Comments on: The Crumbling U.S. Embargo on Cuba http://dissidentvoice.org/2009/08/the-crumbling-u-s-embargo-on-cuba/ a radical newsletter in the struggle for peace and social justice Thu, 08 Dec 2011 15:07:30 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: heyyou http://dissidentvoice.org/2009/08/the-crumbling-u-s-embargo-on-cuba/#comment-51576 heyyou Fri, 07 Aug 2009 01:00:17 +0000 http://dissidentvoice.org/?p=9523#comment-51576 I agree that Obama should move swiftly on this.......but most of all the reason why I love to visit Cuba? no obnoxious American tourists saying things like "hey gringo" to wait staff in restuarants and stuff like I hear when I visit other countries. I'll be making a lot of trips before the American tourists start arriving. I agree that Obama should move swiftly on this…….but most of all the reason why I love to visit Cuba? no obnoxious American tourists saying things like “hey gringo” to wait staff in restuarants and stuff like I hear when I visit other countries. I’ll be making a lot of trips before the American tourists start arriving.

]]> By: Josie Michel-Brüning http://dissidentvoice.org/2009/08/the-crumbling-u-s-embargo-on-cuba/#comment-51441 Josie Michel-Brüning Tue, 04 Aug 2009 11:45:38 +0000 http://dissidentvoice.org/?p=9523#comment-51441 Hi, Doug to whom do you refer when you want to insist that there are Granma available to Cubans in the streets. As for me, I wanted to say, that there are besides Granma Daily, as well as Granma Internacional (at least in Havanna) also other newspapers are available. May be, I didn't find the correct words. Sorry for that. Apart from that, I agree with your suggestions. And as for Luis Posada Carriles he should be extradited to Venezuela. It is a ly, that he had to fear torture there. Under the government of Huga Chávez there is not torture in Venezuela any more, in the opposit to the times when Posada was a responsible member of the secret police (DISIP) in Venezuela during the 1970s. He personally was responsible for torture then. Hi, Doug to whom do you refer when you want to insist that there are Granma available to Cubans in the streets.
As for me, I wanted to say, that there are besides Granma Daily, as well as Granma Internacional (at least in Havanna) also other newspapers are available. May be, I didn’t find the correct words. Sorry for that.
Apart from that, I agree with your suggestions. And as for Luis Posada Carriles he should be extradited to Venezuela.
It is a ly, that he had to fear torture there. Under the government of Huga Chávez there is not torture in Venezuela any more, in the opposit to the times when Posada was a responsible member of the secret police (DISIP) in Venezuela during the 1970s. He personally was responsible for torture then.

]]> By: Doug McDonald http://dissidentvoice.org/2009/08/the-crumbling-u-s-embargo-on-cuba/#comment-51397 Doug McDonald Mon, 03 Aug 2009 20:58:26 +0000 http://dissidentvoice.org/?p=9523#comment-51397 What you've written about Granma not being available to cubans in the streets is not so. I spend winters in Nueva Gerona, Isla de la Juventud and I buy a granma newspaper nearly every day. It sells for 20 centavos which is about 1 cent usd. Excellent article....if Obama was so busy with so many other really big issues, he might have time to reconsider what surely has to be done: 1, drop the embargo 2..lift all travel restrictionds to cuba for both ex pats and average aamericans 3. close Guantanamo and return the base to Cuba. 4. release the 5 and send them home in return for Cuba releasing political prisoners there. 5. deal with Posada 6. Abolish the Helms-Burton law. What you’ve written about Granma not being available to cubans in the streets is not so. I spend winters in Nueva Gerona, Isla de la Juventud and I buy a granma newspaper nearly every day. It sells for 20 centavos which is about 1 cent usd.
Excellent article….if Obama was so busy with so many other really big issues, he might have time to reconsider what surely has to be done:
1, drop the embargo
2..lift all travel restrictionds to cuba for both ex pats and average aamericans
3. close Guantanamo and return the base to Cuba.
4. release the 5 and send them home in return for Cuba releasing political prisoners there.
5. deal with Posada
6. Abolish the Helms-Burton law.

