ATHE EUROPEAN UNION AND THE CASE OF CUBA Editorial, Diario Las Americas   *  About Cuba's political prisoners EDITORIAL, DIRARIO LAS AMERICAS *  Zombies voting MICHAEL ROWAN *  Israel was right to stop Gaza flotilla EDITORIAL, THE MIAMI HERALD *  Leadership, at last, for Cuba's people EDITORIAL, THE MIAMI HERALD *  Leadership, at last, for Cuba's people EDITORIAL, THE MIAMI HERALD *  Twitter tales MICHAEL ROWANS    MIAMI, FLORIDA {07-23-2010} THE EUROPEAN UNION AND THE CASE OF CUBA EDITORIAL, DIARIO LAS AMERICAS THE EUROPEAN UNION has a serious responsibility in the tragedy that the Cuban people have been suffering for over fifty one years because of the totalitarian Marxist-Leninist tyranny entrenched there. The measures taken by the European governments on behalf of the oppressed Cuban people have been very helpful lately to pressure the tyranny into freeing some political prisoners. Now, there is the risk that a campaign on behalf of the Cuban tyranny might have repercussion in the European Union in the sense of assuming that there is no longer a problem with political prisoners although it is known that there are still many of them in the island. Of course, there is a strong campaign in favor of the Castros tyranny to try to have the European Union consider that the problem has been solved or reduced to a minimum. And this is not the case. The governments of the European Union, albeit the pressure from the Spanish socialist government, should stand firm in their previous position, the one they have held for some time now, so as not to encourage the Cuban tyranny in its attempts against its people. It would not be fair for the Cuban people that the European Union behaved as if the problem created by the tyranny had disappeared. On the contrary, it would be unfair. The governments of the European Union, no matter how strong might be the pressure from Spain’s socialist government – a member of the group – should stand firm with respect to the Havana regime and, of course, in favor of freedom for the political prisoners that it is still holding. Naturally, the tyranny is not only evident in these depressing and torturing prisons, but also through numerous manifestations contrary to human rights including, obviously, freedom of expression. Freedom of expression is fundamental with respect for human rights. The governments of the European Union that have shown their concern with Cuba’s freedom should not give up on their efforts because this would strengthen the tyranny in a way that would be regrettable and a discredit for those who, in one way or another, might have encouraged the continuation of the aggressiveness of that tyranny. This is a tyranny that has been in force for more than fifty one years, with its firing squads, its inhospitable prisons and its violation of all the rights of its citizens. ############################################## MIAMI, FLORIDA {07-14-2010} ABOUT CUBA’S POLITICAL PRISONERS EDITORIAL, DIARIO LAS AMERICAS NOT EVERYTHING IS CLEAR ABOUT THE “NEGOTIATIONS” OR EFFORTS THAT HAVE BEEN TAKING PLACE RECENTLY BETWEEN HAVANA AND MADRID IN regards to the freedom of 52 political prisoners that are part of the 75 that had been arrested in the so-called Black Spring of 2003. And it is not clear because there are doubts regarding different aspects of the matter or problem. It has been said that this has been achieved with the intervention of Spain’s socialist government and Cuba’s Catholic Church. The negotiator for the Spanish government has been its Minister of Foreign Relations, Miguel Angel Moratinos, and for the Cuban Catholic Church, Havana’s Archbishop, Cardinal Jaime Ortega and Alamino. It is not known exactly when the first prisoners to be set free will leave for Spain with their families, if they so wish. And with respect to the remaining 47, no date has been given except “three or four months”, without specifying the norms that will be applied to their release. It has not been determined if going to Spain, which would be an exile, is compulsory or if it is an option. This gives reason to wonder under what conditions these Cubans and their families will live in Spain. With respect to the alluded remaining 47 prisoners it is not know if they will remain as hostages in terms of some political attitude on their part or on the part of those who speak for them. The news has been made public as if it were something definitive that the Cuban government is setting these 52 prisoners free. Certainly the leaders of the totalitarian Marxist-Leninist tyranny that oppresses Cuba, especially brothers Fidel and Raúl Castro, must feel “reassured”, as if they had found a purportedly generous and purportedly democratic formula when, actually, this is not true. Everything indicates that this is just a maneuver to deceive Cubans and foreigners alike, particular governments and organizations concerned with human rights. The glorious “Ladies in White”, that have been a decisive factor in this stage of the great struggle of the Cuban people, even after their husbands or family members are free, out of solidarity with the cause of freedom, will possibly continue their noble and selfless efforts; peacefully going to church and afterwards walking down some streets in Havana asking for freedom for all the political prisoners that still remain in the dictatorship’s prisons. ############################################## CARACAS, VENEZUELA {06-16-2010} ZOMBIES VOTING MICHAEL ROWAN THE SEPTEMBER VOTE WILL ESTABLISH WHETHER VENEZUELA IS DEAD OR CAN BE REVIVED. There are nine strikes against Chávez, any one of which would retire a whole inning of great presidential hitters: electricity, water, food, housing, roads, crime, inflation, recession and corruption. The second inning could end with nine more rapid swings and misses in the foreign ballpark: weapons, oil gifts, Cuba, the FARC, Iran, Hezbollah, threats of war, militarization of society and toying with terrorism. In combination, these 18 strikes have marginalized Venezuela as a rogue and failing state, even with all its oil money. Indeed, while the GDP per capita of Venezuela has doubled during Chávez's decade of power, the standard of living in the country has diminished to what it was in the 1950s. Older Venezuelans can recall the times of previous military dictators as blissful compared to now. Even so, Chávez is an odds-on favorite to win in September because he controls the election and everything else. To half the country, Chávez is the only hope for a meager existence. They depend physically and psychologically on him no less than a kidnapped child locked in a dark closet needs the approval of her kidnapper -she is suffering from the Stockholm syndrome. The worse it gets on any one of the eighteen strikes noted above, the more dependent a person can become on Chávez. They have been trapped, tamed, and trained to perform like zombies in a video game. In September they will be bused like zombies to the polling stations to vote for catastrophe. They have done this in the past and they are very likely to do it again. In a 50/50 split of votes, Chávez can win the assembly seats 67/33, via diabolical gerrymandering of the districts. He also counts the votes with tricky electronic machines that can cast as well as count votes. He performs this election charade to maintain a semblance of democracy so that the world will respect him when he boasts about wiping out poverty and corruption in the purest democracy on earth -with second honors to Cuba. The opposition has no existential choice but to turn out and vote in the hope that the country can come back to life and freedom, a single candle burning in a hurricane. ############################################## MIAMI, FLORIDA {06-04-2010} ISRAEL WAS RIGHT TO STOP GAZA FLOTILLA EDITORIAL, THE MIAMI HERALD THE ORGANIZERS OF THE GAZA FLOTILLA KNEW FULL WELL they were sailing into troubled waters when they embarked on a mission to break Israel's blockade of the enclave controlled by the terrorist organization Hamas. The cries of outrage following the raid on the Marmara by Israeli commandos ring hollow given that the organizers clearly intended to cause an international incident. Once again, Israel has been placed in the preposterous position of having to defend itself for defending itself. For that it should never have to apologize. The maritime blockade was imposed by Israel because it has repeatedly been attacked by Hamas from Gaza with rockets and other weapons smuggled in by sea. The blockade is supported by Egypt and has the de facto recognition of virtually every country in the world. It is a legitimate maneuver under international law and fully justified as an effective counter-measure to stop Hamas' aggression. The ships participating in the protest flotilla were warned from the outset that a blockade was in effect and that they would be denied access to Gaza. Israeli officials offered to deliver their aid -- after being duly inspected for weapons -- by overland routes already used to supply Gaza. In recent months, Israel has been quietly easing the blockade to allow more goods into Gaza. The refusal of the flotilla's organizers to comply suggests that beneath their avowed ``humanitarian'' purpose, the larger aim was to provoke international outrage so that Israel would be forced to drop the blockade altogether -- allowing weapons to pour into Hamas' territory. Where was the international outrage when North Korea sank a South Korean ship, killing 46 sailors? Where was the outrage when Israel came under bombardment from Gaza? Why is it that only Israel is called to account for responding to provocations? The White House has rightly refused to join the chorus of condemnation. It can do more by promoting an arrangement for expanded cargo shipments into Gaza. Israel would inspect deliveries to exclude the possibility of more weapons flooding into Gaza, but it would promise to eliminate needless delays. If the people of Gaza need more food and medicine, they should have it. Hamas doesn't need more weapons. They've killed enough innocent people already. ############################################### MIAMI, FLORIDA {05-25-2010} LEADERSHIP, AT LAST, FOR CUBA'S PEOPLE EDITORIAL, THE MIAMI HERALD FINALLY, AFTER A LONG SILENCE, CUBA'S CATHOLIC CHURCH IS TAKING A STAND, calling on the Castro regime to free 26 political prisoners who are in failing health. About time. Cardinal Jaime Ortega and Santiago Archbishop Dionisio García, head of the island's Bishops' Conference, met with Raúl Castro last week -- the first in an expected series of talks to deal with the dictatorship's abysmal treatment of Cubans, in and out of prison. The meeting, the first in five years between the regime's officials and church leaders, comes after the cardinal last month acknowledged in a Catholic magazine that Cuba is in economic crisis and noted that people are desperate for political and social change. Ladies in White abused It also comes after Spain, the European Union and many Latin American leaders have challenged the Castro government's mistreatment of the Ladies in White, women who walk peacefully in protest of their loved ones' imprisonment. The Obama administration and world leaders also condemned Cuba's horrid prison conditions following the death of Orlando Zapata Tamayo, who died after more than 80 days in a hunger strike seeking better treatment of prisoners of conscience. And it's happening as dissident journalist Guillermo Fariñas has made headlines worldwide in a hunger strike calling for the release of the 26 ailing prisoners -- a demand that Gen. Castro labeled ``blackmail'' in April. For now the Ladies have resumed their marches, but the Castro regime is pressuring them to split from a group of female supporters who have been walking with them. In typical Orwellian doublespeak the regime claims those supporters ``distort'' the issue. Cardinal should speak up In truth, Cubans have stepped up their quest for rights after 51 years of fear inspired by firing squads and ``defense of the revolution'' block captains who report to the government on neighbors' every move. Cardinal Ortega has remained mum for too long. He has tried to collaborate with the regime in hopes of getting an opening, as Pope John Paul II called for during his 1998 visit to the communist island. But even as the world has opened to Cuba with more trade and tourism, Cuba has cracked down on its people, unable to accept dissent without imposing violent consequences. This would not be the first time Cuba has freed prisoners, of course. The Castro brothers have a long history of making small moves in an attempt to score big points abroad. That's why the cardinal and bishops' efforts are so important. They have to seize this opportunity when key leaders and trading partners with Cuba are watching and demanding action. In a country run by old revolutionaries, stuck in a time warp of failed policies, Cuba's youth are restless. The Church, as it did in Poland and other nations during the Cold War, can play a pivotal role in being a voice for those the regime wants to silence. ############################################### LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA {05-06-2010} TWITTER TALES MICHAEL ROWAN PRESIDENT CHÁVEZ HAS JOINED THE RANKS OF TWITTER, the cyberspace medium that limits users to 140 characters, which is about one millionth of the characters in a typical Chávez speech. Here is Chávez's first Twit via twitter.com/chavezcandanga: "Hey how's it going? I appeared like I said I would: at midnight. I'm off to Brazil and very happy to work for Venezuela. We will be victorious!!" But Twitter is an uncontrolled two-way communication - as opposed to the one-way "munication" of a TV broadcast like Aló Presidente. It does Venezuelans little good to talk back to their TV set, but Twitter was created to let people talk back. So Chávez can expect to get Twits like these: Not doing well: no water no electricity no rice and beans no job no money no hope and no thanks to you. What work for Venezuela are you talking about? There's more poverty today than when you took power. You have wasted a trillion dollars and a decade of Venezuela's time. What "we" are you talking about being "victorious"? We the people, we the poor, we the unemployed, we the hungry, we the jobless, or we the corrupt guys that run Venezuela's government? OK maybe you can be victorious in a military dictatorship where you control all the power and money but you can't win in a real democracy and you know it. Brazil's OK but why do you keep going to Cuba, Bolivia, Nicaragua, Iran, Libya and Russia, those are weird places to hang out. But Chávez can also get Twits that he might not want to hear in any medium, like these: Are you helping Iran build a nuclear bomb? What few bolivars were your family and co-conspirators worth in 1998 and what billions of dollars are they truly worth today? Are you training terrorists on Venezuelan soil like the Israelis, Colombians, and Americans believe? How many Cubans are in Venezuela and are they in control of your government? After Castro dies will you stay in touch with him via telepathy so that he can tell you what to do? If you get only 25 percent of the votes in the September elections, what's your electronic voting machine trick to turn that into 75 percent so that Jimmy Carter congratulates you again as he did in 2004 on your rigged victory? ############################################## MIAMI, FLORIDA {04-28-2010} CHÁVEZ’S THREATS AGAINST COLOMBIA EDITORIAL, DIARIO LAS AMERICAS CONSTANTLY, VENEZUELAN DICTATOR HUGO CHÁVEZ not only insults the governments of the United States of America and Colombia, but also threatens –going beyond the insults– with a war that, according to him, is going to take place between his country and Colombia. He has reached the extreme of saying recently that if Juan Manuel Santos were to become the next president of Colombia this would create a state of war –not simple subversion– between Chavez’s Venezuela and the democratic government of Colombia. An old Spanish proverb says that “one thing is saying and another one doing.” However, taking into consideration the temperamental characteristics of mister Chávez one must bear in mind that there is serious danger that if Santos were to reach the presidency in Colombia there could be an armed conflict between those two neighboring countries so important in the Western Hemisphere. And even if the mentioned Colombian candidate did not win the election, Chávez insists so much on his attacks against Colombia and, especially, against the strong current that supports its president Alvaro Uribe, that there is always the possibility of an armed conflict that could begin as something small and grow into something huge calling for inter-American intervention in light of the treaties that rule over relations among the American States. Erroneously, the influential and serious governments that still exist in the Americas have not acted with the firmness and clarity that circumstances demand to prevent these outrages and insults of the Venezuelan ruler against inter-American solidarity and the conventions and treaties that rule over its international coexistence. Actually, this indifference is unfortunate and it, in fact, becomes some sort of complicity on behalf of those who threaten peace and inter-American comity as proclaimed in those international conventions and treaties. Luckily, in Colombia and also in Venezuela there are many people with a sense of responsibility who, in one way or another, reject these insults and, thus, contribute to strengthen the attacked friendship between these two sister nations that have such a historic lineage in the region. ############################################## LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA {04-22-2010} NUCLEAR BOMBS MICHAEL ROWAN THE LARGEST GATHERING OF NATIONAL LEADERS SINCE THE UNITED NATIONS WAS FOUNDED IN 1945 -forty seven nations representing almost 5 billion people- convened in Washington last week to address the most profound security issue facing planet earth: a nuclear weapon in the hands of a madman who would use it. There are 3,500,000 pounds of highly enriched uranium on earth. It takes only 55 pounds to make a small nuclear device as was dropped on Japan to end World War Two. Peaceful nuclear plants do not require weapons grade high enrichment of uranium, so countries like Iran can easily prove that their intentions are to produce electricity, not weapons, by simply destroying weapons-grade uranium. It was portentously significant to see who showed up and who did not at this anti-nuclear war gathering. Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Mexico participated. Venezuela did not. Two nations with nuclear weapons ambitions and who are allied with Venezuela, Iran and North Korea, did not. Yet Mexico, Ukraine and Canada committed to destroy their weapons-grade uranium. Russia agreed with the USA to decommission more nuclear weapons. And 47 nations resolved unanimously to work feverishly to secure weapons-grade uranium in four years, and to prevent terrorists that are known to be hunting for a nuclear bomb from succeeding. While Iran would hesitate using the bomb, for the fear of annihilation, the hidden terrorist groups al Qaeda or Hezbollah might not. For good reason, Venezuelans are primarily concerned about the collapse of their economy, democracy and security in the upcoming elections. But they must also examine government policies on nuclear weapons. Serious unanswered charges have been made by a handful of foreign governments, courts and prosecutors that Venezuela is aiding Iran to build a nuclear weapon; is enriching uranium; is money-laundering to evade UN sanctions against nuclear proliferation; and is providing safe haven to international terrorists that have professed an interest in buying or using a nuclear weapon. The proliferation of nuclear weapon materials deserves as much attention as the proliferation of crime in Venezuela. One kills a few. The other kills all. ################################################ MIAMI, FLORIDA {04-19-2010} FORTY-NINE YEARS AFTER A HUGE MISTAKE BY THE U.S. EDITORIAL, DIARIO LAS AMERICAS FORTY-NINE YEARS AGO THE CALVARY BEING SUFFERED BY THE CUBAN PEOPLE BECAME A REALITY AS THE RESULT OF THE ENTRENCHMENT OF FIDEL CASTRO’S MARXIST-LENINIST TYRANNY IN THE COUNTRY, with ramifications throughout the continent and the backing of the Soviet Union. It must be said that this happened because of the huge mistake made by the White House and the U.S. State Department that failed to give air and other support to the 2506 Assault Brigade, the noble and brave Cuban contribution to the cause of their homeland’s freedom. There were men of all ages in that Brigade, but a significant number of them were younger than 25 years old. Air support was part of the original plan as something indispensable but, nevertheless, unexpectedly, in an absurd and anti-military way, that support was cancelled at the last minute. And the Brigade was left without any air coverage fighting in the marshes of Girón Beach, also identified as the Bay of Pigs. In the United Nations, Adlai Stevenson had an unfortunate intervention pretending to know nothing about the 2506 Brigade and, thus, ignoring – or trying to ignore- that Washington was fundamentally involved in that effort that, of course, required the support of the Cubans in the Brigade. The Kennedy Brothers, John F., the President, and Robert, the Attorney General, who was acting as his advisor, did not understand or did not want to realize the historic gravity of the situation and the necessity to carry to its last consequences the plan that would have opened the path of freedom for the Cuban nation that was beginning to sink into the Marxist-Leninist slavery. It is a duty of historians to emphasize the participation of the Cubans in this effort and the mistake made by the Americans, especially those belonging to the Democratic Party that was in power at the time. This huge mistake is unprecedented in American history. What this infamy has cost this great nation is represented by the loss of liberty in several countries of the world and the economic losses of important American investors whose properties were confiscated in Cuba. Estimating the millions of dollars that the American nation has lost in these forty-nine years calls for the collaboration of several experts and of many who must know how to add and multiply. The 2506 Brigade gloriously and with sacrifice did what it had to do. ############################################### LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA {04-15-2010} THE RED QUEEN MICHAEL ROWAN THE ONLY TIME THE RED QUEEN DOES NOT SAY, “Off with your head!” is when she looks in the mirror. What a pity He died in 1898, exactly a century before the rise of Hugo Chávez, but Lewis Carroll's greatest work, Alice in Wonderland, which is now a Hollywood film starring Johnny Depp as the Mad Hatter, appears to have been written with today's Venezuela in mind. In 3-D color, we see the foul-tempered Red Queen, decreeing death sentences at the drop of a hat. "Off with their heads," she says with blind fury at the slightest offense, the smallest word, even an innocuous stare. At the call for trial, she responds: "Sentence first, verdict afterwards!" The Red Queen is cranked up on the arbitrary abuse of power, which is the only thing that amuses her. She plays croquet where a living bird is her mallet, a living rabbit is the ball, and living people are bent in half as the wickets. When it is suggested that such treatment is not amusing for the so-called mallet, ball or wickets, the Red Queen muses: "It is better to be feared than to be loved." To the Red Queen, everything is dispensable and whimsical, especially the meaning of words. "When I use a word, it means just what I choose it to mean," Humpty Dumpty says in another Lewis Carroll's tale. And that goes for everyone else, too: whatever the Red Queen thinks she heard you say, well that's what you said, so you have to be responsible for it. Off with your head! For example, the Red Queen might believe you are a traitor to the monarchy for repeating what a judge said about her associations with terrorists and drug dealers - so off with your head! She might believe you are an assassin if you broadcast those same charges -so off with your head! She might believe she heard you wanted to murder her when you mentioned how Mussolini was hung to death upside down- so off with your head! She might believe your talk for democracy was a conspiracy to destroy the monarchy- so off with your head! Or she might believe that your refusal to watch her broadcast her palaver for hours on end is a sure signal of conspiracy to change the station- so off with your head! In fact, the only time the Red Queen does not say, "Off with your head!" is when she looks in the mirror. What a pity. ############################################## MIAMI, FLORIDA {03-27-2010} MORE REPRESSION IN CUBA EDITORIAL, THE MIAMI HERALD OUR OPINION: CUBANS' PENT-UP FRUSTRATION MET WITH VIOLENCE PRESIDENT OBAMA'S CONDEMNATION OF REPRESSION IN CUBA IS A WELCOME IF SOMEWHAT BELATED acknowledgement of the campaign of “intensified harassment'' that the Castro-run government is directing at Cubans who dare to demand freedom and engage in nonviolent protests. Such campaigns are business as usual for Cuba's rulers. Fidel Castro's regime is characterized by repression designed to stifle any form of independent activity. At other times, Castro has seized on the pretext of ``intervention'' from other countries, real or imagined, to tighten the screws on his own people. The “black spring'' of March 2003, when some 75 dissidents were rounded up and thrown in prison for years, was his petulant reaction to the U.S. invasion of Iraq. What is unusual about the current wave of repression is that it responds to a completely spontaneous outburst of pent-up frustration inside the country. More and more Cubans are just plain fed up. The death of hunger striker Orlando Zapata Tamayo one month ago was the most dramatic example of this, but the courage of the Ladies in White who repeatedly dare to confront Castro's baton-wielding goons may represent a greater threat in Castro's eyes. Their example tugs at the conscience of their countrymen and inspires respect and admiration. The repression should spur other governments to join with President Obama to demand the immediate, unconditional release of political prisoners in Cuba. Castro's police state is a consistent and unapologetic violator of human rights, abetted in its behavior by all those who turn a blind eye to its crimes. The death or Orlando Zapata prompted the European Union to suspend efforts to improve relations with Cuba. Its member countries should go further to demand that the Cuban people be treated with the dignity and respect they deserve. ############################################## MIAMI, FLORIDA {03-25-2010} SEBASTIÁN PIÑERA AND CUBA’S LIBERTY EDITORIAL, DIARIO LAS AMERICAS IN MARKED CONTRAST WITH THE CONDUCT OF THE NOW FORMER PRESIDENT OF CHILE, MICHELLE BACHELET, the new ruler of that republic, Sebastián Piñera, has courageously, with reasons, expressed his desire as a citizen and president of Chile to advocate freedom for the Cuban people. “The government of Chile will do everything it can to contribute so that in Cuba there is a process of peaceful recovery of democracy and a full restoration of respect for human rights and individual freedoms,” expressed the president during a press conference. His words were broadcast on television programs that were seen all over the world. There is a sharp contrast between what Piñera said and what Mrs. Bachelet said, because her government identified itself with the dictatorship of the Castro brothers. This was not so evident during all of her mandate but more recently when she visited Havana, on February 11, 2009, as did other rulers of the region, to pay homage to the Castro tyrants in their own country. Mrs. Bachelet could very well have been of the Left, without this compelling her to visit Havana to celebrate the half-century of the Castros’ tyranny. President Sebastián Piñera – a name that should be engraved in the minds of democrats in the continent – categorically expressed his adherence with the cause of Cuba’s freedom in a categorical way. His facial expression that could be seen on television showed his determination to do so convinced that this stand answers to the ideals that democracy represents. The stand taken by President Piñera corresponds to the ideals of the true Chilean democracy. In the recent election Piñera received a considerable number of votes from the great Chilean sector that responds to the substantial values of genuine democracy. This does not mean that there are no leftists or communists in Chile. What it means is that in that ideological pluralism there is a strong, traditional, democratic current. In the middle of the great tragedy that the noble Chilean people have suffered and are still suffering because of the horrific earthquake and tsunami, the presence in the Casa de la Moneda in Santiago of a ruler of this stature represents more than hope for the democratic seriousness of the new Chilean government. ############################################### MIAMI, FLORIDA {03-20-2010} A MONSTRUOUS ATTACK AGAINST THE “LADIES IN WHITE” IN HAVANA EDITORIAL, DIARIO LAS AMERICAS THE CIVILIZED WORLD HAS BEEN SHOCKED BY GRAPHIC TELEVISION PROGRAMS SHOWING THE ATTACKS AGAINST SOME SEVENTY “LADIES IN WHITE” THAT, bearing flowers, were marching down Havana streets demanding freedom for prisoners of conscience. The photos published by the newspapers and the scenes depicted on television are testimony of a cruelty that ratifies the concept that the Cuban people are oppressed by a fierce tyranny. Trained mobs, some of them wearing uniforms, attacked and dragged those “Ladies in White” that peacefully walk the streets of the Cuban capital demanding freedom for their imprisoned loved ones. From a certain point of view, what has happened is good to open the eyes of those who around the world still have their eyes closed with respect to the tragedy that the people of Cuba have been suffering for more than fifty years. This is typically Marxist-Leninist totalitarian tragedy. Of course, it is painful for those who have suffered in the flesh the brutality of the dictatorship’s assassins who dragged those “Ladies in White” and hurled them against the sides of a bus where they were forced to get in to take them away. Some of them had to be treated at hospitals. Every photo shows a monstrosity that is typical of a totalitarian regime. These were horrific scenes that corroborate what the European community said a short time ago about the situation in Cuba. It is good that the President of Brazil Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva learn about these monstrous acts so that he may stop defending the tyranny of the Castro brothers that he visits regularly with ideological solidarity and personal friendship. Likewise, so that the Latin American governments that months ago went to Havana in a shameful pilgrimage to honor the tyranny of the Castro brothers in the person of its top leaders, Fidel and Raul, may learn about this situation. These unjustified visits to Havana to “celebrate” the half-a-century of the opprobrious tyranny bring shame to the countries purportedly represented by those rulers. The white dresses and the flowers that these women carry in their hands are a call to the world for justice for the Cuban people. #############################################

