Pooch in pursuit

The chase

Caught

Link:

Along the Malecon - Dogs and puppies index

An unusual sight: Fidel Castro votes

Here's something you don't see every day: Fidel Castro voting in a Cuban election

In this Jan. 11, 1998, election, Castro cast his ballot in the town of El Cobre on the island's southeastern edge. He told reporters:

We're free. We're independent.  And we fight for our independence - today, yesterday and always. 

After the vote

Critics say Cuba's national elections mean nothing because there are no opposition candidates. Castro loyalists say Cuba has its own style of democracy based largely on the grassroots selection of local government leaders.

Castro fielded questions for more than an hour after voting in 1998. Isn't that Felipe Perez Roque to the right?

Ever defiant

Castro rejected democracy imposed on Cuba by foreign nations. And he issued a warning to those who are trying to topple or weaken the socialist government:

Nothing can stop us. Not even death, because those who try to wipe us out will have to die, too.

Explaining with words - and with his hands

Around the time of the 1998 elections, Fidel Castro sat down with two or three Cuban journalists. It wasn't exactly a press conference because the journalists asked very few questions. The president spoke most of the time and the journalists listened.

I was in Havana, staying at the Hotel Victoria. I listened to Castro for a while and then decided to go out. Several hours later, I returned. Castro was still on TV. I asked:

They're re-broadcasting the show already?

Playing it again? a bartender replied. Fidel hasn't finished. He's still talking.

I watched a while longer. The journalists were still pretty quiet. But at one point, one of them spoke up, asking if he could ask a question. I remember Castro saying something like:

Yes, as long as you ask a question about exactly what I am talking about at this precise moment.

The show went on for four or five hours, maybe more.

One of the reporters' last questions was about the elections. By then, it was well after midnight and Castro said, "I wish you'd asked me about that when I was fresh." Then he proceeded to talk for another hour.

It was quite a performance. At least that's the way I remember it. There must be a transcript somewhere.

Link:

Elections in Cuba - Wikipedia

Jan. 12, 1998, story in the Dallas Morning News

Results of the last Cuban elections in May 2009

Photo (s) of the Week - Carnival beauties

Index to Photo (s) of  the Week - August 2008 to May 2009

Batter up: Cuban championship starts Saturday

A baseball fan cheers in Havana

The Cuban Baseball League championship starts Saturday, the Havana Times says. Villa Clara and Havana Province play in the best-of-seven series.

Links:

A tribute to Cuban baseball

More baseball fans

Cuba's lone McDonald's restaurant

The Guantanamo Bay McDonald's. Source of photo: Cobolhacker.com

View of Guantanamo from Picote

There is a Mickey D's in Cuba, but it's not along the Malecon. It's at Guantanamo Bay Naval Base.

I've never been to Gitmo, but did catch a glimpse of the base one day from a nearby hilltop called Picote. I went there with a group of journalists on the one-year anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks.
Cuban officials wanted to get across the message that they were against terrorism. From a lookout point 600 feet above the naval base, Gen. Jose Solar told reporters:

Cuba doesn't sponsor terrorism. The terrorist bands are in Miami.

Cuban soldiers from a nearby base

Lights of Guantanamo. Through a telescope, we just make out the American flag flying at half-mast on the Sept. 11 anniversary

Fidel Castro has said the Guantánamo base should be in Cuban hands, although he didn't object when the United States began flying in Taliban prisoners in 2002.
Cuban officials said then they will cooperate with the U.S. in the anti-terrorism fight. Gen. Solar said:

What we want is peace. We're victims of terrorism, not terrorists.

Gen. Jose Solar

Cuban officials continue to say they'll cooperate on anti-terrorism matters. Despite that, Washington says Cuba is a state sponsor of terrorism.

Cuba's ambassador to the United Nations, Abelardo Moreno, rejected that accusation on Tuesday. Europa Press quoted him as saying:

If the new U.S. administration really wants to demonstrate its commitment to the fight against terrorism, it has the opportunity now to act firmly and without double standards against the different terrorist organizations that attack Cuba from U.S. territory.

Links:

Sept. 12, 2002, story in the Dallas Morning News

General information on Gitmo from GlobalSecurity.org Web site

View of the Hotel Nacional as a storm rolls in

Traveler's tip: The "super cheeseburger" at the Hotel Nacional's downstairs cafeteria is pretty darned good and the service is fast

If China, why not Cuba?

Machete power

We don't have any qualms about diplomatic relations with China, but we remain wary of Cuba. The Examiner asks why.

