with Alberto de la Cruz talking about Cuba & other US-Latin America issues of the week.
Live now, and also archived for your listening convenience.
American and Latin American Politics, Society, and Culture
By Fausta
with Alberto de la Cruz talking about Cuba & other US-Latin America issues of the week.
Live now, and also archived for your listening convenience.
By Fausta
And many more decades of happy blogging to my friends, who are featured today in El Nuevo Herald,
Babalú: casa virtual de los cubanoamericanos
UPDATE,
Happy bloggiversary to American Digest, too!
By Fausta
In today’s podcast at 11AM Eastern, Henry Gomez and Val Prieto talk about the news: OAS ends Cuba suspension after 47 years.
Chat’s open at 10:45AM and the podcasts are archived for your listening convenience.
UPDATE
El Insulza Conspiracy
OAS Secretary-General Jose Miguel Insulza has sat placidly as Chavez and Ortega have masticated democracy in their own countries. Insulza is violating his own imperative to kick these tyrants out, because one of the rules of OAS membership is that all members be democracies. They’ve violated the Inter-American Democratic Charter since it was enacted in Lima, Peru, on Sept. 11, 2001.
Now begins the descent: Cuba’s pawns in the OAS are using their presumed legitimacy as democracies to open the door to Cuba’s brutal dictatorship, rendering the idea of democracy meaningless.
If that happens, the OAS will become just another anti-American talk shop, with Cuba driving the agenda.
Creepily enough, it will be financed by America, which bankrolls most of the OAS. The Obama administration is aware of this and thinking about yanking OAS funds if Castro sails in as full member.
Go read the rest.
By Fausta
Val Prieto, Siggy and others will be calling in.
Join us and call 646 652-2639 with your favorite poem! Chat’s open at 9:45AM.
By Fausta
I’m still on the road but the Carnival goes on! Welcome to the Carnival of Latin America and the Caribbean. If you would like your posts included in next week’s carnival please email me: faustaw2 “at” gmail “dot” com.
LATIN AMERICA
The New Battlefield in Latin America
ARGENTINA
Argentina blocks farm export tax
COLOMBIA
SWISS HELP FARC COVER UP ITS OWN BLUNDER
FARC, Chavez y Correa: el trio del terror
Love fest: Presidents Chávez and Uribe agree to bury the hatchet—for now
Hard Reality Of ‘Soft Power’ In Colombia
CUBA
Cuba to Allow Private Farming: Land Will Remain in Government Hands, However
ECUADOR
Ecuador assembly approves Constitution
New Ecuadorian Constitution has 494 Articles
Freedom of Speech Killed by Euthanasia in Ecuador
EL SALVADOR
Documentary on Hugo Chavez aired on Salvadoran TV (in Spanish). You can watch it in full at Fuerza Solidaria
Here’s the first part on YouTube
MEXICO
Sicarios mexicanos reciben formacion de extremistas en Iran – Terra Top-ranking Mexican criminals with military background travel to Iran via Venezuela for terrorist training.
VENEZUELA
Chavez pleads for investment as falling output fuels inflation
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez wore a suit for the occasion, and, grinning at about 300 business leaders he usually calls “oligarchs,” asked for help relieving a drought in investment.
Chavez minister anti inflation plan: Haggle!
Deadly massage : How not to tackle a soaring murder rate
Galp to Receive 1 Million Barrels of Oil From Venezuela Hugo Chavez keeps giving away Venezuela’s wealth at our expense
AMERICAN POLITICS
In South Florida Congressional Race, Incumbent and Challenger Have the Ethnic Bases Covered
Special thanks to Maria, Eneas, Siggy, Larwyn, Pat Patterson and Judith
By Fausta
Babalu: One Million Signatures
One million signatures may not force the Cuban government in and of itself to release Cuba’s political prisoners. But, one million signatures may be a giant step in exposing the reality of Cuba’s human rights violations to the world and especially to those who simply have refused to acknowledge said reality.
A number of human rights groups, organizations and institutions have come together in support of a petition calling for the release of Cuba’s political prisoners.The text of said petition is short, concise and to the point:
The Cuban Government is currently holding more than 220 political prisoners according to Amnesty International, the Cuban Committee for Human Rights, Human Rights Watch, and Reporters Without Borders. These prisoners are illegally held in prison according to the Universal Declaration on Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), which Cuba has signed and recognizes. Despite signing these documents, Cuba continues to suppress freedom of expression by outlawing peaceful advocacy for human rights and democratic reforms. In defiance of the universally-recognized rights to freedom of expression, association and assembly, Cuban activists are systematically targeted for persecution.
