Yoni Sanchez???????

                                                                 Yoani Sanchez??????

     I’m relatively new to the Yoanni Sanchez fervor that has taken over the Cuban community and the world and that Time magazine has declared one of the 100 most influential people in the world, so you’ll excuse me if I have my doubts. Thousands of Cubans before her have paid the ultimate price for what Sanchez seems to continuously do under the so called noses of an aggressive and oppressive regime which knows everyone’s moves at all times, especially the moves of dissidents.

     Sanchez studied Philology at the University of Havana; it is the study of Literary studies, History, and Linguistics, unlike what she studied in Switzerland which was computer Science; a far stretch between the two.

    Sanchez left Cuba with her husband for Switzerland for what I can only surmise were political reasons, but returns to Cuba two years later for what she stated as her husband not being able to find a job, and am I to believe that she returned to Cuba so her husband could find work, really, what work is that. Then within that time she returns with an acquired knowledge of computer sciences. Since when did Cuba begin to allow migration for employment reasons or was she a special case in the eyes of the Cuban government?

    She returned to Cuba under the guise of a two week visit, but with the intentions of not returning to Switzerland. Since she had been out of Cuba for more than 11 months she had to return to Switzerland. Why is Switzerland supposed to take her back? She had over stayed her visit there to begin with and I’m sure had not become a citizen. So supposedly she burned her Cuban passport while in Cuba therefore not being able to return. Am I to believe that the Cuban government couldn’t issue her a new passport and force her on the plane back to Switzerland.

    It has been written about Yoani Sanchez, and I quote; “Under the nose of a regime that has never tolerated dissent, Sanchez has practiced what paperbound journalist in her country cannot. – Freedom of speech.” What the hell does that mean, that Cuban journalist, many of which are dissident writers against Castro’s regime are ignorant and don’t know the value of the electronic media and how to use it. That somehow Yoanni Sanchez discovered it in Switzerland and brought it back to the ignorant journalist of Cuba. That to me is a huge slight against the many that have been fighting against oppression in Cuba way before Sanchez was even born.

    As I understand it Sanchez writes her blog at internet cafes and tourist hotels on the island and then forwards them to friends via e-mail in order to get her message across to the world at large.

    In a country that monitors everything, especially the electronic media which is restricted to the few and overseen and monitored by the government, and their precious cash cows, the tourist hotels, I’m to believe that Sanchez somehow has access to these places without the government knowing . If she is so anti Castro and so lauded worldwide am I to think that the communist regime of Cuba doesn’t know her whereabouts 24 hours a day. Who is she, Houdini, is she invisible, is the commuter she uses or her means of relating her writing completely undetectable to the government of Cuba? I doubt it. Why do the Ladies in white constantly get verbal and physical abuse yet Yoani Sanchez is able to continue her overt war with very little consequence. I have my questions.

    Yoani Sanchez has not discovered the Pacific Ocean nor is she telling me or any other Cuban what is going on in Cuba. Cubans have known the woes and disgraces of Cuba and Castro for over 50 years. There own relatives still living  in Castro’s gulag have been relating the message of savagery and no human rights for a long  time, but for some reason outside of Miami, America has not been listening, and for a long time Castro was Europe’s darling with a just cause against imperialist America.  Time magazine is way off course in declaring Yoani Sanchez the next Cuban Coming. If you’ll excuse my saying, it has acted like the tail of a cow, always behind and catching nothing but what has been repeated over and over by many brave Cubans who have paid the price with their lives.

    Why, all of a sudden is the regime allowing her to fight the just fight? Is she a political toy, either with her knowledge or unbeknownst to her so as to soften the blow that is now pressuring the Cuban government into coming into the world community which Castro has forever resisted? Is this a ploy the communist party of Cuba is using to make itself look more tolerable to human rights in the eyes of the world community? In a country where if you mention the name of Fidel Castro in public you are brought into police headquarters for questioning, I question Yoani Sanchez’s ability to do what she does without imprisonment and I question the Cuban government’s lack of total stoppage of the situation.

