Cubans paint US Christmas message

[emad]

BBC News

Cuban drivers can now drive their cars straight over the US eagle

Cuban cartoonists and art students have painted giant caricatures outside the US mission in Havana in the latest blow in a bizarre tit-for-tat spat.

A two-storey high cartoon depicted the top US diplomat in Cuba, James Cason, as a huge Father Christmas - whose sack contains bombs, not presents.

The dispute began when the US alluded to jailed Cuban dissidents in Christmas decorations put up outside the mission.

The rival neighbours have recently stepped up their war of words.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/4119759.stm

[pinerow]

1. Ya gotta give it to the Cubans...They do find humor in the

strangest of places.

[Flammable Materials]

2. This is what we need ... more COMEDY bombs!

*splat*

[Hand]

3. VIVA LA PUEBLA CUBANA!!!

:toast: :yourock:

[pinerow]

4. "El Pueblo Cubano"

just a little grammatical correction. :toast:

[Hand]

17. Oops... thx! nt

[Mika]

5. YES!

Hey Cuba ignorant Americans.... look at the picture in the lead post. OMG!

Contrary to the US based propaganda/myth that there are only old American cars in Cuba.. there's a modern car behind the 57 Chevy (looks like a new Fiat).




Viva Cuba!

[TahitiNut]

6. I'd rather have the 57 Chevy.

:shrug:

[Mika]

8. Understood. But..

It should be noted that there are plenty of new cars in Cuba, not just the gas guzzler US cars.

Also, tourists can arrive in Cuba and rent a modern new small car and drive anywhere they please. The small cars don't burn a lot of gas - which is a precious commodity in Cuba.

[Hand]

20. A side note...

I've rented one of those small cars in Cuba (I'm Canadian), something called a Subaru Vivio with a three-cylinder engine. They've also disabled all air conditioning to conserve fuel, although the fan does work.

Pretty nice little car. I kept tapping the fuel gauge because the needle never budged off Full.

:toast:

ON EDIT: Now that I look at the picture, I think that the new car referred to is indeed one of these odd little Subarus!

[Judi Lynn]

10. Hi, Mika. This story should catch propaganda-fed readers by surprise!

Posted on Tue, Dec. 21, 2004



Moderate Cuban dissidents launch new magazine

Associated Press


HAVANA - Moderate dissidents Tuesday launched a new magazine called "Consensus," saying it was necessary to expand the spectrum of opinions presented in Cuba's state-run media.

The idea is to create a space "where people with positive projects for our country can be published," said activist Reinaldo Escobar, in charge of news for the magazine.

"We think that a better Cuba is possible," he added.

Escobar was joined by other opponents of Fidel Castro's government, including Manuel Cuesta Morua, a well-known Cuban intellectual, and Eloy Gutierrez-Menoyo, a former exile.

"Consensus" was presented in the headquarters of a state-owned construction company, which is unusual for a dissident activity. Government opponents generally don't hold public gatherings, especially not in state-controlled offices.
(snip/...)

http://www.tallahassee.com/mld/tallahassee/news/politics/10470734.htm

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Eloy Gutierrez Menoyo,a Cuban "exile" who has lived in Miami for years, and recently returned to Cuba to start his own political party there.

[Mika]

18. OMG! Opponents of Castro publishing a magazine..

.. the washed brains of some Americans must be exploding. :)


Whenever I've been to Cuba I always picked up the political mags that are printed by the numerous political parties and interests. Some are vehemently anti Castro too. Great informative reading. There is no shortage of Cuban opinion in Cuba.


Thanks for posting this little pearl for the neolibs/cons.

[DS1]

28. OMFG! THEY ARE!

[guajira]

27. Looks like a Buick or Olds to me

Hi Mika, I hate to show my age, but that car looks like a 57 Buick to me.

Cuba is a feast for the eyes for collectible car enthusiasts!!

[Carni]

35. I don't know what it is... but what a cool photo!

I love photos of Cuba! I love those old cars!

