Cuba open to normalized relations with U.S., younger Castro says

[Say_What]

Catch that remark made today by John "Death Squad" Negroponte.

<clips>

Havana — Acting President Raul Castro said Cuba remains open to normalized relations with the United States, but warned the Bush administration in his first comments since assuming power that it will get nowhere with threats or pressure.

...“They should be very clear that it is not possible to achieve anything in Cuba with impositions and threats,” the younger Castro said of the U.S. “On the contrary, we have always been disposed to normalize relations on an equal plane.

“What we do not accept is the arrogant and interventionist policy frequently assumed by the current administration of that country,” he added.

Raul Castro's comments essentially restated his brother's long standing position of favouring normalized diplomatic and trade ties with the United States.

...In another move likely to be seen as an aggression by Havana, U.S. National Intelligence Director John Negroponte announced Friday he was creating a “mission manager” for Cuba and Venezuela to oversee the American spy community's efforts to collect and analyze intelligence on the two countries.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20060818.wcastro0818/BNStory/International/home


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Interesting blog by NACLA editor Teo Ballve with observations about the changes in Cuba that I haven't read in any of the MSM.

<clips>

...In recent months, Raúl had coincidentally maintained a more public profile, making appearances like the widely reported one in June in which he promised Cuba would remain socialist and under the rule of the Communist Party with or without Fidel in charge.

It’s the first time in 47 years that Castro has not been at the reins of the Cuban Revolution. Ominously, the news came less than a month after the government decided to make a series of reforms, including the rebuilding of the Party’s Secretariat – a policymaking body that was disbanded 15 years ago to streamline the government with the start of the Special Period. The re-construction of the Secretariat, which came as Castro was preparing to leave for the Mercosur summit in Cordoba, Argentina, was widely interpreted as a move that would help pave the way for a stable Communist transition after his eventual death. Many of those appointed to the Secretariat, for example, are a generation younger than the Castro brothers and hail from the provinces. Some analysts presumed the “shake-up” was intended to reinvigorate the Party and attract younger members.

...Anticipating the international response more generally, Oppenheimer and former Mexican Ambassador to Cuba Ricardo Pascoe drew some clear distinctions. Correcting the clumsy CNN anchor, Pascoe said that this was not a “transition,” but a sign of a “political succession within the very solid political structures of the Cuban government.”

http://pueblosamerica.blogspot.com /

[Mika]

1. Negroponte's “mission manager" = death squad manager.

I'm sure the Cuban government will take that lying down. :sarcasm:

--

But just watch. When Cuban law enforcement busts up some of these US terror plots or abettors of these ops, there’ll be DUers who mewl that the crackdown is an intolerable example of Cuba's evildoer government and, as usual, they will trot out the old HRW and IA reports that constantly & deliberately ignore that there is a real threat to Cuba(ns) posed by US state and US harbored terrorist groups that have committed many acts of terror in/against Cuba and Cubans.

--

Negroponte, Honduras and Iraq
http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?ItemID=5852

[Say_What]

2. No question about it. Predictable as always. ;-)

It's the Werewolf effect. The mention of Cuba or her leaders has the same effect on them that a full moon has on a werewolf. :evilgrin:

I read earlier today in the Cuban press that Posada may be released soon based on a report in El Nuevo Herald. Also, there's a scathing report on Znet about the CANF.

<clips>
The Cuban-American National Foundation Is a Terrorist Organization

On July 22, 2006, the Cuban-American National Foundation (CANF) celebrated its 25th anniversary at the Hotel Biltmore in Coral Gables. However, the most powerful US-based extreme rightist Cuban organization, shaken by a new scandal, could not enjoy that party appropriately.

In fact, a month earlier, on June 22, 2006, Jose Antonio Llama, a former CANF director, revealed publicly what everyone knew for a long time: the CANF is a terrorist organization. Llama acknowledged that he, along with members of the organization´s hierarchy, had set up a paramilitary group to carry out attacks on Cuba and to assassinate its president, Fidel Castro {1}.

According to "Toñin", as his friends call him, the CANF had a cargo helicopter, ten ultra-light remote-controlled planes, seven boats, a Midnight Express speedboat and an unlimited amount of explosives. "We were impatient about the survival of the Castro regime after the demise of the Soviet Union and the socialist system. We wanted to speed up democratization in Cuba using any means to achieve it," he said {2}.

