Cuba Calm as Castro Recovers

[Say_What]

<clips>

HAVANA, Aug. 5, 2006 — A week into Communist Cuba's long-awaited leadership crisis, it appears there no crisis actually happening.

Official reports, cabinet member statements, comments from estranged family in the United States and Cuban government sources indicate Fidel Castro, 79, has begun recovering from emergency stomach surgery (though he is not out of danger) and his designated successor, brother Raul Castro, 75, is firmly in charge as a carefully scripted succession plan is carried out.

The political and military leadership has closed ranks around Raul, though he remains out of sight. The official — and only — media is spewing out endless sympathy and praise for the Castro brothers by sports figures, cultural figures and man-on-the-street interviews, but little concrete information.

Elite military reserves were already being called up Monday evening when the government broke the news that Fidel Castro was seriously ill and no longer governing for the first time in 47 years, albeit perhaps only temporarily. Soon after, internal security forces were placed on alert, as were Communist party cells and the block-level Committees in Defense of the Revolution.

http://abcnews.go.com/International/story?id=2277748&page=1

[AlamoDemoc]

1. That is bad news of all Miami well-wishers

:sarcasm:

[Say_What]

2. It's been quite a week for those of us who watch Cuba

I was reading about the people who will be taking on added responsibilties in Cuba. One in particular caught my attention because for years I've seen him in photos and videos of Fidel. I always assumed because of his size that he was security. Turns out that he's Cuba's most powerful black leader, Esteban Lazo Hernandez. A good article ran this week in the SJ Mercury that provided information on who's who in the Cuban government. I'll post some info here for anyone interested.

On edit: Added Raul


Raul Castro Ruz, Defense Minister. On July 31, 2006, Raúl Castro assumed the duties of President of the Council of State in a temporary transfer of power due to Fidel Castro's illness. According to the Cuban Constitution Article 94, the First Vice President of the Council of State assumes presidential duties upon the illness or death of the president.


Cuban Vice President Carlos Lage is credited with helping save Cuba's faltering economy after the Soviet Union broke up, designing modest economic reforms that allowed foreign investment in state enterprises and legalized the use of the U.S. dollar. Those reforms have been rolled back as the economy improves. Trained as a pediatrician, Lage is a mild-mannered man with a balding pate and pleasant face often sent to represent Cuba at international gatherings. He has wide control over government administration and holds key positions in the Council of State and Politburo.(AP Photo File/Jorge Rey)


Ricardo Alarcon, President of Cuba's National Assembly, a veteran diplomat and Castro's point man on Cuba-U.S. relations, Alarcon is an elegant man with wispy white hair who speaks perfect English and smokes Cohiba cigars. Since Castro fell ill, Alarcon has been the only government official to speak publicly about the recovery of Castro.


Jose Ramon Balaguer, Health minister, a former ambassador to Moscow, spent a dozen years as the party's ideology chieftain, fighting to ensure the nation's adherence to Marxist principles as the island muddled through a crisis sparked by the Soviet Union's collapse.


Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque just 34 when appointed foreign minister in 1999. Perez Roque previously spent seven years overseeing Castro's personal schedule, becoming intimately familiar with the leader's thinking. A short, stocky man with a ready grin, Perez Roque kept a cool head and grabbed the microphone to calm tens of thousands of Cubans in 2001 when Castro fainted briefly during a speech.


President of Cuba's Central Bank Francisco Soberon, a fluent English speaker considered knowledgeable on economic matters. Will oversee funding of health, energy and education programs alongside Lage and Pérez Roque.


Jose Machado Ventura, left, marches next to Cuban President Fidel Castro, center, in this file photo taken on May 17, 2005, in Havana, Cuba. Machado Ventura, who oversaw health services for Castro's rebel army in the mountains and later was Health Minister and oversaw medical affairs for armed forces, is one of the 6 members of the Cuban Government designated by Castro in his cession of powers, when he was put under urgent operation the past July 31. (AP Photo File/Jorge Rey, file)


Esteban Lazo Hernandez, a huge man who projects a powerful presence in his tropical guayabera shirts, is charged with shaping Cuba's image abroad as head of the party's International Relations Department. Lazo is Cuba's most powerful black leader and is also now responsible for looking after the country's education programs.

