Miami in Limbo

Miami Cuban Americans morphed slowly Tuesday from a mood of jubilation to a feeling of unsure limbo, as word trickled in from media sources in Venezuela and Cuba that Fidel Castro was still alive and recovering. Many Cuban Americans are still hoping that the end of Castro's 47-year dictatorship is near.

Comments

[a different thought]

It's going to be rough for all of us Cuban-Americans the next couple of months. I predict manic-depressive moods until the politcal situation in Cuba stabilizes.

[nonee moose]

that's what mojito's are for, ADT. Frankly we really should begin "training"...

[a thought....]

Back to the mojitos! The best cure-all: churros and chocolate caliente at Las Palmas (but right now it's too hot). So...flan!!!

Seriously, we all know that when he dies (if he isn't already dead), the news will be leaked slowly until the ejercito is in place to control el pueblo. All eyes will be on that island for the next coming weeks. Even if this doesn't kill him, he isn't immortal. He won't last much longer.

[nonee moose]

me van a joder el adkins...

[a different thought]

He may not be immortal, but remember what Billy Joel said, "Only the good die young."

If longevity is proportional to evilness, we've still got a whole lot of Castro left, which gives us plenty of time for mojitos and churros, and maybe even chocolate caliente by that time.

[Manuel A. Tellechea]

GUATEMALA, 1 de agosto (PL).— El presidente de Guatemala, Oscar Berger, manifestó hoy sus deseos de que su homólogo Fidel Castro se restablezca pronto y agradeció la ayuda médica de Cuba a su país.

"Mi mensaje es de apoyo a su salud y porque se ponga pronto al frente del gobierno", declaró Berger al tomar juramento al nuevo ministro de Relaciones Exteriores, Gert Rosenthal.

[Manuel A. Tellechea]

It appears from the above comments that Guatemala has also gone the way of Venezuela and Bolivia, thanks to President Berger and Foreign Minister Rosenthal.

[curt]

What a bunch of sick fucks you right wing Miami Cubans are. Celebrating a man's illness & wishing for his death is sick. Fidel may not have been perfect but many people benifited from the revolution! May Fidel recover & retire with dignity if he is unable to lead!

[a thought....]

Yes, Fidel benefitted tremendously from the revolution. I wish him no worse than what he has done to the island; let that be his eternity. The word "dignity" is not one I associate with Fidel. The words I associate with Fidel are not fit for civilized conversation.

However, the term "freakin' hilarious" was running through my mind as Channel 7 so kindly showed (and in slow motion, no less) when he tripped and fell. Now that, my friends, is high comedy.

[nonee moose]

Curt;
LOL, you're funny. Post something else, please.

[Manuel A. Tellechea]

Curt:

We are not celebrating a man's illness: we are celebrating a murderer's death, much as the family members of serial killers rejoice when those psychopaths are sent to the electric chair. Fidel has killed not in the dozens or hundreds, but in the tens of thousands. Those who deny or excuse his crimes are his accomplices. You are one, Curt.

[curt]

Manuel, I bet you dont even know that over 50,000 Cubans were murdered by Batista's secret police between 1953 and 1958.

[Michelle Navarro]

I cannot deny that Fidel Castro is a killer but for you to claim that Fidel is a killer and not look at your own President who is a killer of thousands in Iraq but hides under the ideal of democracy, you are very short sighted. I am a Canadian who has been to Cuba over a dozen times and I will tell you this. The Cubans in Cuba are the best people in the world. They have stayed in the country they love regardless of the hardships brought by Fidel. I also agree with some of Fidels ideals. There is excellent health care and education for all. Can the US say that? Ever since Elian Gonzales, I do not have any respect for the Miami Cubans. You do not deserve to ever go back to this beautiful country with it's amazing people. And for the US investors who now want into Cuba, there are many countries who will fight tooth and nail to let you in. It's funny how the US wants in after they hear there is oil in Cuba. We know now exactly what you're after. You may think that Fidel is a monster but he does not compare to the monster who is now running your country. But even then, I would not rejoice over the death of Mr. Bush and behave in the manner that I saw today.

[RJP]

Berger of Guatemala has not taken the route of HUEVO (Hugo/Evo}.He's just expressing his gratitude on behalf of the 4000 guatemelans that have recovered their sight and the savings it has brought to his administration.