CHAVEZ AND MING Michael Rowan   *  Bolivarian evolution MICHEL ROWAN *  Number seventeen MICHAEL ROWAN *  What does Cuba really rant? EDITORIAL, THE MIAMI HERALD *Killing love with communism and blows FROM THE EDITORS OF VENECONOMY *  In the slippery slope FROM THE EDITORS OF VENECONOMY *  Your lying eyes MICHAEL ROWAN   LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA {07-29-2010} CHÁVEZ AND MING MICHAEL ROWAN MONOPOLY INJECTS inefficiency and stagnation into what it runs. Monopoly power centers improve their wealth and not that of the citizenry As we know from sad experience, autocracies fail because the centralization of power provides irresistible opportunities for theft. Chávez is failing today precisely because he monopolized power. Monopoly injects inefficiency and stagnation into what it runs. Monopoly power centers improve their wealth and not that of the citizenry. The dictator -the monopolist in chief- is plagued by a storm of parasites and sycophants demanding rents. Unfortunately, this has been going on for a long time -there is nothing new about this story. Take China's Ming emperors, who inherited the world's best wealth creation system but didn't know how to continue it. To get political control, they nationalized industry and trade including salt, iron, tea and education, which all consequently deteriorated. Ming officials had high political status but low salaries, so they used their power to steal everything in sight. When the economy began to collapse around them, the emperor issued omnipotent edicts regulating the clothes people wore; the precise dimensions of houses to be built; the music that was permissible; the holidays to be celebrated; the enemies to be hated, and the correct names for new-born children. Amazing, no? The nonsense happening in Venezuela today happened six hundred years ago in China. But the story gets worse. Ming forbade all trade, travel and maritime technology -thus handing colonization to the Europeans (a Ming mistake being corrected by Beijing today). Ming also built a gigantic but ineffective army, ordered peasants to grow for consumption and not the market, ordered merchants to register all their goods once a month with an endless bureaucracy, and inflated the currency ten-thousand-fold. Sound familiar? And here's a hint of what may come for Colombia: to avoid blame for his own obvious failures, the Ming emperor invaded neighboring Vietnam -but got thrashed! And that was the end of him. For those who want to compare the DNA of Bolivar and Chávez, history has a more curious idea: could Chávez be a direct descendant of Ming? ############################################### LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA {07-15-2010} BOLIVARIAN EVOLUTION MICHAEL ROWAN THE QUESTION FOR VENEZUELA IS ONE OF REVOLUTION OR EVOLUTION. The revolution was begun by an act of political violence in 1992 and has eleven years of escalating socio-economic violence to show for itself as its legacy. In contrast, evolution was begun by an act of creation and has 40,000 years of human growth as its legacy. For 99.5 percent of that long time, humanity struggled to survive in a hostile world, but in the last 200 years global population has increased six times, average income by 10 times, and life expectancy by 3 times -an absolute success. Today, more people are alive for many more years and with a much better standard of living than at any time in human history. Humans achieved that through sharing ideas and trading things freely and with tolerance for others over the boundaries of geography, religion, tribes and nations. These life-affirming risks taken by our ancestors everywhere have provided us with the opportunity to succeed. And the world of electricity, radio, television, the cell phone and the Internet has made our planet truly a global village where no boundaries exist for ideas or people -except for those imposed by a handful of dictators ruling rogue states. The Bolivarian revolution is directly opposed to evolution. What evolution opens, the revolution closes. What evolution sets free, the revolution confiscates. What evolution distributes, the revolution concentrates. What evolution allows, the revolution prohibits. What evolution shares, the revolution restricts. 40,000 years of evolution produced global order. 11 years of revolution produced local chaos. The irony is that the revolution intends the opposite of what it produces. The cynicism is that the revolution blames evolution elsewhere for its own internal failures. The tragedy is that the revolution is producing more harm, death and violence than if no government whatsoever was in place. When the history of this period is written by cooler heads in the future, those most celebrated as today's heroes of the revolution will be heaped with scorn for being so utterly and profoundly ignorant. Where the revolution is heading is the trash bin of history. ############################################## LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA {07-01-2010} NUMBER SEVENTEEN MICHAEL ROWAN FOREIGN POLICY MAGAZINE this month lists the world's worst dictators. Number 1 is Kim Jong-il of North Korea, a true madman with 11 years of frightening rule. Number 2 is Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe, a murderous despot and racist there for 30 years. Number 8 is Mahmud Ahmadinejad of Iran, whose insidious rule came about by sham election and who wants to wipe Israel off the face of the earth - he is building a nuclear bomb to do it. Number 11 is Muammar Kaddafi of Libya, who has suppressed freedoms there for 41 years and who as one of the world's first terrorists killed hundreds in a Pan Am jet blown up over Lockerbie, Scotland. Number 21 is Raul Castro, who succeeded his brother's 50-year rule that collapsed Cuba from one of the richest to the second poorest country in the hemisphere, but he blames foreigners for all those failures. Number 22 is Aleksandr Lukashenko of Belarus, whose secret police have kept him in power for 16 years and whose enemies have been silenced forever in hidden graves. What the number 1, 2, 8, 11, 12, 21 and 22 dictators in the world have in common -above and beyond their distinct way of governing- is a supportive common friend with a lot of oil money, Number 17, who Venezuelans will recognize as their president, Hugo Chávez. Number 17 promotes a doctrine of participatory democracy in which he is the sole participant, according to Foreign Policy. Number 17 jailed opposition leaders; extended term limits indefinitely and closed independent media. He does not sound like a very nice guy. But compared to his buddy dictators, Number 17 is still learning the game after only 11 years of absolute rule. His mentor is Number 21's older brother, Fidel, who will rule Cuba even in death it seems. Number 1 and Number 2, who have ruled for a combined 46 years, also attracted Number 17 straight away; he flew to befriend them like a bee zooming directly to its hive early in his rule. This was about the same time Saddam Hussein of Iraq met with Number 17, and a few years before Saddam fled his palace in a bombed-out Baghdad to hide in a dark hole with a million US dollars to keep him warm. If Number 17 were to exit the same ignominious way, he will probably have many more dollars and a much bigger hole to hide in. ############################################# MIAMI, FLORIDAQ {06-08-2010} WHAT DOES CUBA REALLY WANT? OUR OPINION: ANOTHER ROUND OF HARASSMENT OF DISSIDENTS THE MIAMI HERALD ONCE AGAIN CUBA'S 51-YEAR-OLD REGIME GIVES WITH ONE HAND AND TAKES AWAY WITH ANOTHER -- even as the European Union is poised to discuss the potential for strengthening economic ties with the communist island. After the Cuban dictatorship, under international pressure, seemed to be considering moving 26 sick political prisoners to hospitals a couple of weeks ago, officials cracked down again. Last week, they detained 37 dissidents for several hours to prevent them from attending meetings to discuss Cuba's political and economic crisis. Despite the harassment, dozens of dissidents managed to attend the meetings and voted in solidarity with the Ladies in White, the Cuban women who peacefully march in Havana to call attention to their loved ones' imprisonment. They also discussed the international attention that the February death of hunger-striking dissident Orlando Zapata Tamayo sparked. Prisoners are ailing Leaders of Cuba's Catholic Church have been in talks with Raúl Castro in an effort to help the 26 ailing prisoners, among 75 who were swept up in 2003 in another crackdown in which the regime accused the dissidents of being U.S. ``mercenaries.'' Back then, there appeared to be another opening on the horizon, too, as Fidel Castro put on his ``charm'' offensive in an effort to sway Republicans in farm-belt states to press the Bush administration to drop the U.S. embargo of Cuba. Which raises the perennial question: Do the Castros really want trade and diplomatic relations to improve with the United States and the European Union? It sure doesn't seem like it. Even as the regime has moved a few dissidents to prisons closer to their homes, it has continued to harass, detain or arrest others. Meantime, another dissident, Guillermo Fariñas, has caught the world's attention with a hunger strike. Cuba undercuts progress Spain, under Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero's socialist government, has been pressing the European Union to embrace the Cuban regime without using human rights as a condition for more-favorable trade agreements. But with the recent harassment of -- and regime-backed mob violence directed at -- the Ladies in White, the detention of dissidents and Cuba's snail's-pace response to treating the ailing political prisoners, that's unlikely. The EU's “common position,'' established 14 years ago by Spain's then-Prime Minister José María Aznar, sought more direct contact with dissidents to nudge Cuba toward democracy. That is seen as a “unilateral'' strategy by the Zapatero government, which has proposed more talks with Cuba in a “bilateral'' stance. Problem is, Cuba's government has shown through its actions that it does not give any consideration to human rights, even when it claims to be in agreement with the United Nations' universal declaration on human rights. That's why it's welcome that the U.S. State Department is poised to release $15 million to international human-rights groups working in Cuba. The EU, urged by Spain two years ago, lifted sanctions it imposed after Cuba's 2003 crackdown. Now it's Cuba's turn to act, but so far its actions speak loudly of the same old intransigence. ############################################## CARACAS, VENEZUELA {05-29-2010} KILLING LOVE WITH COMMUNISM AND BLOWS FROM THE EDITORS OF VENECONOMY HUGO CHÁVEZ’S popularity has been fed by his proclaiming time and again the need to create an economy that improves Venezuelans’ standard of living and inclusion. Today, both those goals have become a utopia that is destroying the love and passion that was sustaining his hegemony. His populist, revolutionary discourse is coming up against a number of situations that are impossible to hide: One is that the economy is in frank decline. This week the Central Bank’s official figures revealed that the economy has now been four semesters in recession. Given this situation, all the President does is to attack the “bourgeoisie” and claim that “the economy that is declining in Venezuela is the capitalist economy,” in an attempt to come up smelling of roses and avoid his share of responsibility for the 5.8% drop in GDP in the first quarter of 2010. The grave crisis in the Venezuelan economy is also reflected by CMA, a credit rating firm that has included Venezuela in its Sovereign Risk Monitor, based on developments in five-year credit default swaps (CDSs), as one of the five countries in the world with a more than 50% chance of going bankrupt. But Chávez continues dauntless on his march towards communism, expropriating or closing down companies all over the place, regardless of whether, in doing so, he destroys jobs and means of production. More than 4,000 companies have closed their doors in the past 11 years and many more join the list daily. Nor can Chávez hide the fact that his public is turning away from his project and that there is widespread rejection of his violent discourse among the people. Alfredo Keller y Asociados’s latest opinion poll shows that eight out of every ten people interviewed reject the expropriation of companies. And according to recent studies by the pollster Hinterlaces, his radical discourse is moving further and further away from the aspirations of the poorest sectors. The collapse of the country project that Chávez seeks to impose has meant that people are protesting more and more, demanding their legitimate rights, better working conditions, higher wages, that their social benefits be respected, that the roads be repaired or that the public services improve, particularly the health services. The regime’s response to the population’s active rejection of its performance is the policy of the cudgel and “preventive” imprisonment. By way of example, suffice it to mention the brutal treatment meted out to the personnel of Concepción Palacios Maternity Hospital, who were demanding that the hospital management pay them the wages they are owed and respect for their jobs. The balance of this legitimate protest was one nurse and two ancillary workers in jail at Policaracas’s Cota 905 headquarters, but not before they had received a good dose of Bolivarian and very revolutionary blows. VenEconomy has been a leading provider of consultancy on financial, political and economic data in Venezuela since 1982. ##################################################################################################### CARACAS, VENEZUELA {05-28-2010} ON THE SLIPPERY SLOPE FROM THE EDITORS OF VENECONOMY YESTERDAY EVENING, TUESDAY, MAY 25, the Central Bank of Venezuela presented the results of the balance of payments and the economy for the first quarter of the year. Even at a time when the average price of the Venezuelan oil basket has reached $70.59/bbl, the balance of payments posted a deficit of $6.1 billion. Of that amount, $5 billion correspond to the illegal and absurd transfer of international reserves to Fonden. It is worth noting that, in 2009, when the price of the Venezuelan oil basket averaged $38.60/bbl, the balance of payments posted a deficit of $15.3 billion, $12.3 billion of which were transfers to Fonden. The reason for this relative improvement could be that, in the first quarter of 2010, revenue from oil exports rose by $6.5 billion and spending on imports fell by $4.4 billion, which is why there is a recovery in the balance on the assets account of $10.9 billion from the $3.7 billion deficit posted in the first quarter of 2009, giving a surplus for the first quarter of 2010 of $7.2 billion. There was little change on the capital and financial account, which reflects a deficit of $11.5 billion for the first three months of 2010, an increase in the deficit of $800 million compared to 2009. If transfers to Fonden are excluded, the deficit on the balance of payments would be $1.1 billion in the first quarter, compared to $2.9 billion in 2009; in other words, an improvement of $1.8 billion. This improvement is due to the rise in oil prices, which saved the government’s skin, but was not sufficient to provide the surplus it so badly needed. What VenEconomy cannot understand is how Venezuela’s balance of payment is incapable of showing a surplus with the oil barrel at $70.59. Unfortunately, the figures for the economy are even worse, showing a contraction of 5.8% according to the Central Bank, with a 5% contraction in the oil sector and a 4.9% contraction in the non-oil sector. The net tax on product account fell by 12.4%. The Central Bank reports that the manufacturing sector fell by 9.9% and that imports shrank by 40%. This combination was reflected, in turn, in drops in transportation (15.9%), commerce (11.6%), and financial services (9.7%). The picture revealed by these figures is consistent with the drop in overall consumption, which is estimated at 11%. While the figures of the real country show such ominous results, the government is making intolerant strides towards a Castro-communism that forecasts hunger and desolation. VenEconomy has been a leading provider of consultancy on financial, political and economic data in Venezuela since 1982. ############################################# MADRID, SPAIN {05-27-2010} CAPTAIN OF A SINKING SHIP CARLOS ALBERTO MONTANER BY THE SECOND HALF OF THE 1980S, Raúl Castro knew that the communist system was tremendously unproductive. Despite the enormous Soviet subsidies, the island sank gradually into misery. Then it occurred to him that Cuba's economic disaster was caused mainly by the poor management instituted by government bureaucracy. He became a defender of technocracy and believed he could fix the communist system with the tools of capitalism. He sent several dozen Army officers to fine educational institutions in the capitalist world specializing in entrepreneurial studies. When Mikhail Gorbachev around that time became Kremlin chief, Raúl fell in love with the changes begun by the Russian and completed his recipe: Good management, together with a profound reform of the State, with special emphasis on decentralization, would help save communism. He ordered a translation of Gorbachev's book Perestroika and distributed it among many of his officers. He was going to rescue the system and solve an enigma that had puzzled him: Why some societies with great human capital -- with an abundance of well-educated and healthy persons -- were so unproductive. After all, Raúl Castro had reason to feel optimistic and confident: Under his direction, the Cuban Armed Forces had become the world's ninth-largest army and had triumphed in Angola and Ethiopia. From his perspective as minister of defense (by then he had held the post one quarter of a century), under Moscow's tutelage, that poor little island, which generated so little wealth, had been transformed into a military power with world stature. Raúl did not understand that demolishing a bridge with cannon fire is infinitely easier than building it. Gorbachev made the same error. He knew the deficiencies of the Communist state and believed that he could correct them with a mixture of reforms and sophisticated management. It annoyed him to hear that his huge country, more than twice the size of the United States and rich in natural resources, was contemptuously described as ``Bangladesh with nuclear missiles.'' Ultimately, he discovered his fundamental error: The system could not be reformed. State-run collectivism led to ever-spreading impoverishment and could not be saved by the technocrats even if they were very well intentioned. If the objective was development, competitiveness and prosperity for the masses, one had to forget the communist utopia and imitate the countries situated at the head of the planet. Raúl Castro today is exactly at the same spot where Gorbachev found himself at the end of the '80s. Sugar production has fallen to the levels that existed more than 100 years ago and the country, in full material degradation, cannot even feed itself. Why? For six reasons that make communism irrelevant. • Without a strong currency that maintains its value and purchasing power, economic transactions are tantamount to plowing the seas. • Without private property, individuals do not conserve the material wealth they create or make an effort to create more. The ``public good'' is a laughable fantasy. Without private property, there is no development. • Without a price system ruled by supply and demand, it is impossible to effectively assign the available resources. The prices fixed by the market form the language in which the economy is spontaneously expressed. This is not a capricious ideological dogma but an observation confirmed one thousand times in the real world. • Without economic freedom and clear rules that facilitate the creation of businesses, reduce corruption and reward savings and local and foreign investment, wealth can never be generated in a systematic way. • Without a legal system and an effective, equitable and independent judicial power that resolves the inevitable conflicts, punishes the guilty, protects the rights of persons and provides guarantees, it is impossible to sustain a prosperous society. • Without transparency, without accounting for the acts of government, and without installing officials under the authority of the law, guided by meritocracy and legitimized in periodic elections, no decent standards of development can be set. Is Raúl Castro ready to admit these bitter truths, or does he prefer to keep patching the hulk to keep the boat from sinking? At one time, Raúl said he wasn't ``elected'' to bury the Revolution, only to improve it. By now he knows that that's impossible. It is the same dilemma Gorbachev faced -- either Castro renounces the harebrained communist model or insists on keeping it and damages Cuba even more. So far, everything indicates that Raúl prefers to die in his mistake, even if he bequeaths the Cubans a country in ruins. That's called bullheadedness. ############################################# LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA {05-19-2010} YOUR LYING EYES MICHAEL ROWAN VENEZUELANS ARE WITNESSING A CLASSIC MOVIE SCENE SERVING AS POLITICAL STRATEGY FOR THE SEPTEMBER ELECTIONS. Do you recall the unforgettable movie in which a man is caught by his wife in bed with a nude woman? As the nude scrambles behind the bed-sheets, the husband denies all to his wife, saying: "Honey, do you believe ME -or your lying eyes?" Well that is the Chávez strategy for the September elections. The highest inflation rate in the Americas is ignored, while wage increases that are a fraction of the inflation rate are provided as if a great gift has been bestowed by the benevolent king. The currency is about as strong as toilet paper and the dollar is mocked as worthless, but everyone including the government wants the dollar. The butchers are being jailed for selling meat above the price they bought it for, as if that will reduce meat scarcity, when in fact it will do the opposite. We are told that the scarcity of food has nothing to do with the government expropriating 2,500,000 hectares of productive farmland and turning it into wasteland: profiteers and scoundrels did it. We are told the brownouts and blackouts of electricity do not result from government mismanagement, but from a conspiracy for regime change. We are told that widespread corruption has nothing to do with government insiders stealing public wealth, so are we to believe they became millionaires fair and square? We are told that simply because the million families inadequately housed ten years ago has dramatically increased, and simply because there is more poverty today than a decade ago -and a thousand billion dollars ago- the government does not have a problem, we have a problem. Housing is there and poverty is not, it's obvious. Can't you see that? What's wrong with you? Have you checked your glasses lately? Killings, debt, chaos, violence, devastation, dictatorship - all of those are perception problems. Alas, we have been fooled by counter-revolutionary propaganda. Our ears don't hear; our eyes don't see; our minds don't accept the truth: Venezuela is a paradise - like Cuba. Just close your lying eyes and see the truth! ############################################# MIAMI, FLORIDA {05-14-2010} THOSE WHO CONDEMN CASTRO TODAY AND KNOW NOTHING ABOUT HIS PAST EDITORIAL, DIARIO LAS AMERICAS SO MUCH TIME HAS GONE BY SINCE THE INCEPTION OF THE OPPROBRIOUS TOTALITARIAN MARXIST-LENINIST TYRANNY OF FIDEL CASTRO that today there are many who issue opinions about it, criticizing or condemning it, but without knowing the terrible aspects of the first decades of that tyranny that began with spectacular firing squads, mass imprisonments, and plundering of private property. In other words, because they do not know these aspects of the beginning of the tyranny, they condemn what is happening now as something more or less criminal, reprehensible, but recent. Thus, it is necessary to show the new generations, or remind the previous generations, how this Calvary began with so much unjustifiable tolerance from the free world, even though there were criticism and condemnations that did not match the magnitude of the crimes perpetrated by the Fidel Castro tyranny. No one should think that already enough has been said and that anyone today has to be aware of what that tyranny was at the beginning. From the very first moment, and also many years before, Fidel Castro has been engaged in acts of violence from a very young age, including his university years. In the mountains of the Sierra Maestra things worked as under a government with characteristics that totally violated human rights. Executions took place there, even before Castro established his tyranny mercilessly in Havana. There are individuals who have forgotten what Castro was in his first stages or who did not know him in his true and terrible dimension. However this might be, the truth is that there is some ignorance regarding the tremendous scope of this tyranny that has been in power more than fifty-one years violating every norm of human rights and of democratic institutions. It is important and more than important necessary that the new generations learn in its terrible dimension everything about these fifty-one years of Castro’s tyranny, beginning with that blood bath, so reprehensible and inhumane, of the executions by firing squad. The mission of those executions was not only to end the life of an adversary, but also to sow terror among the population that might express itself in favor of freedom and enemy of the Castro tyranny. ############################################### MIAMI, FLORIDA {05-07-2010} IRAN AND VENEZUELA, A THREAT AGAINST WORLD PEACE EDITORIAL, DIARIO LAS AMERICAS THE CLEARLY SUBVERSIVE TIES OF THE GOVERNMENT OF IRAN WITH OTHER GOVERNMENTS AROUND THE WORLD AND, PARTICULARLY, IN THE WESTERN HEMISPHERE, constitute a growing threat against world peace. Venezuela has the dubious honor of being the base of operations in recent years for the anti-Western, anti-democratic tyranny of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The fact that religious leaders, known as ayatollahs, have a fundamental influence, almost absolute, in Iran, does not mean that the so-called President Ahnmadinejad does not have a growing participation in the subversive mission of Iran against the free world. When speaking about this topic it should be borne in mind that an Iranian alliance with Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chávez, is not to be seen with indifference, far from it. This alliance joins two aggressors that have made a weapon out of verbal violence that at any moment can turn into a physical aggression of vast proportions that might affect international peace. These are two elements that, individually, are dangerous. Naturally, when they coordinate their political and military goals, the danger is immensely greater. These elements are not only two governments, but two personalities with extremely dangerous characteristics. And this is independent from the fact that the ayatollahs have great influence, because they know how to coordinate that influence with the so-called president of Iran. It was unfortunate indeed, that the American government, presided at the time by Jimmy Carter, in one way or another might have encouraged the toppling of the Shah of Iran, Mohammed Reza Shah Pahlavi, who was an ally of the United States. Iran is not only a government that is an enemy of the United States of America, but a government that possesses enormous resources for an international conspiracy of vast proportions without any respect whatsoever for traditional norms on behalf of peace. Basically, Iran is developing a nuclear program in defiance of the world’s public opinion expressed at the United Nations and in individual statements made by important governments of the Western world. An Iran with nuclear capacity would disrupt the balance of power in the Middle East with serious effects world-wide. ############################################### WASHINGTON, D.C. {05-06-2010 FEAR OF THE 'ENEMY WITHIN' MARK MARDELL // BBC NEWS THE FEAR OF THE "ENEMY WITHIN" IS AS OLD AS HISTORY, but it is what adds a frisson of fear to the arrest of Faisal Shahzad in connection with the Times Square bomb plot. He was born in Pakistan and spent five months there recently, but last year became an American citizen. Of course, in any country, in any city, there would be a sense of shock if a potential car bomb, however bungled and amateurish, was found in a major city. But in America, in New York, the alarm is greater, because of 9/11 and because of the determination after that murderous assault that the United States would never again be attacked on its own soil. Those of us who have lived with IRA bombs in the background to our daily lives know that that can be an aspiration, but not a promise any politician can keep. Particularly if the suspected enemy is a fellow citizen. President Barack Obama has said that Americans should not live in fear, or be cowed. So far, there have been none of the political mutterings that followed Fort Hood and the underpants incident (or at least I haven't spotted them) and so maybe it is only a matter of time before the point-scoring starts up again. Or maybe the US is learning that with all the vigilance, the best intelligence, the tightest security, you can never eliminate all risk, and that the unwitting allies of terrorists are those who want America to be terrified. ##########################################