]]> By: Josie Michel-Brüning http://dissidentvoice.org/2009/08/the-crumbling-u-s-embargo-on-cuba/#comment-51375 Josie Michel-Brüning Mon, 03 Aug 2009 17:31:51 +0000 http://dissidentvoice.org/?p=9523#comment-51375 Thank you very much, dear Sharat, for your article! And also thank you very much to all comments! By the way, there are some other newspapers than "Granma" in Cuba: "Juventud rebelde" and "Trabajadores", I had seen there. Quoting Gerardo Hernández Nordelo, one of the Cuban Five (2 life prison terms + 15 years), in an interview with Saul Landau by phone from his prison in victorville, when mentioning the attitude of the US government towards Cuba: "Cuba is the hell, but you are not allowed to visit it." As a German woman being able to travel to Cuba occasionelly, I can tell you Cuba is beautiful and its people in their majority are well educated and self confident, and you need not fear for your life as in some other places, for instance in the USA. Please, everybody, join the campaign to free the Five. Please, visit www.thecuban5.org and www.freethefive.org ! Best wishes to all of you! Thank you very much, dear Sharat, for your article!
And also thank you very much to all comments!
By the way, there are some other newspapers than “Granma” in Cuba: “Juventud rebelde” and “Trabajadores”, I had seen there.
Quoting Gerardo Hernández Nordelo, one of the Cuban Five (2 life prison terms + 15 years), in an interview with Saul Landau by phone from his prison in victorville, when mentioning the attitude of the US government towards Cuba: “Cuba is the hell, but you are not allowed to visit it.” As a German woman being able to travel to Cuba occasionelly, I can tell you Cuba is beautiful and its people in their majority are well educated and self confident, and you need not fear for your life as in some other places, for instance in the USA.
Please, everybody, join the campaign to free the Five.
Please, visit http://www.thecuban5.org and http://www.freethefive.org !
Best wishes to all of you!

]]> By: beverly http://dissidentvoice.org/2009/08/the-crumbling-u-s-embargo-on-cuba/#comment-51326 beverly Mon, 03 Aug 2009 02:07:43 +0000 http://dissidentvoice.org/?p=9523#comment-51326 Even pre-Soviet Union collapse, Cuba NEVER posed a threat to the U.S. The Soviet Union didn't even pose a threat. Like the modern WMDs, the communist threat was inflated to enrich corporate coffers, at that time the coffers of military contractors. Free press? It's hilarious to hear U.S. pundits and politicians rant about the lack of free press in other nations when our so-called free press fails daily to provide citizens with the full story on all issues except those pertaining to celebrities, sex and/or drug revelations about politicians, and politically incorrect gaffes. Said failure is a product of being co-opted by those they report on as well as fear of not having a job if one actually practices real journalism. So much for being "free." Don't hold your breath waiting for Obama to do right by the Cubans. If he was the change agent he was purported to be, a simple stroke of his pen could grant clemency to the Cuban Five. Luis Carriles would have been extradicted to Cuba by now. Instead of nickel and diming tweaks of increased remittances and travel to Cuba, he would have lifted the embargo completely. A 40-year embargo on a tiny island of no threat to the U.S. - and that has not met its objective in all this time - is just as "stupid" as officer Crowley's dust up with Harvard chum Gates. Further, opening more business opportunities with Cuba make good economic sense (even the dreaded US Chamber of Commerce favors lifting embargo) in this train wreck economy. Cuban citizens would benefit from access to other media along with more freedom for its indy media scene. However, worries about the Special Period of the 90s, covert infiltrators, and coup plotters aren't off base today. Regardless of this administration's kinder/gentler rhetoric, the imperialist agenda towards Latin America from previous years is alive and kicking. Even pre-Soviet Union collapse, Cuba NEVER posed a threat to the U.S. The Soviet Union didn’t even pose a threat. Like the modern WMDs, the communist threat was inflated to enrich corporate coffers, at that time the coffers of military contractors.

