Yoani Sánchez, the Golden Girl of the Failed Extreme Right Wing in Miami

Cubaencuentro has recently published an article by Domingo Amuchástegui Álvarez, stating that Yoani Sanchez's credibility is in question after her ultra-reactionary speech before the Cuban exiles in Miami. Yoani, who was "apolitical", "no party preference" and "away from ideological commitments" has become their golden girl. We offer some of the fragments of the speech stating that the blogger traveller, from her opinions and the company that she has been surrounded with, has stopped her being the last hope for a "change" in Cuba. A crucial event took place in the course of her tour, starting with a visit to Brazil. Yoani lost her bid to keep a certain centrist political position. Her initial condemnation of the U.S. embargo and her demand to put an end to it, her demand regarding the necessity or desirability of the Miami Five being released, her position in favour of allowing normal tourism of U.S. citizens to Cuba, her argument for the return of the Guantanamo Naval Base to Cuba, all these together with her criticism of the Cuban government, its lack of democracy and freedom, and calling the current changes and reforms being carried out in Cuba as "cosmetic," and so on, changed overnight as soon she became aware of the wave of criticism, attacks and insults from several sources in Miami and Washington, DC. The next day she apologized for demanding the release of the Five, saying she had said it with irony, as a joke, and that the Five were guilty, as they were accused, and began to note that the embargo was the island's alibi --not intervention in the internal affairs of Cuba, as she previously expressed- to justify its failures and that it should be ended only after Cuba yields to certain pre-conditions imposed by the U.S., and she never returned to address grievances like American tourism and Guantanamo; the next day she focused entirely on these new "rectified" approaches and constantly emphasizing the conventional discourse of "regime change." These new "credentials" opened the way for her grandiose reception in the U.S.and Miami. After this, Yoanis lost her alleged "apolitical" centrism, "no party preference", "away from ideological commitments", while merging with the conventional discourse of the exiles and consequently with the older generations of exiles. In the absence of other alternatives, these seem to convert Yoani into their last hope. The Cuban lobby, recently characterized by Professor William Leogrande as a "right wing based on the hate of Castro" - turned Yoani into the golden girl and she accepted this deadly embrace with her long record of losses and failed policies from 1958, losing sight of a recent remark made by another exiled expert, Arnaldo Fernandez, in the Emilio Ichikawa blog, where he stated: "The starting premise to face Castro is: That he has not stopped winning." In this embrace, Yoani has overlooked the old saying of Don Miguel de Cervantes: "Tell me who your friends are and I will tell you the type of person you are." And in doing so, Yoani is no longer the last hope. She knows that, she is educated and astute enough to realize this, but that is her choice and with this comes her failure. As one Spanish writer and journalist recently said about Yoani's credibility: "How long will her credibility remain is still to be seen." In the past 25 years, Miami has experienced other icons and saviours from the island, and today they are nothing and not even remembered. / With information from Yoanislandia.com

"We were, we are and we will be the Cuban Five"

To my brother Rene, a free man That September 12th, with no adjective to describe its violence, I was the last who arrived in Miami, and therefore the last to be placed in an extremely cold cell, with an uncovered mattress, a blanket and a roll of toilet paper; all isolated. Silence was macabre in that 13th floor of the Miami Detention Center. Due to a purely animal instinct, one starts to walk around that extremely reduced space. Every now and then, I stopped in front of the narrow glass on the metal door, through which we were constantly watched by a guard taking rounds. In a cell across from mine, which was to a side, I looked at a man, who also stopped at times in front of the window. He had an austere bearded face, the naked chest and it made me wonder: who is this guy? Isn’t he cold? It was Rene, I had not met him yet. In those first days, of which there is still a lot to tell, they bring us down, both he and me, to the Court Hall. We were supposed to plead not guilty or guilty, which in our case was to plead worthy or unworthy, honest or dishonest, loyal or traitor. We were both certain of our innocence. But there was a guy I did not know either, who was going to plead guilty. Each one went separately in front of Judge, but Rene had read treason in the eyes of that despicable man, who was trying to convince him with his tale. Then, Rene said to me: “I have to talk to that guy.” I only asked him to calm down That’s how I met him. That’s how we became the five brothers we are. That’s why his freedom is our freedom; his pain and happiness are also ours. That’s why our unfair prison will continue to be his prison. That’s why we were, we are and we will be the Cuban Five, where a single man is formed, a Cuban as millions of compatriots, loyal to his people and his homeland. Tony Guerrero Rodríguez May 10, 2013 Marianna Federal Prison

The Bariay Park

The Holguin's Bariay park has enough attractions for the development of nature tourism programs, it has excellent beaches and a very rich and unique flora and fauna. It’s shows a vegetable formations of mangrove, complex of vegetation of rocky coast, complex of vegetation of sandy coast, heath coastal xenomorphic, forest ever green, forest semideciduo, secondary heaths and secondary forests. There, it is possible to admire two of the most attractive places in the geography of Holguin: La Silla de Gibara, mountain named this way for the Admiral Cristóbal Colón, due to its likeness with a saddle, and Colón’s Mosque, place that recreates a beautiful Andalusian legend. Today it constitutes a confirmed fact that the Bariay bay was the first point of our geography touched by La Niña, La Pinta and La Santamaría, the three ships commanded by Cristóbal Colón -reason for which Bariay Park has been transformed into National Monument- and the beauty of its environment gets rich with the rescue of the history and the bold efforts to return its original appearance to the place. There is a monument by local artist Caridad Ramos, which presents the ruins of a European neoclassical construction next to the copy of objects made by the native ones and found it in the near excavations, to show in a concrete way the encounter, everything amid an exuberant nature very characteristic of Cuba.

