Castro's niece speaks in Bay Area

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Associated Press

Castro's niece speaks in Bay Area
By LISA LEFF
Associated Press
Posted: 05/23/2012 09:25:32 PM PDT
May 24, 2012 4:46 AM GMTUpdated: 05/23/2012 09:25:32 PM PDT

SAN FRANCISCO — The daughter of Cuban President Raul Castro had some blunt words Wednesday for Cuban-Americans who support economic and travel restrictions between the U.S. and her country, saying "a Cuban Mafia" made up of immigrants "who have no scruples" are holding the American people hostage.

Speaking in Spanish through a translator, Mariela Castro made the comments about Cuban exiles who oppose her father's regime and that of her uncle, former president Fidel Castro, while speaking at San Francisco General Hospital about transgender health care in Cuba, a topic she would go on to frame as a continuation of her country's socialist ideals.

"A group of Cuban Mafia in the U.S., why are they taking away rights of American people to travel to Cuba? It's not fair," Castro, 49, told about 50 medical professionals and transgender advocates. "You are millions of people against a tiny Mafia of people who have no scruples. ... We are fighting for the rights of Cubans and the rights of Americans."

Castro, the director of Cuba's National Center for Sex Education, or CENESEX, was in San Francisco for a multiday visit devoted largely to meeting with gay and transgender rights activists and an academic conference where she is scheduled to chair a panel on sexual diversity. She was one of at least 60 Cuban scholars who were granted U.S. visas to attend Thursday's meeting of the Latin American Studies Association.



Read more: http://www.montereyherald.com/rss/ci_20696418?source=rss

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(This photo from Getty Images was used with this same article by CBS.)

[Fearless]

1. Nice thought, probably not what we needed though.

[bayareamike]

2. Yep.

While this 'endorsement' should rightfully be inconsequential and irrelevant, I'd bet money that this makes it into the next round of attack ads...

[joshcryer]

3. LOL, most Cuban-Americans do *NOT* support the restrictions.

And of course, no mention of Cuba's unprecedented "exit visa" process which few other countries in the world have...

[Judi Lynn]

4. In US, Castro's daughter focuses on gay rights

In US, Castro's daughter focuses on gay rights
By LISA LEFF | Associated Press • Published May 23, 2012

SAN FRANCISCO – The daughter of Cuban President Raul Castro brought her fight for gay rights to a U.S. forum Wednesday, stressing the need to secure social equality for all, regardless of sexual orientation.

Speaking in Spanish through a translator, Mariela Castro addressed about 50 medical professionals and transgender advocates at San Francisco General Hospital on Wednesday.

She has an international reputation as an outspoken gay rights advocate and lobbied her father's government to cover sex reassignment surgery under the national health plan, which it has since 2008, and to legalize same-sex marriages, which so far it has not.

"If we don't change our patriarchal and homophobic culture...we cannot advance as a new society, and that's what we want, the power of emancipation through socialism," she said . "We will establish relationships on the basis of social justice and social equality...It seems like a Utopia, but we can change it."

More:
http://www.theolympian.com/2012/05/23/2116204/mariela-castro-blasts-cuban-mafia.html#storylink=cpy

[ChangoLoa]

5. Didn't her father and uncle put gay people in camps during the 1960's and the 1970's?

This is as if the daughter of... no, let's avoid comparisons

[roody]

6. How wonderful that she became enlightened

and helped to enlighten her father and uncle.

[joshcryer]

7. Too little, too late.

She's adapting to the forces within Cuba (the gay community in Cuba has been resisting the regime's embracing of the Catholic church for over a decade now), it is a purely calculated move.

She set up the red light district in Havana for similar reasons.

Batista would be proud.

[Neue Regel]

8. Here's the thing though: I don't feel like a hostage

Maybe I'm misguided and I'm actually confined to a fluid-filled pod, hooked up to various cables and tubes, so I just don't know any better. However, when I wanted to leave the country last month all I had to do was drive down to the airport, show them my plane ticket and passport and off I went to Brussels. I probably could have traveled almost anywhere else in the world from there had I chosen to do so. How exactly am I a hostage?

[jpbollma]

9. geesh

I don't get all the hate. It seems like she's trying to do a social good. I try not to judge their government any more harshly than our own. I know they haven't started any wars. I know women and gays have a large number of rights there. I know races are very intermixed there. I know here in the US money buys you your office. I know all states get two senators no matter their population. I know we have guantanamo. I know Gore had more votes than Bush. I know we have used drugs and biological weapons on our own citizens. I know we have the Patriot Act. I know millions of children go hungry while we have sweet sixteen parties on MTV. I know we have killed 500,000 Iraqi's based on War Crimes. I could go on. You get my drift. Are they really any worse than us?

[roody]

10. If you go to Cuba without getting permission

from the US government, you are committing a civil offense. Not that I let that stop me. And I refuse to ask permission from my so called free country's government.

[jpbollma]

11. I have no illusion that they are some free utopia

I was trying to remind people not to cast stones. Did you like it there? Did you get to see any colleges or health institutions? How is speech treated there?

[roody]

12. Saw colleges and health institutions.

Saw live cataract surgery on a huge screen. I went to a presentation at CENESEX. Cubans recieve good sex education and reproductive health services. There is not freedom of the press in Cuba.