BREAKING NEWS: Fidel Castro won't return to presidency, Reuters reports.

[Johnny_Blaze_47]

MSNBC.com.

[Trainwreck2100]

Maybe now he'll pursue that baseball career.

[Heath Ledger]

That's because hes been dead for quite a bit of time now. Duhh...

[MajicMan]

So we're all allowed to go to Cuba to take advantage of their superior and free health care? Yiiipeeee

[Nbadan]

....Fidel isn't dead....

[AlamoSpursFan]

Q-ecAjB8m6o&rel=1

[Heath Ledger]

Of course he is dead, i think i would know more than anybody else. i've already smoked a few cubans with him. It's pretty cool, down here it's so hot the cigars actually light themselves....

[mikejones99]

trippy awards good shit, cuba got hot chix that like american$

[peewee's lovechild]

I just want to be able to buy some Cuban cigars.

[Viva Las Espuelas]

Political Forum
Post about politics, news, government, religion and business.

[Solid D]

For old-schoolers, as well as young adults, with an appreciation for historical impact...today's news is a significant event. Even if things don't change much in the few days or few weeks following, the long-term significance should be felt.

[peewee's lovechild]

It will only be significant if it leads to actual change.

If it doesn't, it's just Stalin passing on the torch of power to Nikkita Khrushchev.

[johnsmith]

If it doesn't, it's just Stalin passing on the torch of power to Nikkita Khrushchev.


That dude was a kick ass defensemen for the Red Wings.

[boutons_]

I'm sure the US corps are salivating copiously at the profit of turning Cuba back into a whoring, drinking, gambling, amusement park tourists' paradise a la 1950s as soon as they buy enough US politicians to permit trade with Cuba.

Change will take time. Whole Cuban generations have been brainwashed.

[johnsmith]

I'm sure the US corps are salivating copiously at the profit of turning Cuba back into a whoring, drinking, gambling, amusement park tourists' paradise a la 1950s as soon as they buy enough US politicians to permit trade with Cuba.

Change will take time. Whole Cuban generations have been brainwashed.


Yeah, SCREW YOU AMERICA!

[peewee's lovechild]

That dude was a kick ass defensemen for the Red Wings.

:lmao :lmao

[IceColdBrewski]

Meet the new boss. Same as the old boss.

I wish I had Fidel in a dead pool. Dude must have got some realy bad news.

[peewee's lovechild]

Meet the new boss. Same as the old boss.

I wish I had Fidel in a dead pool. Dude must have got some realy bad news.


His dick probably fell off.

[T Park]

It will only be significant if it leads to actual change.

If it doesn't, it's just Stalin passing on the torch of power to Nikkita Khrushchev.


Wow, Peewee your exactly right!

I agree also, I want some democracy so

1, can go down there on vacation
2. get some damn good cigars :lol

[Sense]

I think this is very bad news..... there will be change...

[Johnny_Blaze_47]

Political Forum
Post about politics, news, government, religion and business.



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Strange, I don't see your name there, Viva.

This is a historically significant event that transcends politics considering Castro has outlasted many attempts to remove him from office and so many people in this country have been affected by his presidency.

Some revered this man, many reviled him.

So lastly, who the fuck are you and why should I give a damn what you think?

[T Park]

I think this is very bad news..... there will be change...


Yeah for the bad maybe.

Hopefully its for the good. I hold a sliver of hope that its true deocracy for the people of Cuba. If so, maybe the US can help build some stuff up down there, get businesses going, and help out the repressed people.

[peewee's lovechild]

Yeah for the bad maybe.

Hopefully its for the good. I hold a sliver of hope that its true deocracy for the people of Cuba. If so, maybe the US can help build some stuff up down there, get businesses going, and help out the repressed people.

I don't know what a deocracy is, but I don't think it's the US government's job to build democracy anywhere.

With our impressive dossier of building democracies lately (Vietnam, Afganistan, Iraq), I can see why you would make this argument. But, I'd rather have an international approach in helping Cuba crawl out if it's predicament.

Having said that, I hate Cubans.

When Cubans arriving illegaly into our country can be lauded as heroes and Mexicans doing the same being called "wetbacks", they get none of my sympathy.

[Johnny_Blaze_47]

When Cubans arriving illegaly into our country can be lauded as heroes and Mexicans doing the same being called "wetbacks", they get none of my sympathy.

I really don't want to get into a drawn-out argument for which I admittedly don't have a bulk of facts, but Mexicans aren't really escaping political oppression.

<----- Of Mexican descent

(Me, not Domokun)

[T Park]

I don't know what a deocracy is, but I don't think it's the US government's job to build democracy anywhere.



I didn't say its our job, but as good decent people I think we oughtta help them. They've been repressed for decades and they deserve a break. They don't have the oppurtunities like the people in our country do.


When Cubans arriving illegaly into our country can be lauded as heroes and Mexicans doing the same being called "wetbacks", they get none of my sympathy

So thats the Cuban's fault?

[T Park]

I really don't want to get into a drawn-out argument for which I admittedly don't have a bulk of facts, but Mexicans aren't really escaping political oppression.

<----- Of Mexican descent

(Me, not Domokun)

I wanted to say that too, but I was afraid of having the corrupt political system and very very corrupt police officers getting thrown back in my face.

[Johnny_Blaze_47]

I wanted to say that too, but I was afraid of having the corrupt political system and very very corrupt police officers getting thrown back in my face.

Well, if we're going to keep it civil, one could argue that the threat of drug wars (especially on the border) could be seen as escaping an oppression, but admittedly, most undocumented immigrants from Mexico aren't coming here because of that.

[T Park]

No I agree 1000%.
You know how people love to throw stuff in my face when i try to post SOMETHING :lol

I don't think we should go down there and say "look you do this do that" just help em out. Say hey, were here for ya, were gonna open up trade with ya, hopefully tourism can return and hopefully you can get some money infused, get your people working, and the downtrodden can rise up a bit and have a chance.

[peewee's lovechild]

I really don't want to get into a drawn-out argument for which I admittedly don't have a bulk of facts, but Mexicans aren't really escaping political oppression.

<----- Of Mexican descent

(Me, not Domokun)


You're right about that.

But, using the rationale of political oppression, why don't we allow people from many African nations to come for the exact same reason?

Also, Mexicans are coming in because they too are oppressed. They may not be living in a Communist nation, but they are repressed nonetheless. Or, would you make the argument that the Mexican government is a model for a democratic government?

[peewee's lovechild]

I didn't say its our job, but as good decent people I think we oughtta help them. They've been repressed for decades and they deserve a break. They don't have the oppurtunities like the people in our country do.




