To advertise on this space
Per inserzioni pubblicitarie
Um hier Werbung zu machen

Cuba

All the news not fit to print
To advertise on this space
Per inserzioni pubblicitarie
Editorial correspondence | Back to Politics | Back to the world news

Invading Cuba
Cuba's crackdown on dissidents
The difference between Bush and Castro
The American obsession with Cuba and the kidnap of a six-year old boy
Shame on Cuba

  • (May 2003) Invading Cuba. The USA has always been obsessed with Cuba. During the Cold War, that obsession was not justified: the USA was supporting Latin American dictators who were as bad and sometimes much worse than Castro. Now that the Cold War is over and all of Latin America has become more or less democratic, the old American obsession for Cuba would be reasonable, except that the USA seems to be much more indifferent than it used to be. The problem is that the end of the Cold War (of the Soviet Union) also marked the end of the USA's interest in improving the lives of millions of Cubans. The USA has no economic interest in Cuba, which makes it even less appealing to the main Washington lobbies.
    Castro has always been a crazy and demented dictator, but now he is also senile. He lives in a world that doesn't exist anymore. The Cuban people are desperately left behind by a world that is rapidly advancing towards democracy and capitalism. The damage that Castro is inflicting on Cubans is gigantic.
    Millions of Cubans have fled Cuba, possibly the single largest refugee case in the world. Millions would leave if they only could. Cubans die every year trying to escape Castro's regime.
    A U.S.A. invasion of Cuba would be welcome by the Cuban people. The only obstacle against such an invasion comes from the United Nations, pretty much the only organization in the world that recognizes Castro as the legitimate ruler of Cuba. Castro's only friends are mad dictators like Kim Jong Il and Qaddafi. He is an embarrassment to everybody else. He is an embarrassment to his own people.
    An invasion of Cuba would cost very little, last very few days, liberate millions of desperate Cubans and remove the last dictator of the Americas.
    If Saddam, why not Castro?
    TM, ®, Copyright © 2005 Piero Scaruffi All rights reserved.
    Back to the world news | Top of this page

  • (March 2003) Cuba's crackdown on dissidents. Cuba, the last dictatorship in Latin America, is taking advantage of the distraction created by the Iraqi war and is arresting dozens of dissidents. Many of them had been encouraged by the visit of Jimmy Carter to speak up. A few of them were fasting in support of detained dissidents. The authorities themselves have confirmed that none of the dissidents were committing any crime. Their crime was to protest against the jailing of other dissidents, particularly Oscar Elias Biscet.
    When Jimmy Carter visited the island, he did not know that he was unwillingly being used to smoke out dissidents. Many of the people arrested by Castro are the ones who communicated with Carter their desire for freedom. Carter, basically, acted as a Castro agent. Dissidents are accused of "undermining the government". Sentences range from 15 to 25 years in prison. The tribunal, which, of course, did not admit journalists or observers, gave 25 years to legendary opposition leader Hector Palacios, 20 years to Ricardo Gonzales (who ran the only independent newspaper in Cuba) , 20 years to poet Raul Rivero, 20 years to economist Oscar Espinosa Chepe, 20 years to Hector Maseda, 18 years to Osvaldo Alfonso, etc.
    Castro thinks that he is taking advantage of the war in Iraq to strengthen his power in Cuba. The truth is that he is providing George W Bush with an excellent reason to depose him. And he is providing the Cuban population (desperately tired of 40 years of communism) yet another reason to welcome the liberators.
    TM, ®, Copyright © 2005 Piero Scaruffi All rights reserved.
    Back to the world news | Top of this page

  • (May 2002) The difference between Bush and Castro. The clown who is currently president of the USA never misses an opportunity to shut up. At a time when America desperately needs cooperation from the rest of the world, Bush has decided to attack first Iran and then Cuba, two countries that could be strategic allies in the war against terrorism. This may be due to Bush's complete ignorance of history and geography (it wouldn't hurt if presidents of the world's superpower had to take a test before they take office) or it may be due to crass stupidity.. It certainly does not help the chances of peace and does not increase the security of the American people
    On Cuba, specifically, Bush was angered by Jimmy Carter's momentous trip to Cuba. Cuba has been a victim for 40 years of a USA embargo that has no legal status. Cuba did not attack the USA. Cuba is recognized by the United Nations and by all countries in the world. All countries in the world (except the USA) have regular relationships with Cuba. Millions of tourists from every part of the world have visited Cuba, except Americans (who still think that Castro does not allow foreigners to see how Cubans live).
    Bush has decided to spin a new lie (that Cuba is helping rogue states manufacture biological weapons, whereas the truth is that America has helped Iraq manufacture biological weapons). Bush has also rediscovered the old propaganda against Cuba, based on the idea of "human rights". Coming from the vary man who is so friendly with the brutal dictatorships of Saudi Arabia and Egypt (where thousands of dissidents have been summarily executed and where the September 11 terrorists were born and indoctrinated), this is not much of a sermon, likely only to backfire against America and entertain the bored audience of the world.
    Bush questions the legitimacy of Fidel Castro's rule because he was not elected democratically. Hello? George W Bush is president of the USA not because the majority of Americans voted for him but because of a technicality in the constitution of the USA. Fidel Castro is the president for the very same reason: not because the majority of Cubans voted for him but because of a technicality in the Cuban constitution. Where is the difference between Castro and Bush? One has a beard and one doesn't, that's all.
    Even the most naive of observers knows the reason Bush came out with his attacks against Castro: because some very wealthy and very crooked Cubans in Florida control millions of precious votes, votes that could decide the next election just like they decided the past one.
    The USA is hostage to a bunch of dishonest Cubans, who basically decide who becomes president and what that president will say.
    On may 15, Cuba let Jimmy Carter speak live on tv to million of Cubans. Now let us see if the USA will let Fidel Castro speak live on tv to millions of Americans. What is the USA afraid of?
    TM, ®, Copyright © 2005 Piero Scaruffi All rights reserved.
    Back to the world news | Top of this page