Implications of ending the Cuba travel ban Jaime Suchlicki & Cuba's prisoner release no sign of new era Andres Oppenheimer & Anna Chapman's ex-husband: Her Dad was a KGB agent Lauren Frayer & Relative quiet in the region is only temporary Jorge Castaneda & Why lift the travel ban to Cuba now  Mary Anastaszia O'Grady & The Human Rights Council is a tragic joke  Frida Ghitis

MIAMI, FLORIDA {07-21-2010} IMPLICATIONS OF ENDING THE CUBA TRAVEL BAN JAIME SUCHLICKI THE RECENT RELEASE OF POLITICAL PRISONERS IN CUBA IS AN OBVIOUS MANEUVER BY THE CASTRO REGIME TO INFLUENCE THE U.S. CONGRESS INTO EASING THE EMBARGO AND ENDING THE TRAVEL BAN. “Give little and get a lot” has been the policy of the Castro brothers for the past half a century. By releasing a small fraction of Cuba’s political prisoners, they are also hoping to weaken the Europeans’ common position toward Cuba and reward Spain’s fruitless four year effort to influence the Cuban government. The use of the Catholic Church in the island as the negotiating vehicle for the release of political prisoners is an attempt to repay the Vatican for its criticism of the U.S. embargo. The Cuban Catholic Church represents no threat to the Castro regime and is desperately seeking space in a society increasingly influenced by African cults and protestant groups. The small and weak Cuban Catholic Church is not comparable to the Polish Catholic Church of the 1980s that defied General Jaruzelski. General Raul Castro’s recent actions are not the beginning of a major opening in Cuba. This calculated, tactical move weakens the internal opposition by sending potential leaders and their families into exile; ends the various hunger strikes that have shocked international public opinion and offers a small olive branch to the U.S. and the Europeans. The U.S. should respond with very small concessions, if any at all. Lifting the ban for U.S. tourists to travel to Cuba would be a major concession totally out of proportion to Cuba’s gesture. If the U.S. were to lift the travel ban without major changes in the island, there would be significant implications. Money from American tourists would flow into businesses owned by the Castro government thus strengthening state enterprises. The tourist industry is controlled by the military and General Raul Castro, Fidel’s brother. American tourists will have limited contact with Cubans. Most Cuban resorts are built in isolated areas, are off limits to the average Cuban, and are controlled by Cuba’s efficient security apparatus. Most Americans don’t speak Spanish, have but limited contact with ordinary Cubans, and are not interested in visiting the island to subvert its regime. Law 88 enacted in 1999 prohibits Cubans from receiving publications from tourists. Penalties include jail terms. While providing the Castro government with much needed dollars, the economic impact of tourism on the Cuban population would be limited. Dollars will trickle down to the Cuban poor in only small quantities, while state and foreign enterprises will benefit most. Tourist dollars would be spent on products, i.e., rum, tobacco, etc., produced by state enterprises, and tourists would stay in hotels owned partially or wholly by the Cuban government. The principal airline shuffling tourists around the island, Gaviota, is owned and operated by the Cuban military. The assumption that the Cuban leadership would allow U.S. tourists or businesses to subvert the revolution and influence internal developments is at best naïve. As occurred in the mid-1990s, an infusion of American tourist dollars will provide the regime with a further disincentive to adopt deeper economic reforms. Cuba’s limited economic reforms were enacted in the early 1990s, when the island’s economic contraction was at its worst. Once the economy began to stabilize by 1996 as a result of foreign tourism and investments, and exile remittances, the earlier reforms were halted or rescinded by Castro. Lifting the travel ban without major concessions from Cuba would send the wrong message “to the enemies of the United States”: that a foreign leader can seize U.S. properties without compensation; allow the use of his territory for the introduction of nuclear missiles aimed at the United Sates; espouse terrorism and anti-U.S. causes throughout the world; and eventually the United States will “forget and forgive,” and reward him with tourism, investments and economic aid. Since the Ford/Carter era, U.S. policy toward Latin America has emphasized democracy, human rights and constitutional government. Under President Reagan the U.S. intervened in Grenada, under President Bush, Sr. the U.S. intervened in Panama and under President Clinton the U.S. landed marines in Haiti, all to restore democracy to those countries. The U.S. has prevented military coups in the region and supported the will of the people in free elections. While the U.S. policy has not been uniformly applied throughout the world, it is U.S. policy in the region. Cuba is part of Latin America. A normalization of relations with a military dictatorship in Cuba will send the wrong message to the rest of the continent. Once American tourists begin to visit Cuba, Castro would restrict travel by Cuban-Americans. For the Castro regime, Cuban-Americans represent a far more subversive group because of their ability to speak to friends and relatives on the island, and to influence their views on the Castro regime and on the United States. Indeed, the return of Cuban exiles in 1979-80 precipitated the mass exodus of Cubans from Mariel in 1980. A large influx of American tourists into Cuba would have a dislocating effect on the economies of smaller Caribbean islands such as Jamaica, the Dominican Republic, the Bahamas, Puerto Rico, and even Florida, highly dependent on tourism for their well being. Careful planning must take place, lest we create significant hardships and social problems in these countries. Since tourism would become a two-way affair, with Cubans visiting the United States in great numbers, it is likely that many would stay in the United States as illegal immigrants, complicating another thorny issue in American domestic politics. If the travel ban is lifted unilaterally now by the U.S., what will the U.S. government have to negotiate with a future regime in Cuba and to encourage changes in the island? Lifting the ban could be an important bargaining chip with a future regime willing to provide concessions in the area of political and economic freedoms. The travel ban and the embargo should be lifted as a result of negotiations between the U.S. and a Cuban government willing to provide meaningful and irreversible political and economic concessions or when there is a democratic government in place in the island. ####################################################################################################### MIAMI, FLORIDA {07-14-2010} CUBA'S PRISONER RELEASE NO SIGN OF NEW ERA ANDRES OPPENHEIMER CUBA'S ANNOUNCEMENT THAT IT WILL FREE 52 POLITICAL PRISONERS OVER THE NEXT FOUR MONTHS IS A WELCOME DEVELOPMENT, but Spain's Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos' claim that this opens a ``new phase in Cuba'' is ludicrous. After his meeting with Cuba's dictator Gen. Raúl Castro and Roman Catholic Church Cardinal Jaime Ortega in Havana, an ecstatic Moratinos hailed the news of the imminent release of the first five imprisoned dissidents as a watershed in Cuba's recent history. “This opens a new phase in Cuba,'' Moratinos told reporters. He added that ``there is no longer any reason to maintain the (European Union's) Common Position'' on Cuba, referring to the 1996 European agreement to link any improvement in ties with Cuba to progress on democracy and human rights on the island. But most moderate Cuba-watchers list many reasons why Moratinos' claim was a wild exaggeration. First, Cuba has a long history of using political prisoners as a bargaining chip, releasing a handful of prisoners in exchange for economic or diplomatic concessions, and later rounding up the next batch. Rev. Jesse Jackson obtained the release of 26 political prisoners in 1984, Bill Richardson got three dissidents out of jail in 1996, Jimmy Carter's visit in 2002 led to the freedom of one prisoner, and Pope John Paul II visit to Cuba resulted in the release of 80 jailed dissidents. Second, even if Cuba keeps its word and releases the 52 dissidents in an effort to get the European investments it desperately needs, that would only be less than a third of the island's political prisoners. According to the Havana-based nonauthorized Cuban Commission for Human Rights, there are 167 prisoners of conscience on the island. But international human rights groups believe there are many more, because Cuba does not allow United Nations inspectors to visit Cuban prisons to see who is behind bars, and for what reasons. Third, we still don't know whether this will be a prisoners' release, or a forced deportation. In the past, Cuba has tended to release political prisoners who agree to go into exile. A Roman Catholic Church statement announcing the prisoners' release last week said they ``will be able'' to leave the country, but did not specify what will happen with those who want to stay. Fourth, and most important, the Cuban regime is not even talking about modifying articles 72 and 73 of its criminal code, an Orwellian legislation that allows it to put people behind bars before they committed a crime on the mere suspicion that they may commit one in the future. Nor is the regime ready to consider changing its law 88, which allows it to imprison people for writing anything that can be interpreted as critical of the government, or its various laws banning freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, freedom to travel within the country or abroad, independent unions, and political parties. When I asked José Miguel Vivanco, head of the Human Rights Watch advocacy group's Americas department, whether Cuba's latest announcement amounts to a ``new phase'' in Cuba, he said: ``We are obviously very happy for the prisoners and their families, but I am not going to congratulate a government for imprisoning people that shouldn't have been imprisoned in the first place.'' Vivanco, a critic of the Cuban regime who at the same time opposes the U.S. embargo on the island, added that ``If Cuba's norms don't change, nothing will change.'' My opinion: I agree. Instead of following Moratinos' recommendation, the European Union should be a little imaginative, and tell Cuba: ``We applaud your move, and we are ready to lift our Common Position, but you must take a few minimal steps to show that you are ready to start abiding by United Nations-sanctioned fundamental rights.'' ``Don't panic, we are not talking about the big things, such as free elections, or a multiparty system, like the U.S. laws demand,'' the Europeans could say. ``We are just asking for small things, such as allowing all Cubans uncensored access to the Internet, freedom to meet with whomever they want, or allowing dissidents to write and publish on the island.'' Of course, the Cuban regime will not go along because it knows that it would not survive if Cuba ceases to be a police state. But it would put Cuba's dictatorship on the spot, and help put the latest headlines about the prisoners' release in proper perspective. ###################################################################################################### WASHINGTON, D.C. {07-02-2010} ANNA CHAPMAN'S EX-HUSBAND: HER DAD WAS A KGB AGENT LAUREN FRAYER // AOL.NEWS FOR FLAME-HAIRED RUSSIAN SPY SUSPECT ANNA CHAPMAN, espionage may run in the family. The father of the 28-year-old divorcee, whose sultry Facebook self-portraits have made her the glamorous public face of an alleged deep-cover spy ring embedded in the U.S., was reportedly a KGB agent under the Soviet Union. That's according to her ex-husband, a Brit, who also has been quoted as saying Chapman suffered a mid-life crisis in her 20s, developing an obsession with money and mysterious Russian friends that ultimately led to the breakup of her marriage. Chapman was arrested in New York last weekend, charged with conspiracy to act as an agent of a foreign government. She was denied bail at a hearing Monday where prosecutors called her a highly trained "Russian agent" and "practiced deceiver." Anna Chapman is one of 11 suspects accused of being part of a Russian spy ring in the U.S. Even the U.S. Marines are gazing at Chapman's coy photos, but what's surprising is that they're doing it as part of their training. The Washington Post reports U.S. security officers are showing Chapman's mug to Marines as part of a cautionary tale about beautiful women who might be spies. "Her pictures are now part of our [counterintelligence] awareness briefs," an unidentified security officer told the Post. "So that when we tell the youngsters to beware of the beauties in foreign countries, we're not just blowing smoke." Chapman's British ex-husband, Alex, tells London's Daily Telegraph that his wife's personality changed overnight after she began having "secretive" meetings with Russian friends, and became obsessed with money and moving to America. "There was such a dramatic change in the way she thought and the way she went about things, I felt I hardly knew her any more," said Chapman, who married his wife five months after meeting her at a London nightclub. "It was like someone having a midlife crisis, but in their 20s." He also said he told all this to British intelligence agents who visited him Wednesday, seeking information about his ex-wife. Chapman said his wife, whom he divorced four years ago, confided in him that her father, Vasily Kushchenko, had been a KGB agent. "Her dad was scary. He was very concerned about which direction my life was going, how I was going to 'earn my money.' Anna told me he worked as a diplomat for the Russian government," Chapman was quoted as saying. "It was only much later that she told me he had been a KGB agent." Top executives and bankers in London, for whom Anna Chapman worked when she lived there, also described how even as a 23-year-old, the Russian beauty managed to penetrate exclusive business circles, rubbing shoulders with clients in the most elite London clubs. The FBI alleges that Chapman was on a deep-cover spy mission to penetrate U.S. financial and policy-making circles and glean insider information to funnel back to Moscow. One such executive, Wayne Sharpe, founder of the London trading firm Bartercard, told The Guardian newspaper that Chapman was a regular at the exclusive Annabel's nightclub, and that she was frequently at the side of Nicholas Camilleri, chief executive of a top hedge fund, Navigator Asset Management Advisers. "The business people [in attendance] were the highest lot. ... She was in that set well," Sharpe said. "It was always hard to determine what she did in [Camilleri's] business, but she was very intelligent, attractive, personable and very articulate in English. She certainly was a great networker," he was quoted as saying. "She constantly ingratiated herself with all of the high-end businessmen." Camilleri told the newspaper he finds it difficult to picture Chapman as a spy. "She was a green, wet-behind-the-ears type of girl," he said. "She came across as having none of those sorts of spying-type aspirations, so I can't see how she developed them later." He confirmed that the young Russian had worked for him as a personal assistant. But on Chapman's LinkedIn profile, she claims to have been "Head of IPO" for Camilleri's company, Navigator. She also lists experience as an investment banker with Barclay's Bank in London. But Business Insider and several other financial news outlets checked those claims with the companies, and found that Chapman worked instead in Barclay's retail sales division, and never as a banker herself. #################################################################################################### MEXICO CITY, MEXICO {06-31-2010} RELATIVE