Friday, December 14, 2007

Odds and ends

● General Rafael del Pino saw accounts of President Bush’s “Dear Mr. Chairman” letter to North Korea’s Dear Leader, and wrote an op-ed where he examines the situation in North Korea and the turnaround in U.S. policy toward that country, and muses about a possible “Dear Chairman Raul” letter. He also gave me an excuse to find another ridiculous photo of Kim Jong Il.

● A call for national dialogue and reconciliation in Cuba, from Commerce Secretary Gutierrez, in a statement he sent to Radio Marti. Did Radio Mambi get a copy too?

● Two men plead guilty to obstruction of justice in El Paso for refusing to testify in the case of Luis Posada Carriles. Three others entered similar pleas last month and early this month. Say what you will about Posada – the guy inspires loyalty.

Rescued from extinction: the fishing bats of Sancti Spiritus. As the Spanish version of this same article explains, these bats glide near the surface of the water and catch fish, just like eagles I guess. Qué clase de país!

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

http://killkasstro.blogspot.com/2007/12/secret-communications.html

Anonymous said...

Carlos doesn't know anything about Cuba or Real cubans. All he wants is another market where he can "free" -translated "exploit" the already repressed cuban people with US capital.

Listen I want a free cuba too, and adamantly want Cuba to open up and be more free BUT, Carlos and his ilk are big d**cks, no question about it. . futhermore, Carlos is not a real Cuban - gusano more like it.

I would like to see him on 23 y 12 or better yet habana vieja.. he would be a lost and sad man.

Mambi_Watch said...

Hmm, the Sec. Gutierrez call for a "national dialogue and reconciliation" is most likely aimed towards the Cuban government alone. Not towards the US.

This falls in line with the hard-line rhetoric that the Cuban government doesn't need to negotiate with the US, but rather fix their own internal problems first, before the US decides to make any changes to their own policy.

Furthermore, Marti news always puts the best face on officials of the US government, and never mentions what they mean exactly. One should best read what Sec. Gutierrez told the Heritage Foundation in their series called "Cuba at the Crossroads." That would best explain what Sec. Gutierrez thinks.

[excerpt]

"I'm always asked the question as well, 'When is the U.S. going to change the policy? When is the U.S. going to lift the embargo?' And that's not the question. The real question is, 'When will Cuba change its pol­icies? When will the Cuban regime change?' This is about what happens in Cuba, not what happens in Washington, and we shouldn't get distracted with, 'It's the embargo and it's everything else.' The prob­lem is the policy of the Cuban government."

http://www.heritage.org/
Research/LatinAmerica/hl1048.cfm