Once again, the Castro
brothers deny Yoani Sánchez the exit permit to visit Brazil
Feb. 3 - Cuba’s best-known pro-democracy blogger said she was denied
permission to leave her country after Brazil granted her a visa ahead of
President Dilma Rousseff’s state visit to the communist island last
week.
“There’s no surprise,” Yoani Sanchez said in a posting on her Twitter
account today. “They again deny me permission to leave. It’s the 19th
time they violate my right to enter and leave my country.”
Sanchez, a critic of Raul Castro’s government on her Generation Y blog,
requested permission to travel to Brazil next month so she could attend
the screening of a documentary in which she appears. While she’s been
barred from leaving Cuba for the past four years, expectations she might
be allowed to exit this time increased after Brazil granted her a visa
on the eve of Rousseff’s visit this week.
After Rousseff failed to meet with Sanchez and other activists during
the three-day trade mission to Havana, the blogger complained on Twitter
that the Brazilian president came to Cuba “with her wallet open and her
eyes shut.”
Rousseff, who was inspired by Cuba’s revolution to take up arms against
Brazil’s military dictatorship in the 1960s, said she would not get
involved in what is an internal Cuban matter.
“Brazil gave the visa to the blogger,” she told reporters in Havana.
“The rest is not a matter for the Brazilian government.”
Brazil’s Foreign Ministry declined to comment on Cuba’s decision when
contacted by Bloomberg News.
While blocked from traveling abroad, Sanchez openly criticizes Castro’s
government online, and has emerged as a leader among a group of young
dissidents who describe the daily travails life in Cuba through
difficult-to-access social media. She was invited to Spain after winning
the Ortega y Gasset journalism prize in 2008. Many of her chronicles are
published by newspapers throughout Latin America.
Cuban women denounce
beatings and harassment by Castro's police
Feb. 2 - Cuban dissidents say police beat, groped and detained seven
women who tried to stage a march in the central city of Santa Clara to
demand the release of an opposition couple jailed since early January.
In an audio recording provided by the dissidents, women were heard
screaming and repeatedly shouting “Don’t stick your hands on my breasts,
murderer” — allegedly as police searched for the cellphones recording
the scene.
“He put his hands inside my blouse, then they lifted my blouse in the
middle of the street looking for my phone,” said Idania Yánes Contreras,
who led the march and recorded a narration of the Wednesday
confrontation on her phone.
“We were all punched and had our hair pulled” as police carried the
women to waiting patrol cars, Yánes added. Police also seized a frying
pan the women had been banging on to attract attention.
Six of the women were freed Thursday and the seventh was sent home late
Wednesday, Yánes told El Nuevo Herald by telephone from her home in
Santa Clara.
Yánes said the seven members of the Rosa Parks Feminist Movement for
Civil Rights, all dressed in black as a sign of mourning “for the
victims of the dictatorship,” launched the protest carrying a sign that
said, “For Freedom, Against Impunity.”
The march was intended to protest the continued detention of independent
journalist Yazmín Conlledo Riverón and her husband, Rafael Álvarez
Esmoris, who were arrested Jan. 8 on what Yánes described as fraudulent
charges.
The women had gone only about half a block, shouting “Freedom” and “Down
with Repression,” Yánes said, when uniformed police and State Security
agents in civilian clothes swooped down on them and began searching for
the phones.
One security official told another, “that person has a cellular there,”
according to a transcript provided by the dissidents. The actual
recording, posted on the blog of Jorge Luis García Pérez, known as
Antúnez, is sometimes difficult to understand.
Antúnez, whose wife Yris Tamara Pérez Aguilera was one of the seven
women detained, writes the blog Ni Me Callo Ni Me Voy — I will not shut
up or leave.
The other women were identified as Yaité Diosnelly Cruz Sosa, Yanisbel
Valido, Xiomara Martín Jiménez, María del Carmen Martínez López and
Damaris Moya Portieles.
The Rosa Parks movement is named after the Afro-American civil rights
activist woman who sparked the bus boycott in Montgomery, Al.
Feb. 2 - Margaret Thatcher once said, “The problem with socialism is
that you eventually run out of other people’s money.” During my week in
Cuba, I saw firsthand the truth of her case.
Havana, a once-glorious architectural gem, is falling down — literally.
Much of the central city is crumbling and building collapses are common
because there is no maintenance. Many people live without running water,
and roosters can be heard crowing a block from the nation’s capitol,
which is shuttered for “renovations.”
The sight of American cars from before 1959 plying the streets is
charming but an indication of chronic stagnation. Going to the rural
areas is like boarding a time machine to the 19th century. Farmers plow
by walking behind two oxen, and horses provide basic transportation.
Public “buses” consist of horse-drawn wagons.
Fidel Castro’s “revolución,” now in its 54th year, as spray-painted
slogans constantly remind you, is running out of other people’s money.
