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Today is Our Fifth Anniversary

March 10 - Five years ago today, therealcuba.com went online.

I want to thank all of you for making therealcuba.com one of the most visited websites about Cuba.

A t-shirt stained with the blood of Orlando Zapata Tamayo

March 10 - In this photo, sent from Cuba by independent journalist Carlos Serpa Maceira, the mother of Cuban martyr Orlando Zapata Tamayo shows one of his t-shirts stained with blood marks, after one of the beatings that he suffered while in prison.

And then you have to hear those criminals running Cuba's government claiming that no one has ever been tortured in Castro's Gulag.

Lula compares Cuba's dissidents to Sao Paulo's common criminals

March 10 - Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva told the Associated Press that ""We have to respect the determinations of Cuba's judiciary and government in detaining people under Cuban legislation, as I would want them to respect Brazil's. I  wish that (the detention of political prisoners) did not happen, but I cannot question the reasons why Cuba detained them, just as I wouldn't want Cuba to question why there are prisoners in Brazil.  I believe that a hunger strike cannot be used as a pretext for human rights to ask for the freedom of prisoners. Imagine if all the bandits that are jailed in Sao Paulo begin a hunger strike and ask for their release."" he said.

The hypocrite, who is now president of Brazil, carried out several hunger strikes in protest against his country's 1964-1985 dictatorship.

Sean Penn thinks this is Cuba: He wants to send to jail journalists who call Chávez 'dictator'

March 9 - If Oscar-winning actor Sean Penn had his way, any journalist who called Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez a dictator would quickly find himself behind bars.

Penn, appearing on HBO's "Real Time with Bill Maher" on Friday, defended Chavez during a segment in which he detailed his work with the JP Haitian Relief Organization, which he co-founded.

"Every day, this elected leader is called a dictator here, and we just accept it, and accept it" said Penn, winner of two Best Actor Academy Awards. "And this is mainstream media, who should -- truly, there should be a bar by which one goes to prison for these kinds of lies."

Penn didn't say what should happen to himself and all those in the mainstream media, who refer to Fidel and Raul Castro as "presidents," when in 51 years they have never allowed a free election in Cuba.

I wonder how many years in jail would I get if in addition to calling Hugo Chávez a dictator, which he is, I also call Sean Penn an ass hole who licks the bloodied boots of fascist dictators, like Chávez and Castro. Read more

Granma confirms what we published last Saturday: Gen. Rogelio Acevedo has been fired (UPDATED)

March 9 - 6 PM Update - I heard more from my Cuban source today and he explained how this whole scheme works.

Drug traffickers come to Cuba to launder their money. Once they go through Cuban Customs, they drop a suitcase full of money at a prearranged place.

Later, custom agents "find" the abandoned suitcase, open it and see that it is full of cash.

Right then, the suitcase is confiscated and the money goes to Cuba's Central Bank, which in turn will pay the narcos their cut, some of it in cash some of it in services like allowing them to land in Cuba under the protection of Cuba's armed forces.

What Gen. Acevedo was allegedly doing, was keeping some of the money for himself. And Don Fidelone doesn't like his peons cutting into his business.

When some of the drug traffickers began complaining that they had dropped more money than what the Central Bank was reporting, Don Fidelone ordered his Mafia goons to keep an eye on the general.

And that's how they found $13 million hiding inside a water tank at his home.

The Godfather doesn't want a scandal to come out of this, so the general is being sent home and he will become invisible, like Roberto Robaina, Felipe Perez Roque, Carlos Lage and many other before him.  It is an offer that Acevedo can't refuse, since he knows very well what the alternative is.

March 9 - On Saturday, we told you that we had received information from a very reliable source inside Cuba, that Gen. Rogelio Acevedo, president of the Cuban Institute of Civil Aviation (ICAIC), was going to be fired from his post because agents of state security found $13 million inside a water tank at his home.

Today, Granma, the mouthpiece of the Cuban regime, is confirming our story.

Gen. Acevedo has been replaced by another general, Ramón Martínez Echevarría.

According to Granma, the Cuban regime will assign Acevedo "other duties."

