Cuba's Raul Castro offers direct talks with Obama

[cal04]

Source: AFP

Communist Cuba's President Raul Castro late Friday offered to talk directly "without intermediaries" and on equal terms with incoming US president Barack Obama, who has said he would consider direct dialogue.

"A gesture for a gesture. We are ready to do it whenever it may be, whenever they may decide, without intermediaries, directly, but we are in no rush, we are not desperate," said Castro, a day after Cuba marked the 50th anniversary of its revolution.

After years of economic embargo and hardline US efforts to isolate the island, Havana now faces rare potential for change with Obama, who has voiced willingness to engage world leaders the administration of President George W. Bush has sought to sideline.

Castro, 77, said that Obama, who takes office January 20, could "do a great deal, could take positive steps" but said he did not expect him to change overall hostile US policy. "But I hope I am wrong about that," the Cuban president added.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090103/wl_afp/cubauspolitics_090103031548

[Double T]

1. Good way for BO to start his presidency; normalize relations with Cuba.

[AnOhioan]

3. Agreed

[Mind_your_head]

2. From what I know (which admittedly isn't a LOT).....Cuba has done

EXTRAORDINARILY WELL ..... developed well without US influence. I think the US could LEARN quite a lot from Cuba. Cuba shouldn't feel like it "has to go begging" - NOT AT ALL.

With that said, while Cuba is certainly on Mr. Obama's 'radar screen', I would doubt it's among his first priorities.

I'm just guessing, of course, but that's my *humble* 'take on it'.

Peace,
M_Y_H

[Still Sensible]

4. By what measure has Cuba done extraordinarily well?

I sure haven't seen evidence of that. For most of their revolutionary existence thay were a poor protectorate of the USSR... since the fall of the Soviet empire, they have just been poor.

[Mind_your_head]

5. First off (and I'm serious about this question)......

What is your definition of "poor"? What does "poor" mean to you?

[Better Believe It]

9. You haven't looked for any credible information on Cuba ....

or you would know they have done very well given the blockade and end of the USSR.

They have had some tough period but the average working class Cuban has made much more progress than the working classes in any other Latin American nations over the past half century.

[Idealism]

10. Cuba has one of the best health-care systems on the planet

They have the most doctors per capita in the world
They send you to college for free.
They have universal health care, but also a highly-prized private health system that attracts wealthy tourists.
Cuba has no classification for jails (no maximum, minimum security) and there is no "jail uniform." Prisoners are treated much, much more humanely in Cuba than in the US. It is not even comparable.

[harmonicon]

11. 100% literacy rate for starters

Universal, free, higher education, universal healthcare, etc. After the collapse of the USSR, they've kept these things going. They've actually had the problem of having to try to discourage students from going to universities, because they need more people to go to trade schools. Could you imagine if the US were in that position? I would weep.

[otherlander]

27. The Cuban government

may have failed to provide its people with civil liberties, but it has distributed wealth fairly. If its people are poor, it is entirely the doing of OUR government.

[Mika]

28. What have you seen in Cuba?

You say you haven't seen evidence that has Cuba done extraordinarily well. Just what have you seen in Cuba?

Just interested in understanding your level of experience/expertise, because, my experiences in Cuba reveal to me that Cuba has done extraordinarily well considering the circumstances it has faced and continues to face.

[roody]

6. You better go to Cuba NOW if you want to see it without

McDonalds on every corner.

[Mind_your_head]

8. That's part of the essence of why I think Cuba has done "EXTRAORDINARILY WELL"

It DOESN'T have a McDonalds (or anything that such corporatism stands for, shoved down a country's throat) on every ~ or any corner!

Cuba has done MIGHTY well for itself, standing through the hardships to be INDEPENDENT, FREE of the corporate 'Borg'.

--------

Imho, Cuba shouldn't be in any big hurry to be sucked into the giant "free-trade" vacuum that is sucking up all labor, all money into it's ugly maw.

Frankly, Cuba would be stupid to 'cave' (or 'accept assistance' at this point). Cuba is waaaaaaaaaaay ahead of the 'gamers' - Cubans have worked and struggled YEARS for this moment of opportunity, but it's-not-quite-here-yet.....*patience*. Don't cave/give in now. (the only reason the US wants CUBA now is b/c they can SUCK more trusting/unsuspecting workers into their maw!)

