Cuban dissidents mark anniversary of 2003 crackdown UPDATED!

On Saturday, protesters around the world will rally to denounce the three year anniversary of the start of the Iraq war.

Expect the Bush-is-Hitler crowd, such as Code Pink, to be their irrational selves.

What would really be unexpected if any of that ilk will know that Saturday also marks the third anniversary of a 2003 Cuban crackdown on dissidents.

Yes, it's true. Not everyone in the "socialist paradise" in the Caribbean is enthralled with the leadership of Fidel Castro.

From AP:

Cuban dissidents and their supporters on Friday commemorated the crackdown that jailed 75 opponents of the government three years ago, asking the world not to forget them.

Saturday marks three years since the March 18, 2003, crackdown was launched, prompting governments and rights groups around the world to condemn Fidel Castro's communist government. Cuban officials said the roundup was needed to protect the nation from "mercenaries" paid from abroad to undermine the socialist system.

Sixty of the 75 people rounded up remain jailed. Fifteen were released on medical parole.

"This isn't just any anniversary," veteran Cuban rights activist Elizardo Sanchez said Friday. "This marks the third year after the most intense wave of repression against political prisoners in many years--not only in Cuba, but in this hemisphere."

Back to Code Pink:

You'll find this hard to believe, but they like Cuba. A group of them traveled there after Christmas last year.

From their web site:

December 27-January 3, Cuba, Spend New Years in Havana and assert your right to travel

Join a group of fun-loving and freedom-loving Americans to break George Bush's ban on travel to Cuba. Join co-founders Medea Benjamin and Jodie Evans, together with Academy Award winning producer Paul Haggis, as we visit with farmers at their co-ops, doctors at their family clinics, dancers at the National Folklore Group, and young people at the ballpark. Don't miss this historic chance to dance salsa, drink mojitos, and visit beautiful beaches--all while defending our constitutional right to travel! For more information and an application please email dana@codepinkalert.org or visit the Friendship delegation page at the CODEPINK website.

Of course, the Code Pinkos will call that AP story a Bush-lie churned out by the Halliburton PR office.

And did that group of "fun-loving and freedom-loving Americans" stay at one of those tourist hotels on the island where Cubans--unless they work there--are banned from the premises?

Just wondering.

UPDATE 7PM CST: Wall Street Cafe informs me that the Code Pinko Cuban fiesta was quashed by the US Treasury Department. It doesn't mean they like Cuba any less.

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