We normally don't like to publish rumors, but this one came from a very reliable source that has been right so far on everything he has said, and that is why we decided to publish it.

By doing so, we were able to give you the information 3 days before the Castro regime made it public. No wonder the Castro brothers are so afraid of the Internet.

(See our Saturday post below)

March 6 - I have received information from a reliable source inside Cuba that Gen. Rogelio Acevedo, president of the Cuban Institute of Civil Aviation (ICAIC), was caught in money laundering. 

According to these sources, agents from state security found US$13 million hiding inside a water tank at Acevedo's home.

The regime doesn't want to cause a big scandal over this incident.

Acevedo will be asked to resign and sent home quietly under a "plan pajama," similar to a house detention.

While searching for a photo of Gen. Acevedo, I visited this page that Granma has with photographs of Cuba's generals: Granma

A photo that used to be there, of Gen. Acevedo with Cuba's dictator Fidel Castro, is now gone.  However, the text is still there.

Danny Glover finally opened his mouth in defense of those Cubans in jail....get your barf bags ready

March 8 - Actor Danny Glover joined 13 other "personalities" who signed a letter today to Secretary of State Hilary Clinton and Home Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, asking for a visa for the wives of two of the five Cuban intelligent officers who are currently in U.S. jails after being convicted of spying.

The letter to Clinton and Napolitano were sent in commemoration of the International Women's Day.

Giving a visa to Olga Salanueva and Adriana Pérez "will show to the world that we are represented by a government that wants better relations with other countries and respect basic human rights," said the letter.

In addition to Glover, some of the other "personalities" who signed the letter include Gayle McLaughlin, Mayor of Richmond, California; former congressman Esteban Torres; Noam Chomski; Angela Davis; Wayne Smith, former head of the US Interest Section in Cuba during the Jimmy Carter government; the former Catholic Bishop of Detroit Thomas Gumbleton and Joan Brown Campbell, the former Secretary General of the World Council of Churches, who was very active in support of the kidnapping and forced return to Cuba of Elian González.

As expected, none of these sub-human pieces of cow manure said one word about Cuban martyr Orlando Zapata Tamayo, about Cuban dissident Guillermo Fariñas, currently in a hunger strike, or any of the innocent Cubans languishing in Castro's Gulag.

Cuban political prisoners are "profoundly touched" by Fariñas' sacrifice

March 8 - The Castro regime assailed the 12-day hunger strike of a dissident journalist as "blackmail" on Monday as it rejected his demand to free 26 political prisoners needing medical care.

But Guillermo Farinas, 48, vowed to press ahead "to the end" with his protest fast, which he began the day after political prisoner Orlando Zapata died on the 85th day of his own hunger strike.

"I say to them: either they free the 26 political prisoners who are the sickest, or nothing. I am going to stick to my position to the end," Farinas told AFP by telephone.

According to the Spanish news agency, EFE, the Castro regime has asked Spain to accept Fariñas as a political refugee, but the dissident has not accepted the offer.

Carlos Pérez-Desoy, a Spanish diplomat accredited to Spain's Embassy in Havana, visited Fariñas at his home today to present the offer.

"I'll make a counteroffer, take out the 26 political prisoners who are dying. That day I'll end my hunger strike and return to being an independent journalist," Fariñas told the Spanish diplomat according to EFE.

Meanwhile, 43 Cuban political prisoners released a statement saying they were "profoundly touched" by Farinas' sacrifice.
"If the regime lets him die, it will show its complete contempt for justice and respect for human rights," they said. 

That fabulous Cuban Healthcare Part II

March 8 - “My nation is hardly perfect in human rights. A very large number of our citizens are incarcerated in prison, and there is little doubt that the death penalty is imposed most harshly on those who are poor, black, or mentally ill. For more than a quarter century, we have struggled unsuccessfully to guarantee the basic right of universal health care for our people. …but Cuba has superb systems of health care and universal education.” (Speech by Jimmy Carter at the University of Havana on May 14, 2002 which was broadcast throughout Castro’s island-wide fiefdom and trumpeted worldwide by all “news” agencies that earned Havana Bureaus.)

