Cuban women protest and get results

[Judi Lynn]

Posted on Fri, Oct. 15, 2004

Cuban women protest and get results

A group of women is becoming a powerful force within the human rights movement in Cuba, managing to get action from Fidel Castro's government.

BY NANCY SAN MARTIN
[e-mail]


WASHINGTON - At first, Bertha Soler Fernández prayed for the release of her husband and 74 other Cuban dissidents jailed during an island-wide crackdown last year. Then she pleaded to have her husband transferred to a Havana facility that could provide medical attention.

Frustrated by the government's inaction, Soler packed food and water, marched to Havana's Revolution Plaza -- the centerpiece of Cuba's communist landscape -- and vowed not to move until Angel Moya Acosta got what he needed.

The protest, joined by other wives in the same predicament, ended 41 hours later when state security cleared the park. But the bold action prompted a medical procedure for the prisoner and set a precedent for civil disobedience in Cuba that has empowered a group of ''Women in White,'' whose peaceful resistance has managed to make strides in the struggle for human rights, experts said.

''One thing they've been smart about is that they're asking for specific things the Cuban government can give,'' said Uva de Aragón, assistant director at Florida International University's Cuban Research Institute. ``If you start winning small battles, then you become a force to be reckoned with.''
(snip/...)

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/9922788.htm
(Free registration required)

[Devils Advocate NZ]

1. Wow...

A group of peaceful Cuban women have accomplished more than all the US sponsored terrorist attacks, military invasions and crippling embargoes combined.

Who'd have thunk it?

[ladybugg33]

2. You mean, just like women in the US, women can protest and get action?

Golly!

[robcon]

3. Action? What action?

They were "cleared" from the park. Can't have any protests in Castro's gulag, can we?

Let's see whether those protestors are 'disappeared' by Castro, like so many have been before. Since the 'going rate' for an anti-government pamphlet is about 18 months in jail, and the 'going rate' for leadership in the Varela Project is 20+ years in jail, I wonder what these women will get.

[mrbill]

4. booga booga boo, can't sleep, castro will eat me.......

more than one gulag on that island.

which is the scariest?

[Mika]

6. This action

From the Miami Herald story (which discounts your exclamation).

''The objective was reached,'' protest participant Laura Pollán told The Herald in a telephone interview from Havana. ``We didn't expect it to be resolved so quickly, but they saw that we were determined to stay at the plaza as long as necessary.

Disappeared? LOL. Too funny robcon. They've done protests before, and they're still around and doing their thing..

Wife's campaign succeeds in Cuba
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/3726470.stm

They have been known to stage vigils and marches before, but none in such a central, well-guarded location.

[Judi Lynn]

9. That "disappeared" comment startled me! Who on earth would believe that?

Isn't it strange that anyone remains who imagines it's easy to trick others into believing what was practised by U.S.-sustained regimes in Argentina and Chile has been practised in Cuba, as well?

Not likely.

On the former CNN US-Cuba Relations message board, an absolute ass gusana tried to gull others into believing that during the revolution in Cuba they hearded thousands of people into the huge soccer stadium where they tortured them, and then murdered them. It took one very intensely angry Chilean to tell her no one was going to believe that drool.

The gusana had the grace to disappear, herself.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

8. It's in the following sentence. Should've keep reading. (nt)

[MaryBear]

11. Don't confuse

action to get needs met with action to undo a government. Americans protest all the time; does this mean they are anti-American?

[TheKingfish]

5. A force to be reckoned with ?

Ok The invasion didn't work (Bay of Pigs)
The assasinations didn't work (well they did get that pinko Kennedy)
The embargo hasn't worked (Cuba's health care system is better that ours - shhh)

I have no doubt these women in white t-shirts will bring down the Cuban government.

[Mika]

7. Castro could learn "a thing or two" from the US gestapo

Imagine the mewlings from the Miamicuban Batistanos if the Cuban government had used techniques like this?

http://www.oregonlive.com/newsflash/regional/index.ssf?/base/news-8/1097821147133260.xml&storylist=orlocal

JACKSONVILLE, Ore. (AP) — Police in riot gear fired paintballs filled with cayenne pepper Thursday night to disperse a crowd of protesters assembled in this historic gold mining town where President Bush was spending the night after a campaign appearance.

The Cuban people know that such harsh actions do not win the (well cared for) hearts and (well educated) minds of anyone in Cuba.

[Judi Lynn]

10. Government shake-up

Last Updated: Thursday, 14 October, 2004, 20:24 GMT 21:24 UK


Cuban energy minister loses power

The Cuban government has sacked a senior minister held responsible for an energy crisis which left much of the country facing regular power blackouts.

Marcos Portal Leon was blamed for not preventing the crisis, which began when a key power plant broke down in May.

Millions of Cubans are still without electricity for several hours a day.

An official statement issued by the Communist party praised Mr Portal's service to Cuba throughout the 1990s, a tough economic period known as "the special period". But it also criticised his handling of the lucrative nickel industry, accusing him of making "grave errors".


The BBC's Stephen Gibbs in Havana says that Mr Portal, 59, is married to a niece of President Castro and had been seen as untouchable.
(snip)

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/3744916.stm

[Judi Lynn]

12. US blockade main obstacle to Cuba's development

US blockade main obstacle to Cuba's development: minister

www.chinaview.cn 2004-10-15 10:02:52


HAVANA, Oct. 14 (Xinhuanet) -- The blockade imposed by the United States is the principal obstacle to the welfare of Cubans, said Foreign Minister Felipe Ramon Perez Roque on Thursday.

In a meeting with residents in the outskirts of Havana, he saidthe US policy is tantamount to genocide.

Owing to the restrictions enforced by the United States, Perez said, 2 million families do not have fuel gas. A thermoelectric plant which would prevent blackouts is also made impossible by US blockade, he said.

The Havana hydraulic networks could be renewed with 220 millionUS dollars out of the 1.659 billion dollars lost every year as a result of the embargo, he said.

In May, Cuba's main oil-fueled power plant, Antonio Guiteras, in Matanzas province, broke down, causing long blackouts and is still waiting to be repaired. With breakdowns at other plants, power output can only meet half of the demand.
(snip/...)

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2004-10/15/content_2093045.htm

[Mika]

14. Starve them, then blame them for being hungry.

Sick sick sick US policy. :puke:




Mr Kerry, Tear down the wall of ignorance and hate!

[proud patriot]

13. Wow

good for them :thumbsup: