Chavez Admits To Cancer Surgery in Cuba; Venezuela Wonders What Comes Next

It's taken [T]hugo Chavez a couple of weeks, but he's finally come out and admitted that the reason he has been missing in action from the airwaves and media appearances for the past month has been the result of cancer surgery and recovery in Cuba.



It's rather telling just how serious the situation is that he has been silent for so long and that the military has had to come out and say that they will guarantee the ongoing safety and security.

General Henry Rangel Silva said on Friday the military would guarantee constitutional order during Chavez's absence for treatment in Cuba. The president, he said, would be home "soon" and was still in charge.

"We have seen our comandante thinner than usual but still standing. The truth is he is getting better, he's fine," Rangel told state television. "The country is calm."

The usually vivacious Chavez, 56, confirmed in a stern speech on Thursday he had surgery in Cuba to remove a cancerous tumor and was receiving more treatment. He said he needed time to recover before returning to Venezuela to run his self-styled revolution.

A fiery critic of the United States, Chavez will miss events marking Venezuela's 200th anniversary of independence from Spain. He had to cancel a regional summit planned for the momentous July 5 date.

Markets have generally reacted positively to news of Chavez's health problems, on the presumption they improve the chances of a more business-friendly government.

It's a sad day for democracy in Venezuela that everything has to hinge on Chavez's health; there's no line of succession and his underlings try to put on a veneer of calm when they have no idea what comes next.

It's also telling that Chavez had to go to Cuba for treatment; does Venezuela not have doctors and cancer care? Perhaps that was the result of Cuba being far more secretive about Chavez's condition and that he could get treatment without the prying eyes of media outlets. However, his prolonged absence spurred questions about his health condition.

I don't know, but this seems to be the position being taken by Chavez's apparatchik's and military:

Venezuela Wonders About [T]Hugo Chavez's Future

Venezuelans continue wondering about the health of Hugo Chavez, who remains in an undisclosed hospital in Cuba for an undisclosed ailment. The secrecy surrounding Chavez's health and his condition is particularly troubling since Chavez has spent years accumulating power and undermining democracy in the country.

It's little wonder then that his brother, a physics professor of all things, is claiming that Venezuelans support Hugo and that they should be willing to take up arms to continue Hugo's government.

"The revolution was born in the Bicentennial era, and it made it through elections and we want it to continue that way, following a peaceful path that allows us to build Bolivarian socialism, but aware of the dangers that beset us and that the enemy does not rest, we can not forget as authentic revolutionaries, other methods of struggle.... It would be inexcusable to limit ourselves to only the electoral and not see other forms of struggle, including the armed struggle."

Adan Chavez's comment adds to the threat made by General Rangel Silva late last year, when he said the military may not accept an opposition electoral victory.

Adan's comments must also be taken in context of a potential power struggle within the Chavista ranks. With the possibility that President Chavez will be weaker when he returns to power in a few weeks (not to mention quiet questions about succession), there is a struggle for control and influence within the Chavez ranks to fill that power vaccuum. While only Vice President Elías Jaua would be the legitimate constitutional successor for the president, others including Adan think they are better suited for power. Adan wants to make sure the military will be on his side if and when a struggle within the Chavista ranks breaks out.

While the death-watch appears to have started, Chavez supporters are out in force to try and dampen speculation about his health condition. They further claim that reports of cancer are also overblown or false.

The problem for Chavez's supporters is that someone who is normally omnipresent on Venezuelan television and radio with daily addresses and announcements has been pretty much absent from the airwaves since June 10. The level of secrecy surrounding his health condition and whereabouts are similarly strange.

The Death Throes of the Khadafi Regime

Mumar Khadafi is trying to hold on to power for as long as he possibly can, and his security forces are using deadly force to try and retain power even as his own diplomats overseas are repudiating his regime and tribes that operate in much of the country outside Tripoli are also taking matters into their own hands. Even Libya's diplomatic mission to the UN has repudiated the regime.



Egyptians tell of harrowing tales of trying to escape from Libya. Thousands are fleeing the country.

The UN Security Council is holding an emergency meeting over the situation in Libya and the EU has also weighed in:



The deadly uprising and likelihood of a civil war or protracted insurrection has roiled the stock markets and oil prices.

Meanwhile, the addled Fidel Castro thinks that the Libyan uprising is a pretext for a US invasion.

Cuba's former leader Fidel Castro says it's too early to criticize Libya's government - but just the moment to denounce something says is planned: A U.S.-led invasion of the North African nation.

Castro uses a column published in Cuban media on Tuesday to accuse the United States of planning a NATO invasion of Libya to control its oil. He says that might happen "in a question of hours or very short days."

He says the plan "has to be denounced."

It would be much easier for the US to invade Bahrain and the UAE, where oil reserves are even greater - and where US forces already have a significant presence (CENTCOM headquarters, fleet bases, prepositioned stores, etc.), and where protests against the Bahraini regime have also been met with a violent crackdown.

What Castro himself should realize that his own regime is on the chopping block if the Cuban opposition gets its own act together and pushes Castro and his brother to the curb for more than 50 years or ruinous sociopolitical doctrine.

Many of the issues that ignited the protests throughout North Africa and the Middle East are worrisome to people around the world, including in failed states, autocratic and kleptocratic regimes such as Cuba. A lack of socioeconomic opportunities, free speech, and repressive regimes has led to uprisings for improved social and economic opportunities and demands for reforms.