I am asking each and every one of you to please sign this petition.
May 21 is Cuba Solidarity Day:
Cuba Solidarity Day
The Cuban people need your help! People all over the world are joining together on Cuba Solidarity Day, this May 21, to stand beside the people of Cuba in their struggle for freedom and democracy. Let’s demonstrate our support for Cuba’s political prisoners, respect for the Inter-American Democratic Charter, and the right of the Cuban people to choose their own government and live in peace and freedom! Join us as we speak in one voice to demand peace, freedom, and democracy on the island!May 21 has great historic significance as it falls within a two-week period in which Cubans throughout the island remember those that have suffered under the Castro regime while struggling for freedom and human rights.
Click here to find out how YOU can participate in Cuba Solidarity Day.
More on both later. Cross-posted at PoliGazette.
By Fausta
Back in 1925 Noel Coward wrote his song We Must All Be Very Kind To Auntie Jessie, where he exhorts everyone to be kind to his very difficult and domineering aunt.
CNN must have taken Coward’s advice to heart:
Michael Graham at The Natural Truth and Henry Gomez at Babalu Blog came across a memo instructing CNN anchors – imparting some “Castro guidance”, that is – on how to be kind to uncle Castro:
Some points on Castro – for adding to our anchor reads/reporting:
* Please say in our reporting that Castro stepped down in a letter he wrote to Granma (the communist party daily), as opposed to in a letter attributed to Fidel Castro. We have no reason to doubt he wrote his resignation letter, he has penned numerous articles over the past year and a half.
Of course they have no reason to doubt it, because it’s the Cuban government saying it. CNN would do well to ask, From Fidel, a farewell, or a fraud?
The “Castro guidance” continues:
* Please note Fidel did bring social reforms to Cuba – namely free education and universal health care, and racial integration. in addition to being criticized for oppressing human rights and freedom of speech.
On the subject of racial integration, allow me to remind you Batista was of black ancestry.
Any of you having any questions on Cuban “universal” healthcare and “free education” please click on the label “Cuba” below this post and learn a few things about the Cuban apartheid system; ditto on oppression.
Did any of the CNN correspondents in Havana contact any of the Ladies in White recently? Or any of the Cubans asking for cambio?
By the way, has anyone ever heard the name of Oscar Elias Biscet mentioned on CNN? Particulary on the issue of abortion?
* Also the Cuban government blames a lot of Cuba’s economic problems on the US embargo, and while that has caused some difficulties, (far less so than the collapse of the Soviet Union) the bulk of Cuba’s economic problems are due to Cuba’s failed economic polices. Some analysts would say the US embargo was a benefit to Castro politically – something to blame problems on, by what the Cubans call “the imperialist,” meddling in their affairs.
Thank goodness someone at CNN has figured out that “the bulk of Cuba’s economic problems are due to Cuba’s failed economic polices.” Was high time someone did.
* While despised by some, he is seen as a revolutionary hero, especially with leftist in Latin America, for standing up to the United States.
And heaven forbid that CNN get thrown out of Cuba before they get to report that the tyrant’s croaked (or after it’s been made official) after half a century of ruining a people morally, financially and spiritually.
In yesterday’s podcast my dear friends Siggy and Val discussed the Castro “resignation”. You can listen to them here.
We weren’t kind to “Uncle Castro”.
UPDATE:
Via Pajamas Media, Four possible successors to Fidel Castro: Raul Castro, Ricardo Alarcon, Carlos Lage and Felipe Perez Roque.
By Fausta
This afternoon at 3PM Eastern I’ll be Ed Morrissey‘s guest, along with our mutual friend Val Prieto. We’ll be talking about Cuba, Venezuela and politics.
Tonight I’ll be liveblogging the debate at Heading Right.
Tomorrow at 11AM, Siggy and I will be talking about food with Happy Catholic.
Tuesday, January 29, at 11AM, Siggy and I will have a new, one-hour show.
During all my podcasts chat will be open at 10:45, and the call-in number is (646) 652-2639. Join us!