Ruwanda, Kenya, Niger, Zaire, and many other West African nations also deserve a break, but I don't see anyone in our government looking out for their welfare.




So thats the Cuban's fault?



Yes, because they can't fend for themselves.

[peewee's lovechild]

Well, if we're going to keep it civil, one could argue that the threat of drug wars (especially on the border) could be seen as escaping an oppression, but admittedly, most undocumented immigrants from Mexico aren't coming here because of that.


If there is data to back that up, then that argument could very well hold some water.

However, people from Mexico are looking to escape the oppressed atmosphere that has long dominated Mexico. When you can't live life without having to fear the various cartels that have the real power, and when you can't count on your government to protect you from said dangers, I think you can make a point that you're fleeing because you feel repressed.

[Johnny_Blaze_47]

AFAIK, we do allow political prisoners from African nations to seek refuge in the U.S., although admittedly, it is much easier (relatively speaking) for Cubans to do so considering the travel distance.

I agree the Mexicans are economically oppressed by corruption in local, state and federal offices, but you have to give me that the average Mexican citizen isn't under as large a threat of incarceration for speaking out against the government as Cubans are.

[peewee's lovechild]

No I agree 1000%.
You know how people love to throw stuff in my face when i try to post SOMETHING :lol

I don't think we should go down there and say "look you do this do that" just help em out. Say hey, were here for ya, were gonna open up trade with ya, hopefully tourism can return and hopefully you can get some money infused, get your people working, and the downtrodden can rise up a bit and have a chance.

So, if they choose a Socialist government, you would be okay with that? You would want your government to help Cuba become a Socialist government?

What if Cuba decides to go the Hugo Chavez way?
Or, if they decide to stay with Communism and adopt the China way (who has an open relationship with the U.S.A.?

Would you still be willing to "help them out"?

[T Park]

Ruwanda, Kenya, Niger, Zaire, and many other West African nations also deserve a break, but I don't see anyone in our government looking out for their welfare.

So America doesn't send millions upon millions to those countries?

ok.

Look I don't want to argue, I just wanted to say this is a historic occasion and hopefully we can help the people of Cuba out.

[T Park]

So, if they choose a Socialist government, you would be okay with that? You would want your government to help Cuba become a Socialist government?


Why not, our government is pretty socialist and after the next election will get further and further that way.

[Johnny_Blaze_47]

If there is data to back that up, then that argument could very well hold some water.

However, people from Mexico are looking to escape the oppressed atmosphere that has long dominated Mexico. When you can't live life without having to fear the various cartels that have the real power, and when you can't count on your government to protect you from said dangers, I think you can make a point that you're fleeing because you feel repressed.

As I mentioned before, I don't have many facts in this argument, solely opinions that are open for change. But I will also agree with you that there is indeed a large threat to Mexicans because of lack of safety, but let's face it, there aren't a lot of people saying that when they cross the borders and the greater threats of oppression (mainly death) fall upon those charged with law enforcement who aren't corrupt.

[peewee's lovechild]

AFAIK, we do allow political prisoners from African nations to seek refuge in the U.S., although admittedly, it is much easier (relatively speaking) for Cubans to do so considering the travel distance.

I agree the Mexicans are economically oppressed by corruption in local, state and federal offices, but you have to give me that the average Mexican citizen isn't under as large a threat of incarceration for speaking out against the government as Cubans are.


1. Can Africans from politcally oppressive governments just show up on American soil and automatically be given residency?

It's funny, I've never read anything about Kenyan soccer player defecting with the help of government officials.

2. People that work in journalism are still being killed in Mexico for expressing their viewpoints.

As a matter of fact, a female journalist (can't remember her name at the moment) was killed a couple of years ago because she was exposing government ties to the "Bus Gangs" in Mexico City.

[peewee's lovechild]

So America doesn't send millions upon millions to those countries?

ok.

Look I don't want to argue, I just wanted to say this is a historic occasion and hopefully we can help the people of Cuba out.

So, sending millions to a county = giving people American Citizenship?

Really?

[johnsmith]

because she was exposing government ties to the "Bus Gangs" in Mexico City.


Isn't that the group of dudes that drive around in the van and have sex with the chicks in the van and then post it on the internet for me to enjoy?

[peewee's lovechild]

Why not, our government is pretty socialist and after the next election will get further and further that way.

So, for the record, your okay with the U.S. supporting a Socialist or Communist government?

I'd like to know the answer to that question.

[T Park]

So, sending millions to a county = giving people American Citizenship?

Really?

Did I fucking say that?

NO.

FUCK.

[Johnny_Blaze_47]

1. Can Africans from politcally oppressive governments just show up on American soil and automatically be given residency?

It's funny, I've never read anything about Kenyan soccer player defecting with the help of government officials.


Admittedly, I don't know the process of seeking political asylum, but I would assume it's offered the same way.




2. People that work in journalism are still being killed in Mexico for expressing their viewpoints.

As a matter of fact, a female journalist (can't remember her name at the moment) was killed a couple of years ago because she was exposing government ties to the "Bus Gangs" in Mexico City.

Agreed. But the average Mexican doesn't have the platform with which to expose corruption as the periodistas do.

[T Park]

Isn't that the group of dudes that drive around in the van and have sex with the chicks in the van and then post it on the internet for me to enjoy?


:lol

Thanks for the laugh John.

[Johnny_Blaze_47]

Isn't that the group of dudes that drive around in the van and have sex with the chicks in the van and then post it on the internet for me to enjoy?

:lol

[peewee's lovechild]

As I mentioned before, I don't have many facts in this argument, solely opinions that are open for change. But I will also agree with you that there is indeed a large threat to Mexicans because of lack of safety, but let's face it, there aren't a lot of people saying that when they cross the borders and the greater threats of oppression (mainly death) fall upon those charged with law enforcement who aren't corrupt.


I get what your saying, JB. But, just because one government is less corrupt than the other doesn't make it less repressing.

I lived my entire life right on the border. I know how repressive the Mexican government can be. I KNOW people come here to escape that, just like Cubans do.

But, only Cubans get a straight path to citizenship. Mexicans get shipped back. And, the only reason that Cubans get this treatment is to fuck with Castro. There is no other reason.

[peewee's lovechild]

Isn't that the group of dudes that drive around in the van and have sex with the chicks in the van and then post it on the internet for me to enjoy?


:lol :lol

[peewee's lovechild]

Admittedly, I don't know the process of seeking political asylum, but I would assume it's offered the same way.


It's not.



Agreed. But the average Mexican doesn't have the platform with which to expose corruption as the periodistas do.


That's true, I'll give you that.

[peewee's lovechild]

Did I fucking say that?