QUIET IN THE REGION IS ONLY TEMPORARY JORGE CASTANEDA THE PERPETUAL SEESAW IN LATIN AMERICAN GEO-POLITICS IS MORE VIBRANT THAN EVER. The so-called ``Americas-1'' countries -- those that are either neutral in the confrontation between the United States and Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez (and Cuba), or openly opposed to the so-called ``Bolivarian'' governments of Bolivia, Cuba, Ecuador, Nicaragua, and Venezuela -- are slowly advancing. The ``Americas-2'' radical left is receding moderately, yet it can still maintain its positions and defeat any attempts to roll back its influence. But the relative quiet in the ongoing ideological, political and diplomatic conflict between the two groups of countries is only temporary. If anything, it is the calm before an approaching storm. The tide has turned in part because voters in recent elections seem to have shifted from the center left to the center right, or at least re-confirmed their more conservative convictions. In Chile, the businessman and center-right democrat Sebastián Piñera put an end to more than 20 years of center-left Concertación rule. But his domestic policies, constrained by the recent severe earthquake and his own small mandate, differ only slightly from those of his predecessors, at least for now. The main change is in foreign policy, where, at least nominally, Piñera has clearly transferred Chile from one camp to another. In Colombia, the situation is similar. The likely winner in the June 26 runoff election, Juan Manuel Santos, will pursue most of outgoing president Alvaro Uribe's domestic policies, but might change course slightly in foreign affairs. He will probably be more aggressive in responding to neighboring Venezuela's challenges, both on the border and throughout the region. Uribe has tended to walk back from the brink every time Chávez has provoked Colombia, and has never wanted to go after FARC guerrilla sanctuaries in Venezuela. Santos may be less willing to avoid confrontation, if only because the personal antipathy between the two leaders is immense. He will probably be more forceful at regional meetings in responding to Chávez, believing that Venezuelan support for the FARC guerrillas is too blatant to be overlooked, and that it is wiser to confront him sooner rather than later. Meanwhile, Nicaragua is too small and poor to represent a threat to anyone, but always generates problems beyond its size. President Daniel Ortega is seeking to remain in office more or less perpetually, and seems ready to perpetrate every type of stratagem, from electoral fraud to dissolving Congress and the judiciary, in order to achieve his aims. Sooner or later, this will constitute a major challenge to the hemispheric community. Is it willing to look the other way while a small nation destroys its democracy, violates human rights, and breaches its international covenants? If so, that hemispheric community will prove to be remarkably inconsistent, given a second conundrum: Honduras. Indeed, the Organization of American States suspended Honduras last year because of the coup d'état that deposed and deported then-President Manuel Zelaya. Chávez and even the U.S. went as far as imposing economic sanctions on the interim government in view of the interruption of democratic rule. As recently as June 7, the Bolivarian countries were able to block Honduras' reinstatement into the OAS, despite the essentially free and fair elections that were held there last November. So, which is it going to be? Disregard the imminent democratic implosion of Nicaragua, and the absence of any type of democracy in Cuba? Or apply the same standard to Nicaragua, Cuba and Venezuela that has been applied to Honduras? Unfortunately, the only two countries that could play a role in reforming the inter-American system and defusing the growing tensions between Colombia and Venezuela will, for different reasons, remain passive. Mexico is consumed by its failed drug war, which has cost more than 25,000 lives and, according to just-published U.S. government statistics, has deterred Colombian cocaine traffickers, but has fostered dramatic increases in Mexican production of heroin, marijuana and methamphetamines. Mexican President Felipe Calderón has never wanted to entangle himself in Latin American disputes and ideological confrontations. As his term winds down (the next presidential elections are two years away), he will be even less inclined to involve Mexico in foreign adventures. Brazil is similarly paralyzed, partly because of its presidential election campaign, which is currently in full swing and will conclude only at the end of the year, and partly because of recent diplomatic setbacks. President Luíz Inácio Lula da Silva has sought to catapult his country onto the world stage as an emerging power, but he has not fared well. His chief goal -- obtaining a permanent seat for Brazil on the U.N. Security Council -- is more distant than ever, and his more modest aims have not met with success. Lula's attempt, together with Turkey, to broker a deal between Iran and the West failed when the U.S. convinced Russia and China, along with countries such as Mexico, to approve a new round of U.N. sanctions against Iran. Brazil ended up alone with Turkey voting against the sanctions, and without anything to show for its mediating efforts. Brazil has always been reluctant to involve itself in its neighbors' domestic conflicts. Now that it ventured to the other side of the world and fared poorly, it is unlikely to want to pursue other futile projects, such as reforming the OAS, deterring further confrontation between Venezuela and Colombia, or ensuring free and fair elections in Nicaragua. So, while Latin America may continue to weather the global economic storm rather well, the region's diplomatic peace and quiet is deceptive. Any number of rising tempests could end it. Jorge G. Castañeda, former foreign minister of Mexico (2000-2003), is a Global Distinguished Professor of Politics and Latin American Studies at New York University. ####################################################################################################### WASHINGTON, D.C. {06-30-2010} WHY LIFT THE TRAVEL BAN TO CUBA NOW? MARY ANASTASIA O'GRADY // WALL STREET JOURNAL EDITORIAL BOARD WAVES OF CANADIAN, EUROPEAN AND LATIN AMERICAN VISITORS HAVEN'T CHANGED A THING. Today marks the one-year anniversary of the Honduran Supreme Court's decision to order the arrest of Manuel Zelaya, a power-hungry Hugo Chávez acolyte who tried to remain president for life. It's something to celebrate: Thanks to the bravery of the court and the Congress, which voted to remove him from office, democracy was saved. Yet a nagging question remains: Why were the Obama administration and key congressional Democrats obsessed, for seven months, with trying to force Honduras to take Mr. Zelaya back? Why did the U.S. pull visas, deny aid, and lead an international campaign to isolate the tiny Central American democracy? To paraphrase many Americans who wrote to me during the stand-off: "Whose side are these guys on anyway?" Such doubts about the motivations of the party in power in Washington will be hard to ignore this week as the Democrats try to put U.S. Cuba policy back on the legislative agenda. Specifically, Minnesota Democrat Collin Peterson will try to pass a bill in the House Agriculture Committee that would lift the U.S. ban on travel to Cuba without any human-rights concession from Castro. The end of the Cuba travel ban would mean a bonanza in tourism to the island at a time when Fidel and Raúl are in desperate need of new revenue. But the push to lift the ban has anti-Castro supporters too. They argue that it is isolation that preserves the dictatorship and that a barrage of gringo tourists would weaken the dictatorship. Proponents of the ban point out that a wave of European, Canadian and Latin American visitors since the mid-1990s hasn't changed a thing. They worry that American sun-seekers will only prop up a dictatorship that is most famous for slave labor, jailing dissidents and sowing revolution in the hemisphere. With so much risk involved, any policy change will depend heavily on being able to trust the motives of U.S. leaders. Recall that it was Nixon who went to China. That's why efforts to change policy that are being led by the current crop of Democrats make so many Americans uneasy. After all, if Mr. Peterson wants to boost commerce why not push for passage of the Colombia free trade agreement? Why is he so interested in doing business with a dictator? The dictatorship is hard up for hard currency. The regime now relies heavily on such measures as sending Cuban doctors to Venezuela in exchange for marked-down oil. But according to a recent Associated Press story, "Cuba's foreign trade plunged by more than a third in 2009," perhaps because Caracas, running out of money itself, is no longer a reliable sugar daddy. A sharp drop in nickel prices hasn't helped, and neither did three hurricanes in 2008, which devastated housing. Cuba owes sovereign lenders billions of dollars, according to the Institute for Cuban and Cuban-American Studies at the University of Miami, and according to a June 23 Reuters report, it is so cash-strapped that it had "froze[n] up to $1 billion in the accounts of 600 foreign suppliers by the start of 2009." Now there is a serious food shortage. This month the independent media in Cuba reported that a scarcity of rice had the government so worried about civil unrest that it had to send police to accompany deliveries to shops. This has the regime scrambling. Several sources reported to me that the Roman Catholic cardinal from Havana, Jaime Ortega, was on a secretive trip to Washington last week to lobby for an end to the travel ban. One of his meetings was rumored to be with the State Department's assistant secretary for Western Hemisphere Affairs, Arturo Valenzuela. The State Department declined to tell me if this was true or not. Other sources said that the cardinal reached out to members of Congress, including House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Howard Berman and his staffer Peter Quilter. I queried Mr. Berman's office but got no reply. Regular readers of this column know Mr. Quilter's politics. As I reported in April, he traveled with Sen. John Kerry's staffer Fulton Armstrong to Tegucigalpa to warn Hondurans who backed the removal of Mr. Zelaya that they are still in the doghouse. While Castro relies on the embargo to explain Cuban poverty, he does, it seems, badly need gringo tourism, which he could control. And if Cardinal Ortega has decided to intervene on behalf of the regime's needs, it would not be surprising. He has long been viewed by human-rights advocates as more a tool of the regime than a champion of the oppressed. A kinder assessment of the cardinal suggests that he's trying to boost the Church's power on the island. In either case, acting as an emissary to Washington right now would make sense. But for those interested in Cuban freedom it is bizarre. For the first time in history the Castros are cornered. Yet rather then negotiate from a position of strength, Democrats seem to want to give relief to the dictatorship. ###################################################################################################### WASHINGTON, D.C. {06-26-2010} THE HUMAN RIGHTS COUNCIL IS A TRAGIC JOKE FRIDA GHITIS WE SHOULD HONOR BP FOR PROTECTING THE ENVIRONMENT. While we're at it, we can name Jack the Ripper to the Commission for the Protection of Women, and make Philip Morris a special advisor on pulmonary health. This would all make perfect sense if we followed the example of United Nations Human Rights Council, one of the most astonishing organizations the world has devised under the UN umbrella. The Council operates as a parody of itself, as if it had been designed by a team of comedians writing theater of the absurd. The reality, however, is that the UNHRC is a disaster that requires some decisive action by countries that truly value human rights, especially the US. Today's UNHRC stands as one of the greatest obstacles impeding the protection of human rights by the international community. The organization makes a mockery of the suffering of the victims of human-rights abuses, glorifying their tormentors and depriving victims of a desperately needed protective voice. The obscenely dysfunctional UNHRC has removed from the arsenal of civilization a critically needed tool against regimes that brutalize their people. And now, adding to its dazzling performance in the field of human rights, the Council is working its magic against freedom of the press. The question now is what does the Obama administration -- and the world's democratic nations -- plan to do about this suppurating sore on the body of the world's foremost international organization? Where to begin to explain the outrages? Let's look at the Council's Advisory Committee: The group is chaired by Halima Warzazi of Morocco, whose history-making contribution to human rights came when Saddam Hussein used poison gas against Iraq's Kurds in 1988. Warzazi proudly blocked the U.N.'s move to condemn the massacre. The vice-chair of the Committee is the always impressive Swiss diplomat Jean Ziegler, who helped Libya's despot Moammar Qaddafi create the charmingly named ``al-Qaddafi International Prize for Human Rights,'' and became its first winner. Ziegler who, like the rest of the Council, is obsessed with Israel's sins to the exclusion of any other problem on Earth, has shared the Qaddafi prize honor with Fidel Castro, Louis Farrakhan, Hugo Chávez and other luminaries of freedom. The latest ``expert adviser'' is Nicaragua's Miguel D'Escoto Brockman, admirer of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and defender of Omar al-Bashir, the Sudanese president indicted by the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity. The Council succeeded the disgraceful U.N. Commission on Human Rights in 2006. CHR was such an embarrassment that it had to be disbanded and replaced. But the new effort is even more of a disaster. The Council, where the 56-member Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) effectively dominates the proceedings, now threatens freedom of speech under the guise of protecting religion from defamation. The OIC pushed through a resolution creating a watchdog to prevent perceived slights in the media against religion, such as the cartoons of Mohammed printed in Danish newspapers. U.N. Watch, which keeps an eye on the United Nations to make sure it abides by its own principles, calls this an attempt ``to turn an international shield for religious freedom into a sword for state censorship.'' The Obama administration ended a Bush-era boycott of the UNHRC, promising to use its presence on the Council to pressure the organization to do its job. But that has not happened. According to U.N. Watch's Hillel Neuer, since returning to the Council, the United States has been a disappointment. U.S. participation is not wrong, Neuer argues, ``if it fights vigorously and uses the council to put a spotlight on abusers.'' But it has not done that. Instead, Washington has used the Council as another venue for diplomatic engagement, a policy that has yielded minimal benefits. Packed with representatives of dictatorships, the UNHRC, says Neuer, is little more than a ``mutual praise society.'' It has stopped monitoring abuses in places like the Congo and Cuba. And, while Iran hangs people in the street, Libya imprisons and tortures dissidents and massacres continue unpunished in other corners of the world, the UNHRC spends almost all of its time condemning Israel. The U.N. Human Rights Council's behavior is so offensive that it might qualify for that Qaddafi human-rights prize. It's time for the United States to make its presence useful there or else lead democratic countries out of the organization. ######################################################################################################