First the Soviet Union propped up the Communist takeover, and after its
collapse, Hugo Chavez of Venezuela came to Castro’s rescue.
It’s a devil’s bargain. Castro barters young Cuban professionals for
oil, with Chavez delivering a reported 100,000 barrels a day. In
exchange, Cuban doctors and teachers are sent to Venezuela. Chavez went
to Cuba for cancer treatment last year.
Castro himself almost died in 2006, although of what remains a mystery.
He still heads the Communist Party, but is rarely seen and there are
rumors he suffers from dementia. His brother, Raul, runs the government,
though it’s not clear he could survive Fidel’s death.
The brothers’ scramble to keep 11 million Cubans sullen but not mutinous
is leading to a patchwork of liberalizations. Tourism is growing,
bringing in foreign investment and the dreaded C-word — capitalism.
Large collective farms are being divided, with farmers getting plots to
use for 10 years and permits to sell their produce.
Read more
Sheer Hypocrisy: “I
prefer a million critical voices before the silence of the
dictatorships” Dilma Rousseff
Feb. 1 - Commentary by Yoani Sánchez about the visit of Brazilian
President Dilma Rousseff:
Choosing the time for a presidential visit can be an exceedingly
thankless task in this so unpredictable and changeable world. When the
date of the visit of a head of state is placed on the agenda, announced,
and reconciled with the hosts, life commonly offers up the unexpected.
The government palaces don’t control chance, nor anticipate the
surprising events that strain the arrival of a dignitary. Dilma Rousseff
knows this well. Her presence in Havana was coordinated for weeks and
was even preceded by that of the foreign minister, Antonio de Aguiar
Patriota. Everything seemed neatly tied up: a fast timeframe, efficient,
protocol, focused on economic themes, ending with her boarding her
flight to Haiti. But something complicated it.
Several days before the Brazilian economist and politician landed at
Jose Marti Airport, a young Cuban died after a prolonged hunger strike.
The official media threw itself into presenting him as a common
criminal, although he had been arrested at an opposition march through
the streets of Contramaestre. The radicalized discourse of power and the
political temperature reached those levels where our rulers perform so
well. In that context, the recently concluded Conference of the Cuban
Communist Party became more an act of reaffirmation than of change, a
statement of unity rather than an opening. Many who were waiting for an
announcement of political transformations of great significance,
realized that the event was, instead, the ultimate lost opportunity for
the generation in power. One day after its closure, Raul Castro —
General Secretary of the only permitted party — received Dilma Rousseff,
the former guerrilla who today leads a country with diverse political
forces and a highly critical press.
Dilma’s Cuban agenda includes inspecting the construction work at the
Port of Mariel and the possible granting of new bank credits. Brazil is
our second largest trading partner in Latin America, but it’s not just a
question of resources. The Raul regime also has the urge, at this time,
to be legitimized by other presidents in the region. So there will be
smiles, handshakes, commitments to “eternal friendship” and photos, lots
of photos. The civic activists, for their part, will attempt a meeting
with the woman who was tortured and imprisoned during a military
government, though there is little chance that she will receive them.
Dilma Rousseff will converse with Raul Castro, she will be very close to
him at exactly this delicate juncture in which chance has placed her. We
hope she will not miss the opportunity and will comport herself
consistent with the clamor for democracy, instead of opting for a
complicit silence before a dictatorship.
Note: Yoani will find out on Friday February 3 if the Castro brothers
will allow her to travel to Brazil for the presentation of the
documentary "Cuba-Honduras Connection."
Generation Y
Cuba's best-known Olympic
athlete: "Training conditions are terrible. There's is not stimulus"
Feb. 1 - Cuba’s best-known Olympic athlete, Dayron Robles, complained
Tuesday about terrible training conditions as he prepares to defend his
gold medal in the 110-meter hurdles this summer in London.
“The Olympic games are already there and we don’t have even half of what
you need to train well,” Robles said in an interview with The Associated
Press. “Conditions are terrible. There’s no stimulus.”
Robles, who holds the world record in the 110-meter hurdles at 12.87
seconds, did not give specifics but said he and other athletes are
banding together for mutual support.
“They don’t give you the necessary things for training so you’re always
upset, and what’s worst is that people generally don’t know anything
about it and will judge me by the results,” Robles said. “Nobody comes
around to ask about anything, but they do come to demand results.”
Read more
It's not the embargo,
it's the stupid system that doesn't work: Cuba food prices up 20% in
2011
Feb. 1 - Government report shows agricultural reforms not increasing
production or dropping prices.
Food prices in Cuba shot up by nearly 20 percent last year as the
cash-strapped government cut subsidies and imports and agricultural
reforms failed to crank up domestic production, according to a new
government report.
The report by the National Statistics Office reflects Cubans’
long-running complaints that while some food items have been appearing
with more frequency in stores, the prices have been so high that few can
afford them.