  • (April 2000) The American obsession with Cuba and the kidnap of a six-year old boy. The world is laughing at America's obsession with Cuba. If Elian Gonzales were a Rwandan child, nobody would care: the Immigration department would simply return him to his father in Rwanda. Case closed. But Cuban-Americans constitute a powerful mafia that has managed to keep the USA on a collision drive against Castro (mainly because this Cuban mafia represents political and economic interests, i.e. aspiring dictators, that cannot prevail as long as Castro is in power), while countless dictators around the world were free to slaughter, imprison, torture, cleanse and wage wars (often using US military equipment).
    Elian's case is almost comic. There is no doubt that the child (legally speaking) has been kidnapped. The kidnapper's justification is that the child would be better off in America than in Cuba. This is also the opinion of distinguished politicians of the far right like Newt Gingrich and the mayor of Miami. What makes them think that America, the homeland of serial killers, the land of overweight people, the land of guns and drugs and AIDS, the land with 1.8 million people in prison, the last bastion of the death penalty, and the home of 40 million uninsured people, is a better place to raise children than Cuba, where there are no serial killers, no drugs, no AIDS, no guns, education and health care are free, and, by all accounts, crime is almost non-existent?
    And if society is allowed to decide where a father should raise his child, why can't America take the children of Newt Gingrich, the children of the mayor of Miami and the children of all the Cuban-Americans and deport them to a safer country, where education and health care are free and the average salary is much higher, such as Switzerland?
    Who are Gingrich, the mayor of Miami and the kidnappers to decide the future of every child of the world based on their preferences? Especially since all of them have in common a somewhat psychotic and neurotic attitude.
    What would happen to Elian if he stayed in the US is easy to predict: he would go to a lousy school, because education is expensive in the US; if he survives high school (given the current rate of school shootings), by the time he is 16 he will be involved in a drink and drive accident, by the time he is 18 he will have tried drugs, by the time he is 20 he will have bought a gun. By the time he is 30 his chances of having been in jail will be very high. By the time he is 40 he will be overweight like most Americans. By the time he is 50 he will have his first heart attack. By the time he is 60 he will be diagnosed with cancer. And he may very well end up being one of the 40 million Americans who do not have health insurance. Let Elian's father decide if this is the right future for his child.
    Cuba is not a free country, but, by all accounts, its citizens (people who were once six-year old children like Elian) are extremely kind and honest people. The country is poor and life is difficult under communism, but very few kids are shot dead in high schools, streets are safe, nobody has guns, drugs are rare. Let the father, not a bunch of demented fascists, decide what is best for Elian.
    Newt Gingrish and the mayor of Miami, Joe Carollo, and the conservative politicians in general, do not realize it but they are the worst fears of communism come true. Here is a government that wants to decide where and how people should live. Here is a government that wants to take a child away from a father and decide where and how it should grow up. Stalin and Mao would love to see this.
    Carollo behaved like a southamerican dictator when he fired his city manager and his police chief (both white officials who offered mixed support to the kidnapping of Elian) and replaced them with close friends of the Cuban community. Miami is becoming an old-fashioned fascist dictatorship. The last to preach Castro should be Carollo, since Carollo uses the same style that he accuses Castro of. And this reflects the idea of "democracy" that is widespread among the Cuban exiles.
    For Cuban exiles, Elian Gonzales has become a nightmare. Their orchestrated campaign to exploit Elian against Castro has backfired: most Americans are now ashamed that they still keep sanctions against Cuba when they trade freely with China. Even Iran enjoys better ties with the USA than Cuba. What has Cuba done to the USA? It is unbelievable that the USA government is still hostage to a few thousand anti-Castro Cuban fascists who have become registered voters.
  • Shame on Cuba: (October 1998) The United Nations voted 157-2 against the United States embargo of Cuba. This is the record of all time: 157 countries sided against one country (and Israel) for the very first time in the history of the world. The United States embargo against Cuba is not only unethical and criminal, it is plain ridiculous. Castro is obviously not a threat to anybody, and, albeit far from being a democratic leader, cannot be compared with any of the crazy dictators of our age. Boycotting Castro's Cuba is like persecuting a shoplifter in a neighborhood of murderers.
    The reason Fidel Castro is so hated by American presidents is that he is vastly more popular than any of them. Not only has he often enjoyed the favor of most of his citizens, he has also become a universal icon. Thanks to the American embargo, Fidel Castro has become a hero and a martyr. Besides, he is by no means the worst dictator in the world, and he never was the worst in the Americas. As a matter of fact, plenty of much worse dictators were installed and supported by the C.I.A. Castro has provided his citizens with first-rate universal health care (something that still eludes the U.S.) and free universal education. Far from being a ruthless murderer, he has created a system that, once the American boycott is ended, may well turn Cuba into a miracle of social and economic progress. This may be the true reason why American presidents are so determined in keeping him confined.
    TM, ®, Copyright © 2005 Piero Scaruffi All rights reserved.
    Back to the world news | Top of this page
Editorial correspondence | Back to the top | Back to Politics | Back to the world news