An African Tourist in Cuba

The following compelling testimony was posted in the African music blog, Benn Loxo du Taccu:

Rumba in Prison

Last week I got back from an 11-day trip in Cuba. I spent about a week in Havana plus a few days time in the west of the country, seeing Pinar del Rio, Vinales and finally the beaches and underwater life at Maria la Gorda.

It goes without saying that Cuban music, both old and new, is amazing. I heard the tourist-ringed but high-quality live salsa and rumba on every corner in Havana Vieja, Santaria rumba with the Conjunto folklórico, Afro-Cuban jazz at La Zorra y El Cuelvo, late nights, hard reggaeton and I-wish-I-could-dance-like them action at numerous clubs in Miramar and Vedado, sub-par big-name salsa at La Casa de la Musica and much more.

I try my best not to get political on this site, but let me say that visiting Cuba is a bit like going to a maximum security prison on the beach, snapping pictures of friendly inmates as they go about their business.

Most Cubans aren't allowed to travel at all, even inter-city within their own country. The average monthly cash take-home is about 15 Euros a month. Prostitution is a disturbingly tolerated practice on a scale that outstrips Nigerian oil bars and Senegalese nightclubs. There are no boats on the water or in the harbour aside from patrols and tourists, not even for fishing. The vast majority of people aren't allowed to own a car or pretty much anything else. If you're a Cuban and have a relationship with a foreigner living in Cuba you will usually kiss your chances of getting a travel permit goodbye. The whole system is setup to reward those who play by the rules and punish those who don't. Never question Fidel and you might get a TV. Organize enough anti-US parades and you might just get a job at a hotel… and the tips that come with it.

As I said to a friend earlier today, Cuba is a beautiful, fascinating… and ultimately very sad place. Any positive things I had thought about certain aspects of Fidel's Cuba, such as good medicare, innovative urban agriculture policies, etc, went out the window. All of that is worthless if you have absolutely no freedom.

EDITOR'S NOTE: This post was dated March 2007, but it couldn't be timelier.

History's Most Murderous Regimes

Fascinating excerpt from, "Elites and Tyrants," by Walter E. Williams:

Rep. Diane Watson said, in praising Cuba's health care system, "You can think whatever you want to about Fidel Castro, but he was one of the brightest leaders I have ever met."

W.E.B. Dubois, writing in the National Guardian (1953) said, "Joseph Stalin was a great man; few other men of the 20th century approach his stature. ... But also -- and this was the highest proof of his greatness -- he knew the common man, felt his problems, followed his fate."

Walter Duranty called Stalin "the greatest living statesman . . . a quiet, unobtrusive man." George Bernard Shaw expressed admiration for Mussolini, Hitler and Stalin.

John Kenneth Galbraith visited Mao's China and praised Mao and the Chinese economic system. Gunther Stein of the Christian Science Monitor admired Mao Tsetung and declared ecstatically that "the men and women pioneers of Yenan are truly new humans in spirit, thought and action," and that Yenan itself constituted "a brand new well integrated society, that has never been seen before anywhere." Michel Oksenberg, President Carter's China expert, complained that "America (is) doomed to decay until radical, even revolutionary, change fundamentally alters the institutions and values," and urged us to "borrow ideas and solutions" from China.

Even Harvard's late Professor John K. Fairbank, by no means the worst tyrant worshipper, believed that America could learn much from the Cultural Revolution, saying, "Americans may find in China's collective life today an ingredient of personal moral concern for one's neighbor that has a lesson for us all." Keep in mind that estimates of the number of Chinese deaths during China's Cultural Revolution range from 2 to 7 million people. Mao Tsetung was admired by many academics and leftists across our country. Just think back to the campus demonstrations of the '60s and '70s when campus radicals, often accompanied by their professors, marched around singing the praises of Mao and waving Mao's little red book, "Quotations from Chairman Mao Tsetung." Forty years later some of these campus radicals are tenured professors and administrators at today's universities and colleges, as well as schoolteachers and principals indoctrinating our youth.