[Still Sensible]

16. Well if this point of view were true, why has Cuba

for years railed against the "unfair" US embargo? I don't see US citizens climbing aborad little boats trying to get into to Cuba.

I can applaud many of their accomplishments--especially if their health care is that good and if their literacy rate is indeed 100%. But those accomplishments must have come at a price (communism) that a significant number of their citizenry resists.

[Judi Lynn]

17. Clumsy, uninformed comments don't age well if common sense is applied.

You don't know about Americans going to Cuba because you don't pay attention. Philip Agee, former CIA agent moved to Cuba and ran his own travel agency there until he died in the last few months.

Eloy Gutierrez Menoyo, a former Miami resident, a Cuban "exile," returned to live in Cuba and to start his own political party, "Cambio Cubano:"

Eloy Gutierrez Menoyo threatened by US for living in Cuba
Wed February 09, 2005
By Anthony Boadle | Reuters

A U.S. resident who had spent 22 years in a Cuban prison for opposing communism and returned to the island to work for democracy now faces a U.S. jail threat for violating travel restrictions.

Eloy Gutierrez Menoyo, a Cuban exile who returned in 2003, has been warned by the U.S. Treasury Department that he could be fined $250,000 or sent to prison for 10 years for staying in Cuba in violation of sanctions intended to isolate the government of Fidel Castro.

“They don’t understand: I am not a tourist in Cuba, I am an activist working to establish a legal space for an independent opposition,” Gutierrez Menoyo said on Tuesday in an interview.

“It is illogical. I’m here seeking freedom and the United States comes and tells me I face a 10-year prison sentence,” he complained.

Gutierrez Menoyo fought alongside Castro in the guerrilla movement that toppled U.S-backed dictator Fulgencio Batista in 1959. But he fell out with Castro over Cuba’s turn to the left and spent 22 years in jail after a failed insurrection.

After his release in 1986, the former guerrilla commander lived in exile in Miami, where he has a wife and three U.S-born children, and retains permanent U.S. residency.

But in August 2003, Gutierrez Menoyo announced on a visit to Cuba that he was staying in Havana to try to open an office for his political group, called Cambio Cubano, and build a moderate opposition to what he calls Castro’s “socialist dictatorship.”

The Cuban government has not legalized his status, but it tolerates his presence and invited him to a conference on Cuban migration. It renewed his Cuban passport and allowed him to travel twice to the United States.

U.S. authorities did not take lightly to Gutierrez Menoyo’s return to Cuba, and froze the bank account of his Miami-based political group.

In November 2004, the U.S. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, which enforces sanctions on Cuba, warned him in a letter that he could face prosecution for violating restrictions on travel to Cuba.

More:
http://havanajournal.com/politics/entry/eloy_gutierrez_menoyo_threatened_by_us_for_living_in_cuba/

There are Americans who have looked into moving to Cuba after retirement who have learned the U.S. will not send their social security checks to them if they live there.

There are Cuban-Americans who do go back and forth to Cuba, as well. This is taken from a book by former New York Times Journalist, Ann Louise Bardach:

In Cuba, one used to be either a revolucionario or a contrarevolucionario, while those who decided to leave were gusanos (worms) or escoria (scum). In Miami, the rhetoric has also been harsh. Exiles who do not endorse a confrontational policy with Cuba, seeking instead a negotiated settlement, have often been excoriated as traidores (traitors) and sometimes espías (spies). Cubans, notably cultural stars, who visit Miami but choose to return to their homeland have been routinely denounced. One either defects or is repudiated.

But there has been a slow but steady shift in the last decade-a nod to the clear majority of Cubans en exilio and on the island who crave family reunification. Since 1978, more than one million airline tickets have been sold for flights from Miami to Havana. Faced with the brisk and continuous traffic between Miami and Havana, hard-liners on both sides have opted to deny the new reality. Anomalies such as the phenomenon of reverse balseros, Cubans who, unable to adapt to the pressures and bustle of entrepreneurial Miami, return to the island, or gusañeros, expatriots who send a portion of their earnings home in exchange for unfettered travel back and forth to Cuba (the term is a curious Cuban hybrid of gusano and compañero, or comrade), are unacknowledged by both sides, as are those who live in semi-exilio, returning home to Cuba for long holidays.


