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Odds and ends
- Reuters: The U.S. Supreme Court today declined to take the case of the Cuban Five.
- Physician Hilda Molina, who broke with the system 15 years ago and has sought permission to travel to Argentina to visit her family there, finally got permission and traveled last weekend. She told La Nacion that 15 days ago when her mother was hospitalized, she wrote another letter to the Council of State and pledged that if permitted to leave, she would return. AP coverage here.
- Two additions to the blogroll at right, both in Spanish: the return of Herejias y Caipirinhas by former El Nuevo Herald reporter Rui Ferreira, BBC correspondent Fernando Ravsberg’s Cartas desde Cuba.
- Orlando “El Duque” Hernandez returns to baseball, signing a contract to pitch in a Texas Rangers Triple-A team.
- The Luis Posada Carriles trial is delayed until next February; Herald story here.
- Fernando Ravsberg of the BBC’s Spanish service (which would do such a service if it were to translate his “Cartas desde Cuba” blog into English) writes about those Cubans who have hard currency income – some with enough to send money to help family abroad.
- In the Washington Post, Peter Carlson looks back at an imaginative episode in American diplomacy, when President Eisenhower wanted a game-changer in U.S.-Soviet relations and invited Nikita Khrushchev for a September 1959 visit.
2 comments:
I like to remind my fellow bloggers that in my post on Odds and Ends of June 2, 2009 9:10 AM I commented that the Cinco's Supreme Court appeal was rather weak and it would be likely declined. It is also amusing that Ricardo Alarcón suggested last week that any earlier release of the Cincos would rest with the Executive branch (as I mentioned as well). Not a case of I told you so. More of a I thought so and please remember that I shared my thoughts.
Vecino de NF
Peter Carlson is obviously pushing his book (it sounds like an entertaining summer read!) but if the intent is to draw any parallels to Cuba it would be advisable to remember that Fidel Castro had his celebrity tours of the US on more than one ocassion meeting with actors/actresses, millionaires, and committed supporters. No softening came of it.
It is doubtful that a similar tour would do anything for Raul Castro who is rumoured to prefer either vodka or scotch whisky, and cat meat. (Not quite Kim's eccentricity but not necessarily normal behavior either). It would be advisable to also remember that some of these tours can backfire by giving the Dear Tourist a false sense of the earnestness of American foreign policy (I suspect that Khruschev thought American soft fools after the 1959 tour, and it is documented that he thought JFK a pushover after the Vienna summit). So before we invite Raul Castro to Disney World let's find out what he really wants, and see if we can give it to him. Sometimes you don't have to go to Disney World to get the impression that country is populated and run by Goofy's clones.
Vecino de NF
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