[Tu Abuela]

Dear Michelle:

My President is visionary. Fidel is a thug, murdurer and thief. I hope all the hollywood liberals finally keep their promise and go to Canada -- have fun ya'll.

Tu Abuela

[RJP]

Curt,
I am pleased to hear you have been to Cuba
over a dozen times.Have you gone to do volunteer work for the revolution? Vacation at Varadero beach? Female companionship { a pair of "canadian jeans" for a night of cubana heat}? I would be courious.
The absence of USA companies in Cuba has been a boom for canadian companies.
Don't talk about " OIL " when Sherritt {Yes, a canadian oil company}has long been making money in Cuba and better yet is very well positioned if "rumors" about great oil finds become a reality.

[The Gay Avenger]

Whatever happened to John Longfellow aka Lou Dobbs?

[Manuel A. Tellechea]

"Manuel, I bet you don't even know that over 50,000 Cubans were murdered by Batista's secret police between 1953 and 1958." — curt

I don't know such a thing because it is not true.

Did you just make up the "50,000" figure from whole cloth? Of course you did.

Bohemia, a magazine sympathetic to the Castro Revolution which, nonetheless, enjoyed freedom of the press in Batista's Cuba, invented the figure of "20,000" as the number of "Batista's victims." Shortly after Castro took power, the magazine's owner and publisher, Manuel Quevedo, remorseful for his role in bringing Castro to power, took his own life, but left a suicide note in which he confessed that he had fabricated the "20,000" figure.

By then, however, everybody knew the truth. Challenged to produce a reckoning of all "20,000" deaths, Quevedo could not come up with even 1000 names, and most of these had been killed in skirmishes betweeen Batista's army and Castro guerrilla.

Immediately upon being handed power, on Jan. 1, 1959, Castro buried the democratic Constitution of 1940, which had abolished capital punishment for all crimes. In his first 3 months in power, Castro executed 14,000 men and boys, and all their names are known because the decrees authorizing their deaths were published in the "Gaceta Oficial."

It should be noted that when Castro surrendered to Batista's army after the failed attack on the Moncada Barracks, Castro was not executed on the spot, as would doubtless have happened under similar circumstances in any other Latin American country. Instead, he was tried by Cuba's independent judiciary and sentenced to 10 years in prison. In fact, he served only 22 months before being amnestied by Batista.

If Batista had been as ruthless or bloodthirsty as Castro, Cuba would have been saved. But he was not. And that was our great misfortune.

[Michelle Navarro]

A visionary... oh my god!! He is a real... joke. By the way, the same adjectives you used for Fidel could be used for Bush. And FYI, I am a Conservative not a Liberal.
Have a nice day.

[Tu Abuela]

Hey Abuela - the truth hurts sometimes. Stop deluding yourself.

Michelle - as an American, when you speak the truth, you acknowledge it. And you have spoken the truth.

I did not vote for Bush. He will go down as one of the worst Presidents in U.S. history.

The next President will have such a mess to clean up...

[Tu Abuelo]

Michele - I am the counter to Tu Abuela,

I meant to put it down this way on the last post.

[Manuel A. Tellechea]

"There is excellent health care and education for all [in Cuba]. Can the US say that?" — Michelle Navarro

Yes, it can. But Cuba cannot.

Cuba's "excellent health care" is reserved for Castro (who has his own private hospital) and foreign tourists such as yourself.

As for education, it is a political perquisite of loyal party members. Others are excluded from University and the professions.

Even if the the myth of improved health care or education were true, there is more to life than getting sick or going to school.

You say that "the Cubans in Cuba are the best people in the world." Perhaps you are right. But, then, that would make you one of the most loathesome people in the world, for wishing upon such a good people the worst tyranny in the history of the Western Hemisphere.

[Mckinley]

"It should be noted that when Castro surrendered to Batista's army after the failed attack on the Moncada Barracks, Castro was not executed on the spot, as would doubtless have happened under similar circumstances in any other Latin American country. Instead, he was tried by Cuba's independent judiciary and sentenced to 10 years in prison. In fact, he served only 22 months before being amnestied by Batista."

Manuel: Castro was not killed after the raid because his wife at the time was a minister in the Batista government, as well as his brother in law - strings were pulled- but many were executed.

