Cuban 'Peace' concert riles some exiles

[NeoConsSuck]

Source: CNN.COM

HAVANA, Cuba (CNN) -- An international rocker is creating a rare opportunity to sing about change on the Communist island of Cuba.

Colombian singer Juanes -- a 17-time Latin Grammy winner -- has brought 15 international artists to Havana. He hopes to thaw U.S.-Cuba relations by staging a "Peace without Borders" concert.

But the reaction in Miami, Florida, home to both Juanes and a large Cuban exile community, has not been entirely peaceful.

Juanes has received death threats over the concert via Twitter, he said, and his home in Miami is under police protection.



Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/americas/09/20/cuban.peace.concert/index.html#cnnSTCText

---

Freedom, peace and democracy in America. Providing of course, it follows the goals of capitalism. If it doesn't, well, then there's always death threats.

[dipsydoodle]

1. See also here from earlier today

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x4068784

[jasi2006]

2. If they can get riled up over this just shows you that

Cuba is better off without them.

[dipsydoodle]

3. dupe - deleted.

Got enough problems with Farmville today without this adding to it.....lol.

[msongs]

4. lol they acting just like che guevara....sociopaths only he was also a serial killer nt

[dipsydoodle]

5. Got a link to that ?

:sarcasm:

[Sarah Ibarruri]

10. Actually, the Cuban-Americans that pay for 10 or 15 to protest Juanes and make threatening calls....

those ARE serial killers.

I don't know where to send you to read the history of Miami under the first Cuban-Americans that arrived, but these set up a nice little CIA control. Miami was a deadly place to open your mouth unless it was to say you wanted Communists killed. In fact, people got their legs blown off simply for saying that a dialogue with Cuba was important. And I'm not kidding.

I don't know what Che did, but I DO know that Cuban-Americans in Miami killed many, many people, including an entire plane of Cubans from the island, and assassinated lots of Miamians just for being gentle about the issue.

[Judi Lynn]

12. So true. Because of this hidous exile violence, the FBI named Miami

"Terror Capital of the United States" in the 1970's or '80's.

One man I have learned about specifically bombed by these maggots was Cuban "exile" Miami radio host, commentator, Emilio Milian who begged on the air for peace in the "exile" community there, and a backing away from all the violence against moderate Cubans, and Cubans who speak in favor of dialogue with the Cuban government.

It took no time at all before they stashed a load of C-4 in his car which exploded when he attempted to leave after work, blowing his legs off. Miraculously he survived, and lived for sometime in a greatly diminished condition, receiving honors along the way for his courage and hard work.

LA Times obit:

Emilio Milian; Denounced Extremist Cubans

March 18, 2001

Emilio M. Milian, 69, a Miami-based broadcaster who opposed Communism and denounced the extremism of some anti-Castro forces in the United States. His outspoken views made him the target of a terrorist car bombing in 1976 that cost him both his legs and nearly his life. Born in the small Cuban village of Sagua la Grande, Milian started working in radio at the age of 15 and later quit medical school at the University of Havana to become a full-time newsman. Milian left Cuba in 1965 along with his wife and three children, eventually settling in Miami. In Florida, Milian ran a print shop before starting a popular radio program on WQBA. No one was ever charged with the 1976 bombing and, despite continued harassment and death threats, Milian continued to be a force in broadcasting until failing health forced his retirement late last year. On Thursday at his home in Miami after a long battle with kidney and heart ailments.

http://articles.latimes.com/2001/mar/18/local/me-39490

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

Times photo: Jamie Francis

Alberto Milian, Director of Political Affairs and Staff Counsel for the Miami-Dade County Police Benevolent Association, stands beside a portrait of his father, Emilio Milian, who lost his legs in a Miami car bombing in 1976.
By DAVID ADAMS, Times Latin America Correspondent
© St. Petersburg Times
published December 5, 2002

When his father's moderate voice on Cuban-American affairs was effectively stilled, Miami's Alberto Milian accepted the torch as an outspoken critic.

MIAMI -- Alberto Milian had just come home from football practice when someone called to say there had been an accident.