Problems to our South

     America seems to think that all its problems lie in the Middle East. When in reality what lies in the Middle East is the oil which it so preciously covets. The US should have been thinking alternative energy instead of sending young men to die in the barren desseert for a source of energy that will be obsolete in the not so far distant future. By paying attention to its power grubbing and money hungry ways at the expense of the taxpayer they forgot to watch out for where the problem really was, and that's directly to our South.
     Where once only stood a loud mouth bearded dictator (Castro) now are a multitude of problems. Mexico is directly on our border and completely over run with Narco traffickers and is a by product of Colombia not being able to control it's own Country which is a by product of Castro exporting his revolutionary thoughts over the course of fifty plus years.
      Our problems in the very near future will be to our South. Cuba was once the only communist state in our hemisphere and now with have Nicaragua, Venezuela, Peru, Bolivia and more to come if Chavez has his way, and who does Chavez look up to, Castro. We need to pay attention to our South, the time is now.

                                                       “Raul, Prince or Pawn?”

Cuba in the 21^st Century

J. C. Perez.

                                                         Political Transition in Cuba.

                               Everything seems to be going as Fidel planned, transitioning his undisputed power to his brother Raul seems to be going without a hitch, and not that he would allow any hitch, or allow his subservient brother to make any changes that would challenge his 50 year grip and autonomous rule on his Island nation. We must remember what he has touted as Cuba’s objective, “Socialismo o Muerte”, “Patria o Muerte”. “Socialism or death”, “Patriotism or Death”.  

                              With this in mind we must remember that little brothers transition into pseudo power did not occur overnight, but through 50 years of communist indoctrination at the hands of the world’s longest lasting dictator, big brother Fidel. The meek and mild look that we see strewn across Raul Castro’s face whenever we see photos of him is not one of kindness and compassion as the pictures might suggest, but that of a man who has been brow beaten and made to be subservient to his older brothers overpowering alpha male personality. The face is that more of a man who fears his older brother and the consequences that might be incurred if older brothers word is not followed to a tee. Change, I don’t think so.                                       

                             Let’s not forget that at the onset of the revolution one of Fidel’s closest comrades “Camilo Cienfuegos” was assassinated upon the orders of Fidel simply because he did not agree with his political philosophy or the road he was paving for Cuba and its already unstable situation. Rumors also ran rampant that Fidel had something to do with “Che Guevara’s” untimely death in Bolivia. Che was getting to many headlines, becoming too famous, and Fidel was not happy with the Argentinean garnering a following. Are we to believe that Raul Castro was not aware of these atrocities, or what his arrogant, overbearing, dais slamming older brother was capable of? There are countless examples throughout history of brother killing brother over power issues. Change? I think not.  

                              The look on Raul’s face is one of fear and retribution if big brother Fidel’s words and orders are not adhered to there entirety. You don’t have to go far to see those same expressions; just look to the faces of the Cuban people who have lived under that grip of fear for the last 50 years. I think little brother Raul is feeling the heat a little more than he’d like to and the realization of the consequences if he doesn’t do as told are all too real to him. He is a reluctant figure head at the behest of his older brother, he was not asked if he wanted the position, he was told to do it, and do it as told.

                             Examining some of Cuba’s so called political changes since the transfer of power to Raul Castro only adds to the ongoing comic relief that the Cuban people both in and out of Cuba have become accustomed to. As a nation and a people who have lived under the gun for those 50 years, Cubans have learned to take a bad situation and turn it into a joke so as not to be weighed down my more rhetoric and lies from the central Politburo. Laughing in the face of the odds that are stacked against them and not allowing their absurd living standards and ridiculous political system which has failed them for those almost 50 years, (Just take a look back in history; there’s something to the fact that the Cuban Peso has no value anywhere in the world except Cuba, and even there, the Dollar and the Euro are the preferred currency.) Amazing, can one really believe that if there is fiscal stagnation, social stagnation, and the complete inability to provide the basics of life to a people in need is any kind of progress, I think not. When a leadership fails to provide, and does not allow its people the freedom of choice, then it is an oppressive leadership. I’m sure I have not awakened anyone to this realization on the Cuban situation, but then again no one should think that under Raul Castro things will get better. Human rights are still nonexistent, freedom of speech is a jail able offense, and arrests are up.

        Change in Cuba under Raul; see for yourself, I think not. Until the regime is gone, or better put, the Castro brothers are gone; the road to change in Cuba will be slow and arduous if not at all.

JCP