Thus did a former President of the United States prostrate himself before a regime that jailed and tortured political prisoners at a higher rate than Stalin’s and murdered (in absolute numbers) more political prisoners in its first three years in power (out of a population of 6.4 million) than Hitler’s murdered in its first six years (out of a population of 70 million.) Not to mention that Pres. Carter’s host insulted his nation as “a vulture preying on humanity!” and came within a hair of nuking it.

New Orleans Mayor, his wife and friends go to Cuba on vacation and stuck the $27,000 + bill to taxpayers

March 8 - A much criticized trip to Cuba by New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin and a delegation of other leaders cost taxpayers more than $27,000, according to expense reports obtained Monday by the WDSU I-Team.

The documents detail specific costs on the trip and include an itinerary of those who made the visit. They were obtained through a public records request filed last October -- shortly after the contingent made the 6-day visit to the Communist island nation.

Sixteen people, including the mayor's wife, New Orleans Police Department Superintendent Warren Riley, Fire Chief Charles Parent and City Attorney Penya Moses-Fields are listed on the itinerary.

The records show it cost the city about $2,500 to fly each person to Cuba and house them -- an amount that varied slightly from person to person.

The agenda prepared by the City and turned over to the I-Team shows that the delegation arrived in Cuba on Friday, October 16th. On Saturday, public records show, the delegation toured Cuba's Hemingway Museum and met with "cultural personalities." 

Sunday is listed as a "free" day before scheduled meetings on Monday and parts of Tuesday. Read more

No end to repression

March 8 - mages of another emaciated and frail Cuban dissident-turned-hunger-striker are a potent reminder of the frustration and powerlessness felt by political opponents on this Caribbean island. 

Guillermo Fariñas, a 48-year-old psychologist and freelance writer, stopped eating Feb. 24, the day after Orlando Zapata Tamayo died from an 85-day hunger strike, becoming a martyr for Cuba's opposition. Four more dissidents who are in jail have also launched hunger strikes.

U.S. to allow export of online services to Cuba, Iran and Sudan

March 8 - Seeking to exploit the Internet’s potential for prying open closed societies, the Obama administration will permit technology companies to export online services like instant messaging, chat and photo sharing to Iran, Cuba and Sudan, a senior administration official said Sunday.

On Monday, he said, the Treasury Department will issue a general license for the export of free personal Internet services and software geared toward the populations in all three countries, allowing Microsoft, Yahoo and other providers to get around strict export restrictions. New York Times

Fox News: Honoring a Cuban Freedom Fighter

The hypocritical silence of the Hollywood elite after the murder of Orlando Zapata Tamayo.

Not one word from Oliver Stone, Danny Glover, Harry Belafonte, Sean Penn and the other useful idiots.

Spain, Cuba And the Death Of Orlando Zapata

March 7 - The death of Orlando Zapata shows up the extreme fragility of the Cuban regime. 

After 50 years of total control of everything in Cuba, the fact that it has to use these means of repression on a bricklayer, whose only form of resistance has been peaceful and verbal, can only mean that the regime fears its citizens as much as they fear the regime – or perhaps a little more. 

All these years, Where has Canada been?

Castro is getting into the insurance business to rape those traveling to Cuba

March 6 - Beginning on May 1, the Cuban regime will require that anyone traveling to Cuba carries a travel insurance that includes medical coverage issued by a company "recognized by Cuba."

No information was given regarding which companies are recognized by the Cuban regime. 

At every airport, Don Fidelone will have counters where those tourists or residents who want to enter his island, can buy a policy from "Cuban insurance companies."

The new measure covers tourists, Cuban-Americans traveling to Cuba and foreigners living in Cuba with a temporary residence permit.

The only exceptions are diplomats and those representing companies doing business in the island. 

If you are traveling to Cuba, get your pocketbook ready and bend over, Don Fidelone wants to sell you an insurance policy that you can't refuse.

If you thought that dealing with Aetna and Blue Cross Blue Shield was hard, wait until you try to collect from Crook & Crook Insurance S.A.

