Winnie Biscet On Canto Talk Via Conversa Cuba

Canto Talk with Winnie Biscet daughter of Imprisoned Afro Cuban Human rights leader Dr. Oscar Elias Biscet

Cuba Travel opposed by more Democrats

Via Mauricio Carone of Capitol Hill Cubans

Slice from the story by the Miami Herald /

"53 Democrats in the House have told Pelosi that they oppose lifting the ban, blunting the momentum that proponents of lifting the travel ban have had under a Democratic president and Democratic-led Congress.

``Any legislation that would seek to ease or lift sanctions . . . would send a devastating message to Cuba's opposition movement and legitimize an ailing dictatorship,'' states the letter signed by Florida Reps. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Kendrick Meek, Alcee Hastings and 50 others.

Wasserman Schultz, who helped gather signatures, said the letter is aimed at showing that a number of Democrats oppose easing sanctions against Cuba, a stance that is traditionally associated with Republicans.

``We felt it was important to show that when push comes to shove, the votes aren't there,'' Wasserman Schultz said. ``The number of Republicans opposed combined with these Democrats would seem to spell that it would not be successful.''More

Yoani Sanchez & Friends beaten Sicilian style

Cuban Female blogger Yoani Sanchez and friends were beaten In the streets of La Habana Cuba, In what she described as an attempted kidnapping by Cuban secret police thugs, Just a couple of days ago November 6 2009 on their way to a public act against Violence.Protest Video Here And Here



FULL STORY

Bipatisan panel of Washington DC politicians condemn brutal attack on Yoani and her friends HERE

Cuban workers fear losing food and jobs

(Bananas outside a Cuban state owned food depot)

Updated 11 11 2009 Thousands of Cuban state workers getting axed story here

Food story slice below /

"..Police were called to one farmers market this month when customers shouted and chanted at state workers conducting a routine inspection. Two Associated Press reporters were escorted out of the same market Tuesday after their questions about the changes caused another shouting match.

Producers, sellers and customers said they heard from party officials that new price controls were set to begin Nov. 1 — but were postponed until January after a public outcry unheard of under the totalitarian government.

The agros first appeared in the 1980, when food shortages forced a reluctant Fidel Castro to allow farmers to sell produce at prices driven, at least in part, by the free market. Castro shuttered them six years later to improve foundering state agricultural production

But the small dose of capitalism returned in 1994, when Cuba was again forced to allow more free-market enterprise to keep its people from starving after the collapse of the Soviet Union, which gave Cuba billions in annual subsidies".
Full story here

Two new books on Cuba reveal truth about Cuba / Juanita Castro & Manuel M. Sterling

Hat tip John O'Donnell Rosales




(Juanita Castro pic above)

".. (Juanita)Castro, 76, initially supported her brother's 1959 overthrow of the Batista dictatorship but quickly grew disillusioned. In a Spanish-language memoir published by Santillana USA and co-written by journalist Maria Antonieta Collins, she says the wife of the Brazilian ambassador to Cuba persuaded her to meet a CIA officer during a trip to Mexico in 1961.

Castro says in the book, "My Brothers Fidel and Raul. The Secret Story," that she traveled to Mexico City under the pretense of visiting her younger sister Enma. There she also secretly met a CIA officer who identified himself as "Enrique" at the elegant Camino Real hotel.

Castro said she remained on the island while her mother was alive, believing she was protected from the full wrath of her brother. Her mother died in 1963 and she fled Cuba the following year, eventually settling into a quiet life in Miami, where she ran a pharmacy until 2007 and is generally well regarded by other Cuban exiles."
More

Another just released book by Professor Emeritus In History Manuel Marquez Sterling plots "The True Story of Castro's Rise To Power" Via The Cubanology Report

Listen to the 15 minute Interview with Professor Manuel Marquez Sterling via Brian Tilton of Bulldog Radio from New Hampshire Audio Here

Cuban Prisoner Nelson Aguir Ramirez released

Hat tip Carolina


Nelson Alberto Aguiar Ramirez had been sentenced to 13 years in prison for treason, but he was released and picked up by his wife early Tuesday, according to Laura Pollan, a founding member of the "Ladies in White" support group for the wives and relatives of those arrested during the 2003 crackdown.

Aguiar Ramirez and 74 other political opposition leaders, activists and independent journalists were arrested on charges of conspiring with Washington to topple Cuba's government, accusations both the U.S. and Cuban dissidents denied

Aguiar Ramirez becomes the 22nd of the so-called "Group of 75" to be freed. Others were granted conditional parole for health reasons, completed shorter sentences or were released into forced exile in Spain." More

Undersea cable to Cuba latest / Captain Nemo Resurfaces

Hat tip John O'Donnell Rosales


CARACAS, Venezuela

"Venezuela plans to begin laying an undersea cable to Cuba soon in an effort to improve telecommunication links.

Venezuela's science and technology minister, Jesse Chacon, says the government has an agreement with the Paris-based company Alcatel-Lucent to produce and lay the optical communications fiber.

Chacon said Friday that the government expects to begin work soon. His agency said last week that the link should be operational in two years and will cost about $63 million.

