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By Bob Woodward
$15.00
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By Michael Hudson
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Arcadio Esquivel, Cagle Cartoons, La Prensa, Panama —
Posted on Jul 10, 2012
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Flickr / ¡Que comunismo!
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Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has been busy courting countries from Latin America to Eastern Europe to the Middle East to the Far East to assemble a political and economic bulwark against American imperialism. (more)
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AP / Javier Galeano
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A week shy of his 84th birthday, Fidel Castro took to the podium Saturday to address the Cuban parliament on the threat of nuclear war, his first such address in more than four years.
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Library of Congress / Warren K. Leffler
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Fidel was a no-show and brother Raul kept quiet during Cuba’s annual Revolution Day festivities, leading journalists, analysts and amateur handicappers to puzzle over the larger implications. The Guardian reports “bafflement among the 90,000-strong crowd” that turned out to hear speeches.
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Flickr / United Nations Photo
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In a meeting that could signify shifting tides between the U.S. and Cuba, Cuba’s foreign minister has met with Hillary Clinton’s chief of staff at a U.N. forum on Haiti relief, the first public meeting of such high-level officials in years.
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White House / Pete Souza
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On Wednesday, President Obama issued a statement criticizing recent human rights violations in Cuba, “including the tragic death of Orlando Zapata Tamayo, the repression visited upon Las Damas de Blanco,” among other incidents, which he deemed “deeply disturbing.” Over to you, Cuban government.
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Library of Congress
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A 72-year-old former State Department employee and his 71-year-old wife were arrested Thursday on charges of spying for the Cuban government. An undercover FBI agent reportedly tricked the couple into giving up their secret after they allegedly had been engaged in espionage for 30 years.
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AP photo / Marianna Kambon, Summit of the Americas pool
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Could it be that diplomacy works better than a my-way-or-the-highway approach when dealing with adversarial nations? Judging by President Obama’s apparent progress with the Cuban government, the answer would seem to be yes.
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Did the nationwide “tea parties” on April 15 constitute a much-needed boost for the Republican base? Was the Obama administration right to release the latest batch of torture memos from the Bush years?
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Library of Congress
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Barack Obama is so good at making friends. First Iran, of axis-of-evil fame, embraced the president’s flirtations, and now Cuba’s revolutionary in chief has warmed to El Diablo del Norte. Fidel Castro on Tuesday praised Obama’s recent overtures, but said many other U.S. policy changes are needed. His brother and president, Raul, is open to negotiations.
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By Eugene Robinson — In 10 trips to Cuba, I have met Afro-Cubans who told me with conviction of their opportunities under the Castro regime. But I’ve also heard bitter complaints about deep-seated racism that many black Cubans believe is getting worse.
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.everythingcuba.com
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The Obama administration is relaxing some of the restrictions on travel to and business with Cuba, launching a new initiative that will allow American telecom companies to set up cell phone and other services on the island nation.
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AP photo / Lynne Sladky
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By Reese Erlich — A majority of Florida’s Cuban-Americans, including many former hard-liners, have come to oppose a U.S. embargo strategy that has proved futile over the decades.
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By Joe Conason — Once, conservatives liked to say that “ideas matter.” Although many of their theories later proved flimsy, they at least attempted to address real problems with fresh thinking. But ideas no longer matter—and in fact they’re dangerous, according to the maximum leader of the right.
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wsj.com
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The 50-year U.S. relationship with revolutionary Cuba may warm up this winter, with some on the island seeing an Obama presidency as an indicator of potential change in the two countries’ diplomatic and trade status. A Havana barber is quoted as holding hope for reconciliation despite the fact that Obama “is a capitalist and likely an imperialist.”
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By Eugene Robinson — President-elect Obama will have more urgent matters to deal with after he takes the oath of office. But somewhere on his long to-do list, he should make a note to finally bring five decades of counterproductive American policy toward Cuba to a definitive end.