Page XVIII
Preface
Cuba Confidential
Love and Vengeance
In Miami and Havana

Copyright© 2002 by
Ann Louise Bardach

[Still Sensible]

19. No need to insult and I am not uninformed

but that doesn't change the fact that the vast majority of movement has for decades been north, not south as people fled the country. And to try to paint a different picture is a dishonor to those who made the escape from the repressive Castro regime and those who tried but didn't succeed.

That said, I fully support any and all efforts to reverse US policy and normalize relations with Cuba. It should have happened in the 70s in my opinion. It is well past time for the hard liners on both sides to change the status quo.

You rightly point to the growing reverse balseros phenomenon. The position the US has taken on the Menoyo matter is simply wrong. Even under the current US policy, any effort to organize opposition in the country should be supported, not threatened.

[Mika]

25. The US gov only supports certain "opposition".

Cuba does have a wide ranging political spectrum, from hard right to far left. Been there. Seen it.

The US gov and corporomedia want Americans to think that the only political "opposition" in Cuba is anti Castro/ anti communist and that it is severely restricted or harassed. This is just not the case. The only political activity that is harassed is the activity by those on the payrolls of/and aiding and abetting the declared enemy state of Cuba (the US gov) and terrorist organizations in Miami.


As an aside, more people come to the US from other Latin American and Caribbean nations than Cubans - and they have no "adjustment act" (instant legal status + perks) that Cubans do.

[WriteDown]

21. And yet no one has been able to explain to me...

Why Arturo Sandoval was apparently lying his whole life. :eyes:

[Judi Lynn]

22. Comedy is your life? He's thrown in with the Miami right-wing extremists. Politics.

Clowns.

Look at who's in the cast, Gloria Estefan. Her husband Emilio was undoubtedly involved in the production, too.

Here's Gloria Estefan's political disposition spelled out for the slow among us:

Gloria Estefan: "Like Coming Home, But Not to the Old Cuba"
Posted September 6, 2007 | 02:16 PM (EST)

Her story reads like the plot of an old Hollywood musical.

Her father, José Fajardo, was the bodyguard to the wife of Cuban president Batista -- but when Gloria was just 16 months old, Castro's revolution forced the family to flee its homeland.

More:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jesse-kornbluth/gloria-estefan-like-com_b_63337.html

To refresh your memory, regarding the reason for Cuba's revolution, Fulgencio Batista:

FULGENCIO BATISTA
President of Cuba
Cuban Army Sergeant Fulgencio Batista first seized power in a 1932 coup. He was President Roosevelt's handpicked dictator to counteract leftists who had overthrown strongman Cerardo Machado. Batista ruled or several years, then left for Miami, returning in 1952 just in time for another coup, against elected president Carlos Prio Socorras. His new regime was quickly recognized by President Eisenhower. Under Batista, U.S. interests flourished and little was said about democracy. With the loyal support of Batista, Mafioso boss Meyer Lansky developed Havana into an international drug port. Cabinet offices were bought and sold and military officials made huge sums on smuggling and vice rackets. Havana became a fashionable hot spot where America's rich and famous drank and gambled with mobsters. As the gap between the rich and poor grew wider, the poor grew impatient. In 1953, Fidel Castro led an armed group of rebels in a failed uprising on the Moncada army barracks. Castro temporarily fled the country and Batista struck back with a vengeance. Freedom of speech was curtailed and subversive teachers, lawyers and public officials were fired from their jobs. Death squads tortured and killed thousands of "communists". Batista was assisted in his crackdown by Lansky and other members of organized crime who believed Castro would jeopardize their gambling and drug trade. Despite this, Batista remained a friend to Eisenhower and the US until he was finally overthrown by Castro in 1959.

http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/US_ThirdWorld/dictators.html

How does Arturo Sandoval fit into any of this?

