U.S. sees rise of hard-liners in Cuba

[kskiska]

WASHINGTON -- The deterioration of President Fidel Castro's health has been accompanied by the rise of hardline elements to key positions in Cuba, leaving no possibility for democratic reformers to surface, a senior State Department official said Wednesday.

"With Fidel Castro still alive, the regime has become more orthodox," said Thomas Shannon, who heads the State Department's Western Hemisphere affairs bureau. "It is hard to say what position it will take post-Fidel."

In the meantime, he said, "the success of the succession depends on the absolute control of the state."

For now, he added, potential reformers have been lying low, awaiting a more favorable climate to make their move. Once Castro dies, Cuban authorities will have a choice between "deepening repression" or a policy of greater openness to the world, Shannon added.

more…
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1152AP_US_Cuba.html

[Judi Lynn]

1. Or, following your right-wing obsession, Shannon, we could bust in there,

kill never everyone but the puppets, and trash the place.

The very idea they even DREAM to run their own lives without American control really fires Republicans up. How dare they.

[last1standing]

2. Looks like those sanctions are working a treat.

If we keep them up I'd say we'll have them right where we want them in another 200-300 years or so. :eyes:

I think we've discovered the REAL bush* doctrine. Wait them out no matter how much pain and death is involved, just like in Iraq.

[Say_What]

3. Cuba hints at desire to begin formal talks with U.S.

<clips>

WASHINGTON - The Swiss ambassador to Havana came to Washington last month in what's believed to be an effort to deliver a Cuban message reiterating Havana's eagerness to open contacts with the Bush administration, several persons familiar with the trip said Wednesday.

Ambassador Bertrand Louis met with State Department officials and influential members of the Cuban-American community in Washington, including Florida Republican Sen. Mel Martinez, the people added. They spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the communications.

The Swiss Embassy in Washington confirmed the visit but declined to comment on its purpose. But those who met with Louis believe he came as an emissary of Havana to repeat the message of Raul Castro that he's willing to open talks with the Bush administration - something Washington has refused to do so far.

In his talks with Cuban-Americans, Louis also explored the exile community's possible responses to Cuba's search for a dialogue with Washington, according to those who met with him.

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/politics/16232796.htm

[Judi Lynn]

7. Great line beneath the great 50's car photo, by the OAS Secretary General.

Santiago de Cuba taxi

[IndianaGreen]

4. Condi's State Department has the credibility of Goebbels' Propaganda Ministry

No one believes a word those people say on any given topic!

Hardliners? They were probably fantasizing about erections!

[MaryBear]

5. Cuba could give Bushco a distraction from what is really happening.

Again.

Uh oh! Hardliners in Cuba!
Gollee! We better do something!
:sarcasm:

[Mika]

10. Bushco is a distraction from what is really happening in Cuba.

Cuba has been making leaps and bounds in all economic & social sectors and international relations/trade for the last decade. But, thanks to the US media blackout on Cuba (except for the mewlings of the rightwingnuts), most Americans know next to nothing about Cuba (except for the mewlings of the rightwingnuts).

Bushco IS the distraction from what is really happening (remember.. they create fabricate 'new realities').

[Eugene]

6. IOW: We'll work with the repressed "democratic reformers" once Fidel passes.

We can't deal with anyone in the Cuban government currently.
They're all hard-line Commies. Count on a power struggle
after Fidel is gone (even if we have to help it along).

[Mika]

8. Nothing worse than hardliners on 1st class health care and good education.

God knows that 'Muricans don't want any of that! So, if the Cuban government reaches out (again) for dialog toward normalization of relations, at all costs the US must stiff-arm any rapprochement.
Can't go negotiatin' with any commies.. oh.. wait.. :eyes:

[Judi Lynn]

9. If you can label them "commies," you get to grab their country, after slaughtering as many of them

as time will allow. That seems to be the official right-wing view of the entire planet. If they dare to get the power out of the hands of a tiny few maggots living through brutality off the masses, just kill 'em, and put another U.S. puppet back in place again.

Who do they think they are, anyway? Their lords and masters are here.

Let's remind our lackeys to send the "dissidents" some more cashmere sweaters, play stations, and Belgian chocolates!

[Mika]

11. Except, of course, for the commies US corps are outsourcing jobs to.

If these corps can reap profits from the socialized infrastructure of commies like China, India, and Vietnam than they will grease US congresscritters to pass laws to allow them to do so.

It (US commie phobia) is all a sham.

[Judi Lynn]

12. It really is, isn't it? I remember learning years ago that the right-wing Miami gusano godfather,

Jorge Mas Canosa, was setting up a business in China, I think with his fiberoptics company or it could have been a construction company, of course (He surely got rich as a lord after being "exiled" from Cuba, didn't he? Exile certainly seemed to benefit him.).

Who would have expected the same man who was screeching about the evils of communism in Miami was also doing business with communists in China?



Ha ha, caption from Granma:

"La Loba, Mas Canosa y Tomás García Fusté, todos ©cantandoª bajo la batuta de Bush padre."