Free press? It’s hilarious to hear U.S. pundits and politicians rant about the lack of free press in other nations when our so-called free press fails daily to provide citizens with the full story on all issues except those pertaining to celebrities, sex and/or drug revelations about politicians, and politically incorrect gaffes. Said failure is a product of being co-opted by those they report on as well as fear of not having a job if one actually practices real journalism. So much for being “free.”

Don’t hold your breath waiting for Obama to do right by the Cubans. If he was the change agent he was purported to be, a simple stroke of his pen could grant clemency to the Cuban Five. Luis Carriles would have been extradicted to Cuba by now. Instead of nickel and diming tweaks of increased remittances and travel to Cuba, he would have lifted the embargo completely. A 40-year embargo on a tiny island of no threat to the U.S. – and that has not met its objective in all this time – is just as “stupid” as officer Crowley’s dust up with Harvard chum Gates. Further, opening more business opportunities with Cuba make good economic sense (even the dreaded US Chamber of Commerce favors lifting embargo) in this train wreck economy.

Cuban citizens would benefit from access to other media along with more freedom for its indy media scene. However, worries about the Special Period of the 90s, covert infiltrators, and coup plotters aren’t off base today. Regardless of this administration’s kinder/gentler rhetoric, the imperialist agenda towards Latin America from previous years is alive and kicking.

]]> By: William McLaughlin http://dissidentvoice.org/2009/08/the-crumbling-u-s-embargo-on-cuba/#comment-51280 William McLaughlin Sun, 02 Aug 2009 14:10:29 +0000 http://dissidentvoice.org/?p=9523#comment-51280 My name/email should be erased after my submission. Else anyone can enter anything using my name! My name/email should be erased after my submission. Else anyone can enter anything using my name!

]]> By: Lloyd http://dissidentvoice.org/2009/08/the-crumbling-u-s-embargo-on-cuba/#comment-51272 Lloyd Sun, 02 Aug 2009 12:21:46 +0000 http://dissidentvoice.org/?p=9523#comment-51272 To take a longer perspective, it there had not been Operation Mongoose (and the Bay of Pigs) in 1962, there would not be the American Empire trying to rule the entire planet now. To take a longer perspective, it there had not been Operation Mongoose (and the Bay of Pigs) in 1962, there would not be the American Empire trying to rule the entire planet now.

]]> By: William McLaughlin http://dissidentvoice.org/2009/08/the-crumbling-u-s-embargo-on-cuba/#comment-51249 William McLaughlin Sun, 02 Aug 2009 04:48:42 +0000 http://dissidentvoice.org/?p=9523#comment-51249 What's overlooked in the hypocrisy of the White House's bullying insistence that Cuba shape up is the unconstitutional deprivation of the U.S. citizens' right to free travel....why this does not inspire massive protest and legal action by the A.C.L.U. is beyond me. What’s overlooked in the hypocrisy of the White House’s bullying insistence that Cuba shape up is the unconstitutional deprivation of the U.S. citizens’ right to free travel….why this does not inspire massive protest and legal action by the A.C.L.U. is beyond me.

]]> By: Stephanie http://dissidentvoice.org/2009/08/the-crumbling-u-s-embargo-on-cuba/#comment-51244 Stephanie Sun, 02 Aug 2009 02:27:36 +0000 http://dissidentvoice.org/?p=9523#comment-51244 Sharat, you have sited so many issues that would take ages to debate. I like what you have written and this should make one rethink why this embargo (blockade) is continuing. It serves no purpose - or is one being blinded yet again? Sharat, you have sited so many issues that would take ages to debate. I like what you have written and this should make one rethink why this embargo (blockade) is continuing. It serves no purpose – or is one being blinded yet again?

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