Lady In White Sentenced To Almost Three Years In Prison For Alleged
Crime Of 'Attack'
14ymedio, Havana, 25 April 2017 — On Tuesday morning the Court in
Havana's municipality of Diez de Octubre, confirmed the prosecutor's
request of two years and eight months in jail for Micaela Roll Gibert, 53.
The woman, a member of the opposition group Ladies in White, is charged
with the crime of attack, alleging that she knocked down Luanda Mas
Valdés, an official from the Ministry of the Interior (MININT), during
an arrest.
According to Berta Soler, the leader of the women's group who spoke with
14ymedio, the incident took place on May 1, 2016, when Roll Gibert left
the headquarters of the Ladies in White.
"Roll was beaten by two cops. When they put her inside the bus to take
her to the police station, one of the officers twisted her arm and
knocked her down. As she fell, Roll took with her another police officer
who was trying to repress her," explained Soler.
Soler says that Micaella Roll Gibert's 16-year-old daughter was expelled
from the School of Nursing because of her mother's activism and another
of her children, a son, was fired from his job in retaliation against
his mother
The officer who fell, Mas Valdés, did not appear in this Tuesday's trial
and according to Soler, they explained to those present that she was
"nine month's pregnant" and "has high blood pressure."
"The trial was finally held without the presence of the officer making
the accusation and instead the court accepted an affidavit, taken at the
house of Mas Valdés moments before the trial," adds Soler.
According to the opposition leader the trial was rigged, prepared by
State Security.
"It's one more woman they are going to send to prison," says the
activist, who notes that some time ago a State Security official
proposed to Roll Gibert that she "collaborate with them."
"When she refused him, they warned her that her life would become a
nightmare," Soler adds.
Soler says that Micaella Roll Gibert's 16-year-old daughter was expelled
from the School of Nursing because of her mother's activism and another
of her children, a son, was fired from his job in retaliation against
his mother.
The Lady in White also denounced that other women from the movement are
"still missing since early this morning."
"We do not know where the Ladies Yolanda Ayala, María Josefa Acón and
Gladys Capote are," says Soler.
Source: Lady In White Sentenced To Almost Three Years In Prison For
Alleged Crime Of 'Attack' – Translating Cuba -
http://translatingcuba.com/lady-in-white-sentenced-to-almost-three-years-in-prison-for-alleged-crime-of-attack/
Wednesday, April 26, 2017
How Cuban State Security Intimidates Potential Informants
How Cuban State Security Intimidates Potential Informants / Iván García
Iván García,9 April 2017 — They did not put a Makarov pistol to his head
or torture him with electric prods. Let's call him Josué. (The names in
his article have been changed). He is a guy who wears American-made
jeans, listens to jazz by Winton Marsalis on his iPhone 7 and is a
diehard fan of LeBron James.
He used to work at a gasoline station. One day earned the equivalent of
fifty dollars, enough to have some beers at a Havana bar with his
buddies. "One of my friends was an opponent of the regime and two were
independent journalists," says Josué. "That wasn't a problem for me. I
had known them for years and they were decent, trustworthy people. We
talked politics but, when we just hanging out, we usually talked about
sports or our daily lives," says Josué.
One morning two officials from the Department of State Security (DSE),
dressed as civilians and riding motorcycles, showed up at his door.
"They wanted to 'have a friendly chat' with me. They asked if I would
collaborate with them, if I would pass on information about my dissident
friends. When I refused, they threatened to charge me with embezzling
state funds."
"'We know you are stealing gasoline,' they said. 'Either you work for us
or we'll press charges.' At first, I went along with it but only passed
along false information or said that my friends didn't tell me anything
about their work activities. Then they suggested I infiltrate the
dissident movement. I refused. In the end I quit my job at the gas
station. So now they hassle me constantly and come up with any excuse to
arrest and detain me at the police station," say Josué.
For Sheila, an engineer, the modus operandi is familiar: "First, they
tried to blackmail me, accusing me of having an extra-marital affair
with a dissident. When I told them, 'Go ahead; do it,' they changed
tactics and said they were going to charge me with harassment of
foreigners and prostitution because I have a European boyfriend."
One of the objectives of Cuban special services is to "short-circuit"
the connections that so many of the regime's opponents, such as
independent journalists, have with official sources. "They are in a
panic over the possibility that dissidents and independent journalists
are building bridges and establishing networks of trust with employees
and officials at important state institutions. That's why they are
trying to poison the relationships dissidents and journalists have with
relatives, friends and neighbors," claims an academic who has received
warnings from the DSE.
According to this academic, "The DSE will use whatever weapon it can to
achieve its goals. These include blackmail, psychological pressure, a
person's commitment to the party and the Revolution, and threats of
imprisonment for criminal activity, which is not uncommon given that
some potential informants work in the financial or service sector and
often make money by defrauding the government. State Security does not
need to torture its informants. A system of duplicity, widespread
corruption and fear of reprisal are enough to accomplish the objective:
to isolate the opponent from his circle of friends."
Yusdel, an unlicensed bodyshop repairman, recalls how one day an
agent from State Security told him, "If you want to keep your business,
you have to inform on your stepfather," a human rights activist.
"They're pigs," says Yusdel. "It doesn't matter to them if you betray
one of your relatives. If you refuse, you are besieged by the police."
For Carlos jail is a second home. "Once, when I was a serving time at
Combinado del Este prison, a guard asked me to intimidate another
inmate, who was a dissident. 'Punch him, do whatever it takes. Nothing
will happen to you.' In exchange for this, they were going to give me
weekend passes. I said I wouldn't do it. But there are common criminals
who are all too willing to do this shit," says Carlos.
The pressure to become a "snitch" is greater when a government opponent
or an alternative journalist is inexperienced. Because the dissident
community is made up of groups of pacifists and because it operates
openly, it is easy for counterintelligence to infiltrate it and
blackmail dissidents, who can easily break down or crack under
psychological pressure.
With eighteen years' experience in the free press, a colleague who has
known fake independent journalists such as the late Nestor Baguer and
Carlos Serpa Maceira says that ultimately they became informants
"because of pressure exerted on them by State Security."
A professor of history who has been subjected to bullying by an agent
believes, "The revolutionary/counterrevolutionary rhetoric was inspiring
in the first few years after Fidel Castro came to power, when those who
supported the revolutionary process were in the majority. Now, those who
collaborate do not do it out of loyalty or ideology. They do it out of
fear. And that makes them vulnerable and unreliable citizens. Not to
mention that the professionalism of the current DSE officers leaves much
to be desired. Some agents seem marginal and very intellectually unstable."
