US Increases Interference in Cuba's Affairs
After a meeting with National Security Council members and a written letter to the Defense Department, Cuban-American legislators have succeeded in securing a "private" C-130 plane to increase by six-fold the transmission of US propoganda on the island. Mesages during the last week have encouraged Cubans to rise up and feature President Bush and Sec. Rice's exhortations that the US will stand with anyone who does so.
From the AP:
U.S. Increases TV Transmissions to Cuba
By VANESSA ARRINGTON
Cuba's allies urged the United States not to interfere with the communist country during Fidel Castro's absence from power, while the U.S. increased its television transmissions to the island and encouraged anti-Castro activists to push for change.
The United States planned to increase the television transmissions of its Miami-based TV Marti station to Cuba from one afternoon a week to six.
Congress approved $10 million in its 2006 budget to develop airborne TV broadcasting to counter the Cuban government's mostly successful efforts to jam the transmission. A new private plane to be used for the transmissions was unveiled on Saturday.
Cuban Parliament Speaker Ricardo Alarcon warned that the United States would face "hell" if it meddled with the Caribbean island.
In addition to this, there are reports that the Bush Administration is devising other immigration policy changes that would increase the pressure on Cuba. According to documents released Monday by Homeland Security, rules would change making it easier for Cuban doctors who defect their posts around the world to come to the US, as well as prioritize those with family members in the the US above others.
The doctor measure is particularly obscene as it essentially dangles a big carrot in front of humanitarian doctors serving the most desperate in the world. We'd be stealing doctors from rural and shantytown Guatamala and Ghana to serve overweight Americans (with insurance). Of course the only poicy aim there is to further encourage defections and make Castro look bad
posted by leftside at
9:36 AM
6 Comments:
For an hour and a half after 7:15 PM, neighbors, ranging from young children to elderly people, shouted insults at Yamile Llanes and her young children, as well as seven Catholic young people who were staying at her house while on their way to the Sanctuary of The Virgin of Cobre in Santiago de Cuba.
“My seven-year old daughter, María, held on to her older sister, and her screams were uncontrollable because she was terrified when a woman shouted that they were going to set the house on fire so that they would do away with the “worms” by burning them up…I thought I would have to leave the house with the children even though they would beat me with the sticks…,” Yamile Llanes declared. “This has been a terrible experience that has instilled a lot of fear….the act as such was an act of terrorism…,” added the wife of the prisoner of conscience.
(http://www.babalublog.com/archives/003774.html)
(http://web.amnesty.org/library/Index/ENGAMR250012006?open&of=ENG-CUB)
Do you support this crackdown:
Cuba's Communist government has signaled a crackdown on the use of black-market satellite dishes, just over a week after ailing leader Fidel Castro temporarily relinquished power to his brother.
The Communist Party newspaper Granma on Wednesday warned that the dishes, which many Cubans use to watch Spanish-language television programs from Miami, could be used by the U.S. government to broadcast subversive information.
"They are fertile ground for those who want to carry out the Bush administration's plan to destroy the Cuban revolution," said the newspaper, the official voice of the government. Such an article in Granma usually signals that action is on the way.
The article also decried the "avalanche" of capitalist advertising in commercial television programs.
(http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060809/wl_nm/cuba_castro_dc_2;_ylt=AgeMf1yItDuPflr5f5YPBvVhxXsA;_ylu=X3oDMTBiMW04NW9mBHNlYwMlJVRPUCUl)
How does banning satellite dishes promote social justice? Shouldn't cubans be able to choose what they want to watch in their own homes? Aren't they smart enough to discern for themselves? I'll be glad when all cubans can choose to watch spanish language programming from other countries that aren't officially approved of by this regime. It'll be soon, you'll see. But again, how does banning the watching of Univision or Telemundo advance social justice?
Your "prisoner of conscience" and his wife are both financed and directed by the US Interests Section in Havana. They have received Mr. Cason (the top US "diplomat" in Cuba) to their home. His wife maintains contact with the Miami (now proven terrorst) organization CANF, who stockpiled arms, helicopters and boats to invade Cuba.
If you were a Cuban and you knew a neighbor of yours was essentially an agent of those who want to invade your country and radically change it, you might be pissed as well. In any country, you'd be in prison with your husband. But unlike the so-called Cuban spies (Cuban 5 and the Mr. Alvarez) in prison in this country, Mrs. Llama is free to visit her husband, call him, have conjural visits.
Maybe it is difficult to understand the feat of a small country in the shadow of the most powerful Imperialist government on the planet. But everyday Cubans have had ample evidence of the US and Miami mafia's true nature (through bombings and every other dirty trick in the book), to allow such open foreign interference. Just because the US' new tactic is "supporting dissidents" doesn't make it any more acceptable by Cuban authorities.
As for the satellite dishes, did you notice you were responding to an article that says we are now fully employing that very clearly illegal method of transmission - at the behest of those in Miami? Again, the Cubans can't trust the US to respect laws or soveriegnty. Dishes have been tacitly tolerated for a while, but in this dangerous time, I don't see how they can ignore the threat we have made clear we are intent on employing as a weapon. If we didn't use satellites ILLEGALLY there would be no need to worry about satellite. And by the way, Cubans see much of the quality Spanish language television and movies... I don't know about Univison or Telemundo, but they hardly offer the quality Cubans are accustomed to.... they don't want half-naked women, telenovellas and games shows 24-7... but give me a seriously done Spanish (or English)language show or movie and Cubans likely see it.
So you're on record supporting the confiscation of satellite dishes and punishment for those who have those dishes? You're on record for censoring, for the government to choose for the cuban people, what they should or should not see? Do you believe Cubans are too ignorant to choose for themselves?
I'm glad you're kind don't have that kind of power over citizens here to choose information freely. It's a shame your revolution is too flimsy to allow the cuban people to make simple decisions for themselves.
But the counterrevolution is coming, and you can't stop it.
Normally, I do not support the confiscation of legal dishes. But during this time, when Washington has shown no restraint in using the technology as a weapon of counter-revolution, I support the warning in the paper.
So you support the "warning" and the confiscation only during this special period. So, yes, right now you support confiscation. Seems to me that a citizen of Cuba is smart enough to discern for themselves whether they're capable of veiwing images from the free world without turning into counterrevolutionaries. I'm surprised that you would think you know what's best for the cuban people better than they themselves would know.
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home