"There are moments in the lives of nations where martyrs are needed and I think that moment has arrived"

(Cuban dissident Gullermo Fariñas after he suffered a beating at the hands of Castro's goons. His crime? Demanding access to the Internet)

March 5 - A dissident journalist who has gone nine days without eating or drinking told The Associated Press on Friday that he is willing to give his life to call attention to the plight of Cuba's political prisoners. 

If he does, Guillermo Farinas would be the second hunger striker to die on the communist island in as many weeks, and his death would be sure to spark a new round of international condemnation of the Castro government. 

"There are moments in the lives of nations where martyrs are needed and I think that moment has arrived," Farinas, gaunt, bald and with fallow brown eyes, said during an interview at his shabby, two-story home with walls of faded pink and lime-green. Associated Press

The truth about the left's health care paradise

March 4 - Liberals pushing for free health care often site Fidel Castro's fiefdom as evidence of how to do it right. Problem is, foreign leaders, celebrities, patients and media are shown only the good stuff that is maintained for PR purposes and for the Cuban elite.

Humberto Fontova wrote about this for us in "Cuba's Free and Fabulous Health Care." If you haven't read it, please do -- it is a great tutorial on the truth about Fidel's glorious hospitals.

In his piece, Fontova mentions a site called "The Real Cuba." The site gives the real story about what's going on at the Left's island paradise. The page on Cuban health care is sobering. Here are a few photos from "The Real Cuba" -- if you first think you're looking at photos from Auschwitz, don't be surprised.

A video of Havana B.C.

Havana in the late 1950s, before Castro and his band of human termites came in and destroyed it.

Gorki Aguila returned to Cuba today (UPDATED)

6 PM Update - Gorki Aguila returned to Cuba today after 11 months outside.

Several members of his band, Porno para Ricardo, were waiting for him at the airport.

Asked by journalists at the airport if he was planning to stay in Cuba, Gorki said that "we have plans to make an international tour with the group," but didn't mention any dates.

March 4 - Cuban musician Gorki Aguila, lead singer of the group Porno para Ricardo, plans to return to Cuba on Thursday after an 11 months absence.

Gorki's return was planned for yesterday, but at the last minute he was not allowed to board the plane from Mexico City to Havana because he had failed to extend the expiration date of his passport.

Gorki's agent in Mexico said that the passport of the singer was still valid and that it was possibly a maneuver by the Cuban government to stop him from flying, since several foreign reporters were waiting for him at Havana's airport.

On Tuesday of this week, the singer told the Associated Press that he was afraid of what the Cuban regime may not allow him to come out of the plane in Havana.

During the interview with the AP, Gorki wore a t-shirt printed with the words: "Che Guevara International Murderer Oppressor of the Cuban People." (See picture above)

Watch Castro's Gestapo abusing young Black Cubans

Castro's police beating a group of young Black Cubans. At the end, they pull one of them from the patrol car to beat him one more time, even though he is handcuffed.

I am sure that when Danny Glover, Harry Belafonte, Naomi Campbell and the Black Caucus see this video, they'll be very proud and will send e-mails congratulating the "white masters' in Cuba for a job well done.

This is not Auschwitz, this is the psychiatric hospital in Castro's Cuba (UPDATED)

March 2 - These photos were taken at Havana's psychiatric hospital, known as Mazorra, in early January of this year and taken out of the island by people who risked their lives to show the world what really is happening in Castro's Cuba.

These are several of the more than 40 patients who died of hypothermia at the hospital, when temperatures near freezing hit the area where Mazorra is located.These patients died because of the negligence of those in charge of this hospital, and after they died, hospital officials threw them on a table, one on top of the other, like bags of garbage at the local dumpster.

This is the fantastic healthcare that Cubans receive, according to Michael Moore and other useful idiots.

Patients are treated worse than animals. It is the cruelty of that brutal regime that has been oppressing the Cuban people for more than 51 years, while the dictator murdering and oppressing Cubans is referred to as "president," and embraced by Latin American leaders who were democratically elected.

Many show marks that indicate that patients were beaten before they died.

Remember the face and the name of this Spanish actor

March 1 - Remember his name: Guillermo Toledo and also his face.

