Welcome to America

It appears that Cuba isn’t the island paradise that certain American entertainers would have us believe.

Members of the Cuban dance company Havana Night Club, stand together after a rehearsal in Havana,July 13, 2004. Forty-four dancers, singers and musicians of the company performing in Las Vegas, will seek asylum in the United States in one of the largest mass defections by Cuban artists. According to the company's founder and creator Nicole Durr, who was expelled from Cuba in August, the company members were told they would have no future as performers when they returned to Cuba, which has led them to defect. Cuba's government reluctantly gave the company permits to travel to the U.S. in August to perform at Las Vegas' legendary Stardust Casino after the troupe defied its instructions not to apply for U.S. visas.

Perhaps Fidel Castro would settle for a trade. Any suggestions?

UPDATE: More from Val.

Comments

[Val Prieto]

There's a long list of possible trades. How much bandwidth you got?

[baldilocks]

Just an even trade: forty-four.

[Bucky Katt]

How about Michael Moore, Alec Baldwin, Babs Streisand, Robert Altman, and Cher for starters?

[Silicon Valley Jim]

Good start, Bucky! I'll add Maureen Dowd, Dan Rather, Helen Thomas, Jimmy Carter, and Al Franken.

[ricardo]

why jimmy carter? he did address cuban people telling them they could sign a petition that would bring about change..

[DarkStar]

Treat them the same as we treat Haitians.

Put them on a Coast Guard cutter or airplane and send their behinds back home!

[baldilocks]

DarkStar: You know what? I agree. Refugees from a communist state should have no more precidence than refugees from a failed state.

[baldilocks]

DarkStar: Help me out. What's the difference in policy between Cuban and Haitian refugees who reach American territory?

[Walter E. Wallis]

I will throw in the entire Palo Alto City Council and both California Senators.

[Kevin Murphy]

Not Jimmy Carter -- we're saving him for a trade with Kim Jong Il.

[DarkStar]

Help me out. What's the difference in policy between Cuban and Haitian refugees who reach American territory?

Haitians are automatically considered to be economic refugees, thus they get deported immediately. It doesn't matter if they face certain death on return.

Cubans are automatically considered to be political refugees. They get to stay.

It stinks.

[DarkStar]

Jimmy Carter was a failure as a president.

However, afterwards, he has done more to help mankind than any other former president. And he has done more than, I believe, most Americans, period.

[ricardo]

true baldilocks..but if they went back to cuba they would be as good as dead..the goverment there would deny them food , housing and possibly jail them..

[DarkStar]

Same happens to those who try from Haiti.

[Val Prieto]

Darkstar,

I beg to differ. Cubans who attempt to leave Cuba for the states and are returned are officially personae non grata. If they arent jailed, they will not be allowed to work. They will not be afforded housing. They will not have their meal ration card updated. Their families will suffer the same fate.

While I find the way Haitians are treated as opposed to Cubans troubling, it's a whole different ball of wax.

[denise]

"Just an even trade: forty-four."

Michael Moore counts as at least 3, doesn't he? In terms of mass and obnoxiousness.

[DarkStar]

I beg to differ.

Receiving a first hand account of what can happen to those who return, causes me to differ.