jawa.mee.nu

June 12, 2006

Castro Blacks Out U.S. Mission in Havana

Although the Cuban government has harassed the U.S. diplomatic mission in Havana for years, the latest move is a troubling escalation.

From Miami.com:

The Cuban government has cut off electricity to the U.S. diplomatic mission in Havana as part of a sharp increase in harassments that include holding up visas for American diplomats waiting to take up posts there and restricting gasoline supplies, the State Department said Monday.
The electricity to the U.S. Interests Section in Havana -- not quite an embassy because Cuba and the United States do not have formal diplomatic relations -- was cut off at 3 a.m. on June 5, said Ashley Morris, a State Department spokeswoman
Although electricity in Cuba is notoriously unreliable, Morris said no other buildings around the Interests Section on Havana's seaside Malecon boulevard have been affected, so U.S. officials believe the cutoff is deliberate.
Asked if the Cuban government had given any reason for the cutoff, Morris said, "you'll have to ask the Cubans. We'd like to know as well."

The mission has backup generators but lack gasoline. Restrictions have been imposed on the importation of equipment and supplies. I'd guess that all the harassment amounts to a not-very-subtle campaign to elbow the Americans out of Cuba. Understandably, mission staff are destroying documents that are not essential.

One expert believes the lights were cut off in retaliation for the "electronic billboard that the U.S. mission hung on the side of its building earlier this year to show anti-Castro messages." Yeah, that might have tweaked old commie Castro to cut the lights. Fortunately, the water hasn't been cut off yet.

From Interested-Participant.

Posted by: Mike Pechar at 02:41 PM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
Post contains 275 words, total size 2 kb.

1 Well let's be honest - the billboard IS nothing less than a direct provocation.
Castro may be a $^*@ (pretty sure he is!) but I really can't blame him for this one.
Were the situation reversed, I'd either jail or expel any "diplomats" who were tro display a sign which urged revolt.

Posted by: G'Knark at June 12, 2006 05:14 PM (/UAJE)

2 Castro has been able to place the blame for all of his economic shortcomings on the USA embargo. We serve as an easy scapegoat because of the embargo. The only ones that seem to have any vested interest in maintaing this embargo are Castro..... and the anti-Castro Cubans. The only ones it hurts are the ordinary Cubans who can now no longer even receive remitances from their relatives in the USA because of our embargo.

Posted by: john ryan at June 12, 2006 05:32 PM (TcoRJ)

3 Oh, hell, Castro is just mad that we torched the Z-man. He knows that his time is running short, also. I have a bottle of champagne in the frig just waiting for the day Castro kicks the bucket. Now that will be another great day.

Posted by: jesusland joe at June 12, 2006 07:44 PM (rUyw4)

4 This is the same tyrant whom the liberals have a big thing for i mean JIMMY CARTER and the usial crowd of jerks from hollywood think he is the worlds greatest person then he gose to the whole crappy UN and gets a standing ovation from those ratfinks why should have anything at all to do with ether castro or the UN

Posted by: sandpiper at June 12, 2006 09:14 PM (FpZEl)

Hide Comments | Add Comment

Comments are disabled. Post is locked.

31kb generated in CPU 0.0107, elapsed 0.08 seconds.
34 queries taking 0.0745 seconds, 159 records returned.
Powered by Minx 1.1.6c-pink.

Search Thingy

June 12, 2006

Recent Comments