Monday, May 11, 2009

Alarcon on U.S. relations

Cuban National Assembly President Ricardo Alarcon told CNN that President Obama’s actions regarding Cuban American travel and remittances are gestures to that community, not to Cuba. “We have absolutely nothing to do except to take note and recognize corrective steps when they are taken,” he said. Reuters story here. The interview aired in Spanish last night, but the only video I could find was this, in English:

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

He can't bring himself to admit that one of the only ways the bankrupt regime can keep itself afloat is by an infusion of Cuban American cash. What a creep...

Anonymous said...

The video seems to prove that the regime does not want an end to the embargo. It needs the embargo as a scapegoat in order to survive. If the regime really were acting in good faith, it would have somehow reciprocated the goodwill gestures of the Obama administration.

Proof positive that we'll have to wait for the passing of Fidel and Raul for any substantive conversations between the two governments to take place.

Mother nature will take care of that soon enough. Fidel already has one foot out the door, Raul will fall soon after - both age and his alcoholism are against him.

The waiting game will continue.

Anonymous said...

Poor Alarcón he downgraded the "blockade" (el bloqueo") to an embargo. It is also interested how he dismisses the last judgment passed by the Appeals Court on the case of the "Five" by emphasizing a partial judgment. So much for mutual respect! But it must be said he is finely attired.

Vecino de NF

Anonymous said...

Alarcon's fine tailoring: Paid for by FAR tourism dollars. nice.

Anonymous said...

I wonder how long it will take for Alarcon to follow Lage and Perez Roque to join them in the "pajamas plan". It is only a matter of time before he goes the way of the other two.

Mambi_Watch said...

Hi Phil,

The full interview in Spanish can be viewed in parts on YouTube.

Here's the first part:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EIuqjyaSReg

Anonymous said...

Watching and listening to Ricardo Alarcón, makes one wonder if he is to Fidel Castro what Andrei Gromyko was to the Soviet leaders. (Khruschev once boasted to a foreign visitor that if Gromyko were asked to sit on a block of ice with his pants down, he would do so unquestioningly until ordered to leave it.) From the video it is not clear on what Ricardo Alarcón is sitting. Unless nature or man takes an untimely action, he will survive them all.

Vecino de NF