It was 1976, and Miami's Cuban community was on edge about attacks on moderate voices by hardline exile extremists.

Milian's father, WQBA radio host Emilio Milian, was one of those voices. His voice was effectively silenced that day by a car bomb. Milian's father barely survived, but only after both his legs were amputated.

The younger Milian, who was 16 at the time, says he isn't bitter about what happened to his father, who died last year. He's too busy making sense of it.

"The bombing of my father was a watershed moment in Miami," he said while being interviewed at the Miami offices of the Police Benevolent Association, where Milian is legal counsel and director of political affairs. "It cut his voice and at the same time it allowed other, more intolerant, voices to seize the microphone in Miami."

The would-be assassins were never brought to justice. After reconstructive surgery and learning to walk again with prosthetic limbs, Emilio Milian returned to the radio station. But when the station demanded to censor his editorials, he refused. The station fired him.

More:
http://www.sptimes.com/2002/12/05/Floridian/His_father_s_voice.shtml

[Sarah Ibarruri]

13. Exactly! nt

[ngant17]

21. any military commander during any civil war

can be classified as a "serial killer" per your loose interpretation of it.

I don't think you could classify that as a death squad, as these trials were open and evidence was presented

There were a large number of violent and bloodthirsty criminals who worked within Batista's official government, some of them trained to be killers by the US government in the first place. Certainly some should not have been shot at the paredon, but the vast majority of them probably got what they deserved for their heinous crimes against the innocent Cuban population.

[mitchtv]

6. Spoiled Gusanos

can't get used to the fact that they can't dictate US foreign policy anymore. Time to repeal the Cuban Re adjustment act

[Sarah Ibarruri]

14. I'm hoping that gets repealed ASAP! End the teat they're sucking on nt

[mitchtv]

15. that special arangement is soooo unfair

to other "americans" wishing to come here

[Sarah Ibarruri]

16. Totally. It's WRONG. It has to be repealed. We should write and demand it be nt

[Judi Lynn]

18. The Cuban leaders like Ileana Ros-Lehtinen fought like madmen to keep the US

from extending temporary aid to refugees from the Contra conflict who were here because they feared being killed by the US-initiated devastation in Nicaragua.

It was also horrific seeing people who have fled from the bloodbath of the Bush-financed, supported coup against President Arisitide captured by the naval blockade he arranged around Haiti, and fed directly back into that meat-grinder, doomed to lose their lives the hard way.

"Exiles" are the ONLY people who receive instant protection from INS raids, captures, who get legal status the moment they step onto dry land, get instant access to social security, food stamps, Section 8 taxpayer-derived housing, economic assistance for education, medical treatment, etc., etc.

One of Florida's State Senators' own grandmother pitched a fit when she went to get her food stamps and they didn't jump instantly to please her well enough:

Back in March, six employees from the DCF's Hialeah office were summarily fired after state Sen. Rudy Garcia complained that his grandmother was treated rudely when she showed up to discuss a problem with her food stamps. Interestingly, Garcia sat on the Senate committee that was due to vote on Regier's nomination as DCF secretary.

The mass firings sparked an angry outcry, so Regier denied that he had anything to do with it. He said that decision was independently made by the DCF's Miami division chief, Chelly Schembera.

Completely untrue. Inter-office e-mails confirmed Schembera's claim that she had strongly opposed the firings of the six workers, most of whom had many years of experience. Regier flatly told her to get rid of everybody in "the chain of command" involved in the incident with Garcia's grandmother.

Because of the negative publicity, all the employees were later rehired by the DCF with back pay and benefits. When Regier's nomination was approved, Garcia wisely abstained from the vote.

Regier's ham-fisted firing of the so-called Hialeah Six was the work of a political hack, trying to curry favor with an influential senator. It was even more inexcusable considering that one of Regier's most important missions at the DCF was to restore morale, not make it worse.

