Gloria Estefan calls for march in support of Cuban protesters

[naaman fletcher]

Estefan expressed emotional and passionate support for the group Las Damas de Blanco, or Ladies in White, who were violently harassed and forced by government security agents aboard buses in a move that broke up one of their marches last week.

Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/03/23/1543491/gloria-estefan-announces-exile.html#ixzz0j1tdo9E5

[Mika]

1. Where did the busses drop them off?

At their homes. Like the last time they bussed away from another trespassing sit in.


Here's a picture of one of the "ladies" being brutalized by Castro's jackboots after refusing to stand up at this latest event....




Another of the "ladies" being brutalized by Castro's monsters....

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[Mika]

2. Good thing they weren't in Miami

If you protest by trespassing in Miami, you get treated like this ....







I've never seen anything like this in Cuba ....








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Unlike the Cuban "ladies" - who, after being cleared from the site they were trespassing on by unarmed female police officers, were given a ride to their homes - none in the above pix were given a bus ride home by American/Florida jackboots.

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[protocol rv]

3. Well, here in Venezuela we're still allowed to march

I guess you don't get it. Picking up a few old ladies and forcibly putting them on buses isn't going to be seen well by the international community.

By the way, I felt the Bush regime in the USA was also extremely abusive of the right to protest, and Americans should wake up and understand they are not allowed to march the way people are in other countries. But as I mentioned before, we should not let what the US government does become the gold standard. They have too many flaws.

The standard should be fairly simple: Peole should have the right to march, protest, carry signs, and express themselves. And this includes openly advocating the release of prisoners, complaining about jail conditions, and calling for a change at the top. Therefore, as far as I'm concerned, when you are so glib about these protesters being picked up, you are making a serious mistake. Maybe it's because you are American and don't know how it is in Latin America (outside of Cuba) - we like the right to protest and march, and to do so freely. And we also like the idea of going on strike, calling for the government to change its actions, and print books and newspapers criticizing the government. But I don't think you'll ever understand how it works.

[Mika]

4. How about their trespassing?

They were not marching. The "ladies do that on a regular basis, uninterupted.






At this last staged event they were doing a sit-in on the plaza where a permitted event was to take place. The "ladies" sit-in was nothing more than stagecraft to have themselves removed by authorities clearing the area for another event that was being staged with a legal permit to use the square.

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[Judi Lynn]

6. Makes great right-wing press for an audience which has been deliberately kept in the dark

for 50 years and doesn't go there to find out for themselves, like mushrooms, kept in the dark and fed crap.

Great photos, Mika. Thanks, a lot. :hi:

[Mika]

9. Ladies in White march on Cuba crackdown anniversary

Ladies in White march on Cuba crackdown anniversary
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/03/18/AR2010031801919.html

HAVANA (Reuters) - With tourists looking on, hundreds of pro-government protesters shouted down 40 members of the Cuban opposition group "Ladies in White" in Old Havana on the anniversary Thursday of a 2003 crackdown on dissidents.

State security agents kept the two sides separated during a loud verbal showdown in the Cuban capital's historic center and principal tourist attraction.

It was the fourth of seven days of marches scheduled to protest Cuba's jailing of 75 opponents and the third in a row in which the women have been confronted by government supporters. On Wednesday, Cuban police grabbed the dissidents by their hair, dragged them into a bus and drove them away.

The Ladies in White, whose members wore their traditional white clothes and marched with flowers in hand, is made up of wives and mothers of the 75 jailed dissidents, most of whom remain behind bars.

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Police did not intervene as Thursday's dueling marchers passed through Old Havana's narrow streets, their numbers at times forcing tourists along popular Calle Obispo to press against buildings to let them pass.

"I don't know if they are for or against. I don't know who they are," said German tourist Torstin Gesche as he waited for the marchers to pass.

Throughout the protest march, government supporters danced along the streets, shouting "Vive Fidel! Viva Raul! This street belongs to Fidel."

The Ladies in White shouted "Freedom!" and "Zapata lives."

[Judi Lynn]

5. Isn't THAT a hot one? Gloria Estefan's father was a bodyguard working for Fulgencio Batista

who went to a slight extreme, with his DEATH SQUADS torturing and executing dissenters.

Jesus H Christ on a pogo stick. Takes all kinds.

[Mika]

7. I can't heap her father's sins upon her, to be fair. What bugs me about Gloria is her own crap.

When she performed at the opening night of her own restaurant on Miami Beach she was bantering to the small crowd between tunes. She said that she wished for an end to the standoff between the US and Cuba. Some of the exile crowd there went into meltdown mode and started booing & pelting her with food. She had to run for it and opening night was ruined. LOL. But, her first foray into public US-Cuba politics was pro normalization.

Then, shortly thereafter & keeping her career in mind, she started the Cuba B.C.(Cuba Before Castro) exile-American nostalgia campaign. :puke:

T-shirts for sale at her restaurants, Bongo's. (She peddles this swill at Disney parks)


And the menu w/mention of the shirts at the bottom....
http://74.125.47.132/search?q=cache:tbnWjCTlixYJ:divadeals.y100.com/images/BongosCubanCafeMiamiALaCarteMenu52008.pdf+Gloria,+Cuba+BC&cd=11&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us

Cuba B.C. Collection

Made famous on the Today Show Summer Concert Series,this original Gloria Estefan creation remembers Cuba during it’s 1950’s Glory Days.

Women’s T-Shirt 100% black cotton, ribbed with capped sleeves and nail heads: S, M, L, XL, XXL 27.99

Men’s T-Shirt 100% black cotton, ribbed heavy weight, screen printing: S, M, L, XL, XL, XXL 19.99

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[Xipe Totec]

8. What I can never forgive her for, is her involvement in the 2000 elections

Over the Elian Gonzalez affair.

I hold her partly responsible for the loss of Florida in the 2000 elections.

I destroyed all the Estefan records in my collection that day, and have never willingly listened to any of her recordings again.