Still, I am by know means a Castro apologist. I would love to see that bastartd hanging from the streets like Mussolini. I don't want Cuba to become a banana republic again, and I strongly believe that a free Cuba will be a great country.

[Mckinley]

As to my above comment: I meant that Castro's father-in-law was a minister in the Batista government, not his actual wife.

[Manuel A. Tellechea]

"Ever since Elian Gonzales, I do not have any respect for the Miami Cubans." — Michelle Navarro.

Your respect is neither needed nor wanted.

As for Elian Gonzalez, Castro has turned him into a mannequin, which is perched on his knee at all political rallies and even reads political speeches. Everything that the Miami Cubans said would happen to Elian if he were returned to Cuba did.

[Manuel A. Tellechea]

"I don't want Cuba to become a banana republic again." McKinley

Cuba was never a "Banana Republic." But I wish it were a banana republic now, because that would mean that the people at least had something to eat.

[Manuel A. Tellechea]

MacKinley:

Castro's father-in-law was indeed a minister in the Batista government. But he never defended his son-in-law. In fact, Díaz-Balart Sr. delivered a classic speech in the Cuban Senate in which he warned against granting Castro an amnesty and predicted accurately that if set free Castro would destroy Cuba.

[Manuel A. Tellechea]

I have spent all day and night blogging. Fidel's death has energized me. I really do believe I can live to 100.

[Cuban-American]

Thank you Manuel for your commens to Curt there, there are alot of accomplices to Fidel, many of them live here among us in the democratic United States. Any hey, Ms. Canadian, you only talk that way because you have probably never had a family member tortured in a castro jail for simply not agreeing with the government, or had any family member killed cold-bloodedly by those Communists, or been faced with the decision of staying in a country to see the destruction and oppression of your family vs. fleeing the country and being in political exile but at least escaping oppression. Honey, when you went to Cuba, did you go as a tourist or did you stay among the people of Cuba. If you were a tourist, you were treated like gold and saw all the best hospitals. Honey, in Cuba medicine is not free because there is none. And education is not either because you must pay with your freedom. Miami Cubans are just as Cuban as the Cubans on the island, we are all Cubans. Castro is a murderer and he deserves to die, actually for somebody to have killed him would have been the best. But, there is a GOD and he already has his ticket to HELL.Only people who repent their sins are forgiven by our Lord Jesus remember, and I am sure Fidel had not repented.If you love Fidels Cuba so much and agree with his ideals, why don't you go live there and then come back with some comments. Don't be so ignorant and inform yourself. If it was so wonderful there, why do so many risk their lives at sea, do you think they are playing sailors you idiot. As far as Bush, at least he has the b---- to do what is right and protect the American People. Terrorists have to cease to exist and we as a nation have to finish the job. You are the perfect candidate to Communism. I strongly suggest you go live in Cuba for 1 year and speak up like you do in this Blog, go ahead, I dare you. You are just another foreigner who is shown the best hotels and are served by the enslaved people of Cuba. Are you that blind or ignorant that you cannot see the apartheid in Cuba. The Jews get their truth out, the African-Americans got theirs out, it is all over our history books. Oh! but not the Cubans, no one believes us, we are just a bunch of hot heads. I cannot believe the level of ignorance in the world, people watch the news, visit terrorist nation like Cuba and cannot for the life of them tell what is going on around them.

Cuban-American.

[another view]

Keeping Cuba healthy
BBC News, UK - August 1

By John Harris

Cuban healthcare
256 hospitals
13 medical research centres
445 24-hour clinics
13,857 family doctors
Health care spending per person per annum: Cuba $251; UK $2,389; US $5,711

In the first part of Newsnight's world's best public services series, we ask what Britain and the rest of the world can learn from Cuba's medical system.

Young or old, patients get a home visit from their doctor once a year

Last week, when the crisis in Lebanon and the demands of Rupert Murdoch had yet to grab all of his attention, Tony Blair gave a speech in Nottingham. His subject was the worrying state of Britain's health, and its drain on our national funds. Crudely put, the PM's message was that the NHS could simply not afford the cost of treating people afflicted by obesity, alcohol abuse, smoking and general bad living.

