Mojito!

At the end of the 1980s, when the Sandinista leader Daniel Ortega had emerged as an international figure, he cast around for someone to ghost-write his autobiography.   One of his aides casually asked me if I might be interested. I told him no – not because Ortega didn't have a fascinating life story, but because he was certainly not going to tell it honestly in a book.   Ortega never produced an autobiography, but now, according to reports from Havana, Fidel Castro is about to publish a memoir. It is no more likely to be candid than Ortega's would have been. Few living figures could contribute as much as Castro to our understanding of the second half of the 20th century. Don't expect him to do it, though.   Castro has lived almost his entire life as a clandestine revolutionary. To such figures, truth is always malleable, always subservient to political goals.   Whatever Castro's goal now, it is certainly not confronting difficult and complex truths or reflecting deeply on the course of his life. Castro's career has been about myth-making; there is no reason to believe his memoir will be any different.   Presumably Castro will describe his revolutionary war in the 1950s as intense and full of heroics, as no doubt it was. Some historians, however, marvel at how little fighting Castro's men actually had to do and how easily the old dictatorship collapsed. Nor are we likely to find new insights into Castro's relationship with his brother, Raúl; with their highly popular comrade Camilo Cienfuegos, who died in a plane crash that Castro described as an accident but that some Cubans suspect was a political assassination; or with Che Guevara, who by many accounts broke with him over his decision to lead Cuba into the Soviet bloc.   Castro cannot be reasonably expected to renounce his beliefs or implicate himself in killings or atrocities. Nonetheless it would be fascinating to learn whether he still believes it was necessary to execute hundreds of his countrymen without trial in the first weeks after his victory in 1959; whether he wishes the Soviet Union had taken his advice and launched a nuclear first strike against the United States; and whether he regrets the repression and mass imprisonment of gay people, other "lifestyle dissidents", and intellectuals who supported his cause but broke with him after his first years in power.   Was Castro sincere when, during his guerrilla war, he swore that he was not a Communist? If so, when did he change, and why? Looking back, does he believe he might have chosen a better course?   Although Castro is built on a larger-than-life scale, he has never been known as reflective or self-aware. His ideology has evidently not changed in half a century. For much of that time he was widely said to hold more direct personal control over his people than any leader in the world. How did that feel? Was it necessary? Don't buy Castro's memoir expecting insightful reflection on questions like these.   Revolutionaries who come to power by force of arms usually have great crimes in their background. Leaders who survive campaigns by great powers to destroy them do not survive because they observe the niceties of law. Subversives who shape world events by covert action and violence work in shadows and detest the light of day.   Few people in the world know as many explosive geopolitical secrets as Castro. Within him he is carrying a blockbuster best-seller. He is unlikely ever to write it. Like the disciplined militant he is, he will take his trove of secrets to the grave.

As featured here on the site, Johnny Casuccio was a champion for Cuban artists. He passed away last August leaving many devastated friends behind as well as artists.
Here is a link to a guestbook to allow people to offer tribute.

There will be a final sale as his gallery is being closed.
It is a great opportunity to acquire fantastic (and realistic) Cuban art.

In Mojito we introduce the idea of the RC Church intervening in Cuba. Our speculation might not be too far off...

From Andrea Spinelli

The Cuban government led by Raul Castro has officially accepted and the release of 52 political dissidents imprisoned in the spring of 2003, the "Black Spring": The announcement came during a meeting yesterday between President Castro in Havana The Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez, Ambassador Miguel Angel Moratinos and Cardinal Jaime Ortega.  

The Iberian ambassador, shortly before returning home, was received by Castro and the Cuban Minister, after days of negotiations were ongoing strategic Cuba-Spain-Vatican to persuade the Castro regime to operate to meet the pressing demands the international community.  

