Marcela Sanchez, writing for the Washington Post, is one member of the corporate media who is playing "running back" for the quarterback - Lugar. It's not a new play - only the revision of an old one. Lugar fades as though he still has the ball, but has already handed off to Ms. Sanchez who cuts down-field toward Venezuelan territory with CATRA tucked deceptively under her arm. But there are bloody designs behind Lugar's play and the stakes for the entire western hemisphere are very, very high.

On February 17, 2005, Ms. Sanchez dutifully wrote, Disarming Latin America (also en espanol) on behalf of the U.S. government's new intrusion into the domestic affairs of The Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela. She lays the foundation for her argument by attempting to justify Lugar's design on Venezuela's domestic affairs with this:

"Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Richard G. Lugar, who helped write the 1991 law that has since deactivated more than 6,500 nuclear warheads from the Soviet arsenal, is turning his attention to stockpiles of conventional weapons around the world."

The design that underlies this play is transparent even to the casual reader: The U.S. cannot make any credible claim that Venezuela has "weapons of mass destruction" as it did in Iraq, so it is beginning to weave a new lie. The new deception is that conventional weapons now comprise the threat to the U.S. and to "others". Sanchez continues:

"Lugar is sponsoring legislation known as the Conventional Arms Threat Reduction Act (CATRA) that would establish a separate State Department office with funding 'commensurate with the risk posed by these weapons' to lead 'an accelerated global effort' to eliminate them."

Eliminate them? Eliminate conventional weapons world wide? Why is "the Lugar" suddenly launching this new offensive? If he is to believed, his conscience has apparently - and suddenly - developed a new compassion for brown people who have been killed by handguns and rifles in Latin America ... and he has a woman named "Marcela Sanchez" to carry the ball to readers of the Washington Post. Ms. Sanchez explains:

"It couldn't be timelier for Latin America. Nowhere else are these weapons more lethal than in Latin America and the Caribbean. The number of firearm homicides in the region is 'five times higher than the world average' ..."

[Moderator]

10. WakingLife

Per DU copyright rules
please post only four
paragraphs from the
copyrighted news source.



Thank you.


DU Moderator

[cadmus]

6. cuban prisoners

What events will the 75 dissidents and journalists take part in?

[Mika]

8. They'll play in the finals of the "Who is More Like Armstrong Williams" ..

.. competition.

They're the defacto leaders in that competition - the Traitors Paid by a Foreign Enemy category.

[dawgman]

7. Those bastards....stupid Cuba....

Who the hell do they think they are? Do they think that they are better than us? That ass munch, castro. I can't wait until we invade. Commie bastards.

[Mika]

9. Ovservations of The Cuban Prison System

LESSONS FROM OUR NEIGHBORS TO THE SOUTH:
THE CUBAN PRISON SYSTEM - REFLECTIVE OBSERVATIONS 2000
http://afrocubaweb.com/elijah.htm

by Prof. Soffiyah Elijah
Clinical Instructor
Criminal Justice Institute
Harvard Law School

Since the island nation of Cuba experienced its successful revolution in 1959 its prison system has been evolving. Despite accusations of harsh human rights abuses from its neighbors to the North, Cuba today maintains a prison system that is in many respects far more humane than Western propaganda would have the uninformed public believe.

My study of the Cuban prison system began in 1987 when I first visited the country to attend a conference co-sponsored by the American Association of Jurists and the Cuban Association of Jurists. I was pleasantly surprised during the trip when the opportunity arose to visit a men's prison. A group of conference attendees traveled by bus to the prison and when we arrived we were not searched and our belongings were not checked. We did not sign in or out. Nobody asked to check our identification. Having visited numerous prisons in the U.S. I have never entered any of them without a thorough search of my person and my belongings. Government issued photo identification is always required.

Although we were given a tour of the prison we were free to wander off and talk with the prisoners unmonitored. We walked all around the facility and were allowed to go into cells, work areas, the cafeteria, hospital, classrooms, recreation area and any other space we chose. This we were allowed to do unaccompanied. The prisoners wore street clothing.

Although one might think that this must have been a minimum or medium security prison, there are no such institutional classifications. Prison institutions are not characterized by security level. Rather prisoners of varying security levels are all housed in the same facility. The four levels of security classification for prisoners are maximum, high, moderate and minimum. The distinction in their security classification is borne out in the frequency with which they are allowed family and conjugal visits, mail, phone privileges and furlough availability. All prisoners, regardless of security level, are afforded at least four family and conjugal visits a year. Prisoners with the lowest security classifications are afforded more frequent family and conjugal visits than higher security classified prisoners.

Needless to say I was a bit taken aback at this very different approach. For the next thirteen years I built on this experience and conducted further research on the Cuban prison system.

Much more here.. http://afrocubaweb.com/elijah.htm

[Cocoa]

11. maybe Castro just rented "the Longest Yard"

(which is being remade by the way, with Adam Sandler.)