CubaNews note from Havana, June 7, 2003

["Walter Lippmann" <walterlx@xxxxxxx>]

CubaNews note from Havana, June 7, 2003
by Walter Lippmann, Moderator

Back tonight from my ten day visit to some
of Cuba's eastern provinces, I'm wiped out
from the long drive and have a great deal
to report. It'll take me a bit to sort it all out
and put it together in an informative way.

There are also scores of photographs and
they'll be used both to jog my memory as
the story is assembled, and later on to
illustrate the story when the photos are
posted to the web.

I've not really been able to access the net
or do mail for several days. Perhaps it will
be possible to send out some impressions
from the trip by Tuesday.

It's been announced here that Fidel will be
addressing the nation shortly on the newest
challenges. We already know that the US is
demanding exit visas for over 600 people but
their names have oddly not been released.

Reporting on Washington's latest demands,
it's significant that the US media, colludes
with the Bush administration's campaign by
omitting any mention of the radical reduction
BY THE US, of processing those applications
by Cuban residents who want to leave, to be
able to do so.

It should make quite interesting reading when
we do find out whatever political significance
these particular choices might reflect. So we
can look forward to a fascinating and highly
detailed presentation from Fidel when he
presents the Cuban response quite soon.

Thanks to Ted Hood who has been posting
news items to the list. I'm planning to focus
most of my attention on preparing to report
on things I've seen and heard with an idea
of what these things suggest to me which
I'm sure you'll find of interest.

We are approaching five hundred readers
now for CubaNews list, quite a gain from the
small group we started with just under three
years ago after the rescue of Elian Gonzalez
from the kidnappers in Miami. The "Elian
Effect" as journalist Olga Fernandez dubbed
it, has remained an important chapter in US-
Cuban relations in the intervening period as
it marked a significant turning point in the
political thinking of most people about Cuba
in the United States. I'm very pleased that
interest in Cuba has continued to grow in
the US and elsewhere, and I appreciate as
well the participation of a growing number
of readers in this important process. For
those not yet subscribing to CubaNews,
please consider doing so. There is no
cost and you get lots of useful news and
information.

If we've seen anything confirmed in recent
times, it's that the fate of what remains of
political democracy in the Unites States,
the most powerful nation on earth is very
closely linked with its relations with Cuba.

These relations are so unique there is
nothing like them in the world. Cuba today
is the only country on the planet on which
a hostile nation maintains a military base
on national soil. Cuba is being used by
Washington as a testing ground for the
complete elimination of legal procedural
for those people it has taken and held
without charge, and on and on and on.

Citizens of the US are vitally affected, too:
The right to travel, the right to engage in
business, the right to see for yourself and
not have to take the slanted interpretations
of the dominant media for fact are matters
of vital interest to the people of the US,
and ultimately to the world. Washington's
powerful and negative on today's world stage
guarantees we all must now pay the closest
attention to the US-Cuban relationship.

Walter Lippmann
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CubaNews/
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