[billbuckhead]

3. Hell, these guys are more attractive than the BUSHCO misadministration

No women though.

Castro's demise might actually be an opportunity for socialism. Maybe these guys might pull off what Gorby couldn't.

[Say_What]

7. Way smarter too. There are plenty of women in the Cuban government

these men have just been assigned additional responsibilities until Fidel recovers. Raul's wife, Vilma Espin, is President of the Federation of Cuban Women. Like Che's wife, she was part of the revolutionary movement that overthrew Bautista. Here's a bit of info about her and women in Cuba:

Women in Cuba have equal constitutional rights as men in the economic, political, cultural and social fields, as well as in the family. According to article 44 of the Cuban Consitution, the state guarantees women the same opportunities and possibilities as men, in order to achieve woman’s full participation in the development of the country. Women currently hold 35% of the parliamentary seats in the Cuban National Assembly ranking sixth of 162 countries behind Rwanda, Sweden, Norway, Finland and Denmark on issues of female participation political life. <1>

...After the Cuban revolution of 1959, the Federation of Cuban Women (FMC) was established as an NGO. The FMC was recognised by the Cuban government as "the national mechanism for the advancement of women in Cuba". The organization claims to have more than 3 million members, which constitutes 85.2% of all women over age 14. There is also a Women’s Training Centre and a Women’s Publishing House at national level. The group generally adheres to the Cuban government's objectives "to defend the Cuban Revolution". According to Cuban government statistics, women represent 49.5% of all graduates at higher educational levels and 62% of university students. Women constitute 35% of Parliamentary members, 61% of attorneys, 49% of judges, and 47% Judges in the Supreme Court. Abortion in Cuba is free on demand, and optional maternity leave is one year on full pay.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_in_Cuba
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Bio on Vilma

Vilma Espin Guillois

Vilma Espin Guillois is an industrial chemistry engineer who is married to Raul Castro, head of the Cuban Armed Forces and brother to Cuban President Fidel Castro. She has been President of the Federation of Cuban Women since its foundation in 1960. The organization is an ECOSOC-recognized NGO with membership of more than three and a half million women.

A member of the Council of State of the Republic of Cuba, Vilma Espin headed the Cuban Delegation to the First Latin American Congress on Women and Children in Chile in September 1959. The mother of four and grandmother of seven is a member of the Central Committee and the Political Bureau of the communist Party of Cuba. She headed the Cuban delegation to the Conferences on Women held in Mexico, Copenhagen, Nairobi and Beijing.

http://www.summit-americas.org/Women/biographies.htm

[jpkenny]

13. Damn those commies! Giving women equal rights and free medical

care. I can't stand it!

[Say_What]

15. Just for grins I looked up what percentage of the US congress is female

Wikipedia says: 85% of US Congress is male and 15% is female as opposed to 35% of Cuban Parliamentary members being female.

and we thought we lived in a free and democratic country :sarcasm:

[GuillermoX71]

19. Yeah it's amazing how many

hundreds of thousands of Cubans have risked their lives to flee Paradise and come to hellhole Amerikkka.

[Judi Lynn]

20. You forgot to include the millions of Mexicans, and Central & South

Americans, and Carribean immigrants to undertake a desperately dangerous trip overland, or up to 900 miles from Haiti, with HUNDREDS of lives lost annually trying to come across the Mexican border from California to Texas, or the others drowning in the water coming from the islands.

You forgot to mention that the U.S. government lures Cubans here with the Cuban Adjustment Act which offers all Cubans instant legal protection the very moment they step foot onto American soil, instant green card, work visa, housing which is furnished at the expense of the U.S. taxpayers, food stamps, welfare, social security, medical treatment, educational assistance, etc., etc., etc.

If a Cuban and a Haitian arrive on the beach at Miami at the same time they will let the Cuban in and they will deport the Haitian.

If they allowed Mexicans, Carribean citizens, Central Americans, South Americans to come here without the threat of deportation the moment they arrive, and with ALL THESE BENEFITS, you must be bright enough to know DU'ers' country would have been overwhelmed with people long, long, LONG ago.