More:http://74.125.113.132/search?q=cache:Et_0bi0l1scJ:www.mombu.com/medicine/medicine/t-many-reasons-for-bush-to-send-dcf-chief-packing-shy-crisis-down-job-2314580.html+Back+in+March,+six+employees+from+the+DCF's+Hialeah+office+were+summarily+fired+after+state+Sen.+Rudy+Garcia+complained+that+his+grandmother+was+treated+rudely+when+she+showed+up+to+discuss+a+problem+with+her+food+stamps.&cd=3&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us

~~~~~~~~~~

Stalin Would Be Proud
And only Kafka could have dreamed up a character like Rudy Garcia
By Tristram Korten
Published: May 1, 2003

The dismissal of six workers from a local office of the Department of Children and Families is one of the most surreal governmental dramas to play itself out in some time. Certainly you recall the incident. On March 4 an aide to state Sen. Rudy Garcia was accompanying the senator's 94-year-old grandmother to the Hialeah DCF office to inquire about her food-stamp eligibility. The aide, Francis Aleman, claims she and Garcia's abuela were treated rudely. She complained to DCF brass in Tallahassee and voilà, everyone up the chain of command got the axe. Garcia happens to sit on two committees that fund and supervise DCF, and the senate is about to vote to confirm DCF Secretary Jerry Regier's permanent appointment.

Two of the fired employees had not even worked at the Hialeah office for one and a half months. They never saw, heard, or talked to the grandmother. The day they were canned they must have felt like characters in a Kafka novel, complete with self-important politicians (and their aides), obsequious bureaucrats, and a labyrinthine system so mindless that once set in motion, it couldn't be stopped.

This is as absurd as it gets. First, what the hell is the grandmother of a state senator doing on food stamps? Much less a senator who in 2001 listed his net worth as $100,212, and his income as $63,829. "She's an American citizen and she wants her independence," Garcia explained to me. "I can't tell her what to do. This is a nominal amount, around $30 a month."

More:
http://74.125.113.132/search?q=cache:AWpLe3AxLAgJ:www.miaminewtimes.com/2003-05-01/news/stalin-would-be-proud/+Stalin+Would+Be+Proud+And+only+Kafka+could+have+dreamed+up+a+character+like+Rudy+Garcia&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us

[Critters2]

22. Why does State Senator Garcia's grandmother have to depend on Socialist food stamps?

Why can't Senator Garcia step up to the plate and help out his grandmother?

Damn Communists!

[No Elephants]

35. Hey! Cut him some slack. The old bitch needs to take personal responsiblity for her own food!

:sarcasm:

[Downwinder]

7. Exiles sounds better than immigrants or aliens.

[EFerrari]

8. Or terrorists. n/t

[Sarah Ibarruri]

9. Not really. I'm a Miamian, now relocated to Tally....

People are doing their own thing in Miami. Unfortunately, every time they watch TV, they are forced to watch newscasts like this: the same 10 or 15 a-hole Cuban-American Republican operatives, who get paid to show up on the same street corner and smash CDs.

Naturally, this is done after the ones paying them call all the local Miami media networks.

And naturally, the media stations in Miami (except Miami Herald) are owned by the first Cubans that left the island (in other words, the mega-rich ones that wanted to keep Cuba a 3rd world whore of the U.S.)

Basically, most people in Miami truly don't care a rat's ass who plays in Cuba, but the Miami networks are still run by the groups set up by the mega-rich Cuban-Americans, and they play bump-your-booty with the CIA quite nicely.

[catzies]

26. Nailed it.

(Miamian by birth & raising here) :hi:

[IndianaGreen]

11. Fidel is atill alive! Get Over It!

I wouldn't wish on the Cubans in Cuba to live under a regime run by the Cubans in Florida: good-bye to abortion rigths, good-bye to LGBT rights, welcome back Catholicism as official religion, welcome back anti-Semitism.

[Libertas1776]

17. The biggest roadblock

between Cuban US reconciliation or simply lifting the embargo is the fucking huge exile community in Miami. They haven't lived in or have been anywhere near Cuba for 50 years but they get to dictate policy and decide what's best for the Cuban people. News flash, you're not the Cuban people.

[Mika]

19. New news flash. The exiles don't control jack shit of US policy.

They do provide a nice convenient foil for blame.

Congress controls the US bipartisan sanctions.


The fault is the US political system itself.

No embargo = no campaign money for BOTH sides campaigning on the issue.

Be it the farm belt lobbying for more open trade with Cuba, or the US tourism/Florida based theme park & casino industries lobbying to keep it.

