Castro regime president smacked down by Uruguayan president at international summit in Mexico

Bad day for the Castro regime

 

President Luis Lacalle Pou smacks down the Castro regime

 President Luis Lacalle Pou, the chief executive of Uruguay on September 18th at the VI Summit of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) smacked down the Castro regime's Miguel Diaz-Canel. The Summit was held in Mexico and hosted by Mexico's president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, and Castro ally. 

 

 

Furthermore, CELAC was created by Hugo Chavez to counter the Organization of American States. In this hostile environment President Lacalle Pou defended democracy, human rights, and called out the bad actors in the hemisphere:

“When one sees that in certain countries there is no full democracy, when the separation of powers is not respected, when the repressive apparatus is used to silence protests, when opponents are imprisoned, when human rights are not respected, we in a calm but firm voice must say with concern that we look seriously at what is happening in Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela.”

Cuban president Miguel Diaz-Canel, appointed by Raul Castro, responded to the critique citing Uruguayans gathering signatures against a law being proposed in Uruguay, and claimed that

“The courage of the Cuban people was demonstrated for six decades. Listen to your people who collected more than 700,000 signatures against the LUC (Law of Urgent Consideration). Monroism and the OAS is what you have just defended.”

Castro regime officials are not accustomed to critical voices being able to respond to their attacks.  President Lacalle Pou's response was devastating because it underscored the reality of the existing dictatorship in Cuba, contrasting it with Uruguay's democracy.

“If there is something that is true in my country, luckily, it is that the opposition can gather signatures, in my country, luckily, the opposition has democratic resources to lodge complaints, that is the great difference with the Cuban regime.” 

The Uruguayan president then crushed it by quoting the song Patria y Vida.

 “I just want to quote, and they are not my words, it is a very beautiful song and those who sing it feel oppressed by the Government: ’No longer shall flow the blood / Of those who dare to think differently / Who told you Cuba is yours? / Indeed, Cuba is for all my people’.”  

Below is the video of the response.

 14ymedio, September 18, 2021

Uruguay’s President Denounces the Imprisonment of Opponents in Cuba

Uruguay’s president Lacalle Pou speaking at the VI Summit of the  Celac. (@PPT_CELAC)

14ymedio/EFE, Havana, 18 September 2021 — The president of Uruguay, Luis Lacalle Pou, and the Cuban leader, Miguel Díaz-Canel, staged an exchange of accusations this Saturday at the VI Summit of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (Celac), in Mexico. The discussion began when the Uruguayan showed his concern because on the island, and in Venezuela and Nicaragua “there is not a full democracy” and opponents are imprisoned.

Lacalle’s speech began by recognizing that two principles promoted by Celac are “self-determination and non-intervention” but he also described democracy as “the best system that individuals have to be free” and that, for that reason, “participating in this forum does not mean being complacent.”

After that introduction, his criticisms were even more direct: “When one sees that in certain countries there is no full democracy, when the separation of powers is not respected, when the repressive apparatus is used to silence protests, when opponents are imprisoned, when human rights are not respected, we in a calm but firm voice must say with concern that we look seriously at what is happening in Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela.”

Lacalle’s statements gave rise to a strong exchange of words between the two leaders, which was only partially broadcast on Cuban television, but which is already generating comments in support of the Uruguayan on social networks for his direct comments to the President and First Secretary of the Communist Party on the island.

Visibly annoyed, Díaz-Canel responded to Lacalle saying that with his words he was showing a lack of knowledge of the Cuban reality. “The courage of the Cuban people was demonstrated for six decades. Listen to your people who collected more than 700,000 signatures against the LUC (Law of Urgent Consideration). Monroism and the OAS is what you have just defended,” he said.

The Uruguayan asked for the floor again and addressed Díaz-Canel: “If there is something that is true in my country, luckily, it is that the opposition can gather signatures, in my country, luckily, the opposition has democratic resources to lodge complaints, that is the great difference with the Cuban regime,” he added.