[ronnie624]

22. I've often wondered

what percentage of those who flee Cuba are actually a part of the criminal element of Cuba escaping justice. How many, I wonder, have committed crimes, and have no recourse but to flee the Island? Judging by the kooky behavior exhibited by many, and the fact that South Florida has perhaps the highest crime rate in the entire country, I would hazard that a goodly portion are those escaping a long and probably well deserved prison sentence. It would be interesting to find out for certain.

[Judi Lynn]

23. Good point. Miami has a hellacious crime problem.

They also have a FILTHY history of behavior by their city officials, as in embezzlement, bribery, stealing campaign funds, abusing U.S. government programs for their own illegal gain, and VOTE FRAUD going back long before the 2000 Presidential election. That city gave off a smell that reached all across the country. People all over the country had heard of dirty Miami elections long ago.

The famous little immigrant Elián's mother, Elisabet Broton lived with a convict, Lázaro Muñero who had a very scruffy criminal past, even cutting off a man's finger in a fight. He had gone across to Miami earlier, and lived with his relatives, and worked in a car wash, before he returned a couple of times, the last time packing some of his relatives and Elián Gonzalez's mother into his boat to go back with him, charging the strangers among them a price for the transportation.

What you say agrees with what I've heard in that many of them cannot get a visa from the U.S. Interests Section which checks their history, due to their criminal record, and that's all that's left to them!

[sueragingroz]

18. wouldn't that be nice! You have it spot on!

[lumpy]

6. Nice to know who Bush's 'enemies' are.

Thanks

[Judi Lynn]

9. What a great post. I've never seen all these faces in one place

at the same time.

People tend to think there's just one guy running things there. Odd, isn't it? Somewhat simplistic.

It's great to learn about the banking guy, and the education head. Very, very interesting.

[Say_What]

10. Francisco Soberon, Ricardo Alarcon, and the Lt Gov of Vermont

A Glimpse at Cuba’s Heart
By: Brian Dubie
May 18, 2004
<clips>

...I was seated between Ricardo Alarcon and Francisco Soberon -- the President of Cuba’s National Assembly, and the President of the Central Bank of Cuba respectively. We talked as we ate and watched the evening’s outstanding entertainment: a Cuban ballet troupe, a jazz ensemble, a youth chorus and more. At one point, Ricardo sat back and said to me, “So Brian, why have you come to visit Cuba?” He and Francisco both leaned forward as I answered.

In February of 1996, Cuban air force fighters shot down two US civilian aircraft flown by "Brothers to the Rescue," the Cuban Americans who conduct search and rescue missions for Cuban refugees adrift at sea between Florida and Cuba. I was an F-16 pilot with the Vermont Air National Guard at that time.

I told Francisco and Ricardo how, minutes after those planes were shot down in 1996, I received orders to get into my F-16, loaded with live missiles, and be ready at a moment’s notice to take off from Langley Air Force Base in Virginia. I sat in that jet for most of that long night. “I was never given orders to launch that night,” I told Francisco and Ricardo. “But I vowed then and there that if I ever did have a chance to go to Cuba, I would. Now, eight years later, I’m the Lieutenant Governor of my state, and I am glad to be here.”

Francisco the banker looked at me closely, and smiled. Then he spoke. “In October 1962, I was a young Cuban anti-aircraft gunner during the missile crisis with your country. Every night, I would pray for a chance to shoot down an American fighter aircraft.” We both smiled.

At that moment, the chorus of Cuban children was singing on the stage. I turned to Francisco and proposed a toast that we both work together to make a better world, and a better life for the children of Cuba and the children of my country.

Before we left for Cuba, I met with a group of Vermont schoolchildren who designed posters to celebrate Foreign Languages Week. Each one illustrated the theme, “Make Friends. Peace Follows.” As a result of our trip, we have made friends in Cuba. We have started a trade relationship. Our eyes are wide open to the human rights and social justice problems in Cuba. Yet some day, I believe that peace indeed will follow.

http://www.ltgov.state.vt.us/index.php3/press_room/diary?id=23

[Judi Lynn]

11. The children's them, "Make friends, peace follows" reminds one of this

photo of the decorations hung across this street in Santiago de Cuba, doves:



Thanks for the article by the Lt. Governor. Too bad there hasn't been more talking, and fewer threats.