UPDATE:
Who's exactly sticking their necks out for Khadafi? This report indicates that it isn't the army, or the general population but rather hired thugs and mercenaries who Khadafi imported to quell the insurrection against his regime. Khadafi has done whatever he can to sustain his regime, even undermanning and curtailing his regular army so that he can maintain a smaller cadre of professional thugs to deal with potential uprisings.

Another reason Gadhafi may have opted to use foreign mercenaries against his people is because he understands his army's weaknesses -- precisely because he created them.

The last time Libya's armed forces fought any major war was in 1987 in Chad. Thousands of Libyans were killed, and the conflict taught Gadhafi an important lesson: that his armed forces might not be up to snuff. After that he established separate security brigades to protect his regime, apart from the regular army. They're elite paramilitary forces, smaller in number than the Libyan army, but thought to be fiercely loyal to Gadhafi.

The infamously paranoid Libyan leader has also long feared a military coup -- the same type that brought him to power in 1969. So he has intentionally kept his own army understaffed and under-equipped, according to Charles Gurdon, a Libya expert who runs Menas Associates, a political risk consultancy in London.

"They did not have modern weapons and they didn't even have ammunition for a number of years," Gurdon told AOL News. "On the other hand, there are security brigades designed to fight against the army if necessary, and to protect the regime."

Ruthless and devoutly loyal to Gadhafi, it's those security brigades that Gurdon believes are attacking unarmed protesters in Libya's main squares, perhaps with the help of foreigners. Most of the Libyan leader's sons have their own security brigades as well.

UPDATE:
Khadafi just got himself fatwa'd by an influential Muslim Brotherhood cleric.

Influential Muslim cleric Yusuf al-Qaradawi has issued a fatwa that any Libyan soldier who can shoot dead embattled leader Muammar Gaddafi should do so 'to rid Libya of him.'

'Whoever in the Libyan army is able to shoot a bullet at Mr Gaddafi should do so,' Qaradawi, an Egyptian-born cleric who is usually based in Qatar, told Al-Jazeera television.

He also told Libyan soldiers 'not to obey orders to strike at your own people,' and urged Libyan ambassadors around the world to dissociate themselves from Gaddafi's regime.

Famous in the Middle East for his at times controversial fatwas, or religious edicts, the octogenarian Qaradawi has celebrity status in the Arab world thanks to his religious broadcasts on Al-Jazeera.

About Fidel Castro's Supposed Epiphany

Jeffrey Goldberg managed to swing the interview of a lifetime by sitting down with the former Cuban dictator Fidel Castro (his brother Raul runs the show now since Fidel's brush with death after a serious ailment). The clarity of hindsight and of his own impending mortality appear to be informing his decision making in ways that should have been apparent to anyone in his position even just a few years ago (like after the fall of the Soviet Union and the collapse of other communist countries).

Some of the things he says are eminently sensible at first blush, including that the Cuban model has failed. It only took him 20+ years to realize that. After all, the Soviet Union collapsed in 1989 and the former Warsaw Pact has largely moved in a direction of capitalism and improved standards of living. Without its benefactor, Cuba's standard of living stagnated, and that had nothing to do with the US embargo.

Then, there's the issue of Castro's comments about Iran's anti Semitism and warning to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. From Goldberg's interview:

He began this discussion by describing his own, first encounters with anti-Semitism, as a small boy. “I remember when I was a boy - a long time ago - when I was five or six years old and I lived in the countryside,” he said, “and I remember Good Friday. What was the atmosphere a child breathed? `Be quiet, God is dead.’ God died every year between Thursday and Saturday of Holy Week, and it made a profound impression on everyone. What happened? They would say, `The Jews killed God.’ They blamed the Jews for killing God! Do you realize this?”

He went on, “Well, I didn’t know what a Jew was. I knew of a bird that was a called a ‘Jew,’ and so for me the Jews were those birds. These birds had big noses. I don’t even know why they were called that. That’s what I remember. This is how ignorant the entire population was.”

He said the Iranian government should understand the consequences of theological anti-Semitism. “This went on for maybe two thousand years,” he said. “I don’t think anyone has been slandered more than the Jews. I would say much more than the Muslims. They have been slandered much more than the Muslims because they are blamed and slandered for everything. No one blames the Muslims for anything.” The Iranian government should understand that the Jews “were expelled from their land, persecuted and mistreated all over the world, as the ones who killed God. In my judgment here’s what happened to them: Reverse selection. What’s reverse selection? Over 2,000 years they were subjected to terrible persecution and then to the pogroms. One might have assumed that they would have disappeared; I think their culture and religion kept them together as a nation.” He continued: “The Jews have lived an existence that is much harder than ours. There is nothing that compares to the Holocaust.” I asked him if he would tell Ahmadinejad what he was telling me. “I am saying this so you can communicate it,” he answered.

Prior to the Cuban Revolution, the country was home to a small Jewish population (12-15,000), and many who couldn't directly get into the US first stopped in Cuba so it served as something of a way-station. There is a small Jewish community that is still there to this day, and it dates back to the expulsion of Jews from Spain during the Inquisition. However, more than 90% of Jews in Cuba at the time of the revolution fled Castro and his cronies.