 

Will the United States of America hand Chavez a license to kill? Roger F. Noriega & Expert: Obama slowly learning to deal with Cuba Jim Meyers & Stop the hypocrisy about Israel David Frum & The Korean War never ended Charles Armstrong & Cuba to transfer political prisoners Juan O. Tamayo  & Chavez foes seek unity through election primaries Christopher Toothaker

WASHINGTON, D.C. {07-26-2010} WILL THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA HAND CHAVEZ A LICENSE TO KILL? ROGER F. NORIEGA: VENEZUELAN DICTATOR HUGO CHAVEZ' RECORD OF PROVIDING MONEY, arms, political support, and, yes, safe haven to groups waging a murderous war against a sovereign state openly violates international law. The proxy war being waged by Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez against neighboring Colombia was denounced formally at the Organization of American States (OAS) this week, prompting Chavez to break diplomatic relations with Bogota. By challenging the OAS to investigate the presence of narco-guerrilla camps in Venezuela, outgoing Colombian President Alvaro Uribe has assured that Chavez' support for terrorism can no longer be ignored by the international community. Narrating freshly captured videotapes for an audience of regional diplomats and media at the OAS headquarters in Washington, D.C., on July 22, Colombian Ambassador Luis Alfonso Hoyos presented compelling evidence of 39 encampments of the Colombian Revolutionary Armed Forces (FARC) and the National Liberation Army ensconced in the Venezuelan countryside. (Both of these armed groups have been designated foreign terrorist organizations by the United States and other governments, and both have been deeply involved in cocaine smuggling.) Hoyos described recent attacks mounted by guerrillas operating from those clandestine camps, and he showed captured images of notorious FARC kingpin Luciano Marin Arango, alias "Ivan Marquez," lounging comfortably in Venezuela. The Colombian diplomat said that eyewitness testimony as well as photos and videos in the possession of two FARC leaders killed recently by Colombian security forces traced them back to guerrilla bases in Venezuela. Some videotaped images played during the 90-minute presentation denoted the geographic location, date, and time of the scenes, and Hoyos revealed commercial satellite images that show simple but well-established structures at those same remote coordinates. The Colombian representative said that the Venezuelan government, at the very least, has failed to deny safe haven to these illegal groups, which have perpetrated military operations, terrorist bombings, kidnappings, and murders against Colombian citizens and security forces. After describing the substantial progress that Colombians have made to reduce criminality, improve quality of life, and defeat these illegal guerrilla groups, Hoyos exclaimed, "We will not go back to that nightmare!" Hoyos formally asked the Venezuelan government to comply with its international obligations to "destroy" the camps and to prosecute the terrorists. He also called on the OAS to form an international commission to urgently inspect the sites in Venezuela before they can be dismantled. And he pledged Colombian cooperation to bring terrorists to justice. Venezuelan Ambassador Roy Chaderton responded to the accusations with equal parts scorn and sarcasm -- referring repeatedly to "trick photographs" and even saying that he recognized the distinct color of the leaves and sand in several images as Colombian rather than Venezuelan. He insisted that Colombia's civil strife is a product of that country's decades-old class struggle, not international intervention. Chaderton suggested that Uribe's "eleventh hour" denunciations were a result of his frustration at failing to vanquish the leftist guerrillas or to oust his rival, Chavez. Remarkably, although the career Venezuelan diplomat spoke for 50 minutes, he did not deny that Venezuela is harboring terrorists in violation of international law. Although Venezuela clearly hopes to stonewall any inquiry, several Latin American delegations offered to mediate the dispute. Chavez' decision to break relations may strengthen Colombia's argument for a multilateral response, because the two governments can hardly be expected to resolve matters without outside help. Peru's ambassador and OAS veteran Hugo de Zela cited one of the Organization's "essential" mandates to help resolve problems that arise among the member states. Mexico's representative noted that nations cannot duck the "shared responsibility" of fighting terrorism and narco-trafficking. US Ambassador Carmen Lomellin read a perfunctory statement that -- far from supporting our Colombian allies as the aggrieved party -- awkwardly encouraged the feuding parties "to seek acceptable solutions" and suggested no role for the OAS. Ironically, one of the governments that Uribe's diplomatic gambit puts on the spot is that of his own successor, Juan Manuel Santos, who takes office on August 7. Some observers say that Uribe is miffed at Santos's rush to show his independence by making appointments and taking initiatives that benefit Uribe's bitterest rivals. Another view is that Uribe wanted to ensure that his successor could not seek accommodations with the dangerous Chavez. One thing is clear: Chavez' record of providing money, arms, political support, and, yes, safe haven to groups waging a murderous war against a sovereign state openly violates international law. If the United States and our neighbors fail to muster a meaningful response to Colombia's latest evidence and formal appeal for help, they will share the blame for giving Chavez' bandit regime a license to kill. Roger F. Noriega was ambassador to the Organization of American States from 2001 to 2003 and assistant secretary of State from 2003 to 2005. He is a visiting fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and managing director of Vision Americas LLC, which represents US and foreign clients. ###################################################################################################### MIAMI, FLORIDA 06-10-2010} EXPERT: OBAMA SLOWLY LEARNING TO DEAL WITH CUBA JIM MEYERS // NEWSMAX THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION IS LEARNING THAT THE CASTRO REGIME IN CUBA IS NOT A “RATIONAL” OR “TRUSTWORTHY” PARTNER TO DEAL WITH, Mauricio Claver-Carone, a leading expert on American-Cuban relations, tells Newsmax. Carone also says the pro-democracy movement in Cuba is a “viable alternative” to the Castro regime, and asserts that the Cubans “essentially control” Hugo Chavez’s government in Venezuela. Carone is the Executive Director of Cuba Democracy Public Advocacy, which lobbies against lifting the U.S. trade embargo against Cuba, and is on the board of directors of the U.S.-Cuba Democracy PAC. He is also a former adviser at the U.S. Treasury Department. President Obama has offered to seek a “new beginning” in relations with Cuba, and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said last year that the old U.S. policy regarding the island nation had failed. In an exclusive interview with Newsmax.TV, Carone was asked for his take on the Obama administration’s policy toward Cuba. “I think the administration has been learning as it has been going along,” he says. “Obama has been learning about the intransigence of this regime and the fact that it is really not a reliable or rational partner to deal with. “I don’t criticize their effort to try to do something different and send a signal that we’re willing to talk, to engage. The problem is, with regimes like Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Burma, these aren’t rational partners. These are people that have very deep anti-American views and therefore are not trustworthy partners. “An example of how [the administration] has been learning: During the announcement on changing the regulations on family visits and remittances [to Cuba], they said we want to have unlimited remittances. Then they learned as the process went along that the Castro regime would take 30 to 40 percent of every dollar that entered the island. “A couple of days later the president came out and said one thing the regime could do to show good will would be to eliminate this 30 percent they take off the top. Well, they haven’t done that yet.” If the Cuban communist regime is beginning to loosen its tight control of the country, it is not in response to U.S. policy but a reaction to a growing anti-government movement in Cuba, Carone says. “This is an entrenched military dictatorship. But what is happening in Cuba is that there is a domestic pro-democracy movement, a domestic opposition movement which increasingly is more active, more outspoken. “The movement is a viable alternative, and it’s out there on a daily basis challenging the regime. That basically is what the regime is reacting to. “The Castro regime for decades has tried to put out the story that there is no viable opposition in Cuba. Opponents of U.S. policy here in the United States have taken that call and have used it as part of their advocacy and say we have to deal with the Castro regime because there is no alternative. That’s not true. There is a viable alternative.” Carone is staunchly opposed to a unilateral lifting of the trade embargo against Cuba. “U.S. policy requires that for the United States to have normal trading relations with Cuba, three things have to occur,” he tells Newsmax. “First, the unconditional release of all political prisoners. Secondly, the recognition of certain fundamental human rights, including freedom of the press, freedom of association. And third, the legalization of the opposition party. As to whether Obama will lift the embargo, Carone notes that “he cannot lift sanctions by law until those conditions are met. So he cannot unilaterally do so without Congress.” He also dismisses claims that the embargo hurts only the Cuban people. “The one barrier to the well-being of the Cuban people is that regime,” he declares. Asked about the relationship between Cuba and Hugo Chavez’s anti-American regime in Venezuela, Carone says: “What’s interesting is that all the news is focused on Chavez, Chavez being now the greatest regional menace. “Hugo Chavez didn’t spring out of nowhere. Chavez was released from jail in Venezuela after a failed coup attempt in the early 1990s. He went to Cuba and he spent years in Cuba until he returned to Venezuela and in 1998 came to power. “The Cuban government essentially controls the Venezuelan government. All the major sectors, from the military to intelligence to security, are controlled by Cuban operatives. “It’s not the other way around. It’s Cuban generals, Cuban intelligence experts, et cetera, that are essentially overseeing Hugo Chavez’s operation in Venezuela.” ###################################################################################################### NEW YORK CITY,NEW YORK {06-02-2010} STOP THE HYPOCRISY ABOUT ISRAEL ENJOY HYPOCRISY? THIS PAST WEEKEND YOU COULD GLUT THE APPETITE. DAVID FRUM, // CNN ON MONDAY, ISRAELI SHIPS STOPPED A FLOTILLA CARRYING MATERIALS THAT COULD BE USED FOR WAR, including cement that Israel maintained could be used to build bunkers, to Hamas-ruled Gaza. The crew of one boat resisted violently, triggering a firefight in which nine people were killed, most of them Turkish nationals. Turkey is protesting vigorously. But, question: Turkey is a NATO ally, an applicant to the European Union. What is it doing allowing its nationals to smuggle cement that could build bunkers? Especially when those nationals belong to a group, the Turkish IHH (Insani Yardim Vakfi) that Israel has designated a terrorist organization? The flotilla departed from Turkish-occupied northern Cyprus. Turkey's occupation of half of Cyprus is deemed illegal by the European Union and the United Nations. If the government of Turkey feels so strongly about ending disputed occupations, why does it not start with the disputed occupation it is operating itself? The flotilla followed a breathtaking Friday at the United Nations. The 189 signatories of the Nuclear Proliferation Treaty agreed on a final list of resolutions for a safer world. The nuclear threat from Iran? Unmentioned. Instead, the NPT resolution targeted -- what a surprise -- Israel. Shamefully, the Friday resolution was joined by the United States. Yes, the Obama administration issued a statement at the same time that "deplores the decision to single out Israel" and also "the failure of the resolution to mention Iran." The administration deplored -- but it signed. The Obama administration's signature marks an abrupt departure from previous U.S. policy. Since the 1960s, the United States has accepted Israel's nuclear arsenal on condition that Israel not threaten its neighbors. Israel has more than met that condition. In 1973, Egypt outright invaded Israel, in full confidence that Israel would not go nuclear so long as Egypt stopped short of attacking Israel's cities. It's important to understand that Israel (like India and Pakistan) has never signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. So Israel's nuclear force violates no commitments or pledges: unlike, say, the nuclear programs of Syria, Libya, Iraq and Iran, to name just four of the Middle Eastern countries that have been caught violating the NPT. Iran by contrast is violating the NPT. Iran is the world's leading state sponsor of terrorism. And Iranian leaders have threatened to use the nuclear weapons they are seeking to annihilate Israel. On Monday, the International Atomic Energy Agency reported that Iran has accumulated enough nuclear material for two bombs, when fully enriched. And the latest round of U.N. sanctions will do nothing to stop that bomb, because they omit the most crucial measures: • A ban on exports of gasoline to Iran (Iran now imports half its gasoline) • Measures to sever Iran's central bank from the global payments system The measures adopted by the Security Council last week are not only toothless, but they even contain a loophole legalizing the sale of Russian air defenses to Iran, the better to protect nuclear facilities from action by the United States or Israel. OK, so maybe it is not news that the U.N. system is hypocritical and useless. What is news is this: The Obama administration has broken with 40 years of precedent and has affixed its signature to a document suggesting that it is Israel's weapons -- not Iran's -- that ought to be priority No. 1 in the Middle East. And now, post-flotilla, the Obama administration stands in danger of being drawn into the attempt to open Hamas-ruled Gaza to military-capable imports, and to force Israel to engage in some kind of negotiation with Hamas. Former Ambassador to Israel Martin Indyk, who is close to Obama administration thinking, outlined in the New York Times Monday the contours of just such a deal: "The administration needs to work on a package deal in which Hamas commits to preventing attacks from, and all smuggling into, Gaza. In return, Israel would drop the blockade and allow trade in and out." It's a pretty thought. Pro-Hamas groups did not go to the trouble of organizing a flotilla of supplies that could be used for war in order to end smuggling of war material into Gaza. Nor are pro-Hamas groups seeking to ship the material into Gaza in order to thwart future attacks on Israel. Rebuilding Hamas' bunkers is not a step toward peace. But as with the Obama administration's joining the anti-Israel resolution at the United Nations on Friday, followed by after-the-fact explanations that Israel had nothing to fear, so the Obama administration is now being drawn into another anti-Israel action, again cushioned by assurances that, "This is for your own good." Monday morning, ABC'S Jake Tapper reported an unnamed administration official promising "no daylight" between the United States and Israel. But the same administration official who promised "no daylight" also told Tapper: "The president has always said that it will be much easier for Israel to make peace if it feels secure." Meaning: first we soothe you, then we squeeze you? Editor's note: David Frum writes a weekly column for CNN.com. A special assistant to President Bush in 2001-02, he is the author of six books, including "Comeback: Conservatism That Can Win Again" and is the editor of FrumForum ###################################################################################################### WASHINGTON, D.C. {05-27-2010} THE KOREAN WAR NEVER ENDED CHARLES ARMSTRONG // CNN THE KOREAN WAR BEGAN 60 YEARS AGO ON JUNE 25, 1950, and it still hasn't ended. Fighting on the Korean Peninsula may have stopped with a cease-fire in July 1953, but North and South Korea have remained in a tense state of armed truce ever since, with open warfare just a hair-trigger away. The sinking of the South Korean navy vessel Cheonan on March 26 -- which an international investigation team concluded last week to be the result of a North Korean torpedo attack -- shows how volatile the situation remains between North and South. There is a real danger of the current war of words escalating into a shooting war, which would be a catastrophe for Korea and the surrounding region. But if all sides, including the United States, pull back from the brink, this tragedy may also present an opportunity to defuse tensions with North Korea and resume talks that have been on hold for the last two years. The Cheonan disaster caused an outcry of grief and anger in South Korea. On May 24, South Korea's President Lee Myung-bak gave a forceful speech to his countrymen, asserting that South Korea would not tolerate any provocation from the North and would pursue "proactive deterrence." South Koreans, Lee vowed, "will immediately exercise our right of self-defense" if their territorial waters, airspace or territory are violated." Lee called the sinking of the Cheonan, in which 46 sailors died, a violation of the United Nations Charter and of the Korean War Armistice and said he would turn to the U.N. Security Council for international support in condemning North Korea. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has demanded North Korea face "consequences" for this attack. But North Korea denies involvement in the incident, claiming the whole investigation is a fabrication designed to undermine North-South Korean relations and ignite a war against the North. The North Koreans have said any retaliation against them for the incident would be met with a forceful and immediate response, up to and including all-out war. China has so far been neutral about the investigation's findings, calling the incident a "tragedy" but refusing to blame North Korea and calling for calm on all sides. Without China's support, no call for action against North Korea will make it through the U.N. Security Council. (China is one of the five nations that hold veto power on the Council.) China supported two rounds of U.N. sanctions against Pyongyang, after North Korea's nuclear tests in 2006 and 2009, but is unlikely to support sanctions this time. North Korea denies responsibility for the incident and China regards the evidence as inconclusive. Besides, it's hard to see what further economic or diplomatic pressure can be put on North Korea, which already faces tough previous sanctions. Contrary to common belief, North Korea is not facing internal political disarray or economic decline. Kim Jong Il appears to be fully in charge, and harvests for the last two years have been relatively good. Chinese sources estimate a substantial increase in North Korean industrial production over the last year. Whatever may have motivated the attack on the Cheonan, it was not the act of a desperate or divided regime, and the strong sanctions called for by President Lee -- even if China would agree to support and enforce them -- are not likely to get North Korea to admit responsibility for the attack or to change its behavior. On the other hand, there is a real danger of this war of words escalating into a shooting war. With well over a million Korean troops facing each other across the Demilitarized Zone separating North and South, along with 29,000 U.S. troops in the South, and North Korea now armed with nuclear weapons, the consequences of a renewed Korean War would be catastrophic for the Korean peninsula and the entire Northeast Asia region. The Cheonan incident has reinforced U.S.-South Korean and U.S.-Japanese cooperation in deterring the North. But deterrence can look like provocation from the other side, and in such a tense and volatile environment, a slight miscalculation can lead to disaster. Anger and outrage may be understandable, but cooler heads must prevail. Millions of lives are at stake. Rather than lead to deepening confrontation, this tragedy may be an opportunity to re-engage North Korea in talks to scale back and ultimately eliminate its nuclear program, and to promote security and economic cooperation with its neighbors. North Korea has never admitted to acts of terrorism in the past, and we cannot expect it to acknowledge responsibility and apologize for the sinking of the Cheonan as a precondition for such talks. Instead, the international community should take advantage of Kim Jong Il's stated willingness to return to multilateral negotiations, suspended since 2008, as a way of reducing tensions on the Korean peninsula. It is time to end the Korean War, not start it anew. ####################################################################################################### HAVANA, CUBA {05-25-2010} CUBA TO TRANSFER POLITICAL PRISONERS JUAN O. TAMAYO THE CUBAN GOVERNMENT has promised to move sick political prisoners to hospitals, and other jailed dissidents closer to home, in a stunning concession to the recent avalanche of criticisms of its human rights record, an independent journalist said Sunday. Guillermo Fariñas, who has been on a lengthy hunger strike demanding the release of 26 ailing political prisoners, said Havana Auxiliary Bishop Juan de Dios Hernández told him the changes would begin Monday, and that eventually some jailed dissidents could be freed. Catholic church officials have been regularly keeping Fariñas and the Ladies in White protesters abreast of their negotiations with Cuban leader Raúl Castro on the fate of the political prisoners, currently estimated at about 190. Cuba's government remained silent on Fariñas' comments, but Havana human rights activist Elizardo Sánchez said he had received reports from jailed dissidents that prison directors already had told some inmates to pack their personal items. The government's gesture toward the prisoners, if true, would mark a rare gesture of good will by Cuba's communist rulers, who are facing a barrage of domestic and foreign attacks on the country's human rights record sparked by the February death of political prisoner Orlando Zapata after a nearly three-month hunger strike. Fariñas told El Nuevo Herald by telephone from his hospital bed in Santa Clara, where he has been receiving intravenous nutrition to make up for his refusal to eat or drink, that Hernández gave him the information during a visit Saturday. Hernández told him that Homero Acosta, executive secretary of the ruling Council of State, telephoned church officials Friday and told them the government would begin on Monday to shift all the seriously ill jailed dissidents to hospitals, and others to prisons closer to their homes, Fariñas added. RELEASE DEMANDED Fariñas has been demanding the release of 26 political prisoners he says are so ill that they require hospitalization, but he said a separate church list of ailing prisoners of conscience contained 37 names. Among the 190 political prisoners are 53 of the 75 dissidents sentenced to long prison terms in a 2003 crackdown known as Cuba's Black Spring. Twenty-two of the 75 have been released, mostly for health reasons, and 17 of those still jailed are in prisons far from their families, Fariñas said. Hernández also said that Castro and Havana Cardinal Jaime Ortega, who met for four hours last week, expect to meet again late this week ``to discuss the release of some political prisoners,'' according to Fariñas. An Associated Press dispatch quoted Orlando Marquez, spokesman for the Havana archdiocese, as confirming that government officials had told the church that some prisoners would be moved to jails near home, but giving no further details. `WAIT FOR MONDAY' One senior church official in Havana told El Nuevo Herald that he could not confirm all the details that Fariñas said he had obtained from Hernández, but added: ``Wait for Monday.'' Fariñas said the Castro government's decision to improve its treatment of jailed dissidents was ``an attempt to dampen'' the recent torrent of criticism of its human rights record that included strongly worded statements from European and Latin American leftists who traditionally support the island's policies. “They don't want to give credit to the peaceful opposition at home,'' he said, referring to the Ladies in White's Sunday protest marches and his hunger strike. ``So they are negotiating with the church.'' Fidel Castro's government freed about 300 political and common prisoners shortly after Pope John Paul II visited Cuba in 1998, when he urged officials to release dissidents jailed only for publicly criticizing the regime. Cuban officials regularly deny the country has any political prisoners, and brands them as ``mercenaries'' who have accepted U.S. funds to work toward undermining or overthrowing the government. A `MERE GESTURE' Elizardo Sánchez said he remained skeptical of the government's intentions, and described the apparent agreement to ease the conditions of some political prisoners as a ``mere gesture of condescension.'' Ladies in White spokeswoman Berta Soler said church officials had told her group only that Ortega had asked Raúl Castro to move the ailing political prisoners to hospitals and the others to prisons in their home provinces. “We were not told of any answers, but we are full of faith and hope,'' she told El Nuevo Herald from Havana. ``We hope that the answers will be positive.'' Fariñas, a 42-year-old psychologist and independent journalist, has lost more than 70 pounds since he launched his hunger strike Feb. 23, one day after Zapata died. A third dissident has vowed to refuse all food and drink should Fariñas die. Although Raúl Castro had hinted that his government would allow Fariñas to die, saying it would not bow to ``blackmail,'' the dissident has been treated in an intensive-care ward of a government hospital, and is regularly allowed to give interviews to foreign reporters on the hospital's phone. He also has allowed the Ladies in White, so called because they wear all-white clothes, to stage their usual Sunday protest marches in Havana for the past three weeks, after several weeks in which State Security officials and government-organized mobs forced them to call of their protests. ###################################################################################################### CARACAS, VENEZUELA {28-04-2010} CHAVEZ FOES SEEK UNITY THROUGH ELECTION PRIMARIES CHRISTOPHER TOOTHAKER // ASSOCIATED PRESS OPPONENTS OF DICTATOR HUGO CHAVEZ held primaries Sunday to pick candidates for congressional elections, a crucial step for Venezuela's opposition as it seeks a unified platform for the September vote. Venezuelans voted in a third of the country's 24 states, with 87 hopefuls competing for 22 candidacies. The primaries are part of the opposition's effort to field a single candidate for each the 165 National Assembly seats up for grabs, its only chance for mounting a strong challenge to Chavez's allies. Party leaders have already reached agreements on the other 143 candidates that will represent the opposition as it bids to win control of the assembly, which has been dominated by Chavez supporters since the last congressional vote in 2005. "Total unity in the majority of voting districts is a necessary requirement, although it's not enough to win," said pollster Luis Vicente Leon of the Caracas-based firm Datanalisis, noting that Chavez foes must motivate their constituents to vote Sept. 26. More than 10,000 volunteers with ties to opposition groups staffed polling stations equipped with electronic voting machines for Sunday's primarites, which were monitored by the National Electoral Council. The primaries, which cost $700,000 to organize, were financed by political parties and individual Chavez opponents. "We are going to be more united than ever before," said Richard Blanco, an opposition politician. Pro-Chavez candidates won all of the seats in the single-house assembly during the last election after major opposition parties boycotted the vote, arguing the country's electronic voting system was susceptible to fraud. Since then, pro-Chavez lawmakers have eagerly done the socialist leader's bidding, approving laws to strip power from elected officials who sided with the opposition while giving the government the authority to expropriate private property without going through the courts. Opposition candidates are hoping to present a united front while capitalizing on the growing frustration many Venezuelans have with Chavez, who has failed to curb 26 percent inflation, reduce widespread crime or deliver uninterrupted water and electricity. The possibility exists that some of the would-be candidates not included on the coalition's list will run independently, potentially splitting the opposition vote in several districts, Leon said. Still, he added, "It will be difficult for them to do much damage." Chavez has recently seen his popularity slip, but polls show he still remains the country's most popular politician. And the former army lieutenant colonel has always been a tireless and effective campaigner for candidates belonging to his ruling party. Leon expects a tight race. "It's an election in which the opposition has better chances than previous votes, primarily because Chavez has lost strength," he said. Among the 143 opposition hopefuls already chosen as coalition candidates are Stalin Gonzalez, a one-time leader of Venezuela's anti-Chavez student movement; Julio Cesar Reyes, a former Chavez ally from the president's home state of Barinas; and ex-Agriculture Minister Hiram Gaviria. Former presidential candidate Manuel Rosales, who fled the country last year after prosecutors accused him of pocketing public funds, is also a candidate. Rosales denies any wrongdoing, claiming the charges are politically motivated, and he's pledged to return from exile in Peru. If victorious at the polls, Rosales would be granted "parliamentary immunity" from prosecution for as long as he is in office. #####################################################################################################