By way of an example, he cited diabetes: "Ten per cent of NHS resources today are used to treat diabetes. By 2010 the estimate is that this could double... and it's avoidable. Three quarters of diabetics are Type 2 diabetics, and two thirds of them have a disease which could be preventable with exercise, diet and more healthy choices."

Five days later, Mr Blair arrived at Mr Murdoch's News Corp bunfight in Pebble Beach, California. He told his audience that the age of tribal politics was over, and when it came to policy ideas, left-right definitions were increasingly useless.

So how about this: to really get to grips with his health worries, shouldn't he have a look at the medical system in Fidel Castro's Cuba?

Select Committee

Before anyone starts sending in irate emails, this is not intended as any kind of endorsement of Cuba's wider political system or human rights record. In any case, having an admiring look at the country's surgeries, clinics and hospitals is hardly controversial: in 2001, members of the House Of Commons Health Select Committee travelled there and issued a report that paid tribute to "the success of the Cuban health care system", based on its "strong emphasis on disease prevention" and "commitment to the practice of medicine in a community".

The underlying logic of the Cuban system is amazingly simple. Thanks chiefly to the American economic blockade, but partly also to the web of strange rules and regulations that constrict Cuban life, the economy is in a terrible mess: national income per head is miniscule, and resources are amazingly tight.

Healthcare, however, is a top national priority, for reasons that draw on the romantic (Che Guevara, the Communist Party's icon, was a doctor), but have much more to do with pragmatism: the population's admirable health is surely one of the key reasons why Castro is still in power.

The challenge, then, is to not so much treat illness as to stop people getting sick in the first place.

Consultorios

During four days on the island, Newsnight examined how all this works in practice.

The first place we visited - in Jaruco, a small town about 30 minutes outside Havana - was a Cuban doctor's surgery, or consultorio. Here, patients are divided into five categories, from high-maintenance to perfectly healthy, and the amount of attention they require is decided accordingly.

But here's the crucial point: even if you've got a clean bill of health, your local GP will still pay you a visit once a year. The idea is not just to check on your physical health, but to have a look at your wider lifestyle and home environment.

According to the doctor we met, there is also one particularly important thing : your annual house-call will probably take you by surprise.

Policlinics

We also spent time at a Policlinic - an ingenious invention, aimed at providing services like dentistry (around the clock!), minor surgery, vasectomies and X-rays, without the need for a visit to a hospital.

We paid a visit to the Latin American Medical School, which trains would-be doctors from all over the world - including, somewhat improbably, 71 from the USA - the Cuban way.

And we came across the small social details that play their role in making a big difference: platoons of pensioners exercising each morning in Havana's parks, and the 120 club, a national organization for anyone who fancies getting to 60 years old and thinking of it as life's half-way point.

Comparisons

If you want quick proof of how well all this works, consider Cuba's health indicators.

Its life expectancy and infant mortality rates are pretty much the same as the USA's. Its doctor-to-patient ratios stand comparison to any country in Western Europe.

Its annual total health spend per head, however, comes in at $251; just over a tenth of the UK's.

Mr Blair's aforementioned speech, it should be noted, was partly aimed at launching the government's latest bolt-on innovation to an NHS that seems to be fragmenting at speed: surgeries located inside branches of Boots. Will they fancy doing surprise house calls? Can they root themselves in communities the way the Cuban consultorios do? Could they fit in with the kind of organizational simplicity that seems to hold the key to Cuba's success?

If left-right prejudices really are as redundant as the prime minister reckons, his best-advised policy shift should be rather different.

Within reason - and though hell will freeze over, while pigs cruise over Downing Street - he should go Cuban

[Manuel A. Tellechea]

"Che Guevara, the Communist Party's icon, was a doctor." Quoted by Another View

No, he was not. He was a veterinarian. Well, actually, he never did receive his diploma. So it would be best simply to call him a bum.

[Manuel A. Tellechea]

Another View:

As Nicholas Eberstadt of the Harvard Center for Population Studies has shown, the Castro regime routinely falsifies (or "cooks up") its education and health statistics.

Before the Revolution, incidentally, Cuba led Great Britain and half of Europe in health, education and social welfare services.

I could quote you the statistics, but I have done that already -- many times.

[Slim]

"If it was so wonderful there, why do so many risk their lives at sea."