To achieve its objective, Cuban counterintelligence resorts to extortion
of would-be informants. And in the case of the opposition, to physical
violence. If you have any doubts, just ask the Ladies in White.
Source: How Cuban State Security Intimidates Potential Informants / Iván
García – Translating Cuba -
http://translatingcuba.com/how-cuban-state-security-intimidates-potential-informants-ivn-garca/
Iván García,9 April 2017 — They did not put a Makarov pistol to his head
or torture him with electric prods. Let's call him Josué. (The names in
his article have been changed). He is a guy who wears American-made
jeans, listens to jazz by Winton Marsalis on his iPhone 7 and is a
diehard fan of LeBron James.
He used to work at a gasoline station. One day earned the equivalent of
fifty dollars, enough to have some beers at a Havana bar with his
buddies. "One of my friends was an opponent of the regime and two were
independent journalists," says Josué. "That wasn't a problem for me. I
had known them for years and they were decent, trustworthy people. We
talked politics but, when we just hanging out, we usually talked about
sports or our daily lives," says Josué.
One morning two officials from the Department of State Security (DSE),
dressed as civilians and riding motorcycles, showed up at his door.
"They wanted to 'have a friendly chat' with me. They asked if I would
collaborate with them, if I would pass on information about my dissident
friends. When I refused, they threatened to charge me with embezzling
state funds."
"'We know you are stealing gasoline,' they said. 'Either you work for us
or we'll press charges.' At first, I went along with it but only passed
along false information or said that my friends didn't tell me anything
about their work activities. Then they suggested I infiltrate the
dissident movement. I refused. In the end I quit my job at the gas
station. So now they hassle me constantly and come up with any excuse to
arrest and detain me at the police station," say Josué.
For Sheila, an engineer, the modus operandi is familiar: "First, they
tried to blackmail me, accusing me of having an extra-marital affair
with a dissident. When I told them, 'Go ahead; do it,' they changed
tactics and said they were going to charge me with harassment of
foreigners and prostitution because I have a European boyfriend."
One of the objectives of Cuban special services is to "short-circuit"
the connections that so many of the regime's opponents, such as
independent journalists, have with official sources. "They are in a
panic over the possibility that dissidents and independent journalists
are building bridges and establishing networks of trust with employees
and officials at important state institutions. That's why they are
trying to poison the relationships dissidents and journalists have with
relatives, friends and neighbors," claims an academic who has received
warnings from the DSE.
According to this academic, "The DSE will use whatever weapon it can to
achieve its goals. These include blackmail, psychological pressure, a
person's commitment to the party and the Revolution, and threats of
imprisonment for criminal activity, which is not uncommon given that
some potential informants work in the financial or service sector and
often make money by defrauding the government. State Security does not
need to torture its informants. A system of duplicity, widespread
corruption and fear of reprisal are enough to accomplish the objective:
to isolate the opponent from his circle of friends."
Yusdel, an unlicensed bodyshop repairman, recalls how one day an
agent from State Security told him, "If you want to keep your business,
you have to inform on your stepfather," a human rights activist.
"They're pigs," says Yusdel. "It doesn't matter to them if you betray
one of your relatives. If you refuse, you are besieged by the police."
For Carlos jail is a second home. "Once, when I was a serving time at
Combinado del Este prison, a guard asked me to intimidate another
inmate, who was a dissident. 'Punch him, do whatever it takes. Nothing
will happen to you.' In exchange for this, they were going to give me
weekend passes. I said I wouldn't do it. But there are common criminals
who are all too willing to do this shit," says Carlos.
The pressure to become a "snitch" is greater when a government opponent
or an alternative journalist is inexperienced. Because the dissident
community is made up of groups of pacifists and because it operates
openly, it is easy for counterintelligence to infiltrate it and
blackmail dissidents, who can easily break down or crack under
psychological pressure.
With eighteen years' experience in the free press, a colleague who has
known fake independent journalists such as the late Nestor Baguer and
Carlos Serpa Maceira says that ultimately they became informants
"because of pressure exerted on them by State Security."
A professor of history who has been subjected to bullying by an agent
believes, "The revolutionary/counterrevolutionary rhetoric was inspiring
in the first few years after Fidel Castro came to power, when those who
supported the revolutionary process were in the majority. Now, those who
collaborate do not do it out of loyalty or ideology. They do it out of
fear. And that makes them vulnerable and unreliable citizens. Not to
mention that the professionalism of the current DSE officers leaves much
to be desired. Some agents seem marginal and very intellectually unstable."
To achieve its objective, Cuban counterintelligence resorts to extortion
of would-be informants. And in the case of the opposition, to physical
violence. If you have any doubts, just ask the Ladies in White.
Source: How Cuban State Security Intimidates Potential Informants / Iván
García – Translating Cuba -
http://translatingcuba.com/how-cuban-state-security-intimidates-potential-informants-ivn-garca/
Cuban sugar burns to recapture sweet smell of success
Cuban sugar burns to recapture sweet smell of success
by Hector Velasco - AFP on April 26, 2017, 4:30 pm
Pedro Betancourt (Cuba) (AFP) - A sweet smell of treacle used to fill
the air in the village of Pedro Betancourt -- but like the workers from
the derelict Cuba Libre sugar refinery, it has dispersed.
It was the smell of success against the odds for Cuba, reviled by the
United States and its allies in the Cold War but still a world champion
sugar producer -- until the Soviet Union fell and stopped buying it from
Fidel Castro's communist regime.
Now a demolition crane is attacking what is left of the Cuba Libre
refinery's rusty steel skeleton. Fidel is dead, the Cold War is over --
and Cuba wants its sugar industry back.
"The refinery was the life of the people who lived here," says Arnaldo
Herrera, 86. He lost his job at the plant when it closed in 2004.
"When that changes, life changes."
- Cane on the risin' -
Britain and other colonial powers grew fat on Cuban sugarcane --
harvested by black slaves -- from the 18th century until independence at
the turn of the 20th.
The island then sold a lot of sugar to the United States until
Washington imposed a trade embargo after communist revolutionary Castro
took over in 1959.
Castro later announced a "revolutionary offensive" to relaunch the
industry. The Soviet Union bought the sugar at preferential prices.
For 1970 Castro famously set a production target of a "great harvest" of
10 million tonnes. (He fell short by 1.5 million.)