 

How to restore hope on the island José Azel  & Cuba trains Venezuela in military, communication Ian James & Silvio Rodriguez wonders if Cuba should evolve Ana-Marie Garcia & Will Weissert & Plotting the way forward Marifeli Perez-Estable & Housewife, bankers battle in Chavez militia Ian James

MIAMI, FLORIDA {06-10-2010} HOW TO RESTORE HOPE ON THE ISLAND DR. JOSÉ AZEL CUBA TODAY MAY BE DESCRIBED AS “AN IMPOSSIBLE COUNTRY'' with unsustainable sociopolitical and economic arrangements. For Cuban people, over half a century of living under a totalitarian regime with a failed command economy means a legacy of economic, social, political and civil backwardness. “These years of prolonged and deep crisis have generated an enormous loss of spiritual values -- egoism, mendacity, double morality, and illegal methods of survival have proliferated to incredible levels,'' Cuban economist and dissident Oscar Espinosa Chepe notes. Unable to live from their legitimate labors, Cubans developed a survival ethic that justifies everything. It's a way of dealing with their lives' incoherence. Cuba's civil society has committed a sort of philosophical and ethical suicide to escape the existential absurdity of a future without possibilities. Cubans today do not venture to dream or hope, except perhaps about leaving the island. As the Castro brothers' era comes to an end, we must acknowledge these adverse conditions. Cuba's way out of its existential distress is not just freedom from deplorable economic conditions. Cuba's potentialities will depend more on individual freedoms and empowerment than on a given set of economic reforms. Freedom from fear must be the first step for a genuine and successful transition because it is a necessary condition to reversing political apathy. Any reform effort that leaves civil society inarticulate fails to recognize that no modern society can function in the best interests of the people without an effective system of checks and balances. A transition or succession? That will depend on whether Cubans embrace a governing philosophy that recognizes individual freedoms, a true transition, or a succession that advocates the primacy of economic measures even if undertaken outside the framework of democratic empowerment. These alternate paths matter because the one chosen will crystallize the post-Castro narrative for generations to come. The healing of the Cuban nation cannot take place in a political vacuum; it cannot take place in a totalitarian setting, and it cannot take place without the civil liberties and political rights to practice heroic tolerance and political wisdom. In order to avoid political stasis or chaos in post-Castro Cuba, a new way of perceiving the future and of behaving as a people must emerge. For this to happen the transitioning Cuban government cannot be an ideological extension of the Castro regime. It needs to be its antithesis. Cuba's future will be contingent not just on economic conditions, but also on the individual decisions of the many. This means that changes that do not beforehand place individual freedoms and empowerment front and center via pluralistic, free and fair elections would condemn Cuban society to live a provisional existence of unknown limit. This is a condition that wounds the human spirit and does not promote the development of democratic sociopolitical values. Political rights and civil liberties are not superfluous luxuries to be appended to a program of economic reforms. They are essential to empower the citizenry to correct mistakes, voice discontent and bring about changes in leadership. Democracy requires a relationship model between the state and its citizens that is dramatically different from the model of a Marxist-Leninist state. Cuban Communism cannot be reformed to bring about a genuine transition. To awaken aspirations -- to venture to dream and hope, to escape its daily Sisyphean tasks -- Cuban society must exorcise the mythology of the messianic maximum leader. This cannot take place within a regime of authoritarian continuity masquerading as a regime of change. A successful transition in Cuba will require, perhaps above all else, a compelling vision of hope for all Cubans; an irrefutable realization that life can regain its potential meaning despite its tragic aspects. In post-Castro Cuba, choices will be made and paths will be taken. Let them be those of individual freedom and empowerment so that Cubans will be able to always feel free. * Dr. José Azel is a Senior Research Associate at the Institute for Cuban and Cuban-American Studies, University of Miami. He is the author of the recently published book, Mañana in Cuba. ###################################################################################################### CARACAS, VENEZUELA {06-02-2010} CUBA TRAINS VENEZUELA IN MILITARY, COMMUNICATION IAN JAMES // ASSOCIATED PRESS IT'S NO LONGER JUST DOCTORS, NURSES AND TEACHERS. Cuba now sends Venezuela troops to train its military, and computer experts to work on its passport and identification-card systems. Critics fear that what is portrayed by both countries as a friendship committed to countering U.S. influence in the region is in fact growing into far more. They see a seasoned authoritarian government helping President Hugo Chavez to protect his power through Cuban-style controls, in exchange for oil. The Cuban government routinely spies on dissidents and maintains tight controls on information and travel. Cubans are involved in Venezuelan defense and communications systems to the point that they would know how to run both in a crisis, said Antonio Rivero, a former brigadier general whose break with Chavez over the issue has grabbed national attention. "They've crossed a line," Rivero said in a May interview. "They've gone beyond what should be permitted and what an alliance should be." Cuban officials dismiss claims of outsized influence, saying their focus is social programs. Chavez recently scolded a Venezuelan reporter on live television for asking what the Cubans are doing in the military. "Cuba helps us modestly with some things that I'm not going to detail," Chavez said. "Everything Cuba does for Venezuela is to strengthen the homeland, which belongs to them as well." But the communist government has a strong interest in securing the status quo because Venezuela is the island's principal economic benefactor, Rivero says. As Cuba struggles with economic troubles, including shortages of food and other basics, $7 billion in annual trade with Venezuela has provided a key boost - especially more than 100,000 barrels of oil Chavez's government sends each day in exchange for services. Rivero, who retired early in protest and now plans to run for a seat in the National Assembly, said Cuban officers have sat in high-level meetings, trained snipers, gained detailed knowledge of communications and advised the military on underground bunkers built to store and conceal weapons. "They know which weapons they have in Venezuela that they could count on at any given time," he said. Cuban advisers also have been helping with a digital radio communications system for security forces, meaning they have sensitive information on antenna locations and radio frequencies, Rivero said. If Chavez were to lose elections in 2012 or be forced out of office - like he was during a brief 2002 coup - it's even feasible the Cubans could "become part of a guerrilla force," Rivero said. "They know where our weapons are, they know where our command offices are, they know where our vital areas of communications are." Chavez has acknowledged that Cuban troops are teaching his soldiers how to repair radios in tanks and to store ammunition, among other tasks. No one complained years ago, he added, when Venezuela received such technical support from the U.S. military. Cuba and Venezuela are so unified that they are practically "one single nation," says Chavez, who often visits his mentor Fidel Castro in Havana and sometimes flies on a Cuban jet. The countries plan to link up physically next year with an undersea telecommunications cable. The Venezuelans are even getting advice from President Raul Castro's daughter Mariela Castro, who heads Cuba's National Sex Education Center and advocated civil unions for homosexuals during a recent seminar in Caracas. Some Venezuelans mockingly call it "Venecuba." When the government took over the farm of former Venezuelan U.N. ambassador Diego Arria, he contested the seizure by delivering his ownership documents to the Cuban Embassy, saying the Cubans are in charge and "much more organized than the Venezuelan regime." "No self-respecting country can place such delicate areas of the government as national security in the hands of officials of another country," said Teodoro Petkoff, an opposition leader who is editor of the newspaper Tal Cual. "President Chavez doesn't trust his own people very much. So he wants to count on the know-how and time-tested experience of a government that for 50 years has been carrying out a brutal and totalitarian dictatorship." Cuban government officials, however, say the bulk of their assistance is in public services. At the National Genetic Medicine Center in Guarenas, east of Caracas, Cuban doctors and lab technicians diagnose and treat genetic illnesses. "What we came to do is science," said Dr. Reinaldo Menendez, the Cuban director of the center, which also employs Venezuelans. "Our weapons... are our minds, our work, our coats, our stethoscopes. "We're internationalists by conviction," he added, passing photos of Chavez and Fidel Castro on the walls. Cuban Deputy Health Minister Joaquin Garcia Salavarria coordinates missions involving more than 30,000 doctors, nurses, and other specialists from the island. He estimated that about 95 percent of the approximately 40,000 Cubans in Venezuela work in medical, education, sports and cultural programs, and that others are helping as advisers on everything from agriculture to software for the state telephone company, CANTV. As he spoke, Garcia flipped through a file of statistics that he said show the real impact of the Cuban presence: more than 408 million consultations in neighborhood health clinics since 2003. That's an average of 14 medical visits for each of Venezuela's more than 28 million people. Many Venezuelans are grateful for the free medical care provided by the Cubans, and waiting rooms are often bustling. Still, polls have repeatedly shown a large majority of Venezuelans don't want their country to adopt a system like Cuba's. Chavez says he's not copying Cuba's socialist system but has adopted some practices, like creating a civilian militia to defend his government. When he founded a fledgling national police force last year, Chavez boasted that "we're going to compete with the Cuban police force, which is among the best in the world." A senior Cuban police official, Rosa Campoalegre, has been in Caracas to help with plans for a new university for police and other security officials. She declined a request to be interviewed. Cuban experts have also been working on systems in public registries and notaries. About 12 Cuban computer specialists from the University of Computer Science in Havana have been creating software to help the immigration agency improve passport control and computerize the identification card system, director Dante Rivas said. "There's nothing to hide here," Rivas said. "What they do is develop the software, jointly with us, but we operate it exclusively. That's all. They don't do anything else." In Cuba, he said, the government uses a different system. The island's computerized civil registry includes all relevant data on its citizens, such as address, age and physical characteristics. All Cubans must carry an identity card, and those who want to travel outside the country must get special permission. It's especially worrying that Cubans are involved in areas "that have to do with control of information, people's private information," said Rocio San Miguel, who heads a Venezuelan organization that monitors security and defense issues. Chavez, meanwhile, says Cuba's assistance is worth "10 times more than the cost of the oil we send." He has effusively thanked Cuba for helping Venezuela to revamp its electrical system - a move ridiculed by Chavez's opponents due to Cuba's own struggles with power outages. Chavez also credited a Cuban cloud-seeding program with helping to bring an earlier rainy season this year after a severe drought. "What Cubanization?" he said. "The Cubans are helping us." ##################################################################################################### HAVANA, CUBA {)5-11-2010} SILVIO RODRIGUEZ WONDERS IF CUBA SHOULD 'EVOLVE' ANNE-MARIE GARCIA & WILL WEISSERT // ASSOCIATED PRESS THREE DECADES AFTER HE LAST PLAYED NEW YORK, CUBAN LEGEND SILVIO RODRIGUEZ IS HEADED TO CARNEGIE HALL, at a moment when he and other celebrated island folk singers are raising unusually open questions about their country's communist system. Rodriguez, now 63, has been a sort of folk-song poet laureate of Fidel Castro's revolution in recent years, performing at important official events and even serving in Cuba's parliament for a time, though many admire him most for his pogniant lyrics and haunting melodies. Yet the June 4 concert in New York - which still hinges on U.S. government approval of his visa - may show Americans a more complex Cuba than many expect. Rodriguez is still firmly on the side of the socialist system Castro built, but his latest album suggests there need to be adjustments if it is going to survive. "Against disenchantment, offer hope," he sings on the album "Segunda Cita," or "Second Date," which was released in March. "Overcome the 'r' in revolution," the song goes - alluding to the uprising that swept Castro to power on New Year's Day 1959, and to almost everything in Cuba that has happened since. "If we don't change, they are going to change us," Rodriguez wrote in response to written questions from The Associated Press, "and that's not what I want to happen to my country." He added that, "I hope evolution takes us, as the angel in the song says, right up to the crossroads where we made the wrong decision and we rectify that." It's light criticism by any measure - and Rodriguez has been coy when asked to shed light on what he meant. He also read a statement defending the Cuban government - but did not sing - during a recent "Concert for the Homeland" in Havana. And he plunged into an unusual, public debate with one of the Castro government's fiercest critics, Carlos Alberto Montaner - that nonetheless raised eyebrows in Cuba and abroad for the mere fact that Rodriguez would reply to the dissident. Cuba's official media describes Montaner as a CIA agent. Rodriguez has sometimes broached thorny subjects uncomfortable for the government, but songs like "Playa Giron," a denunciation of the U.S. Bay of Pigs invasion, have become anthems of the revolution and even his small jabs at its single-party communist system come as a surprise. Stronger dissent has come from other leading members of Cuba's Nueva Trova movement in recent months - at least during tours abroad. Folk singer Carlos Varela told a Miami television station last week that he admired the Damas de Blanco, a support group for the wives and mothers of Cuban political prisoners which the government dismisses as paid stooges of Washington. Varela said he thought it was "fantastic" that members of the group whose name translates to "Ladies in White," have been nominated for a Noble Peace Prize. He also bluntly denounced the "acts of repudiation" by government supporters who surrounded the Damas and shouted insults at them for hours several times in recent weeks. In March, another top Cuban folk singer, Pablo Milanes, defended a Cuban dissident hunger striker who is demanding the release of political prisoners and told the Spanish newspaper El Mundo that Cuba's aging leaders "are stuck in time." "History should advance with new ideas and new men," said Milanes, who also was once a member of the communist government's parliament. Rodriguez and Milanes are barely on speaking terms. But they and Varela are allowed to travel overseas freely, unlike most ordinary Cubans - for whom permission to travel abroad is costly and hard to get. Citing an example of erroneous policies in his comments to the AP, Rodriguez mentioned the "revolutionary offensive" of 1968, when the government nationalized all businesses, taking over everything from elegant department stores to mom-and-pop soda shops. Rodriguez characterized the move as "the Cuban state deciding to dabble in national commercialism up to the craziest of limits, including bureaucratizing French-fry stands." "We are still paying for that," he said. U.S. officials have yet to approve Rodriguez's visa and they did not respond in time last year, when he wanted to travel to New York for a tribute to another folk legend, Pete Seeger. Rodriguez, however, said he doesn't expect problems. "I trust that now they will give me a visa," he said. Though political relations have not significantly improved between the United States and Cuba under President Barack Obama, cultural exchanges involving musicians from both countries are becoming more common. Scores of Cuban artists have played American cities of late and the island's 89-year-old prima ballerina, Alicia Alonso, will return next month to New York and the American Ballet Theater, one of the places where she got her start in dance. U.S. funk pioneers Kool & the Gang also won permission for a recent show in Havana. Rodriguez is considered by many to be Latin America's Bob Dylan, and he and Milanes are founding members of the "Nueva Trova," which combined music and revolutionary politics. Rodriguez also plans shows in San Francisco, Chicago, Los Angeles and Puerto Rico. He recalled last playing New York in 1978, singing at a theater on Broadway. "At 5 o'clock in the afternoon it was full," he said. "I couldn't believe it." Rodriguez called playing Carnegie Hall "fantastic," but is careful not to get too hung up on playing famous venues for the first time: "I'm a bit too old for that." ####################################################################################################### MIAMI, FLORIDA {05-07-2010} PLOTTING THE WAY FORWARD MARIFELI PEREZ-STABLE LAST SUNDAY THE DAMAS DE BLANCO -- dressed in white with coral gladioli in their hands -- resumed their customary walk after Mass at the Church of Santa Rita. Freedom again rang along the stately Fifth Avenue in Miramar, a Havana suburb. For three weeks, government mobs had prevented the ladies from walking in honor of their husbands, sons and brothers imprisoned for their beliefs since the Black Spring of 2003. The ladies had walked every day for a week to mark its seventh anniversary. The regime fumed and told them to apply for a permit; the ladies refused. Jaime Ortega Alamino, Cuba's cardinal, mediated the crisis and, for once, the government responded. Images of security agents dragging the women into buses after seven hours of insults didn't do official Cuba any favors. After celebrating Mass at Santa Rita, Ortega addressed the international media. ``High-ranking officials offered their guarantees that repression would not be used against the women,'' Ortega said. The respite, however, is only through May when the government will review the situation. The cardinal might have to make it a habit to officiate Mass in Miramar every Sunday. A small victory Still, in the words of leading lady Laura Pollán whose husband is serving a 20-year sentence, it was a small victory. ``Love won,'' she added. ``If they don't want us to walk anymore, they should set our loved ones free.'' Things haven't been going well for the regime lately. Orlando Zapata Tamayo's death opened the floodgates. The European Parliament, the Mexican government and Senate, Sebastián Piñera, Chile's president, and the opposition Socialist Party, the United States, France, the Brazilian Senate, Amnesty International, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights -- the list goes on -- asked Cuba to be respectful of life. The regime was taken by surprise. Should Guillermo Fariñas -- the dissident who launched a hunger strike more than two months ago to protest Zapata's death and demand the release of 26 political prisoners in frail health -- pass away, the ensuing uproar would be deafening. The Catholic Church, his fellow dissidents and his supporters in Miami are all asking him to desist. Cuba's senior leaders better pray that Fariñas listen. The cardinal's successful mediation offers a sliver of light. In accepting a compromise regarding the Ladies in White, the government extended a rare hand of moderation --``a good gesture,'' ``a novel step,'' said Ortega -- for which it deserves recognition. Many, perhaps most officials in the second and third tiers surely breathed long sighs of relief. There could be a second round. What's the best option? Might the 26 political prisoners in frail health ask Fariñas to end his hunger strike? That's what some in Havana and Miami are proposing. The government could invite the Red Cross to visit these prisoners and submit a report on their health. Or it could ask the cardinal to put together a panel of Catholic physicians to examine them, an even better option. These ailing prisoners must be freed and an intervening professional opinion may be just what Cuba's senior leaders need. In the end, the government should rethink its policy towards the Damas de Blanco and all other groups in Cuba whose demands fall outside official bounds. All are there for the long haul. Moreover, citizens within the broad fold -- singers Pablo Milanés, Silvio Rodríguez and Carlos Varela come to mind -- are raising their voices to denounce injustice. “We are thankful for the Church's intervention because we were stubborn -- the government and we -- we (the Damas de Blanco) admit it,'' said Loida Valdés. That's the crux of the matter. When tensions rise, the parties concerned often can't or won't yield. Speaking softly and discreetly is an art that may bring results in these situations. “In the Catholic Church, the Cuban state has neither an ally nor an enemy,'' said Palabra Nueva, the Havana archdiocese's magazine. To get where we want to go, Cubans of all political leanings -- no matter where we live -- need many more mediators from within our ranks. That's the way forward. ##################################################################################################### CARAVALLE, VENEZUELA {05-03-2010} HOUSEWIVES, BANKERS BATTLE IN CHAVEZ MILITIA IAN JAMES // ASSOCIATED PRESS A 54-YEAR-OLD HOUSEWIFE FIRES THE MACHINE GUN FOR THE FIRST TIME, lets loose a thunderous burst of gunfire and beams with satisfaction. A boot camp instructor shouts, "Kill those gringos!" Thousands of civilian volunteers in olive-green fatigues are training over the weekend at a Venezuelan army base, where they learn to crawl under barbed wire, fire assault rifles and stalk enemies in combat. Known as the Bolivarian Militia, this spirited group of mostly working-class men and women - from students to retirees - are united by their militant support for President Hugo Chavez and their willingness to defend his government. From what exactly? Chavez has repeatedly warned of potential threats: the United States, U.S.-allied Colombia and the Venezuelan "oligarchy," as he labels opponents. He has called on recruits to be ready to lay down their lives if necessary to battle "any threat, foreign or domestic," even though Venezuela has never fought a war against another nation. In the meantime, the militia is a practical tool for Chavez to engage his supporters, rally nationalist fervor and intimidate any opponents who might consider another coup like the one he survived in 2002. One close aide, Public Works Minister Diosdado Cabello, said there are already 120,000 in the militia and that it could grow to 200,000. Chavez opponents call those figures grossly exaggerated, but they're still alarmed that government loyalists are being armed across the country. They also condemn the more than $4 billion that Chavez has spent on Russian weapons, including guns, helicopters and Sukhoi fighter jets which now sometimes thunder over Caracas. The militia "is a personal army, a Praetorian Guard," said retired Rear Adm. Elias Buchszer, a Chavez opponent. He said despite Chavez's talk about repelling a U.S. invasion, the militia is really aimed at maintaining control, keeping him in power, and "making the country fear that if anything is done the militiamen are going to come out." Members of the volunteer force range from the unemployed to electricians, bankers and social workers. Most of those interviewed during the training in April said they either benefit from free state education programs or work as public employees. They aren't paid to attend events but receive about $7 to offset transportation costs. As part of the training, they line up at a firing range aiming decades-old, Belgian-made FAL rifles at red bull's-eyes on paper targets 80 yards (75 meters) away. They practice reacting to an ambush in the forest, camouflaged with mud-smeared faces and with dry grass stuck in the collars of their uniforms. They crouch for cover behind a pig pen and fire blanks into an abandoned building in a mock raid on hostage-takers. Spent shells clink onto the concrete as shots echo through the building, and one man shouts "all clear!" Their instructors, including both experienced militia troops and army officers, say one objective is to ready them for a war of resistance against an occupying force. They allude to insurgents battling U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. One of the militia's guiding principles is constantly drilled into the group as they salute in unison shouting: "Socialist homeland or death! We will be victorious!" As troops gather for one drill, a fake grenade goes off and everyone dives to the ground. One woman is led away crying from the shock, and is given oxygen by nurses to calm her. Most seem gung-ho for marching in the sun and getting their uniforms sweaty and dirty. Some cover their faces with black dust from the charred earth left by forest fires. They also enjoy the camaraderie, saying they spent one night hiking and watching a Chinese film. Several volunteer to shoot mortars and a 106-mm anti-tank cannon. The cannon shell is loaded, and the air shakes with the deafening blast. Troops wince, then erupt into cheers as they are covered in smoke, pumping their fists and shouting: "Viva Chavez!" Osmaira Pachecho, the housewife who fired the machine gun, said with a giddy laugh that it was "marvelous" fun taking aim at the straw dummy dressed up in a military uniform. Growing serious, she said she doesn't like to imagine killing anyone, especially not fellow Venezuelans. "But if they attack us from some other place, I think we're prepared for it," said Pachecho, who is studying to be a teacher in a free government program and fervently admires Chavez. "We're prepared to support the armed forces if they need us." Chavez addressed an estimated 35,000 militia members at an outdoor rally on April 13, the eighth anniversary of his return to power after the failed 2002 coup. Wearing the red beret of his army years, Chavez unsheathed a sword that once belonged to the 19th-century independence hero Simon Bolivar - the inspiration for his Bolivarian Revolution movement - and held it up as he swore in militia troops. "You should be ready to take up the arms you have there at any time and go out to give your lives, if you have to, for the Bolivarian Revolution!" Chavez bellowed. He said without giving details that he is sure some opponents hope to assassinate him. "If they were to do it ... there are my militias, there are my people. You know what you would have to do: Simply take all power in Venezuela, absolutely all! Sweep away the bourgeoisie from all political and economic spaces. Deepen the revolution!" he told the crowd. Chavez, who is up for re-election in 2012, has recently seen his popularity slip below 50 percent in polls as his government struggles with electricity shortages, a recession and 26 percent inflation. Some who belong to the militia say Venezuelans have nothing to fear, that their only purpose is to protect the country and that their guns are locked away in military depots when not in use. They also carry out missions including standing guard at state-run markets, and say they would be prepared to respond in earthquakes or other disasters. Others are trained in how to safeguard Venezuela's oil industry and keep fuel flowing in the event of a conflict. Perhaps most important for some, they feel empowered because Chavez has included them in this effort. "We aren't here because anyone forced us to be. We're here because we're patriots," said Maria Henriquez, an unemployed 44-year-old who emerged covered with dust after crawling through a trench under barbed wire. As for Chavez, she said, "We'd give our lives for him." #########################################################################################################
 

