National Geographic has this series called, "Locked Up Abroad" and this evening the show featured a US Citizen who got locked up in Cuba.
The story was that this woman met some guy who was bad news, held her daughter hostage while he sent her on a drug run that went from Panama to Costa Rica, and to Paris via Cuba. Leaving Cuba for Paris, she intimated that another drug-runner who had Cuban connections turned her in somehow. Customs (Aduana...) pulled her from the line as she departed, and found a stash of cocaine sewn into her bag.
She was given a 15 year sentence, but was released after 6 years. She recounted the dismal conditions in Cuban jails. I can only imagine. I mean, I have seen the condition of the hospitals for the majority of Cuban people, and it is deplorable, with insufficient water supplies for sewage, poor quality food, and not the most comfortable of situations...and that's the hospital! Imagine a prison!
Anyway - it was an interesting and chilling story. Cuba has a ZERO drug policy, although with the rich agricultural land, one would think that a little side crop might surface from time to time.
The irony of this zero tolerance policy is that it was used as a pretext for some particularly nasty occurrences that transpired in the late 1980's with Arnaldo Ochoa and the DeLaGuardia twins... According to Andres Oppenheimer in his book, "Castro's Final Hour" they were all implicated in a cocaine trafficking operation through Cuba of which Castro either explicitly approved or implicitly allowed to occur, until the popularity of Ochoa started to grow.
After his death, "8-A" graffiti began to appear ("OCHO" and "A" for Ochoa).
But I digress. I wonder if this cigar marked "Marlboro" is fake.
___________________ Santa Cabilla...patron saint of Quericæstan. VIVE COULTER (not Ann)! VIVE CPD! Some cause happiness wherever they go; others, whenever they go...(Oscar Wilde)
Posts: 10601 | Location: Avenida de las Nalgas, Quericæstan | Registered: May 02, 2002
By the way...Ochoa was publicly executed by a firing squad, and the story is that he refused a blindfold, and himself gave the orders to "fire". Among other things, Ochoa had many soviet ties, commanded Cuban troops in Angola, was as tight as could be with Fidel, and was very popular. Rumors are that it was Castro who wanted to cooperate with drug cartels in order to bolster tourism, and that Ochoa and delaGuardia took the fall. The trials ran on Cuban TV at the time.
Read the book...its conclusions did not materialize, but the perspective on post-revolutionary Cuba is excellent and quite revealing.
"CASTRO'S FINAL HOUR" Andres Oppenheimer.
___________________ Santa Cabilla...patron saint of Quericæstan. VIVE COULTER (not Ann)! VIVE CPD! Some cause happiness wherever they go; others, whenever they go...(Oscar Wilde)
Posts: 10601 | Location: Avenida de las Nalgas, Quericæstan | Registered: May 02, 2002
As I stare at these beautiful Ramone Allones Phoenicios, which were delivered this morning, I think, 'Cuban jails, drug smuggling, dismal conditions. At least she had access to good cigars, that's all that matters'.
Cor: Steve, you have proven yourself to be a tremendous whack job.
Steve did u get more?QUOTE]Originally posted by Steve Cohen: As I stare at these beautiful Ramone Allones Phoenicios, which were delivered this morning, I think, 'Cuban jails, drug smuggling, dismal conditions. At least she had access to good cigars, that's all that matters'.[/QUOTE]
Posts: 1950 | Location: Middle of California | Registered: November 07, 2007
Originally posted by justawalker55: Steve did u get more?QUOTE]Originally posted by Steve Cohen: As I stare at these beautiful Ramone Allones Phoenicios, which were delivered this morning, I think, 'Cuban jails, drug smuggling, dismal conditions. At least she had access to good cigars, that's all that matters'.
[/QUOTE]
Yes.
Cor: Steve, you have proven yourself to be a tremendous whack job.
Sure...at least she had access to good cigars. After all - nothing else really matters so long as you get to stay in Cuba 6 years eating rancid food, sleeping on concrete and drinking infested water.
___________________ Santa Cabilla...patron saint of Quericæstan. VIVE COULTER (not Ann)! VIVE CPD! Some cause happiness wherever they go; others, whenever they go...(Oscar Wilde)
Posts: 10601 | Location: Avenida de las Nalgas, Quericæstan | Registered: May 02, 2002
Just for the hell of it to get back to the original intent of the thread, I wouldn't want to be locked up anywhere. US prisons are no picnic either. Think I'll rent Midnight Express tonight.
Originally posted by Bass Man: Just for the hell of it to get back to the original intent of the thread, I wouldn't want to be locked up anywhere. US prisons are no picnic either. Think I'll rent Midnight Express tonight.
Yea, I would hate to be in jail in the US, for purchasing from the enemy or visiting the enemies island. Not that any of you ever did that. I'm just saying it would be rather unfortunate.
Cor: Steve, you have proven yourself to be a tremendous whack job.
Ok, so my post is about broads in prison. So hetch, RyJ and BassMon, I hope this makes up for all the @$$9 posts I have made in the past.
Prison sucks. Hard labor suck more. Why on earth would any American citizen who is a broad, step foot in NK is beyond me. They do not even have cigars there. Or food. Or water. Or anything. But day got da bomb.
June 8. 2009 Juche 98 American Journalists Sentenced to Reform through Labor
Pyongyang, June 8 (KCNA) -- The Central Court of the DPRK staged a trial of American journalists Laura Ling and Seung-eun Lee from June 4 to 8.
The trial confirmed the grave crime they committed against the Korean nation and their illegal border crossing as they had already been indicted and sentenced each of them to 12 years of reform through labor.
Cor: Steve, you have proven yourself to be a tremendous whack job.
I realize this stuff is tough to assimilate, but it looks like this was lost on a couple of you guys (so what's new?). Maybe the warm air of a new season will help thaw what's left of the gray matter between your ears. Anyway, the thread is about something that happened in Cuba, the irony in view of relevant and significant series of events that are of historical importance, and something beyond whether the cigar one is smoking is real or fake (and if you have to ask the question, you pretty much answer it yourself).
Taking this a step further, you apparently failed to appreciate the fact that Ochoa and the DeLaGuardia twins were high ranking Cuban officials who took the fall for drugs being run through Cuba, and they were actually executed after very public and very controversial trials in Cuban courts (Ochoa a highly popular decorated military officer, the DeLaGuardia's part of what would be the equivalent of the CIA in the US...). This happened in recent history and for those who have the wherewithal to care, was and is newsworthy.
Going even further, the topic also deals with a drug runner from the US and has as its pinnacle something to do with Cuba. Imagine that.
Please excuse the introduction of a bit of substance to the forum. The delusion of self-importance by a few posters who interject absolutely nothing salient, yet who are compelled to interject nonetheless, is astonishing.
___________________ Santa Cabilla...patron saint of Quericæstan. VIVE COULTER (not Ann)! VIVE CPD! Some cause happiness wherever they go; others, whenever they go...(Oscar Wilde)
Posts: 10601 | Location: Avenida de las Nalgas, Quericæstan | Registered: May 02, 2002