So if this is a genuine change of heart on his part, it is late in coming, and it doesn't absolve him of his prior actions, which includes support and training for Palestinian terrorists (who continue using many of those anti-Semitic slurs in their ongoing propaganda against Israel).

Much more likely is that he's trying to reset himself as an elder statesman, but like Yasir Arafat, you can't trust the guy. He's also trying to have it both ways. He knows that Iran is walking a thin line with its bellicosity, but thinks that it is the US and Israel who need to step back - particularly with Israel eliminating its own nuclear arsenal:

Castro opened our initial meeting by telling me that he read the recent Atlantic article carefully, and that it confirmed his view that Israel and America were moving precipitously and gratuitously toward confrontation with Iran. This interpretation was not surprising, of course: Castro is the grandfather of global anti-Americanism, and he has been a severe critic of Israel. His message to Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, he said, was simple: Israel will only have security if it gives up its nuclear arsenal, and the rest of the world’s nuclear powers will only have security if they, too, give up their weapons.

We'd just have to ignore that Iran has any role in creating the conflict, up to and including its clandestine efforts to build an enrichment capability that exceeds what it would need for a civilian nuclear program and that it incessantly evokes genocidal flourishes in reference to Israel's existence (as in wiped off the map and using Hamas and Hizbullah as its proxies). We'd also have to note that Israel's nuclear arsenal (such as its neighbors believe exists) is seen as a counterbalance to Israel's small military size and deterrence to large scale attack. Eliminating that nuclear arsenal as a deterrent would potentially open Israel up to further aggression down the road.

What Does This Say About Cuban Health Care?

Cuba's running out of toilet paper.

Cuba, in the grip of a serious economic crisis, is running short of toilet paper and may not get sufficient supplies until the end of the year, officials with state-run companies said on Friday.

Officials said they were lowering the prices of 24 basic goods to help Cubans get through the difficulties provoked in part by the global financial crisis and three destructive hurricanes that struck the island last year.

Cuba's financial reserves have been depleted by increased spending for imports and reduced export income, which has forced the communist-led government to take extraordinary measures to keep the economy afloat.

"The corporation has taken all the steps so that at the end of the year there will be an important importation of toilet paper," an official with state conglomerate Cimex said on state-run Radio Rebelde.

The shipment will enable the state-run company "to supply this demand that today is presenting problems," he said.

I know what you're thinking.

They're going to have to adopt the Sheryl Crow approach (collective EWWWW).

After all these decades, the regime in Havana will still fight reality at every turn. They'll fight tooth and nail to impose their way with prices on basic goods and services, exacerbating shortages with price controls. Just when you thought that Cuba's situation couldn't get any worse, it finally hits the crapper.

And what does this say about the so-called vaunted Cuban health care system. If they can't even maintain stocks of toilet paper, how can they be providing even adequate health care? Once again, the lie of Cuban health care has been revealed. Sure, everyone has access to "health care" and it's "free", but the reality is that it's substandard (except for those who come to Cuba via medical tourism, and which generates significant income for the regime).

Castro Complains; Cubans Suffer As Usual

Fidel Castro is busy complaining as usual about the US foreign policy. He's unsatisfied that President Obama has lifted several portions of the US embargo against Cuba by allowing US citizens with relatives to visit Cuba along with providing additional money transfers and opening up some technical assistance for telecommunications between the US and Cuba.

Never mind that Cuba has done nothing to show that it deserves a change in US foreign policy. Cuba continues to imprison political prisoners and restrict free speech and property rights.

Proponents of ending the embargo always seem to ignore that and the fact that Cuba has no problem accessing foreign capital or technologies from the rest of the world that doesn't have an embargo. They have open relations with Cuba and much of Europe, to say nothing of Russia, China, and Venezuela. It's the regime's socialism and restrictions on the people to own property and go as they please that has kept the country down.

They aren't hurting because the US has not had relations with Cuba, but because the Castro clan has ruled Cuba for 50 years to disastrous results.

The Administration thinks that this is part of improving the US as viewed by the rest of the world. It is a naive assumption on the part of the Administration given that the world views such measures as a sign of weakness and that the Administration doesn't understand foreign policy or national security. Concessions on Cuba are going to be exploited not only by Castro but will be seen by the Iranians, Russians, Chinese, North Koreans, and pretty much everyone else as a way to test the Administration in ways large and small.

Russians Testing President Obama

Like JFK all those years ago, the Russian leaders have determined that President Obama is out of his league and think that they can bully him into making concession after concession. The latest in a string of tests for the new Administration is that the Russians are looking to stage long range bombers from Cuba and Venezuela.

Some may see this as a direct response to the US plans to station missile defense systems in Eastern Europe, but there's a whole world of difference between stationing a defensive missile system and providing bases for offensive weapons systems like long range bombers capable of carrying nuclear weapons and heavy payloads for use against the US and our allies in the region.

The fact is that the Russians know that Obama is likely to back down, despite the nature of the weapons systems involved. Socialism is on the march, and Obama isn't likely to stand in the way, despite the destructive effects the socialists have on those under its firm grip. Venezuela and Cuba are both destitute regimes that think that the US can be pushed around these days and I fear that they're right.