Lately, the new American administration has made overtures to “enemy states,” one of which is Cuba. But my question is: why did it have to take this long?
The government tells us that we can’t deal with the island nation because it is Communist. Well, isn’t China Communist too?
...if we can deal with China, then we surely should be able to deal with our close neighbor as well.

Faint signs of movement in the U.S.-Cuba grudge match

Ricardo Alarcon

Cuban officials are studying "with great interest" an Obama administration proposal to renew migration talks with Cuba, said Ricardo Alarcon, president of Cuba's National Assembly.

Regular meetings to discuss migration issues would at least open a new channel of communication between the two countries, at odds for most of the past half century. And that can't hurt.

But Cuba and the United States remain light years apart on many key issues, including human rights, politics and freedom of expression.

Link:

Havana Note post on suspicions that the Obama administration is not pursuing migration talks with great enthusiasm.

Castro brothers rarely together in public

Fidel Castro waves as Raul watches

You don't see Fidel Castro and his brother Raul together in public very often. That's because if one is assassinated, the revolution can continue, conventional wisdom says.

I once saw them together at a rally and shot the photo above.

Below, the Castro brothers confer in a UPI photograph taken in July 1959. That was when Fidel Castro announced he was resigning as prime minister to protest demands that then-President Manuel Urrutia resign.

The Cuban Cabinet refused to accept Castro's resignation. Urrutia, a declared anti-communist who clashed with Castro, soon quit and moved to the United States.

Castro stepped back into his role as prime minister and consolidated his power, eventually becoming the country's undisputed leader.

Photo credit: UPI

Link:
The UPI photo is on eBay with a buy-it-now price of $250.

Granma rejects "apocalyptic view of Cuba"

Ready to face the world, gracefully

Granma, the state-run newspaper, is protesting Reuters' gloomy coverage of the Cuban economy. Granma said:

The colleague from the British agency minimizes the fact that our society’s greatest treasure is its human capital. That is why, appealing over and over to the recourse of participation by all, Cuba emerges gracefully from complex situations.

Link:

Reuters story saying Cuba was lowering its 2009 growth forecast to 2 percent

Reuters story saying the Cuban economy was expected to falter in 2009

Granma story on importance of saving money, in Spanish. Compares "homeland or death" motto with "savings or death."

A shirtful of pride

A Cuban veteran poses with his medals

Black berets, white gloves and assault rifles

These officers are with the Ministry of the Interior

Special ops unit?

The Ministry of the Interior - MinInt for short - has sweeping responsibilities. It oversees:

* Immigration
* Population registery and IDs
* National Revolutionary Police
* Prisons
* Firefighters
* Forest rangers
* Border troops
* Citizen services
* Criminal Investigation
* Anti-narcotics
* Criminal Investigations
* Juvenile matters
* Intelligence and state security agencies
* Security
* Counter-intelligence
* Domestic Counter-intelligence
* Special Operations
* Specialized Protective Services

Abelardo Colomé Ibarra heads the ministry, which marks its 48th anniversary on June 6, 1961.

MinInt headquarters at Revolution Square

Links:

Colomé biography, in Spanish

2006 Bohemia story on MinInt, in Spanish

Blogger Yoani Sanchez recounts experience with MinInt officials, calling them "intimidation professionals"

Dogs & puppies

Tequilita of Vedado loves corn flakes

This pooch found a treasure

2009

April 11, 2010 - Post 1,001: Cuban dog hits the jackpot
Jan. 14, 2010 - Who needs a bath? Estás loco

Dec. 11, 2009 - Leaving fate in the hands of strangers

Oct. 30, 2009 - New book: The Dogs of Havana

Oct. 16, 2009 - Antenna in position

Oct. 4, 2009 - Cuban girl imitates dog

Sept. 1, 2009 - Four-legged burglar alarm

Aug. 9, 2009 - Top-drawer dogs live on ground floor

June 2, 2009 - Me against the world

May 31, 2009 - Pooch in pursuit

May 10, 2009 - From Cuban street dog to canine jet setter

April 29, 2009 - Canine CDR

April 19, 2009 - White dogs, the cemetery and fried chicken

April 17, 2009 - Best chance for a thaw in 50 years? "Bacon!" Havana pooch says

Feb. 3, 2009 - Harley nostalgia creeps to the surface

Jan. 16, 2009 - Canine cuisine invention: Cuban pooch munches on corn flakes

Jan. 13, 2009 - Pirata - Puppy tales from Cuba, Part III

Jan. 11, 2009 - Cuban puppy ready to travel

2008

Nov. 27, 2008 - Thanksgiving tribute to Cuban canines

Nov. 1, 2008 - Beware of dreaded Multiple Havanese Syndrome

Sept. 24, 2008 - Famous Cuban dog learns to shoot pistol, also barks at President Bush