[Say_What]

12. Perfect photo for "Make friends, peace follows" n/t

[jpkenny]

14. Thanks for this post. Great to see leaders who do not look evil.

They look comeptent, confident, and comapssionate even after all these years of hardship caused by the US embargo and boycott. I wish them all well.

[Say_What]

4. Few exterior signs reveal Castro's illness

<clips>

HAVANA — Parachute into this city of 2 million, and it's nearly impossible to feel the winds of change. There are few exterior signs that Cuba's longtime leader Fidel Castro is ill, or perhaps worse.

In Havana, at least, it seems that the temporary passing of power to Castro's secretive younger brother Raul last week has gone off without a hitch.

The capital city is open for business and the dollars or euros it brings. Most hotels in the colonial part of the city are stuffed with tourists. The riffs of salsa still emanate from the late night mojito haunts. The local arts markets are bustling. Friday, no fewer than three wedding parties could be found for the customary photo shoots on the Plaza San Francisco.

To observers who have been here before, signs actually abound that Havana is in better shape than it was in 2000. Foreign money has been poured into expanding tourist accommodations, with new and better hotels being built away from the beaches.

http://www.palmbeachpost.com/world/content/world/epaper/2006/08/05/0805cuba.html


A member of the Giganteria's group dances with Cuban children in Old Havana, Cuba, Thursday, Aug.3, 2006. Cubans calmly continue their daily lives Thursday three days after ailing Fidel Castro temporarily ceded control to his brother Raul following major surgery.(AP Photo/ Javier Galeano)

[lumpy]

5. From the article (though he is not out of danger)

in parentheses, LOL Was this thrown in to keep up hope for the Cuban 'exiles'.?

[Judi Lynn]

8. Interesting article from ABC News. They did attempt to load their

news with a little propaganda, of course. Can't have Americans reading the story without it.

If Cubans can make it through the time when Fidel Castro does leave the scene without America seizing control it will be exactly what they deserve, after all these years of hard work and pulling together over setbacks no other country has had to deal with, as well as a continual terrorist war waged on them from Miami, with no peace in sight.

The exiles' only solution to the problem is to reseize the government of Cuba and put back in place their filty, brutal, racist, selfish politics backed up by any violent force they deem necessary, including death squads.

The Cubans went to a lot of trouble to throw them out and reform their country so the poor could be included. They will not go back.

[Judi Lynn]

16. Update: Official reports say Castro recovering well from surgery

Aug. 6, 2006, 1:23AM
Official reports say Castro recovering well from surgery
Various sources put Cuban leader near death ... or nearly recovered

By MARC FRANK
Reuters News Service

HAVANA - Cuban President Fidel Castro was well enough to be eating and sitting up, government sources said Saturday, but the longtime leader remained out of sight after surgery that forced him to temporarily cede power to his brother, Raul.

Cuban officials gave assurances that the 79-year-old former guerrilla fighter is recovering well, although one news report quoted Brazilian officials as saying he had stomach can- cer and an unfavorable prog- nosis.

The report by one of Brazil's top newspapers was denied by the Brazilian government.

Bolivian President Evo Morales, in a speech to lawmakers in Sucre, Bolivia, attended by Cuban Vice President Carlos Lage, said Saturday that Castro already has "recovered" from the operation.
(snip/...)

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/world/4097045.html

[flordehinojos]

17. gee, substitute just a couple of words here and there ... and we

could've thought we were reading about our own press...

The political and military leadership has closed ranks around Raul, though he remains out of sight. The official — and only — media is spewing out endless sympathy and praise for the Castro brothers by sports figures, cultural figures and man-on-the-street interviews, but little concrete information.


so that the above paragraph would read like this,

The political and military leadership has closed ranks around W, though he remains out of sight in his Crawford Ranch. The official — and only — media is spewing out endless sympathy and praise for the Bushit Boy by sports figures, cultural figures and man-on-the-street interviews, but little concrete information.

and voilá, no difference between their press and ours, no difference between their leaders and ours.