Obama has already signaled that he's more than willing to throw our Eastern European allies under the bus, even after the Bush Administration said that missile defense systems would be stationed there so as to provide all of Europe with protection from rogue missile attacks from the likes of Iran (who has been working towards developing a reliable long range missile capable of hitting Europe and all of the Middle East).

The Russian positioning of long range bombers in Latin America is designed to see what the Obama Administration is willing to do to protect US interests in the region, and they want to see what they can get away with. The Russians tried doing the same with the Bush Administration with a temporary stationing of two bombers in Venezuela. That was for show, but that symbolic act was the base on which the current measures are being taken. It's a long way from a symbolic positioning of aircraft to a regular basing of those bombers in close proximity to the US.

It will be interesting to see how the Administration plays this. I'm not holding my breath. I expect him to pretty much ignore this.

Democrats Introduce Legislation Opening Up Travel To Cuba

Via anonymous emailer comes word that Democrats in the House have introduced a bill to allow travel from the US to Cuba.

The Freedom to Travel to Cuba Act introduced in the U.S. House on Wednesday would allow American citizens unrestricted travel to Cuba for the first time since 1963. The bill by Rep. Bill Delahunt, D-Mass., and eight cosponsors also would lift limits on travel by Cuban exiles living in the United States. The president would not be able to regulate travel to the island unless an armed conflict arose.

Bay of Pigs veteran Miguel Reyes, founder of the Cuban American Club in West Palm Beach, Fla., thinks that the bill doesn't matter much. He has no plans to travel to Cuba and doesn't care if other people do.

"As an American, I think I have the right to go wherever I want to without anyone stopping me," said Reyes, whose views are independent from the club.

"It's a betrayal, and it's not going to resolve anything," said Jose Lopez, president of the Broward County Latin Chamber of Commerce. Lopez left Cuba in 1961.

Tourism dollars spent in Cuba will inject more oxygen into the dying Castro regime, he said. Lopez also thinks Cuban exiles who want to return to the island whenever they please are abusing their refugee privilege.

If passed, it would be the first time that travel between the US and Cuba was allowed since before Fidel Castro rose to power.

Cuba used to be a beautiful country with lovely beaches and it used to have a vibrant travel and tourist industry. Now, it is a shell of its former self, largely because of the collapse of Soviet Union and the lack of capital to support the industry.

While I wouldn't mind a vacation to Cuba at some point in the distant future when the Castros are no longer in any position of power, I think any such travel now would still benefit the privileged classes - those connected to the Castro clan, rather than the people of Cuba who are still oppressed under the harsh restrictions of the Cuban economic and political system.

Then again, unrestricted travel to Cuba would show just how blighted the socialist "paradise" truly is. It would reveal that the vaunted medical care system in Cuba is nothing more than wishful thinking and that medical tourism provides two-tiers of service - one that brings income to Cuba for the privileged (the part that Michael Moore highlights in his agitprop movie Sicko), and the rest of the country gets substandard care that borders on the criminal.

Cuba continues to hold political prisoners and maintains restrictions on speech and conduct of business is strictly regulated. In fact, Cuba's elites are little more than a criminal gang.

Unusually, organized crime in Cuba is run by the state. This is a result of the decision to bolster the Cuban military and intelligence apparatus by granting its top generals control over the lucrative tourism and hospitality industry. The island nation’s security and intelligence apparatus, estimated at 20,000 strong, is part of Cuba’s Ministry of the Interior. This means the Cuban security and intelligence community is also a major business operator on the island, overseeing the country’s booming tourist industry, cigar production and distribution of illicit goods.

Don't expect any of that to change anytime soon.

Yet, the Democrats are looking to change the policy even though the Castro regime has shown that it is unwilling to hold free and fair elections or release political prisoners. It is still a dictatorship.

Cuba Seeks Limited Lift of Trade Embargo

HAVANA — Cuba has turned down American storm relief handouts, but is asking for trade restrictions to be lifted so it can buy American materials to assist in its recovery from Hurricane Ike, officials said yesterday.

"Cuba hasn't asked the United States government to give it anything," the Foreign Ministry said in the Communist Party newspaper Granma. "Simply that it lets us buy."

The Foreign Ministry said it has twice turned down an American government offer to send a disaster assessment team, insisting that Cuban experts are capable of assessing Ike's damage to the island. Cuba says it wants some American trade restrictions lifted instead, so it can buy American roofing and other construction materials to repair homes and the island's electrical grid. It also wants to buy food on credit.

Actually, I am in favor of this. Let Cuba buy American goods and materials. First, it helps the U.S. economy, it improves the U.S. trade deficit and it shows the Cuban people how good our materials are here in the U.S. Look, if we don't let them buy from us, they will get them from [T]Hugo Chavez for free. This is a win-win situation -- American business get to sell goods and we may preempt Chavez from digging his claws into Cuba further.

Hurricane Ike Slams Cuba; Gulf Coast Warily Watches and Waits

Hurricane Ike is slowly grinding through Cuba, dropping massive amounts of rain and causing widespread damage. More than a million people were evacuated from the coast and low lying areas, but the entire island is taking a fearsome pounding from what is now a category one storm.

A tropical storm warning is in effect for the Florida Keys from Ocean Reef southward to the Dry Tortugas, including Florida Bay. A tropical storm warning means that tropical storm conditions are expected within the warning area within the next 24 hours.