Sept. 15, 2008 - Street dogs of Havana

Aug. 28, 2008 - Blan Blan - Puppy tales from Cuba, Part II

Aug. 28, 2008 - Puppy tales from Cuba, Part I

Spy vs. spy

CIA in Cuba

The Cuban Five

2010

April 21, 2010 - To some they're heroes. To others they're "rats"
Feb. 19, 2010 - CIA in 1962: "The Cuban people feel helpless and are losing hope fast"
Jan. 13, 2010 - Ex-State Department official: Pro-democracy work in Cuba fraught with peril
Jan. 13, 2010 - Satellite link to the Internet may have been heart of jailed American's mission
Jan. 13, 2010 - American Jew in Cuba held as American spy
Jan. 13, 2010 - Jailed American looks like a Beltway insider
Jan. 13, 2010 - American has managed U.S. government development projects
Jan. 13, 2010 - Jailed man not interested in "meddling" in other nations' affairs
Jan. 13, 2010 - U.S. contractor left a photo trail
Jan. 13, 2010 - Contractor's company evidently has worked in more than 50 countries
Jan. 12, 2010 - American jailed in Cuba is finally identified

2009
Dec. 20, 2009 - American scientist accused of spreading dengue fever in Cuba defends himself
Dec. 14, 2009 - U.S. government outsources work in Cuba

Nov. 20, 2009 - High-profile spy case ends with plea bargain
Oct. 26, 2009 - Fidel Castro's younger sister, Juanita, says she worked with the CIA

Oct. 13, 2009 - Agent could be out of prison in about 2016

Oct. 13, 2009 - Mothers and sons

Oct. 13, 2009 - Judge: Cuban agent sought "top secret information"

Oct. 13, 2009 - Cuban agent is now an English teacher

Oct. 13, 2009 - Miami judge considers Cuban agent's fate

Oct. 8, 2009 - Cuban agent stuck in "living tomb" paints to escape
Oct. 6, 2009 - Luis Posada Carriles volunteered to spy on anti-Castro exiles
Oct. 4, 2009 - No visa for would-be Cuban agent

Oct. 1, 2009 - Did Cuban Five harm U.S. national security?
Aug. 31, 2009 - Three convicted Cuban agents transferred

Aug. 22, 2009 - Rally next month for the Cuban Five
Aug. 19, 2009 - Cyberwars and toilet paper doom
July 2, 2009 - Gwen Myers' South Dakota home
June 19, 2009 - Accused spy's son: Dad's not some fanatic

June 18, 2009 - Six-month delay can only help Posada Carriles
June 16, 2009 - Tough road ahead for Cuban Five

June 16, 2009 - Myers and wife want house arrest. Lawyers argue case today. New documents filed.

June 15, 2009 - Cuba: Supreme Court's refusal to hear Cuban Five's case "a monstrous injustice"

June 12, 2009 - Politics - and sex - drove former CIA spy, ex-agents say
June 12, 2009 - Artists' view of accused spies

June 11, 2009 - Cuban Five fighting to get out of prison

June 11, 2009 - Accused spy Kendall Myer linked to marijuana in 1979

June 11, 2009 - Former colleague: Kendall Myers "seemed like an absent-minded professor," not a spy

June 10, 2009 - Was Gwen Myer digging into diplomats' finances?

June 10, 2009 - FBI secretly searched spy suspects' luxury apartment

June 10, 2009 - Accused spies must stay in prison. May have had an "escape plan," prosecutor says
June 10, 2009 - Federal judge: Government's case against accused spies is "very strong"

June 10, 2009 - Accused spies due in court today

June 9, 2009 - FBI agents "went out of their way" to pursue accused spies

June 9, 2009 - New photos of accused spies

June 7, 2009 - Kendall Myers: "Revolution...liberated the Cuban spirit"

June 7, 2009 - Accused spies adored Fidel Castro, but wanted to quit spying

June 6, 2009 - Fidel Castro: Can't remember meeting accused agents

June 6, 2009 - Kiss that boat goodbye
June 6, 2009 - U.S. senator: Suspend all diplomatic outreach to Cuba

