CubaNews notes August 13, 2003

["Walter Lippmann" <walterlx@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

CubaNews notes August 13, 2003
by Walter Lippmann, Moderator

Cuba's victory in Santo Domingo at the Pan American Games
is the headline in today's editions of Granma and Juventud
Rebelde. And it's no wonder given the historical rivalries and
political conflicts between the two countries. Today's edition
of the Miami Herald, for example, features a story about one
Cuban athlete said to have defected at the games, but who
didn't defect, according to the Dominican Republic's officials.

Since the United States government, though blockade laws,
and private corporations who own US athletic teams, and
not to speak of the rightwing exile groupings want to every
single thing they can to weaken or discredit the Revolution
in Cuba, such issues are always high on the agenda of the
US media.

Since this list focuses its interest primarily, though certainly
not exclusively on Cuba and its relationship to the United
States, we've tended to focus attention on these aspects
of sports. Personally professional and organized sports
aren't of the greatest interest to me, but when we have a
series of matches between US and Cuban teams, politics
always play a role which, in a better setting, and one less
tense, wouldn't be there. Here's a good example of how
to approach these things properly, from a Cuban athlete,
who told the Miami Herald's Kevin Baxter on Monday:

''It doesn't matter where you finish, first or last,'' a smiling
Wilson said as she bounced around the finish line,
congratulating the rest of the field. "It just matters
that you finished.'' Unfortunately Baxter buried this at the
end of his story because of the Herald's ongoing policy
of avoiding saying anything positive either about Cuba or
about Cubans who choose to live and work on the island.

Here you can see the front pages of today's leading papers
on the island. They put the athletics front and center and
you'll find none of the usual political stuff on this day, on
the front page. Cubans are, as you can see, a class act.

GRANMA FRONT PAGE:
http://www.granma.cubaweb.cu/2003/08/13/plana.jpg

JUVENTUD REBELDE FRONT PAGE:
http://www.jrebelde.cu/2003/julio_septiembre/ago-13/portadab.html
=========================================

CUBAN HIJACKERS SENTENCED AFTER TRIAL
The Cuban trial of the recently-returned hijackers took
but a day, and they were promptly sentenced to terms
of less than ten years, as Cuba had announced that it
would when the United States returned them. The US
reporters had to ask others who'd been inside since
they were not permitted to enter the courtroom. The
US reporters didn't say why they weren't admitted.
=========================================

COURT: SPY SUSPECT CAN BE DEPORTED
The following excerpt appears in today's Miami Herald.
The man involved denies and has consistently denied
he is a Cuban intelligence officer. I'll send out a copy
of an older article, though you can Google his name
and see what comes up on your own.

MIAMI HERALD
August 13, 2003 (excerpt on Cuba)
Court: Spy suspect can be deported to Cuba

An immigration appeals court has ruled that Cuban spy
suspect Juan Emilio Aboy can be deported to Cuba.
A spokeswoman for the Bureau of Immigration and
Customs Enforcement said the agency is moving
forward to execute the deportation order but would
not say when it might occur.

Aboy was arrested in May 2002 on the grounds that
when he arrived in the United States, he failed to
disclose that he had been trained in espionage and
had been a member of the Cuban Communist Party.
=======================================

The Council on Hemispheric Affairs (COHA) had recently
issued an excellent report, "Strategic Manipulation of the
"War on Terror" Apparent in U.S. Treatment of Cuba" which
was posted today to the Common Dreams website. It's not
posted yet to the COHA website. COHA is a liberal and not
a leftist think tank. They do serious research and put out a
good deal of highly informative material. Not long ago they
put out an exceptionally useful commentary on the Cuban
Five case, one of the best yet posted in the United States.
http://www.commondreams.org/views03/0813-09.htm

Another outstanding piece posted to the COHA website
is a criticism of the University of Miami's Institute for
Cuban and Cuban American Studies, one of those many
South Florida outfits which is funded by the government
of the United States to provide information and to make
projections about what they imagine and hope will be
what they call Cuba's "transition to democracy" by which
they mean a hoped-for return to capitalism. Projects like
these are basically designed to develope literature and
to provide jobs for exiled right-wing academics. COHA's
essay, "Research Aimed at Toppling a Regime: The
University of Miami's Institute for Cuban and Cuban
American Studies (ICCAS) Falls Short of Academic
Objectivity"  Read the document at their website:
http://makeashorterlink.com/?B20F45595
==========================================

TWO SIGNIFICANT BIRTHDATES AUGUST 13
Yesterday an essay was posted by the AIN, Cuba's National
Information Agency, regarding Rene Gonzalez, one of the five
young men being held captive in the United States for their
anti-terrorist activities. August 13 is his birthday. He is 47.
You can re-read the commentary if you didn't yesterday:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CubaNews/message/19509
This significant event was not mentioned in any but Cuba's
media since he's not a famous figure outside the island.

The capitalist media, focuses relentlessly on the individual figure
of Fidel Castro, the historic leader of Cuba's revolution and a man
who continues to lead his country. This man is now 77 years old,
an age where most people's commitments are to the rocking
chair and the television set. I'm just a boy of 59 myself and.

I wish I had half Fidel Castro's energy. The capitalist media has
little choice but to admit that he's both alive and healthy. He's
active in a dizzying array of events which they either attend or
watch on television. Their reports continue to emphasis Fidel's
age and energy level, though none of them will be around and
working when they reach Fidel's age. And they continue to
harp on his momentary faint a couple of years back, an thing
which occurred to many others that day, and which he hasn't
repeated at any of his numerous subsequent appearances.

And they continue to harp on what they see as the island's
increasing isolation, which is the exact same line that the US
State Department continues to pour fourth. No matter. Fidel
and the Cuban Revolution are still here. The Revolution has
had many blows, but Fidel and the Revolution have outlived
most of its detractors. Far from perfect, and indeed hardly a
model of what a socialist society ought to be, if one were to
create one from a text book, Cuba's revolution persists to the
delight of its supporters, and to the frustrated dismay of its
detractors. Cuba's revolution is, however, a model of what
can be accomplished under extremely adverse conditions
with relentless determination to survive.

In recent years these people have sometimes begin to talk
about what they call the "biological solution", which is the
euphemism they use for Fidel's dying in bed. They would,
of course, prefer to kill him or see him killed, but they've
had no luck, and not for lack of trying! Fidel Castro led a
revolutionary process, with cooperation and help, but he's
the unquestioned leader. He naturally towers over others
in his milieu, a reflection of his political strengths over the
years. Even the mistakes he's made are small when we
consider that, under his leadership, the small island of
Cuba has become an international force to be reckoned
with, far, far out of proportion to its numerical dimensions.

There's nothing taking these issues up in the English-
language Cuban media today, but there is an essay on
Fidel's role in the daily Granma. Written by Armando Hart,
a long time Cuban leader, and the head of the Institute
for the study of Marti's ideas, it puts Fidel Castro into a
wide historical framework. I'm hopeful it will be translated
into English for others to share. Here it is in the Spanish:

Armando Hart - 13 de agosto
http://www.granma.cubaweb.cu/2003/08/13/nacional/articulo09.html

MORE NEWS AND INFORMATION ON CUBA:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CubaNews/