But after the Soviet bloc collapsed in 1989, with the US embargo still
in place and prices falling, the island could no longer compete.
Two-thirds of its refineries -- about 100 plants -- have shut down since
2002.
From eight million tonnes a year in the 1990s, production plunged to
just over one million in 2010.
"That was when we touched bottom," says Rafael Suarez, head of
international relations for the state sugar monopoly Azcuba.
"Since then an effort has been made. The refineries have been improved
and a lot of emphasis has been put on recovering sugarcane production."
Suarez says Azcuba is also looking to expand production of sugar
derivatives: rum, cattle feed and renewable fuel.
- Human cost -
Some 100,000 Cubans used to work in refineries like the one in Pedro
Betancourt in the east.
The refineries used to pay well, for Cuba -- at least double the $28
average monthly salary.
Julio Dominguez, 84, worked in Cuba Libre until it shut.
"This town has been stripped bare. Tobacco production is all it has
left," he says.
The refinery stopped milling in 2004 and demolition began in 2007. Like
everything in Cuba, it takes time.
Some still weep when they pass the site, says the head of the
demolition, Eliecer Rodriguez.
"I am knocking it down, but that was someone else's decision," he says.
Workers were kept on their salaries for some time after the closure.
Some have since moved on to work as tobacco producers, taxi drivers or
handymen. Others have emigrated to the United States.
"Closing a sugar refinery is always traumatic in human and social
terms," Suarez says.
"What the revolution did was take a lot of care to see that no one was
abandoned."
- Sweet smell -
Soon only the concrete smokestacks of Cuba Libre will still stand among
the green fields of sugarcane.
But 70 kilometers (some 40 miles) away, a chimney is still smoking. The
air smells of caramel.
It is business as usual at the Jesus Rabi refinery.
The plant's boiler operator Juan Hernandez, 63, was made redundant from
two sugar plants that shut down before he landed here.
"Those were bitter times. When a sugar refinery shuts, it really shuts.
There isn't the economy for it."
Yet by mechanizing the sugar harvest almost completely, Cuba has managed
to boost production to some two million tonnes a year from its 2010 low
point.
More than half of that it exports, mostly to China and Russia.
Suarez reckons the island can pump up production to four million tonnes
a year. That will still leave it as a minnow in world terms.
"The days when such a small country as Cuba was the biggest exporter of
sugar will never return," he admitted.
"We don't pretend they will."
Source: Cuban sugar burns to recapture sweet smell of success - Yahoo7 -
https://au.news.yahoo.com/world/a/35168276/cuban-sugar-burns-to-recapture-sweet-smell-of-success/#page1
by Hector Velasco - AFP on April 26, 2017, 4:30 pm
Pedro Betancourt (Cuba) (AFP) - A sweet smell of treacle used to fill
the air in the village of Pedro Betancourt -- but like the workers from
the derelict Cuba Libre sugar refinery, it has dispersed.
It was the smell of success against the odds for Cuba, reviled by the
United States and its allies in the Cold War but still a world champion
sugar producer -- until the Soviet Union fell and stopped buying it from
Fidel Castro's communist regime.
Now a demolition crane is attacking what is left of the Cuba Libre
refinery's rusty steel skeleton. Fidel is dead, the Cold War is over --
and Cuba wants its sugar industry back.
"The refinery was the life of the people who lived here," says Arnaldo
Herrera, 86. He lost his job at the plant when it closed in 2004.
"When that changes, life changes."
- Cane on the risin' -
Britain and other colonial powers grew fat on Cuban sugarcane --
harvested by black slaves -- from the 18th century until independence at
the turn of the 20th.
The island then sold a lot of sugar to the United States until
Washington imposed a trade embargo after communist revolutionary Castro
took over in 1959.
Castro later announced a "revolutionary offensive" to relaunch the
industry. The Soviet Union bought the sugar at preferential prices.
For 1970 Castro famously set a production target of a "great harvest" of
10 million tonnes. (He fell short by 1.5 million.)
But after the Soviet bloc collapsed in 1989, with the US embargo still
in place and prices falling, the island could no longer compete.
Two-thirds of its refineries -- about 100 plants -- have shut down since
2002.
From eight million tonnes a year in the 1990s, production plunged to
just over one million in 2010.
"That was when we touched bottom," says Rafael Suarez, head of
international relations for the state sugar monopoly Azcuba.
"Since then an effort has been made. The refineries have been improved
and a lot of emphasis has been put on recovering sugarcane production."
Suarez says Azcuba is also looking to expand production of sugar
derivatives: rum, cattle feed and renewable fuel.
- Human cost -
Some 100,000 Cubans used to work in refineries like the one in Pedro
Betancourt in the east.
The refineries used to pay well, for Cuba -- at least double the $28
average monthly salary.
Julio Dominguez, 84, worked in Cuba Libre until it shut.
"This town has been stripped bare. Tobacco production is all it has
left," he says.
The refinery stopped milling in 2004 and demolition began in 2007. Like
everything in Cuba, it takes time.
Some still weep when they pass the site, says the head of the
demolition, Eliecer Rodriguez.
"I am knocking it down, but that was someone else's decision," he says.
Workers were kept on their salaries for some time after the closure.
Some have since moved on to work as tobacco producers, taxi drivers or
handymen. Others have emigrated to the United States.
"Closing a sugar refinery is always traumatic in human and social
terms," Suarez says.
"What the revolution did was take a lot of care to see that no one was
abandoned."
- Sweet smell -
Soon only the concrete smokestacks of Cuba Libre will still stand among
the green fields of sugarcane.
But 70 kilometers (some 40 miles) away, a chimney is still smoking. The
air smells of caramel.
It is business as usual at the Jesus Rabi refinery.
The plant's boiler operator Juan Hernandez, 63, was made redundant from
two sugar plants that shut down before he landed here.
"Those were bitter times. When a sugar refinery shuts, it really shuts.
There isn't the economy for it."
Yet by mechanizing the sugar harvest almost completely, Cuba has managed
to boost production to some two million tonnes a year from its 2010 low
point.
More than half of that it exports, mostly to China and Russia.
Suarez reckons the island can pump up production to four million tonnes
a year. That will still leave it as a minnow in world terms.
"The days when such a small country as Cuba was the biggest exporter of
sugar will never return," he admitted.
"We don't pretend they will."