The 75-year-old former director explained, without omitting a detail, his terrorist career. For example, he underlined that the plot to assassinate Fidel Castro, planned in 1997 with four of his accomplices, during the Ibero-American Summit on Isla Margarita, Venezuela, was frustrated due to the interference of Puerto Rican authorities when they were on his boat La Esperanza. He and his acolytes were tried and acquitted in December 1999 due to… lack of evidence {3}.

http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=60&ItemID=10779

[Judi Lynn]

4. Tony Llama is mentioned in this article, as well. What a scum/Bush friend.

What is the FBI going to do now?

JOSE Antonio Llama, former director of the Cuban-American National Foundation (CANF), is considering bringing fraud charges against several of his colleagues whom he is accusing of having seized funds of close to $1.5 million earmarked for a terrorist plot against Cuba, according to Miami sources.
JOSE Antonio Llama, former director of the Cuban-American National Foundation (CANF), is considering bringing fraud charges against several of his colleagues whom he is accusing of having seized funds of close to $1.5 million earmarked for a terrorist plot against Cuba, according to Miami sources.

The finance-terror scandal was uncovered by Radio Miami in its “El Duende” feature and explained by journalist Reynaldo Taladrid in last Monday’s (June 19) edition of Cuban TV’s Roundtable program.

The Miami Herald confirmed Llama’s exposé on Thursday 22 in an article that expands on the details of a conspiracy to commit acts of terrorism which had the participation of the deceased CANF president, Jorge Mas Canosa and various directors of the renowned Cuban-American lobby.

“Toñín” Llama admitted to the Herald that he and other members of that organization’s hierarchy created a paramilitary wing to commit acts of destabilization in Cuba and eliminate President Fidel Castro.

The words “acts of destabilization” and “eliminate” are euphemisms within the Florida mafia for acts of terrorism and assassination.
(snip)

As owner of the yacht, Llama was charged along with the crew of conspiracy to assassinate the president of Cuba. However, they were all exonerated in December 1999 by a compliant jury, for “lack of evidence.”

The Herald does not explain that the rigged trial was handled by Héctor Pesquera, the corrupt FBI officer who was subsequently recompensed with heading up that agency in Miami. On the contrary, Pesquera detained the Cuban comrades infiltrated into that city to counteract those Miami terrorist groups. Neither did the daily note that one of the terrorists arrested aboard La Esperanza, Juan Bautista Márquez, was later detained while on parole for the trafficking of 360 kilograms of cocaine and of trying to purchase a further 2,200 kilos of the drug.
(snip)

http://colorado.indymedia.org/newswire/display/13914/index.php

[Judi Lynn]

5. The article mentions two terrorist friends of George W. Bush's:

~snip~
For example, Luis Zuñiga Rey, one of the personages that Llama accused of terrorism, is a close friend of US President George W. Bush´s. On October 10, 2003, he was invited to the White House, where Bush gave him a warm hug that was broadcast on television. Two years earlier, on October 10, 2001, Mel Martinez, who is a senator at present but was a top US government official at the time, participated in the creation of the Council for the Liberty of Cuba during a meeting at the Hotel Biltmore, in Coral Gables. So, just one month after the Sept. 11 attacks, the US administration offered support to terrorists <14>.
(snip)



Luis Zuñiga Rey

Regarding Alpha 66, it has never been questioned, because its director, Ernesto Diaz Rodriguez, is a close friend of President Bush´s. In fact, he was invited to the White House on May 20, 2003, along with another ten representatives of the Florida-based Cuban extreme right wing. On June 2, 2005, George W. Bush even sent a thank-you letter to Alpha 66 for its support. On the other hand, the organization has a military camp in Florida that is tolerated by authorities <18>.
(snip)



Ernesto Diaz Rodriguez

The very famous Cuban "dissidents", including Oswaldo Paya, Vladimiro Roca and Martha Beatriz Roque, have a very close relationship with the CANF, which is legally a mafia association linked to a terrorist organization. So far, Cuban justice has shown endless patience with them, given their permanent relations with Florida-based criminal groups, because any other country in the world would have acted vigorously and severely <20>.
(snip/)

Fantastic info. everyone should see. Thank you.