A tropical storm watch remains in effect for Grand Cayman.

Interests in south Florida should continue to monitor the progress of Ike.

At 7 p.m. the center of Hurricane Ike was located just offshore of the south coast of central Cuba near latitude 21.7 north, longitude 80.2 west, about 35 miles south-southeast of Cienfuegos, Cuba and about 165 miles east-southeast of Havana, Cuba.

Ike is moving toward the west-northwest around 12 mph and this general motion is expected to continue for the next day or two. On this track, the center of hurricane Ike is expected to move along or just south of the southern coast of central Cuba tonight, move over western Cuba Tuesday, and emerge into the southeastern Gulf of Mexico by Tuesday night.

The storm is expected to continue to weaken as it passes over Cuba, but expect it to regain its strength once it enters the Gulf of Mexico.

This storm has been quite destructive, killing at least 312 people in Haiti and the Bahamas.

Right now, the storm tracks have it hitting somewhere along the Texas to Louisiana coastline. Right now, the models are all over the map - mostly focusing on the Texas coast, but there are a few outliers that have the track go South into Mexico or North into Florida. The GFDL track has the storm hit near the Texas town of Rockport. The NHC plot is to the North, striking near Bay City.

Window Dressing

That's what Raul Castro is doing - playing with the window dressings - while his supporters point to these tweaks as the sign that Cuba is moving away from the Communist system that has decimated the country since Fidel took power with an iron fist in 1959.

The media made a big deal of Castro's pronouncements that he'll allow average Cubans access to the hotels meant for foreigners, plus giving them the right to own cellphones and DVD players.

Big deal.

The average Cuban, who works for the government and is paid an average of $19.50 a month, can't afford to buy a cellphone, let alone a DVD player. They don't make enough, and often rely on relatives living in the states to supplement their incomes to make ends meet. What would take an American making minimum wage several hours to buy a low end DVD player, would take a Cuban five months. It would take two years for a Cuban to afford a microwave oven.

In other words, Raul's given Cubans the freedom to buy basic items that they could never afford.

Raul Castro is simply making a show of changes, but the real change will come when Cuba's political prisoners are freed from jail for doing nothing more than criticizing the Communist regime in Havana.

Cubans To Rubber Stamp New Leader

The Cuban legislature, for the past 49 years, has been there to rubber stamp every decision made by Fidel Castro. That was its sole purpose.

Yet, the media treats the latest gathering to determine a successor to Fidel Castro as though they're given the opportunity to actually choose who will take over for Fidel.

Like they have a choice?

His 76-year-old younger brother Raul Castro, as first vice president and constitutionally designated successor, is widely expected to be picked as president of the ruling Council of State.

The younger Castro, also Cuba's defense minister, has headed a caretaker government for 19 months since Fidel announced he had undergone emergency intestinal surgery and was provisionally ceding his powers.

The 614-member National Assembly, whose members were elected Jan. 20, is selecting a 31-member Council of State led by a president, who is the nation's head of state and government.

Fidel Castro has held the position since the current government structure was created in 1976. For 18 years before that, he was prime minister — a post that no longer exists.

He evidently retains his position as a member of the National Assembly, to which he was re-elected to last month, and he remains the head of the Communist Party as first secretary.

In an article published Saturday, Castro scoffed at suggestions in news reports that his retirement would lead to political changes on the island aided by Cuban exiles in the U.S.

"The reality is otherwise," Castro wrote in the front page of the Communist Party newspaper Granma — his final published comments as the nation's leader. He quoted approvingly from other articles that said his retirement showed the failure of U.S. officials to affect Cuba's political transition.

Raul Castro will be the next leader. As it is, he's been the leader since 2006.

The joke really is on the media that reports Cuban press releases as news (and the readers who believe this tripe), and treats totalitarian dictatorships as something else because there is a group of people who rubber stamp the decisions of the dictator.

UPDATE:
Well, knock me off my chair. The next leader of Cuba is *drum roll* Raul Castro. What a surprise. You could have fooled me given that Raul has been in charge since 2006 and this was never an issue in doubt. Meet the new boss. Same as the old boss.

Yet, the media treats this as though it is a new day for Cuba and that the Cubans actually had a choice in the matter. Figures.

UPDATE:
The AP runs with this as though it is real news and proclaims that Raul Castro Becomes Cuba's Leader

Hey AP. Raul has been in charge since 2006 when big brother couldn't afford Cuba's vaunted health care system and had to go to outside sources for help. This was a rubber stamping of what everyone knew - that Raul was running the show. Don't try passing this off for anything more than that. Yet, that's precisely what AP and other media outlets are doing.

Fidel's Latest Bloviations

Fidel wants the US to ease sanctions on Cuba, but in the next breath suggests that democracy would mean annexation by the US. The latest statement from Fidel also claims that he had fun listening to the presidential candidates talking about the need for change, and thinks that the change needs to come in the US, not Cuba.

Just tell it to all the starving people in your country. For all that wonderful public education you claim to provide, no one can actually write anything unflattering of the government without worry that they'll be thrown in prison never to be heard from again. And the media is a willing accomplice to hide the truth from the world.