Source: Cuban sugar burns to recapture sweet smell of success - Yahoo7 -
https://au.news.yahoo.com/world/a/35168276/cuban-sugar-burns-to-recapture-sweet-smell-of-success/#page1
Fast-track drilling for Cuba envisioned
Fast-track drilling for Cuba envisioned
Australian energy company Melbana said conditions ripe for action in oil
prospects in Cuba.
By Daniel J. Graeber | April 26, 2017 at 8:05 AM
April 26 (UPI) -- The necessary components for an accelerated drilling
program for oil prospects in Cuba may already be in place, Australian
energy company Melbana said.
Melbana Energy Ltd. estimated last year that Block 9 in Cuba holds 637
million barrels of prospective recoverable reserves and 19 drilling
prospects there were described by the company as high impact and low
risk. Its highest ranked drilling opportunity is the Alameda-1 well,
with an estimated 400 million barrels of recoverable oil on the high
side of Melbana's estimates.
Melbana is one of the few Western oil companies, and the only one listed
on the Australian exchange, with a footprint in Cuba. CEO Peter
Stickland said the company had about $2.7 million in cash on hand as of
March 31 that it would use in part to develop its drilling program in Cuba.
In its latest statement, the company said it was focused on accelerating
the program in Cuba, which outlines two new wells during the first half
of 2018. Melbana said it "concluded that the appropriate equipment,
experienced personnel and support services necessary to safely and
effectively undertake a drilling program can be expected to be available
in Cuba."
The company estimated its drilling campaign for 2018 would cost about
$30 million at the high end and it was now in the process of a detailed
contractor evaluation.
The national oil company of Cuba, CUPET, extended its contract last year
for early exploration efforts in Block 9 by eight months to November 2017.
In its second-half 2016 report, Melbana said adequacy of funding was its
main focus. More funding could come from capital injections, share
placements or farm-ins to some of its prospects.
Source: Fast-track drilling for Cuba envisioned - UPI.com -
http://www.upi.com/Fast-track-drilling-for-Cuba-envisioned/9361493205316/
Australian energy company Melbana said conditions ripe for action in oil
prospects in Cuba.
By Daniel J. Graeber | April 26, 2017 at 8:05 AM
April 26 (UPI) -- The necessary components for an accelerated drilling
program for oil prospects in Cuba may already be in place, Australian
energy company Melbana said.
Melbana Energy Ltd. estimated last year that Block 9 in Cuba holds 637
million barrels of prospective recoverable reserves and 19 drilling
prospects there were described by the company as high impact and low
risk. Its highest ranked drilling opportunity is the Alameda-1 well,
with an estimated 400 million barrels of recoverable oil on the high
side of Melbana's estimates.
Melbana is one of the few Western oil companies, and the only one listed
on the Australian exchange, with a footprint in Cuba. CEO Peter
Stickland said the company had about $2.7 million in cash on hand as of
March 31 that it would use in part to develop its drilling program in Cuba.
In its latest statement, the company said it was focused on accelerating
the program in Cuba, which outlines two new wells during the first half
of 2018. Melbana said it "concluded that the appropriate equipment,
experienced personnel and support services necessary to safely and
effectively undertake a drilling program can be expected to be available
in Cuba."
The company estimated its drilling campaign for 2018 would cost about
$30 million at the high end and it was now in the process of a detailed
contractor evaluation.
The national oil company of Cuba, CUPET, extended its contract last year
for early exploration efforts in Block 9 by eight months to November 2017.
In its second-half 2016 report, Melbana said adequacy of funding was its
main focus. More funding could come from capital injections, share
placements or farm-ins to some of its prospects.
Source: Fast-track drilling for Cuba envisioned - UPI.com -
http://www.upi.com/Fast-track-drilling-for-Cuba-envisioned/9361493205316/
Former CIA Operative Argues Lee Harvey Oswald's Cuba Connections Went Deep
Former CIA Operative Argues Lee Harvey Oswald's Cuba Connections Went Deep
Olivia B. Waxman
Apr 25, 2017
After Lee Harvey Oswald shot President John F. Kennedy shortly after
noon on Nov. 22, 1963, things moved quickly. About an hour later, Oswald
fatally shot Dallas police officer J.D. Tippit. Thirty minutes after
that, police found Oswald and arrested him. Two days later, on Nov. 24,
Jack Ruby shot Oswald. And just a day after the assassination, FBI
Director J. Edgar Hoover had already expressed his preliminary finding
that Oswald had acted alone.
The full Warren Commission report would later back up that finding — but
more than a half-century later, polls have found that most Americans are
not convinced of that fact.
That's why former CIA operative Bob Baer launched an investigation into
the declassified government files on the case. As the above clip shows,
on his six-part series JFK Declassified: Tracking Oswald — debuting
Tuesday night on the History channel — Baer (seen in the clip above with
former LAPD police lieutenant Adam Bercovici) attempts to demystify the
link between Oswald and Cuban and Soviet operatives. It's no secret
that, for example, Oswald went to a meeting at the Soviet embassy in
Mexico eight weeks before he assassinated JFK, or that he tried to
defect to the Soviet Union in 1959. But Baer pursues those leads, and
further investigates Oswald's connections to the Cuban dissident group
Alpha 66, which had been infiltrated by Cuban intelligence officials who
were reporting their activities back to Fidel Castro's government. His
conclusion is that, while Oswald acted alone when he fired the bullets
that killed the President, his connections to Cuban and Soviet officials
were deeper than is often assumed.
Ahead of the debut of his series, Baer spoke to TIME about why Oswald
could have wanted to work with the Soviets and Cubans:
TIME: Why did you start looking into declassified government files on
Lee Harvey Oswald?
BAER: I went through CIA files on it when I was working there, and there
was Cuban-related stuff that didn't make a whole lot of sense to me.
When I got into the CIA, George H.W. Bush signed a release [of files] to
me, and the archives came back and said they couldn't find [the files I
requested] anymore. Documents on it that shouldn't have disappeared had
disappeared. So that raised an alarm bell. But what really got me into
it was meeting a defector from Cuba and one of the best agents the CIA
has ever had. He said that on the 22nd of November 1963, four hours
before the assassination, he was at an intelligence site in Havana when
he got a call from Castro's office, saying, "Turn all of your listening
ability to high frequency communications out of Dallas because
something's going to happen there."
What are the biggest revelations in the documentary?