Lacalle went further and added: “I just want to quote, and they are not my words, it is a very beautiful song and those who sing it feel oppressed by the Government: ’No longer shall flow the blood / Of those who dare to think differently / Who told you Cuba is yours? / Indeed, Cuba is for all my people’,” he added, quoting the song Patria y Vida.

Source: https://translatingcuba.com/uruguays-president-denounces-the-imprisonment-of-opponents-in-cuba/

Carlos Alberto Montaner's cautionary prediction for Mexico

"When life goes wrong, a wet sponge erases the whole picture."-  Cassandra, from Agamemnon by Aiskhylos

Carlos Alberto Montaner (Left) warns of the threat AMLO presents to Mexico

Tonight my concerns for the future of Mexico deepened when a thinker that I greatly admire, Carlos Alberto Montaner, retweeted my tweet and added a cautionary prediction on the July 1, 2018 Presidential election in Mexico. He warned that, "AMLO [Andrés Manuel López Obrador] leads the polls in Mexico. The people commit suicide. Venezuelans and Cubans can attest to that. The Czechoslovaks also committed suicide after the Second World War. They paid with 40 years of communist totalitarianism. Until 1989 they did not breathe freedom again."

AMLO encabeza las encuestas en México. Los pueblos se suicidan. Los venezolanos y los cubanos pueden dar fe de ello. Los checoslovacos también se suicidaron tras la II Guerra mundial. Pagaron con 40 años de totalitarismo comunista. Hasta 1989 no volvieron a respirar libertad. https://t.co/dtyfTxF8AY

— Carlos A. Montaner (@CarlosAMontaner) April 25, 2018

Montaner is well informed, wise and his opinion has considerable weight. Amazon provides the following biography on this scholar and defender of freedom which is excerpted below.

Born in Havana, Cuba, in 1943. Has lived in Madrid since 1970. Has been a university professor in various institutions in Latin America, the United States and Spain. He is a writer and journalist. Dozens of newspapers in Latin America, Spain and the United States have published his weekly column for the past 40 years at least. He has been described by the magazine ‘Poder’ (‘Power’) as one of the most widely read and most influential columnists in the Spanish-language world. The number of readers who have access to his articles every week is estimated at 6 million.

He has participated as an observer at several elections in Latin America and in numerous seminars devoted to the strengthening of democracy and the diffusion of the concepts of liberty.

Montaner received the Tolerance Prize awarded by the Comunidad de Madrid in 2007. In 2010 he was awarded the “Juan de Mariana for a life dedicated to the defense of freedom”. In 2009 the Universidad Francisco Marroquín in Guatemala was awarded the degree of Doctor Honoris Causa. Previously, the University of Applied Sciences in Peru (UPC) had appointed him a Visiting Professor. In 2007, during the democratic government of Enrique Bolaños, Nicaragua's government gave him the “Orden Rubén Darío”.

Montaner has published more than 25 books. Several of them have been translated into English, Portuguese, Russian and Italian. Among the better known and re-edited titles are Journey to the Heart of Cuba; How and Why Communism Disappeared; Liberty, the Key to Prosperity, and the novels Perromundo, A Dog's World, and 1898: The Plot. Some of his most controversial and most widely distributed essays are the best-sellers Guide to the Perfect Latin American Idiot and Manufacturers of Misery, both co-written with Plinio Apuleyo Mendoza and Álvaro Vargas Llosa. The Return of the Idiot, also by the three authors, has been published.

 Some claim that AMLO is no Hugo Chavez, but like the late Venezuelan despot, Lopez Obrador has distanced himself while following the same playbook and calling for a rewrite of the Mexican constitution. This is what Chavez did in 1998. Chavez even called Fidel Castro a dictator during the campaign, and pledged that he would turn over power prior to his five year term. Five years earlier the Venezuelan president turned dictator had been received in Cuba by Fidel Castro and celebrated as a hero. Let us hope and pray that history does not repeat itself in Mexico.