Robert Linares

Jose Marti said that to visit the home of the oppressor is to sanction oppression. For 38 years one man has ruled an island nation with a steel fist.

Over 20%25 of the Cuban population has fled. Thousands and thousands more have been executed. Human rights are systematically denied.

If a Cuban citizen bad mouths a tourist he's looking at prison or worse. Ditto for the beggar. It is a crine to be homeless in Cuba. For moe inormation visit http://www.fiu.edu/~fcf/

John Suarez

"To visit the oppressor's house is to sanction oppression... As long as a nation has not won its rights, any of its children who feast in the house of those who subjugate its people is an enemy of the people."

Jose Marti

This is the full quote by Marti on those who party in the house of a tyrant. Marti is to Cuba what Thomas Jefferson is in the United States. I for one will forgive you who take advantage of those who are suffering to feed your shallow needs. If you want to help the Cuban people help the thousands in prison for exercising their God-given rights. Don't throw trinckets at us in an attempt to justify your presence as a guest of the tyrant in our land.

Jose Raul Carro

To change masters is not to be free.
----Jose Marti
------------------------------------------------------------------http://www.fiu.edu/~fcf/history.html

John Suarez

Respect for the freedom and ideas of others, of even the most wretched being, is my fanaticism. When I die, or if I am killed, it will be because of that.

------Jose Marti ------------------------------------Castro's regime has in writing outlawed ideas that conflict with his revoultion. It is a hypocrisy that Jose Marti's image would be in front of schools throughout Cuba. For his words are in conflict with Castro. If he were alive today he'd be in prison or in exile.

John Suarez

Brother Tom,

I fully agree with you the world must turn against tyranny and injustice, but let us begin in small steps. If you like I can give you the address of the Cuban Committee for Human Rights in Havana, and next time you visit Cuba you can provide them with - paper, pens, maybe a type writer. You see the Cuban government continues to seize these basic necessities which they use to gather reports on human rights abuses for the UN when they're not in prison.

As for me. I haven't done much, and I'm ashamed. I've had friends murdered by the government of Mr. Castro - so I know the pain and loss first hand. Living in Miami I get to see the old farmers and peasants that fought in the Escambray throughout the 60's. I speak with people who were part of towns moved from one side of Cuba to the other as part of the Captive People's Program. Entire towns moved and monitored for their support of these peasants who fought against both Castro's troops and a Soviet Brigade (About 40,000 in Cuba at the time of the 62 Missile Crisis in 1962.)

I know of the estimated 16,000 - 100,000 Cubans who have died on the high seas trying to leave a country which bars "illegal exit." (Check out The Cuban Balseros: Voyage of Uncertainty By H. Ackerman PhD and J. Clark PhD -1995.

I believe that to stand up to injustice (even from Miami) needs to be done. Furthermore, when the time is right we will travel to Cuba to join with our brothers and sisters in the struggle against tyranny and hatred.

The war against hate is perhaps the last essential, definitive and legitimate war.
--------------------
Jose Marti ------------------- If you wish to help us Cubans then help if you're going to party, then head to the Bahamas or Cancun.


Warm Regards,

John Suarez

Visit http://www.fiu.edu/~fcf/

Jose raul Carro

Respecting Coleen's opinions I won't post on her message, but wish to state that in Cuba Cubans have at times been the prey of Castroite sadists otherwise known as the Cuban coastguard. On July 13, 1994 41 men, women, and children were butchered by the Castro regime. A year earlier a report surfaced in which Cuban gunboats were using snipers to murder rafters and then use gaff hooks to pull hte bodies out of the water. Read the primary source material at http://www.fiu.edu/~fcf/history.html

John Suarez

Dear Nils,
--------------------------------->
Please don't make assumptions about my commitment to human rights. First, I'm a Cuban therefore I'll look to my homeland first, but that does not mean that I'll forget other nations suffering as we do or worse. I've protested Chinese officials visiting my university, met with Tibetan monks, signed petitions, written letters of solidarity, met with members of the independent press in Peru persecuted by Fujimori, not to mention supporting campaigns for a free Burma, and spread messages about the atrocities committed by Indonesia in East Timor.
------------> Just because I believe that Cubans have rights, and that someone has to speak up on behalf of those who cannot speak. Please don't accuse me of not having a universal perspective on the God given rights of humanity.
------------------>Learn more about us at http://www.fiu.edu/~fcf/

Tom

the written history of the land of my birth is a bit older than Cubas.Hundreds of years of oppression,murder,inhumanity and mayhem on the general population.But as a proud nation(as is Cuba.)we triumphed.I can only speak for my conduct whilst in Cuba on vacation and take exception re the exile Cubans remarks "giving trinkets to the natives"Let me tell them,that I could have a longer,less costly vacation going to a destination other than Cuba,but prefer giving all the help that I can afford,to my many Cuban friends that I have made over the years.

John Suarez

Dear Tom,

I wander how Scottish Nationalists would've felt you spending your holidays in British occupied Scottish lands where the people are being opressed and subjected to degradation, and you there under their invitation, and subsidizing their occupation? What would William Wallace think?

Cordially,

http://www.fiu.edu/~fcf/

John Suarez

Dear Nils, My family left Cuba because of the Batista dictatorship, and let me tell you Batista was a cruel, corrupt,
and evil tyrant, but compared to Fidel Castro he is an innocent baby. You might do away with your independent sources and
look at UN stats during the 50's that show that Batista (who had been described by the Cuban Communist Party in his early
years as a progressive socialist) was at the forefront of continuing the socialization of the Cuban economy from his democratic
predecessors. Fidel Castro's policies in health and education are a continuation of his predecessors. Before you lecture us
about wonderful Scandinavia. Lets recall that Sweden from the early 1900's until the 1970s was practicing eugenics, sterilizing
undesirables, and pursuing an "aryan" look in its population. A quieter subtler version of Hitler's project in Germany. I believe
that the reason the Czech model has worked is because of Klaus who has instituted radical freemarket reforms. The failure in
Russia is , as far as I can tell, due to a lack of backing up private property rights with an effective legal system, and they've
privatized at a much slower rate then the Czech's. I believe that each country has its own set of unique experiences which
require its own solutions, but I firmly believe that socialism, democratic or otherwise, leads to despotism. Sorry about the
politics I'll continue this dialogue via e-mail.

John Suarez

You might want to reconsider visiting Cuba. It's not safe. A 26 year old Dane was shot to death by Cuban troops
for wandering into a restricted area which was not clearly marked. Here's what his parents had to say: A FINAL NOTE
FROM THE FAMILY OF JOACHIM OGNER LOVSCHALL ~Terrorism occurs all over the world and is carried out by
terrorists. In Cuba, inhumane and inexcusable acts of lawlessness and injustice are carried out, not by terrorists, but by the
Cuban government. Jyllands-Posten - Article in original Danish
(http://www.jp.dk/cgi-bin/dbpublish.d...yheder/forside) or visit for the document translated in English at:
http://www.fiu.edu/~fcf/dangerousvacatio111197.html