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dipsydoodle Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Apr-08-11 06:21 AM
Original message
Freed Cuba dissidents arrive in Spain
A plane carrying 37 recently freed Cuban political prisoners and their families has landed in Madrid, officials say.

They arrived on a flight chartered by the Spanish government as the final part of a deal brokered by the Catholic Church to free Cuban dissidents.

The deal, agreed in July 2010, saw Cuba agree to free 52 people held in jail after being rounded up in 2003.

Spain's El Pais newspaper says 115 ex-prisoners are now in exile in Spain.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-13009958

They are accompanied by some 650 family members ? Someone having a laugh ?
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Judi Lynn Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Apr-09-11 05:54 AM
Response to Original message
1. Absolutely! They'll be the guests of the Spanish government, living off the taxpayers,
getting lodging, food, etc., and still bitching about it to anyone who will listen to them.

I read something by one guy months ago complainng his accomodations really weren't at all what he would have expected. I posted it back then.

What a maroon.

They don't like the problem they confront, because going to Spain and free-loading off the government throws a wrench into the machinery, making it more difficult for them to then come here (after living in another country first) to mooch off the U.S. American taxpayers just like the Cuban immigrants who arrive in the US by plane, or simply show up on dry land and claim their rights under the Cuban Adjustment Act, which allows them instant legal status, (never to fear, as everyon ELSE does who arrives illegally, immigration agents, jail, and ejection) instant work visa, social security, taxpayer-financed housing, free food, free medical treatment, free financial assistance for education, etc., etc., etc.

So they can whoop it up in Spain, or bitch until they faint over their meager gifts from the Spanish government, but that will wreck any plans they could ever have of doing the same thing here.

There have been "political prisoners" who have been so cranky about not getting enough out of the Spanish government they have written back to others in Cuba and warned them not to come.

Wonder if that's why some of those clowns have claimed they want to stay in jail and not be released because they want to champion the cause of other "political prisoners" until they are realeased, too.

From some odd right-wing rag, a story on the Cuban dorks in Spain:
It's not easy to get to the Welcome, the hostel chosen by the Spanish government to house the Castro regime’s former political prisoners during their first days of freedom. Unlike many of the one-star hostels in Madrid, it is not downtown but in a remote neighborhood. It takes almost an hour by subway and fifteen minutes by bus to get to the secluded industrial zone, and by nightfall it becomes desolate and soulless. There are no shops or parks nearby.

It’s been over six months since the first of the 52 political prisoners rounded up during the crackdown of 2003 known as Primavera Negra (Black Spring) were freed by Fidel Castro and began arriving in Madrid. In that time, many of them have already started to question the government that gave them refuge. Some have even joined the ranks of the political opposition in Spain, and all have discovered that finding work in the country with the highest unemployment rate in the European Union is no easy matter.

~snip~
The anxiety is shared by Julio César Gálvez, also a journalist, 66, sentenced to 14 years and in Madrid for months now. “For me, who has spent seven years in prison and nearly a year in solitary confinement, this hostel is a luxury. But for my wife and my son, who had a house in Cuba, it’s not. We all sleep in one room and bathrooms are shared with other guests.”

Gálvez is wearing a short-sleeved shirt, “the same one I was wearing when I was arrested in 2003.” Neither he nor any of the others owned winter clothes when they arrived. For clothing and small everyday things, they depend on the generosity of acquaintances or Cuban exiles in Miami who send them money without ever meeting them. For the basics—housing, food, transportation passes, school tuition and supplies for their children—they depend on the generosity of the socialist government, led by José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero.
http://www.americasquarterly.org/node/2171

Waaaaaaaaaaa. :cry:

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dipsydoodle Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Apr-09-11 07:24 AM
Response to Reply #1
3. Funny you should mention them finding work in Spain.
At best they'll land up working in bars serving tourists. As such any anti Cuban government views they express over here will probably go down like a lead balloon.

Spain was royally fucked over by the financial crash late '87 and no recovery is in sight. Assuming they've got freedom of EU travel then I suppose they could always come here and join the East Europeans who've found gainful employment washing cars in supermarket car parks.

The expression "fuck 'em" comes to mind.

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Judi Lynn Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Apr-09-11 08:02 AM
Response to Reply #3
4. Washing cars? They should welcome the chance to get sunlight, fresh air, exercise,
after being cooped up, rolled up in burlap bags and beaten with baseball bats, eating rats and spider sandwiches, drinking from jars of urine, and all the other catastrophes they claim they endured because of their heroic love of freedom, that, and some good old US taxpayers' genuine loot for purchasing a few of the finer things of life.

It should seem fantastic to them to be able to greet the dawn, and start washing those cars, getting paid in the good old fashioned capatalistic tradition, then taking their free man's pay and buying a few slices of bread from the good old-fashioned convenient capatalistic grocery store, and maybe a small package of balogna, and living it up with their families.

They should realize once they're no longer in the slammer, they lose their value as "political prisoners" and their pipeline to more US taxpayesrs' own hard-earned money will probably run dry. They will discover the joy of trying to pay their rent, buy clothes, food, medical treatment with their car-washing salaries. "God bless them real good."
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joshcryer Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Apr-09-11 05:48 PM
Response to Reply #4
6. By all means, read the Notes from Capativty:
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joshcryer Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Apr-09-11 05:44 PM
Response to Reply #1
5. Yes, it is embarrassing how Cuba choses to exile political dissidents rather than...
...deal with the political change that they want.

It's selective, though. Get rid of all of the dissidents the rest of the people will be subservient.
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Judi Lynn Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Apr-09-11 06:06 AM
Response to Original message
2. Oh, jeez! I came back to rec. and got a "0". How slimy!
I wish I could "unrec" a right-winger or two.

Invisible rec, dipsydoodle. -> 0 <-

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joshcryer Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Apr-09-11 05:50 PM
Response to Original message
7. The Cuban government is happy, no doubt.
No more pesky dissidents walking around calling for democracy. Unfortunately for them it's just a matter of time before it comes.
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