Our hypothesis was that the Cubans knew [about Oswald's plan] in
advance. We have eyewitnesses putting Oswald with Cuban intelligence in
Mexico City. And the last people that Oswald was hanging out with before
the assassination were Alpha 66. I do believe that, after the
assassination, Oswald was heading for a safe house that was owned by
Alpha 66. Now, according to the FBI, CIA and Cuban intelligence sources
we talked to, in November 1963, info about anything that Alpha 66 did in
the U.S. was sent back to Cuba. So if, in fact, Oswald told Alpha 66 he
was going to kill the president — and we do have witnesses saying he
told them this — then Castro knew. And the borders were all shut down at
that point, so our assumption is he was going to this Cuban safe house,
where he had been before. Whether the Cuban dissidents of Alpha 66 knew
he was coming or not, we don't know.
But I do not think that [Castro] furthered the plot. I think the Cuban
dissidents reporting back to Havana informed him that there's this
American, Lee Harvey Oswald, who says he's going to kill the president.
The fact that this stuff has never been looked into I find extraordinary.
Why didn't they?
The Warren Commission did mention it, but they just said that it was a
coincidence that he met with the KGB's head of assassinations for North
America in Mexico City. They didn't look into how peculiar it is for an
American, on a weekend, to meet with three KGB officers during their
time off. The Warren Commission said he only went to the Cuban consulate
in Mexico City and met a local employee. But I believe his Cuban
connections are much deeper than the Warren Commission shows. I think
[the commission] just didn't want to make that public. Johnson told the
FBI that if they can't prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the Russians
and the Cubans were involved in this, then they shouldn't drag their
suspicions into the public eye. But they sort of suspected it.
That reminds me of the discussion of whether the FBI should have shared
its news from its investigations into Hillary Clinton's email use or
possible Russian involvement in the campaign prior to the election last
fall. It's this question of how and whether intelligence officials
should talk about something that's still ongoing.
Yeah it's exactly like that; If you can't prove it, don't drag it out to
the public. Except the [Oswald] evidence is stronger than so far what
we've seen on Russia and its connections to the Trump campaign.
What was going on in Cold War history at this point that caused this
controversy to play out the way that it did?
My assumption at the end is that Castro had every reason in the world to
[want to] kill Kennedy. It's risky if there are actual Cuban agents
shooting the President, that's Armageddon, nuclear war. But if you
simply hear rumors of this, you don't do anything. I've seen that happen
in the CIA, where we heard stuff and didn't pass the details to another
government because it was a hostile government.
What about the Soviet side? Did you find any evidence that they
encouraged Oswald?
There's no evidence that the Russians took that risk, providing him
money weapons or training, and I don't think the Russians encouraged
him. What we think is that they were like three times removed. I think
they simply monitored Oswald as best they could. The Russians probably
thought, "We can't afford to deal with an American crazy person," but
Cuban intelligence deals with a lot of crazy people. The Cubans didn't
give money or guns to agents; they were just looking for fellow believers.
Why did Oswald want to defect to the Soviets in the first place?
I think he was at a dead end. He had a broken childhood, and he joined
the Marines to become somebody. He wanted to become a historical figure,
and he thought he deserved to be one. He needed some sort of anchor to
his life and that thing in 1959 was communism. When he gets there [to
the Soviet Union], they don't want him at first. And when they have to
accept him after he attempts suicide, they send them to Minsk. It's sort
of the end of the earth. He's a factory worker, not what he expected at
all, so he comes back. That's the context of the whole series, what was
going through his mind at each one of these steps.
Are there any unanswered questions you still have or now have after
doing the documentary?
I'd look for further confirmation that Cubans knew about this to confirm
our thesis. We don't know exactly what the Cubans told him in Mexico
City — was it to go back to Louisiana and Dallas and tell us what Cuban
dissidents there were doing? And what did Oswald mean when he said he
was a "patsy" when he was being questioned by the Dallas police? A patsy
for whom?I know the general relationship was that Russians and Cubans
shared everything in those days. So did this get back to Moscow? I don't
know, I don't have the evidence. Do I suspect it did? Yes. It's sort of
like if an American went to Syria, spent a month with the Islamic State,
and came back and assassinates the President. Would anyone call him a
lone wolf? That's what happened with Kennedy.
Source: Lee Harvey Oswald and JFK—Documentary Argues Cuba Connection |
Time.com - http://time.com/4753349/oswald-kennedy-declassified-documentary/
Olivia B. Waxman
Apr 25, 2017
After Lee Harvey Oswald shot President John F. Kennedy shortly after
noon on Nov. 22, 1963, things moved quickly. About an hour later, Oswald
fatally shot Dallas police officer J.D. Tippit. Thirty minutes after
that, police found Oswald and arrested him. Two days later, on Nov. 24,
Jack Ruby shot Oswald. And just a day after the assassination, FBI
Director J. Edgar Hoover had already expressed his preliminary finding
that Oswald had acted alone.
The full Warren Commission report would later back up that finding — but
more than a half-century later, polls have found that most Americans are
not convinced of that fact.
That's why former CIA operative Bob Baer launched an investigation into
the declassified government files on the case. As the above clip shows,
on his six-part series JFK Declassified: Tracking Oswald — debuting
Tuesday night on the History channel — Baer (seen in the clip above with
former LAPD police lieutenant Adam Bercovici) attempts to demystify the
link between Oswald and Cuban and Soviet operatives. It's no secret
that, for example, Oswald went to a meeting at the Soviet embassy in
Mexico eight weeks before he assassinated JFK, or that he tried to
defect to the Soviet Union in 1959. But Baer pursues those leads, and
further investigates Oswald's connections to the Cuban dissident group
Alpha 66, which had been infiltrated by Cuban intelligence officials who
were reporting their activities back to Fidel Castro's government. His
conclusion is that, while Oswald acted alone when he fired the bullets
that killed the President, his connections to Cuban and Soviet officials
were deeper than is often assumed.
Ahead of the debut of his series, Baer spoke to TIME about why Oswald
could have wanted to work with the Soviets and Cubans:
TIME: Why did you start looking into declassified government files on
Lee Harvey Oswald?
BAER: I went through CIA files on it when I was working there, and there
was Cuban-related stuff that didn't make a whole lot of sense to me.
When I got into the CIA, George H.W. Bush signed a release [of files] to
me, and the archives came back and said they couldn't find [the files I
requested] anymore. Documents on it that shouldn't have disappeared had
disappeared. So that raised an alarm bell. But what really got me into
it was meeting a defector from Cuba and one of the best agents the CIA
has ever had. He said that on the 22nd of November 1963, four hours
before the assassination, he was at an intelligence site in Havana when
he got a call from Castro's office, saying, "Turn all of your listening
ability to high frequency communications out of Dallas because
something's going to happen there."