Never been there... but the whole lost in time intermingled with modern day vibe has always appealed to me (and now some freeper will slither out of their disguise and tell me to go live there LOL)

[Judi Lynn]

7. Sounds as if this is becoming a larger project, according to this article

Posted on Wed, Dec. 22, 2004


Cubans Put Up 'Anti-Imperialist' Images

ANDREA RODRIGUEZ
Associated Press


HAVANA - Cuban art students and cartoonists painted an American eagle cartoon Wednesday on the asphalt of Havana's coastal highway so cars can drive over it as they pass the U.S. diplomatic mission, the latest salvo in a spat over pro-dissident Christmas decorations hung by the Americans.

Police closed off two blocks of the highway as the students drew the colorful cartoon of an aggressive-looking eagle with an enormous "B" on its chest - referring to the U.S. "bloqueo," or trade sanctions. The government has used the figure in a televised campaign to criticize four decades of sanctions.

"This character represents the blockade and will be squashed by all the cars and people who pass by here," said Ernesto Padron, a well-known cartoonist working on the painting.

Dozens of other artists worked on billboards outside the mission. They said they planned to paint a caricature of James Cason, chief of the U.S. Interests Section, as well as images protesting the U.S.-led war in Iraq.
(snip)

"We reject the U.S. operations against Cuba and against Iraq," Lisandra Ramirez, 18, said as she painted.

Earlier in the week, thousands of university students rallied outside the U.S. Interests Section to protest the Christmas display.
(snip)

http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/news/world/10477412.htm
(Free registration is required)



I hope they go ahead and paint a photo of James Cason, _Bush appointment to the U.S. Interests Section but I doubt they are skilled enough to convey the man as the colossal @$$#### he truly is.



James Cason, chief of the U.S. Interests Section in
Cuba, waves the United States flag during a friendly
women basketball game between the United States and
Cuba, Tuesday Feb. 24, 2004 in Havana, Cuba. The
United States won 73-37. (AP Photo/Jose Goitia)

[genieroze]

12. I love classic cars. eom

[Judi Lynn]

15. So much more variety & flair in their interesting designs! n/t

[robcon]

9. Even the number '75' is verboten in Cuba.

Referring to the 75 people who were given outrageous sentences for supporting the Varela Project is forbidden, apparently. I understand 14 of the 75 have been freed, but can be reimprisoned if they speak a word about the desire for a freer Cuba.

Castro has become a caricature of himself.

[pinerow]

13. Please give a link or primary source for such an outrageous

comment...:wtf:

[Rose Siding]

32. Ironic that Americans who collude with foreigners

to fight against our govt could be sent to.....Cuba!

But no numbers would be "forbidden" because our govt wouldn't have to disclose that information to anyone.

[Judi Lynn]

11. Despite Bush's stupid, vicious measures taken against Cubans

American food producers are pursuing expansion of their Cuba trade:

Alabama trade mission increases sales to Cuba
12/21/2004, 4:21 p.m. CT
By PHILLIP RAWLS
The Associated Press

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — An Alabama trade mission to Cuba lined up $18 million in sales of agricultural products and more deals are expected to result from the trip, state Agriculture Commissioner Ron Sparks said Tuesday.

The deal is the biggest yet with the communist island nation since Alabama agriculture officials began pursuing trade in 2002, Sparks said.

"Clearly, the results from this trip show how Alabama profits from exporting to Cuba," he said.

Alabama's delegation spent Wednesday through Saturday in Cuba, and it was one of several from the United States that participated in trade negotiations last week. Cuban officials said they agreed to buy $125 million in farm goods from the U.S.

Sparks said $50 million of those sales will be shipped through the port of Mobile. Mobile officials have worked for years to re-establish the thriving trade that existed between Mobile and Havana before 1961, when the U.S. put trade restrictions on Cuba.
(snip/...)

http://www.al.com/newsflash/regional/index.ssf?/base/news-11/1103668148169000.xml&storylist=alabamanews

[0007]

14. I voy I voy -

[Democracy Died 2004]

16. LOL it just pisses off so many that

Castro has thumbed his nose at the US for so many years. I do admire him in some small way.

[malaise]

19. Geez this is

hysterically funny. Thanks Cuba!

[The Zanti Regent]

22. Castro did NOT kill my son, but Bush DID kill my only child

Castro is St. Francis compared to the Bush Crime Family.