For anyone who's fascinated by the thought Arturo Sandoval is relevant, here's his Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arturo_Sandoval

Since you love Cuban musicians, why wouldn't you adore the musicians who have chosen to stay where they are, like world famous Chucho Valdez? _{George W. Bush} has kept him out of the country the last few years when he as applied for a visa to attend musical functions here, like the Latin Grammies, which he attended previously, and showed up to attend on September 11, which was cancelled due to the disaster, and still took time, with his band to go donate blood before returning home.

His wiki:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chucho_Vald%C3%A9s

His website:
http://www.valdeschucho.com/

"Chucho started his first jazz trio at the age of 16 and founded Irakere in 1972 while playing with the Orquesta Cubana de Musica Moderna. An incredibly inventive and fluid pianist, Chucho combines the influences of musicians such as Art Tatum, Bill Evans and McCoy Tyner with Afro-Cuban roots and a blazing technique that leaves one breathless and amazed. He writes most of the band's compositions and arrangements and has released dozens of albums, both with Irakere and as a solo performer.

Chucho is revered as a national treasure in Cuba, the Duke Ellington of his country. He receives the admiration and thanks of his people in a way that the Duke never did in his lifetime. When you hear current Cuban jazz or popular music, whether Gonzalo Rubalcaba, N.G. La Banda or Charanga Habanera, you hear the influence of Chucho Valdés and Irakere. "

http://www.afrocubaweb.com/Chucho.htm

[Judi Lynn]

23. Forgot to include the link to the movie created to tell his life

For Love or Country: The Arturo Sandoval Story
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0236285/

From a site describing HBO's production of this movie, speaking with Andy Garcia, who played Sandoval in the film:

Shooting FOR LOVE OR COUNTRY: THE ARTURO SANDOVAL STORY gave Garcia a chance to relive his earlier years. "We were filming in one Miami location that was within a two-block radius of where I grew up," recounted Garcia. "It was an amazing feeling to be back in the neighborhood 26 years later, shooting a movie. And by coincidence, it was my birthday, so it was for me a rather special day."

Garcia adds, "The subject matter of this project is very dear to my heart in the sense that I am also a Cuban exile, although I arrived in the United States at a much earlier age than Arturo did. The same is true for Gloria Estefan."