This Spanish actor said today that Cuban dissident Orlando Zapata Tamayo, was a "common criminal" and that the "alleged dissidents" who are currently in Castro's Gulag are "terrorists."

According to this bastard, the dissidents who are currently in jail in Cuba, like Dr. Darsi Ferrer or Dr. Oscar Elias Biscet, are "people who have committed terrorist acts against the Cuban government, acts of betrayal of their fatherland and a bunch of other crimes."

"They are neither dissidents nor political prisoners," he added. "That person, who they referred to as a dissident, was nothing but a common criminal, who was forced or manipulated by other persons to go on a hunger strike to the extreme of taking his own life."

I said to remember this bastard's name and face because I wouldn't doubt that in a few months, or years, he'll be in Miami, New York or L. A. promoting his latest film.

It has happened before. They hate us, but they love our money.

Cuba's deadly "justice"

March 1 - Bricklayer Orlando Zapata Tamayo didn't commit murder. He didn't plot an assassination or the violent overthrow of the government. He was arrested on March 20, 2003, in Cuba, while taking part in a hunger strike to demand the release of political prisoners, and was sentenced to three years in prison on charges of showing contempt for Fidel Castro as well as public disorder and disobedience, according to Amnesty International. Over the next six years, he is believed to have had eight more hearings and was convicted at least three more times, bringing his total sentence to about 36 years -- a figure his friends say may be inexact because the proceedings were secret. Now Zapata is dead after another hunger strike, this time for 85 days, to protest beatings and other prison conditions.

VIVA ZAPATA!

Mexican President Felipe Calderón wore a broad smile as he warmly greeted Cuba's Raúl Castro at the Rio Group summit on the posh Mexican Riviera last week. The two men, dressed in neatly pressed guayabera shirts, shook hands as Mr. Calderón, with no small measure of delight, gestured to his audience to welcome Mexico's very special guest. 

A mere 300 miles away, in a military prison hospital in Havana, political prisoner Orlando Zapata lay in a coma. For 84 days the 42-year-old stone mason of humble origins had been on a hunger strike to protest the Castro regime's brutality toward prisoners of conscience. His death was imminent. 

Zapata's grim condition was no secret. During his strike, for 18 days, he had been denied water and placed in front of an air conditioner. His kidneys had failed and he had pneumonia. For months human-rights groups had been pleading for international attention to his case.

But over at the Playa del Carmen resort on the Yucatán, Mr. Calderón wasn't about to let Zapata spoil his fiesta, or his chance to improve his image among the region's undemocratic governments. The summit went on as planned with no mention of Havana's human-rights hell. On Tuesday Zapata passed away. Mary Anastasia O'Grady Wall Street Journal 

This is why you can't believe what foreign correspondents write from Cuba

Feb. 28 - I remember when in 2007 a producer of ABC 20/20 contacted me because they were planning a segment on healthcare in Cuba.

At first they told me that ABC had a bureau in Havana and they could get any information, that I thought would be needed, to show the reality of Cuba's healthcare.

But ABC's bureau in Havana refused to do anything that would be considered "controversial" by Cuba's totalitarian regime.

They were willing to take videos of Cubans rolling cigars; dancing; playing baseball; walking on Havana's Malecon or anything else that would not enrage the Cuban dictatorship.

When asked if they were willing to interview Cuban dissidents, their response was: NO WAY.

Then a few days later they came back with this incredible proposal: "Well, we are willing to interview some dissidents, but first we will have to ask the Cuban government for permission."

After that, we knew that working with ABC's bureau in Cuba would be a waste of time and went ahead to try to get the pictures and videos that were required without using them.

Thanks to the courage of Dr. Darsi Ferrer, who is currently languishing in a jail in Castro's Gulag, ABC was able to get what it wanted.

But that was not the end of it!

When the Cuban regime found out that ABC was preparing a segment about the reality of Cuba's healthcare, they threatened to close ABC's Cuba bureau, even though it had not participated in any way on the 20/20 segment.

In my personal opinion, closing that bureau would have been a good idea, because it would have saved ABC money on something that was completly worthless, at least from a news standpoint.