Babalu's Cubawatcher, notes the bargain struck by the wire services for access on the island. It means that you will not get straight news reporting, but instead reporting thoroughly spun to remove any criticism of Cuba at all and devoid of any criticism of the Castro regime:

I went on a bit further, employing Henry Gomez’s categorization of the AP/Havana Bureau deal as nothing less than a Faustian bargain with the devil. God forbid the AP should run with stories that paint the Castro regime in an overtly negative light. This isn’t to say that I want the AP, or any other news organization for that matter, to transform itself into an anti-Fidel propaganda agency. Just report the truth . . . the whole truth. Where are the expose’s on the island’s shattered healthcare system? Why, during the hub-bub back in August 2007 when the world was sure Fidel was in fact dead, did the AP choose to print fluff stories regarding the “average joe’s” feelings on the street. During my time on the island recently, the high-fives in anticipation of the dictator’s demise were everywhere. The hopeful rumors of the end of the regime were palpable and Cuba’s streets were electric with anticipation. One certainly didn’t get that feeling from the AP’s coverage.

Mr. X nearly blew beer out from his nose, let out a laugh and lit another cigarette.

“Come on man, everyone knows that. Hell, every foreign news outlet on the island is playing the same game.”

In short, he admitted the whole nasty truth of the matter. Mr. X came clean and attributed the AP’s dirty deal to business, pure-and-simple. The world’s largest news gathering agency needs to be on that island for the big coffin show and nothing – not journalistic integrity, not truth, not the lives of 12-million lost souls – is going to get in its way.

Just as CNN did before them, AP doesn't care so much about journalism so much as it craves access.

Meet the New Boss; Same as the Old Boss

So, word has come out of Cuba that Fidel Castro is stepping down as el Presidente for life. After all, since he took over Cuba 49 years ago, he never one relinquished his firm grip on the reins of power. His brother, Raul, is going to take over.

Well, considering that Fidel has been in poor health (and often speculated that he's already well and truly dead for some time now), this just confirms that Fidel isn't running the show. Since 2006, there have been signs that Fidel is no longer in charge of Cuba and that day to day administration of Cuba was left to others - Raul in particular.

Hot Air raises one of the more interesting questions of the day. Now that Fidel has exited stage left, should the US now consider opening the floodgates on trade, tourism and lift the embargo. It would be a real eye opener for the leftists who think that Cuba is some kind of paradise and be disabused of that notion with the sad reality that Cuba is one of the worst kind of hellholes on the planet because Castro and his cronies ran the place into the ground.

Babalu Blog has Castro's letter of "resignation."

Let's just remember that Castro's cronies are still in charge and Raul has been in de facto charge of Cuba since late 2006.

We may just have to wait a little bit longer for this photo to come to fruition (warning - this is a hoaxed photo and therefore is only wishful thinking that Cuba's long national nightmare can soon come to an end - though the death watch is once again on):




Michelle Malkin and Fausta have a great roundup of reaction, and notes the fawning reaction of some of the press worldwide to Castro's ability to survive as one of the world's oldest dictators.

Lest anyone think that the situation is going to improve overnight, Raul is little different from his brother and while some think that he's going to take on the mantle of reformer, Cuba doesn't need reform - it needs to scrap its totalitarian and socialist policies that have left its people wanting for everything.

UPDATE:
Jammie has more on the leftist drivel praising one of the world's worst dictators. Ed Driscoll also weighs in.

UPDATE:
Folks down in South Florida were approaching this latest news with cautious optimism, and many were making the point I did above:

'In a year or so, I think, we will see some change,'' Luis Garcia, 75, said as he stood in front of the Versailles Restaurant, a landmark in Miami's Little Havana neighborhood. ``Fidel no longer has the ability to run a country. He's very ill.''

Regina Botello, another customer at the restaurant, said: ``It's the best thing that could have happened on this 19th of February. It's the first step toward real change.''

Others were more skeptical.

''The only sign of change will come when he dies,'' Roberto Perez, who left the island nearly 40 years ago, said of Castro. ``That's the only thing that matters.''

Several prominent members of the exile community urged Cuban Americans to dismiss the announcement as largely meaningless.

''This is nothing but a show the Havana governnent has put on to move the media and confuse the people of Cuba,'' said Miguel Saavedra, head of the anti-Castro group Vigilia Mambisa. ``The only change would be an overthrow of the system, a complete uprooting of the regime.''

UPDATE:
Death by 1000 papercuts has 15 selected quotes from Castro.

UPDATE:
Newsbusters catches the Times fawning. Sweetness and Light notes that the AP entertains a caveat on calling Castro a dictator. Others weighing in on what this all means for the US, for Cubans, and Latin America include: Don Surber, Jules Crittenden, Gateway Pundit, Sister Toldjah.

UPDATE:
For a change I find myself largely in agreement with NJ Senator Bob Menendez (D):

"To just embrace Raul would be a huge mistake. All we'd be doing is embracing another dictator," said Menendez, a Democrat who was born to parents who emigrated from Cuba.

"This Castro is the same as the other in terms of philosophy, having been part of a dictatorship," said Menendez, who was mayor of Union City, part of a northern New Jersey area that has the nation's largest concentration of Cuban-Americans after Miami.

"Raul does not have the same relationship with the Cuban people as Fidel had," he said. "He has more blood on his hands than Fidel has. In that respect, it is not a change we would love to see. It's an opportunity for the U.S. and the world to challenge Raul, an opportunity to move in a different way."