What are the biggest revelations in the documentary?
Our hypothesis was that the Cubans knew [about Oswald's plan] in
advance. We have eyewitnesses putting Oswald with Cuban intelligence in
Mexico City. And the last people that Oswald was hanging out with before
the assassination were Alpha 66. I do believe that, after the
assassination, Oswald was heading for a safe house that was owned by
Alpha 66. Now, according to the FBI, CIA and Cuban intelligence sources
we talked to, in November 1963, info about anything that Alpha 66 did in
the U.S. was sent back to Cuba. So if, in fact, Oswald told Alpha 66 he
was going to kill the president — and we do have witnesses saying he
told them this — then Castro knew. And the borders were all shut down at
that point, so our assumption is he was going to this Cuban safe house,
where he had been before. Whether the Cuban dissidents of Alpha 66 knew
he was coming or not, we don't know.
But I do not think that [Castro] furthered the plot. I think the Cuban
dissidents reporting back to Havana informed him that there's this
American, Lee Harvey Oswald, who says he's going to kill the president.
The fact that this stuff has never been looked into I find extraordinary.
Why didn't they?
The Warren Commission did mention it, but they just said that it was a
coincidence that he met with the KGB's head of assassinations for North
America in Mexico City. They didn't look into how peculiar it is for an
American, on a weekend, to meet with three KGB officers during their
time off. The Warren Commission said he only went to the Cuban consulate
in Mexico City and met a local employee. But I believe his Cuban
connections are much deeper than the Warren Commission shows. I think
[the commission] just didn't want to make that public. Johnson told the
FBI that if they can't prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the Russians
and the Cubans were involved in this, then they shouldn't drag their
suspicions into the public eye. But they sort of suspected it.
That reminds me of the discussion of whether the FBI should have shared
its news from its investigations into Hillary Clinton's email use or
possible Russian involvement in the campaign prior to the election last
fall. It's this question of how and whether intelligence officials
should talk about something that's still ongoing.
Yeah it's exactly like that; If you can't prove it, don't drag it out to
the public. Except the [Oswald] evidence is stronger than so far what
we've seen on Russia and its connections to the Trump campaign.
What was going on in Cold War history at this point that caused this
controversy to play out the way that it did?
My assumption at the end is that Castro had every reason in the world to
[want to] kill Kennedy. It's risky if there are actual Cuban agents
shooting the President, that's Armageddon, nuclear war. But if you
simply hear rumors of this, you don't do anything. I've seen that happen
in the CIA, where we heard stuff and didn't pass the details to another
government because it was a hostile government.
What about the Soviet side? Did you find any evidence that they
encouraged Oswald?
There's no evidence that the Russians took that risk, providing him
money weapons or training, and I don't think the Russians encouraged
him. What we think is that they were like three times removed. I think
they simply monitored Oswald as best they could. The Russians probably
thought, "We can't afford to deal with an American crazy person," but
Cuban intelligence deals with a lot of crazy people. The Cubans didn't
give money or guns to agents; they were just looking for fellow believers.
Why did Oswald want to defect to the Soviets in the first place?
I think he was at a dead end. He had a broken childhood, and he joined
the Marines to become somebody. He wanted to become a historical figure,
and he thought he deserved to be one. He needed some sort of anchor to
his life and that thing in 1959 was communism. When he gets there [to
the Soviet Union], they don't want him at first. And when they have to
accept him after he attempts suicide, they send them to Minsk. It's sort
of the end of the earth. He's a factory worker, not what he expected at
all, so he comes back. That's the context of the whole series, what was
going through his mind at each one of these steps.
Are there any unanswered questions you still have or now have after
doing the documentary?
I'd look for further confirmation that Cubans knew about this to confirm
our thesis. We don't know exactly what the Cubans told him in Mexico
City — was it to go back to Louisiana and Dallas and tell us what Cuban
dissidents there were doing? And what did Oswald mean when he said he
was a "patsy" when he was being questioned by the Dallas police? A patsy
for whom?I know the general relationship was that Russians and Cubans
shared everything in those days. So did this get back to Moscow? I don't
know, I don't have the evidence. Do I suspect it did? Yes. It's sort of
like if an American went to Syria, spent a month with the Islamic State,
and came back and assassinates the President. Would anyone call him a
lone wolf? That's what happened with Kennedy.
Source: Lee Harvey Oswald and JFK—Documentary Argues Cuba Connection |
Time.com - http://time.com/4753349/oswald-kennedy-declassified-documentary/
Cuba beach invaded by millions of crabs
Cuba beach invaded by millions of crabs
By NBC News
Published: April 25, 2017, 12:39 pm
CIENAGA DE ZAPATA, Cuba (NBC News) — Cuba's Bay of Pigs has been invaded
again, this time not by U.S. backed anti-Castro forces, but by millions
of red, yellow and black landcrabs.
Each year, after the first spring rains, the crabs march for days from
the surrounding forests to the bay on Cuba's southern coast to spawn in
the sea, wreaking havoc along the way.
At dawn and dusk they emerge, scuttling sideways toward the sea,
climbing up house walls and carpeting the coastal road that curves
around the bay.
The stench of crushed crab fills the air and their sharp shells puncture
car tires.
The Bay of Pigs, where in 1961 Cuban exiles landed in a failed attempt
to end Fidel Castro's revolution, lies within a national park where 80
percent of Cuba's endemic birds, along with crocodiles and other
wildlife, can be observed. With its deep sinkholes, coral reefs and
turquoise waters, the bay is known as one of Cuba's best spots for diving.
Cubans believe this type of prolific species, which are not endemic to
Cuba, is toxic. As cars speed by, some swerving to avoid the ten-legged
crustaceans, the cracks of carapaces zing through the air.
"Seeing all these crabs at the moment is nothing like what we've seen
before, it's just amazing to see the whole road covered," said
Australian tourist Kaliash Attwar.
Similar crab migrations occur in other parts of Cuba at the same time of
the year, as well as in some other special ecosystems such as
Australia's Christmas Island.