http://www.timewarner.com/corp/newsroom/pr/0,20812,667955,00.html

~~~~~~~~~~~
Who doesn't remember Andy Garcia and Gloria Estefan showing up in the crowd of "exile" idiots crowding the street in front of the house of Elián Gonzalez' drunken great-uncle, Lázaro Gonzalez, joining hands and demanding that Bill Clinton refuse to let the little boy go home with his father, baby brother, step-mother, to live with them and his four grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, neighbors, and schoolmates?

A triumph in American history, only overshadowed by the right-wing's rabid mob display of support for keeping that brain-dead woman, Terri Schiavo, in a continuing unconscious, vegetative state for the next 40, 50 years.

On edit, adding food-for-thought fact:

Andy Garcia, actor (parasitic twin brother removed from Andy's shoulder; died soon after)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_twins

http://www.celebrityshack.com.nyud.net:8090/images/stories/male-celebrities/andy_garcia/thumb.jpg
Andy Garcia

[WriteDown]

24. So somehow you try to diminish Arturo's life story....

by trying to tie him to Andy Garcia and Gloria Estefan? What's next? Barrack Obama can't be trusted because he went to Rev. Wright's church? :sarcasm:

[Mika]

26. He was out in front of Elian's Miami drunken uncle' house with Andy, Gloria and known terrorists ..

.. like Orlando Bosch, and his benefactor Ileana Ros, plus a host of other murderous Alpha 66, CANF, Omega 6, and Brigade 2506 henchmen during that debacle.

I live in Miami and was disgusted to see such a spectacle of panderers. Their movie was about to be released so they all ran down to the Little Havana scene of the kidnapping to exploit the media coverage by waving their Cuban flags along with the crowd carrying posters calling Clinton and Janet Reno Nazis.

He's a terrorist loving piece of lying crap, out for a buck at any cost.



Elian was coerced to sit on the shoulders of
mass murderer Orlando Bosch to declare
"victory" after a congressional subpoena by
Dan Burton prevents Elian's legal removal
from the kidnappers.



Lazaro (3 DUI's on probation)


Marisleysis


Delfin Gonzalez, a great-uncle of Elián González,
has turned the Miami house Elián lived in into a museum.

[ngant17]

14. Not to worry, Havana isn't about to become a New Miami

and state-monopoly capitalism has been permanently and officially banished from Cuban history.

Actually, it would be theoretically feasible to see a Burger King instead of McDs(after all, BK's corporate office in S. Florida). If they would succeed in setting up shop in Havana one day, my guess is that it would have to be completedly unionized from the local Cuban workforce (like the Russians did with the first McD's in Moscow in 1990, which technially happened under Gorbachev and the USSR).

"...About half of the plant's 400 workers signed union cards; under Russian labor law, a company has to recognize a union even if only three people sign up. McDonald's harassed the pro-union employees mercilessly: cutting off their work phones so they couldn't talk to each other, depriving them of bonuses routinely granted to other workers, and punishing them for the smallest infractions (one worker was disciplined for returning from a bathroom break one minute late). Gracheva, the union leader, was denied part of her salary."

See also, "The Burger International" by Liza Featherstone
<http://www.leftbusinessobserver.com/McDonalds.html>

In the future can be predicted based on past events, I would think that if Pres. Obama pushes this issue into Cuba, the management of US-based BK or McDs would have more to fear from a unionized workforce 90 miles away in Cuba.

It might become eerily reminiscent of NASA's reluctance to cooperate with a joint US-Soviet moon landing in 1963 which Pres. JFK was pushing in Oct/Nov 1963. NASA was foot-dragging and kicking and screaming against it all the way, like a spoiled brat being told to make friends with the boy next door.

OTOH Cuba would never really have a reason to fear a US-based fast food business on its island, because you can be sure the Cubans would unionize it immediately before they would issue a working permit for a foreign-based fast food restaurant franchise to open up on the island.

But if Cubans living on the island truly want to eat at a non-unionized McD's or Burger King, they should be allowed to travel to Florida for that purpose (along with other reasons).

If nothing else, I am confident that the restrictions for Cubans to travel abroad will become lessened if Obama can start meaningful dialog with the Republic of Cuba.

[IndianaGreen]

7. Video: Interview with Mariela Castro (Raul's daughter on AIDS, LGBT rights, socialism, Obama)

Mariela: "The United States deserves a President like Obama."

She also discusses AIDS, LGBT rights, socialism.

Video: Interview with Mariela Castro (Raul's daughter. Discusses same sex marriage, SRS)

Thursday, January 1, 2009

Video: Interview with Mariela Castro

http://paeditorsblog.blogspot.com/2009/01/video-interview-with-mariela-castro.html

[Idealism]

12. Great video, many thanks

[Judi Lynn]

18. Thanks for providing this video! First time I've seen her image moving, and speaking!

She has been a powerhouse in the years she's been involved in public affairs. Very interesting person, isn't she?

First country in the Americas, too, to have its own gay soap opera, which is watched all over the country. It was ground-breaking, upset a lot of people raised in the Roman Catholic church, Spanish macho culture, and it kicked off dialogue which seems to have been good for the entire island.

Thanks, IndianaGreen.

[proud progressive]

13. i would be so proud of obama if he accepts.

who the fuck are we to make all those people suffer because castro had the courage to overthrow batista - OUR INSTALLED DICTATOR!!

[IndianaGreen]

