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.
Click
here to see the official announcement in Granma.
(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.
If Farinas does die, "it would
complicate our relations with Cuba," a European diplomat told AFP on
condition of anonymity.
Read More
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.
These dramatic gestures of protest are
unlikely to force the hand of the Cuban government, but they have
certainly shamed it.
The Globe and Mail
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.
Intuitions and hunches often amount to
wishful thinking. But in the light of what has happened to similar
regimes (think of Ceausescu’s Romania), a sudden collapse of the Cuban
regime could in fact be far more likely than it might seem at first
sight. If, as the Cuban government tells us, 65 dissidents can subvert
with their dissident talk a regime that claims to represent a people’s
revolution, what the Castro brothers are telling us is that they are
perfectly aware that the heritage of 50 years would hardly last 50
hours, if the regime renounced physical coercion.
March 7 - The immolation for the
freedom of Cuba by the prisoner of conscience Orlando Zapata reveals,
once again, the intrinsic evil of the Castro dictatorship. Hundreds of
thousands of men, women and children have encountered their deaths at
the hands of the regime’s repressive apparatus throughout 5 decades of
communist nightmare. Several generations of Cubans have never enjoyed
the most basic rights and freedoms. Nevertheless, the utter contempt
toward human life by the Castro brothers has not been able to silence
the voices of those who, like Orlando, prefer the physical death to the
spiritual death.
Canada
Free Press
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.
We'll have more in the upcoming issue
of Townhall Magazine. Click here for the complete article
Townhall.com
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.
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
(Above drawing
courtesy of Cuban artist Armando Tejuca. Click hereto visit his website)
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.
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.
Cuba Archive has photos and a detailed description of all the 11
Cuban prisoners who have died during hunger strikes in Castro's Gulag.
(Document is on PDF format)
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
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 lookstheotherwayand
so called businessmen and politiciansintheUS,
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
.
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!
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 onConversa Cuba Companionion 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
On the 15th. Anniversary of "El
Maleconazo"
August 5 - We have received photos that have never
been never published before, of the protests that took place in Havana
on August 5, 1994.
Karel Poort, a reader who lives in Holland, was
visiting Havana for the first time on that date and was able to take
dramatic photos of what happened.
I want to thank Karel for sharing these photos with
us. Click here to see the photos and a video EL MALECONAZO
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.
Dec. 17 - Cuba Facts is an ongoing series of succinct
fact sheets on various topics, including, but not limited to, political
structure, health, economy, education, nutrition, labor, business,
foreign investment, and demographics, published and updated on a regular
basis by the Cuba Transition Project staff at the University of Miami.
Click here to learn the truth about Cuba's Health, Education,
Personal Consumption and much more in pre-Castro Cuba.
Play soccer with Fidel
Grab the SOB and throw him as hard as you can. Move
the mouse and you'll see him fall as if he was on his way to Hell.