The most authoritative tally of history's most murderous regimes is in a book by University of Hawaii's Professor Rudolph J. Rummel, "Death by Government." Statistics are provided at his website. The Nazis murdered 20 million of their own people and those in nations they captured. Between 1917 and 1987, Stalin and his successors murdered, or were otherwise responsible for the deaths of, 62 million of their own people. Between 1949 and 1987, Mao Tsetung and his successors were responsible for the deaths of 76 million Chinese.

© 2009 Creators Syndicate.

Solidarity With the Guinean People

Guinea is just the latest example of how coddling dictators emboldens their repressive behavior.

The more Western nations -- in this case, France -- accommodated the military junta of Capt. Moussa Dadis Camara, the more assured he felt to subvert the upcoming elections and to murder opposition protesters.

Here's a brief summary of the Guinean tragedy from, "Who Will Save Guinea?" by Hakeem Jamiu in the Daily Independent:

Guinea, a West African country of 10 million people, obtained her independence from France 50 years ago. But just like many African countries, its people remain one of world's poorest with 40% living below the poverty line despite having diamond, gold, iron and half of the world's reserves of the raw materials used to make aluminum.

Post-independence history of Guinea has been characterized by military dictatorship, repression, poverty and a succession of wars fought along its borders in the 1990s and early 2000s in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Ivory Coast. Guinea- Conakry (as it is often called to distinguish it from its neighbor, Guinea Bissau) is home to 24 ethnic groups and has its capital in Conakry.

Ironically, it was the only French colony to opt for independence in 1958. President Sekou Toure governed Guinea from 1958 until his death in 1984. Toure was dictatorial as he allowed no opposing views. Lansana Conte took over in 1984 after Toure's death and ruled Guinea in the same dictatorial manner until he also expired in 2008. The first elections since independence were only held in 1993 but were widely believed to have been manipulated by Conte. Although the President of the National Assembly was to take over power pending fresh elections, Moussa Dadis Camara, 44, an army captain, seized power in December, 2008, just hours after the death of Lansana Conte. Camara announced that the constitution had been set aside and that the country was under the rule of a military junta. He initially said he would not stand in elections scheduled for January but recently indicated that he may have changed his mind.

On Monday, 28th September, more than 150 civilians protesting the candidature of Camara in January's election were killed by soldiers while about 1,253 sustained injuries. It was reported that women were openly raped by soldiers. For this, France, through her foreign Minister, served notice that it was no longer supporting the military junta. But France ought to have been more proactive. It is countries like France, Nigeria and Senegal that gave Camara the confidence that made him change his earlier promise of not participating in the forthcoming elections.

Does Sailing Constitute a Cultural Exchange?

A cultural exchange is understood to mean an exchange of students, artists, athletes, etc., between two countries to promote mutual understanding.

Media reports claim that the Obama Administration is promoting such exchanges as a centerpiece of its Cuba policy.

However, at what point does a cultural exchange not pass the "laugh test"?

It's hard to tell, as there are plenty of absurd ones, but probably with sailing regattas.

The Sarasota Yacht Club ("SYC") is working hard to promote their 2010 Sarasota-Havana Regatta.

Not only has the SYC submitted its OFAC application to the Treasury Department, but it has apparently had detailed discussions with the Department of Commerce regarding the Temporary Export License that each vessel will need prior to acquire prior to departing for Cuba.

The SYC even sent the following recent message to its supporters,

"There are indications that H.R. 874 – the Freedom to Travel to Cuba Act is progressing through the Congress. The SYC Charitable Foundation does not engage in political activities of any kind and does not take a position whether the embargo with Cuba should be lifted. Timely passage of the bill might eliminate the need to acquire the many licenses required to conduct the Regatta."

In other words, this is just an elitist ploy by a yacht club to take an exotic vacation in Cuba, not to mention a pathetic attempt to conceal a lobbying appeal.

Even if the Administration did have a systemic policy to engage in grater cultural exchanges with Cuba, it's hard to imagine how a sailing regatta would fit into that category.

What would be the "exchange" on the Cuban side?

The Castro regime does not permit the Cuban people to board or even approach boats or other vessels, not even for fishing.

Cubans that do so risk arrest and imprisonment.

