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Latin America
Castro as Hitler on Cuban front page sparks hunt for mystery satirist
2003-12-30
The Cuban authorities have launched an inquiry into how the official newspaper of the Communist party ran a front page photograph of Fidel Castro which appeared to have been doctored to make him look like Adolf Hitler.
An inquiry? Castro’s Western apologists and fans delight in comparing Bush to Hitler with constitutionally guaranteed impunity, while the brave soul who made the comparison about their hero is tracked down by the Cuban gestapo.
When the edition of Granma hit the streets this month party officials began to retrieve as many copies as they could, an operation which appears to have deterred foreign journalists based on the island from reporting the story.
"Granma" is the name of the decrepit yacht that Fidel and his gang used for their 1953 landing in Batista’s Cuba. This is the official beginning of the Revolution in Cuban hagiography and the boat itself has iconic status. Cuban Marines (such as they are) are known as "Embarcaderos de Granma" (roughly "those who land from the Granma"). The name itself is what it looks like, an English slang version of "grandmother"
The picture appeared above a story which reported President Fidel Castro’s meeting with North American fifth columnists, saboteurs, and useful idiots students. Close examination of the photograph shows that the image of the Cuban leader has been subtly altered to make him look like the Nazi leader. Underneath banners proclaiming Cuba’s opposition to war and terrorism, President Castro is seen in full military uniform, but the world’s most famous beard has been replaced by history’s most striking moustache, while his grey hair now has the faint hint of a black comb-over. Although details of what happened remain unclear, what is known is that someone or some group at the newspaper appears to have risked all in the name of political satire. Yesterday a spokesman for the newspaper confirmed that an investigation was under way, but that the photographer who took the picture was not responsible.
"I know nothing, nothing!"
Now the talk of Havana is not just of what the image was supposed to mean, but of what has happened to those under suspicion. Rumours have spread, not least because the local offices of the Communist party went to work as soon as the change was noticed, ensuring that fewer copies than normal made it on to the streets.
A familiar tactic in other commie strongholds, such as Berkeley, where student newspapers with anti-Left material are routinely vandalized and stolen.
Many people did not receive their daily delivery, while those sent to offices were subsequently recalled.
Just like the FBI does with Mother Jones here in the evil land of AshKKKroft and Bushitler?
Some say that those seated in the background of the photograph, which was published on December 4, have had their glasses darkened, to make them look like mafiosi, or that they have had white lines superimposed on their lips, suggesting that they dare not speak out against President Castro’s wishes.
The guy at the very back looks like Jesus.
Others argue that the whole thing is nothing more than a trick of the light. But the Cuban authorities are treating the matter far more seriously than that. There is no official word on what has happened to the suspected culprits,
(Hope they’re on the next raft to Florida.)
but rumours of arrests and a large-scale investigation have hit the Havana grapevine.
"Hernandez! Round up everybody with a copy of Photoshop!"
"Si, Compañero Capitan!"
Yesterday the newspaper tried to play down the significance of the investigation. A spokesman dismissed rumours about the number of those arrested as "lies", saying that there was a single suspect.
"We have only one cell waiting in the Green Gulag. What do you think we are, totalitarians?"
The government has as yet made no official statement, and no story has appeared in the foreign press, leading many Cubans to question the purpose of foreign journalists based on the island.
Same as their counterparts here: promoting socialism.
This latest dissent highlights what some see as a changing mood in Havana. In October dissident members of the Proyecto Varela, led by Oswaldo Payá, delivered a petition to parliament in Havana calling for a referendum on human and democratic rights. This was the second petition to be presented in the past two years and carried the signatures of more than 14,000 future inmates Cubans. The petition has been refused by the Cuban authorities. How many others privately agree with Mr Payá is impossible to gauge, but this most recent example of dissent against President Castro suggests a new mood. In April the president provoked international criticism in his most brutal crackdown on dissent since the early years of the revolution in the 1950s. More than 80 journalists, economists and librarians were arrested and hastily tried, with some of the leading voices of dissent among those sentenced to prison for up to 30 years. The brief trials saw former colleagues and aides used as witnesses, accusing them of "activities against the integrity and sovereignty of the state" and of having worked as infiltrators on behalf of the US.
Did the prosecution bring in outside experts? Fisk and Pilger would have done it cheap.
Young Cubans, particularly in Havana, have failed to immerse themselves in the revolutionary ideals to the same extent as those born before 1959 and President Castro’s triumph over the former rightwing dictator Fulgencio Batista. With the collapse in 1989 of the Soviet Union - Cuba’s main international source of financial and political support - the island has been forced to turn into a Euro-whorehouse to tourism. Although this has brought in much needed dollars, and helped to fund education and healthcare, it has also been the source of discontent. Vacationing Euro-swine Wealthy foreigners parade along the streets of the capital, carrying digital cameras, mobile phones and wearing the kind of expensive sportswear of which the average Habañero can only dream. It is no surprise then that young Cubans look on enviously, while turning their backs on the Communist ideology that preaches against western consumerism. But, with the regime as vigorous as ever in clamping down on opposition, they may yet have to wait for change.
While Western journalists and lefty professo-liars sip free daiquiris in their special hotels and Ted Turner, Jimmy Carter, and a veritable galaxy of Hollywood stars hobnob with Castro.
Posted by:Atomic Conspiracy