[captain jack]

21. VIIIIIIIIIIIVAAAAAAA CUUUUUUBAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[IHeart1993]

23. Dear Cuba-

:yourock:

[Mr_Spock]

24. We're being put to shame by a few creative Cubans

We need to be more expressive here :D

[bones_7672]

25. The only way for Castro to die soon enough is to have died 50 years ago.

Many will rejoice when this evil man dies.

[Mika]

26. In Miami n/t

Not in Cuba.

[Rose Siding]

29. Damn him!

for a 98% literacy rate, the lowest increase in AIDS and guaranteed health care :eyes:

[radric]

30. Damn him for all those forgotten ..

people in forgotten graves. Castro is waste of air.

[LynnTheDem]

31. Like bush, you mean?

I'm sure you did mean like bush.

[Judi Lynn]

33. Maybe you'll be good enough to provide some links for those of us

who have NEVER HEARD of any Cubans in forgotten graves due to Cuba's President Castro.

I'll check back late tonight to catch up on my education. The only large numbers of Cubans I've heard about are the ones killed or tortured and killed by right-wing America's (and the U.S. Mafia's) puppet dictator, Fulgencio Batista. Oh, yes. Some Cubans were bombed by Batista's Air Force during the revolution in the 1950's.
Also shot by his soldiers.

[neuvocat]

34. That's hysterical.

The U.S. got what was coming to it by putting up the Christmas decorations with the "75" all over it. I don't excuse Cuba for jailing people (without more information) but that doesn't give us an excuse to be dickheads in someone else's backyard either.

[ngant17]

36. Change "75" to the Cuban Five

Everyone seems to ignore the 5 Cuban political prisoners in the US, 3 of whom are serving life terms, put in jail by Bush and the Miami rightist kangaroo court. Every one of these 75 Cuban prisoners will be getting out of jail a lot sooner and a lot easier than the most of the Cuban Five.

[Judi Lynn]

38. They just don't seem to register as human beings, in Bush's kingdom.

Maybe this article can help throw light on a situation which has been watched all over the world, and hardly mentioned by our press, anywhere outside Miami:

May 28, 2004

Curtain of Silence on the Cuban 5
The Press Left the Courtroom When the Defense Began Its Case...as if on Command
By RAFAEL RODRIGUEZ CRUZ

Rafael Rodiguez Cruz is a civil rights lawyer in the US town of Hartford in Connecticut. He is a board member of the Rosenberg Fund for Children and has visited one of the Cuban Five, Rene Gonzalez Sehwerert, who was condemned to 15 years imprisonment in the federal penitentiary of Edgefield, South Carolina, for defending Cuba against terrorist attack. In this interview for Resumen Latinoamericano he describes his conversations with Rene and his views on the wall of silence surrounding the case.

How is it that a civil rights lawyer from Hartford became involved with the case of the five Cubans locked up in US prisons?

I became involved as a humanist and attorney. I don't like abuse and here we have serious abuse. The case of the Five, as you know, also carries vital importance for the civil rights of the US population, whether or not they support the Cuban Revolution. During the entire trial, including the arrest, methods were employed that clearly violated the due process of law as is known and understood under United States' jurisprudence. From the outset, the charges had no connection to the facts. The Five did not deny they had entered the US to infiltrate Cuban-American terrorist groups. Neither did they deny that they operated as unregistered agents of the Cuban government. The first is in no way a crime. The second is a minor violation which is of very little importance. Nevertheless, the Attorney General's office invented an entire range of charges including conspiracy to commit espionage and conspiracy to commit murder--all of which should have been immediately thrown out by the court. The fact that this didn't happen, the fact that the trial proceeded, indicates that this was a political issue--one that was agreed upon by the right-wing in Miami and the local office of the FBI.
(snip)

The real reason for all this--including the excessive sentences--is the nature of politics, which has everything to do, of course, with the Cuban-American community in Miami. Rene himself drew my attention to a situation without precedence that happened before the trial--in any criminal trial the focus in on the intent, or mens rea, of the accused. Except in very rare exceptions, without criminal intent there is no crime--whatever the facts. Here the attorney general, concerned about the obvious innocence of the accused, specifically sought to avoid a discussion of the proposal or intention the Five had confessed to because, in the words of the accusers "fighting terrorism is the true motive of the accused and this motivation should not be mentioned in the trial." Even the attorney general admitted that there was no criminal intent on the part of the Five.
(snip/...)

http://www.counterpunch.org/cruz05282004.html

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

and another.....