But the big honchos at ABC felt a different way. They accepted Castro's blackmail and at the end, what was supposed to be a 15 minute segment became a 4 minute blurb announcing another 20/20 program the following week about socialized medicine in the UK and Canada. Only a 10 second video was shown, from about 30 minutes that was filmed by Dr. Ferrer.

Later, thanks to the effort of Humberto Fontova, all the videos were shown on Fox News, which doesn't have a bureau in Cuba and cannot be blackmailed by the Castro brothers.

I bring all that now because of an article in today's Miami Herald about how foreign correspondents lie, when they report from inside Cuba, in order to be able to stay in the island.

Here is the Miami Herald article.

11 Cuban political prisoners have died in hunger strikes since the Castros took power

Feb. 28 - Fidel Castro served only 18 months of a 15-year prison sentence for leading an attack on the Moncada Army Barracks.

Dictator, Fulgencio Batista caved to public demands and freed all the attackers.

During their captivity, they had enjoyed privileges for political prisoners -comfortable living conditions, visitors, plentiful reading materials, and participation in group sports.

During the 51-year Castro regime political prisoners have been subjected to very harsh conditions, hard labor, and appalling treatment, including torture, lack of medical attention, and even killings by guards. Many have resorted to hunger strikes demanding humane treatment; sadly, some have paid with their lives.

The main stream media keeps saying that Orlando Zapata is the first Cuban political prisoner to die as a result of a hunger strike, since Pedro Luis Boitel died in 1972. But that information is incorrect.

There are eleven, not two, political prisoners who have died in Cuban prisons in hunger strikes.

Amnesty International names Dr. Darsy Ferrer Cuba's 55th. prisoner of conscience

Feb. 27 - Amnesty International today adopted its 55th prisoner of conscience in Cuba and urged Cuban dictator Raúl Castro to release him immediately and unconditionally.
Darsi Ferrer, Director of the ‘Juan Bruno Zayas’ Health and Human Rights Centre in Havana, has been detained since July 2009 on spurious charges of receiving illegally obtained goods, an offence usually immediately bailed.

He has not been brought to trial and he’s being held in a maximum security prison in Havana intended for inmates who have been convicted of violent crimes.

“The accusation against Darsi Ferrer is clearly a pretext. We believe he was detained as a punishment for his work to promote freedom of expression in Cuba,” said Gerardo Ducos, Cuba researcher at Amnesty International. Amnesty International

Please sign the Internet petition for the freedom of Dr. Darsi Ferrer

Sign the petition: Freedom for Dr. Darsi Ferrer

Imprisoned for 'dangerousness' in Cuba

Feb 27 - For nearly five decades, Fidel Castro silenced virtually all forms of dissent in Cuba, locking up anyone who dared to criticize his government. After ailing health forced him to hand control to his younger brother in 2006, many hoped that repression would ease. But Raúl Castro has allowed scores of political prisoners arrested under Fidel to languish. One of those, Orlando Zapata Tamayo, died last week after an 85-day hunger strike, which he had undertaken to protest the conditions in which he was held. 

Raúl Castro has also incarcerated scores more political prisoners, such as Ramón Velásquez, who completed a three-year sentence in January, but was reportedly detained again following Zapata Tamayo's death. I first spoke to Ramón's wife, Bárbara, on the phone last March. She told me how on Dec. 10, 2006, they had set out with their 18-year-old daughter, Rufina, on a "march of dignity" across Cuba to call for respect for human rights and freedom for political prisoners. 

They marched silently, from east to west, sleeping on roadsides or in the homes of people who took them in. Along their way, police detained them, they were attacked and cars even ran them off the road. They kept marching. In January 2007, more than 185 miles from where they started, Ramón was arrested. He was accused of "dangerousness," tried in a closed hearing and sentenced to three years in prison.

Remember, this has been going on for 51 years, while the world looks the other way and so called businessmen and politicians in the US, Latin America and the rest of the world go to Cuba with only one thing in mind: "How can I make some money from the exploitation of these 11 million Cuban slaves."