NO.

FUCK.


You made a lame attempt at it.

If your argument holds no water, don't post it.

[peewee's lovechild]

And, you never answered the question . . .


So, for the record, your okay with the U.S. supporting a Socialist or Communist government?

I'd like to know the answer to that question.

[T Park]

You made a lame attempt at it.

If your argument holds no water, don't post it.


Pardon me, I didn't realize you were the forum moderater.

Quite the "Im better than you" bullshit cause its really gotten old.

[peewee's lovechild]

Pardon me, I didn't realize you were the forum moderater.

Quite the "Im better than you" bullshit cause its really gotten old.

I like how you're avoiding the question.

It's nice how you stick with your principles.

[Johnny_Blaze_47]

I think Peewee and I should enter into a business venture.

Bang Autobus.

[peewee's lovechild]

I think Peewee and I should enter into a business venture.

Bang Autobus.

:lol :lol

I could provide the fine chicks from UTSA.

[Heath Ledger]

Viva la taco!

[Kori Ellis]

First of all Pee Wee, getting political asylum doesn't mean automatic U.S. Citizenship.

People that are granted political asylum can be from any country where they are they are unable/unwilling to return because of well-founded fear of persecution. One year after they have been granted aslyum and been in the United States, they can then apply for permanent residency status. After that, they can then apply for U.S. Citizenship.

I'm not sure where you got automatic "citizenship" or why you assumed that Africans can't get political asylum the same as Cubans. If you are being persecuted in any country, you can apply for asylum.

[mrsmaalox]

I don't want to go back and read all the way thru again but I think Peewee said political asylum=residency, not citizenship.

[Kori Ellis]

So, sending millions to a county = giving people American Citizenship?

Really?

This is him questioning the difference between how we treat Africans and Cubans.

I'm not dumb and didn't just make it up, I read the thread.

[peewee's lovechild]

First of all Pee Wee, getting political asylum doesn't mean automatic U.S. Citizenship.

People that are granted political asylum can be from any country where they are they are unable/unwilling to return because of well-founded fear of persecution. One year after they have been granted aslyum and been in the United States, they can then apply for permanent residency status. After that, they can then apply for U.S. Citizenship.

I'm not sure where you got automatic "citizenship" or why you assumed that Africans can't get political asylum the same as Cubans. If you are being persecuted in any country, you can apply for asylum.

I have always understood that Cubans are granted either residency or citizenship. I believe I got that from one of my Political Science courses.

However, it's been a while since I was in college. I worked with a Cuban guy back when I was teaching and he told me that all Cubans need to do is to touch American soil and they're granted either residency or citizenship, I don't recall wich it was, which is why they are turned away when they are found in the Gulf of Mexico.

I may have it wrong, and you appear to be telling me that I have it wrong, but that's what I was told.

However, when Elian Gonzalez of Cuba is being treated like the second coming of Christ by the American media and Jose Ramirez of Mexico is instantly labeled as an "alien" by the same media . . . it just shows one is given preferred treatment over the other.

[peewee's lovechild]

This is him questioning the difference between how we treat Africans and Cubans.

I'm not dumb and didn't just make it up, I read the thread.


It can be argued that we treat Africans differently than we treat Cubans. I don't think we take in as many Africans than we have taken in Cubans. I don't have the data to back this up, so it's just my opinion. But I believe that if we did have the numbers to show for it, you would see that there is a real disparity there.

[Kori Ellis]

They are granted political asylum.

[Kori Ellis]

I don't think we take in as many Africans than we have taken in Cubans. I don't have the data to back this up, so it's just my opinion. But I believe that if we did have the numbers to show for it, you would see that there is a real disparity there.

Of course we take in more Cubans because more apply for political asylum because they are geographically closer. You have to apply for aslyum at a port of entry. Much easier for Cubans.

[peewee's lovechild]

"In order to provide aid to recently arrived Cuban immigrants, the United States Congress passed the Cuban Adjustment Act in 1966. The Cuban Refugee Program provided more than $1.3 billion of direct financial assistance. They also were eligible for public assistance, Medicare, free English courses, scholarships, and low interest college loans."

Mexicans haven't gotten this type of treatment.
Africans haven't gotten this type of treatment.

[peewee's lovechild]

You're right about the asylum:

"Before the 1980s, all refugees from Cuba were welcomed into the United States as political refugees. This changed in the 1990s so that only Cubans who reach U.S. soil are granted refuge under the "wet feet, dry feet policy"."

It says that they are "granted refuge".

Is it automatic?
That's my question.

[peewee's lovechild]

"In a dramatic turnabout of U.S. immigration policy toward Cuba, the Clinton administration announced Tuesday that the United States will grant entry to most of the 21,000 Cuban boat people at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, but will forcibly return future refugees intercepted at sea.

The decision reflects the end of a decades-old policy that gave Cubans special treatment by allowing them to bypass standard asylum procedures."

[Kori Ellis]

You're right about the asylum:

"Before the 1980s, all refugees from Cuba were welcomed into the United States as political refugees. This changed in the 1990s so that only Cubans who reach U.S. soil are granted refuge under the "wet feet, dry feet policy"."

It says that they are "granted refuge".

Is it automatic?
That's my question.

Refugee status isn't residency or citizenship. It's probably automatic (I don't know for sure) because all Cubans are under the persecution of a communist regime. All Mexicans aren't. But if a Mexican, African, or I guess even a Canadian can show they are being persecuted in their country they can get refugee/asylum status.

[peewee's lovechild]

http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/VA-news/VA-Pilot/issues/1995/vp950503/05030440.htm

[Kori Ellis]

The decision reflects the end of a decades-old policy that gave Cubans special treatment by allowing them to bypass standard asylum procedures."

Of course. Consider the state of their country. I don't know why you are comparing it to Mexico.

[1369]

From what I can remember, if a Cuban (and Haitans IIRC) make landfall (Dry-Foot) then they are automatically granted a green card.

[Kori Ellis]

But if a Mexican, African, or I guess even a Canadian can show they are being persecuted in their country they can get refugee/asylum status.

That's my point. Anyone who comes to a port of entry and is being persecuted can become a refugee and apply for asylum. It's obviously much more difficult for Africans to apply. And most Mexicans aren't being persecuted (by US government standards).

[peewee's lovechild]

Refugee status isn't residency or citizenship. It's probably automatic (I don't know for sure) because all Cubans are under the persecution of a communist regime. All Mexicans aren't. But if a Mexican, African, or I guess even a Canadian can show they are being persecuted in their country they can get refugee/asylum status.

You're right. I was wrong about the residency/citizenship.

But, if fleeing a communist regime or another repressing government is all it takes, why don't we streamline the process for others.