[Judi Lynn]

21. Where are the vicious invasions, the slaughter of innocents,

the stripping away desperately needed life-sustaining services for the helpless in Cuba?

[flordehinojos]

24. do you mean that they are one-up on us?

:web:

[Say_What]

25. `I'm Cuban, I'm sugar, I have flavour!'

Cuba from the Cubans perspective...

<clips>

When my husband and I went to Cuba with the photographer Malcolm Batty in 2003 to write a book called Cuba: Grace Under Pressure, we met a young man who warned us: "Everyone comes to my country looking for their own version of Cuba. Revolutionaries find revolutions. Capitalists find dictatorship. Tourists find the perfect beach. Nobody wants to see Cuba through our eyes."

What I discovered was a dynamic country that was not frozen in time since the Revolution of 1959, but was evolving and continually changing. There were debates on every street corner, both strong affirmations and deep criticisms of the president, Fidel Castro. And yet I found a consensus: like all citizens, Cubans passionately love their country.

What I most admire about Cuba is how Cubans deal with the complexities of their lives with humour and dignity. I remember the old woman we visited on the farm in Pinar del Rio, in the fabled tobacco heartland where the weirdly beautiful limestone hills look like giant inverted thimbles. She was 85 and poor; the chairs we sat on in her living room were plastic; she had just had a quintuple bypass.

"Mi casa es su casa (my house is your house)," she said. And, holding her hand over her fragile heart, she joked that she had had eight children, but those were the dark times when there was no electricity.

http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1154814633719&call_pageid=970599119419

[Judi Lynn]

28. Very interesting observations here!

The nightlife in Havana was exciting: jazz clubs, salsa palaces, transvestites parading on the seawall affectionately called the Malecon. People set up their domino games on the pavement where they gossiped and drank their rum. Each time we asked: "How is life in Cuba?" the response was "No es facil" (it's not easy), but then the verb would come: "resolver." Cubans have ingenuity, whether it's making a transmission from scraps to keep a 1959 Buick going, or coming together to reconstruct a tornado-ravaged city.

"Cuba is the oldest European civilization in the Americas," one woman told me. "We have a problem with our superiority complex." Havana has the most impressive collection of Napoleon artifacts outside Paris, housed in the Museo Napoleonico, an Italian mansion built in the 1920s by a sugar baron. And Havana is the most beautiful colonial city in the New World.

No one outside Cuba can understand the baroque complexity of Cuban politics, where politicians span the spectrum from enlightened liberal socialists to dogged militants. It's as hard as trying to understand what goes on inside the halls of power in the Bush administration.

One thing is certain — things are not as simple as the black and white portrait painted from abroad. On this small island, politics often has the feel of a bitter family quarrel. Still, the majority of Cubans are young and have their own ideas about what they want to make of their country.
(snip)

Thanks a lot for posting this. I'm going to save it for future reference.

[Akim]

37. Cuba: Grace Under Fire.

I loved the book. But why didn't you title it "Cuba: Grace Under Fire."?

[robcon]

26. A monster seems about to die.

Let's celebrate his passing as we celebrated his like: Stalin, Mao, Hitler, Pol Pot and Franco.

Good riddance to an anti-democratic despot.

[Cybergata]

29. When Castro dies, my heart will break

The Cuban Revolution made me feel hope that the poor and the salt of the earth could push the rich, selfish to the side, and take the land that should belong to them. Castro's defiance of the U.S. that hovered over him just ready to snap his head off gave me hope that the rest of us who weren't rich, self-serving and in power could continue to stand with pride. It gave me hope when a man is demonized by the more powerful, his people didn't waver in their support of him. And when Castro dies, some of my hope for this world will also die.

I've heard all the propaganda about him, and as I've learned from studying History, I questioned the propaganda. I doubt that the people who really count, the Cuban people living in Cuba will rejoice his death, which one could only hope would give you a "clue." He may not be the man I've view as a hero, but he sure isn't doesn't fit in the group of men you've put him in.

[High Plains]

31. Castro will go down as a great man of the 20th Century.

Do you understand that Cuba has a government? It's not just the Fidel Show?