June 5, 2009 - U.S. paid accused spy more than $1.7 million

June 5, 2009 - Walter Myers clashed with the State Department

June 5, 2009 - Walter Myers, a.k.a. Agent 202

June 5, 2009 - Two accused spies arrested

April 14, 2009 - The Comandante's Pinky
March 19, 2009 - And now, USSOUTHCOM

March 18, 2009 - CIA stumbles upon Along the Malecon

March 6, 2009 - Nobel Prize winners stand behind Cuban agents
March 5, 2009 - Conspiracies "R" Us: Revisiting the shootdown
Feb. 10, 2009 - Love-sick crabs stir up trouble on Cuba's Pink Highway

Jan. 31, 2009 - Armchair view of Cuban Five's Supreme Court petition

Jan. 22, 2009 - Ex-CIA analyst picks apart Raul Castro

2008

Dec. 5, 2008 - Cuban-American activist says she's not an agent, sues her accuser

Oct. 24, 2008 - Wife of Cuban agent says she's "sadly famous"

Oct. 14, 2008 - Hollow rocks, CIA plots, blood, murder and escape tunnels

Sept. 23, 2008 - Please speak clearly into the coffee cup

Sept. 20, 2008 - High-level Cuban delegation heads to Big Apple

Sept. 13, 2008 - Adriana Perez, wife of accused Cuban agent (Part I)

Sept. 12, 2008 - James Cason: "Lots and lots" of Cuban spies "all over the place"

Sept. 10, 2008 - Does Cuba have our number?

Sept. 12, 2008 - Five nabbed after pro-spy protest

Sept. 1, 2008 - Lethal Weapon star supports Cuban agents

Aug. 28, 2008 - Ex-KGB honcho praises Cuban spies

Aug. 24, 2008 - Artist's tribute to five Cuban spies
Aug. 14, 2008 - Poof! Instant propaganda

A glimpse of Fidel Castro's birthplace

Antonio Lopez, caretaker of the Castro brothers' childhood home in Birán, shows me Fidel Castro's crib

Fidel Castro's father was Ángel Castro, a plantation owner. His mother was Lina Ruz González, a servant in Angel's home.

Castro described his early years in a 2006 spoken autobiography, 100 Horas con Fidel Castro. French author Ignacio Ramonet conducted the 100 hours of interviews with Castro from 2003 to 2005.

The book was released in 2006 and an version in English called Fidel Castro: My Life was published in 2008. Excerpts are below along with pictures I took in Birán.

I was born on a farm…called Birán. It wasn’t a town, or even a village – just a few isolated houses. The roads at that time were just big mud tracks. People traveled on horseback or in oxcarts. There were no motorized vehicles yet, or even electric light. When I was little, we lit the house with wax candles and kerosene lamps.

It was a house constructed in Spanish architecture, or rather Galician. I should point out there my father was a Spaniard, a Galician, from the village of Lancara, in the province of Lugo, the son of poor campesinos.

My house was inspired by that architecture in Galicia, because it was built on wooden piles, like stilts. These piles were over six feet tall, which was the usual way of building houses in Galicia.

This was Fidel Castro's home. I don't know how much of it is original. Fire destroyed at least part of the home many years ago, the guide told me.

Castro: I remember that when I was three or four years old, the cows slept underneath the house. They’d be brought in at nightfall, and they’d sleep under the house. And they’d be milked there, tied to some of the piles.

Under the house there was also…a little pen with pigs and fowl – at various times there’s be chickens, ducks, guinea hens, turkeys and even a few geese.

Family cattle

Castro: In my childhood I can assure you that in Birán fewer than 20 percent of the people who lived there knew how to read and write, and even those who did so with great difficulty. 

Very few made it to the sixth grade. There I had the experiences that enable me today to understand how much an illiterate person suffers.

Fidel Castro's first school.

I believe that Antonio Lopez told me Castro sat in this seat in the first row

Castro: In Birán, the people who didn’t know how to read and write would ask the ones who did to write a letter to the woman they were courting, for example.

But it wasn’t that they dictated a letter – tell her so-and-so and so-and-so – that he dreamed about her last night and that he’s not eating for thinking about her....

No, he’d tell the one who knew how to read and write, ‘No, no, you just write whatever you think I ought to write to her.’ To win over the girlfriend! I’m not exaggerating. I lived during a time when things were like that.

The town watering hole

Castro: In those surroundings, from the time I was a very young boy I lived among the sights and the work of the country – the trees, the sugar cane, the birds, the insects….

I believe the guide said cockfights took place here

The grave of Fidel Castro's parents

Castro: I lived with people of the most humble origins. I remember the illiterate unemployed men who would stand in line near the cane fields, with nobody to bring them a drop of water, or breakfast, or lunch, or give them shelter, or transport. And I can’t forget those children going barefoot.