The Mexican government isn't a benevolent government, far from it. And, there are many African nations that repress their people. Why don't we streamline the process for them too?

[Kori Ellis]

You're right. I was wrong about the residency/citizenship.

But, if fleeing a communist regime or another repressing government is all it takes, why don't we streamline the process for others.

The Mexican government isn't a benevolent government, far from it. And, there are many African nations that repress their people. Why don't we streamline the process for them too?

I'm not sure what else you want to do to streamline it. Do you want Africans to be able to apply by phone or online? They have to get here first.

[peewee's lovechild]

Of course. Consider the state of their country. I don't know why you are comparing it to Mexico.

True, Mexico isn't as bad. But, it's not paradise either. The only reason that the Cubans are given special treatment is that the U.S. government wants to piss Castro off. There's no other reason.

We should have been taking in the same amount of Vietnamese, Chinese, and Russians if that were so important to us.

[Kori Ellis]

True, Mexico isn't as bad. But, it's not paradise either. The only reason that the Cubans are given special treatment is that the U.S. government wants to piss Castro off. There's no other reason.

We should have been taking in the same amount of Vietnamese, Chinese, and Russians if that were so important to us.

I'm not sure you are getting the geographical factor. You apply for asylum at a U.S. port of entry. So, Chinese and Africans can't just swim over.

[peewee's lovechild]

I'm not sure what else you want to do to streamline it. Do you want Africans to be able to apply by phone or online? They have to get here first.

But, when they do get here, are they offered this:

"The decision reflects the end of a decades-old policy that gave Cubans special treatment by allowing them to bypass standard asylum procedures."

I have family members that work for Immigration. They tell me they ship Chinese and Africans back EVERY FREAKING DAY. These are people fleeing either communist regimes or extremely repressive governments. They aren't allowed to "bypass standard asylum procedures" like Cubans have for decades.

[mrsmaalox]

This is him questioning the difference between how we treat Africans and Cubans.

I'm not dumb and didn't just make it up, I read the thread.

Yes I read that too. But immediately above that post I also read:

Can Africans from politcally oppressive governments just show up on American soil and automatically be given residency?

I don't think I in any way implied that you are dumb or making things up.

[peewee's lovechild]

I'm not sure you are getting the geographical factor. You apply for asylum at a U.S. port of entry. So, Chinese and Africans can't just swim over.

I get your point, well said. You do have to get over here. But, my point is that people are being turned away when they get here.

That is a fact.

Like I said, I have family working for Immigration and they tell me this is what happens.

[Kori Ellis]

I get your point, well said. You do have to get over here. But, my point is that people are being turned away when they get here.

That is a fact.

Like I said, I have family working for Immigration and they tell me this is what happens.

I'm sure tons of people get turned away. Many people probably apply who aren't really being persecuted. (Whatever that might mean to you or me probably isn't exactly what it means to the gov't)

But I don't get you hating the Cuban people just because they aren't treated by the government that same as Mexicans. You should hate our gov't (if you disagree so much), not the Cuban people.

[peewee's lovechild]

But I don't get you hating the Cuban people just because they aren't treated by the government that same as Mexicans. You should hate our gov't (if you disagree so much), not the Cuban people.

:lol :lol

You're right about that.

I'm just being petty.

But, I do hate the way our government treats others, such as Mexicans.

[Pistons < Spurs]

BREAKING NEWS: Fidel Castro won't return to presidency


Great News!!! Fuck Castro!

My grandfather fled Cuba with his 7 year old daughter (my Mother) so that she could grow up with the opportunities and freedoms we have here in this great country. My Grandmother wasn't allowed to come over to the States for another 12 years.

[johnsmith]

I'm sure tons of people get turned away. Many people probably apply who aren't really being persecuted. (Whatever that might mean to you or me probably isn't exactly what it means to the gov't)

But I don't get you hating the Cuban people just because they aren't treated by the government that same as Mexicans. You should hate our gov't (if you disagree so much), not the Cuban people.


i hate the cubans too, but only cause every time I'm in south florida a cuban taxi driver scares me to death with his highway driving skills.


They are worse then Mexican cab drivers in Mexico.........which I had previously thought was impossible.

[johnsmith]

stereo-typing complete.

[johnsmith]

Great News!!! Fuck Castro!

My grandfather fled Cuba with his 7 year old daughter (my Mother) so that she could grow up with the opportunities and freedoms we have here in this great country. My Grandmother wasn't allowed to come over to the States for another 12 years.


And then you became a Chiefs fan?

Go back to Cuba!!! Go Broncos.


Kidding.

[Kori Ellis]

Great News!!! Fuck Castro!

My grandfather fled Cuba with his 7 year old daughter (my Mother) so that she could grow up with the opportunities and freedoms we have here in this great country. My Grandmother wasn't allowed to come over to the States for another 12 years.

I agree with the Fuck Castro sentiment. timvp lost a lot of family, including his grandpa because of Castro. :(

[T Park]

I agree with the Fuck Castro sentiment. timvp lost a lot of family, including his grandpa because of Castro. :(

Sad to hear that.

What sickens me more is hearing Ed Asner saying "I wish our country was more like a Castro led Cuba"

[Pistons < Spurs]

I agree with the Fuck Castro sentiment. timvp lost a lot of family, including his grandpa because of Castro. :(
Very sad. My Mother had an uncle who was taken away, imprisoned and later died in jail for speaking and acting out against Castro publicly. Supposedly, I still have quite a bit of family in Cuba, which I'll probably never get to meet.

[Spawn]

Oh, so America can once again send its corporations in and exploit the Cuban people just like before.

[1369]

Oh, so America can once again send its corporations in and exploit the Cuban people just like before.

Boutons, when did you change your name? I didn't get the memo.

Besides, the Cuban folks are already used to being opressed, so it's not like they'll notice any difference.

[Spawn]

I didn't say its our job, but as good decent people I think we oughtta help them. They've been repressed for decades and they deserve a break. They don't have the oppurtunities like the people in our country do.



So thats the Cuban's fault?

First business in order to help them is to take that pesky embargo that the Americans placed on Cuba that did nothing but hurt the Cuban citizens.

[johnsmith]

First business in order to help them is to take that pesky embargo that the Americans placed on Cuba that did nothing but hurt the Cuban citizens.


yeah, screw you America.

This is probably Dubya's fault.

[peewee's lovechild]

I agree with the Fuck Castro sentiment. timvp lost a lot of family, including his grandpa because of Castro. :(

That's why you disapproved of my "I hate Cubans" comment.

[Kori Ellis]

That's why you disapproved of my "I hate Cubans" comment.

timvp and his family aren't Cuban. They are Dominican.