Fidel's got plenty of blood on his hands, but Raul has been doing a most capable job of running the Cuban gulag. Meanwhile, another Cuban-born New Jersey politician weighs in with the following:

A Cuban-born New Jersey congressman, Rep. Albio Sires, said he hoped the departure of Fidel Castro will lead to democratic reform in Cuba.

"The Cuban people will be disappointed if change doesn't come out of this," said Sires, who was mayor of West New York, part of the Cuban-American enclave. "I don't think this will change life for Cubans very much, unless some reforms are taken."

Sires thinks that reform will get the job done. He's seriously underestimating how rotten to the core the Cuban political system truly is.

Trackposted to Outside the Beltway, Diary of the Mad Pigeon, Rosemary's Thoughts, third world county, Right Truth, The World According to Carl, Shadowscope, The Pink Flamingo, Right Voices, The Yankee Sailor, and , thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.

UPDATE:
Still more evidence that the media is going out of its way to put lipstick on the pig known as Castro. So, apparently universal health care and free education is sufficient to make you ignore human rights abuses up the ying yang. Stay classy CNN. We know how you got your access in places like Saddam's Iraq, which included cozying up to dictators and thugs by ignoring the real abuses and sugarcoating dictatorships and thugocracies.

No Official Word

I see that the rumors are still out there about Castro's oxygen intake reduction and his contributions to reducing global warming emissions by holding his breath permanently. However, the only proof will be when the Cuban government officially admits the old gray thug is on a slab.

Look, the longer the Cuban communists say that Fidel's okay, but without actually presenting him in public to show that he is indeed alive, shows just how thuggish the regime is, how it controls the flow of information and media, and is not an open government at all. They must know that if Fidel dies, their ability to control the Cuban people goes down significantly because he cultivated a cult of personality that no one else in the government even begins to approach. So, they persist in keeping Castro (or news of his death or incapacitation) from the Cuban people.

They also know that if the expat community keeps spreading these rumors and the Cuban government doesn't admit that he's indeed dead, the communists think that they're scoring points by exposing the expats to ridicule over their incessant rumors.

UPDATE:
Perez Hilton stands by his statements that Castro is dead based on his sources. He also says that Cuba better put up or shut up and admit that Castro is dead. No videos or photos are acceptable. He wants to see Castro paraded about in public. I have news for Perez: Not.Gonna.Happen.

The communists wont do that until they're good and ready to admit that Castro is dead - even if it's months after the fact. Fausta notes that the cult of personality is like a house of cards - and if Castro is dead, the communists' hold on the country will slip. I'm not sure how fast that might happen, but it would be an extraordinary opportunity for the Cuban people.

Others blogging: Outside the Beltway, Blue Crab Boulevard (and here) , Hot Air, Sister Toldjah, Stop the ACLU, and Poliblogger.

Friday Fidel Dead Rumor Mill?

Val at Babalu is about ready to uncork the champagne and light up a nice hearty stogy as he thinks that the Cuban communistas are about to announce that Fidel has had his one way ticket to hell punched.

This doesn't appear to be the usual weekly Fidel dead rumors.

My cellphone has not stopped ringing for the past ten minutes. Various sources inform that an announcement will come within the next few minutes from the Cuban government on Cuban TV and media. Stay tuned and we'll see if we've been manipulated once again or if today is the birth date of Cuba's liberty.

Update: Here's the deal and what I know up to now, as of 1500 hours, August 24, 2007:

First, South Florida Law Enforcement is on alert. An EOC (Emergency Operations Center) has been set-up and manned somewhere in Homestead.

Im also told Local and State government agencies have food, bottled water, and other necessities - valued in the millions - stored and/or staged in Homestead at or near the EOC.

I am presently verifying whether Coast Guard and DHS and Border Patrol agencies are on high alert. (Verified 01445)

Local News stations are abuzz, mostly on reports very much like the above, with massive law enforcemnt mobilizations throughout Dade county.

If this does indeed pan out, it is a great day for the Cuban community, though the long term effects for those Cubans living under the crushing heel of the Communists in Cuba isn't going to change all that much because the Communists have been handling the day to day matters for nearly a year without Fidel's active involvment.

Cuba's foreign minister said that rumors of Fidel's waning health are untrue, in a news report from several hours ago.

There's also the possibility that the Communists are playing on everyone's hopes that Castro is indeed dead, only to trot him out for all the world to see.

Preferably, I like to see the Weekend at Bernie's version, but because the Cuban government controls the media, they are calling the shots and solid information is difficult to come by.

Hot Air has more, and also relates some of the same concerns I have.

UPDATE:
The following photo is bogus as I discovered when I first posted it, but it is one that many Cubans and freedom loving folks would love to have come to pass. Castro's evil rule over Cuba has doomed generations of Cubans to live under the heel of a totalitarian dictator.

The Castro Dead Pool Warms Up?

Rumors are once again circulating with some vigor that the bearded one, Fidel Castro, has slipped the surly bonds and has embraced the comforting glow of Hell where he rejoins Che Guevera and will spend eternity dealing with his crimes against humanity and the Cuban people.