[Say_What]

27. WP: Cuba for Dummies

From a Cuban-American who actually lived there.

<clips>

I lived in Havana for nearly a year without permission from the United States. I talked to Cubans and found out what they had to say. Nothing bad happened to me. I took notes.

1. Cubans Love Fidel. Cubans also hate Fidel -- and with good reason. Love plus hate, Cuba-style, equals ambivalence. And that ambivalence unsurprisingly turned to concern when it was announced Monday that, on the eve of his 80th birthday, the autocrat underwent serious surgery and provisionally handed power to Raúl, his brother and Cuba's military chief.

Fidel embodies the Cuban persona: bright, scrappy, intense and shrewd. He is hated and loved precisely because he is Cuban.

2. Cubans Want to Meet You. The White House proclaims it can't "assess" the "situation" in Cuba because it's a "closed society."

The society would not be so closed if the current administration hadn't tightened restrictions that ban Americans from visiting Cuba and meeting locals. More egregious is the U.S. economic embargo, which has served only to empower Castro while impoverishing Cubans.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/04/AR2006080401373.html

[Judi Lynn]

30. Very interesting to hear this from someone raised as an exile child. n/t

[Akim]

33. Perhaps because she was raised in Nevada, not Miami

Undoubtedly, Wixon is more progressive than the average Cuban exile child. This may have much to do with the fact that she was raised in Nevada as the daughter of a university professor (who is not Cuban). I don't think you will encounter many Cuban-Americans like her in Miami.

Still, Wixon has written a novel about jineteras entitled <i> Dirty Blonde and Half-Cuban </i> which hardly casts the Revolution in a favorable light.

Luckily, she is now living in New York, not Miami. Otherwise, I'm afraid, she would have been co-opted already, given boolsterism for Miami Cubans that one also encounters in her article: "Cuban exiles, in short, built Miami into a world-class city. They became the United States' greatest immigrant success story. Imagine was Cubans could do in their own country."

Does she mean the capital of crime and terrorism in the United States?

And, of course, we don't have to "imagine what Cubans could do in their own country." The last 47 years have proven that there is nothing that Cubans on the island cannot do for themselves, from building a world-class military (out of necessity) or a a world-class pharmaceuticals industry (out of altruism).

[Judi Lynn]

34. That's great that you noticed it, too! Miami "exiles" used to post like

people possessed on the old CNN US/Cuba Relations board. That's the first time I ever heard them bragging that when they all came to Miami right after the revolution, Miami was "a sleepy little fishing village" which they transformed into "a world-class city."

Oh, my God! They have also been named, at times, "America's poorest city in a population over 500,000," by the United States Census Bureau, with some of the worst blighted areas anywhere, and a filthy, corrupt bunch of city politicians almost unequaled ANYWHERE, and a record of election fraud going back long before the 2000 election. Miami was known for REALLY dirty politics going back a long time, as well as a vicious, violent, corrupt police force.

As for the jinateras, DU posters who've been to Cuba and who know Miami have stated here that Miami has a much larger per capital hooker problem than Havana, hands down. Interesting.

Thanks for revealing what her book's about. It will save some time looking it up! (Could be it was written for a Miami audience for some quick cash! I'm sure it's easy to guess what kinds of stories will sell in that town.)

[Akim]

35. The Myth of Cuban-American Success

This greatest "immigrant success story" Cuban-American myth was actually concocted to flatter them by conservative operative George Gilder in his 1984 book "The Spirit of Free Enterprise." It's always good to be able to trace a myth to its source.

It is undoubtedly true that many Cuban-Americans have been successful in this country but this is undoubtedly a function of the unprecedented government assistance which they received when they got here. If every immigrant to this country had been given $100,000 in benefits upon landing here as the Cubans were, we could expect a lot more immigrant success stories.

Jamaicans and other people from Caribbean countries have also had incredible economic success in America, but without any financial aid and with the added handicap of racism.

[Judi Lynn]

36. Thanks so much for naming George Gilder.Took a quick look for him

and saw immediately he is a complete right-wing tool. He owned the "American Spectator" for a while, then had to sell it back to Tyrell.

