Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Odds and ends

  • A Spanish priest, Mariano Arroyo Merino, was murdered in his church in Regla, where he had served since 2004, the Havana Archdiocese announced (see statement on this website). Reuters coverage here. This is the second killing of a Spanish priest in Cuba in five months. The Spanish-language press has more details on the crime; see this article from ANSA.

  • The New York Times speculated last week that pitcher Aroldis Chapman’s age may be 26, not 21. Baseball America says that speculation is without foundation. Meanwhile, Granma took note of the “deserter Aroldis Chapman” in an article slamming would-be agent Jaime Torres, but it now appears that he has signed with a different agent.

  • The Treasury Department yesterday issued a new list (pdf) of the companies licensed to charter planes for Cuba travel, sell tickets on those planes, and send remittances to people in Cuba.
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2 comments:

  1. AnonymousJuly 14, 2009 at 8:51 AM

    Speaking of Carlos Lage,
    on the 20th anniversary of the execution of Gen. Arnaldo Ochoa, Cubaencuentro.com has posted excerpts from "8-A," the fascinating Italian documentary on the show trial of Ochoa made from edited film clips shown on Cuban TV. The clip has English subtitles.

    Early in the trial, Ochoa actually deviated from the script by denying any links to drug smuggling. (Andres Oppenheimer's 1994 book "Castro's Final Hour" has a fascinating analysis of the Ochoa frameup, even if Oppenheimer's forecast of Castro's political demise was a bit premature, to put it mildy). Later in the trial, however, an obviously haggard Ochoa "confessed" and went to the firing squad fervently praising his Great Leader. According to rumor, Castro visited Ochoa in prison during the trial and promised to spare him from the death penalty (or at least to not persecute his family) if he confessed to his alleged crimes.

    In one interesting clip, various flunkies demand the death penalty for Ochoa; one of the participants appears to be a youthful Carlos Lage. Can anyone confirm his identity in the film clip?

    The link to the film clip is at:

    http://www.cubaencuentro.com/es/multimedia/videos/mea-culpa-de-arnaldo-ochoa

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  2. AnonymousJuly 14, 2009 at 12:46 PM

    yes, it is lage, but interestingly, roberto robaina (ex foreign minister) is also in the video asking for the death sentence. they, together with perez roque et al., are all on plan pijama.

    not left, not right

    ReplyDelete