JUAN CARLOS CHAVEZ

La posibilidad de que los gobiernos de Cuba y Brasil alcancen un acuerdo que abriría las puertas al envío de 6,000 médicos cubanos a ciertas áreas del territorio brasileño que carecen de atención generó una fuerte polémica en ese país sudamericano y cuestionamientos sobre el nivel de preparación de los profesionales que se gradúan en la isla.

“Brasil quiere traer escoria”, dijo Florentino Cardoso, presidente de la Asociación Médica Brasileña. “Desafío a cualquiera a demostrar la excelencia de la medicina cubana. Médicos que se graduaron allí y estudiaron cuatro años , tienen que estudiar otros dos años más pero con el fin de ejercer la profesión en su propio país”.

El tema fue abordado en una audiencia entre miembros de la Comisión de Relaciones Exteriores de la Cámara de Diputados y representantes de gremios y sindicatos médicos de Brasil.

La discusión tomó fuerza dos semanas después de que el canciller brasileño, ... Read More

BY JULIAN SHER OF THE TORONTO STAR AND JUAN O. TAMAYO

Speaking over a scratchy telephone line from inside a Cuban prison, Sarkis Yacoubian’s voice goes suddenly silent. He’s crying.

“I was so depressed at times, I wanted to commit suicide,” says the 53-year-old entrepreneur.

In exclusive interviews from the La Condesa prison, Yacoubian provides an insider’s view of a sweeping anti-corruption campaign by the government of Raúl Castro that has seen several foreign businessmen — including himself and another Toronto-area businessman — jailed.

A joint investigation by The Toronto Star and El Nuevo Herald has found that in a corruption-plagued country described in secret U.S. government cables as “a state on the take,” the two jailed Canadians are embroiled in a high-stakes diplomatic and legal stand-off between Havana and Ottawa, potentially jeopardizing millions in taxpayer dollars that underwrite Canada’s trade with Cuba.

Arrested in July 2011 and detained for nearly two years without charges, ... Read More

BY MARK FRANK

Canadian and British executives of three foreign businesses shut in 2011 by Cuban authorities, ostensibly for corrupt practices, have been charged after more than a year in custody and are expected to go on trial soon, sources close to the cases told Reuters.

The arrests, part of a broad government campaign to stamp out corruption, sent shockwaves through Cuba’s small foreign business community where the companies were among the most visible players.

Until then, expulsions rather than imprisonment had been the norm for those accused of corrupt practices.

The charges against the executives involve various economic crimes and operating beyond the limits of their business licenses on the communist-run island, according to the sources, who asked to remain anonymous and who include a close relative of one of the defendants.

Some of the foreigners are alleged to have paid bribes to officials in exchange for business opportunities.

Dozens of Cuban state purchasers and ... Read More

El pasado 23 de abril, el espurio venezolano, Nicolás Maduro, designó a Calixto Ortega como su nuevo representante diplomático ante los Estados Unidos. Su intención dijo, es la de “mejorar” las relaciones diplomáticas con EE.UU.

Es difícil creer que Maduro realmente crea lo que dice cuando sus acciones simbolizan lo contrario. Un día después de la designación de Ortega, Maduro anunció la captura de un supuesto “espía” estadounidense al que acusó de planear acciones desestabilizadoras en contra de su gobierno y de querer provocar una “guerra civil”. Timothy Hallett Tracy es un cineasta que estaba documentando la elección en Venezuela. Su injusta captura es una señal más de la desesperación Cubanomadurista.

Si queremos ser congruentes con nuestros principios, debemos pedir la liberación inmediata de Timothy Hallett Tracy y negar la visa diplomática de Calixto Ortega.  Aunque Tracy sea liberado no podemos otorgar una visa como si esto fuera el pago de un ... Read More

BY ALBERTO DE LA CRUZ

On the Friday of the last weekend in February, Cuban dictator Raul Castro caught the news agencies covering his island nation by surprise when he dropped a hint that he was thinking of retiring. Later that Sunday, at a meeting of Cuba’s communist National Assembly, Castro went much further and announced that he would step aside at the end of the five-year presidential term to which he had just been “elected.” Adding fuel to the fire was the announcement that Miguel Diaz-Canel, a relatively unknown 52-year-old communist party apparatchik, had been appointed Castro’s second in command—and would thus theoretically be next in line to take command after the aging dictator’s exit.