Cuban leader Raúl Castro, trying to reform the stagnant Soviet-style
economy, has put heavy emphasis on the need to increase agricultural
production by leasing fallow state lands to private farmers and allowing
them more freedom to grow and sell their products.
But the report, titled Sales on the Farm Market, showed that produce
prices soared by 24.1 percent during 2011 and meat prices rose by 8.7
percent for an average increase of 19.8, Reuters news agency reported.
Reuters added that although the reforms could increase agricultural
production down the road, output increased just 2 percent last year and
fell 2.5 percent in 2010. Overall agricultural production in 2011
remained below the levels of 2005.
Dissident Havana economist Martha Beatriz Roque said the government
figures reflect “stagflation” — stagnant productivity coupled with
inflation — and the failures of Castro’s efforts at agricultural reforms
since he replaced brother Fidel Castro in 2006.
The Miami Herald
For Brazilian President
Dilma Rouseff, money is more important than human rights
Feb. 1 - Cuban blogger Yoani Sanchez said her compatriots had hoped for
more from Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff, who avoided mention of
human rights on the communist island during her first state visit to
Havana this week.
Sanchez said she had looked for at least a “small wink” from Rousseff,
who was imprisoned and tortured for fighting Brazil’s dictatorship in
the 1960s, after a jailed dissident, Wilman Villar, died this month
following a hunger strike and President Raul Castro vowed to maintain
single-party rule.
“It was pure chance that she came at this time, but people had hoped for
more,” Sanchez, 36, said in an interview last night in Havana. “I
would’ve hoped for a small wink, a phrase with a double meaning that we
could interpret, and that the government could interpret too.”
Rousseff, who concludes a three-day visit to Havana today, said that it
was an internal matter for Cuba to decide whether to allow Sanchez to
leave the island after Brazil last week granted the 36-year-old blogger
an entry visa to attend next month a screening of a documentary she
appears in. Sanchez, a critic of the Castro government on the Generation
Y blog, has been denied permission to leave Cuba for four years.
“Brazil gave the visa to the blogger,” Rousseff, 64, told reporters
yesterday in Havana before meeting with Castro and his brother Fidel.
“The rest is not a matter for the Brazilian government.”
Read more
An excellent letter by
Maria Corina Machado to Cuban dictator Fidel Castro
Jan. 31 - A few days ago, we posted a video of Venezuelan independent
presidential candidate María Corina Machado, asking Hugo Chávez a
question during his eight and a half hour speech to the National
Assembly about the state of the country. (Scroll down this page to watch
the video).
A few days later, Cuban dictator Fidel Castro wrote one of his "reflexiones"
defending his Venezuelan puppet and attacking María Corina.
Today, María Corina Machado responded in a letter to the Cuban dictator
that was published by three national papers in Venezuela.
This is my translation of what she wrote:
"President Chavez tried to use his presentation to the Assembly for two
very obvious purposes. First, to show a country of peace and prosperity
that doesn't exist. Venezuela, with all its human and natural
resources, lives the ravages of poverty, crime and humiliation;
secondly, he wanted to use the opposition MPs to show the world a
democratic game that has been compromised by his government, through the
abuse of controlling all state institutions and repression of dissent.
Faced with this manipulation and the indignation that it produced on me,
I asked for permission to speak, to report that there is no such country
as the one that Chavez described and, by contrast, it is marked by
shortages and rationing, crime and the actions of the state, stealing
private property with impunity and labeling it as expropriations. So
when I uttered the phrase ‘expropriation is theft', the feelings of
Venezuelans, especially the most humble, were expressed.
Those were not phrases that, as you say proved Chavez's 'gallantry and
coolness', but what they really proved is his deception and the "movie"
that he was playing out until the moment when I responded to him.
I said to expropriate is to steal and I sustain it. It was president
Chavez who described himself as a "thief" taking personal responsibility
for expropriations, which are thefts justified with a "legal varnish" by
the current regime.
His often quoted statement about eagles and flies is a gross
manifestation of contempt for those who question his actions. Only a
despot believes that a popularly elected parliamentarian has no
credentials to question the president of his country. But in the end,
Chavez is right: he and I are very distant in terms of morals and
principles."
The independent candidate for president of Venezuela said that the
comments of the Cuban dictator "incursions into Venezuelan political
debate," and is "further evidence of the systematic interventionism" of
Cuba in Venezuela's internal affairs, while recalling other times in
contemporary Venezuelan history when Castro tried to turn Venezuela into
a branch of his Communist model.
"In the decade of the 60s Cuban military personnel attempted to impose a
regime in Venezuela like the one you imposed in your country. The civil
authorities and armed forces who were then in charge defeated you, just
as the Latin American democracies did throughout the region. Your
aggression caused many deaths, including that of so many young
Venezuelans who became illusion with your revolution."
Maria Corina reminded Castro of his solidarity with President Carlos
Andres Perez at the time of Chavez's attempted coup of February 4, 1992
against his government.