He calls himself an "anti-Feminist." He's trying hard to cover all the idiot right-wing bases completely, spreading himself very thin.

He doesn't take enough time, apparently to look very deeply into any subject, or he would see his utter stupidity over the "Cuban Miracle." Good grief.

You're so right. Just how far could ANY group come with the benefits given these people the moment they started arriving.
Lots of success stories. What a surprise.

Once I read that they represent the wealthiest group of hispanic Americans, as well as the OLDEST group per capita, and their sons tend to stay more closely tied to mom and dad than the other nationalities, and they have the fewest children. They have used the financial aid given them by the U.S. taxpayers to become the most well educated among Spanish speaking groups. What group WOULDN'T, having the same advantages given by the helpless U.S. taxpayers (without their knowledge all these years)?

So George Gilder sees this as miraculous. I see it as miraculous that all this U.S. financial aid has been pouring into their community without the courtesy to inform the people paying for it year after year after year.

Thanks again for the information. Very helpful.

[Judi Lynn]

32. Update: Cuba Says Fidel Castro Is Recovering

Cuba Says Fidel Castro Is Recovering
By VANESSA ARRINGTON
Associated Press Writer

August 9, 2006, 1:54 AM EDT

HAVANA -- Hundreds of flag-waving people rallied in Cuba's capital on Tuesday to publicly declare their support for ailing leader Fidel Castro, as assurances he was recovering began to ease Cubans' worries about their long-ruling leader.

Cubans gathered in a working-class neighborhood sang the national anthem and chanted "Long live Fidel! Long live Raul!" in support of Castro and his brother Raul, to whom he has temporarily ceded power. Local Communist officials, meanwhile, made patriotic statements from a sound stage on a tractor-trailer.

"We are praying for the life of our commander in chief because we love him," said neighborhood resident Alejandrina Legran. "He's the prince of our people. We owe him our respect and obedience."

Meanwhile, Castro's ally and friend, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, expressed confidence in the Cuban leader's recovery, calling him "the father of this continent's revolutionaries."
(snip/...)

http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-cuba-castro,0,6982930.story?coll=sns-ap-nationworld-headlines

[Akim]

38. Fidel — Victim of Decades of Poisoning. Its Cumulative Effects.

I still believe that there is a very good probability that Fidel is a victim of poisoning, not recent poisoning, but the cumulative effect of decades of ingesting poisons, chemicals, toxins, viruses and bacteria, fed to him by the CIA. The fact that it is his stomach or intestines that are affected adds credence to this supposition, as does the fact that the first sign of his condition was intestinal bleeding.

For years, Albisu Campos, the Puerto Rican Fidel, complained that he was being poisoned with radium by the FBI. Even many of his friends believed that he was being a little "eccentric" in his accusations. Guess what? Well, you don't have to guess because you know the facts. Years after his death records released under the Freedom of Information Act revealed that he had indeed been poisoned over years with radium while in federal confinement. The radium literally ate up his legs.

[Akim]

39. 638 Attempts on Fidel Castro's Life

http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articleid=280390&area=/insight/insight__international/

638 Ways to Kill Castro

By Duncan Campbell
"Mail&Guardian Online"
10 August 2006 11:59

Fabian Escalante, who, for a time, had the job of keeping El Commandante alive, has calculated that there have been a total of 638 attempts on Castro’s life. That may sound like a staggeringly high figure, but then the CIA were pretty keen on killing him. As Wayne Smith, former head of the United States interests section in Havana, pointed out recently, Cuba had the effect on the US that a full moon has on a werewolf. It seems highly likely that if the CIA had had access to a werewolf, it would have tried smuggling it into the Sierra Maestra at some point over the past 40-odd years.

The most spectacular of the plots against Castro will be examined in a British TV documentary entitled 638 Ways to Kill Castro, as well as in a companion book of the same name written by the now-retired Escalante -- a man who, while in his post as head of the Cuban secret service, played a personal part in heading off a number of the plots. While the idea of an exploding cigar that was intended to blow up in Castro’s face is perhaps the best known of the attempts on his life, others have been equally bizarre.