For the same reason Mexicans and other South Americans risk their lives crossing vast deserts. So they can come here and pillage our country for all it's worth. The only things these third world foreigners love about the United States is our riches and standard of living. Other then that they try and transform "here" into "over there". And we end up having many of the problems as their native country. Need evidence? Just travel though Miami. South Florida might as well be renamed North Cuba / Haiti / Nicaragua / Guatemala.

[gansibele]

Hey Slim, here's a radio show for you:

"On the popular Jamaican radio show, Open Line on WAVS 1170 AM, host Winston Barnes said many callers were saddened that some Cuban exiles openly relished Castro's ill health -- so much so, that listeners prayed for a speedy death.

''Some of the callers were angry at how Cubans are behaving about this,'' said Barnes, a Miramar commissioner. ``I, too, join a lot of the callers who have a serious problem with people exulting over somebody's impending death.''

Asshole.

[Slim]

Lets get this straight. You're throwing a block party because a frail old man is undergoing surgery and might die of complications. And i'm the asshole? What planet are you from?

[a different thought]

Those who wish for Castro's death are equal to those who wished for Hitler's death. Is that so bad? No, he's a murderer, and in this counrty many believe in the Death Penalty for murderers. Sure criticize the Cubans, hypocrites!!!!!

[a thought...]

Has anyone noticed that in countries were megalomaniac tyrants rule that the put pictures of themselves everywhere? Iraq was full of pictures of Saddam and Cuba is filled with pictures of El Asesino. That whole Big Brother thing is creepy.

As for rejoicing that he's going to die, no one would "have a serious problem" with all the partying going on if they had to live with their family members being killed via the infamous fusilamientos. No one would be worried about a "frail old man" who in actuality is responsible for the ruins his country is in and for the destruction of the family unit. Any person who has lived under the tyranny of any ruler knows what this is about. It is a chance, at long last, for freedom. So, keep your ignorant, bleeding-heart comments coming. People who defend Castro deserve to live in one of his cities like the rest of the population does. Don't go to the hotels or the restaurants and come back and say how wonderful it is when the Cuban people themselves cannot go into to the tourist section. Go live in a house with 6 or 7 other families that are working for practically nothing and have to rely on family in Miami to help them. Go tell those people that Castro is your hero. Oh, and tell that also to all the people who had family members rounded up and murdered. I'm tired of reading that Fidel and Raul are not killers. Give me a break. Wait until they start finding all those burial pits all over the island. Then what will people like Slim say? "Oh, you can't prove it wasn't Batista." "It wasn't Castro." Riiiiiighhhhhht.

[Manuel A. Tellechea]

A.T.:

Haven't you recognized yet who "Slim" is, or "Harry" or "The Truth"?

[a thought...]

Oh, I think I have. I can't help it, though....he's an addiction.

Manuel, ya viene viniendo...

[Manuel A. Tellechea]

AT:

I find him useful, too. His flatline ignorance allows me to instruct others on Cuban history, and he seems to have an uncanny aptitude for bringing up arcane subjects from his undigested reading which I think need to be addressed but which no one else has discussed in 20 years.

[nonee moose]

Stop with the cut and paste jobs, people! You're overloading my blackberry!

Slim, how 'bout a kegger at your house?

[a thought...]

Nonee, a mojito kegger? Interesting!!!

[Quijote]

Sorry I can't traslate it.

El Partido esta de luto
porque se ha muerto Fidel
y Raúl esta llorando
donde no la pueden ver.

Con banderas verde olivo
lloran en la U-Jota-C.
Los pioneros inocentes
están llorando también.

Los cañones llevan puestas
municiones de poder
Los soldados no han tirado
porque no saben que hacer.

Y la industria papelera
quedó sin hojas esta vez.
Todo el mundo fue al entierro
con banderas de papel.

¡El Coma Andante se ha muerto!
¡Estiró la pata Fidel!

-o0o-

En una calle en La Habana
vive humilde un constructor.
Su mujer está diciendo:
"!Gracias, mil gracias, Señor!"

Los vecinos de la cuadra
vienen todos de a montón.
Una tribuna muy grande
esta haciendo el constructor.

Entra y sale un perro alegre
Canta en la calle una voz:
"Caballeros, que es en serio,
¡El Caballo se ñampeó!"