According to a statement from the local Catholic Church, issued on the sidelines of the meeting, five of the dissidents will be released already in the day today, Thursday, July 8 and for the other 47 times will be about three to four months. Local authorities have stressed that the prisoners "could leave the island" to Spain.   Despite the silence of the Cuban authorities, some time there had been negotiations between Madrid and Havana, Cuba mediated by the Catholic Church, for the release of political dissidents, yesterday's announcement represents another step forward after the meeting May 20 between Ortega and Castro, which led to the liberation of Ariel Sigler and transfer of prisoners to prisons closer to places of residence. It should be noted that the international community is sensitized by the hunger strike in prison, still in place, the dissident Guillermo Farinas: more than four months Farinas has chosen fasting to demand the release of 25 anti-Castro dissidents. Hospitalized in Santa Clara, almost desperate conditions, Farinas said that the strike will not stop until they will be contacted by the Cuban authorities.   The reaction of domestic opponents to the regime, before the news of the release of 52 political prisoners, has been rather tepid: according to the spokesman of the Damas de Blanco, Laura Pollan, "If we are forced deportations certainly can not speak of progress on the human rights front, "he said, referring to the" possibility "for free, announced by the regime to flee to Spain. It was also underlined by the blogger Yoani Sanchez, the "liberation" is actually a "deportation" means the forced emigration, deportation, exile is standard practice to dispose of non-conformity with the procedure. "If you do not like, go away" is repeated to the Cubans, since childhood. It also complained that still do not know the names of the five detainees to be released today.   The fear is that the Castro regime are being made to create a real airline ad hoc, with weekly flights, to "invite" expatriation who disagrees with the administration of Raul Castro. Spain, France and Chile planned destinations.   After this amnesty will remain about a hundred dissidents in Cuban jails. But the term "dissident" is not pleasing to the scheme: "criminal" or "mercenary Yankees are certainly more popular in the definition of those who feel their conscience dictates not align with the existing Castro in the Caribbean island. And this is why, legally speaking, that prevents their complete liberation

Sean Penn is an ardent admirer. Thousands were bored to sleep by the two part Soderburgh picture. Millions have bought the TShirt. But what is the truth...

The crackdown on independent journalists is intensifying, with three cases of journalists being jailed, arrested or summoned in the past few days. The journalist who has been jailed is Dania Virgen García of Primavera Digital and CubaNet, who was given a 20-month sentence on 23 April. Her case brings the number of journalists imprisoned in Cuba to 25.

Arrested at her home in the Havana suburb of San Miguel del Padrón on 22 April, García was tried and convicted in less than 48 hours and was taken to the women’s prison known as the “Manto Negro” (Black Veil) because of its bad reputation. The regime’s haste to “pass justice” appears to have been due to the municipal elections held on 25 April

The charges on which García, 41, was convicted have yet to be confirmed, but she supported and participated in the marches staged by the Ladies in White, a group formed by the mothers, wives and sisters of political prisoners whose activities have been suppressed by the authorities in recent days.

Independent journalist Yosvani Anzardo Hernández was arrested at his home in San Germán, in the eastern province of Holguín, on the morning of 24 April. His family does not know why. The editor of the newspaper Candonga, Anzardo was detained for two weeks in September 2009, when police confiscated the electronic equipment he needed to produce the newspaper.

Magaly Norvis Otero Suárez, an independent journalist who reports for the Hablemos Press news centre and Miami-based Radio Martí, has been given a summons to report to the National Revolutionary Police in Havana for “a conversation” on 29 April. A staunch supporter of the Ladies in White, Norvis also keeps a blog in which she writes about arbitrary arrests and human rights violations.

Finally, police used force to arrest Calixto Ramón Martínez Arias, another Hablemos Press reporter, on 23 April as he was covering an event in the Havana suburb of Marianao to commemorate imprisoned dissident Orlando Zapata Tamayo’s death. Martínez has been charged with “insulting behaviour.”

“The international community cannot continue to remain silent in the face of the suffering of Cuba’s dissidents and the lack of freedoms imposed by a regime whose hints of a possible opening stopped short at the threshold of human rights,” Reporters Without Borders said.

Independent journalist Guillermo Fariñas Hernández is meanwhile continuing a hunger strike to press for the release of the prisoners of conscience who are in poorest health. Reporters Without Borders has urged him to call off the protest but Fariñas says he is ready to die.

With a total of 25 journalists currently detained, including Reporters Without Borders correspondent Ricardo González Alfonso, Cuba ranks behind only Iran and China as one of the world’s biggest prisons for the media.

