Babalublog Wins High Cuban Blog Award
"Hats off to Babalublog which received one of the highest accolades in blogging when the Government of Fidel Castro banned Cubans from seeing his blog. It is unclear at this time if it was because of the politics, his criticism of Chavez or the Caja China ads, after all this high-tech gadget cannot be used in Cuba, it takes whole pig to use it, unavailable at this time to regular Cubans, except in the police corps." Read entire from Hog on Ice: Aging Murderer Frightened by Website
Venezuela Follies
Venezuela News And ViewsVenezuela News And Views "Last week saw the visit of Chavez to Cuba to open offices for the Venezuelan state oil company, PDVSA, in Havana. The gross indecency of this ill management, not to call it by much deserved stronger words, of Venezuelan public monies has shaken quite a few people, including this blogger. The contained rage that I experienced at this act of authoritarian hubris inhibited me from writing on the subject for a few days until I finally could discuss at some level the craziness of it all."
Fidel and Hugo
The following editorial may lead to Ms. Socorro's incarceration since the language can be considered inflammatory and against the Government. Imagine if Maureen Dowd or Bob Hebert lived in Venezuela.
El Nacional, Thursday 5, May 2005
Milagros Socorro (2)
The ballot shipwrecked on the shores of Cuba
The recent landing of Venezuelan billions in Cuba is an event of such enormity that it supersedes any previous scandal.
To underrate the great threat that is implied with the installation of a PDVSA office in a country not any foreign country which is the enclave of a long, cruel and awfully impoverishing dictatorship, is a mistake that the Venezuelan democrats cannot afford.
Teodoro Petkoff simplifies the business at dismissing the value of setting a "Caribbean" office in Cuba because we are not in the North Pole (3). It is true, the absurdity can only lead to incredulity and mistrust. And the editor focuses in the accusations on the "flock of traders" that would meddle with PDVSA business (against the current bylaw that establishes the state company to perform all of its operations directly with its final destination clients).
All of this, already being quite damaging, is not, in my humble opinion, the key to the situation. What we need to have clear in mind is that the investment -or should we call it "expenditure"?- that Venezuela is making in the island concentration camp of Fidel Castro does not follow from any analysis performed by Venezuelan experts.