Naturally, journalists, analysts, and so-called Cuba experts immediately began to explore the possibilities and ramifications. Many of them proposed the Western Hemisphere’s bloodiest and longest-running dictatorship was now possibly just five years away from its end. ... Read More

BY JUAN O. TAMAYO

Cuban government officials must fight “a grand battle” against corruption in areas such as business deals with foreigners and the distribution of gasoline, according to an official news media report Monday.

Rodrigo Malmierca, Minister of Foreign Commerce and Investment, gave a cabinet meeting Friday a report on the “irregularities detected in the functioning of businesses with foreign capital and international contracts,” the state-run Web page CubaDebate reported.

“He declared that among the principal causes … that make these acts possible, the foremost are the lack of rigor, control and exigency all along the deals, as well as the conduct and attitudes of the officials implicated,” CubaDebate added.

The Web report did not detail the cases, but the Cuban government has been rocked in recent years by a long string of corruption scandals involving top figures, from a former armed forces general to a couple of deputy ministers and even the ... Read More

BY HUMBERTO FONTOVA

On May 2, the FBI announced a $1 million reward for “information leading to the apprehension” of Joanne Chesimard, also known as Assata Shakur, who they named a “most-wanted terrorist.” Chesimard is the first woman to make the FBI’s list. The New Jersey State Police then added another $1 million to the reward pot.

Convicted cop-killer (of a New Jersey state trooper) and “domestic terrorist” Chesimard has been living in Cuba since 1984 as a Castro-coddled celebrity of sorts. And it’s not like bounty hunters can operate freely in a Stalinist country. So the $2 million may be symbolic. As in the U.S. Justice Department putting on a game face and saying: “Look, Castro, we’re serious here.”

In the early 1970s, Chesimard belonged to a Black Panther offshoot known as the Black Liberation Army. “This case is just as important today as it was when it happened 40 years ago,” according to a recent press release from Mike Rinaldi, of the New Jersey State Police. “Chesimard was a member of the Black Liberation ... Read More

WITH a narrow and disputed election victory last month and an accelerating economic crisis, the man who succeeded Hugo Chávez as Venezuela’s president got off to an inauspicious start. Now Nicolás Maduro’s efforts to establish authority are making matters worse at home, and setting alarm bells ringing abroad.

After appearing to promise a full audit of the election results, as demanded by Henrique Capriles, the candidate of the Democratic Unity (MUD) coalition, the government backtracked. Human-rights groups say that more than 200 protesters, including teenagers, were detained by the military and many beaten up. Antonio Rivero, a retired general and leading opposition member, was arrested. He is on hunger strike, charged with “inciting hatred” and “criminal association”. Mr Capriles, who has asked the supreme court to annul the election, is threatened with jail.

There was violence even in the National Assembly. The MUD’s 67 legislators were barred from speaking and had their ... Read More

BY LAURA PAZ

Cuban reporter Calixto Ramón Martínez Arias, freed in April after six months detention without trial, has spoken of his time in prison, and the poor conditions suffered by fellow-inmates.

Martínez Arias, who reports for the independent news agency Hablemos Press, was arrested in September while investigating allegations that an imported shipment of medicines contained faulty items. He was then accused of a serious offence – insulting Cuba’s past and present presidents, Fidel and Raúl Castro. Amnesty International declared him a prisoner of conscience.

No trial date was set, and he was released on April 9, the same day a group of foreign journalists were allowed a rare visit to the Combinado del Este prison where he had been held, although by then he had already been transferred to another jail, Valle Grande. (See Freedom for Detained Cuban Journalist on his release, and Cuba Grants Prison Access on Own Terms on the visit.)