As such, to grant the SYC a license for this regatta under the guise of a cultural exchange does not pass the "laugh test."

To the contrary, it would be downright humiliating for the Cuban people.

Alina Tells It Like it Is

Castro's daughter: America not to blame for Cuba's woes

CHESTER — Love child turned critic, a daughter of Fidel Castro told a Widener University audience Monday that lifting 50-year embargoes imposed by the United States would do little to help suffering people in Cuba.

"I believe the government is going to control everything as it has always done," Alina Fernandez said of the homeland she fled in 1993 to provide a better life for her own daughter.
 
© Copyright 2009 The Delaware County Daily Times

Dorgan's Rant on the Philharmonic

Yesterday, U.S. Senator Byron Dorgan of North Dakota took to the Senate floor to lambast the decision of the Treasury Department to award travel licenses to the New York Philharmonic's conductor, musicians and staff, but not to the 150+ benefactors that selfishly insist on accompanying the orchestra (and have now held the trip hostage to their tourist foray).

Senator Dorgan didn't frame it this way, which means he was either spinning the truth, or was simply uninformed.

Hoping for the latter, we strongly recommend this excerpt from Norman Lebrecht's, "Cuba Fiasco Spoils Philharmonic's Gilbert Crowning," in Bloomberg:

On the diplomatic front, meanwhile, a fracas is mounting. The orchestra made headlines in February 2008 by visiting North Korea with its previous music director Lorin Maazel. The New Yorkers dined handsomely and strolled freely in a famine- stricken land without achieving a thaw in global relations, as the Pyongyang regime continued to test nuclear devices, along with Barack Obama's patience.

The Cuba trip, meant to happen next month, was suddenly derailed last week when the Philharmonic discovered Washington wouldn't let it take along about 150 board members and others, "without whose financial support this trip is not possible."

The State Department, which backed the orchestra's prior initiatives, balked apparently at the prospect of 150 rich New Yorkers paying $10,000 to drink rum in a repressive country that ordinary Americans are forbidden to visit.

What, in fact, was the point of this trip? If it had been a real diplomatic mission, it would have gone ahead regardless of donors. If, on the other hand, it was just a publicity stunt, Philharmonic president Zarin Mehta should be hauled over the coals for taking wealthy pals on a tax-free vacation in the middle of a world recession. Mehta is well-paid to keep the Philharmonic in tune with the times. He received $2.7 million in the year ending in August 2008 -- $850,000 in salary; the rest in deferred compensation.

Did Castro Expel the Mafia from Cuba?

Over the summer, a handful of Hollywood actors, including Bill Murray, James Caan and Robert Duvall, were in Havana "conducting research" for an upcoming movie project by producer Steve Bing.

This "new" project is yet another version in a repetitive series of stereotypical movies about Havana, nightclubs, casinos and the Mafia.

At the risk of bursting some mythological bubbles, it's important to clarify some of these stereotypes.

Were there casinos in Cuba?

Absolutely.

According to Cuban author Humberto Fontova:

In 1955, there were three gambling casinos in Cuba. The biggest casino was at the Tropicana and featured ten gambling tables and thirty slot machines. Meanwhile, Havana's Hotel Nacional had seven roulette wheels and 21 slot machines.

By contrast, the Riviera Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada featured 20 gambling tables and 116 slot machines.

Therefore, in 1955 one Las Vegas casino alone had more gambling action than all of Cuba's casinos put together.

Did the Mafia have a financial interest in those casinos?

Surely. In the same manner that they did in Las Vegas, Atlantic City and in a host of even more lucrative enterprises in New York City.

Did Fidel Castro expel the Mafia from Cuba after taking power in 1959?

Not really.

More precisely, he replaced the U.S.-based Mafia with his own Mafia.

Since 1959, Cuba has been ruled by a family dynasty that controls every aspect of the island's political and economic activity. Just like the U.S.-based mafia, it has dabbled in narcotics trafficking throughout the 1980s and 1990s, and a host of other illicit activities, including diamond trafficking during the wars in Africa. Since the dismantling of the Soviet Union in 1991, this dynasty has further created a host of financial conglomerates that monopolize the key sectors of the island's economy, including tourism, nickel and remittances from abroad.

