CubaBrief reported recently on a piece of agitprop released by Engage Cuba. Today we publish a letter from Dr. Fernando J. Milanes on the report which is little more than a piece of disinformation. Hopefully those journalists who fell for Engage Cuba's report would go back to reread it without putting aside their critical faculties. Dr. Milanes's letter follows.
Reuters and The New York Times report today that Cuba's parliament says that the future of Cuba will be guided by the ideas of Jose Marti, Fidel Castro, Karl Marx, and Vladimir Lenin. Dim future indeed.
In this brief “An Appeal to the White House”, “Reagan: Won't visit Cuba until people are free” and Elliott Abrams on Manuel Noriega’s death: -- “We should avoid deluding ourselves about the nature of such regimes and such men.”
The central premise of President Barack Obama’s foreign policy was that, deep down, everyone on earth shares the same values. It is a gracious, humble, and optimistic way of perceiving the world. Under this precept, any opening of commerce and diplomacy can only be positive. Looking the other way at human rights abuses is just the cost of doing business. After all, who is the United States to talk?
CubaBrief: Cuban political police go on wild goose chase on the eve of Cuban Independence Day according to Spanish language article published by Cubanet. You can read the article in Spanish at the end of this CubaBrief.
CUBABRIEF: Last Sunday, May 21st The New York Times ran a story written in Luanda, Angola: Angola’s Leader Won’t Run Again. But Will He Cede Power? It was a good article. The New York Times reporterNorimitsu Onishi should be sent to Havana and consider the same question aboutthe “retiring” of General Raul Castro.
Protest at the Cuban embassy in Washington demands the release of a jailed pastor and his wife.
CUBABRIEF: Demonstration tomorrow, Wednesday at Cuban Embassy Cuban to protest the sentencing to a year in prison of a Cuban pastor for homeschooling his two children.
CUBABRIEF: “Venezuelan crisis requires immediate action.” “In the heart of Havana, a luxury mall where most Cubans can only browse”: The business arm of Cuba’s military created the glitzy shopping spot in a bid to attract tourists.
Le enviamos lo mejor de la semana de 14yMedio, el periódico digital producido en La Habana.
CUBABRIEF: Assistant Secretary of State Francisco Palmieri said on Wednesday, May 10, 2017 that “As we move forward with [the review of Cuba policy] there will be important differences in how this government plans to address the situation in Cuba (as compared to the previous administration).”
Entrenar a los niños a denunciara sus padres no se inició con la revolución castrista como reporta El Pais (Madrid). Los lectores que tengan forma de hacerlo llegar a la isla, por favor háganlo.
Hugh Thomas (Lord Thomas of Swynnerton) is dead. Thomas was hated by Francisco Franco and Fidel Castro for “The Spanish Civil War,” and “Cuba: The Pursuit of Freedom.”
This is the kind of respectful exchange the Center for a Free Cuba engages in all the time. I welcome your comments or suggestions.
CUBABRIEF: MADURO PUNTS BUT PUTIN COMES TO THE RESCUE. Venezuelan subsidized oil shipments to Cuba have fallen, while the announced Russian oil shipments raise eyebrows in Washington.
In this CubaBrief we focus on the very urgent Venezuelan crisis where thousands continue to demonstrate on the streets demanding a return to democracy and the rule of law and where a growing number of young people have been killed by the security forces which have been trained by Havana’s seguridad de estado.
“Fếlix Yuniel Llerena, a 20 year-old religious freedom activist and university student, was detained [last Friday] and threatened on his return to Cuba following a visit to the US, which included meetings to raise concerns about continued violations of religious freedoms on the island," reports Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW).
The Center for a Free Cuba is sending these two videos of a Cuban demonstrator carrying an American flag and chanting “human rights for Cubans” to President Barack Obama in the hope that he will call on General Raul Castro to stop the police beatings of this Cuban peaceful demonstrator whose only crime was to yesterday demonstrate peacefully for the type of change Mr. Obama promised to the Cuban people when he visited the island.
On this May 1st what is left of the communist world celebrated their “International Workers’ Day.” In Moscow the parade featured a huge photograph of Josef Stalin, the tyrant responsible for millions of deaths including the government engineered famine of 7 to 10 million Ukrainians.
This week Havana’s rhetoric returned to the old Cold War pronouncements. In a statement released by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs the regime denounced “imperialism” [that means the United States], the Organization of American States and numerous democracies across the region appalled about the ongoing economic and political crisis in Caracas.