These rumors are unconfirmed, and unless the Cuban government says that Castro has indeed died, there's no way to confirm anything. The Cuban communists are like that. They control the press and the flow of information. So, if there's something happening in Cuba relating to Castro's health, the Cubans wont let anyone know until they're good and ready to let everyone else know.

That's not to say that one can't be happy about the prospective news - Castro is going to die eventually, and these rumors certainly bring a smile to the faces of those who have suffered greatly at his hands or have watched their countrymen suffer.

Fawning Over Fidel: A Year Without El Presidente

It's been one year since old Fidel has been seen in public (and not simply some staged photo ops that make one wish for reruns of Weekend at Bernies). The AP is practically drooling as they write this:

When Fidel Castro last appeared in public one year ago Thursday, he enthusiastically led about 100,000 Communist Party faithful in celebrating the audacious attack on an army barracks that launched his revolution.

These days, the convalescing 80-year-old seems to be in vigilant semiretirement.

He tracks government affairs and writes essays from an undisclosed location, apparently in no rush to resume the hectic lifestyle he blamed for his ailment. He can spend hours watching the Pan American games on television, writing last week that he is so engrossed that he forgets to eat and take his medicine.

Forgets to eat and take his meds? Heh. He's so busy that he can't be seen in public and his handlers are limiting access to [T]hugo Chavez and similar persons?

Did the AP actually meet and greet Fidel, or did they simply reprint the Cuban government line?

JFK Terror Plot Links To Iran To Be Examined

The New York Times considered this plot to be something less than worthy of front page news, and yet the hits keep on coming. The New York Sun reports that the FBI and JTTF are looking into whether the plotters had connections with Iran:

As New York police and the FBI interview suspects in an alleged plot to attack John F. Kennedy International Airport, one thread the ongoing investigation will explore is why one of the suspects was planning to go to Iran.

A former Guyanese legislator, Abdul Kadir, was arrested in Trinidad on Friday on a plane bound for Caracas, Venezuela. According to Mr. Kadir's wife, Isha Kadir, he was in the island nation to pick up an Iranian visa so he could attend an Islamic conference in Tehran. Two of Mr. Kadir's children are studying in Iran, according to Mrs. Kadir.

Trinidad's counterterrorism police are also investigating whether one of Mr. Kadir's alleged co-conspirators, a 56-year old Shiite imam in Trinidad named Kareem Ibrahim, had ties to Shiite organizations in southern Iraq and Iran through an Islamic discussion group he hosted, according to the Trinidad Express.

In interviews in the Guyanese press, Mrs. Kadir said her husband's Iran connection was likely the reason the FBI was requesting his extradition.

"We are shocked, we are not part of these things," she was quoted by Kaieteur News in Guyana. "To begin with, we are not Al Qaeda ... we are Shia. My husband is a decent, devoted, intelligent Muslim. Both of us have relatives in the United States. It would be nonsensical for him to plot something like this."

As for that last part by Mrs. Kadir, one only has to be reminded that Hizbullah, the Shi'a Islamic terrorist group, had no problems launching terrorist attacks against the US in the past, and regularly receives support from Iran. Sunni and Shi'a have a common goal in going after infidels and the West, enough so that they would be willing to set aside their doctrinal differences to go after the US. Iran's reach around the world is growing, having aligned itself with dictators and thugs across the globe:

If Iran's hand is found behind the JFK airport plot, it would raise an alarm about the Islamic Republic's recent alliances with America's hemispheric enemies. Since the 2005 ascendance of President Ahmadinejad in Iran, the Iranian regime has strengthened ties with such leaders as President Castro of Cuba, President Chavez of Venezuela, and even President Reagan's one-time foe, President Ortega of Nicaragua.

Today Show To Visit Cuba

I'm sorry, but an American news outlet visiting Cuba isn't news. That they're not going to be able to score an interview with Fidel Castro is news.

Where is Fidel Castro and why isn't he able to meet with NBC News? If Castro were as healthy as the Cuban government has been saying, you would think they'd want to get him out there. It would be the scoop of all scoops for NBC News and the Today Show. Yet, that doesn't look like it's going to happen.

What about Raul? Is he available? Apparently not:

"It's always timely to go to Cuba," Bell said. "There's always news there. Being there is news in itself."

There is no expectation NBC will interview ailing Cuban leader Fidel Castro, who has not been seen in public for 10 months, or his brother Raul, who has been running the country, Bell said.

Besides examining Cuba's political future, "Today" plans stories on the impact of the U.S. embargo on both countries.

So, they're going to report on the conditions in Cuba but can't interview the guys in charge. That's interesting. Will they have minders determining what and where they can go? Will they have their stories run by the Cuban government to determine what gets to broadcast or will they have the ability to run stories however they see fit? Will the Today show be up front about whatever limitations are put on their trip? What have they had to give up in order to make the trip in the first place?

Will NBC News go into the hospitals - not just the clinics catering to foreigners to generate income for the government but those that serve the Cuban people? Will they report on the shortages of basic items? Will they show the intense poverty that exists in the country despite the claims that it is a socialist paradise?

Journalists aren't held to the same restrictions as regular American citizens as they can enter Cuba to do reporting. Babalu Blog notes that it took 18 months to negotiate this trip and the last time NBC News set foot on the island, Brian Williams made absolutely no effort to delve into the thuggery of the Castro regime and the political prisoners being held there.