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filminfocus.com
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By Sheerly Avni — Gus Van Sant’s “Milk” is a movie to be thankful for. Go see it, tonight if you can, and in a crowded theater. Then open up some merlot and watch the documentary “The Times of Harvey Milk,” by Robert Epstein—because these two films belong together.
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commons.wikimedia.org
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Forty-six years after the Cuban Missile Crisis, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said he wants “to rebuild our positions in Cuba” by strengthening economic cooperation with the island nation. The push could be a retort to America’s resolve to build a missile shield on Russia’s doorstep.
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By Eugene Robinson — Other than providing Fidel Castro with a convenient antagonist to help him whip up nationalist fervor—and thus prolong his rule—the U.S. trade embargo and other sanctions have accomplished precisely nothing.
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commons.wikimedia.org and Flickr / seiu_international
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Semi-retired Cuban leader Fidel Castro thinks Barack Obama is “the most-advanced candidate in the presidential race,” so he must have been disappointed to hear that Obama would continue an embargo against the island nation. That policy, Castro wrote in a column that appeared in state newspapers, is “a formula for hunger for [Cuba].”
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AP photo / Carlo Allegri
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One of the most hotly anticipated contenders at this year’s Cannes Film Festival is “Che,” Steven Soderbergh’s lengthy biopic of iconic Argentine revolutionary Che Guevara, featuring Benicio del Toro in the title role. However, whether the excitement surrounding the “Che” screening at the French film fest is any indication that moviegoers will flock to the (currently) 4-hour-plus production remains to be seen.
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Flickr / soggydan
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In keeping with his image as a president for yesterday, John McCain promised a crowd in Florida he would do nothing to upset the policy of isolation that has proved so ineffective in regard to Cuba. “Florida will be yours!” shouted a grateful foe of the Castro regime.
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Flickr / Lauras512
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Raul Castro would like to see his island produce more food. Currently, Cuba imports the vast majority of its basic food products, at increasing expense, despite plenty of arable land. Private farmers and collective growers are hoping new reforms make it easier to produce food more efficiently, and that’s not just good news for Cuba. With rice rationing at Costco, that’s good news for the world.
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What will history say about the implacable anti-imperialist and unrepentant revolutionary who has held power in Cuba for nearly 50 years? The publication of Fidel Castro’s and Ignacio Ramonet’s “My Life: A Spoken Autobiography” helps us understand the man and his myth.
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AP photo / Jorge Rey
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Be it through changes in cell phone restrictions or proposed legislation recognizing same-sex unions and transgender rights, Cuba’s political future is looking up for many of its citizens.
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news.bbc.co.uk
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Cuba’s National Assembly has named Raul Castro president and successor to his brother Fidel. Raul has essentially been running the country since Fidel had major surgery in 2006. Although he was expected to throw a bone to a younger generation of leaders, Raul named another septuagenarian veteran of the revolution his vice president.
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AP photo / J. Pat Carter
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Sen. John McCain, campaigning in Indianapolis, said Cuba won’t be better off under Fidel Castro’s fraternal successor, Raul Castro, whom he called “worse in many respects than Fidel was,” and the Republican front-runner voiced the hope that Fidel will meet his commie maker, Karl Marx, “very soon.”
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Now that Fidel Castro’s got a bit more time on his hands, documentary überdirector Michael Moore has a suggestion for how he might spend his first official weekend out of office—as long as he’s got a penguin suit handy.
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AP photo / Javier Galeano
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Fidel Castro announced on Tuesday that he “neither will aspire to nor will I accept the position of president of the Council of State and commander in chief.” He had stayed in firm control of Cuba for nearly 50 years despite all the best efforts of a superpower some 90 miles away. In the end, he was forced from office not by coup or assassination, but trouble with his intestine.
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AP photo / Pablo Martinez Monsivais
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Director Oliver Stone has already demonstrated his penchant for making movies about controversial figures and critical moments in world history, so it should come as no surprise that Stone is turning his lens on George W. Bush for his next film, simply and succinctly called “Bush.”
