Yes, you can go there. People always find ways of traveling to “forbidden” places. Some traveled freely to the Third Reich too, and to South Africa when apartheid was still practiced. If it were at all possible, some would undoubtedly take tours of hell, too…

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In his Aug. 9 op-ed column, “Castro and the cardinal,” Jackson Diehl pointed out that some people say Raul Castro wants to modernize and stabilize Cuba. Mr. Castro wants to do both without losing power, and he has convinced Cuban Cardinal Jaime Ortega that the most important thing is to start “the process,” even if it takes years. Mr. Castro wants to talk to Washington but will not allow the Cubans to talk…
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Read this letter to the editor in the Washington Post

On August 1st, in the small village of Banes in Cuba, a small group of the Ladies in White try to break through a police cordon to visit the cemetary where hunger striker Orlando Zapata Tamayo is buried.

These Ladies in White continue, among other things, to denounce the murder of Tamayo for resisting the government. The authorities starved him while in prison for not doing what he was told to do, or for not thinking how they wanted him to think.

When in a country village, common women folk are not even allowed to go to Church in a group by uniformed officers, it can assuredly signify the end of the regime — spiritually, morally and civically.

By Otto Reich and Frank Calzon
www.ottoreichassociates.com

In maintaining Cuba on the official list of State Sponsors of Terrorism for another year, the Obama administration last week said Havana provides safe haven to terrorists belonging to three outlaw organizations. Additionally, Cuba, according to the United States, “permit[s] U.S. fugitives to live legally in Cuba. These U.S. fugitives include convicted murderers as well as numerous hijackers.”

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Read this article in the Miami Herald

Madrid, 19 July 2010
Your Excellencies, the
Foreign Ministers of the European Union

We, the Cuban prisoners of conscience exiled to Spain in recent days, aware of the manifest willingness of some European countries to modify the E.U.’s “Common Position” regarding Cuba, declare our disagreement with an approval of this measure, as we understand that the Cuban government has not taken steps that evidence a clear decision to advance toward the democratization of our country.

Our departure for Spain must not be considered a good-will gesture but a desperate action on the regime’s part in its urgent quest for credits of every type.

It is for that reason that we ask the countries of the European Union not to again soften their exigencies intended to achieve changes toward democracy in Cuba and to secure for all Cubans the same rights that European citizens enjoy.

Respectfully,

Ricardo González Alfonso
Mijail Barzaga Lugo,
Normando Hernández González,
Antonio Alonso Villarreal Acosta
Omar Rodríguez Saludes,
Luis Milán Fernández
Pablo Pacheco Ávila
José Luis García Paneque
Julio César Gálvez
Léster González Pentón

The recent releases of Cuban political prisoners from the 75-strong group imprisoned in the wake of the one-day trials held in the black spring of 2003 is a great piece of news, but it should not confuse us, the democrats, and should be analysed with some caveats in mind.

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BY FRANK CALZON

Learning about BP’s efforts to free the Libyan terrorist serving a prison sentence for his part in the 1988 bombing of the ill-fated Pan Am Flight 103 over Scotland, I came to appreciate the Bible’s verse that says “there is nothing new under the sun.”

Three of them were American citizens, and one was a legal resident of the United States.

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Read this article in the Miami Herald

The Center for a Free Cuba’s Frank Calzon appears on CNN Latino to discuss recent developments in US-Cuba relations.