Agreeing to Disagree - The Best Things (about Cuba) I've read (in Spanish) this week (II)

I've just read two provocative and well reasoned blog posts about the unfolding situation on the ground in Cuba, "Repression as a Means of Distraction" (by Alejandro Armengol, Blog Cuaderno de Cuba) and about the debate over lifting the travel ban, "Of Tourists and Suitcases" (by Frank Rodriguez, Blog de Emilio Echikawa).

While I don't share the totality of either argument, both reflections are highly recommended for their civil, rational tone, critical analysis, and original point of view. Also, both are notable since they openly differ with the latest actions and statements from Yoani Sanchez, Reinaldo Escobar, and their blogger movement, but do so in a spirit of clear sympathy and solidarity.

Otra Bomba de La Flaca (y mas por la manana)

Talk about audacity!

First, it was an in-your-face audio/video of this wisp of a woman with a tongue of fire dressing down a nameless, faceless immigration official and demanding to know WHY? she was being denied permission to leave the country.

A week later, we were met with another spectacle, this time a guerrilla video of an undercover infiltration operation in full Euro-trash disguise (platnum blod wig and a tight black skirt to boot), with la bloguera guerrillera revealing herself and voicing her criticisms as a chancletera orgullosa de Centro Habana.

Finally, the endgame, or so we thought... We get word of kidnappings and beatings - followed by a round of international condemnations and recriminations.

Then, just when we thought La Flaca could not pull another bomba out of her seemingly bottomless hat of tricks, we get Siete Preguntas (well, there are actually 14, but who's counting)!

By the time you read this - Obama's answers will have been posted. Raul, the clock is ticking...

Dear Mr. Obama - We've Seen This Movie Before...

In late February, 1996, as President Bill Clinton entered the last laps of a tough, though ultimately successful re-election campaign, he was confronted with a Cuban monkey wrench dropped directly into U.S. presidential politics.

Up to that point the Clinton administration had indicated its steadfast opposition to the Helms-Burton Act, which aimed at tightening the U.S. Embargo by adding third-country sanctions, strengthening the claims of Cuban-Americans for expropriated property, and transforming what had always been a presidential prerogative into a policy imbued with the force of law. In fact, the bill had been tabled a year earlier in 1995 when Helms faced an intractable Democratic filibuster.

All that changed on the morning of February 24 when Cuban fighter jets shot down two private planes operated by the Miami-based exile group Brothers to the Rescue. While his administration had initially - and correctly - opposed the bill on principle, Clinton quickly reversed course and signed the bill with great fanfare, unwilling to risk losing any Cuban-American votes in the exile-rich swing states of Florida and New Jersey. (See criticism of the Act from Global Exchange and the American Enterprise Institute - a rare case when these two ideological enemies were in strong agreement!)