[mrsmaalox]

Oh, so America can once again send its corporations in and exploit the Cuban people just like before.

Why would that happen? Cuba has strong support from Venezuela, China, Iran and Russia; we don't have anything they need. Except for maybe a few tourist dollars---which will pale in comparison with what Europeans and Asians already spend there every year. There will be no big change until after Raul Castro is also gone--if then.

[peewee's lovechild]

timvp and his family aren't Cuban. They are Dominican.

What did Castro do to the Dominicans?

Wasn't Trujillo the one that fucked up La Dominica?

[Kori Ellis]

What did Castro do to the Dominicans?

Wasn't Trujillo the one that fucked up La Dominica?

timvp can explain the story better. But Castro pretended to help the Dominican revolutionaries in their fight against Trujillo and then he turned around and double crossed them, leading them straight into a trap and their deaths. timvp lost his grandpa and all his uncles on his mom's side directly because of it :(

[peewee's lovechild]

timvp can explain the story better. But Castro pretended to help the Dominican revolutionaries in their fight against Trujillo and then he turned around and double crossed them, leading them straight into a trap and their deaths. timvp lost his grandpa and all his uncles on his mom's side directly because of it :(

That explains it.

I'd like to learn a little more about that.

[T Park]

First business in order to help them is to take that pesky embargo that the Americans placed on Cuba that did nothing but hurt the Cuban citizens.

As soon as they show they are willing to help their own people out as well, I'm sure that embargo will be lifted.

[peewee's lovechild]

As soon as they show they are willing to help their own people out as well, I'm sure that embargo will be lifted.

Which is it, "help them out" or make them show that "they are willing to help their own people out"?

You can't have it both ways.

[Solid D]

http://www.palmbeachpost.com/localnews/content/local_news/epaper/2008/02/19/0219postcastro.html

Perspective: A detailed look at Castro's rise, decades in power

By Michael Browning

Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

Tuesday, February 19, 2008


Fidel Castro Ruz, Cuba's "maximum leader," el jefe, president, former prime minister, first secretary of the Cuban Communist Party and commander in chief of Cuba's armed forces, resigned as Cuba's president Tuesday at the age of 81.

Castro's influence has been immense, all out of proportion to the 44,218-square-mile island nation he controlled. He pushed the world to the brink of nuclear war in 1962 during the so-called Cuban Missile Crisis. He did more to change Florida than even the early conquistadors, for his revolution touched off waves of emigration from Cuba to the United States that transformed the state. Florida is now 15 percent Hispanic.

Like a skillful matador baiting a maddened bull, he was able to tease, provoke, infuriate and blind his giant neighbor 90 miles to the north for over 40 years, adroitly employing a U.S. trade embargo to his own advantage, as proof of American bullying and as a boost to Cuban revolutionary pride and independence.

Anti-capitalist to the end, Castro bitterly denied a 2006 report in Forbes magazine asserting that he was worth $900 million, based on his control of state-owned companies.

"If they can prove that I have a bank account abroad, with $900 million, with $1 million, $500,000, $100,000 or $1 in it, I will resign," he said on state-owned television.

Castro's cult of personality

The 6-foot-tall Castro stupefied audiences of the party faithful with five- and six-hour speeches whose constant theme was "Socialism or Death." He imprisoned opponents, smothered dissent and executed an estimated 5,000 people during his 47 years in power. He ruled over a once-bountiful, still-beautiful island of 11 million people, known as "The Pearl of the Antilles," using a system of spies, repression and shortages.

By the end of Castro's reign, Cubans had regressed to the 19th century. They were getting around on bicycles, or on foot, plowing their fields with oxen, using horses to pull wagons, living on ration tickets and hoarding slivers of soap. Too poor to buy their own fragrant cigars, they exported them for foreign currency.

They exported their own people, too. In massive waves of emigration, repeated at intervals over 40 years, hundreds of thousands of Cubans fled Castro's rule in boats, inner-tubes, makeshift rafts, even on windsurfer boards, carrying crucifixes and valueless pesos, hoping for rescue and a renewed chance at life and prosperity.

"I grew up in Fort Lauderdale, in the 1960s, near the beach," remembered Larry Rohter, a correspondent for The New York Times. "When I'd run out to play on the beach in the morning, I'd see dead people washed up with inner tubes around them. It impressed me, that they were willing to die to get away from Cuba."

When dissatisfaction with his regime threatened to boil over in 1980, Castro simply swept the dissatisfied across the Florida Straits to the United States in the gigantic Mariel boatlift.

Some 125,000 Cuban refugees fled the island to the U.S. in a few frantic weeks. Castro shrewdly cleaned out his prisons, too, and flung common criminals aboard the Mariel flotilla. Miami saw a record 600-plus murders that year as a result, and screen director Brian DiPalma immortalized the chaos in a remake of the movie "Scarface."

A legacy of longevity

In the end, Castro endured. He ruled Cuba longer than Josef Stalin ruled the Soviet Union, longer than Mao Zedong ruled China. Until he resigned, predictions of his downfall and death were as frequent as they were false.

He would not survive the U.S. trade embargo, it was said. He survived it. Cuba would rise up spontaneously, it was thought, to greet the Bay of Pigs invasion. It didn't rise up. Castro would be toppled from power, it was certain, once Soviet support was withdrawn. He didn't topple.

He thrived on the curses of his enemies, drawing strength from their anger and frustration. A case could be made that Castro was kept in power by the very people who hated him the most: the Cuban exile community. Their ironclad insistence on a futile trade embargo only served to cocoon Cuba from the breezes of the outside world. The embargo locked the country inside a communist time-vault, where the clock stopped in 1959. It gave Castro an all-too-easy explanation for all the economic miseries his misrule occasioned.

He called the exiles "gusanos," worms. What they called him cannot be printed. Castro, ironically, helped bankrupt and break up the Soviet Union. Under Castro, Cuba became a gigantic white elephant on the hands of the U.S.S.R., which by 1980 was pouring $3 million a day into the island to prop up its costly ally.

In the end, staring down superpowers, outlasting opponents at home and abroad, the wily dictator cut a wide wake across the world and goes to his grave with a certain undeniable style and swagger. He was one man, ruling over one relatively small island, but he managed to sway millions, scare the planet and shape modern history.

A privileged upbringing

Castro was born on Aug. 13, 1926, on a farm in Mayari municipality in the province of Oriente. His father, Angel Castro y Argiz, made a fortune selling horses to the Spanish colonial army of Gen. Espanol Weyler during the Cuban revolution of 1895 and ran a large, prosperous 1,000-acre ranch named Mana Acas ("Remain here").