It has exerted power through executions, intimidation, extortion and repression.

It's called Castro Incorporated.

How Many Dictators Fit in a Hand?

A thoughtful critique in yesterday's Wall Street Journal by Daniel Henninger:
 
In his Inaugural Address, President Obama spoke directly to the world's rogue nations. "[W]e will extend a hand," he said, "if you are willing to unclench your fist."

Question: How many rogue nations can you hold in one hand? Let's try to count.
 
Iran remains rogue No. 1. The world is riveted by the expanding Iranian nuclear threat, and one might expect a mess of this magnitude would occupy most of the diplomatic energies of any presidency. But this one has time for more.

The Monday after last Friday's bombshell that Iran has a hidden nuclear site, the State Department announced the start of a "direct dialogue" with Burma's hopeless junta. The administration has dispatched a special envoy to Sudan and its genocidal leader, Omar Hassan al-Bashir. Syrian strongman Bashar al-Assad got his own Obama envoy, plus a visit from John Kerry.

At the Summit of the Americas, Mr. Obama himself did meet and greets for "dialogue" with Venezuela's Hugo Chávez, Nicaragua's Daniel Ortega and Bolivia's Evo Morales, and reached out to Cuba's Raul Castro. Mr. Obama then dropped in on Russia's leaders for a "reset."

There is something slightly weird about all this activity. If the Obama team wanted to make a really significant break from past Bush policy, it would say it was not going to just talk with the world's worst strongmen but would give equal, public status to their democratic opposition groups. Instead, the baddest actors in the world get face time with Barack Obama, but their struggling opposition gets invisibility.

You can read the entire article here, but note the poignant conclusion:

What if the world's real democrats, after enough bullets and dungeon time, lose belief in the American democracy's support for them on this central idea? They may come to regard their betters in the U.S. and Europe as inhabiting a world less animated by democratic belief than democratic decadence.

Is This Man a Threat?

"Human beings by nature want happiness and do not want suffering. With that feeling everyone tries to achieve happiness and tries to get rid of suffering, and everyone has the basic right to do this. In this way, all here are the same, whether rich or poor, educated or uneducated, Easterner or Westerner, believer or non-believer, and within believers whether Buddhist, Christian, Jewish, Muslim, and so on. Basically, from the viewpoint of real human value we are all the same."

- His Holiness the Dalai Lama, from "Kindness, Clarity, and Insight."

Or is the threat the Chinese dictatorship that has murdered over 60 million people in its 60 years of existence, and remains the current sanctions loophole towards brutal regimes including Sudan, North Korea, Burma and Iran?

Eye-Rubbing Hypocrisy of Delahunt & Co.

Six Members of the U.S. Congress have written a letter to the Honduran Congress threatening that unless Manuel Zelaya is restored to the presidency, the U.S. will not recognize the winner of that country's upcoming presidential elections.

The letter signed by Representatives Bill Delahunt, James McGovern, Sam Farr, Gregory Meeks, Janice Schakowsky, and Xavier Becerra stresses that,

"Unless the coup is ended, President Zelaya is restored, and violations of democracy and human rights are halted, no presidential election conducted in that environment will be recognized as free or fair or legitimate by the United States government and its senior leaders."

Fascinating.

It's important to remember that each of these Members of Congress has traveled to Cuba on multiple occasions and are leaders in Congressional efforts to unconditionally normalize relations with the Castro regime's totalitarian dictatorship.

Now, these six Members, who have been historically silent on the daily violations of human rights perpetuated by the Cuban dictatorship, demand that the Honduran government restore democracy and respect human rights?

With what credibility, Congressmen?

And wait -- are those democratic conditions they are placing on the Honduran government? In other words, the same "conditionality approach" that they reject regarding U.S. policy towards Cuba?

But the hypocrisy goes beyond Members.

On the same issue, the AP separately reported:

"I think that this trip potentially will muddy the waters even more, and that would not be constructive," said Joy Olson, executive director of the Washington Office on Latin America, which promotes human rights and democracy. "The danger of this visit is that those supporting the Micheletti government re-entrench."

Where does the Washington Office on Latin America promote human rights and democracy?