December 18 / 19, 2004

Locked Up Naked in a Hole Within a Hole
Alarcon: "The Cuban 5 Have Been the Victims of Torture by the US"
By JEAN-GUY ALLARD

HAVANA.

"When he saw Gerardo, he was naked, locked up in what they called the 'box,' that is to say a 'hole' within the 'hole', with no clothes and with absolutely no contact with the outside world. When they took him out, they removed all the other prisoners who were in the "hole" because he was not allowed to be seen, or hear another human voice or see another human being," explained Ricardo Alarcon, recalling how New York lawyer Leonard Weinglass had described his first encounter with Gerardo Hernandez, one of five cubans imprisoned in the United States since their arrest in 1998 on charges of "spying".

"This is physical torture!" denounced the president of Cuba's National Assembly, interviewed in relation to the maltreatment inflicted on the five cubans, in relation to several cases of torture that have occurred over the last few years within the penal system delopped by the US in Afghanistan, Iraq and the Guant·namo base.

Rene Gonzalez, Gerardo Hernandez, Antonio Guerrero, Ramon LabaÒino and Fernando Gonzalez, were arrested on September 12, 1998 in Miami and taken that very same day to the city's Federal Detention Center (FDC) where they were immediately incarcerated in punishment cells, without being able to contact anyone for 17 days. On September 29, they were moved to the special holding unit, a solitary confinement cell known as the "hole" where they remained until February 3, 2000: 17 months of a treatment usually reserved for prisoners responsible for serious disciplinary problems or murders carried out within the prison itself.

"Leonard Weinglass described to us the conditions in which he saw Antonio when he--and he's his lawyer!--finally managed to meet with his client," commented Alarcon. "They were preparing the appeal document and he hadn't even been able to see him to explain on what grounds the appeal was to be based. And he found him chained up. He wasn't even able to talk normally to him. They spoke to each other by phone through a glass window!
(snip/...)

http://www.counterpunch.com/allard12182004.html

On June 8, a jury in a federal courtroom in Miami handed down guilty verdicts against five Cubans - René Gonzáles, Ramon Labaniño,Fernando González, Antonio Guerrero and Gerado Hernánez - on 23 charges of "spying" for the government of Cuba. Their crime was monitoring right wing terrorist groups in the US like Alpha 66, Brothers to the Rescue, Omega 7 and others who have carried out bombings and other terrorist actions against the people of Cuba.

The arrests and convictions of the five are an attack directed not only at Cuba but at democratic rights in the United States. FBI agents broke into their homes repeatedly over the three years prior to the arrests, violating the Fourth Amendment protection against arbitrary search and seizure. The prosecution's 'evidence' consisted of information the FBI claimed to have collected in these raids, and from short-wave radio transmissions governments asserted they intercepted between Havana and the defendants. No evidence of any military secrets being stolen from the United States and turned over to Cuba was ever presented.

"If preventing the deaths of innocent human beings, defending our two countries from terrorism, and preventing a senseless invasion of Cuba are the reasons I am being sentenced today, then I welcome that sentence ... this has been a political trial and therefore we are political prisoners."

Ramon Labanino's courageous words had no effect on the judge. He received a life sentence here on Dec. 13. His words reflect the heroic sentiments of five Cubans who are, one by one, being condemned to harsh prison terms. After being railroaded by the U.S. government on false charges of espionage against the U.S., they were convicted in June.

On Dec. 12, Gerardo Hernandez was given the stiffest sentence: two life terms and 80 months. The next day, Labanino got life. Rene Gonzalez received 15 years. And on Dec. 18, Fernando Gonzalez received 19 years in prison. Antonio Guerrero is to be sentenced on Dec. 27. He also faces a life sentence.

As each of the four sentenced so far stood before the court to give their declarations, their courageous words have put to shame the complicit role of the U.S. prosecutors, who have openly sided with the terrorists throughout the case.
(snip/...)

http://www.blackpoolandfyldecsc.org.uk/cuban5/cfive1.html

[aikido15]

37. Good one!!!

Thanks for this post...funny...I liked the other one also, they put torture pictures on a billboard in front of the embassy a couple of weeks ago...we need something like that here!