Castro's mother was Lina Ruz Gonzalez, daughter of a second-generation Jewish immigrant family from Edirne, Turkey. Her father was Angel Castro's business partner. With her, Angel Castro had seven children: Fidel, Raul, Emma, Juana, Angela, Agustina and Ramon. Raul Castro became vice president of Cuba, while Juana defected to Miami, ran a drugstore in Little Havana and openly criticized her brother, the dictator.

Castro received an excellent education at the strict Jesuit boarding school in Havana, the Colegio de Belen; but he rebelled against the discipline and the strict orthodoxy of Catholicism and soon renounced religion. As a teenager, he liked baseball and once wrote a fan letter to President Franklin D. Roosevelt, asking for his autograph and a $5 bill. Roosevelt did not reply.

In 1945, he enrolled at the University of Havana, graduating in 1950 with a law degree. He married Mirta Diaz-Balart in 1948, but they were divorced in 1954. Their son, Fidel Castro Diaz-Balart, born in 1949, once served as head of Cuba's atomic energy commission. Castro also had an illegitimate daughter, Alina, by socialite Natalia Revuelta, and five sons by Dalia Soto del Valle.

Castro gravitated early toward politics. He became a member of the social-democratic Ortodoxo party in the late 1940s and through the 1950s vocally opposed the dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista, an army sergeant who had seized power in 1933, was briefly deposed and led a second coup in 1952. U.S. rule of Cuba had ended in 1909, but American troops were dispatched to the island several times in the decades that followed, and Cuba was heavily dependent on U.S. economic investment.

On July 26, 1953, Castro led an attack on the Moncada army barracks that failed but brought him national prominence. For his role in the failed attack, Castro was tried and sentenced to 15 years in prison. "History will vindicate me," he told the court. Pardoned in 1955, Castro went into exile in Mexico, where he founded the 26th of July Movement (named after the date of the Moncada assault), vowing to overthrow Batista. He returned in December 1956, accompanied by 81 comrades, including Ernesto "Che" Guevara, an Argentine physician.

The band of barbudos, or bearded ones, hid out in the Sierra Maestra mountains, from which they launched a successful guerrilla war that was thrillngly described by New York Times correspondent Herbert L. Matthews.

Castro became a kind of Cuban Robin Hood and won popular support for his cause both among the Cuban poor and middle classes, as well as in the United States. Cuba under Batista had become a sea-girt Sodom of rum, corruption, gambling and prostitution. Batista had padlocked Havana University to suppress student protests. The U.S. cut off arms sales to Cuba in 1958. Far from being a peasant's revolt, Castro's revolution had the fervent support of the best and brightest people in Cuba.

The overthrow

In the final weeks of 1958, Guevara routed 3,000 government troops in the province of Las Villas, 150 miles from the capital. A trainload of troops was sent to crush the rebellion; the troops refused to get off the railroad cars. Batista flew into exile on New Year's Day. When he landed at Jacksonville's Imeson airport, a Cuban exile rushed up to him and punched him in the face.

That night in Miami, the tiny Cuban community honked car horns and fired pistols in the air for joy. Soon, they would have plenty of company.

"There is corruption in every government. Batista took some money under the table from some people, sure," said Chris Oviedo, interviewed in 1999. "But Castro took away everything from everybody." Oviedo is a former jai-alai player who fled Cuba in 1960, rather than join Castro's militia. He found a job as a concierge at the Sun & Surf condominiums on Palm Beach.

"Power does not interest me. I will not take it," the 33-year-old Castro said at the end of a 600-mile triumphal march down Cuba's Central Highway. "From now on, the people are entirely free." He flew to Washington with a hundred cases of gift-rum, lunched in his fatigue jacket with Acting Secretary of State Christian Herter, talked to 18 congressmen on the Senate Foreign Relations committee and said his movement was "not a communist movement."

"We have no intention of expropriating United States property, and any property we take we'll pay for."

Within months of his return to Cuba, Castro suspended habeas corpus, established military tribunals all over the island, sent scores of Batista supporters to firing squads, recognized communist China and called the United States "a vulture . . . feeding on humanity." He spoke openly of his plans to communize Cuba within three years. The Pearl of the Antilles was vanishing behind what people called "the cane curtain."

One after another, U.S. assets worth $1 billion were nationalized. The U.S. responded with a trade embargo that remains in force to the present day. Washington severed diplomatic ties with Cuba in January 1961.

"I was working at the Remington typewriter plant in Havana," Jose Ruiz, an elderly West Palm Beach typewriter repairman, recalled. "One day, they walked in with a paper and we were all supposed to sign it. They were going to take over the plant. I refused to sign. I walked out and never came back. Eventually, I came to the United States."

Tens of thousands came with him. Parents who couldn't come sent their children alone, on mercy flights, to be taken care of as orphans by Catholic charities, in what was called Operation Pedro Pan. Much of Cuba's educated, upper and middle classes eventually came to South Florida, the nearest point to their former homeland, where they transformed Miami from a relaxed town of beaches and Art Deco hotels to a glass-towered hub of intercontinental commerce and banking. The city also developed a reputation for international intrigue and drug-smuggling.

Tensions with U.S. increase

John F. Kennedy had been president just one week when CIA Director Allen Dulles approached him with the news that a brigade of Cuban counter-revolutionaries had been secretly training in Guatemala for an armed invasion of Cuba. Dulles hoped for a repeat of the Eisenhower administration's 1954 coup in Guatemala, which overthrew a Marxist government there. Dulles assured Kennedy that at least 25 percent of the population of Cuba favored Castro's overthrow and, in the unlikely event the invasion failed, the landing force would "melt into the hills."

Kennedy yielded. The resultant Bay of Pigs invasion was a bloody disaster. A force of about 1,400 men disembarked on the night of April 17, 1961, across unmapped razor-sharp coral reefs that barred easy access to the beach. The volunteers had to slog ashore through deep surf that rendered many of their weapons inoperable.

Worse, the beach was far from deserted. The Bahia de Cochinos was being developed as a tourist resort, and within minutes of the landing, the Cuban militia was shooting back. Castro was alerted at 3:15 a.m. and sent 20,000 troops to the Bay of Pigs. At dawn, he launched six B-26 bombers and two T-33 jet trainer aircraft that flew rings around the invaders' lumbering aircraft. The U.S. declined to provide air support, and air mastery remained Castro's throughout the battle. Abandoned by their ships, ringed by heavy artillery and Soviet T-34 tanks, the exiles' invasion collapsed in 72 hours. Some 114 died.