Not in Cuba, that's for sure, as they actively advocate to unconditionally normalize relations with the Castro dictatorship. And what about the multiple visits by Members of Congress and this organization to Cuba? Doesn't it legitimize and embolden the Cuban regime?

It's time to call a spade-a-spade.

The Power Lies With Congress

The non-partisan Government Accountability Office (GAO), which is known as "the investigative arm of the Congress," has just issued a report (GAO-09-951R ) entitled, "U.S. Embargo on Cuba: Recent Regulatory Changes and Potential Presidential or Congressional Actions."

According to this report, absent the respect for fundamental human rights and democratic reforms in Cuba, the legal power to unilaterally lift sanctions remains within the purview of the U.S. Congress.

Here's the Executive Summary:

The President is authorized to suspend or end the embargo in the event of certain political changes in Cuba. Under the Cuban Liberty and Democratic Solidarity (LIBERTAD) Act of 1996, on determining that a transition Cuban government is in power, the President may take steps to suspend the embargo, including its implementing regulations restricting financial transactions related to travel, trade, and remittances. He may also suspend enforcement of several legislative measures related to the embargo. LIBERTAD also requires that on determining that a democratically elected Cuban government is in power, the President must take steps to end the embargo, including the implementing regulations, and that once he has made such a determination, certain listed embargo-related legislative measures are automatically repealed.

Absent a presidential determination of a democratically elected Cuban government, the President could end the embargo only if Congress were to amend or repeal LIBERTAD and various other embargo-related statutes, including provisions in the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961, the Food Security Act of 1985, the Cuban Democracy Act of 1992, the Omnibus Appropriations Act of 1999, and the Trade Sanctions Reform and Export Enhancement Act of 2000 (TSRA). Such provisions include, for example, section 908(b)(1) and 910(b) of TSRA that require payment of cash in advance or third country financing for agricultural exports to Cuba and prohibit Treasury from authorizing travel to Cuba for tourist activities by persons subject to U.S. jurisdiction.

Philanthropy or High-Class Tourism?

From the New York Times' report, "October New York Philharmonic Trip to Cuba Is Off":

"Violinists, bassoonists and timpanists in Cuba? Fine. A bevy of rich Americans? Sorry.

The New York Philharmonic scratched its trip to Cuba at the end of October because the United States Treasury Department said it would deny permission for a group of patrons to go along. Without them and their donations, the orchestra said on Thursday, it cannot afford to go.

About 150 board members and other donors had promised to pay $10,000 each to spend Oct. 30 to Nov. 2 in Havana, where the orchestra was to play two concerts, said Zarin Mehta, its president. The money was to have covered the cost of the proposed trip, which came at the Cuban government's invitation.

Supporters, both individuals and executives of donor companies, usually tag along with major orchestras when they travel around the world. The travel amounts to high-class tourism along with a chance to make business connections in foreign capitals."

By holding the entire concert hostage to their desire for an exotic tourism destination, the New York Philharmonic's donors have proven that they never had any philanthropic intent to foment cultural exchanges or help the Cuba people.

It was always about their self-interest.

That's not philanthropy. That's elitism.

The Cost of a Non-Democratic China

As a showdown with Iran intensifies over its nuclear capability, the Obama Administration has been working to build an international coalition, in to prevent a veto of U.N. Security Council sanctions.

Nonetheless, even if the U.S. succeeds in seducing France and Russia -- which is unlikely in itself -- the main problem remains China.

As Iran's largest trading partner and source of natural gas, China will almost surely hamper any international effort to pressure the Iranian dictatorship.

But this isn't new.

China also serves as the main sanctions "loophole" for Burma, Sudan and North Korea -- it is the largest trading partner of those rogue regimes -- easing international pressure from those conflict areas. Furthermore, China was key to providing Pakistan's A.Q. Khan with nuclear technology, another proliferation nightmare for the U.S.

Therefore, think of how different the world would be if the West had sided with China's growing political reform movement during the 1980's. By the time of the Tienanmen Square manifestations in 1989, the Chinese democracy movement appeared unstoppable, leading the regime's leaders to consider serious political openings (to accompany the economic openings it had been undertaking since 1978).