"Venezuelans recall your letter to President Perez in which you said:
"At this bitter and critical moment, we remember with gratitude all that
you have contributed to the development of bilateral relations between
our countries and your position of respect and understanding toward
Cuba. I hope the present difficulties will be overcome completely and
preserve the constitutional order and your leadership in charge of the
destinies of the sister Republic of Venezuela."
The Venezuelan parliamentarian also reminded Castro of how he ,ust have
felt when his Russian partners "negotiated" with the US during the Cuban
Missile Crisis without consulting him.
"You, who know that very well, can imagine the outrage produced on all
Venezuelans when they see Cubans sent by your government at the highest
echelons of the state, military installations, in command of the
presidential palace's security forces and of government records. Imagine
the humiliation felt by the officers of the Bolivarian National Armed
Forces when they must take orders from foreign Cuban officials, who
invaded our military installations."
Your government gets, as far as we have been able to determine, more
than 110,000 daily barrels of our oil as a gift, supposedly offset by
services that are not worth what it costs to produce our oil. Your
regime does business triangulations which make Venezuela's imports more
expensive and allow you a slice of gross and unnecessary commission
fees. Chavez and you have achieved that what had been a traditional
friendship between Cuba and Venezuela, is now pierced by resentment and
suspicion. That friendship will return, but only when the invasion of
your country's officials into Venezuela stops.
"Do it willingly, or the democratic forces in Venezuela would make you
understand once again, as they did 50 years ago."
Jan. 31 - Since the United States couldn't stop Repsol from drilling for
oil off Cuba's coast, it should make the Spanish oil giant pay dearly
for damages from any spill that threatens neighboring Florida, a
congressional Republican said on Monday.
"We need to figure out what we can do to inflict maximum pain, maximum
punishment, to bleed Repsol of whatever resources they may have if
there's a potential for a spill that would affect the U.S. coast,"
Representative David Rivera, a Florida Republican, told a congressional
subcommittee that oversees the U.S. Coast Guard.
The House of Representatives subcommittee met at a Florida hotel with a
panoramic view of the waves breaking over an Atlantic beach dotted with
sunbathers, to conduct a hearing on the potential impact on Florida's
800-mile (1,290-km) coastline from the first major oil exploration in
Cuban waters.
Read more
Mary Anastasia O'Grady:
Cuba and the Castro News Filter
Jan. 29 - Stories about 'reform' make headlines while a
dissident's death goes unreported.
Investment companies that provide market analysis are required by law to
disclose potential conflicts of interest that could bias their reports.
Imagine if media outlets were forced to do the same with stories filed
from inside Cuba's military dictatorship. Their disclaimers might read
like this: "This report was prepared under psychological duress, threat
of loss of journalistic credentials, imprisonment or expulsion from the
country, and while being spied on 24-7."
Tourism, aka "cultural exchanges," out of the U.S. to the island is on
the rise, leading some observers to conclude that the dictatorship is
kinder and gentler than it used to be. But all visitors, and those they
interact with in Cuba, are as carefully watched as they were in the
first days of the revolution. In the news business, reporters are not
permitted to travel freely, and it is verboten to damage the image of
the Castro government. Penalties can be severe.
This reality came to mind last week when we learned of the death of
another dissident at the hands of the regime. Thirty-one-year-old Wilman
Villar Mendoza, who was arrested in November, had been on a hunger
strike for at least 50 days. His imprisonment was part of a wider wave
of state repression that has been under way for more than a year amid a
rising number of public protests, particularly by young people.
Yet while Raúl Castro's announcements about "reform" have made headlines
and topped television news around the globe, we had hardly heard of
Villar Mendoza or the resistance movement he belonged to.
Apologists for the status quo will tell you that Cuba's democracy
movement is not news because the number of Cubans who would rebel given
the right encouragement is insignificant. But if Cuba is an island of
contentment, why do the Castro brothers go to such lengths to make an
example of dissidents like Villar Mendoza and pressure local news
bureaus to ignore the repression? There is a reason journalists who want
to stick around know they'd better find something else to write about.
Villar Mendoza's case was especially hard to learn about because he
lived in the eastern province of Santiago de Cuba. The east is one of
the most repressed areas of the county, perhaps because it is where,
historically, uprisings in Cuba have originated. Now, despite the tight
grip, it is again becoming the hotbed of antigovernment protests, united
by a coalition known as the Eastern Democratic Alliance. But since there
are no embassies there and reporters may not leave Havana without
permission, the magnitude of the eastern rebellion is not recognized by
the outside world.
The story has gotten out thanks to Cuba's journalists and human-rights
advocates, operating on a shoestring and at great personal risk. They
use cellphones and sometimes computers when they can sneak under the
radar. They've reported that on Nov. 14 Villar Mendoza was beaten and
arrested for his part in a peaceful protest march in his hometown of
Contramaestre. Ten days later, in a summary trial, he was sentenced to
four years in prison. When he was refused an appeal, again without due
process, he began a hunger strike. His jailers at Aguadores prison
responded by stripping him, throwing him in a dank solitary confinement
cell, and denying him water. He came down with pneumonia and died of
sepsis.