[Say_What]

3. Raul: He's the pragmatic Castro

Comprehensive and interesting piece about Raul from the St. Petersburg Times.

<clips>

...But Raul, who had seen this coming since 1979, was ready, says Amuchastegui, who has written extensively on the military's economic reforms. In the early 1980s the armed forces sent engineers, managers and economists to take courses in universities and tour factories in Scandinavia, France and Canada. American economists were also invited to lecture in Havana.

The Cubans called it "perfeccionamiento empresarial" - business improvement. The key institution entrusted with this project was Raul's Armed Forces Ministry.

New accounting practices were introduced, state subsidies eliminated and managers given greater independence from the state ministries that had run them. Incentive pay was introduced for productive workers.

It wasn't a short-term survival plan. "It's a long-term strategy of change and transformation for the whole system," wrote Amuchastegui in a recent unpublished study. It sought "the most suitable middle ground" to blend the Revolution's emblematic "social tenets" with "superior capitalist organization."

Similar to the "China model," it hinged on loosening state economic controls without letting go politically.

Fidel wasn't having any of it, but Raul saw it as the only way forward. "Raul has always been inclined to reforms despite his hard exterior," said Hidalgo.

http://www.sptimes.com/2006/08/13/Worldandnation/Raul__He_s_the_pragma.shtml

[robcon]

6. Normalization is up to the U.S., IMO.

Now that the scum Fidel is (apparently) out of power, it seems like a good time to drop the stupid embargo.

[Judi Lynn]

7. There's no scum anywhere on the earth as vile as right-wing scum. n/t

[robcon]

8. No, Fidel is right up there with Kim, Pinochet, Mao and Pol Pot.

"Scum of the earth" defines someone who denies basic rights, murders his enemies and imprisons dissenters. Fidel fits the bill.

[Judi Lynn]

10. Kim, you say!

Thanks for the warning. I'll never be going to one of her films again.

[lumpy]

11. Why do you support the policies of

the Bush administration who has attempted to deny US citizens basic rights (illegal wire tapping;Constitutional abuses etc.), murders/tortures it's enemies (Iraq; AlGraib,thousands killed and mutilated), and imprisons people without benefit of legal rights (Quantanamo,exporting, through Europe, prisoners to certain torture). You have no concept of Cuban history and are quick to spout the canards and exaggerations of anti-Cuban forces.

[Say_What]

13. Sounds like GusanoMiami...

"Scum of the earth" defines anyone who denies basic rights, murders his enemies, and terrorizes and murders their dissenters. CANF and the MiamiGusanos fit the description perfectly.

<clips>

...The following list of violent incidents I compiled from a variety of databases and news sources (a few come from personal experience). It is incomplete, especially in Miami's trademark category of bomb threats. Nor does it include dozens of acts of violence and murder committed by Cuban exiles in other U.S. cities and at least sixteen foreign countries. But completeness isn't the point. The point is to face the truth, no matter how difficult that may be. If Miami's Cuban exiles confront this shameful past -- and resolutely disavow it -- they will go a long way toward easing their neighbors' anxiety about a peaceful future.

...1974 Exile leader José Elias de la Torriente murdered in his Coral Gables home after failing to carry out a planned invasion of Cuba.

1975 Luciano Nieves murdered after advocating peaceful coexistence with Cuba.

1976 Car bomb blows off legs of WQBA-AM news director Emilio Milian after he publicly condemns exile violence.

1983 Bomb explodes at Little Havana office of Continental National Bank, one of whose executives, Bernardo Benes, helped negotiate release of 3600 Cuban political prisoners.

1988 Bomb threat at local office of Immigration and Naturalization Service in protest of terrorist Orlando Bosch being jailed.

1991 Using crowbars and hammers, exile crowd rips out and urinates on Calle Ocho "Walk of Fame" star of Mexican actress Veronica Castro, who had visited Cuba.

1992 Cuban American National Foundation mounts campaign against the Miami Herald, whose executives then receive death threats and whose newsracks are defaced and smeared with feces.