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AP photo / Fernando Llano
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Hugo Chavez sounded an optimistic note Monday after ending up on the losing end of a vote—by a slim 51 to 49 percent margin—that would have expanded his constitutional powers as Venezuela’s president and instituted changes in federal fund allocation and labor policy, among other proposed developments.
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Brooks Kraft / Corbis
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Ever a fan of failed policy, President Bush has reiterated his support of the embargo against Cuba, which, one might recall, was enacted more than four decades ago to force Fidel Castro from power. Bush also praised the patient (and sometimes violent) Cuban dissidents, who, he said, one day “will be the nation’s leaders.”
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AP photo / Jose Goitia, file
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Joining in the exciting game of apocalyptic Mad Libs that President Bush kicked off with his recent pronouncement that a nuclear-equipped Iran could start World War III, Cuban leader Fidel Castro has swapped out “Iran” for “Bush” and turned Bush’s accusation back at him in this latest round of doomsday fun.
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AP Photo / Victor R. Caivano
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By Marc Cooper — A former translator for Chile’s Salvador Allende reviews three books evaluating the remarkable rise of Venezuela’s irrepressible Hugo Chavez.
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en.rian.ru
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Despite widespread speculation that Cuban leader Fidel Castro had died recently, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has assured the global community that Castro is, in fact, alive and doing better. Cuban officials, meanwhile, also say Castro is recovering but haven’t said if and when he would return to office.
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the-net.dk
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An independent Cuban human rights organization says Cuba has taken fewer and freed more political prisoners under the rule of Raul Castro, compared with his brother, Fidel. But the group says human rights abuses by the government are still a problem, as is the U.S. embargo, which it says imposes unnecessary hardship on the Cuban people.
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AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta
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On Tuesday, CIA Director Michael V. Hayden made good on his pledge to declassify nearly 700 pages of documents about some of the agency’s dirtiest laundry from the past—its “family jewels”—including details about assassination plots, wiretapping and other alarming activities.
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Zuade Kaufman / Truthdig
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The iconic author and historian speaks with Truthdig Editor Robert Scheer about his recent tour of Cuba, why he thinks the island has a bright future and why the United States, the world’s only superpower, has an inferiority complex.
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By Eugene Robinson — The Bush administration says that its zero-tolerance policy against terrorism applies to all suspected evildoers, not just Muslims, and that its zero-tolerance policy against Cuba is a principled position, not just an exercise in pandering to the implacable anti-Castro exiles in Miami. On both counts, evidence suggests otherwise.
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A huge border enforcement drill involving hundreds of agents chasing make-believe migrants on the Miami shoreline proved to be hugely successful for some 40 actual Cuban refugees Thursday. Two incoming boatloads squeaked by the “Operation Vigilant Sentry” squads, including one group of 21 that came ashore at a nudist beach.
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pbs.org
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Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has reinvigorated speculation over Fidel Castro’s health after announcing that the Cuban leader is “locked in a battle for his life.” The two leaders are known to be close, and Castro has yet to make a public appearance since undergoing surgery in July.
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Since the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 removed much of the padding from Cuba’s economy, Cubans have found some creative ways to alleviate the financial hardships of life under the communist system.
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AP Photo / Alan Diaz
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By Richard Walden — The president of a Los Angeles-based international relief agency writes that America’s inhumane policy toward Cuban aid remains tragically out of date.
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eur.news1.yimg.com
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Cuba’s acting president, Raul Castro, hinted at boosting freedom of expression this week, inviting university students to debate without fear. The remarks signal a departure from the practices of his brother, Fidel, who handed over power after undergoing surgery in July.
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In a surprisingly frank and irresponsible statement, Florida Republican Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen calls for Fidel Castro’s death: “I welcome the opportunity of having anyone assassinate Fidel Castro and any leader who is oppressing, oppressing the people.” Watch it
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