Lula takes a bath with the murderers of Orlando Zapata Tamayo, by Pong

Lula had a great time meeting with Cuba's walking corpse

Feb. 24 - Less than 24 hours after the death of Cuban prisoner of conscience Orlando Zapata Tamayo, Brazilian President Lula da Silva had a very friendly meeting with his murderers.

Lula met with Cuba's walking corpse and his brother, made jokes, laughed a lot and never asked a question about their latest victim.

Orlando Zapata Tamayo was a prisoner of conscience.

Luis Inacio Lula da Silva is a president without a conscience.

Big difference between the Cuban patriot and Lula.

Maybe some day, Lula will have to defend his love affair with the oppressors of the Cuban people, and his probable defense will be: "I don't remember, I was drunk most of the time."

Letter from Juan Almeida's son to Cuban dictator Raúl Castro about the death of Orlando Zapata Tamayo

Juan Juan Almeida García, son of Comandante Juan Almeida Bosque, considered by the Cuban regime as a hero of the "robolution," wrote the following letter to Cuban dictator Raúl Castro. It was published in Facebook.

Juan Juan Almeida has been arrested several times for demanding that the Cuban regime allows him to leave the country to receive medical care.

Here is a translation of the letter:

Havana, Cuba, Tuesday February 23, 2010

Mr. Raúl Castro

Today, a human being has died. His name was Orlando Zapata Tamayo.

I don't know if he was white, black, heterosexual, gay, short, tall or a midget...I don't know. He died after a lengthy hunger strike demanding what one day he understood were his rights.

I ask you President: Don't you feel embarrassed? Must we go to such extremes? ...Don't you think it is better to yield, to put aside your arrogance to allow you to listen?

Today I am not asking for my exit permit, I am asking for much more.  I beg, I plead you to resign. Get out of this country. You don't deserve respect.

Juan Juan Almeida García

The mother of Orlando Zapata Tamayo talks to Yoani Sánchez

Click here to watch the video and read an English translation of what she said Generation Y

Cuba's free and fabulous healthcare

Feb. 23 - The Castroite propaganda in Sicko so outraged people cursed by fate to live in Castro's fiefdom that they risked their lives by using hidden cameras to film conditions in genuine Cuban hospitals, hoping they could alert the world to Moore's swinishness as a propaganda operative for a Stalinist regime.

At enormous risk, two hours of shocking, often revolting, footage was obtained with tiny hidden cameras and smuggled out of Cuba to Cuban-exile George Utset, who runs the superb and revelatory website The Real Cuba. The man who assumed most of the risk during the filming and smuggling was Cuban dissident -- a medical doctor himself – Dr. Darsi Ferrer, who was also willing to talk on camera, narrating much of the video's revelations. Dr Ferrer worked in these genuinely Cuban hospitals daily, witnessing the truth. More importantly, he wasn't cowed from revealing this truth to America and the world. (A recent samizdat reports that the black Dr. Ferrer is currently languishing in a Cuban prison cell --not far from Gitmo, by the way-- undergoing frequent beatings.

Originally, ABC's John Stossel planned to show the shocking smuggled videos in their entirety, during a 20/20 show. Alas, on Sept. 12th 2007, the 20/20 show ran only a tiny segment on Cuba's "real" healthcare, barely 5 minutes long and with almost none of the smuggled video footage. What happened?   Humberto Fontova

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A letter and photos from Castro's paradise

Feb. 10 - Our friend Val Prieto has several photos at Babalu that were taken recently in Havana by a Canadian.

The photos speak for themselves.

Popular protests during the funeral of Cuban patriot Gloria Amaya González

This video was taken during the funeral of Gloria Amaya González, the mother of Cuban prisoners of conscience Ariel and Guido Sigler.

Her sons were allowed to attend the funeral for a few hours.

Ariel Sigler is very ill and is currently so weak that he had to be transported in an ambulance and had to use a wheel chair because he cannot walk. The Castro brothers still refuse to set him free.

When the two brothers were taken back to jail, you can hear people yelling "Asesinos," "Abajo Fidel," "Abajo la dictadura."

