[Marxism] CubaNews Notes from Havana - 11-27-2003

["Walter Lippmann" <walterlx@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

CUBANEWS NOTES FROM HAVANA - November 27th, 2003
by Walter Lippmann, Moderator, CubaNews list.

As you've noticed, I've kept my promise and not
been sending lots of material. Please carefully
read James Hitchie's Cuban Daily News Digest for
a good survey of materials coming out in both
the foreign and the Cuban press about things in
and related to Cuba. Thanks.

In the United States, this is Thanksgiving and
while it's only a topic of special note for the
US residents of Cuba for the most part, here in
Havana we're marking the birthdate of one of our
best friends, Sandra Levinson, the indefatigable
founder and Executive Director of the Center for
Cuban Studies in New York. Sandra has been for
many decades bringing large groups down to the
island, and helping to bring Cuban artists and
their work to the United States. Tonight there
is a party celebrating Sandra's birth at the
home of Jose Fuster where many of her friends
will be saluting this great lady.

I do plan to write up some of what I saw and did
when attending that Tai-Chi class as well as the
evening I spent at the Tropicana. As soon as I'm
able to get them down on pixels I'll get them to
you. Much more to report and hope to be able to
get more out your way shortly.

Here in Cuba we're always very conscious of the
importance of dates and periodicities of many
kinds. This year marks the fortieth anniversary
of the assassination of the US President John
F. Kennedy. Many articles have appeared in the
international media, and some as well in the
Cuban media related to this. Some in the US
media have continued the idea of trying to
link the Cuban government to the assassination.

The last two weeks of the Progreso Weekly have
featured two parts of an extended interview
with Fabian Estalante who was a top leader of
the Cuban state security services for many
years. He's now retired but evidently has been
actively continuing to research and write on
topics of interest. Washington's decades-long
campaign to overthrown the Cuban Revolution
by any means necessary has been a particular
interest of his, and he's got a new book just
about to be released. In an extended conver-
sation with Radio Progreso's Havana corres-
pondent, Manuel Ramy, Escalante talks about
the Kennedy assassination and efforts in the
US TO link Cuba to them. If you follow that
story in detail, you won't want to miss it.

The interview is so long I've formatted it
and posted it to the CubaNews files site so
you may want to print it out from there to
read and study at leisure. I hate spending
so much time looking at a computer screen.
If you're like me, printing it out might
work for you.

CubaNews FILES section is located at:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CubaNews/files/