Given the history, the account sounds plausible and gains credibility
from the regime's intensive damage-control efforts. The Castros allege
that Villar Mendoza was a common criminal. This is standard procedure:
In fact the regime claims there are no "political" prisoners in Cuban
jails—only criminals.
Former Cuba correspondent for Spanish Television, Vicente Botín,
describes how hard it is to report the truth from the island in his 2009
book "Funerales de Castro." He reminds readers that in 1997 Fidel
expelled a French journalist for writing that Cuban chickens were not
meeting their government egg-laying quotas. In 2007, the regime withdrew
the credentials of three foreign correspondents from the Chicago
Tribune, the BBC and the Mexican daily El Universal for lack of
"objectivity." "The three journalists were scapegoats used to warn their
colleagues in the foreign press of the dangers they run if their
'objectivity' does not coincide with that of the government," Mr. Botín
notes.
Sebastián Martínez Ferraté didn't fare so well. In 2008 he used a hidden
camera to document Cuba's epidemic of childhood prostitution, and the
report aired in Spain. When he returned to the island in 2010, he was
arrested and sentenced to 17 years in prison. Spain only recently
negotiated his release.
As Mr. Botín explains, the regime goes out of its way to make sure that
journalists know that they are being watched and no one working in Cuba
is under any illusion about a free press. Yet when foreigners watch
"news" from the island they are likely, through force of habit, to put
their trust in the messenger. Maybe the news organizations should start
running that disclaimer.
Wall Street Journal
One person killed after
another Havana building crumbles
Jan. 28 - A 90-year-old Havana, Cuba, theater collapsed and killed one
man in the fifth such wreck in 10 days, underscoring the precarious
state of many dwellings and commercial structures in a city known for
its architecture.
The Campoamor Theater, which opened in 1921, closed in the mid-1970s and
then partially collapsed about five years ago, neighbors said. But four
families, driven by Cuba's critical housing shortage, were squatting
there when it collapsed Thursday.
The four-story shell was featured in a 2006 documentary about the state
of many of Havana's old buildings, "The New Art of Making Ruins," by
German filmmakers Florian Borchmeyer and Matthias Hentschler.
Ricardo Riquene Anaya, 47, plunged from the third floor and died when
the building collapsed, one emergency worker said. His son had to be
pulled from the ruins but reportedly suffered only cuts and bruises.
Just last week, at least four youths were killed and five injured when
their three-story building, also in Centro Havana, fell in a heap. It
had been condemned after a partial collapse over 10 years ago. Three
other Havana buildings collapsed Thursday, but no injuries were
reported, said the emergency worker, who spoke on condition of
anonymity.
"What we're seeing is a sign of what is happening to the government,
slowly crumbling," dissident Martha Beatriz Roque said by telephone from
Havana.
The Miami Herald
A few weeks ago while escorting a National Geographic Expeditions’
10-day “Cuba: Discover its Culture & People” trip, one of the
participants fell ill with a serious dental problem.
I accompanied her to the Clínica Internacional—the foreigners-only
International Clinic— Cienfuegos. Cuba’s best medical services are
reserved for foreign tourists paying hard currency. This was no
exception. An English-speaking doctor saw us immediately.
She identified an abcess and recommended we visit the dental ward at
Cienfuegos Hospital. We were transferred in a low-tech ambulance.
The hospital’s broken windows and screens were an ill omen of worse to
come: The black ring (caused by a million grubby hands) around the door
handle to the dental ward, suggested it hadn’t been cleaned since the
revolution.
We were admitted immediately to the ward and seated at one of a dozen
stations. The first image took my breath away. I couldn’t believe my
eyes. Dental instruments were sitting in a tray that hadn’t been
cleaned—not even wiped!—in ages. Literally, my best guess is in months,
if not years! A microscopic study might well have revealed every known
bacteria under the sun. In Europe or North America, the hospital would
be instantly closed as a health hazard. The travelers looked up at me
with a mix of revulsion and near-panic.
Fortunately, the female dentist didn’t need to place any instrument in
her mouth. Instead, she looked into her mouth and instantly confirmed
the abcess, then wrote a prescription for antibiotics, which the
international clinic had in stock.
The next day, while walking along Cienfuegos’ main shopping street (El
Búlevar), the group paused to peruse the local pharmacy that serves
local Cubans. I counted barely a handful of drugs (all locally produced)
for sale on the sparsely stocked shelves.
What a study in contrasts!…
The barebones Cubans-only pharmacies. And the foreigners-only pharmacies
fully stocked with imported drugs, reminding me of President Jimmy
Carter’s admonition (presented live on Cuban TV during his visit to Cuba
in January 2001) that Cuba can buy all the drugs its needs from Mexico,
Brazil, etc. at prices well below those charged in the United States.
