Miami's Cuban Connection

VIDEO: Washington Discussion on U.S. Policy

NDN Video: A New Day for America's Relations with Cuba and Latin America? -- February 7, 2007

NDN Vice President Joe Garcia, U.S. Rep. Bill Delahunt, dissident Miriam Leiva, and others discuss U.S. Cuba policy in Washington last week. DeLahunt says he would accept "incrementalism" toward changing U.S. policy. Garcia cites an appetite to find "common ground."

http://www.ndn.org/media/afterfidelforumvideo.html

Public's Sentiments on Castro and the Embargo

WASHINGTON - In nearly equal measure, Americans say they don't like Cuban President Fidel Castro but do want the United States to reestablish regular diplomatic relations with the communist island nation after 46 years of estrangement.

Less than half of those polled think Cuba will become a democracy after the 80-year-old revolutionary leader dies or permanently steps aside. However, 89 percent in The Associated Press-Ipsos poll say they think Cubans will be better off or about the same when Castro is gone.

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/world/cuba/16648139.htm

Tribune: Cuba's Young Radicals May Be Losing Luster

By Gary Marx
Tribune foreign correspondent
Published February 8, 2007

HAVANA -- Six months after ailing Cuban leader Fidel Castro temporarily ceded power, young hard-liners linked to Castro have all but disappeared from public view as economic czar Carlos Lage -- a moderate reformer -- has seen his profile grow, diplomats and analysts say.

Notably absent from the spotlight since Castro handed authority last July to his younger brother, Raul, are Otto Rivero, Hassan Perez and other young radicals collectively known by diplomats and some Cubans here as "the Taliban."

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0702080094feb08,1,2183317.story?coll=chi-newsnationworld-hed

Roger Noriega Blasts Raul Castro's Succesion

In an essay that appeared in a U.S. policy journal, former State Department Official Roger Noriega ripped Raul Castro's succession, saying it would perpetuate the communist system that has plagued Cuba for nearly 50 years.

Photo: Noriega on the left

http://www.aei.org/docLib/20070207_LAOg.pdf

Charlize Theron Wants Rick Sanchez?

BY FRANCES ROBLES

CNN's Rick Sanchez -- of Miami WSVN fame -- got a proposal of a lifetime Sunday from Oscar-winning Hollywood hottie Charlize Theron.

During an interview to discuss her new documentary about Cuban rappers, East of Havana, the South African actor looked right at the camera and said: ``I want to make out with you right now.''

See the video:

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/16635205.htm

Glasnost in Cuba?

One by one, Cuban artists and intellectuals in Havana did something unprecedented this week: They stood before the government and criticized a particularly harsh era of censorship -- out loud and in the open.

Perhaps even more surprising than the conference held Tuesday to discuss a dark period of Cuban cultural oppression was what happened outside: a protest by those shut out of the invitation-only event. Also out loud and in the open.

''I don't know how important it can be, but what's true is that I have never seen anything like that in Cuba,'' Cuban writer Ena Lucía Portela told The Miami Herald in an e-mail. ``It was rudimentary, passionate, incoherent, but it was the closest thing to freedom of expression I have seen in this country in my entire life.''

In a move that Cuba experts say signals a significant shift in Cuban domestic policy, the government led by interim President Raúl Castro appears to be cracking open the door to debate. After Castro publicly asserted he was open to discussion, and later convened a committee to study flaws of socialism, experts say there has been a clear changing of the guard in Cuba, one that allows at least controlled discussion.

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/world/cuba/16612667.htm

Charlize Theron Produces Cuba Documentary

Oscar-winning actress Charlize Theron has stepped from in front of the camera to behind it, reports ABC News.

Her first documentary, East of Havana, which hit select theaters Friday, focuses on the men and women of Cuba, their music, their life, and their quest for social justice.

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/living/people/16618321.htm

Miami Mayor: I Don't Support Party Idea

Miami Mayor Manny Diaz issued this news release Friday:

Re the Jan. 29 story, “When Castro dies, the party's on:” Every government contingency plan has always contemplated the Orange Bowl, along with other large sites, as a gathering place for overflow crowds, mainly for the public safety of all involved.

This idea of a ''party'' was hatched by a city commissioner. My office never was consulted and was not in support of this idea. In fact, I have not and will not appoint anyone to serve on the planning committee.

On the day Fidel Castro dies, my thoughts and prayers will be with the families of those he executed, those who died in the straits seeking freedom, the families he separated and the hundreds of political prisoners and dissidents still on the island.

While Castro's death will bring feelings of hope, relief and pleasure to many of us, it is only after a full transition to democracy occurs that meaningful change for the Cuban people will take place. Our ultimate desire is for the people of Cuba to enjoy the rights and liberties held by democratic countries everywhere. It is on that day, when Cubans can finally enjoy freedom and democracy, that we will all have cause to celebrate.

MANNY DIAZ, mayor, Miami

Three Cuban American Reps Endorse McCain

In the first big endorsement from the nation's biggest battleground state, Florida's three Cuban-American members of Congress announced Wednesday that they will back Republican Sen. John McCain for president.

U.S. Reps. Lincoln and Mario Díaz-Balart and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, all Miami Republicans, are taking sides at least one year before Florida's presidential primary. A fast-tracked bill in the state Legislature would bump the primary from March to the last Tuesday in January, possibly making Florida the first state in the South to vote.

McCain's campaign already has tapped a Miami political consulting team who worked for Gov. Charlie Crist's campaign, Carlos Curbelo and Danny Lopez, to organize events and conduct Hispanic outreach.

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/breaking_news/16593026.htm

Is Carlos Lage a Reformer or Towing the Line?

BY FRANCES ROBLES

The latest leader to emerge in Cuba is a pediatrician and economic reformer who's known for biking to work.

Vice President Carlos Lage, a 55-year-old who once served on a medical mission to Ethiopia, became the nation's economic czar in the early 1990s. And now Lage has become one of the few Cuban politicians to stand out as a rising confidant of interim leader Raúl Castro.

Lage's rise -- and the perceived slide of hard-liners close to Fidel Castro, such as Foreign Minister Felipe Pérez Roque -- has marked the six months since Castro ceded power to his brother following surgery for a still undisclosed ailment.

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/world/cuba/16584606.htm