Nonetheless, economic interests prevailed and the West sided with the "stability" of the Chinese regime -- a silent complicity that resulted in the virtual annihilation of the democracy movement.

Of course, today, there wouldn't even be a choice but to side against democracy in China, as our nation's debt is even financed by the Chinese dictatorship now.

But that wasn't the case in 1989.

Hindsight is 20/20.

Hopefully, we've learned a lesson -- only democratic reform can lead to real, long-term peace and stability.

Quote of the Week

"I have repeatedly e-mailed, visited the offices and sent my representative to the offices of a company I did business with for years and which owes me money, and they simply refuse to talk to me."

- Canadian investor in Cuba whose local bank account has been frozen and is owed millions by one of the Castro regime's companies, "Foreign Suppliers in Cuba Fret Over Payments Crisis," Reuters, September 29, 2009.

A Heroic Voice Behind Bars

"The enemies of freedom may have strength, but we have reason; they may have laws, but we have justice; they may control the media, but we have the truth; they may manipulate our thoughts, but not our conscience; they may imprison our body, but not our spirit."

- Pablo Pacheco, Cuban independent journalist and political prisoner serving a 20-year sentence, November 2003.

Looking Out the Restaurant Window

From ABC News:

At the rooftop pool of Havana's Hotel Saratoga, where rates run $200 and up and two-story suites have humidors and marble bathrooms, young Brits order mojitos. On the street below, near crumbling apartment buildings of Old Havana, a boy peers through the hotel restaurant's window and stretches a hand toward patrons nibbling delicacies unavailable to the average rice-and-beans-eating Cuban, miming hunger.

In the 50th anniversary year of the revolution that brought Fidel Castro into power, tourism is the No. 1 moneymaker, while locals might subsist on $20 a month and omnipresent food rationing.

In other words, while the Castro regime owns and operates the island's tourism industry, it condemns its people to subservience, humiliation, shortages and repression -- all of this to maintain absolute, dictatorial control.

U.S. tourists should not contribute to this repression until the Castro regime ends its monopoly over the island's tourism industry and allows the Cuban people to partake in the fruits of their labor.

Or, at the very least, until Cubans are allowed to look out the restaurant window from the inside, instead of being forced to observe from the outside.

Does Brazil Act Like a Global Power?

Newsweek's Mac Margolis asked the poignant question today,
 
Brazil, which just won the 2016 Olympics, wants to be a global power. So why won't it act like one?

Here's an excerpt from his insightful article:
 
Brasília has also stumbled in taking on its expansive new posture. Lula has opened embassies in 35 countries in six years, mostly in Africa and Latin America—each one a potential vote in Brazil's campaign to reform the United Nations. But coddling dictators can be risky: in recent months, Brasília has systematically balked or stonewalled when it came to speaking out on human-rights abuses in a number of authoritarian countries, including Sri Lanka and no-brainers like North Korea, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Sudan. It routinely passes on censuring repression in Cuba, where dissidents are muzzled and jailed. Lula even likened the conflicted Iranian elections and their bloody aftermath to a row between rival football fans. He stoutly defends Hugo Chávez in Venezuela, who has shut down critical media and turned his country's Congress and Supreme Court into rubber stamps. "Give me one example of how Venezuela is not democratic," he told NEWSWEEK.

The Not So Philanthropic Philharmonic

The New York Philharmonic Orchestra has cancelled a tour of Cuba after some "philanthropists" that were sponsoring the concert were denied licenses to accompany the musicians on the trip, according to the New York Daily News.

Lets be absolutely clear, the Treasury Department gave the musicians, performers and staff the licenses needed to visit and perform in Cuba. It was only the "philanthropists" that were going to accompany the orchestra -- and enjoy an exotic Cuban vacation on the side -- that were denied licenses.

Which leads to the bigger question -- did the New York Philharmonic Orchestra or the "philanthropists" involved really ever care about extending cultural ties and reaching out to the Cuban people?

If so, they wouldn't have cancelled the entire concert for the sake of a couple of spoiled donors wanting to go along for the ride.

That's not very philanthropic them.

