Odds and ends
- AFP: The United States and Cuba are planning a second round of migration talks in December, no date chosen yet. A suggestion: Havana’s Latin American Film Festival runs December 3-13.
- Advice for travelers in the Ottawa Citizen: “Go beyond the beach resorts to see Cuba’s capital.”
- La Jornada interviews Francisco Aruca, owner of Marazul Charters, who says there are now about 50 flights from the United States to Cuba each week. Part of Aruca’s story is referenced in the intro to the interview – he once told me in person and I wish I had a recording of it – concerning his escape from La Cabana, where he was jailed for counterrevolutionary activities. He spent a year and a half in the Brazilian Embassy before getting out of Cuba.
- Also from the Sun, a review of the Burtonsville, Maryland (!) Cuban restaurant Cuba de Ayer.
- Ted Henken posts his July 2008 interview with Yoani Sanchez – a Spanish transcript, a partial English translation, and video broken into 13 segments.
- The U.S. Interests Section in Havana had a contest for Cuban photographers; entries are posted here. (H/t Tracey Eaton)
- AP: The story of 56 Americans from the Eastern Massachusetts Senior Softball Association, playing in Havana.
Yes, Peters, Francisco Aruca, that model freedom fighter. He deserves a statue in Miami -- right under a colony of pigeons.
ReplyDeletechingon
Chingon and his ilk were probably quite pleased when a bunch of thugs broke into Union Radio to beat up Aruca in 1992. Instead they assaulted a station employee. Just one of hundreds of acts of right-wing political violence and terrorism that have taken place in Miami over the years.
ReplyDeleteAruca's crime, of course, is that he is not afraid to lambast the one-sided, insulting coverage the Miami Herald and El Nuevo Herald provides its readers. He also is against the embargo. How dare he!
Thank you Leftside. Aruca is a hero for speaking his mind and yet Yaoni deserves what she gets when she tries the same thing.
ReplyDeletechingon
Yes, Leftside, Aruca is courageously fighting so that the people of Miami may some day enjoy the same freedoms as the First Free Territory of the Americas.
ReplyDeleteYoani was not a victim of a planned attack, as Aruca's collegue was. She resisted when being briefly detained, which led to the use of force. She went further by taking things from officer and going after his testicles. This is called assaulting a police officer in the US.
ReplyDeleteWhether the force used by Cuban authorities was proportionate, the legal litmus test in the US, I can not say for certain. But I can tell you that the legal standard in the US is that the police department is not liable for unjuries sustained while someone is resisting a legal detention order.
On a lighter note, I thought Mel Zelaya held the record for "Longest Time spent trapped in a Brazilian Embassy", but apparently I was mistaken!
ReplyDelete;-)
(still laughing at my own joke there from yesterday, if nobody else enjoys it at least i will)
ReplyDeleteAruca's interview in La Jornada has been translated into English by Progreso Weekly and is now in its website:
ReplyDeletewww.progresoweekly.com