Tag Archives: Mariela Castro

Uncategorized

Wishful thinking by Washington and Gusanos

 

Air Algérie Flight AH5017, which reportedly crashed in Mali after changing its flight path to avoid heavy storms, was carrying Mariela Castro — niece of retired Cuban President Fidel Castro and daughter of Cuba’s current president, Raul Castro, news agencies reported Thursday

180px-Mariela_Castro_2010_HamburgUPDATE 2 PM Eastern Time: Mariela Castro has confirmed that she was not on board the downed plane. “I’m alive, happy and healthy,” she told Venezuelan television. “Maybe the media that published that news needed a bit of publicity, but here I am.”

The Air Algérie flight was on its way from Ouagadougou, the capital of the western African country of Burkina Faso, to Algiers, Algeria. According to Jean Bertin Ouedraogo, Burkina Faso’s transportation minister, the plane’s pilots radioed to report heavy rains about 21 minutes after taking off, and asked to alter the plane’s flight path.

About 29 minutes later, the Air Algérie plane disappeared from radar.

An Algerian official confirmed to the Reuters news agency that the plane did indeed crash, but offered no details or speculation as to the cause or location of the disaster, or whether there were any survivors among the 116 on board.

Mariela Castro, the 51-year-old daughter of Cuban President Raul Castro, was among the passengers now missing and feared killed in the crash, according to a Facebook post by the Ouagadougou Airport.

ABC Newsalso reported that Mariela Castro, a prominent activist for gay rights in Cuba and director of the Cuban National Center For Sex Education, was among those on board the ill-fated Air Algérie flight.

Wishful thinking by Washington and Gusanos

Air Algérie Flight AH5017, which reportedly crashed in Mali after changing its flight path to avoid heavy storms, was carrying Mariela Castro — niece of retired Cuban President Fidel Castro and daughter of Cuba’s current president, Raul Castro, news agencies reported Thursday.

 Wishful thinking by Washington and Gusanos

Cuba - Social

¡QUEER CUBA! Socialism cannot be HOMOPHOBIC!

queerCuba

Friday June 21st, 2013 @ 7pm-9pm
Casa de las Americas

182 E. 111th St. (Btwn. Lexington Ave. and 3rd Ave.) Take the 6 train to E. 110th St.

LGBT rights have always been a controversial issue in Cuba! The Cuban Revolution has taken steps to promote LGBT rights, freedom of gender identity/expression, and to combat homophobia, but there is still a lot to be done! Join The Popular Education Project to Free the Cuban 5 for this special Queer Pride event!

Join us as we explore this hot button issue! We will answer questions; ask new ones; debate these issues; and learn from each other!

Program: Screening the film Mariposas en el Andamio (Butterflies on the Scaffold):
After the Revolution, gays were not respected in Cuba, but in the small Havana neighborhood of La Güinera, a few courageous women came to power and encouraged the gay community. Glamorous gowns fashioned from grain sacks and eyelashes made out of carbon paper are the reality of drag in Cuba. In La Güinera, gay transvestite performers have earned respect and status through creative work for the neighbourhood. On stage action and backstage preparation opens out into insightful interviews with community leaders, families, and the performers themselves. the question; can you be gay and accepted in Cuba?

An interview of Mariela Castro; director of CENESEX (the national Cuban sexual health and sexuality organization) by Filmmaker/Journalist Jennifer Wager.

Mariela Castro

Mariela Castro fight for gay rights

7 Comments

Mariela Castro’s fight for gay rights

CNN|Added on June 5, 2012
Raul Castro’s daughter Mariela talks about her fight for gay rights and Cuba’s political future.

Mariela Castro

Mariela Castro hopes Cuban-U.S. relations can normalize in Obama second term

4 Comments

Mariela Castro hopes Cuban-U.S. relations can normalize in Obama second term
By BYRON TAU |
6/2/12 2:19 PM EDT

Mariela Castro, daughter of Cuban head of state Raul Castro, said that she hoped Cuban-U.S. relations could normalize if President Obama wins a second term.

In a forthcoming interview with CNN’s Christiane Amanpour shared with POLITCO, Castro was asked about the possibilities for political reconciliation between the two Cold War adversaries in a possible Obama second term.

“I believe that Obama is a fair man and Obama needs greater support to be able to take this decision. If Obama counted on the full support of the American people, then we can normalize the relationships; we can have better relations than what we had under President Carter,” Castro said.

Obama relaxed some of the rules governing travel and remittances to Cuba in 2009 but the sanctions regime put into place after Castro’s 1959 Communist takeover has largely kept American visitors and businesses off the island.

Castro also told Amanpour that she supports a second Obama term, given the field.

“As a citizen of the world, I would like him to win,” Castro said. “Seeing the candidates, I prefer Obama.”

The State Departmet recently issued Castro a visa to attend a conference in San Francisco — prompting outrage from conservatives who accused the Obama administration of going soft on a regime that abused human rights. Obama supporters, however, noted that the George W. Bush administration also granted Castro several visas to visit.

The issue of Cuban sanctions and the Castro family has some resonance in the heavily conservative anti-Castro Cuban exile community — mostly based in the battleground state of Florida.