CUBA: The Disaster of Castro's Revolution

This book, "CUBA: The Disaster of  Castro's Revolution", analyses the current situation existing in Cuba and describes in detail the real disaster caused in every aspect of Cuban life by the so-called revolution of Fidel Castro, including how it has affected the different components of Cuban society. 

The author gives detailed summary of the main indicators of the Cuban economy and society before 1959, when Fidel Castro took power, indicating how they compared favorably at that time with other countries of the world, including many which are considered part of the developed world in our days. 

The book demystifies numerous aspects of Castro's propaganda that his followers have considered as great achievements of his government and puts them in perspective in regard to what Cuba could have had nowadays if it had been ruled by democratically elected governments. The book profusely documents the system of corruption and privilege established in the island and analyses the obscure role of Castro in a number of important events related to the United States, including references to his links with drug traffic, money laundry and the promotion of terrorism activities, among other criminal activities. 

One of the aspects the book describes in more detail is the lack of political freedom and the repression of independent thinking and free expression existing in the island, which is part of the overall control on everybody's life established by Castro, which is implemented by a gigantic machinery of terror and survelliance.

The book describes the role of Cuban military and intelligence in numerous important events of world politics during the past five decades, including their role in Africa, Latin America and other regions of the world and it includes some questioning about the possible role of Castro in the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. It considers Castro's interpretation of foreign policy and the way he has disregarded all norms of international behavior. 

The book also discusses the case of the enormous debt accumulated by Castro's government and how many of these resources have been deviated to well camouflaged foreign accounts and investments by Castro and some of the top people around him. 

One of the interesting things about this book is the analysis it makes about the situation of youth, women and blacks within the present Cuban society and the detailed description about how the people in general live and how this has evolved under Castro's tyranny. 

It also includes an analysis of the exiled Cuban community. Andres Solares discusses the real facts behind Castro's long tenure of power and shows the contradictions between what he and his supporters say and the crude reality of what happens in Cuba. His book also enters in details about the degrees of decomposition existing at all levels of the political establishment of this obsolete communist regime. 

The book describes the enormous damage caused by Castro's policies to the environment of the island and the state of destruction of all the main networks of services, as well as the stagnant conditions of the economy. It includes the author's views on the different possible scenarios for Cuban political future, once Castro and his brother, one way or another, are no longer able to control Cuba. 

This book is a strong denounce of the longest dictatorship that has existed in America and it serves as an eye opener for all those who ignore the crude reality of what happens in that beutiful country. It is also a moral message of hope for a better future for the Cuban people. 

Mr.Solares has used his professional and personal experience, together with his direct knowledge of the Cuban society and economy, to give us a very intersting account of the situation in his country, which will serve those who read it to comprehend better what we can expect there.

Available on Amazon: 

 

About the Author

Andres Solares is a former Cuban political prisoner, who was imprisoned for trying to create a new political party in the island to oppose Fidel Castro's policies. He was freed thanks to a worldwide campaign promoted by Amnesty International, America's Watch and Of Human Rights, the personal intervention of Senators Robert Dole and Edward Kennedy and the requests of the American Congress and British authorities. He is a Civil Engineer specialized in Economics in Great Britain and he lectured post-graduate courses on these subjects in Cuba. He has carried on and published numerous studies on Cuban matters. He lives in Miami with his wife Adriana and their children and family.

Repression never stops in Cuba. Detention of the dissident Ivonne Mayesa Galano

On Aug 5, 2011, Ivonne Mayesa Galano was detained (video) when she was heading to a meeting with other dissidents. She was beaten and kept in the Police Station for several hours without any formal charges. She was detained and beaten again last Monday, Aug 8.

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Mafias Get Involved in Administering The Sectors of The Cuban State

Corruption in Cuba is “widespread” and sections of the state are administered by “mafias”, according to diplomatic cables from the U.S. mission in Havana, released by WikiLeaks and published in the newspaper El Pais in Spain on Saturday. According to the cables, corrupt practices included “bribery”, “misuse of state resources,” accounting tricks and “illegal commissions charged by officials in exchange for concessions and an amount is deposited in accounts opened in your name or that of people brought in foreign banks. “

“There are state facilities that are managed, in fact, mafias (in sectors such as tourism and construction) as anywhere in the world, a one million dollars is (for the Cuban commission) 100,000 dollars in bank “, the reports said.

The newspaper added that according to these corrupt leaders cables are not aware of the revolutionary leadership, but officials “pragmatists have a space within a rigid communist system.” Information submitted to the State Department for the U.S. Interest Section in Cuba states that where the state controls more than 90% of the economy, theft and corruption, to feed the black market “is a survival mechanism, due to low wages.

“The authorities tolerate the corruption of survival to some extent, but when they know detours act with severity,” the report added.

They note that many of the potentially most profitable jobs are usually assigned by bribing the official who decides and that the police “are famous for taking bribes.” Raul Castro’s government carried out a crackdown on corruption and theft of resources to the state and created a powerful Comptroller General.
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From: CoffeToday

To read:

Corruption in Cuba: Castro and Beyond

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The Spineless American Library Association

In April 2003, the security police of Fidel Castro arrested and imprisoned 75 journalists, members of opposition parties and owners of independent libraries. The charge: "crimes against national sovereignty." The librarians had been making available to Cubans books that were banned in the state's libraries for containing "terrorist" material. Among them were a biography of Martin Luther King Jr. and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (a document for all human beings).