POLITICAL PRISONERS IN SPAIN CONFRONTED WITH MAZE OF IMMIGRATION RULES  "CUBAN REFUGEE JORGE PÉREZ FERNÁNDEZ has the promise in writing: The Spanish government will grant him political asylum or residency within six months of his arrival  in that country..." Juan O. Tamayo

THE INEVITABLE BATTLE THE "CARAPAICA" CONNECTION THE END OF THE PROFESSIONAL ARMY IN VENEZUELA

MIAMI, FLORIDA {07-27-2010} POLITICAL PRISONERS IN SPAIN CONFRONTED WITH MAZE OF IMMIGRATION RULES JUAN O. TAMAYO CUBAN REFUGEE JORGE PÉREZ FERNÁNDEZ has the promise in writing: The Spanish government will grant him political asylum or residency within six months of his arrival in that country. Fourteen months after he landed in Madrid, he has neither -- a harsh lesson on the vagaries of Spanish migration laws that he has already passed on to the former political prisoners who arrived from Havana in the past two weeks. “I told them to stay alert,'' said Pérez, who launched a hunger strike last Monday to push for a resolution of his case: He's an undocumented migrant who can't work legally and gets no government aid. “Economically speaking, I am totally defenseless,'' said the 42-year-old architect from the eastern Cuban town of Banes who arrived from the Guantánamo naval base and now lives in Spain's Canary Islands. Jorge Graupera, a Cuban-born Madrid lawyer who specializes in immigration cases, is not surprised by Pérez's case or by the many questions surrounding the status of the 20 ex-prisoners and 100 relatives who arrived from Havana since July 12. “There's a lot of confusion, even among immigration lawyers. We have never seen anything like this . . . because this has jumped outside the [Spanish] laws,'' said the lawyer, whose firm, Legal City, has offered to advise the former prisoners and relatives. Graupera noted the Cubans arrived under a Spanish government agreement to give immediate entry to any of the 52 political prisoners that Cuba has promised to free, and who wish to move to Spain -- not as part of any standard immigration proceedings. Spanish officials say they have offered the Cubans the best immigration status available, Assisted International Protection. That allows them to apply for permanent residency (which includes a work permit), the possibility of returning to Cuba if Havana permits it, and Spanish citizenship in four to five years. Spain also has offered assistance with rent, clothes, food, transport, jobs, education and health services, as well as pocket money -- 85.27 euros a month per couple (about $110), 18.58 for children under 18 and 32.79 for older dependents. Some of the ex-prisoners have said they might instead apply for political asylum, which could make it easier to reunite in Spain with other relatives now still in Cuba, said Gustavo Fuentes, a Cuban-born Madrid lawyer who is advising Pérez. DESTINATION: U.S.? Further complicating the issue: At least four of the ex-prisoners have said they might want to move on to the United States. But they would not qualify for U.S. political asylum once they have obtained residency or asylum in Spain. And applying for U.S. migrant visas would take at least three to five years, lawyers said. If they become Spanish citizens, they would not need U.S. visas for trips. Relatives of some of the 32 dissidents still in Cuban jails have said they do not want to go to Spain but might consider leaving for the United States -- though that seems to be another tough option. It usually takes three to five years for the U.S. diplomatic mission in Havana to issue entry permits as political refugees to those who qualify, Berta Soler said. Her husband, Angel Moya, is one of the 32, serving a 20-year sentence. Obtaining U.S. migrant visas could take even longer, and a third way of entering the country, under “humanitarian parole'' status, is reserved for those in seriously bad health or other special circumstances. Miguel Sigler said it took him two years to win humanitarian parole for his jailed brother Ariel, a dissident who is paraplegic and bound to a wheelchair. Ariel was freed June 12 and is to fly to Miami on Wednesday for medical treatment. Soler said officials at the U.S. Interests Section in Havana told her that applications for political refugees could be expedited for any of the 52 who wished to leave for the United States. The U.S. diplomatic mission in Havana, however, has declined to confirm making such a promise. A total of 4,800 Cubans were admitted to the United States with refugee status in fiscal year 2009, which ran from Oct. 1, 2008, to Sept. 30, 2009, according to the Department of Homeland Security's Office of Immigrations Statistics. What's more, the Cuban government can delay U.S. departures even further by withholding the required exit permits, known as White Cards, even after all other travel documents are in order. Jorge Olivera, for example, had his papers in order but was missing his White Card even before he was swept up in a 2003 crackdown that sent 75 dissidents to prison. He was freed 21 months later because of ill health, but he remains in Cuba today because the government still refuses to issue him a White Card. Pérez, the Cuban in Spain who still lacks documents, did not need a White Card because he fled Cuba in a small boat, fearing arrest for his dissident activities in Banes. He was picked up by the U.S. Coast Guard on April 16, 2008, and was taken to the U.S. naval base in Guantánamo because he had a reasonable fear of persecution if he was returned to Cuba. FLOWN TO MADRID On June 8, 2009, he and seven other Cubans held in Guantánamo were flown to Madrid under an agreement negotiated by the U.S. and Spanish governments. They carried a State Department document saying Madrid would give them asylum or residency in no more than six months. The eight were scattered to provincial cities, with Pérez winding up in the Canary Islands. The other seven were awarded the lowest level of residency and work permit, which is good for only one year but can be renewed. PÉREZ WAS NOT SO LUCKY. He applied for political asylum and was denied. He was told to apply for temporal residency under “exceptional circumstances'' and was denied. He appealed and was denied. Under an assistance package arranged by the State Department, he received $700 a month during his first six months in Spain from the International Organization for Migration, a nongovernment group based in Washington. After the six months, he has received nothing more, and nothing at all ever from the Spanish government. Government officials finally told him last week that he would be granted residency for five years, his lawyer Fuentes said. One problem: The documents will not be ready in four months. He launched his hunger strike July 19. That's why, Pérez said, when the recently released Cuban prisoners began arriving in Spain, he quickly phoned them at their one-star Welcome hostel in an industrial suburb of Madrid. ``I told them my experiences, told them to look in the mirror and think about what they really want, and then fight hard to get it,'' Pérez told El Nuevo Herald by phone from the Canary Islands. It was easy for him to dial the Welcome hostel. That's the same place where he stayed after he arrived in Madrid. ##################################################################################################### CARACAS, VENEZUELA {07-20-2010} DESPITE CHAVEZ, VENEZUELA ECONOMY NOT SOCIALIST IAN JAMES // ASSOCIATED PRESS IT'S PRESIDENT (DICTATOR) HUGO CHAVEZ'S BIGGEST ECONOMIC BATTLE CRY, and it's getting louder as Venezuela suffers a recession: "We're going to bury Venezuelan capitalism." Yet creating a socialist economy is one of Chavez's most elusive goals - a stark example of the disconnect between the president's rhetoric and the reality on the ground. In fact, the private sector still controls two-thirds of Venezuela's economy - the same as when Chavez was elected in 1998, according to estimates by the Central Bank. The reasons are political and practical: Chavez knows most Venezuelans recoil from the idea of Cuban-style state control, and his government is far from being capable of taking over and running a majority of the economy. "Basically he recognizes that in this day and age in a global economy ... complete state control would just doom the country," said Michael Shifter, an analyst at the Washington-based Inter-American Dialogue. So his strategy has been to selectively nationalize companies, set up state-run supermarkets and promote worker-managed businesses, while trying to convince Venezuelans to accept his vaguely defined brand of "21st Century Socialism." It is a hard sell for a country hooked on consumerism. Shopping malls are filled with middle- and upper-class Venezuelans browsing through Lacoste shirts, Guess jeans and Montblanc pens. Sales have declined in the recession, but just about everyone who can afford it seems to own a BlackBerry, and Scotch whisky flows liberally in upscale restaurants at the equivalent of $110 a bottle. Just as Chavez has ramped up his anti-capitalism tirades, he finds himself facing one of the biggest scandals of his tenure involving a state-run food distributor. The company, PDVAL, left more than 2,700 shipping containers of rice, flour, milk, chicken, beef and other foods in a port rotting or beyond their expiration dates. Its former chief and two others have been arrested, and some Venezuelans have begun to mockingly call the state company "Pudre-val," using the Spanish word for rotting. One newspaper cartoon depicted Karl Marx wearing a gas mask to ward off the stench. It's a glaring example of the problems and delays that regularly plague Venezuela's government-run operations. In a review of 15 state-run companies, economist Richard Obuchi found that all "were producing well below goals or production capacity." The vast majority - some of which were nationalized by Chavez - now rely on government subsidies, said Obuchi, a professor at the Institute of Higher Administration Studies, or IESA, in Caracas. One of the expropriated companies, industrial valve maker Industria Venezolana Endogena de Valvulas SA, or INVEVAL, has been limited to refurbishing old oil industry and water valves for years - instead of producing them as it once did. Port workers in Puerto Cabello, where much of the rotten food was found, say six of the port's eight cranes are out of order and the pace of importing cargo has slowed since the government took over management last year. The country's food imports have grown as the government has seized farmland, and periodic shortages of foods such as milk, beef and sugar have emerged in recent years. People at a state-supported farming commune on the outskirts of Caracas say they have been waiting for a new well to water crops for more than a year since the first one went dry. While production has declined, the public sector has swelled from about 1.4 million workers in 1999 to about 2.4 million in 2010, according to government figures. "They don't have the capacity to manage any company," said Rafael Davila Guaricuco, a 34-year-old port crane operator. "They're destroying everything." That is precisely the perception Chavez tries to fight in his speeches. "The bourgeoisie is trying to convince Venezuelans that the path to socialism isn't viable, that all businesses in socialism go bust. It's the opposite," Chavez said. He pitches cut-rate prices at subsidized state-run supermarkets like a salesman, and touts a successful state-run dairy factory, cooking oil plant and the nationalized telephone company. State-run markets are part of Chavez's attempts to counter 31-percent inflation that has been battering the country, alongside a recession that shrank the economy 5.8 percent in the first quarter. Venezuela is now the only South American country with a shrinking economy, according to the latest figures available. Tensions are growing between Chavez and business leaders, who blame his policies for prompting a sharp drop in investment. Chavez's finance and communication ministers didn't respond to e-mails seeking comment about his efforts toward socialism. Since 2007, Chavez has nationalized and expropriated companies in sectors he deems strategic, including the oil industry, cement, telecommunications, electricity, steel and food. But economists note that those businesses make up a relatively modest share of the economy. And the balance between public and private sectors remains nearly identical to when Chavez took office in part because the private sector grew faster than the government between 2003 and 2006, when the economy was booming. Last year the private sector accounted for 70 percent of gross domestic product, including 11 percent in taxes paid on products, according to Central Bank estimates. The public sector was 30 percent, a slightly smaller share than when Chavez was elected in 2008. By international standards, Venezuela has long had a large public sector because it includes the oil industry. By comparison, the public sector in Sweden accounts for 25 percent of GDP, and in United States less than 14 percent. Chavez could have moved more quickly toward bigger state control while the economy was growing, but he had other priorities, including consolidating his political power after a 2002 coup that ousted him for two days. He now has a favorable congress and judges. But just as he turned to his socialist economic agenda, lower oil prices and the global economic crisis cut into the money he had to take over and run companies. Polls have repeatedly shown Venezuelans oppose expropriations. Chavez now is focused on maintaining his majority in September congressional elections and on his own re-election in 2012. He has repeatedly said he would not use Cuba or the collapsed Soviet Union as an economic model, noting that even his mentor Fidel Castro has advised him: "Chavez, remember this isn't 1960." Victor Alvarez, an economist and former mining minister for Chavez, said the aim is to build a new sort of "social economy" sector made up of worker-managed companies, farming cooperatives and other community-run businesses. "The objective isn't for the state to have the greatest weight in the economy, because that would be simply repeating the experience of 20th century socialism," said Alvarez, who has been studying the transition to socialism at a government-sponsored research institution. A plan prepared in 2007 by the government projected that such "social economy" businesses and the public sector would together become larger than the private sector by 2013. Chavez knows he is still very far from that goal. But he says he won't give up, using one of his favorite mantras: "We invent or we fail." ####################################################################################################### HAVANA, CUBA {06-21-2010} THE INEVITABLE BATTLE FORMER DICTATOR FIDEL CASTRO RUZ’S REFLECTIONS I AFFIRMED RECENTLY THAT THE WORLD WOULD SOON FORGET THE TRAGEDY THAT IS ABOUT TO OCCUR AS THE FRUIT OF THE POLICY FOLLOWED, FOR MORE THAN TWO CENTURIES, by the neighboring superpower: the United States. We are familiar with its devious and cunning way of acting; the impetuous economic growth attained on the basis of its technical and scientific development; the enormous wealth accumulated at the expense of the vast majority of its working people and those of the rest of the world for a demanding minority which, in that country and others, enjoys the unlimited wealth at its disposal. Who are those who are complaining more and more but the workers, the professionals, those who provide services for the population, the retired, those lacking employment, street children, people deprived of elementary knowledge, all of whom constitute the vast majority of the close to seven billion inhabitants of the planet, whose vital resources are being visibly exhausted? How do the so-called forces of order, whose job is supposedly to protect them, treat them? Who are those beaten by the police, armed with every instrument of repression possible? I do not need to describe events that peoples everywhere, including in the United States, observe via televisions, computers and other mass media. It is somewhat more difficult to work out the sinister projects of those who have in their hands the destiny of humanity, absurdly thinking that such a world order can be imposed. What did I write in the last five reflections with which I took up space in Granma and on the CubaDebate website between May 30 and June 10, 2010? By now the basic elements of a very near future have been launched into flight and there is no possible going back. In the course of a few brief days, the impressive events at the World