During a recent business trip to San Diego, I arranged to catch the Japan vs. Cuba game at Petco Park during the World Baseball Classic. Excited, I bought a ticket in the 17th row directly behind...]]> Mon, 09 Mar 2009 00:00:00 -0500 One of the most oft-repeated anecdotes about the Castro regime in Cuba is that it has outlasted 10 U.S. presidential administrations. It’s within President Barack Obama’s power to ensure that it doesn’t become 11, but only if he resists the advice he’s getting from Democrats like Jose Serrano and Republicans like Richard Lugar. In fact, the quickest way to bring about the peaceful transition to a democratic Cuba — a goal that almost everyone claims to want — is to take the exact opposite approach to the suggestions he’s receiving. But I’m getting ahead of myself. First, some context.

The Castro brothers have been able to remain in power for five decades for two...]]> Mon, 09 Feb 2009 00:00:00 -0600 In the movie Che, Puerto Rican actor Benicio del Toro plays an Argentine thrill seeker-cum-murderer who helped turn Cuba into a Stalinist state. That Argentine was Ernesto Guevara de la Serna, better known as “Che.” The movie is actually two films that total just under four and a half hours. Yet despite those 263 minutes of celluloid, important aspects of Guevara’s personality and deeds are omitted. Things like, you know, the truth.

You may not even know who Che Guevara was, but you’ve probably seen his face on a t-shirt. He’s that ragged, bearded guy with a faraway look in his eyes and a beret on his head. More than likely you’ve seen that t-shirt on a college campus...]]> Wed, 21 Jan 2009 00:00:00 -0600 Leading up to Barack Obama’s inauguration, it seemed that every newspaper in the country was publishing an editorial advising him to “end the hostility” with Cuba, as if the United States had a problem with Cuba. Invariably, they attack the U.S. embargo on Cuba without acknowledging the realities of that island nation.

The truth is that the United States doesn’t have a problem with Cuba or its people. It has a problem with the illegitimate and murderous regime that took that country hostage almost exactly fifty years ago. It has a problem with Cuba’s so-called leaders.

Leaders who took sides with the enemy in a very dangerous but now lightly regarded cold war. Leaders...]]> Thu, 11 Dec 2008 00:00:00 -0600 Since Barack Obama’s election on November 4 there has been a flurry of columns written about how U.S. policy toward Cuba might change, should change, or must change. The latest such column trumpeting a new era in bilateral relations is attributed to Fidel Castro, the retired tyrant. It was published in Cuba’s official newspaper, Granma, and dutifully excerpted by media outlets around the world. The truth is that nobody knows if these pieces are actually authored or dictated by Fidel since we only get to see still pictures of a gaunt Castro posed in controlled environments these days.

In any case, Fidel (or his ghostwriter) suggests that “talks could happen anywhere [Obama]...]]> Wed, 26 Nov 2008 00:00:00 -0600 ‘Tis the season for bailouts, or so it seems. Executives from the financial and automotive sectors have their hands out. The same executives tell us that we have an obligation to provide our hard-earned tax dollars to prop up their businesses despite years of questionable decisions on their part.

To those of us who follow Cuba closely these arguments are nothing new. The executives of Castro, Inc. and their public relations arm in the U.S. have been asking for a similar bailout for years. They want to see the last vestiges of America’s trade embargo on Cuba removed. Like the CEOs of the big three U.S. automakers, Raul Castro, the Chairman of Castro, Inc. likes to fly around...]]> Mon, 17 Nov 2008 02:00:00 -0600 Thu, 30 Oct 2008 02:00:00 -0500 Fri, 05 Sep 2008 02:00:00 -0500 Wed, 27 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0500 “Cuba no longer poses a military threat to the United States.” So concluded a 1998 report produced by U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA). Problem is that the report was produced, in large part, by a DIA analyst that was actually a Cuban intelligence agent. Most Americans are blissfully ignorant of the name Ana Belen Montes. They shouldn’t be.

The case of Ms. Montes is one of the most important espionage stories of the last fifty years. Unfortunately, Ms. Montes’ arrest was overshadowed by other, bigger, events. You see, she was arrested on Sept. 20, 2001, just nine days after the 9/11 terrorist...]]> Sun, 03 Aug 2008 02:00:00 -0500