Source: Cuba beach invaded by millions of crabs | NBC4i.com -
http://nbc4i.com/2017/04/25/cuba-beach-invaded-by-millions-of-crabs/
By NBC News
Published: April 25, 2017, 12:39 pm
CIENAGA DE ZAPATA, Cuba (NBC News) — Cuba's Bay of Pigs has been invaded
again, this time not by U.S. backed anti-Castro forces, but by millions
of red, yellow and black landcrabs.
Each year, after the first spring rains, the crabs march for days from
the surrounding forests to the bay on Cuba's southern coast to spawn in
the sea, wreaking havoc along the way.
At dawn and dusk they emerge, scuttling sideways toward the sea,
climbing up house walls and carpeting the coastal road that curves
around the bay.
The stench of crushed crab fills the air and their sharp shells puncture
car tires.
The Bay of Pigs, where in 1961 Cuban exiles landed in a failed attempt
to end Fidel Castro's revolution, lies within a national park where 80
percent of Cuba's endemic birds, along with crocodiles and other
wildlife, can be observed. With its deep sinkholes, coral reefs and
turquoise waters, the bay is known as one of Cuba's best spots for diving.
Cubans believe this type of prolific species, which are not endemic to
Cuba, is toxic. As cars speed by, some swerving to avoid the ten-legged
crustaceans, the cracks of carapaces zing through the air.
"Seeing all these crabs at the moment is nothing like what we've seen
before, it's just amazing to see the whole road covered," said
Australian tourist Kaliash Attwar.
Similar crab migrations occur in other parts of Cuba at the same time of
the year, as well as in some other special ecosystems such as
Australia's Christmas Island.
Source: Cuba beach invaded by millions of crabs | NBC4i.com -
http://nbc4i.com/2017/04/25/cuba-beach-invaded-by-millions-of-crabs/
Cuba weathers storm in Venezuela but future looks uncertain
Cuba weathers storm in Venezuela but future looks uncertain
By MICHAEL WEISSENSTEIN Published April 26, 2017
HAVANA – Refineries have gone dark. Gas rations have been slashed for
hundreds of thousands of state workers. Construction materials are
nearly impossible to find.
But Cuba's hotels and restaurants are packed, major U.S. airlines are
adding flights and government stores are full of frozen American chicken
and U.S.-made candy. So far, Cuba is weathering the storm as Venezuela's
economy craters and protesters fill its streets to denounce Cuba's
greatest socialist ally.
A much-feared return to Cuba's post-Soviet "Special Period" of food
shortages and blackouts has yet to materialize as energy conservation
and a boom in tourism and overseas remittances cushion the blow of a
roughly 50 percent cut in Venezuelan oil aid worth hundreds of millions
of dollars a year. Interminable bus lines and long hunts for products
like milk, paint and cement seem manageable by comparison with the
hunger and hardship of the early 1990s that followed the drastic loss of
Soviet bloc aid and subsidies that had propped up Cuba's economy for
decades.
The boom set off by the re-establishment of diplomatic relations with
the U.S. in 2015 shows no signs of slacking: About 285,000 American
tourists visited in 2016, up 76 percent from 2015, and the Cuban
government says U.S. visitors increased 125 percent in January. The
number of visitors from all countries topped a record 4 million last
year and appears on track to top that in 2017.
"So far we aren't living in the Special Period again and I don't think
we will be," said Ramon Santana, a 52-year-old bicycle taxi driver.
"Before, we depended on a single country but now we're trading with
many. Before, the Soviet Union fell and everyone thought we would die.
But we didn't die. We're still here."
Still, Cubans are nervously watching Venezuela for signs of a deeper cut
in oil shipments, which are paid for with the services of Cuban state
doctors on "missions" in poor Venezuelan neighborhoods. So far, the
Cuban government has funneled nearly all the cuts into the state sector,
cutting air conditioning and summer work hours at government offices
and, most recently, eliminating the supply of higher-octane "special"
gasoline for state employees.
The special gas is entirely imported while regular is maintained through
the small but steady domestic oil production on Cuba's north-central
coast, which touches the oil-rich Gulf of Mexico. Owners of modern,
fuel-injected cars buy special if they can afford it to prevent the
lower-octane fuel from damaging their engines.
High-ranking Cuban public officials often get both government cars and a
monthly gasoline ration; their pay of $30 to $40 a month makes it
impossible otherwise to afford gas that costs more than $4 a gallon. As
in virtually every aspect of the Cuban economy, special gas cards
provided to state employees to buy the fuel fed a thriving black market.
Throughout the day, state officials can be seen filling the tanks of
their government car, then popping the pump nozzle into a used 2-liter
soft drink bottle and filling it with gas to be sold at a discount to
other drivers.
Starting April 1, state gas stations were instructed to stop selling
special gas to card-holders, a move that sent state employees to regular
pumps, forced business people and diplomats to buy special gas with cash
and set off shortage fears and panic buying that created several days of
hours-long lines.
Many gas stations around the capital appear to have permanently stopped
selling even regular gasoline, their pumps blocked off by orange traffic
cones. The column of black smoke from one of Cuba's main refineries, the
Nico Lopez facility overlooking Havana Bay, has disappeared without
explanation, leaving the skies clearer but residents worried about
Cuba's future energy supplies.
The replacement of oil money with tourism dollars has accelerated both
the decline of Cuba's ailing state-run businesses and the growth of its
small private sector. Whereas oil money went entirely to the Communist
state, much of the tourism is going to private enterprise — taxi
drivers, private restaurants and bed-and-breakfasts that provide higher
value service to tourists trying to avoid the high prices and poor
service at state-run eateries and hotels.
"Those who work in the private sector have, in one way or another, seen
improvement in their quality of life," said Omar Everleny Perez, a Cuban
economist and expert on the private sector. "The state worker on a
salary hasn't seen that."
There's also a geographic disparity, with rural areas and towns that
don't draw tourists seeing deeper, more protracted shortages.
In Cuba, there's a widespread sense that deeper cuts in Venezuelan oil
would push the entire country over the edge into intolerable economic
problems.
A near-constant refrain is that Cubans can tolerate deep deprivation,
but would not stand for a repeat of the Special Period. On Aug. 5, 1994,
at the depth of post-Soviet crisis, Havana residents clashed with police
around the Malecon seaside promenade in civil unrest that only subsided
after Fidel Castro rushed to the scene and called for the protests to end.