Cup in South Africa have captured our minds. Unfortunately, on another front, the road in the political sphere is saturated with enormous risks. One of the subjects that I pointed to earlier, among the basic elements of a very near future launched into flight with no possible retreat, is the sinking of the Cheonan, the flagship of the South Korean Navy, which sank in a matter of minutes on March 26, causing the death of 46 marines and dozens of injuries. The government of South Korea ordered an investigation to find out whether the event was the consequence of an internal or external explosion. On confirming that it came from the exterior, it accused the Pyongyang government of sinking the submarine. North Korea only had at its disposal an old torpedo model of Soviet manufacture. It lacked any other element except for the most elemental logic. It couldn’t even imagine another cause. This past March, as an initial step, the government of South Korea ordered the activation of propaganda loudspeakers at 11 points on the demilitarized shared border separating the two Koreas. For its part, the chief of general staff of the Armed Forces of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea stated that the loudspeakers would be destroyed as soon as that activity began. It had been suspended since 2004. The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea stated textually that it would convert Seoul into a "sea of fire." Last Friday, the South Korean Army announced that it would initiate that as soon as the Security Council announced its measures in relation to the sinking of the South Korean Cheonan corvette. Both Korean republics already have their fingers on the trigger. The government of South Korea could not believe that its close ally, the United States, had attached a mine to the bottom of the Cheonan, as research journalist Wayne Madsen related in an article published by Global Research on June 1, 2010, with a coherent explanation of what had happened. He bases his information on the fact that North Korea does not possess any type of rocket or instrument to sink the Cheonan that would escape detection by the sophisticated equipment of an anti-submarine warfare corvette. North Korea had been accused of something that it did not carry out, which prompted the urgent journey of Kim Jong II to China in an armored train. When these events suddenly occurred, in the mind of the government of South Korea there was and still is no space for any other possible cause. In the midst of the sporting and happy atmosphere, the sky is growing darker and darker. The intentions of the United States have been obvious for quite some time, given that the actions of its government are obligatorily measured to its own designs without any possible alternatives. Its intention – being accustomed to the imposition of its designs by force – is that Israel should attack the enriched uranium facilities in Iran, utilizing the most modern aircraft and sophisticated weaponry that the superpower irresponsibly supplies it with. The United States suggested to Israel, which does not have a border with Iran, that it ask Saudi Arabia for permission to overfly a long and narrow air corridor, thus considerably reducing the distance between the take-off point for the attacking aircraft and the objectives to destroy. According to the plan, essential parts of which have been made public by Israeli intelligence, waves of aircraft are to attack time and time again in order to obliterate the targets. This past June 12, major Western newspapers published information on an air corridor granted by Saudi Arabia to Israel, following a previous agreement with the U.S. State Department, with the objective of making test flights with Israeli hunter bombers for a surprise attack on Iran, and that these had already been carried out in Saudi Arabian airspace. Israeli spokespersons did not deny that, but confined themselves to merely stating that the countries mentioned were more afraid of Iranian nuclear development than Israel itself. On June 13, when the London Times published information taken from intelligence sources, confirming that Saudi Arabia had announced an agreement authorizing Israel to pass through an air corridor over its territory for an attack on Iran, President Ahmadinejad stated, on receiving the accreditation letters of Mohamad ibn Abbas al Kalabi, the new Saudi ambassador in Tehran, that there were many enemies who did not want close relations between the two countries. "But if Iran and Saudi Arabia remain by each other’s sides, those enemies will give up continuing their aggression." From the Iranian point of view, in my judgment, that statement was justified, whatever the reasons were for making it. It is quite possible that he did not wish to hurt his Arab neighbors in the slightest way. The yankis have not uttered a single word, only to reflect more than ever their ardent desire to sweep away the nationalist government that is leading Iran. One now has to ask, when the Security Council analyses the sinking of the Cheonan, the flagship of the South Korean Navy: what conduct it will follow after the fingers on the triggers of the weapons on the Korean peninsula fire those weapons; and if it is a certain fact or not that Saudi Arabia, in agreement with the State Department, has authorized an air corridor so that waves of modern Israeli bombers can attack Iranian facilities, possibly even employing nuclear weapons supplied by the United States. Diabolical news is filtering little by little between games and games in the World Cup, in a way that nobody is paying much attention to it. ###################################################################################################### CARACAS, VENEZUELA {20-06-2010} THE "CARAPAICA" CONNECTION EL UNIVERSAL HOW COME A LEADER OF THE CARAPAICA MOVEMENT turned out to be a police agent? The capture of Juancho Montoya, accused of terrorism, could reveal deep links Commander Murachí had done something thus far unthinkable: a video showed him standing ahead of two dozen members of the Carapaica Liberation Revolutionary Movement and demanding "President Commander" Hugo Chávez the removal at once of his executive board. Such critical attitude raised suspicion and even more so because the recording was aired last January by Colombian RCN network. Were those armed, hooded Carapaica members on there real or was it a montage? On May 5, Murachi was set to meet with two reporters. However, the journalists never met with the leader of the mysterious group operating in 23 de Enero, a low-income neighborhood of western Caracas. That very day, at 4:00 pm, agents of the Scientific, Penal and Criminology Investigation Agency (Cicpc) detained one of the individuals allegedly responsible for the attack with explosive devices on February 24, 2008 on the headquarters of the Federation of Trade and Industry Chambers (Fedecámaras), located in eastern Caracas. Juan Crisóstomo Montoya González had been identified for quite a long time. Security cameras installed in the building of the head offices recorded the time when two people placed an explosive device at the entrance. The man who activated the device died during the attempt: Héctor Amado Serrano, 44, and "presumed" agent of the Metropolitan Police. "Intelligence" found that Montoya, aka Juancho, was his accomplice. A pamphlet found in the scene ascribed the authorship of the attack to the Venceremos Guerrilla Front. It justified the action on the grounds that Fedecámaras "forms part of a plot and its only strategic aim is disturbing the food manufacturing and distribution chain." And they noted, "added to this is the corruption inside (government-run food distribution network) Mercal." Shortly after the event, the Cicpc conducted search of premises looking for Juancho. And then Minister of the Interior and Justice Ramón Rodríguez Chacín declared that the individuals involved had been fully identified and they were "a tiny group." However, it would be not a case closed so easy. The "tiny group" had good friends. On April 3, 2008, armed gangs of 23 de Enero, acting with absolute impunity, blocked the access of the area during a protest to demand the cessation of house searches and the end of the persecution of Juancho Montoya, labeled as "political." Carapaica is not a recent invention. It was presumably born in 1989 and called after a native who joined Cacique Guaicaipuro to fight against Spanish conquerors. One of its members, aka Enrique, rebutted any link with the Colombian Revolutionary Armed Forces (FARC). "Carapaica is from Venezuela and emerged as a result of rights abuses to uphold the social struggle," he said. Now, they question some government leaders who "are governed by double moral." "Martín," another member, provided a rationale. "Our problem is when the government does not respect the people who elected it." And perhaps such a stance prompted them, on that video of January, to ask President Chávez to investigate the irregularities at the Corporation of Supply and Agricultural Services, CASA; and the Mercal network. Such statements were consistent with the pamphlet left at the entrance of Fedecámaras after the 2008 attack. On May 5, the reporters who expected to meet with Murachí received a phone call from their contact person with Carapaica. "Murachi was caught by the police, he was taken to jail." The revolutionary police agent It can be said that Juancho Montoya is sort of a Carapaica member with a "plate." He was born on November 4, 1962 and has lived in 23 de Enero since he was a boy. The records of the Venezuelan Social Security Institute reveal that the entered the Caracas Police Autonomous Institute in May 2000 and thus far, he appears as active police agent. An officer from the Cicpc Counter-Terrorism Division said, off the record, that Montoya is the centerpiece of Carapaica and he has been tracked since 2008. He is also linked to other attacks with explosive devices that same year on George Washington square and the Nunciature. Caracas 20th and 74th prosecutors, in charge of the proceeding, have accused Montoya of terrorism, scheming, illegal use of firearms and holding of forged ID document. Queried about the case, they made no comments for being "an ongoing judicial proceeding." ####################################################################################################### CARACAS, VENEZUELA {06-14-2010} THE END OF THE PROFESSIONAL ARMY IN VENEZUELA FRANCISCO OLIVARES // EL UNIVERSAL SINCE 1999, THERE HAS BEEN A PROCESS OF “TRANSMUTATION” OF THE NATIONAL ARMED FORCES from professional institution into an armed corps at the service of the revolution. But there is resistance to the presidential control. Colonel José Machillanda thinks that the conversion of the professional army into an armed militia is unviable and has deteriorated its working capacity (File photo: Eduardo Fuentes) FAILED OPERATIONS President (dictator) Hugo Chávez has declared himself a Marxist and has lately sped up seizure of businesses, banks and private companies. He has concomitantly championed a number of laws heading for the socialist project. Most of these laws run counter to the Constitution and quite a few of them were refused at a sovereign voting on December 2, 2007, when a constitutional reform was proposed. The national armed forces have played a key role in such unconstitutional changes; in default of their support, the country could not be taken to the way led by the president. A professional army at the service of the State for the purposes of defense has turned into armed militia under a political project. Hugo Chávez has "transmuted" the army to secure both his stay in office and the implementation of the 21st century socialism. "Hugo Chávez needs no guerrilla front because we are backed by the people and my armed forces," the president boasted on June 10, 2001, when he started to radicalize the changes within the army. Colonel José Machillanda, a researcher and professor of graduate studies at Simón Bolívar University, has written in his next-to-be-released book entitled "From military professionalism to the militia," the changes undergone by the army in 11-year term and its deterioration as a professional force. But, Machillanda warned, "the process started by Hugo Chávez has inside the institution a vector of institutional reaction that disregards the president's intention and makes him fail in his process of disassembly and transmutation of the armed component." For the expert in military affairs, "today, that Bolivarian armed corps intended to be built by Hugo Chávez along with the militia is an unviable organization." THREE TURNING POINTS Colonel Machillanda has identified three essential moments where such changes took place. They occurred in a 10-year period in a violent, compulsory manner where the society has not fully realized what happened to the Venezuelan army. He related that a political outsider, with no knowledge at all of the use and importance of the military component for the defense of the Republic, bought the Cuban recipe to solve the issue of loyalty to the Bolivarian process and defense by means of militia. Here it goes, then, one of the most serious problems which affect the Venezuelan society and the army. CHÁVEZ'S INHERITANCE The army inherited by President Chávez in 1999 was a professional military organization where the study of military sciences took precedence over war and civilian-military relations. 1999-2002 This period is characterized by significant changes in theaters of operations, as they became units with social functions. Also, military officers joined government positions. The army was viewed as the "vanguard of the revolution." 2002-2007 In the aftermath of the coup attempt on April 11, 2002, there was a void of power with top military officers being unable to put order in the Venezuelan society. The purge began, as well as the enforcement of new laws and the adoption of a new Cuban-style doctrine of "people's war." Corruption prevailed; Cuban militaries had a high profile. In this period, the president managed to centralize all administrative functions; reduced strategic studies and logistics, and fully implemented training and intelligence of the Cuban militia. 2007-2010 This period is characterized by an aggressive, unconstitutional change. The army law was amended under a decree on July 30, 2008, in addition to a new set of laws which retake the concept of an armed component at the service of a political blueprint. Pursuant to such decree, the president was conferred a military degree with full power and authority; the term "Bolivarian" was attached to the name of the armed forces, and a fifth component -the Bolivarian National Militia- was added. The militia represents the so-called "people in arms" and fits into the president's proposed socialism. There is increasing individual control of the president over some military upper echelons. At this last stage, military officers are more and more used in the government. They can be seen everywhere in public office, resulting in a new model which is the "pro-Chávez military." Translated by Conchita Delgado ####################################################################################################

"Do not fear the enemy, for they can take only your life. Fear the media far more, for they will destroy your honor.”  General Vo Nguyen Giap

     “General Giap was a brilliant leader of the North Vietnamese Army.

    The following quote is from his memoirs currently found in the Vietnam war memorial in Hanoi :

     "What we still don't understand is why you Americans stopped the bombing of Hanoi.  You had us on the ropes. If you had pressed us a little harder, just for another day or two, we were ready to surrender! It was the same at the battles of TET.  You defeated us! We knew it, and we thought you knew it.  But we were elated to notice your media was definitely helping us. They were causing more disruption in America than we could in the battlefields. We were ready to surrender. You had won!"

         General Giap has published his memoirs and confirmed what most Americans knew.  The Vietnam war was not lost in Vietnam --  it was lost at home. As the invasion of Brigade 2506, formed by Cuban exiles, was not defeated by Fidel Castro's troops at the Bay of Pigs but by bureaucrats in Washington, D.C.

        The exact same slippery slope, sponsored by the US media, is currently well underway in regards to the War on Terror and the conflict in Iraq and Afghanistan. Giap's writings clearly expose the enormous power of a biased media to cut out the heart and will of the American people.