The Cuban government disingenuously tells Cubans that the U.S. embargo
is to blame for the critical shortage of basic medicines. How, then, to
explain the fully-stocked pharmacies serving tourists, which Cubans
never get to see? Clearly, a political decision has been made to not
stock the Cuban pharmacies.
Why? I can think of only one plausible reason: It’s great politics in
Fidel Castro’s pathological demonization of Uncle Sam. Let’s hope things
will soon change under his younger brother, Raúl.
Meanwhile, and more worrying, is the disparity between Cuba’s claims
about the excellence of its health-care system and the shocking
revelation that it doesn’t even apply standards of basic hygiene.
Moon Travel Guides
More than 1,000 people have
registered at CubanSearch looking for relatives and friends
If you haven't
visited or registered, click here for the
English Version Y aqui para
la versión en espańol.
You can register a name of a missing relative, or you can look through
the list of names to see if you have any information that you can
provide about any of them.
Dozens of people have already found their missing relatives thanks to
www.cubansearch.com
Chileans who received
medical training in Cuba failed test to practice medicine in their
country
Jan. 26 - In 2011, nearly 80% of Chilean doctors who obtained their
degree overseas failed the mandatory national medical knowledge test,
also known as Eunacom. The vast majority of them completed their
training in Cuba.
Cuba’s program of medical internationalism began in 1959 after the Cuban
Revolution, when Fidel Castro rose to power. Since then, it is argued
that medical professionals are Cuba’s most important export.
Since the Revolution, Cuba has sent more than 185,000 health
professionals on medical missions to at least 103 countries, according
to the New York Times. Unfortunately, this great quantity of doctors
does not mirror the quality of their training. In other words, doctors
in Cuba are not expected to learn as much as doctors trained in other
countries. However, they are sent to some of the poorest parts of the
world, including areas of Latin America and Africa. This raises an
important question: Is a poorly trained doctor better than no doctor at
all?
Cuban doctors have routinely received lower scores in countries
including the U.S. and Brazil as well as Chile. In Chile, the average
point for the doctors trained overseas was 38.84, well below the minimum
needed for success. The average points for Chilean natives, on the other
hand group was 74.05.
Beltran Mena, who is head of the Eunacom tests, articulated that “This
group of doctors are not authorized to practice medicine in Chile and
besides the test will now have to revalidate their degree at Universidad
de Chile.”
Of all Chilean medical schools represented in the tests, residents from
the Universidad Católica hold first place, followed by those from the
Universidad Mayor. On the other end of the spectrum, highest failure
percentage rates belong to schools such as the Universidad del Mar and
Católica de la Santísima Concepción.
Read more
Cuba's Cardinal Ortega
should follow the example of this bishop and a priest
Jan. 24 - Cuban dissidents are thanking a Catholic priest and a bishop
for protecting a handful of opposition activists from a
government-organized mob, armed with sticks and rocks, that besieged the
church where they attended Mass Sunday.
The Cuban government, meanwhile, fired back at U.S., European and other
officials who condemned the death of political prisoner Wilman Villár,
accusing them of “unscrupulously taking advantage of a lamentable . . .
death of a common prisoner.”
Villár’s death last week after a long prison hunger strike triggered a
string of dissident protests over the weekend and the short-term police
detentions of about 80 opposition activists, according to government
opponents.
More protests, pots-and-pans demonstrations and other public activities
are planned for Tuesday, according to the National Front for Civic
Resistance, an umbrella organization of dissident groups around the
island.
The government-organized mob and scores of police laid siege Sunday to
the Cristo Redentor church in the eastern city of Holguin as two members
of the Ladies in White and Javier Martinez, a dissident also dressed in
white, attended mass to pray for Villár.
“We were terrified because the mob was armed with sticks and rocks,” the
25-year-old Martinez told El Nuevo Herald Monday by phone from Holguin.
“It was something horrible.”
After the Mass, the Rev. Arnaldo Aldama told the dissidents to remain in
the church while he went out and told the mob that “the people in the
church were just as Cuban as they were,” Martinez said.
Holguin Bishop Emilio Aranguren arrived amid the standoff and met
privately with a local government official in charge of relations with
the church, Martinez added. During the talks several members of the
dissident Christian Liberation Movement slipped into the church.
After the Aranguren meeting, the mob dispersed and the estimated 100
police in uniform and plain clothes withdrew about 200 yards from the
church, said Jose Ramon Pupo Nieves, 40, a dissident who said he watched
the incident from the edges of the mob.
Neighbors applauded as the dissidents emerged from the church and rushed
to their homes, fearing that police would detain them on the way, both
Martinez and Pupo reported.
A person who answered the phone at Aranguren’s office said the bishop
was out of town. Calls to Aldama’s cellular phone were answered with a
message that it was shut off or out of the service area.