Fidel's brother and successor, President Raul Castro, has announced that
he will step down from the presidency in February 2018. His most likely
successor appears to be his first vice-president, 56-year-old Communist
Party official Miguel Diaz-Canel, but the government has said nothing
about the handover process. Cubans are highly skeptical that a new
leader without the credibility conferred by the Castros' founding role
in the Cuban revolution will be able to guide an increasingly
well-informed and worldly population through a new period of profound
economic hardship.
"If Venezuela falls, if Venezuela changes and they don't send Cuba any
more oil, it's going to be like it was, in 1991, '92, '93. It's going to
be hard," said Li Nelson Florentino Abreu, an 80-year-old retired
electrical engineer. "And Cubans aren't sheep. They aren't going to put
up with everything. Cubans today, they know how to defend their rights."
___
Michael Weissenstein on Twitter: https://twitter.com/mweissenstein
Source: Cuba weathers storm in Venezuela but future looks uncertain |
Fox News -
http://www.foxnews.com/world/2017/04/26/cuba-weathers-storm-in-venezuela-but-future-looks-uncertain.html
By MICHAEL WEISSENSTEIN Published April 26, 2017
HAVANA – Refineries have gone dark. Gas rations have been slashed for
hundreds of thousands of state workers. Construction materials are
nearly impossible to find.
But Cuba's hotels and restaurants are packed, major U.S. airlines are
adding flights and government stores are full of frozen American chicken
and U.S.-made candy. So far, Cuba is weathering the storm as Venezuela's
economy craters and protesters fill its streets to denounce Cuba's
greatest socialist ally.
A much-feared return to Cuba's post-Soviet "Special Period" of food
shortages and blackouts has yet to materialize as energy conservation
and a boom in tourism and overseas remittances cushion the blow of a
roughly 50 percent cut in Venezuelan oil aid worth hundreds of millions
of dollars a year. Interminable bus lines and long hunts for products
like milk, paint and cement seem manageable by comparison with the
hunger and hardship of the early 1990s that followed the drastic loss of
Soviet bloc aid and subsidies that had propped up Cuba's economy for
decades.
The boom set off by the re-establishment of diplomatic relations with
the U.S. in 2015 shows no signs of slacking: About 285,000 American
tourists visited in 2016, up 76 percent from 2015, and the Cuban
government says U.S. visitors increased 125 percent in January. The
number of visitors from all countries topped a record 4 million last
year and appears on track to top that in 2017.
"So far we aren't living in the Special Period again and I don't think
we will be," said Ramon Santana, a 52-year-old bicycle taxi driver.
"Before, we depended on a single country but now we're trading with
many. Before, the Soviet Union fell and everyone thought we would die.
But we didn't die. We're still here."
Still, Cubans are nervously watching Venezuela for signs of a deeper cut
in oil shipments, which are paid for with the services of Cuban state
doctors on "missions" in poor Venezuelan neighborhoods. So far, the
Cuban government has funneled nearly all the cuts into the state sector,
cutting air conditioning and summer work hours at government offices
and, most recently, eliminating the supply of higher-octane "special"
gasoline for state employees.
The special gas is entirely imported while regular is maintained through
the small but steady domestic oil production on Cuba's north-central
coast, which touches the oil-rich Gulf of Mexico. Owners of modern,
fuel-injected cars buy special if they can afford it to prevent the
lower-octane fuel from damaging their engines.
High-ranking Cuban public officials often get both government cars and a
monthly gasoline ration; their pay of $30 to $40 a month makes it
impossible otherwise to afford gas that costs more than $4 a gallon. As
in virtually every aspect of the Cuban economy, special gas cards
provided to state employees to buy the fuel fed a thriving black market.
Throughout the day, state officials can be seen filling the tanks of
their government car, then popping the pump nozzle into a used 2-liter
soft drink bottle and filling it with gas to be sold at a discount to
other drivers.
Starting April 1, state gas stations were instructed to stop selling
special gas to card-holders, a move that sent state employees to regular
pumps, forced business people and diplomats to buy special gas with cash
and set off shortage fears and panic buying that created several days of
hours-long lines.
Many gas stations around the capital appear to have permanently stopped
selling even regular gasoline, their pumps blocked off by orange traffic
cones. The column of black smoke from one of Cuba's main refineries, the
Nico Lopez facility overlooking Havana Bay, has disappeared without
explanation, leaving the skies clearer but residents worried about
Cuba's future energy supplies.
The replacement of oil money with tourism dollars has accelerated both
the decline of Cuba's ailing state-run businesses and the growth of its
small private sector. Whereas oil money went entirely to the Communist
state, much of the tourism is going to private enterprise — taxi
drivers, private restaurants and bed-and-breakfasts that provide higher
value service to tourists trying to avoid the high prices and poor
service at state-run eateries and hotels.
"Those who work in the private sector have, in one way or another, seen
improvement in their quality of life," said Omar Everleny Perez, a Cuban
economist and expert on the private sector. "The state worker on a
salary hasn't seen that."
There's also a geographic disparity, with rural areas and towns that
don't draw tourists seeing deeper, more protracted shortages.
In Cuba, there's a widespread sense that deeper cuts in Venezuelan oil
would push the entire country over the edge into intolerable economic
problems.
A near-constant refrain is that Cubans can tolerate deep deprivation,
but would not stand for a repeat of the Special Period. On Aug. 5, 1994,
at the depth of post-Soviet crisis, Havana residents clashed with police
around the Malecon seaside promenade in civil unrest that only subsided
after Fidel Castro rushed to the scene and called for the protests to end.
Fidel's brother and successor, President Raul Castro, has announced that
he will step down from the presidency in February 2018. His most likely
successor appears to be his first vice-president, 56-year-old Communist
Party official Miguel Diaz-Canel, but the government has said nothing
about the handover process. Cubans are highly skeptical that a new
leader without the credibility conferred by the Castros' founding role
in the Cuban revolution will be able to guide an increasingly
well-informed and worldly population through a new period of profound
economic hardship.
"If Venezuela falls, if Venezuela changes and they don't send Cuba any
more oil, it's going to be like it was, in 1991, '92, '93. It's going to
be hard," said Li Nelson Florentino Abreu, an 80-year-old retired
electrical engineer. "And Cubans aren't sheep. They aren't going to put
up with everything. Cubans today, they know how to defend their rights."
___
Michael Weissenstein on Twitter: https://twitter.com/mweissenstein
Source: Cuba weathers storm in Venezuela but future looks uncertain |
Fox News -
http://www.foxnews.com/world/2017/04/26/cuba-weathers-storm-in-venezuela-but-future-looks-uncertain.html
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