"Paredon! Paredon!" Cubans screamed at the defeated exiles, referring to the wall against which condemned men faced the firing squad. After huge trials in Havana's stadium, the exiles were imprisoned and finally ransomed in 1962 for $53 million worth of food and medicine. Today, a monument to Brigade 2506 stands in Miami's Little Havana, as a memorial to the quixotic, yet undeniably brave attempt to liberate Cuba.

America's next brush with Castro nearly brought on World War III. U-2 spy plane overflights of western Cuba revealed a trapezoidal field near San Cristobal, protected by surface-to-air missiles and equipped with missile transporters, erectors and launchers. It was Oct. 15, 1962. The next 13 days proved to be terrifying, both at the time and in retrospect. Intelligence experts warned that, using the San Cristobal site, the Soviet Union would be able to launch an initial salvo of 40 nuclear warheads at the United States and that the weapons would reach their targets in as little as 2 minutes. As many as 80 million could die.

Initially the U.S. military, supported by former Secretary of State Dean Acheson, favored a surgical air strike. But Defense Secretary Robert McNamara urged a more cautious response: A naval blockade of the island. Some 180 Navy ships were deployed in the Caribbean, B-52 bombers carrying atomic weapons stayed airborne 24 hours a day in shifts, and fighter jets screamed over Jacksonville, Homestead and Key West. The First Armored Division was moved from Texas to embarkation ports in Georgia. A quarter of a million U.S. troops were put on alert.

On Oct. 22, eight days after the missiles were detected in Cuba, President Kennedy went on national television at 7 p.m. and told the country "unmistakable evidence has established the fact that a series of offensive missile sites is now in preparation on that imprisoned island." Aerial reconnaissance revealed feverish construction activity on at least eight bases, at least 30 missiles on Cuban soil and over 20 Ilyushin jet light bombers capable of carrying nuclear weapons to the U.S.

On Oct. 24, some 20 Soviet ships bound for Cuba stopped dead in the water. Six, then 12, turned around. Secretary of State Dean Rusk nudged National Security Adviser McGeorge Bundy and said: "We're eyeball to eyeball, and I think the other fellow just blinked."

On Oct. 28, Radio Moscow announced: "The Soviet government . . . has given a new order to dismantle the arms which you described as offensive, and to crate and return them to the Soviet Union." The U.S. promised in return not to invade Cuba.

Castro blustered that he had been betrayed and wasn't bound by the agreement, but the missiles were in Soviet hands and no Cubans knew how to operate them. The crisis ended, and the world stepped back from the brink of atomic war.

Cuba sinks deeper into poverty

The missile episode marked Castro's apogee on the world stage. Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, the dictator attempted to export his revolutionary ideals to South America and Africa, but Cuba itself sank deeper and deeper into poverty. Political dissent led to prison or deportation. Between 1965 and 1973, some 260,000 Cubans fled the island to the U.S.

Cuba was expelled from the Organization of American States in 1962, and the revolutionary icon "Che" Guevara was executed in Bolivia in 1967 while leading a futile insurrection. Che's handsome, long-haired picture adorned thousands of college dorm rooms in the U.S., where he posthumously became a radical chic hero during the Vietnam War. His mystique as the incorruptible Marxist lasted long enough for him to end up as a character in Andrew Lloyd Webber's 1979 Broadway musical, "Evita."

In 1975, Castro sent Cuban ground troops to fight in a Marxist rebellion in Angola. Later, Cuban forces shored up the brutal regime of Ethiopian leader Col. Mengistu Haile-Mariam in his war against Somalia, and by 1980, Cubans were fighting in Southern Yemen. Perhaps his most significant goodwill gesture was the exporting of his doctors to Third World countries such as Haiti and to Central and South America.

But Castro was full of surprises. In 1980 came the Mariel boatlift, a chaotic exodus of about 125,000 people from the beleaguered island. Cuban Americans sailed across the Straits of Florida and picked up their compatriots in an astounding mass-rescue that resembled the evacuation of Dunkirk in World War II. As Jimmy Carter's administration fumbled to respond, a population equivalent to that of a mid-sized city plopped down in Miami almost overnight.

The refugees were housed in tent cities under I-95, at the Krome Detention Camp in far western Dade County, in refugee settlements on Tamiami Trail. Crime soared. Castro had mixed common criminals with the flood of refugees, emptying his jails. Ultimately 2,700 Cuban felons were returned to the island, after being housed in federal detention centers from Atlanta to Lompoc, Calif.

Castro's attempt to support a Marxist revolution on the island of Grenada was squelched by a U.S. invasion in 1983. Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev visited Cuba in April 1989 and signed a 25-year friendship treaty with Castro, but Castro specifically rejected any Soviet-style reform. By 1993, the last Soviet troops were withdrawn from the island.

With the breakup of the Soviet Union, Castro lost his main economic prop. Trade with the Soviet Union had amounted to $5 billion a year. In three short years, Cuba's total foreign income shrank from $8.1 billion in 1989 to $2.2 billion in 1992. A chicken cost a month's salary, 120 pesos. Government workers earned the equivalent of $3 a month. Sugarcane production dropped to a 30-year low in 1994. The island was an economic basket case.

Tourists welcomed

Castro's solution was to permit limited tourism in Cuba, at specially designated resorts where only dollars were accepted as currency. Doctors and schoolteachers began moonlighting as taxi drivers and prostitutes.

In an odd way, Cuba's sheer backwardness made it an attractive tourist destination. Crumbling palaces and puttering old DeSoto and Studebaker automobiles offered a glimpse of life 40 years ago. The lack of industry and development had left Cuba's beaches and coral reefs in wonderfully pristine condition.

Sheer economic desperation forced yet another wave of emigration in 1994, as thousands of balseros, or raft people, attempted to reach the U.S. on miserable home-made craft that frequently broke apart at sea, drowning their passengers. Caked with salt, dripping with brine, sunburnt and starving, some 30,000 Cuban refugees came ashore in the Florida Keys before the U.S. finally slammed the door shut, announcing that Cubans would no longer be granted automatic asylum upon arrival in the U.S. Those who persisted in coming were repatriated forcibly through the U.S. naval base in Cuba at Guantanamo.

Bettye Chaplin, a real estate agent in Marathon, saw a daylight ghost in those days. A young windsurfer skidded up into her yard in 1996, after completing one of the strangest voyages on record across the Florida Straits.

"His hair was all spiky with salt and his feet were dead-white from standing on the board so long. And he just kind of collapsed," Chaplin said.

"I said to him: 'Are you telling me you've come from Cuba?' And he said: 'S".'

"And I said: 'Where's your boat?' And he pointed to this thing, this board, and I asked him: 'You came all the way from Cuba on that?' And he said: 'S".'

