While Cuba played the Netherlands in the World Baseball Classic, a spectator in the stands raised a sign saying: “Down with Fidel,” sparking an international incident that escalated Friday with the velocity of a major league fastball.
The image of the man holding the sign behind home plate was beamed live Thursday night to millions of TV viewers _ including those in Cuba. The top Cuban official at the game at Hiram Bithorn Stadium in San Juan rushed to confront the man.
Puerto Rican police quickly intervened and took the Cuban official _ Angel Iglesias, vice president of Cuba’s National Institute of Sports _ to a nearby police station where they lectured him about free speech.
“We explained to him that here the constitutional right to free expression exists and that it is not a crime,” police Col. Adalberto Mercado was quoted as saying in El Nuevo Dia, a San Juan daily.
Maybe the Puerto Rican police can give our State Department some pointers.
And Hollywood, too.
I was watching a Cuba-Dom Rep game today and they confiscated a similar sign. The new rule is “no politics”. So much for all that courage and stuff. Cave, cave, cave.
I’m sorry to hear it. Sounds like the State Dept. was advising the police instead of the other way around. Or, more likely, the cops followed their intincts the first time and were subsequently told by their political superiors not to let it happen again.
BTW, veryretired, if it’s not too much trouble I would be grateful if you could email me at jonathan@[the name of this blog].net. Thanks.
Hollywood? —Hah! Populated with a remarkable number of empty-headed hacks. Being that it’s a ridiculous den of iniquity and lacks legitimate, creative juice, not to mention, of course, a dearth of mental giants, it could very well be referred to as, “Deadwood.” A pity, to say the least.