1992 Americas Watch releases report stating that hard-line Miami exiles have created an environment in which "moderation can be a dangerous position."

1993 Inflamed by Radio Mambí commentator Armando Perez-Roura, Cuban exiles physically assault demonstrators lawfully protesting against U.S. embargo. Two police officers injured, sixteen arrests made. Miami City Commissioner Miriam Alonso then seeks to silence anti-embargo demonstrators: "We have to look at the legalities of whether the City of Miami can prevent them from expressing themselves."

1994 Human Rights Watch/Americas Group issues report stating that Miami exiles do not tolerate dissident opinions, that Spanish-language radio promotes aggression, and that local government leaders refuse to denounce acts of intimidation.

http://www.miaminewtimes.com/issues/2000-04-20/mullin_full.html

[Mika]

12. For once, you're right..

.. ;)

Cuba has ALWAYS be open to the normalization of relations with the US (even though the OP lead article's title implies otherwise).

Its the US that has been stiff-arming Cuba since the 1959 revolution.

[lumpy]

9. I, for one appreciate this information

on what is happening in Cuba. For so many years I have been interested in the future of Cuba and frustrated that the US has not responded to the pleas of the Cuban government to normalize relations between Cuba and the US. It's frustrating that the US tries to exert it's will and use illegal methods to try and overthrow any sovereign nation. It's just one more reason for lost faith in US integrity and justice. The us is sinking knee deep in a quagmire of its own making. Those of us with little power will suffer the consequences because of the thuggery of this present administration.

[Say_What]

15. Unfortunatley, Lumpy, the USSA is beginning to look more and more

like Chile under Pinochet. The Chileans, like US citizens are doing, surrendered all their civil rights as Isabel Allende talks about during this interview:


...LF: Were you aware, immediately, of the change that had just happened in your life?

IA: No. It was very sudden. It happened in a day, but we were not aware because there was censorship. All the media was censored and there was now news, only rumors. Also, because we had this long tradition in democracy, we thought that the soldiers would go back to their barracks in a week and they would call elections again. We never - I think that not even the military - expected it to last 17 years and have the brutal characteristics that id had. It was a surprise.

...IA: I think it was like a year later. I realized a*| slowly I realized that I had been involved in things that were a*| that you could lose your life for - like hiding people and smuggling information out of the country and trying to put people in embassies to find asylum and that sort of thing. I got more and more scared. I felt that the circle of repression was closing around my neck and there was a point at which I just couldn't take it anymore. There were several signs that I was in a "black list." All this was, as I have said before, just rumors. Nothing was ever confirmed. The rules changed all the time. The repression became more and more efficient, more effective. And that happened rapidly, but in stages.

You know, it is something very strange: You learn to live with things. For example, something is taken away, like let's say, the freedom of the press or a*| yeah, let's say that you're telephones are tapped so you say "Okay, I can live with that" and then the next day something else, and then you say, "Okay, I will have to live with that too," and so forth. And then after a few months, you realize that you have lost everything. But, you got sort of used to it. And then there's a point when you're talking torture at breakfast time with you kids. And all of a sudden you have this epiphany or this revelation in which you realize what kind of life you are having a*| and then there is a point where I left.

http://www.counterpunch.org/flanders06072003.html

[Judi Lynn]

17. It's surprising more people haven't been curious about the OTHER

September 11th attack on a government, this one with clear lines to the Republican pResident in the White House.

Thanks for posting the interview with Laura Flanders, and Isabelle Allende. She has so MUCH to say, has been through so much. Don't know how she was weathered it all so well. Loved her paragraph on seeing your rights slipping away, like censorship, and wire tapping. Our own right-wing has already justified it all, with excuses like "national security" for censorship, and "if you have nothing to hide, why would you mind the government hearing your phone conversations?" I feel a HUGE sneer coming up.

Here's a staged but beautiful photo of Ms. Allende.

[IndianaGreen]

14. Cuba will have to wait for a Democratic President if it hopes for normal

relations. Cuba has never done any harm to America, yet we treat this country like dirt just because it refuses to give us her children and young woman to American perverts, as it happened before the Revolution.

[ret5hd]

16. sorry...misinterpreted your post. my bad.