Pupo and Martinez praised the two priests for their decision to protect
the dissidents, very likely a tough choice at a time when the Cuban
Catholic Church is preparing for Pope Benedict XVI’s planned visit to
the island March 26-28.
The Miami Herald
Planes continue to return
from Cuba full with sick Canadians
Jan. 22 - Canadian travellers are continuing to return from Cuba with
more than their vacation memories.
For the fifth time in less than a week, a Canadian airline is reporting
several ill passengers on a flight returning from the vacation
destination of Holguin.
Although many travelers on each flight reported staying at the same
resorts, at least four resorts have been identified amongst the
travellers onboard the first four affected flights, according to the
Public Health Agency of Canada. Health officials in Cuba have been
contacted, said Sylwia Gomes, a spokeswoman for Public Health, and in
Canada agency officials are monitoring the situation.
Fifteen passengers on an Air Transat flight that landed in Montreal late
Saturday reported feeling sick, said Debbie Cabana, a spokeswoman for
the airline. The airline contacted health officials before the plane
landed, she said, but once passengers were on the ground it was
determined that because of the mild nature of their symptoms, health
officials were not required.
The airline is taking extra precautions to disinfect planes travelling
to the island and crew are being advised to be extra vigilant about
hygiene, she said.
Michelle Larabie said she got sick on a plane returning to Toronto from
Holguin on Jan. 13, a week earlier than the other flights. She said she
began feeling nauseous while in the air, and her sickness and diarrhea
lasted nearly a week.
“As soon as we landed, I had to run to the washroom,” Ms. Larabie said.
Read more
The Globe and Mail
Cubana Airlines is planning a new non-stop flight Holguín-Toronto:
Statement by Yoani
Sánchez on the death of Wilman Villar
Jan. 20 - Translation by our friend Alberto de la Cruz:
Greetings and good evening.
My name is Yoani Sanchez. I am a blogger, a citizen journalist, and I
want to make a denouncement.
I want to denounce that in my country, people have to use their bodies,
their intestines, their stomachs as a battlefield, as as a way to mount
a civic protest. It is very lamentable that an entire population --
11-million Cubans on this island -- has had all their rights as citizens
taken away or limited. The civic, electoral, and judicial avenues for
citizens to seek change, to demand a transformation, to demand the end
of the status quo in our country has been blocked. What do we have left?
Well, the people then must use hunger strikes as a way to express their
nonconformity. It is very sad what has happened today, the death of
Wilman Villar. It is also very sad that Orlando Zapata Tamayo had to
die. Until when will Cubans have to put their own bodies up as a form of
protest?
That is the denouncement I wanted to make. Perhaps it is just like a
bottle thrown into the sea, something that falls into an abyss, but on
this 19th of January, I want to leave constancy of this. Please, we do
not want to continue utilizing our skin, our bones, as a way to show our
outrage. We have to have the right to do it without repression.
Thank you.
Political prisoner Wilman Villar dies after 50 days in a hunger strike
Jan. 19 - Wilman Villar, a Cuban political prisoner who had been in a
hunger strike for the last 50 days, died on Thursday night at Juan Bruno
Zayas Hospital in Santiago de Cuba.
"We hold the Castro regime responsible for his death. They are the only
ones responsible, "said Jose Daniel Ferrer Garcia, spokesman for the
Cuban Patriotic Union (UNPACU). "The family is mourning his death.
Tyranny has just committed another crime," said Ferrer.
Villar, who was only 31 years old , became a new martyr in the ranks of
the opposition who risk their lives in defense of individual liberties
and human rights. Villar was on life support for several days. His
condition worsened in recent days due to an outbreak of sepsis caused by
a heavy infection in the bloodstream. Doctors warned the family that
only a miracle could save his life.
The complication irreversibly affected the functioning of the liver and
kidneys, according to the last medical specialists who treated him in
the intensive care ward of the hospital.
On Thursday, his wife Maritza Pellegrino said that agents of Cuba's
State Security didn't allow her to see the body of her husband.
Villar was serving a four year sentence for opposing the Castro regime.
On January 14, he was rushed to a hospital in critical condition and
unconscious. In November he had been confined to Aguadores, one of the
most brutal prisons in Castro's Gulag, after being arrested during a
police offensive in Contramaestre, near Santiago de Cuba.
In a trial behind closed doors and without any procedural guarantees,
Villar was charged with assault, disrespect and resistance.
Villar denied the allegations and, putting aside the risk that could
mean an act of rebellion, he went on a hunger strike on November 25. He
later contracted pneumonia, which was aggravated by the hardships
he suffered.
Villar never wanted to wear the common prisoner's uniform. In
retaliation, his jailers sent him to a one-person cell, without clothes
or acces to water.
Another crime of the brutal dictatorship of the Castro brothers!
And in the meantime, the Pope is getting ready for his trip to Cuba, the
Miami Archdioceses is preparing tourist packages to profit from the
visit, and the rest of the world couldn't care less about this new crime
of the fascist regime in Cuba.