Now feeling “emotionally, ... Read More

Explicado claramente por un experto cubano que conoce personalmente a Raciel García Ceballos. Umberto Mario trabajo en la embajada cubana en Venezuela he incluso formo parte de fraudes anteriores…

BY RAUL LOTITTO

CARACAS – With the death of Hugo Chávez, Chávismo has lost its supremacy in Venezuela. It does not matter that so-called Chávistas still control Venezuela’s parliament, 17 of 23 provincial governments, and all key state institutions, including the judiciary. Nor does it matter that Chávez’s handpicked successor, Nicolás Maduro, has already assumed the presidency. All of the signs point to the decline of Chávismo and to the end of Venezuela’s role as Latin America’s populist core.

Between last October’s presidential election and the one held last month, Chávismo lost almost 700,000 votes to Henrique Capriles’ Democratic Unity Roundtable – a shift that many, including Chávistas, attribute to “Maduro not being Chávez.” This was the first presidential election in Venezuela that resulted in an almost even split among voters (and the outcome itself remains hotly contested). If Venezuela continues along this path, Chávismo could not only lose its majority; it could collapse altogether.

... Read More

After an 11-hour police interrogation in 2011, Berta Soler, one of the founding members of the Cuban dissident group known as the Ladies in White, was given an ultimatum.

During an interview at the Journal’s offices last week, Ms. Soler told me that the ministry of interior official who escorted her home said “Laura [Pollán, another founding member of the group] and I had to leave the country—because without us there would be no Ladies in White.” Ms. Soler said she responded by telling the official that “the ones who have to leave are the Castros.”

Cubans have been put against a wall and shot for less, but Ms. Soler’s courage could not have been news to the regime. For seven years, beginning in 2003, the Ladies, dressed in white from head to toe, had attended Sunday Mass together at St. Rita’s Church in Havana and then silently filed through the streets ... Read More

As the facts behind Nicolás Maduro’s fabricated electoral “victory” on April 14 are disclosed, his legitimacy and ability to govern will be decimated.  Reams of confidential official documents obtained from Venezuelan sources reveal the existence of a sophisticated political machine – developed and managed by Cuban advisors – that gives chavista party bosses an unfair advantage in mobilizing their voters and manipulating election results.

This complex system was created in the last several years under the direction of Cuban advisors, working with Cuban-trained Venezuelan hard-liners associated with the “Francisco de Miranda Front,” and micromanaged by a database operated in Pinar del Rio, Cuba.  The Cuban electoral team is headed by Raciel Garcia Ceballos, who visits Venezuela on a weekly basis.  Here’s how the Cuban-engineered system works:

Using official data that is provided exclusively to the chavista party by the National Electoral Council (CNE), a database has been developed that cross references the list ... Read More

Traducción por IASW

A medida que se dan a conocer los hechos detrás de la “victoria” electoral fabricada de Nicolás Maduro, se ha ido desvaneciendo su legitimidad y capacidad de gobernar. Resmas de documentos oficiales confidenciales obtenidos de fuentes venezolanas revelan la existencia de una maquinaria política sofisticada- desarrollada y gestionada por asesores cubanos– que le da a los jefes chavistas una ventaja injusta en la movilización de votantes y en la manipulación de resultados.

Este complejo sistema fue desarrollado en los últimos años bajo la dirección de asesores cubanos que trabajaron con la línea dura de venezolanos formados en Cuba, relacionados con el “Frente Francisco de Miranda” y operados por una base de datos manejada desde Pinar del Rio, Cuba. El equipo electoral cubano está encabezado por Raciel García Ceballos, quien visita Venezuela semanalmente. He aquí cómo funciona el sistema diseñado por los cubanos:

Utilizando datos oficiales que se proporcionaron exclusivamente a ... Read More

By Juan O. Tamayo

Cuba committed “fraud … on a massive scale” to influence a U.N. review of its human rights record by using hundreds of “front groups” to submit comments favorable to the island, a watchdog group reported Thursday.While 454 non-governmental organizations submitted comments for Cuba’s review, 48 NGOs commented on Canada’s — the second highest number of comments — and 32 on Russia’s, according to the report by the group UN Watch.

Although “critiques by genuine NGOs do appear, they are overwhelmed by an unprecedented amount of submissions by fraudulent ‘NGOs’ that, if they do exist, are mere puppets of Cuba and its allies abroad,” the report said.

“This is fraud committed on a massive scale,” added the report, timed to coincide with Cuba’s review this week by the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva, Switzerland. The UNHRC audits each nation every four years for its Universal Periodic Review (UPR).

