Miami's Cuban Connection

Raul Takes Power

Raul Castro is the leader of Cuba. Fidel has ceded power, at least temporarily. It was just announced on Cuban state television tonight.

President: I had coffee at Versailles

In President Bush's televised speech today in Miami Beach, he sidetracked for a moment to mention that he had a cafecito at Versailles with his brother, Jeb. He didn't talk about Cuba, during his televised speech, though he may have touched on the subject at Versailles. I'd like to know what he has to say about the Free Cuba Commission. Here he is photographed arriving in Miami yesterday and shaking hands with brother Jeb. Awaiting their turns for the presidential digit squeeze: Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and Lincoln Diaz-Balart.

Stick to the Subject

This blog is meant to promote discussion on how Cuba and Miami are connected. Any comments that deviate from that topic are subject to removal from this blog. If anyone has a complaint about a particular comment, please email me directly and I will remove it as soon as possible. Include the date, author's name and blog entry it was made under.

-Oscar

Exiles Call for Passive Resistance in Cuba

Three Cuban exile groups announced a campaign Tuesday to encourage a wave of passive resistance in Cuba to combat Fidel Castro's government peacefully.  The groups, M.A.R. for Cuba, Plantados until Freedom and Democracy in Cuba, and Cuban Democratic Directorate, unveiled posters that emulate street signs which they plan to smuggle into Cuba and disseminate on the island.

   The signs, which are a striking red and yellow, say "yo no," (I don't) followed by different words, sigo (follow), reprimo (repress), asisto (assist), chivateo (snitch), coopero (cooperate) and repudio (repudiate). The groups said the signs will be circulated inside Cuba as stickers and fliers, although they declined to specify how they will sneak them in. Two of the groups, Directorate and Plantados, receive federal funding from the U.S. Agency for International Development.

   Group leaders said the campaign was launched after dissidents inside Cuba appealed to the exile community to help them spread the word of passive resistance inside the island. The groups believe there are signs from the island that passive resistance is growing. For example, they said, many people now refuse to engage in acts of repudiation against their neighbors.

Foundation Director Leaving Post

Cuban American National Foundation Executive Director Alfredo Mesa says he's leaving to join Dutko Worldwide. The foundation, which is celebrating its 25th anniversary meeting this weekend, has not yet announced a replacement. Mesa had taken the place of Joe Garcia, who is now a high-profile consultant for the national Democratic Party. Photographed at left is CANF Chairman, Jorge Mas Santos, and Mesa on the right. Before joining the foundation, Mesa was an aide to former Miami-Dade mayor Alex Penelas.

Cubans Allowed Into U.S.

The U.S. Coast Guard brought 28 Cuban migrants who had been detained off shore to Miami today so they can be material witnesses in an alleged smuggling case in which a woman suffered fatal head injuries during a high-speed chase to reach Florida. The migrants, who are to appear in Miami federal court this afternoon, will be allowed to stay under material witness warrants so they can testify directly against three men charged with the smuggling attempt that caused the 24-year-old woman's death. Their Miami-based family members, photographed here, had been lobbying for them to stay.

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/15083784.htm

Cuba To Miami Via Honduras

The Herald's Nancy San Martin reports that a growing number of Cubans are choosing to flee to Honduras on smuggling boats and are then trekking north through Mexico and crossing the border on foot.

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/world/cuba/15054582.htm

Cuba Preparing for Raul Castro

The Miami Herald's Frances Robles writes: "Fidel Castro's younger brother Raul is taking on a more public persona in what experts say is a clear effort aimed at ensuring a smooth transition in leadership."

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/15034556.htm

Miami Sound Machine Reunion!

In a rare revival, Superstar Gloria Estefan will reunite with the Miami Sound Machine -- Latin pop's original crossover group -- to rock the AmericanAirlines Arena Saturday in a charity concert for Zo's Summer Groove, as part of Miami Heat Star Alonzo Mourning's charity fundraising. The concert will benefit several local charities, including the Overtown Youth Center and Honey Shine Mentoring Program. Said Gloria in a written statement: "I feel honored and privileged to have been invited to participate in ZO's Summer Groove.   I am very impressed with the Overtown Youth Center he has created in Miami; I think all that he is doing is for a great cause and it will make a difference in all of the kids' lives."

For more information: www.zsg.com

ENCASA: Washington's New Cuba Report Full of "Absurdities"

ENCASA, the group of Cuban-American academics and artists that formed recently to criticize the U.S. embargo of Cuba, fired off a top 10 list of reasons why they believe the Cuba commission report released in Washington this week is a loser:

"Rather than attempt here a detailed, reasoned analysis of a report that is based on anything but reason or analysis (although we have prepared just such an analysis in a separate document), we have chosen to make use of the finest traditions of Cuban and American irreverence to respond to this second edition of the CAFC (Commission for Assistance to a Free Cuba) report in the manner that it deserves."

"Top Ten Signs that the CAFC Report is Bad":

10. It is an exercise in political opportunism. How coincidental is it that the Bush administration rediscovers Cuba on even years (2004, 2006) just before tough elections?

9. It is contemptuous of international law and world opinion.

8. It is a failed welfare program for the professional anti-Castro set. Much of this money is sure to end up in the bank accounts of people who have made a lucrative career out of fighting Fidel Castro from the safety of the United States.

7. It is a combination of political science fiction, wishful thinking, delusions and sour grapes. The tone of much of the report is almost surreal and  delusional in its talk about a hypothetical Cuban “transition” government and its detailed description of the policies such a government might undertake and the U.S. government actions that would result.

6. It is a model of cynicism and cruelty disguised as concern. The report is replete with crocodile tears and expressions of concern over the humanitarian needs of the Cuban people and promises of help--but only after a transition is under way. What about the problems faced by Cubans today?

5. It infringes on the freedom of American citizens. What ever happened to the U.S. government’s pious pronouncements of the “free exchange of ideas”?

4. It is not about the desires and dreams of Cubans abroad. Is the Commission speaking in a code in which reconciliation means confrontation, isolation, and economic strangulation?

3. It is not transparent. One can only imagine what items of dubious legality and sheer lunacy may be contained in this classified portion of the report.

2. It is not about sovereignty. The report’s emphasis on “restoring sovereignty to the Cuban people” is one of its most Orwellian aspects. A state that respects the sovereignty of another nation and its people does not produce a detailed script for the political future of that nation and that people.

1. It is about regime change, stupid. Make no mistake about it; this is a blueprint for accelerated regime change. Evidently, the Bush Administration has not been sobered by the disastrous result—for Americans for sure but especially for the Iraqi people and its devastated nation—of its recent adventure in U.S.-imposed regime change. Nor has it learned how far astray certain kind of exiles, with their own agendas and delusions and totally disconnected with the people back home, can lead this country.