Bisa "Checks the Box" With Dissidents

It appears that Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary of State, Bisa Williams, during her 6-day trip to Cuba, met with dissidents for lunch one day -- checked that box -- then proceeded to enjoy the hospitality of the Castro regime for the remaining 5 1/2 days.

That set the stage for a "cultural cocktail party" held at the U.S. Interests Section in Havana this past Tuesday, to which only Cuban officials and artists "authorized by the regime" were invited.

For the first time in recent memory, dissidents were excluded from an event at the U.S. Interest Section.

Hopefully, this will not be the beginning of a "slippery slope," for the last thing Cuba's courageous dissidents need is to be subjected to the same demoralizing behavior by U.S. officials, as they are subjected to on a daily basis by the Castro regime.

The good news is that this doesn't seem to be a concrete policy change, as can be derived from the confusion and clarification during the State Department's press briefing by Assistant Secretary of State P.J. Crowley:

QUESTION: Yeah, on Cuba. This diplomatic reception in Havana, the dissidents were not invited for the first time in many years. Does it mean --

MR. CROWLEY: Can I clarify? The dissidents --

QUESTION: -- it was a diplomat --

MR. CROWLEY: -- were invited --

QUESTION: Cuban dissidents.

MR. CROWLEY: Yes.

QUESTION: There were none – there were none of them, no. There were not.

MR. CROWLEY: I suppose there's a question of definition here. But just since you introduced the subject, Deputy Assistant Secretary Bisa Williams, as everyone knows, was in Havana recently to lead a delegation on direct mail service between the United States and Cuba. She took advantage of the opportunity while there to do a number of things, did have meetings with Cuban officials. I would describe these as kind of mechanical meetings, maybe – on very specific issues in our existing relationship, including the functioning of the consulate – or, I'm sorry, not the consulate, the Interests Section in Havana, following up on the migration talks that we had in July, real nuts and bolts working-level things.

But while she was in Cuba, she did have interaction with human rights advocates, members of civil society, dissidents, talking about a variety of issues, both economic and political. She also had the opportunity to travel to western Cuba to see a part of the country that had been severely hit by hurricanes last year.

So if the question – the suggestion was that she did not meet with dissidents in Havana, she did.

QUESTION: No, no, this was not – but since we are now on Ms. Williams, the fact that she stayed much longer --

MR. CROWLEY: She stayed for six days.

QUESTION: -- was this prepared before she went, or it was after she spoke to Cuban officials?

MR. CROWLEY: No, she had planned to stay beyond the mail talk meeting.

QUESTION: Yeah, but what I meant – and maybe you can take the question otherwise – there was a diplomatic reception in the Interests Section. And every year, they invite the dissidents. This time, they did not invite them for the first time in many years, and there were plenty of people of the civil society, people under the regime could see that it's – the regime approves – they're as musicians or entertainers or writers or whatever, so many people from the cultural scene and – but no dissidents. And this is the first time in a long time.

MR. CROWLEY: Okay. I will seek a clarification, but while she was there, she --

QUESTION: No, this has nothing – no, no, this has nothing to do with her. This is --

MR. CROWLEY: Yeah, okay, okay.

QUESTION: Yeah, okay.

QUESTION: On an related --

MR. CROWLEY: Yeah.

QUESTION: -- situation, you said she had planned to stay beyond the talks on – postal talks. So this invitation to extend her stay presumably was worked out ahead of time?

MR. CROWLEY: Well, actually, it's hard to say. I mean, there was – she had planned to stay beyond the one-day meeting at the same time that there was this kind of organic process where the Cuban Government had some issues to discuss with us; for example, diplomatic notes that had been previously sent to the United States but had not been answered. So I think there was a general agreement that there were benefits on both sides to having these kind of follow-on discussions on very specific, very narrow issues related to our existing relationship.

QUESTION: Right, but that was --

MR. CROWLEY: Yeah.

QUESTION: -- worked out beforehand.

MR. CROWLEY: I think some of this was worked out beforehand, and perhaps some of this was worked out once she was on the ground.