“Cuba used ... Read More

Cuba‘s communist regime is like an ageing house on the verge of collapse, leading dissident blogger Yoani Sanchez said Thursday, insisting Havana’s timid reforms were a smokescreen.

“The so-called Raulista changes are superficial,” Sanchez told reporters, referring to President Raul Castro, who replaced his ailing brother and 1959 revolutionary leader Fidel seven years ago.

“The Cuban model is like a house in Old Havana. You look at the house and ask how it’s possible that it’s still standing,” she said in Geneva, where she was attending a UN human rights meeting.

“Then the owner comes along and wants to change the door. He unscrews one screw, and with that screw, the whole house comes down. The question is, which screw is it going to be?”

She said Cuba’s ageing leadership faced a stark “biological reality”, growing public criticism, and political change in Venezuela whose oil wealth has kept Havana afloat.

Named by Time magazine as one of ... Read More

NEWARK, N.J. - The decades-old international case of a convicted cop killer is getting new attention in New Jersey.

It was 40 years ago today that New Jersey State Trooper Werner Foerster was shot and killed during a traffic stop along the New Jersey Turnpike.

Joanne Chesimard, 65, was convicted and sentenced to life in prison for the murder of Foerster. One of her accomplices was killed and another was convicted in Foerster’s death and remains in jail.

In 1979, members of the Black Liberation Army broke Chesimard out of prison and hid her underground before she was able to flee to Cuba where she has been living since mid-1984.

Chesimard, who is now known as Assata Shakur, attends government functions in Cuba and her standard of living is higher than most in the country, officials said.

Chilly relations between the countries have made Cuba a haven for fugitives, but the climate is changing. Just last month, ... Read More

BY STEPHANIE NEBEHAY

The Castro government’s easing of foreign travel restrictions on Cubans has not led to greater freedoms on the island, a leading dissident said on Wednesday.

Elizardo Sanchez said 19 opposition activists had been allowed to leave since a new exit policy was introduced on January 14. Dozens more would go in the next few weeks, he said.

But the Communist government, in power since 1959, was keeping strict control on dissident voices at home, he said.

“They calculate it will be freedom of expression for people outside Cuba but the voices will not be reproduced in Cuba. They control all communications, radio, newspaper, local and international television, and access to Internet,” Sanchez said.

A total of 92 political prisoners were currently held in Cuban jails, which the International Committee of the Red Cross has not been allowed visit since 1989, he said. A further 350 were held in short-term detention on political grounds.

Sanchez is president ... Read More

As an attendee at this weekend’s White House Correspondents Dinner, it struck me that I agree with the president. At least on one issue. Rapper Jay-Z’s recent decision to visit Cuba is a problem. Jay-Z and wife Beyoncé traveled to Cuba to celebrate (in their words) their fifth wedding anniversary in spite of a U.S. tourist ban.  Many of my friends on the right ask: “Why can’t Americans travel to any country they wish to? Why can we go as tourists to China but not Cuba?”

It’s for the same reason we can’t go to North Korea or Iran: Cuba is a terrorist nation. China didn’t seize our assets or deploy nuclear weapons 90 miles off our coast. Cuba continues to actively promote hostility towards the U.S. in our hemisphere and our tourist dollars help prop up the Castro regime and prolong the agony of 11 million people.

U.S.-Cuba relations since 1959 have gone from ... Read More

BY PETE KASPEROWICZ

The State Department is expected to release its annual Country Report on Terrorism in the latter half of May, missing today’s deadline by a few weeks, according to a State Department spokesperson.

The much-anticipated annual report was released much later last year — in July.

And while several news outlets have reported that the annual report may include a new finding on whether Cuba is a state sponsor of terrorism, those reports are incorrect — the report will in fact make no changes to the list of state sponsors of terrorism. Instead, the report will remain a snapshot of the prior year, 2012 in this case.

“We don’t use this report to announce designations,” the State spokesperson said.As such, the report will continue to list Cuba, Iran, Sudan and Syria as state sponsors of terrorism. “They won’t be coming off the list,” the spokesperson said.Under current law, the president has the ... Read More