Photo : http://www.humanrightscuba.com/2010...

http://www.scribd.com/full/16163639?access_key=key-2gmk4xdgjqpmyzmkvuou

From Yoani Sanchez blog --- Generation Y:
http://www.desdecuba.com/generationy/?p=1687&cp=1#comment-46713
Albert (qui ose gagne)
Abril 29th, 2010 at 05:26 isn’t ironic?
batista’s & his regime inspired the rebolution acording to fidelious babosi (I hate to agree but I must).
Batista allowed corruption, exploitation, abuse of laws, prostitution & gambling & made more than evident the gap betweent the have’s & have’s not” … to be short.
Now … 50 odd years later we have corruption, exploitation, abuse of laws & the same gap between the “have’s & have’s not”
Borrowing from a comment from someone that have seen many a cuban well dressed, driving a late model car & lining up to enter a nightclub (if I take it as face value) proves the existence of the ever elusive “elite” as it existed in batista’s time.
Perhaps they are the children of the nomenklatura or part of the corruption regardless … they exist.
They exist in this 50 odd year rebolution inspired by the quest for equality & fairness.
Yes, cubans are better educated & have a good health system & subsidized food & other great benefits yet …
They are still poor, underpaid (exploited) abused & repressed, just like in batista’s time.
I don’t remember reading about starving cubans but I remember reading & hearing about cubans picking thru the trash … a directive was passed “legislating” the activity of the buzos.
I am sure the buzos “love” to pick in the trash for a source of income or substinence.
I do remember reading & hearing about the transportation system serving a large number of the regular population, where as always the uncany cuban “resolve” overcomes the shortcommings of the service … while the late model cars pass by …
I do remember the black market & the reason for its existence, I also remember most cubans holding a 2nd. even 3th. job to make ends meet.
That is the black market that makes available (for a profit) luxury items … like clothing, food stuffs, shoes etc. so: where does the money come from to support such extravagances which according to the fidelious babosi the people does not need?
As I said before … from the cuban’s back, from working, bartering, diving into refuse bins, prostituting, selling drugs, stealing … why … because they have to survive, specially after the 12th day of the month.
Batista was bad for the cuban people, the situatio was horrid thru the country … after 50 odd years … it remains the same, names have hanged, faces have changed, slogans have changed … the greed & corruption remains the same …
While filling their mouth w/Marti’s words about his love for Cuba, comparing themselves to him, to Maceo & all the greats … fidelious babosi and his lackeys betray, lie & steal … like a prostitute, they sold themselves to greed, confort & power.
As it were … they lay in their beds, w/their soul’s legs wide open offering it for sale, cheap & degraded.

In writing "Mojito", after reading just about everything available on the beard and his relationships, I came to the conclusion and wrote that he did all his possible opponents for leadership in. He seemed paranoid enough to never accept a potential challenger.   Now, from one who was there, confirmation:

“When I think I have contributed to the disaster created by the Revolution I do not sleep at night. I do not forgive myself,” Carlos Franqui, emotional and angry with himself.

[…] Franqui, 86, was alongside Fidel Castro in the Sierra Maestra, but was also the first to leave when he realized that the Revolution was taking a wrong turn. Franqui points to Camillo Cienfuegos, who in the Sierra Maestra "was the only one not to be afraid, very popular and who died under mysterious circumstances.”

“Of course all the stars that could obscure the star of Fidel came to a bad end.” The story of Che Guevara should be known: Maximo Leader let him go round to Bolivia to start an impossible revolution.

Less known to the Italians is the story of General Arnaldo Ochoa, as told by by Franqui. He was a hero of African wars (in the late 70's and most of the 80 Cubans fought in many countries of the Black Continent, particularly in Angola and Ethiopia, of course from the Soviet empire) and he dared speak directly to Mikhail Gorbachev in Russia, under the eye of Fidel. This was suspicious to the Commander, who feared being seen at home as a supporter of perestroika, which he viewed as the plague. And so shortly a mock trial was held at which Ochoa was convicted of drug trafficking and sentenced to be shot, and was executed very quickly. Besides, Fidel, as Franqui said, "was never a Communist, has always been only a Fidelista 'and that he understood very well that an attempt to reform communism would lead to the collapse of his system.
From Marcello Bussi: http://www.tellusfolio.it/index.php?prec=index.php&cmd=v&id=6177