Gloria Amaya fought every day for the freedom of her sons. She died while they were still being jailed by the criminal regime that holds power in Cuba. Click here to see the video
 

Do you want to know why is there an energy crisis in Venezuela?

Jan. 29 - Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chávez blames the drought for the severe energy crisis that has forced his government to implement electricity rationing n the country.

According to Chávez, the drought has dried up reservoirs and rivers that fuel Venezuela's hydroelectric plants.

But the same severe drought has affected Venezuela's neighbor, Colombia, without causing a crisis.

The real reason for Venezuela's energy crisis is that the lack of maintenance at the country's hydroelectric plants, has caused most of them to operate at only 40 or 50% capacity.

The largest power companies are state-owned CVG Electrificación del Caroní (EDELCA) and Compania Anonima de Administracion y Fomento Electrico (CADAFE) accounting respectively for approximately 63% and 18% of generating capacities.

For over a year, technicians who work at the CADAFE Planta Centro hydroelectric plant, located in Moron, in the state of Carabobos, have been warning that it is in a state of semi-destruction and that many of the country other plants are in similar condition and there is a possibility that vthe entire power grid could collpase.

But the warnings were ignored by Chávez, who has dilapidated 800 billion dollars since he came to power setting up puppet regimes in Central and South American countries; buying arms, fighter planes and ships to prepare for an imaginary invasion and trying to keep Cuba's economy from collapsing.

Take a look at these photos of the CADAFE Planta Centro and see why there is no electricity in Venezuela.

It is not El Niño! it is not the drought! IT IS THE STUPID SYSTEM THAT DOESN'T WORK!

Click here:  CADAFE PLANTA CENTRO

Yusnaimi was released on Thursday afternoon. Listen to our interview with her

Dec. 10 - Yusnaimi Jorge Soca, the wife of Dr. Darsi Ferrer, was released on Thursday afternoon, approximately 7 hours after she was arreste by Castro's Gestapo when she tried to participate in a march to commemorate the International Human Rights Day.

Last night, I was a guest on Conversa Cuba Companioni on Blog Talk Radio and was able to reach Yusnaimi at her home in Havana and she explained everything that happened on Thursday.

Listen to the audio:

Postcard from Las Piedras, Cuba

In “Slums of Havana” Award -winning journalist David Adams takes viewers in a journey through the decaying infrastructure of Havana, and the conditions under which many there are forced to live due to a shortage of adequate living spaces. Reporte Virtual

It was difficult, but they got there

May 20 - Getting the Marti t-shirts to Cuba hasn't been easy.

This weekend they finally reached some of the dissidents who will help distribute them.

Some of the t-shirts were distributed in Havana and others were sent to Cardenas and Holguin.

I want to thank Dr. Darsi Ferrer and the Plantados for the great help they have provided me with this project and I also want to thank all our readers who have contributed to this effort.

We are having more t-shirts printed and I'm looking at different ways of getting them to Cuba.

This photo was taken last weekend when several of the dissidents got together to receive the first t-shirts.

From left to right: Dr. Darsi Ferrer Ramirez, Rafael Leyva Leyva, Carol Susent Cruz and Pedro Moises Calderin.

Rafael and Carol live in Holguin and took several of the t-shirts to be distributed there.

We want to thank the following readers who have contributed to our campaign:

Ruth E. Cooke - Diego Trinidad III - Daisy Varela - Miguel Beltra - Marco Polo - R. Duval - Dona Flores - Henry Agueros - Christopher Glick - Elena Borkland -

Odalys Fabregas - Fernando Dominicis - Zivainla Sahl - Alfredo Zayas - Andy Grubbs - R. Campanioni - Ana J. Martinez - Liliana Quincoses - Pete Guevara - Constantino Peña - Angel Valdes - José A. González-Posada - Francisco A. Gómez

If you want to help with the t-shirts and postcards projects, please send a donation:

You can also send a check to: The Real Cuba - P.O. BOX 835308 - Miami, FL 33283-5308

Click here to learn more about our projects for 2009

Racism in Castro's Cuba

This documentary about racism in Castro's Cuba was aired Sunday, April 26, on Channel 41 in Miami.

Fidel Castro, a vulgar liar in any language