QUESTION: That doesn't mean – after all, this relationship --

MR. CROWLEY: I wouldn't say it changes anything in terms of our relationship with Cuba, but obviously, it's consistent with the President's efforts to increase the free flow of information and the interaction between the United States and the Cuban people.

For the Umpteenth Time, Where's Mariela?

Just last week, the Huffington Post featured an article entitled, "Mariela Castro Espin, President Raul Castro's Daughter, Champions Cuba's Gay And Transgender Communities."  

Mariela is being wined and dined throughout the world, and featured in major international publications, for her "work on behalf of the gay community in Cuba" as head of the CENESEX (National Sexual Education Center). 

Yet, she never seems to be around when the gay community is being repressed by Castro's state security.

Authorities crack down on gay activists

HAVANA, Cuba, Sept. 30 (Aliomar Janjaque Chivaz, Cubanet) – The organizers of a planned Mr. Gay Cuba contest say they are facing government opposition to thwart the event.

Committee members said police raided the home of Mario José Delgado González, vice president of the Reinaldo Arenas Memorial Foundation, one of the organizers, and broke up a meeting and seized equipment.  Delgado González and a medical student named Rafael, who recently won the Mr. Gay Havana contest, were expelled from the University of Havana.

Police also arrested Henri Solís, 27, an artistic education professor and gay rights activist.  

Has the Cuban Embargo Worked?

While browsing over the transcript of a July 23rd seminar -- organized by the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C. -- on Europe and Canada's policy of engagement towards the Cuban dictatorship, one comment jumped out of the page:

Dianna Melrose, Britain's Ambassador to Cuba -- and a philosophical foe of the embargo -- said,

"Let's have a reality check. The EU has little to show for its engagement over the past year. There's very little the Cuban government wants from the EU that it doesn't already have: trade and investment, development assistance and continuing opposition to the U.S. embargo. So if there is any external actor that has potential leverage over Cuba, it is the United States."

Perhaps this doesn't clarify whether the embargo has worked or not. To make that assessment, one would have to know for sure whether an alternate policy would have been successful.

We will probably never know.

However, we do know that Europe and Canada have practiced engagement with Castro's Cuba for decades, and it hasn't convinced the Cuban dictatorship to embrace human rights and democratic reforms either.

Instead, according to Ambassador Melrose, it has left the Europeans feeling philosophically satisfied, but with little practical leverage.

Fortunately, that's not the case with the United States (thanks to the embargo).

Will Congress Choose Castro Over Colombia?

We're not so sure, just yet, but today's Investor's Business Daily seems to think so:
 
Serving Castro First

Trade: Colombia got another brushoff Tuesday, when Commerce Secretary Gary Locke pronounced its free trade pact dead for the year because Washington is too busy with health care. Why doesn't Cuba ever hear that?

Speaking at the sidelines of a conference in Chile, Locke told Dow Jones: "It's pretty doubtful that the pact will be ratified this year, although the Obama administration is pushing forward with Colombia, Korea and Panama."

Yeah, sure. Pushing and pushing, it's all we've heard about from this crew.
 
By contrast, Cuba has yet to hear about demands that health care is placing on the Democratic agenda. It's gotten speedy service.

On the very day Colombia was humiliated by Locke's comments in Chile, the State Department announced it had sent acting Deputy Assistant Secretary Bisa Williams to Havana to negotiate new agreements with the ruling Castro oligarchy.

First up: a new mail agreement. Free travel in the U.S. for Cuban spies, plus an end to the U.S. trade embargo to help bail out the Castro brothers with U.S. trade credits, are probably next. But so far, the talks have been secret.

"Look at the momentum; look at the pace of these steps," gushed the Council on Foreign Relations' Julia E. Sweig to the New York Times. "It's a departure from many, many years of practice."

So why isn't Colombia getting the same "pace of steps"? All it gets are sorry excuses. The U.S.-Colombia trade treaty was signed in 2006 and is ready to go. Its only barrier is House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who doesn't want a vote because she knows it will pass.

No country has ever been strung along so cynically.

With Castro, a state sponsor of terror, getting everything he wants and Colombia, a strong ally, getting just excuses, it seems the best way to get attention from this new administration is to forge a long record as an adversary.