Holguin in Romerías

Over 200 delegates from 21 countries have bought tickets to attend the 20th Romerias de Mayo to take place in the city of Holguin from 2 to 8 next month. It is expected this figure will rise in the coming hours, so it promises to record worldwide participation. 200 young artists from all provinces of Cuba will be also participating in the event. So far, the World Meeting of Poets and Chile, Mexico, Venezuela and Spain have the largest delegations to this important cultural event. What are the Romerias? According to the Spanish custom of placing a cross in the highest places near populations in order to prevent epidemics or natural disasters, the Franciscan friar Antonio de Alegría placed, in the colonial era of the island, a cross in a hill that marks Holguin's geographic north (known as Loma de la Cruz). Long after this religious event turned into a festival that includes all artistic expressions, which starts with a pilgrimage to the cross placed by Friar Antonio de Alegría. During the Romerias the people started a procession from the San Isidoro Church to La Loma de La Cruz where they officiated a Mass and at the same place they started the festivities that lasted until the next day. After this, the Catholic holiday became known until becoming a popular festival. Today, and since 1994, The Romerias de Mayo have reemerged by the wish of young people from the Saiz Brothers Association, to link the new with the old, and realize its slogan "Because there is not today without yesterday."

Venezuelan TV Presenter Shows Recent Photos with Fidel

Political analyst and host of the show Cayendo y Corriendo (Falling and Running), broadcast by Venezolana de Television (VTV), Miguel Angel Perez Pirela, held on Sunday March 31, 2013, a personal meeting for over four hours, with the Commander in Chief Fidel Castro Ruz. The meeting allowed the journalist and the Cuban leader exchange on contemporary history and various current national issues. "Healthy, lucid, intelligent, analyzing countless numbers and measures, names and situations that leave anyone speechless," were the first words of Pirela, referring to the visit he made to Castro in Havana. He showed photographs and thanked the gesture of the Cuban leader, by sending the pictures and allow publishing. Pirela said he participated in a tour of observation by the Cuban countryside where agriculture experiments are made, and said that the results "will surprise more than one." "Those who are willing and predicting the death of our Comandante Castro and those who every day think on it, are these pictures," said the presenter of VTV about the images, which, he said, make happy the Venezuelan people that admire and respect him. "Without a doubt, Fidel is one of the most intelligent human beings who has given birth Latin America and humanity," said Perez Pirela, after the analysis made by Fidel on Venezuela, Latin America and the world, at a time when Venezuelans are still in pain and sadness for Chavez's death. / With information from Cubadebate

A rock that came from ... space?

An irregular egg shaped rock, reddish-blackish, with dozens of small surface pores of different dimensions and moderately heavy fell on Friday, March 31, breaking the roof of the house of Jose Rafael Silva Velazquez, in the neighbourhood El Güirito, in the coastal town of Gibara. At 2:45am, the members of the family looked up to the ceiling and saw the sky, and deduced that the extremely bizarre rock never seen before had fallen from the sky, fortunately, without major consequences. The unprecedented fact, called the attention of the Gibara's Research Group, who transferred the rock to the Center for Research and Environmental Services and Technology (CISAT) of the delegation of the Ministry of Science, Technology and Environment the city of Holguin, where several experts pointed it was likely a meteorite. Just in the morning of April 1, scientists began the research process to certify the rock cosmic origin, something taken from characteristics that point to a high concentration of iron ore and polished surface, among other details, as the fact that in the region of Gibara, karst quintessential, abound limestone materials, including Lapies or Dogtooth. The "space" stone is about 5.5 inches long, has a maximum width of 3.6, a thickness of 3.3 cm and weighed 114 grams. Fortunately, it was a small rock.

Holguín, a Region of Important Natural Sites

There are some 36 natural sites in Holguin identified by their geographical, historical and cultural values, with view to their patrimonial classification. Some of them have been declared National Monument as is the case of the Natural Bridge of Bitiri River, close to the historic place Biran, in the municipality of Cueto. The site and the surrounding area including two hillocks and caves, are among the protected areas of Holguin. Just to name some sites there re the so called Colgadizos or Voladizos de Marea, Mazanga cave and surrounding valley, the cavern Tanque Azul and Natural Park Caballero Rojo, in the municipality of Gibara. In this territory also lie the stream of sulphurous water La Morena and migratory bird corridor Güirito-Punta Mangle. Also attracting attention are the Mujeres and Rey cays, the ecological path La Sabina, Salto del Guayabo, Charrascal de Las Cuevas, the Alto de La Estrella and Jardín del Pinar, in the municipality of Mayari . Banes Bay, The Peninsula El Ramon, in Antilla, Los Rejondones de Báguano, The botanical garden in Urbano Noris El Nispero, Mayari River Delta, cerro de Miraflores in Moa, cerros cársicos de Maniabón and Cejita of La Palma in Rafael Freyre, are part of the Holguin natural treasure.