So we are taunting Cuba now? This is so immature

[Generic Other]

<snip>

HAVANA, Cuba (AP) -- The communist government on Monday called an evening rally at the scene of a mysterious construction project outside the American mission.

The rally -- called to remember those who have lost their lives in violent acts against Cuba over 45 years -- was expected to include the unveiling what appear to be dozens of flagpoles, positioned to block the view of an electronic sign on the outside of the U.S. Interests Section that has provoked the ire of President Fidel Castro.

http://edition.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/americas/02/06/cuba.ap/

<snip>

The electronic billboard, a 5-foot-tall sign that stretches across the U.S. Interests Section building, had been inaugurated Jan. 16, on the occasion of Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Since then, it has been lit several times, broadcasting news headlines from international wire agencies -- including stories critical of U.S. policies, in an effort to show that Americans can read bad news about their government -- and quotes from the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights, or world figures such as Winston Churchill, Indira Gandhi and Lech Walesa.

U.S. officials say the billboard is perfectly legal under international law, whereby diplomatic missions' grounds are considered foreign territory. To make it even safer from a legal point of view, the electronic billboard was placed inside the building, behind a top floor's glass windows, rather than on the outside grounds.

"It's a way of breaking the dictatorship's information blockade," said Caleb McCarry, the top U.S. State Department official in charge of Cuban affairs.

Predictably, Castro exploded in anger, calling it a "provocation." Then the Cuban regime was hurriedly building a big structure in front of the U.S. Interests Section, presumably to block the billboard from people's view.

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/opinion/orl-opp0606feb06,0,4308065.story?coll=orl-opinion-headlines

<snip>

Signs on the U.S. mission became a point of contention in the difficult bilateral relationship in late 2004, when U.S. diplomats put up holiday decorations that alluded to the Cuban crackdown on dissidents the previous year.

Cuba responded last year by erecting signs outside the building with photos of U.S. soldiers abusing Iraqi prisoners. This week, a new sign was erected depicting President Bush as a vampire.

http://www.voanews.com/english/2006-01-24-voa71.cfm

[ragin_acadian]

1. the US has been for awhile:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4105673.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4114033.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4119759.stm

Cuba always responds, but you have to go to a credible source like BBC to read about it.

I would imagine that the Cuban people, while suffering under US sanctions, probably look at New Orleans, and thank god that they live under Castro, rather than Bush.

[ragin_acadian]

2. would the 15 million we spend on "Radio Marti"

open the possibility of providing health insurance to American citizens, kinda like the Cubans already have through their evil gov't?

just a thought.