· More on the case of deceased prisoner Wilman Villar: His widow appeared at a press conference at the home of human rights monitor Elizardo Sanchez and said that Villar’s legal troubles began in a domestic dispute between the couple where he had been drinking, and things ended with her mother going for police assistance. After that, she said, Villar joined a dissident group. She has now joined the Damas de Blanco. There is a lot more back-and-forth among family members and others about who hit or did not hit whom, and more. Sanchez says that this is a moment where “the truth has to be brought to light” because either the government or the dissidents “are lying.” See stories from AP and AFP Spanish.
· The Herald takes an interesting look at the evolution of church-state relations in Cuba since the 1980’s.
· Cuba flights are about to begin from Houston’s George Bush Intercontinental Airport.
· New Times, the Miami weekly that is really one of the best newspapers in America, gave me honorable mention in a recent blog ranking for being the “only blogger in Miami reporting on the Cuban economy.”
· In the comments, a reader pointed out an essay by Cuban blogger Ivan Garcia on Fidel Castro’s experiments and failures over the years. It’s here in English and Spanish. Not to be pigeonholed, he is also in favor of taking Bush, Blair, and Aznar to the Hague for starting the Iraq war (here and here).
The widow's comments make it clear it was a domestic abuse case which turned into a political cause; which speaks volumes about opportunism. And just as loudly to her joining the Damas -- there might be light in truth but who will believe it?
ReplyDeleteObvious now that the default position of some who get in trouble with the law for anything but political reasons, is to turn to a hunger strike to make it political. if there is any purpose to the dissident movement, the leaders have call this out.
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