IN THE NEWS:

Cuban dissident dies in hunger strike

Chavez and Uribe go at it at the Rio Group Summit

This is what Venezuelans have to look forward to with Chavez copying the Cuban model.

Orlando Zapata Tamayo, a 42 year old dissident died Tuesday in the health clinic of the Combinado del Este Prison. He had been on a hunger strike and in prison since 2003. He was first sent there for “disrespecting authority” when he was sentenced to three years in prison to be lengthened later to 25 years because authorities wanted to further repress him for his political activism.

This in my opinion is just but one of many examples of the repression against persons advocating the respect of basic human rights. It is only one more way the Cuban government shows contempt for anyone who dares to voice an opposing view.

A former Cuban Ministry of Interior Chief arrived in Venezuela recently to help them with their energy crisis (?) that is difficult to comprehend because Venezuela is one of the major oil producing nations of the world. What this fellow is there to do is to help the Chavez regime to institute repression as it is done in Cuba; nothing else.

In the meantime, at the Rio Group Summit, when Colombian President Alvaro Uribe said that Venezuela had halted the commercial relations with Colombia and it was similar to the U.S. embargo against Cuba; Chavez stood up and started throwing insults at Colombia’s President.

“Why don’t you go to hell?” Chavez screamed as he was leaving the conference room. Uribe, who maintained his composure and very calmly replied to Chavez: “”Be a man and stay to discuss this face to face.”

Chavez’ behavior is appalling and if it had not been for the intervention of some of the people present in the room it would have been a more serious incident. Chavez can’t take the slightest criticism nor is he willing to have somebody else exposes a point of view.

CUBA BLACKLISTS PRESIDENT OBAMA (and you say he is a socialist?)

Raul Castro

Barack Obama

The government of Raúl Castro has blacklisted U.S. President Barack Obama. It’s no tasteless joke. Havana considers that after a year in the White House the first African-American president of the United States has demonstrated to be an “enemy” of the revolution just as his predecessors and that rapprochement with Washington has ended. Yesterday, the Cuban government demanded of the Obama administration its “immediate exclusion” of the list of state sponsors of terrorism and condemned the initiative as “unjust and arbitrary” of submitting Cuban travelers to stricter security measures. (via El País)

(Images: Terra; Politico)

PHOTO SOURCE: http://www.islamtimes.org/images/docs/000009/n00009375-s.jpg

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