Status quo rules because US politicians need millions of dollars to run campaigns on, in the US for-profit campaign system.

If the sanctions were gone, then there'd be be no more campaign plank to run up the flagpole to score some campaign payola on. Both sides.

They are not going to kill a cash cow. So the embargo stays. No matter what the people want.


Deal with it, take responsibility, and stop blaming the historical trajectory of US policy toward Cuba on a relatively small group of immigrants (no matter how bitterly RW they might be).

The 5 decades long hostile actions and genocidal sanctions on Cuba is the United States of America's policy!


-

[Judi Lynn]

20. If anyone learns where we can see a video of any part of this concert, please post it

here for those of us who are completely interested in seeing it. Thank you!

Wanna see some Cuban salsa dancing:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ukSk1wqpy6o&feature=related
(At no time do their feet leave their ankles.)

Street dancing: Reggaeton: El Tembleque
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mPhfCKE7y5U&NR=1

Cuban band: African - Cuban Fusion From Havana - Los Van Van 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hkHIYHeaATA&feature=related

[arcos]

23. Here, Judi...

:)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K6JNKmyKd9Y&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sIFdbq7WMEs&feature=channel_page
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fjKmiAiPB08&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_yp60CMO8Tc&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LgniROrV6aw&feature=channel
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1zDNx-KYmVk&feature=channel
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qIow5bPcle0&feature=related

[Judi Lynn]

31. Oh, jeez. This is great! Going to set this aside to enjoy tonight. THANK YOU.

Simply superb. Great chance to see what they were so eager to see in Havana.

The country only has around 11,000,000 people in it, and there were over one million there. Now THAT'S a turnout!

Thanks, again, arcos! :hi:

[dipsydoodle]

24. BBC now have a short video up too

Havana has hosted the biggest open-air concert since the 1959 revolution, featuring some 15 top Latin American, Spanish and Cuban performers.

An estimated one million people - many wearing white - attended the free event in Revolution Square, Havana.

Colombian singer Juanes, who organised the Peace without Borders concert, received death threats from Miami-based critics of the Cuban regime.

>

The BBC's Michael Voss, who was at the five-and-a-half hour concert, said there was a mood of excitement as many residents of the isolated, music-loving island had never seen anything like it before.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/8265177.stm

[Mika]

25. "the isolated, music-loving island". LOL

Isolated? Only to uninformed Americans.

Cuba is respected and loved around the world, and people far and wide travel there for a wide range of reasons. Except Americans travel banned by their own isolated government.



-

[dipsydoodle]

28. It's also isolated

by beimg a bit remote from the EU but hopefully one day they will join. :)

[Judi Lynn]

33. True! And Cubans travel all over the world, but our media never mention it.

They sure wouldn't want to break the total news blackout on real Cuban news.

Anyone who takes the time to read info. from other countries realizes Cubans travel outside continuously all over the world.

They are in economic prison, however, due to the embargo, since it affects companies in other countries beyond the United States, and prevents sales of lifesaving medical equipment, like diagnostic, treatment for cancer patients, and dialysis machines which have US patents on any of their many parts, as well as millions of other products.

[Judi Lynn]

32. Thanks for the report, dipsydoodle. Hope the reporter's right in his statement

Obama may be distancing himself from the "exiles" in Miami. That would be a chnnge we could live with.

Nice to see someone on the ground with the crowd. Thank you! :hi:

[MisterP]

27. it's so cute how "peace" is in concerts, like this is some ruse by an aggressive, expansionist

empire that really doesn't want peace, just conquest and infiltration
project much, America's elite?

[MisterP]

29. I mean, "peace" is in QUOTES n/t

[No Elephants]

36. Shows how "objective" CNN is, doesn't it?

[damntexdem]

30. Well, we can see who's making peace, and who wants to make war.

A half century of a failed policy of sanctions; and those scumbags want more of it.

[New Dawn]

34. Fascist exiles, naturally, do not support freedom of speech.