"And I said to my husband: 'Jimmy, call 911! This kid has come from Cuba, Jimmy!' And we took him out into the yard and put him under the sprinkler. His skin was on fire. And we gave him a glass of water and some bran cookies - my husband and I were on a diet and we had no food in the house at all. And he said: 'Gracias.'"

In 1998, Castro received a public relations boost from the visit to Cuba by Pope John Paul II, who decried the U.S. trade embargo.

Elian Gonzalez saga draws world attention

Still the refugees came, and at last there came one whom Fidel Castro wanted back.

On Nov. 25, 1999, 5-year-old Elian Gonzalez was found floating in an inner tube in the Atlantic Ocean after his mother drowned in an attempt to flee Cuba. Elian was taken in by relatives in Miami who refused to surrender him. His Cuban father said Elian had been kidnapped by his mother, and he should be returned to his homeland. Castro agreed.

For the next six months, the boy became the prize in an international tug-of-war between Cuba and the United States.

Elian became a kind of Cuban Oliver Twist, tugging at heartstrings 90 miles long, across 40 years' memory of rancor and recrimination. Once again, the Cuban dictator showed his extraordinary skill at manipulating American hearts and minds.

Castro triumphed. Relying on international law and common-sense ideals of family ties, he took the moral high ground, staged mass rallies in which thousands of Cubans screamed and wept for the return of Elian.

"We are going to move heaven and earth!" Castro shouted to a cheering crowd in Havana. "It will be a war, an international battle."

Attorney General Janet Reno finally ended the controversy. When the child's Miami relatives defied the authorities, she ordered the Immigration and Naturalization Service to snatch Elian forcibly from Little Havana and return him to Cuba. The raid occurred on April 22, 1999. Some 114 INS agents stormed the house where the boy was being held. The photograph of the terrified child being yanked out of a protector's arms by an INS official holding an M-16 rifle made front pages all over America.

A year later, Elian was reportedly doing well in Cuba, and his father had been given a handsome new house at state expense.

In recent years, a little luster was restored to Castro's authority when his Cuban model influenced international politics in Latin America and he nurtured the likes of Hugo Chavez in Venezuela and Daniel Ortega in Nicaragua. During the last four years, the island nation has received major financial assistance from Chavez, in the form of oil, and from China, which has provided consumer goods, such as refrigerators and air conditioners.

In June 2001, two hours into a speech, Castro seemed to list to one side and then fainted. Though he returned to the podium later, it was an omen of mortality. And in 2004, he shattered a kneecap and broke an arm when he fell after a speech.

What does this mean for the people in Cuba?" President Bush said at a news conference Tuesday during a trip to Africa. "They're the ones who suffered under Fidel Castro. They're the ones who were put in prison because of their beliefs. They're the ones who have been denied their right to live in a free society. So I view this as a period of transition and it should be the beginning of the democratic transition in Cuba."

Bush said he anticipates debate about Cuba's future, and that some people will say "Let's promote stability."

"In the meantime, political prisoners will rot in prison and the human condition will remain pathetic in many cases," he said.

[T Park]

Which is it, "help them out" or make them show that "they are willing to help their own people out"?

You can't have it both ways.


Last time I respond to you because I don't know what your problem is.

If the government shows they will allow writers to disagree with them, let protests happen, pretty much let the people live like we do in america, free, able to do whatever you want. Then I think we can give em a bit of aid, help out their worst of the worst, and lift the embargo.

[Spawn]

Ruwanda, Kenya, Niger, Zaire, and many other West African nations also deserve a break, but I don't see anyone in our government looking out for their welfare.





Yes, because they can't fend for themselves.

Very good points. I'd also like to add...

http://darfurscores.org/files/banner_350x250.jpg

They could use a little help as well. I mean it's only a genocide that is happening right now.

[Spawn]

Last time I respond to you because I don't know what your problem is.

If the government shows they will allow writers to disagree with them, let protests happen, pretty much let the people live like we do in america, free, able to do whatever you want. Then I think we can give em a bit of aid, help out their worst of the worst, and lift the embargo.

Why does the government have to show all of this? It's not as if America hasn't supported oppressive regimes in the past.

[T Park]

Great article Solid.

[Ignignokt]

And then you became a Chiefs fan?

Go back to Cuba!!! Go Broncos.


Kidding.


fuck the rammies while you're at it.

[Solid D]

Great article Solid.

It recapped 50+ years of information fairly well....and from a Florida perspective.

[tlongII]

Why would that happen? Cuba has strong support from Venezuela, China, Iran and Russia; we don't have anything they need. Except for maybe a few tourist dollars---which will pale in comparison with what Europeans and Asians already spend there every year. There will be no big change until after Raul Castro is also gone--if then.

I agree with the Raul Castro part. I disagree with the rest. American tourists would greatly outnumber Euro and Asian tourists if there were no restrictions.

[mrsmaalox]

First business in order to help them is to take that pesky embargo that the Americans placed on Cuba that did nothing but hurt the Cuban citizens.

The embargo was the result of the pressure from Cubans who left Cuba after the revolution. Cuban-America wields a great amt of political power, and they are the force that dictates America's policies in Cuba.

[Fideo Castro]

Only time will tell if Castro's resignation amounts to anything.

[Kriz-Maxima]

Leave Cuba alone.

[Johnny_Blaze_47]

This may just be my cynical mind, but I kind of wonder if Castro might have suddenly died for it to be announced so late.

[Pistons < Spurs]

This may just be my cynical mind, but I kind of wonder if Castro might have suddenly died for it to be announced so late.
I thought it was curious too, for the news to come out at 2:30-3:00 AM Eastern time.

[peewee's lovechild]

Last time I respond to you because I don't know what your problem is.

If the government shows they will allow writers to disagree with them, let protests happen, pretty much let the people live like we do in america, free, able to do whatever you want. Then I think we can give em a bit of aid, help out their worst of the worst, and lift the embargo.


I don't think we should go down there and say "look you do this do that" just help em out. Say hey, were here for ya, were gonna open up trade with ya, hopefully tourism can return and hopefully you can get some money infused, get your people working, and the downtrodden can rise up a bit and have a chance.

[Nbadan]

What does this mean for the people in Cuba?" President Bush said at a news conference Tuesday during a trip to Africa. "They're the ones who suffered under Fidel Castro. They're the ones who were put in prison because of their beliefs. They're the ones who have been denied their right to live in a free society. So I view this as a period of transition and it should be the beginning of the democratic transition in Cuba."

:rolleyes

...yeah..kinda like the 'democratic transition' going on in Iraq...and the 'democratic transition' Dubya wants in Iran.......