All the children whom I played with in Birán, all those I grew up with, ran around with, all over the place, were very, very poor.

The images of so many poor, hard-working, humble people there in Birán will never be erased from my mind….

Birán had a Disney-like quality to it. It was clean and sanitized, kind of like a movie set.

Birán wasn't open to tourists when I went. I needed government permission to go there. It's an interesting spot because it gives you a glimpse into Castro's past.

Show and tell for Cuban military

Antiaircraft missile launchers

You don't see missile launchers within sight of the Capitolio very often.

This is an old picture, one of many I dragged out of the shoebox this weekend. These are Russian-made weapons.

Yoani & digital revolt

Yoani Sanchez

Along the Malecon links:

2010
Sept. 3, 2010 - Yoani Sanchez named "World Press Freedom Hero"
Feb. 23, 2010 - Latest chisme: Bardach book making rounds in Cuba
Feb. 9, 2010 - Yoani Sanchez joins Las Damas' Sunday march
Jan. 20, 2010 - When Reinaldo was more famous than his wife
Jan. 20, 2010 - Behind the scenes at Generacion Y

2009

Dec. 20, 2009 - Cuba experts at odds over importance of Yoani Sanchez

Dec. 15, 2009 - U.S. government consultants have included iRevolution blogger

Dec. 15, 2009 - Plotting Cuba's digital revolution
Dec. 14, 2009 - U.S. government outsources work in Cuba
Dec. 12, 2009 - U.S. contractor detained in Cuba

Nov. 25, 2009 - Ramiro Valdes is a member of Raul Castro's inner circle

Photo credit: Cambios en Cuba

Nov. 21, 2009 - Real and virtual mobs clash in Cuba

Nov. 7, 2009 - Post-march Saturday: More questions than answers

Nov. 7, 2009 - Facebook friends: We are all Yoani

Nov. 7, 2009 - Peace march "rather shady," pro-government blogger says

Nov. 7, 2009 - Cuban marchers shout "peace and love"

Nov. 7, 2009 - Yoani Sanchez: "I grabbed his testicles"

Nov. 6, 2009 - Cuban blogger Yoani Sanchez shaken up in attack

Nov. 4, 2009 - Yoani Sanchez, driving 'em to drink in her blond wig
Oct. 24, 2009 - CPJ: Cuban bloggers growing in strength
Oct. 24, 2009 - No cruise for Yoani

Oct. 15, 2009 - Brazen blogger to Cuban official: "The future is ours"

Photo credit: Generacion Y

Oct. 14, 2009 - Is Cuban government approach to Yoani Sanchez counterproductive?
Sept. 29, 2009 - Rapper given "injection of fear"

Sept. 28, 2009 - Two onions, a head of lettuce and a dash of freedom

Sept. 10, 2009 - Cuban government promises public internet access
Aug. 23, 2009 - Most Cuba bloggers don't live in Cuba

Aug. 20, 2009 - Psst...hey, buddy... Wanna buy a Ford Fairlane?

June 4, 2009 - How popular is Generación Y in Cuba?

June 2, 2009 - Ex-diplomat: Bloggers threaten socialist regime

June 2, 2009 - Yoani had to buy shades
May 25, 2009 - Black berets, white gloves and assault rifles
May 23, 2009 - Havana hotel again selling tickets to cyberspace

May 22, 2009 - Yoani Sanchez hitches a ride

May 10, 2009 - Now they're calling Yoani a 'Pentagon babe'

May 10, 2009 - Battle over right to enter cyberspace heating up in Cuba?

May 10, 2009 - Micsoda nő! Yoani most beszél magyar*

May 2, 2009 - A subdued kitchen revolt

May 1, 2009 - Unclear who organized Cuba's kitchen kettle protest
March 5, 2009 - What's going on with Generacion Y?

Feb. 27, 2009 - Time/CNN goof: They describe Cuba's most famous blogger as a 'he'

Feb. 14, 2009 - Yoani Sanchez: Revolucion.com can't be stopped

Photo credit: Generacion Y

2008

Dec. 11, 2008 - Why gays and not gusanos?
Dec. 4, 2008 - Clamping down on bloggers in Cuba

Dec. 3, 2008 - Yoani is warned

Dec. 3, 2008 - Beware of that sinister cheese, Yoani

Nov. 28, 2008 - Generacion Y's Yoani Sanchez wants human rights, not awards

Aug. 30, 2008 - Gen Y blogger given access to punk rocker's trial