El constructor se levanta
sube orgulloso al balcón,
abre el micrófono al viento,
suelta enérgica la voz:
¡"Libertad para mi pueblo!
Que Fidel ya se acabó!
¡VIVA MI CUBA LIBRE
y demos gracias a DIOS

[usambcuba]

A.T. - Poignant observations. And if there are killing fields as claimed, the forensic technology exists to time date any evidence.

That said, that will not excuse our complicity in our side of this madness with our policies that have exacerbated the misery of the Cuban people. When Castro is gone from power, this realization will be more apparent, especially when collectively the community here makes plans to involve themselves in Cuba's future there on the island. I believe that Castro would have long been gone, had we changed course with our policies long ago. But we kept them to placate the hardliners and because of the political money windfall the policy whore became. We made a bad situation worse.

And unfortunately, it is the community in Miami who will face the brunt of this from their Cuban brethren on the island.

Right now we have an opportunity to make things better. Consider for a moment what would happen if the Administration were to lift travel and trade restrictions at this point in time? But does the Adminstration seize the opportunity? As with most other foreign policy matters it fails with, no.

The task of Cuban and American reconciliation will have a daunting beginning. But it will get done.

[a thought...]

Ambassador, if the travel restrictions were lifted right this second, there would be a mass flotilla towards the island. I can picture it now: boat after boat headed towards the island, loaded with the essentials....rum, beer, guns and HDTVs....

VIVA CUBA LIBRE!!!!

[Manuel A. Tellechea]

usambcuba:

Still trying to displace the blame for the destruction of Cuba from Castro to Cuban exiles? These are your personal sentiments; do not attribute them to the Cuban people. One day soon they will be able to speak for themselves and shall repudiate you and all the other Castro apologists, but not the Cuban exiles who have been their only help and support these 47 years.

There is nothing particularly "daunting" about "reconciling" the Cuban and American people, either. All that is required is for Fidel Castro to disappear. He is and has always been the only obstacle to friendly relations between our two countries. Or, rather, he was.

[cubanpatriot]

Read the Suicide note of Miguel Angel Quevedo and what he says about the so-called 20,000 dead.

http://universalspectator.org/journal/other/quevedotestament.html

"Bohemia was the echo of the street—the street that applauded Bohemia when it invented the lie of “the twenty thousand dead.” A diabolical lie, invented by the alcoholic Enriquito de la Osa who knew that although Bohemia was the echo of the street, the street also echoed what was published in Bohemia."

Read the whole thing.

[cubanpatriot]

Guns and HDTV's that would be promptly confiscated by the regime. Those bringing the items thrown prompty in a Cuban jail (remember Cuba does not acknowledge dual citizenship, once a Cuban always a Cuban). Besides as far as I know Mesa Redonda isn't broadcast in HDTV and the state controls all the media.

[Manuel A. Tellechea]

Quixote:

You have quoted a very ingenious parody of José Martí's poem "Los Dos Príncipes." Here is the original poem as translated by me from the Spanish:

THE TWO PRINCES

The palace is in mourning,
The king cries on his throne;
The queen is also crying,
She's crying all alone.
In handkerchiefs of pure lace
They cry in disbelief,
The nobles of the palace,
Beside themselves with grief.
The royal horses, once so bright,
Are now in black-array:
The horses did not eat last night —
Nor wanted food today.
The courtyard's stately laurel tree
Is stripped of all its leaves:
The people of the country
All carry laurel wreaths.
The king's son has died today:
Ther king's heir has passed away.

Upon the hill, the shepherd
Has built his simple home:
The shepherdess to ask is heard:
"Why does the sun still come?"
With lowered heads, the sheep
Approach the shepherd's door:
A box he's lining, long and deep,
Upon the cottage floor.
A sad dog keeps watch there;
From the hut is heard a moan:
"Little bird, take me where
My precious one has flown."
The weeping shepherd takes the spade,
And sinks it in the bower,
And in the hole that he has made
The shepherd lays his flower.
The shepherd's son has died today,
The shepherd's heir has passed away.

I will also try to translate the parody, which deals with the two Cuban Princes of Darkness, and the death of one of them.

[a thought...]

Of course, Cuban Patriot! It was a joke. However, if there was a way for people in Miami to get on their boats and go to Cuba fully armed, I believe some would do it.