Gov't proposes Cuban vote on Raul Castro

[Say_What]

Totally misleading headline. The 'gov't' they're talking about is the USSA. :puke:

<clips>

CORAL GABLES, Fla. - The Bush administration proposed Friday that Cubans hold a referendum to decide if they want to be ruled by Raul Castro, who is acting leader of the communist nation while brother Fidel recovers from surgery.

Fidel Castro has long fiercely resisted any attempts by the U.S. to interfere with his government, and Cuba is highly unlikely to accept the proposal, announced in Florida by U.S. Commerce Secretary

"We stand ready to assist Cubans in making a transition to democracy," Gutierrez said at The Miami Herald's Americas Conference. "We will not do business with Raul."

Gutierrez aides said the administration wanted the Organization of American States to organize the referendum. OAS officials had no immediate comment. Cuba has been excluded from participating in the group since the early 1960s, after Castro took power.


http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060915/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/us_cuba


This photo made available Friday, Sept. 15, 2006, by the government newspaper Juventud Rebelde shows Cuba's President Fidel Castro, right, and Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez during a meeting Thursday, Sept 14, 2006 in Havana, Cuba. Chavez is in Cuba to attend the 14th Nonaligned Summit. (AP Photo/Juventud Rebeld)

[Mika]

1. Makes sense. NOT!

Its a good idea for an outside group (the OAS) to "organize" a "referendum" in Cuba. Especially a group that has banned Cuba from joining (at US behest).

NOT!

:crazy:

[ConcernedCanuk]

2. SOOOO! - we Canuks should encourage the US to have a REAL Democracy !

.
.
.

Hmmmmmmm

We should have a crack at encouraging THAT

(well, after we get rid of Harper and his Bush a$$-kissing gang . . )

[Judi Lynn]

3. It's so impressive knowing Bush stuffed his administration with Batista-

supporting, right-wing Cuban "exiles," to help him steer Cuban policy.

His brother even placed Batista's grandson on his Florida Supreme Court, where he can smell the place up long after Jeb has gone (if the _Bushes will agree to leave, after all).

Batista, who cancelled elections, heavily censored the press, and even had periodicals coming into Cuba redacted during his later career, who used torture and murder and death squads to keep the citizens afraid, would be proud to see how far the _Bushes have gone to keep his empire alive.

Here's a Wikipedia version of _Bush's Secretary of Commerce and Cuba's future planner, Carlos "Lino" Gutierrez's biography:

Gutierrez was born in Havana, Cuba, the son of a pineapple plantation owner. Faced with the expropriation of their property, his family fled for the United States in 1960 when he was six years old. Like many other Cuban American refugees, they settled in Miami. Gutierrez learned his first words of English from the bellhop at the hotel where they initially stayed and, some years later, he and his family acquired United States citizenship.

The family moved once again – this time to Mexico, where Gutiérrez studied business administration at the Monterrey Institute of Technology's campus in Santiago de Querétaro. He joined Kellogg's in 1975 as a sales representative and management trainee. One of his early assignments included driving a delivery-truck route around local stores.

He rose through the management ranks, and in January 1990, he was promoted to corporate vice president of product development at the company's headquarters in Battle Creek, Michigan, and in July of the same year, he became executive vice president of Kellogg USA. In January 1999, he was elected to the company's Board of Directors and by April, he was appointed president and CEO.
(snip/...)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carlos_Gutierrez





(Middle photograph shared with Cuban Republican Senator Mel Martinez, who sponsored little Elián Gonzalez's trip to Disney World)