El Nuevo Herald (Spanish)
María Corina Machado
calls Chávez a "thief" to his face
Jan. 13 - Hugo Chávez spoke for more than 8 hours during his annual
speech to the Venezuelan National Assembly on Friday, during which he
announced the closing of the Venezuelan consulate office in Miami.
The US government expelled the Venezuelan consul in charge of that
office after accusing her of conspiring with Iranian and Cuban agents to
attack the US computer networks.
María Corina Machado, a Venezuelan legislator and a potential
presidential candidate, told Chávez that during his marathon state of
the country speech, he didn't say a word about the things that the
Venezuelan people really wants to hear, the shortages of basic goods
like milk, untamed crime and failed nationalizations that she referred
to as "robberies."
"We've been listening to you for eight hours describe a country very
different to the one we mothers know," she said, telling Chavez: "Mr.
President, your time is finished."
María Corina Machado also told Chávez that the Venezuelan people don't
want communism.
Watch the video (Spanish)
Video of a mob controlled
by the Cuban regime, attacking the home of Maritza Castro in Havana
Jan. 12 - On Tuesday, January 10, the home of Cuban dissident Maritza
Castro was attacked by a paramilitary mob under the control of Cuba's
State Security.
The mob threw rocks and used wood stick to break the windows of the
activist's home.
The ANC thanks Castro for
his "unwavering support", while Jesse denounces "economic apartheid"
Jan. 9 - This weekend, African National Congress (ANC) president Jacob
Zuma paid tribute to the men and women who sacrificed their lives for
the liberation of South Africa, and to Castro's Cuba for "its unwavering
support," during a ceremony to commemorate the 100 anniversary of the
organization.
Also in attendance was US civil rights activist, Rev. Jesse Jackson who
said it was time the country snapped out of "educational and economic
apartheid."
"We single out Cuba for her unwavering support to the movement. "Freedom
would not have been achieved (without the support)," Zuma said.
What a pair of hypocrites! What about freedom for the Cuban poeple?
Neither one of them has ever said one word about the abuses of the
racist regime in Cuba, a country where 11 million human beings, the
majority of them black or of a mixed race, has been enslaved for 53
years by the same Castro brothers who they thank for the "liberation" of
their homeland.
When have you heard any of these so called " Black activists" denounce
the brutal abuses of the Castro regime against the Cuban people?
Meanwhile, Jesse Jackson told the crowd: "Now you have been freed from
humiliation of skin color apartheid- but there is educational apartheid,
there is economic apartheid and land ownership."
Have you ever heard Jesse Jackson mention one word about the tourist
apartheid in Cuba?
Have you ever heard him denounce the fact that only two Cubans, whose
last name is Castro, are not subjected to the economic apartheid in the
island?
Have you ever heard him denounce the fact that Cubans are second class
citizens in their own country?
No way, Jesse would not jeopardize the opportunity to be wined and dined
by the racist slave masters that have kept Cubans enslaved for 53 long
years.
These are not "activists" on my book, they are HYPOCRITES!
The Africa Report
Listen to Fidel Castro
For those who think that the Cuban people chose the system imposed by
the Castro brothers, here are some of the things that Fidel Castro said
and promised when he gained power
Click Here
Visit our updated Videos page with
many new and old videos
Satellite
photos of Cuba's prisons, missile installations, military bases and
more
A look at
Havana before the Castro brothers destroyed it
July 16 - Today's El Nuevo Herald has an article and a video about my
new website, Cuban Search, that helps Cubans inside and outside the
island, find relatives with whom they have lost contact.
Cuban Search serves as the missing-link with their relatives and friends
between those millions of Cubans who are now spread all over the world
and who may be trying to find them.
El Nuevo Herald (Spanish)
Capitol Hill Cubans:
Finding lost Friends
June 25 - Nearly every Cuban exile has a harrowing story about how they
fled Castro's Cuba.
Each journey is full of tremendous risk, pain and sacrifice -- and
that's just to leave the island.
Then, there are the challenges of starting a new life in a foreign land.
To help ease this transition, a new website has been launched to help
Cubans find their friends and relatives abroad.
It's called Cuban Search.
According to its founder, George Utset (of the blog, The Real Cuba), the
response has been overwhelming -- parents looking for their children who
had left Cuba and they couldn't find, children looking for their
parents, brothers, cousins, friends and schoolmates.
You can either search for a particular name, or register and enter the
person that you are looking for.
You can search alphabetically, by city, or even by school.
Cuban Search has also teamed up with Cuba Archive Project to provide a
database of Cubans who have disappeared at sea trying to escape Castro's
Cuba.
It is estimated that as many as 70,000 Cubans have perished at sea in
search for freedom.
Thus far, 900 have been identified.
Capitol Hill Cubans
Socio-Economic Conditions in Pre-Castro
Cuba
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.
More photos showing how the Castro brothers
have destroyed one of the world's most beautiful cities
