THE FRIENDS OF FIDEL CASTRO - blaming the U.S. ABSOLVES RESPONSIBILITY

Miami Herald ^ | May 28, 2003 | staff

[Cincinatus' Wife]

While the recent repressive crackdown has awakened many people, including leftists, to the true nature of Cuba's police state, sheer ignorance and the myth of the socialist paradise stubbornly persist. Add fervent anti-U.S. sentiment, and you have the recipe for Monday's event in Buenos Aires where some 15,000 fans of Fidel Castro turned out to applaud the totalitarian dictator.

''The United States wants to impose a universal, Nazi-fascist dictatorship,'' Castro told the admiring crowd. Perhaps the crowd didn't realize what he was projecting: Castro himself has imposed such a totalitarian dictatorship on the Cuban people.

Cuban President Fidel Castro covers his eyes from spotlights as he speaks to thousands of Argentine college students, gathered on the steps of the Buenos Aires University Law School, in Buenos Aires, May 26, 2003. Castro, visiting Argentina to attend the inauguration of Nestor Kirchner as the country's next president, was forced to speak outside as the university's auditorium became chaotic after thousands more people showed up than were invited. REUTERS/Marcos Brindicci

Ironically, Argentines who still laud Castro are, in effect, supporting the kind of military dictatorship that terrorized Argentina with censorship, disappearances, torture and summary executions. Except that Argentina's dirty war lasted seven years while Cuba's has gone on 44 years and counting.

Most recently, Cuba's leader-for-life led a brutal campaign to silence his critics on the island, instill terror in Cubans who long for a better future and blame all his failures on the United States. He summarily executed three accused ferryboat hijackers and ordered 20-year-plus prison terms for 75 activists who did nothing more than peacefully dissent -- actions condemned by democrats and human-rights supporters around the globe.

It's normal that concentrations of enormous wealth and power will elicit resistance and even resentment. It has been that way since David and Goliath and continues to this day. So when policies of economic liberalization are being challenged by new, populist leaders in various parts of the hemisphere, it should be expected even more that there be expressions of anti-American sentiment. This concerns us and is a clear call for attention, respect and action from the Bush administration.

Yet this sentiment doesn't excuse and shouldn't be used to hide the lack of moral compass implicit in lauding Castro. You can object to U.S. policies and views and even admire principled opposition. You cannot, however, condone murder by the state or the deprivation of freedom of the Cuban people.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Fidel Castro - Cuba

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Cuba's Heroic Heretics***My stand is pragmatic: if you have an individual that abuses his family at home, the right thing to do is to remove the individual from the home, not to give him more money to continue abusing. If the international community had acted with Cuba in the same form that it did with [the apartheid regime] of South Africa, our country would have been free a long time ago.***

[SwinneySwitch]

Viva la Revolucion!

[Conspiracy Guy]

Fidel is just misunderstood, sort of like Saddam with a cigar.

[CyberAnt]

Speaking of Saddam ... did everybody hear that former Iraqi leaders have been found in Cuba ...??

I don't know how they were found, or by who, but I wonder if Cuba has any idea what they've done ...?? They have opened the door for us to go in ...!!

[Yardstick]

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/918952/posts

I'd love to see us pull an "Iraq" in Cuba. It would be so sweet to see Cuba emerge like a jewel from its decades-long pergatory of communist squalor. And it'd make one heck of a fifty-first state.

[CyberAnt]

I agree !!

[Conspiracy Guy]

I haven't even heard a rumor to that effect. Ping me if you get more.

[CyberAnt]

Here's the thread:

Influx of Iraqi Officals Reported in Cuba [After Fall of Baghdad]

[Conspiracy Guy]

Air France?

[CyberAnt]

Posted by Grampa Dave to CyberAnt
On News/Activism ^ 05/28/2003 11:51 AM PDT #76 of 90 ^

Go to this link re travel to and from Havana:

http://travel.yahoo.com/p/travelguide/854984

"Carriers

"Cubana, the national carrier, offers direct service between Havana and just about anywhere in the world (except the United States) and between Santiago de Cuba and Madrid, Spain; Paris, France; and Frankfurt, Germany. Domestic service includes daily flights between Havana and Santiago de Cuba and Havana and Holguín. (It's illegal for U.S. citizens to fly on Cubana, as it entails a cash payment to the Cuban government -- a trade embargo no-no.) Several major foreign carriers, undoubtedly more comfortable than Cubana, also serve the island; they include British Airways (weekly) and Iberia (daily).

"You can get the best rates to Cuba, particularly from Canada (Toronto handles most of the traffic), by booking a charter flight.

It would have been very simple to charter a Cubana Charter Flight from Toronto to Havana with basically no questions asked if everyone had a French Passport.