15. Reuters: Raul Castro says hopes too high for Obama (as LGBTs have bitterly found out)

Rick Warren's invocation and the DADT repeal postponement to 2012 and beyond are bitter pills of reality to LGBT community. The rest of you will be next to experience the bitterness, anger, angst, and disappointment LGBTs had to endure since Waren was made the invocator.

Raul Castro says hopes too high for Obama

HAVANA (Reuters) - U.S. President-elect Barack Obama appears to be an honest and sincere man, but his election has awakened "excessive hopes" that the United States will change, Cuban President Raul Castro said in a television interview broadcast on Friday.

Castro repeated previous assertions that he is open to talks at any time with Obama, who takes office on January 20, but said he is not desperate to do so.

Obama has said he wants to ease the 46-year-old U.S. trade embargo against Cuba and meet with Cuban leaders as first steps toward normalizing relations with the Communist-run island 90 miles off U.S. shores.

"Now there is a president who has raised hopes in many parts of the world -- I think excessive hopes," Castro said in an interview on state-run television.

"Because even if he's an honest man -- and I believe he is -- a sincere man -- and I believe he is -- one man alone cannot change the destiny of a country and much less the United States," said Castro, who replaced his ailing older brother Fidel Castro as president in February.

http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSTRE5020E020090103

[Judi Lynn]

20. Interesting remarks from Walter Lippman's CubaNews:

In response to: WSJ Myths about Cuba

To those who support the end of travel, trade, and remittance restrictions and the pathway to normalization:

Take note that this article from the WSJ like more you may see in the near future will suggest that we will have to wait a few more years to change U.S. Cuba policies. The British have an expression for such nonsensical sentiments, "Bollocks!". The media is priming up to lower public expectations for change in U.S. Cuba policy. Unless everyone who supports ending the restrictions speaks up and acts to let their representatives in Congress and to tell every member of the Obama Administration their positions, the incongruency and foolishness of our current policies will continue and both we, the American people and the Cuban people will continue to be the big losers. Let the Obama Administration know how important this issue is to you. http://change.gov/page/s/ofthepeople
Encourage him.

This media priming continues. An op-ed by Carlos Alberto Montaner published in the 12/29 NY Daily News http://www.nydailynews.com/opinions/2008/12/29/2008-12-29_barack_obama_can_crack_cuba_open__but_on.html suggests that President Obama will have to wait for Fidel Castro to die in order to make any headway with Cuba. However, Fidel Castro may live many years more. Longevity runs in the Castro family. Even his older brother Ramon Castro is still alive. Unless he knows something that we do not, I respectfully disagree with Mr. Montaner. U.S. foreign policy should not be determined on the mortality of one foreign leader, even one we dislike. The true power to influence Cuba lies in the reality that half the population of Cuba (more than 5,000,000) have relatives here in the United States. We can make progress in harnessing the power of those relations relatively quickly. And in case Mr. Montaner forgot, President Obama will confront this issue head on when virtually every Latin American leader will challenge him and our country at the Summit of Americas in April 2009 as to why we maintain this disastrous policy. It is time for some intellectual honesty and political leadership on the matter of U.S. Cuba relations.

It is also surprising how the media and thought leaders pick and choose their stories when it comes to U.S. Cuba relations. For example, why didn't the media cover the election story from Little Havana in Miami where on election night, pro-embargo extremists were cursing the election of President Obama and even waiving a large Confederate flag in front of Versailles Restaurant? That symbolic and distasteful demonstration should communicate that our next President and the incoming Administration does not owe the election to the interests that want to maintain the restrictions and the embargo--policies that are a failure and a stain on U.S. diplomacy and foreign policy.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CubaNews/

[Mika]

29. Not to mention the outright lies and complete distortions of Cuba's democratic processes.

One candidate for each seat is all we hear about it, without any mention that they're pointing to the final step - the Ratification of the elected candidates.


:hi:

-

[Judi Lynn]

30. True. As long as they can keep most Americans from actually finding out in person

as you have, and a few other D.U. posters from this country and Canada, etc., who've been there exactly during election time, the completely complacent, gullible ones in the country simply swallow what they've heard, without applying any critical thinking whatsoever, without taking the time to try to find out more about the subject, the way many more DU'ers have done.

To perpetuate this level of blissful ignorance throughout adulthood seems impossible, doesn't it? At some point their poor brains just seem to go to sleep slowly, while their reflexes keep working. Whatever they heard as children, during the Cold War, is what they continue to believe as adults, and pass on to their children, etc. without modification, or reality testing.

The minute the travel ban is dropped, and the rush to get to Cuba and get drunk and smoke every Cuban cigar in reach has subsided, Americans just may start focusing on finding out what has been REALLY denied them by the U.S. denial of their right to travel there: the truth about the Cuban people, and their government, and their history.