During the one-day trial, Castro's judges ordered that all printed volumes confiscated during the raids of the libraries be burned. I obtained copies of those incendiary court rulings that then, and now, characterize the Cuban "revolution." Immediately, Amnesty International designated all the 75 inmates "prisoners of conscience." There continues to be more of them — some, as always, in dire need of medical attention they have yet to receive.

At first, I had expected immediate protests about the caged independent librarians from the American Library Association. The core credo of this largest national library association in the world has been "the freedom to read" — for everyone everywhere.

Why should you care? Because banning books and imprisoning librarians mean banning literature, ideas — thought — and critically wounding freedoms that should be as essential as oxygen to citizens and a society.

In the many columns I've written since about the abandoned Cuban librarians, I've cited the ALA's refusal to demand the release of these librarians. In June 2003, for one of many examples, Michael Dowling, then director of the ALA's International Relations Office, said: "There has been no definitive evidence that books are banned and librarians harassed." There had been international press on the raids.

As my documented stories on these and future imprisonments went on, I was targeted by the director of Cuba's National Library, Eliades Acosta: "What does Mr. Hentoff know of the real Cuba?"

My public reply: "I know that if I were a Cuban, I'd be in prison."

Polish and Latvian library associations did call for the release of the prisoners of conscience. But in 2005, the state library association of Cuba stingingly replied to the Latvian protest resolution: "it is too late ... to attempt to trick the world in this manner."

The ALA, annoyed by the continued criticism, occasionally expressed "deep concern" about the allegations but declined to mention the silenced freedom-to-read librarians in Castroland.

Also, in 1995, as a longtime admirer of Ray Bradbury, including his classic novel of censorship by fire, Fahrenheit 451, I sent him some of my columns and the burning Castro court rulings that Bradbury's novel had prophesied. Publicly, Bradbury then said:
I plead with Castro and his government to take their hands off the independent librarians and release all those librarians in prison, and to send them back into Cuban culture to inform the people.

No comment from Fidel or the ALA. Last year, on May 19, the Mario Chanes de Armas Independent Library was raided by Cuban State Security police, who confiscated 360 books I do not know the whereabouts of the director of that purified library, who had telephoned this news under the regime of Raul Castro.

But, in yet another appeal to the ALA on March 11 last year, the American-based Friends of Cuban Libraries sent a letter to then-president of the ALA Camila Alire, "asking for your urgent and compassionate aid in saving the life of a fellow library worker, Guillermo Farinas (director of the Dr. Roberto Avalos library).

"Mr. Farinas has refused to consume food or fluids since he began a hunger strike" at his home in Santa Clara for the release of 26 Cuban prisoners in poor health, including "Ricardo Gonzalez, the director of the Jorge Manach Library, and Ariel Sigler Amaya, who was condemned to a long prison term for, among other alleged crimes, gathering books for a library collection." Both have been named prisoners of conscience by Amnesty International.

As for this hunger striker, Guillermo Farinas, he "is growing weaker, and Cuba's official newspaper Granma has indicated that the government will make no effort to save his life after his health declines to the point of unconsciousness."

Therefore, "on an urgent basis, we ask you to please contact the Cuban Minister of Foreign Relations, Mr. Bruno Rodriguez Parrilla, to request that efforts be made to save the life of Guillermo Farinas. The e-mail address of the Foreign Ministry is: cubaminrex@minrex.gov.cu."

The Parliament of the European Union recently passed a resolution expressing concern for Mr. Farinas: "We hope the American Library Association will rapidly join the worldwide effort to help in saving his life."

This plea for the life of Guillermo Farinas was ignored by the American Library Association.

Next week: What happened to the acute discomfort of the Castro government and the American Library Association after — on Oct. 1, 2010, the BBC reported: "The European Parliament has awarded the Sakharov human rights prize to Cuban dissident Guillermo Farinas. In July, Mr. Farinas, 48, ended a hunger strike after Cuba's communist government announced it was freeing 52 political prisoners." (But the EU and Farinas are aware that more remain in the Castros' prisons and that the raids on independent libraries continue.)

The prize is named after the late, brave Soviet dissident Andrei Sakharov. Those who nominated Farinas called him "a beacon of hope for dozens of journalists and activists who are currently in prison."

And the prizewinner dedicated the human-rights award to the people of Cuba. He said they struggle for "an end to the dictatorship."

The people of Cuba should be reminded that on April 26, 2005, Canek Sanchez Guevara — the grandson of the murderous Che Guevara, still a hero to Fidelists around the world and in the United States — spoke in Stockholm of "the obsession (in Cuba) with surveillance, control, repression, etc. And freedom is something entirely different."

The American Library Association should invite Che Guevara's grandson to address one of its conferences to enlighten its governing council on how to end its obsession with ignoring the persistently persecuted Cuban independent librarians.

by Nat Hentoff  

From: Cato Institute

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