#13  Castro my ass. That's Cliff Claven from Cheers.
Posted by: RW2004   2003-12-30 10:50:49 PM  

#12  Don't event think about it SW. No jelly sandwiches for you.
Posted by: Shipman   2003-12-30 5:49:29 PM  

#11  Kathy, you're kidding: this is what the fuss is about? I'm a hell of a lot better with Photoshop than the guy who did this. Let me have the original and I'll turn Fidel into Barney Fife. No seams, no lines.
Posted by: Steve White   2003-12-30 4:33:32 PM  

#10  You have this all wrong! They are not stifiling dissent, they are CORRECTING a glaring error in a magazine. And to ensure that this error never happens again, we are sending those responsible to special camps.
Posted by: Cyber Sarge (VRWC CA Chapter)   2003-12-30 4:25:00 PM  

#9  You mean they're stifiling dissent!
I thought only Bush and Ashcroft did that.
Posted by: tu3031   2003-12-30 2:53:53 PM  

#8  The Miami Herald has a bigger copy of the picture.
Posted by: Kathy K   2003-12-30 1:07:37 PM  

#7  Hmmm...

I notice that Frank J. over at IMAO hasn't been posting for a while.



nah. Couldn't be...
Posted by: mojo   2003-12-30 12:50:37 PM  

#6  Here's a working link.

Just sent this to a partner who's a cubano, he's going to get a kick out of this story.

I bet the al-guardian caribbean desk is having a sh*tfit.
Posted by: 4thInfVet   2003-12-30 12:40:28 PM  

#5  Do not forget the late-night Twister games and the vats of Crisco.

Oh, yes, the Crisco. *sigh*
Posted by: Dar   2003-12-30 11:57:37 AM  

#4  Ah yes Lucky, there was laughter. A little tickle then a gigle. Laughing, yes! We'd laugh all night.
Posted by: Lucky   2003-12-30 11:18:53 AM  

#3  I've always wanted to be seduced by a beautiful Russian spy. I'd pretend to smitten and give her classified information when really I was working for MI-5 and just wanted the encryption machine in the embassy....oh wait, that was "From Russia With Love".
Posted by: Steve   2003-12-30 11:07:38 AM  

#2  Irina! She must have been saucy. A slinky number with silken hair. Eyes like twinkling stars in a milky heaven. Skin so soft and tan. Of course she was 21 but with the charm of a school girl. The laughter, tell us about the laughter.
Posted by: Lucky   2003-12-30 10:57:35 AM  

#1  AC great post!

I've been to Cuba (i'm not an American) and there is a real time-warp quality to the place. Its not just the antique American cars, its also the racial segregation which is quite striking. Once in a while a left wing American black comes back from Cuba and denounces the place, but otherwise its taboo on the left and you never hear about it in the mainstream media.

I met a Russian girl Irina when I was there and had a wild time. She may have been a plant but more likely I was just a westerner with money who didn't give a sh**. Those were the days!
Posted by: phil_b   2003-12-30 1:50:28 AM  

00:01