A small Miami-based company, TeleCuba, also said this week that it plans to lay the first optical communications fiber from the U.S. to Cuba"

Eskuadron Patriota / Decadencia

Hat tip Alexander Gonzalez




English Tranlation watch here

Update of "Oscar's Cuba" Film & Dr. Darsi Ferrer (On Hunger strike)

Uncommon Sense has latest update on Dr Darsi Ferrer's condition and situation In Cuban prison 10 18 2009



Via Ziva @ Babalu

"Oscar’s Cuba is a feature-length documentary video that will help spread the message and story of Dr. Oscar Biscet, a prisoner of conscience currently serving a 25-year prison sentence in Cuba for his promotion of human rights. Oscar’s Cuba will highlight the courage, faith and hope of Dr. Biscet and others working for democracy on the island. The goals of Oscar’s Cuba include raising public awareness about the plight of the Cuban people, helping individuals to stand and work in solidarity with those unjustly imprisoned and, ultimately, helping to secure the release of Dr. Biscet and all of Cuba’s prisoners of conscience.

“Here, in this dark jail where they force me to live, I will be resisting until the freedom of my people is obtained.” ~Dr. Oscar Biscet~

See the new site for Oscar's Cuba HERE

Cuban Internet sensasion Yoani Sanchez denied travel out of Cuba Yet again

Updated on 10 17 2009 Yoani Sanchez featured In the New York Times

" Yoani Sanchez had hoped to go to Columbia University for a Wednesday ceremony to receive her Maria Moors Cabot Prize, the oldest international award in journalism.

In May(2009), Cuban authorities denied Sanchez permission to fly to Madrid to accept the Ortega y Gasset Prize in digital journalism for creating Generation Y, which gets more than 1 million hits a month. Around the same time, Time magazine deemed Sanchez one of the world's 100 most influential people.

Sanchez uses Generation Y, started in April 2007, to offer simple but compelling insights into modern Cuba and isn't afraid to criticize the country's totalitarian system, its poverty or the chronically low morale and disillusionment many of its citizens struggle to overcome." more

Wasp network Cuban spy resentenced

"Shootdown" Facts,Bios & Frequently asked questions

Even more Extensive Factsheets Here

Mirta Costa mother of Carlos Alberto Costa one of the 4 Cuban-American men shot down In cold blood by Cuban Mig jets Feb 24 1996 speaks outside of court In Miami Florida.

More pics here


Slice from the story:

"U.S. District Judge Joan Lenard resentenced Antonio Guerrero, 50, to 21 years and 10 months imprisonment for his part in a Cuban espionage ring U.S. prosecutors said had sought to penetrate U.S. military facilities and had spied on the Cuban exile community in Florida.

Guerrero, who has Cuban and U.S. citizenships, and four other convicted Cuban spies also arrested in 1998 formed the so-called "Wasp Network" sent to the United States to infiltrate exile groups opposed to Cuba's communist government, then led by Fidel Castro

U.S. prosecutors had linked the activities of the Cuban spy ring to the 1996 shooting down by Cuban fighter jets of two planes belonging to an exile group, Brothers to the Rescue, which flew near Cuba. Four men in the planes were killed".
More

Matt Lawrence an American member of The Brothers to the Rescue tells his story below

When I left Cuba author Luis Aguile Picca Dies In Spain

"Argentine-born singer-songwriter Luis Aguile, whose global hits include Juanita Banana and Cuando Sali de Cuba (When I Left Cuba), has died in Madrid. He was 73.

Born Luis Maria Aguilera Picca on Feb. 24, 1936,In Buenos Aires, Aguile moved in 1963 to Spain, where his music career soared.

He composed about 400 songs and recorded more than 700 in total. He dedicated When I Left Cuba to the Cubans who left their country after Fidel Castro took power. The song became a battle cry for exiled Cubans everywhere." more

Longtime fugitive arrested @ JFK after flight from Cuba

Update 14:52 10 13 2009 Captured Puerto Rican nationalist from Cuba pleads not guilty In NY read more here


"Longtime fugitive Luis Armando Pena Soltren was arrested Sunday after arriving at John F. Kennedy International Airport on a flight from Cuba, federal authorities said. He was wanted for his role in the Nov. 24, 1968, hijacking of a Pan Am flight bound from New York to Puerto Rico

Dozens of U.S. flights were hijacked and diverted to Cuba in the 1960s. Some of the flights were hijacked by self-described radical leftists, fugitives seeking asylum on the Caribbean island or criminals scheming to extort money from the U.S. government or the airlines." more

Remermber The Maine / American Woman wins claim vs Cuba

Pic and story via Bangor Daily News

"Sherry Sullivan looks through some government documents about her father, Geoffrey Sullivan, who disappeared on September 24, 1963 during a flight to Honduras"

BELFAST, Maine —" A Maine court has found the Republic of Cuba guilty of the wrongful death of an American veteran believed to have been shot down while on a covert mission over the island decades ago".

Geoffrey Francis Sullivan was 29 years old when he disappeared. He was an Air Force veteran and held a commercial pilot’s license. He also served in the Army National Guard where he met Alexander Irwin Rorke Jr., a New York newspaperman, who was believed to be an operative of the Central Intelligence Agency who ran guns to Cuba.

The official story was that their plane disappeared somewhere over Central America, but Sullivan believes he was held in a Cuban jail for at least a decade and later executed as a spy. She was 5 years old when her father disappeared and has been investigating his fate for decades. The Department of Veterans Affairs has listed Sullivan as “missing in action.”

Sullivan said similar suits filed by victims of the Cuban Revolution under anti-terrorism statutes have proved successful in courts in Florida and elsewhere. She said she was unsure when she would collect her award, but that it had taken others up to three years to collect frozen Cuban assets. If she does receive the money, she said, it will be used to help her daughters and grandchildren and to keep searching for the truth of what happened to her father." MORE