Anybody going to Minnesota? THE PRAIRIE EDITOR & The Ten Best Twin Cities Food ... http://t.co/aMN9Sm5eG8
— Silvio Canto, Jr. (@SCantojr) January 23, 2015
The latest from the "Nisman" story from Argentina....it changes almost hourly....via @Fausta .....
http://t.co/VcOGK1RfV2
— Silvio Canto, Jr. (@SCantojr) January 23, 2015
Turning Cuba into another China or Vietnam.....with Jorge Ponce......Listen in now at http://t.co/GhmgadJLvk. #BlogTalkRadio
— Silvio Canto, Jr. (@SCantojr) January 23, 2015
The Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) continued its one-party rule, in place since 1975. While it maintained its monopoly on state power, it faced growing public discontent with lack of basic freedoms. Denial of rights and endemic official corruption are widely seen as stifling Vietnam’s political and economic progress.In China, it's not that good, either:
The government censors the press, the Internet, print publications, and academic research, and justifies human rights abuses as necessary to preserve “social stability.” It carries out involuntary population relocation and rehousing on a massive scale, and enforces highly repressive policies in ethnic minority areas in Tibet, Xinjiang, and Inner Mongolia. Though primary school enrollment and basic literacy rates are high, China’s education system discriminates against children and young people with disabilities. The government obstructs domestic and international scrutiny of its human rights record, insisting it is an attempt to destabilize the country.Nevertheless, Neil Irwin reports that many are looking to the Chinese and Vietnamese models:
Cubans — and Americans wanting to do business there — will be better off if they instead emulate Vietnam and China, two countries that have migrated from Communism to a hybrid system that is nominally Communist but practices free-market capitalism to a large degree.Yes, it's true that Vietnam and China have avoided bloodshed and revolution in recent years. However, that's not because their people are enjoying more prosperity; rather, it is because of the repressive nature of those regimes. Vietnam and China are not great places for people with dissenting viewpoints!
That has allowed them to become more fully integrated into the global economy and helped millions of their citizens escape poverty over the last generation without bloodshed or revolution.
Turning Cuba into another China or Vietnam.....with Jorge Ponce......Listen in now at http://t.co/GhmgadJLvk. #BlogTalkRadio
— Silvio Canto, Jr. (@SCantojr) January 23, 2015
US officials in Washington played down the presence of the Russian vessel, saying it was perfectly legal and not at all out of the ordinary.Of course, it's legal, but that's not the point. Saying that it's legal just proves that we are weak. Sadly, no one fears or respects the Obama administration.
The Viktor Leonov, an armed intelligence-gathering vessel that monitors US communications, arrived at a passenger cruise terminal in full public view for what a Russian embassy official called a “friendly” three-day stay.Since the "thaw" was announced, a couple of dissidents released were re-arrested.
The port call came on the same day that Kremlin defence minister Sergei Shoigu announced plans for Russia to extend its global military footprint with new bases in a number of countries, including Vietnam, Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua.
Mr Putin seemed to be sending a typically blunt message about Russia’s influence with its communist Caribbean ally by timing the vessel’s visit to coincide with this week’s trip by a US team led by Roberta Jacobson, the assistant secretary of state.
Leinier Cruz Salfran, a Cuban computer expert, recently got around financial and other limits on access to the Internet by turning his laptop into a "hot spot," allowing other Cubans high-speed access to the Internet.And now a Russian spy ship comes to the island to pay a visit. Is this the same ship that was spying off the Atlantic coast in 2014?
The result?
Cruz, 34, was arrested.
Democrats vs Obama on Iran & Islamic extremism! http://t.co/XIskJeBDEr via @Scantojr
— Silvio Canto, Jr. (@SCantojr) January 22, 2015
Argentina, Cuba & US-Latin America stories with Fausta Rodriguez Wertz..........Listen in now at http://t.co/AI5L4ziFyQ. #BlogTalkRadio
— Silvio Canto, Jr. (@SCantojr) January 21, 2015
"The damage that Obama has done to the democratic opposition.We understand from news reports that dissidents met with US representatives in Cuba on Tuesday Unfortunately, the US representation has no leverage because we've agreed to lift the embargo after normalizing relations. It should be pointed out that only the Congress can lift the embargo so this may get very interesting down the road. I don't believe that the Obama administration has the votes today!
Perhaps it is the gravest of all.
For decades, the message sent by the more credible dissidents to the dictatorship was very clear: “Let us sit down to talk and, among Cubans, let us find a democratic solution. The problem is between us, not between Washington and Havana.”
To that approach (which, with different shadings, was that of Gustavo Arcos, the Cuban Democratic Platform, and Oswaldo Payá) the regime responded with repression and accusations that it was a CIA ploy. But that outcome, as in Eastern Europe, as in Pinochet's Chile, as in 1990 Nicaragua, was the best for everyone, including the United States, and it was the obvious road for anyone who might inherit the Castro brothers' power, both of them on their final stage for biological reasons.
Nevertheless, to achieve this, Washington had to remain firm and refer the dictatorship to the opposition side whenever, directly or indirectly, the possibility of reconciliation was insinuated. The problem was between Cubans and had to be solved between Cubans. This was well understood by Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, the two U.S. presidents of the post-Soviet era, and this is what Obama has just invalidated irresponsibly, denying the opposition any chance to be an important actor in the forging of the island's future.
Why engage in democratic reforms, Castro's heirs will say, if we have been accepted as we are? Didn't Roberta Jacobson say, on behalf of the U.S. government, that Washington held no hopes that the Castros would permit freedoms?
On Dec. 30, 2014, exactly 13 days after the reconciliation was announced, the Cuban political police detained several dozen intellectuals and artists who attempted to carry out a performance on Revolution Square. What incentive is left for Washington to induce respect for human rights if Washington has made most of the concessions unilaterally?
This was expressed clearly by a high-ranking intelligence officer, Jesús Arboleya, a Cuban diplomat, expert in Cuba's relations with the U.S. and Canada, in an interview with El Nuevo DÃa of Puerto Rico on Dec. 30, 2014. The newspaper asked him if he feared Obama's new policy.
“If in the past, when they had all the power to impose their values, [that policy] didn't work, why should it work beginning now?” was his answer.
The dictatorship is euphoric. It feels that it has carte blanche to crush the democrats without paying the least price. Lacking all sensitivity, Obama has contributed to weakening the opposition.
Fifth mistake
One of a legal nature.
The United States is a republic directed by the delegates of society, selected through democratic elections. Among them, the President is the principal representative of the popular will, but not the only one. There is a legislative power that shares many functions with the White House, and there is a Constitution, interpreted by the judiciary power, by which everyone must abide. As we all know, the essence of the republic is the division of power to avoid a dictatorship and to force the leadership to find formulas for consensus.
It is possible that the surveys will reflect that a majority in U.S. society will circumstantially support a reconciliation with the Cuban dictatorship -- as in 1939 a majority supported neutrality vis-Ã -vis the Nazis -- but that factor has only a relative importance. The United States, I insist, is a republic observant of the law and a representative democracy. That's what matters, and it has little to do with surveys or the decisions made by an assembly of citizens."
Tuesday Jan 20..............A look at 2015 politics with Richard Baehr of American Thinker http://t.co/MHOVFJ81hE
— Silvio Canto, Jr. (@SCantojr) January 20, 2015