Stephen Walt on Our Dumb Cuba Policy

Stephen Walt has a nice, short piece in Foreign Policy discussing three US policies that we all know are wrong but nevertheless don’t expect to change.  I’m selecting the part on Cuba since it directly affects me.
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Debates about many foreign policy issues persist because it is hard to know what the right course [...]

Anti-Castro Paranoia: Islam in Cuba as the “new Threat”

Understanding the anti-Castro paradigm is a mind-blowing experience! Seriously, the worldview of these fanatics is almost incomprehensible. Searching for information on Islam on Cuba brought me to a blog titled “Kill Castro.” If the title wasn’t insane enough, I had the unfortunate opportunity of reading through one of Mr. KillCastro’s 2006 posts on a new [...]

Interview with Abel Prieto, Cuban Culture Minister: “The Cultural Revolution of Cuba”

At first sight he does not look like a minister. His informal and youthful style (long hair and carefree clothing) describes him as one of the strangest leaders of this Caribbean island. However, on the verge of being 54 years of age, Abel Prieto has a long history on his back that guarantees his long [...]

the Rise of the Latin American Left: Toward A New Radical Politics

Here’s a word on the Latin American Left by Tariq Ali.  It’s an excerpt from an interview conducted by Mother Jones in 2006.  
MJ: Like many on the far left, you link anti-imperialism to anti-capitalism. And you seem to discount the possibility of Islamic or other religious fundamentalisms providing a long-term basis for resistance. But [...]

Analysis: “After Castro: Who Wants a Piece of Cuba”

Here’s a piece from Mother Jones on the post-Castro possibilities. It’s a brief assessment but one that highlights a topic close to my heart: Cuba. I was born in Miami of two Cuban parents. Without going into details (I’ll save that for another blog post), I can say that many Miami Cuban [...]

NY Times Report: Mario Llerena, 93, Dies; Castro Ally, Then Critic

Mario Llerena, a Cuban intellectual who was an early representative of Fidel Castro in the United States but who broke with him before he took power because of Mr. Castro’s shift toward Communism, died Sunday in Miami. He was 93.
His daughter, Stella Portada, said yesterday that he had died of natural causes at an assisted [...]

The Oaxaca Uprising: Report from Mexico

Mexican President Vicente Fox has sent in thousands of federal police to Oaxaca to crush the popular uprising there. We go to Oaxaca to speak with Gustavo Esteva, founder of the Universidad de la Tierra in Oaxaca. Esteva says, “The police can come and occupy with all their weapons and tanks. They can occupy one [...]

Al Jazeera Interview with Hugo Chavez

Hugo Rafael Chavez Frías, the 53rd president of Venezuela, was born on July 28 1954. He came to power in 1998, promising to help Venezuela’s poor majority, and was re-elected in 2000. He survived a coup in 2002 and faces a presidential election in December.
Since becoming president he has followed a policy of democratic socialism, Latin [...]

US Protects Terrorist: Double Standards for Cuban Terrorist Posada

US hypocrisy has no limits.  Verbally, it presents a grand vision of global peace and justice built upon the principles of its constitution while, in practice, it implements a savage policy of violence and global disorder.  Today, that hypocrisy looked me in the face when I discovered a New York Times story concerning an international [...]

Time Interview with Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez

Here’s a Time Magazine interview with Venezuela’s President, Hugo Chavez. Notice how Time’s interview frames Hugo Chavez’s criticisms as “attacks” whereas Bush’s usual rhetorical vocabulary (“evil doers” “axis of evil” “Islamo Fascists” and other related terms) are never described in the same manner. I would prefer it if Chavez took a more precise [...]