CUBA: Wikileaks Cable Predicts "Insolvent" Economy Ahead; Ladies In White Scuffle During Protest.

GUARDIAN/
   Wikileaks has revealed a U.S. cable sent on 9 Feb. that speculated Cuba's economy `could become fatal'' within two to three years and it risked being ``insolvent'' as early as 2011.
    That was, of course, before Raúl Castro's announced reforms cutting 500,000 public employees. It also predicted the military's growth.
    `The cable reported that "Even China admitted to having problems getting paid on time and complained about Cuban requests to extend credit terms from one to four years. France and Canada responded with `welcome to the club."

   ON Thursday, about five dozen supporters of the Ladies in White marched. They were followed by a crowd that shouted out insults including "worms" and "traitors," declaring their support for the Revolution along with some minor pushing and shoving but no injuries.

READ MORE: http://miamiherald.typepad.com/cuban_colada/2010/12/top-news-in-other-news-the-cuban-government-was-in-risk-of-becoming-insolvent-as-early-as-2011-according-to-a-wikileak.html#ixzz17jGW5GDX

CUBA: Protesting "Ladies In White" Vow To Continue.

M.HERALD/ JUAN TAMAYO/   Though a dozen jailed dissidents have been freed and dozens more will soon be released, the Ladies in White refuse to disband. The group's leaders vow to continue marching in Havana on Sundays until all Cuban political prisoners are freed. ``Our voices, our marches, our legs, will not stop as long as there's a single peaceful political prisoner,'' said member Laura Pollán,

CUBA: The Story Of The Ladies In White.

MIAMI HERALD/By JUAN O. TAMAYO/
  "Today, the Ladies in White have become icons of the Cuban dissident movement, condemned by the Raúl Castro government and little known in their country but praised around the world, defended by Cuba's often timid Catholic church and even nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize."

"The women met each other in Villa Marista, tenebrous headquarters of Cuba's political police, while visiting some of the 74 husbands, sons and fathers arrested in a 2003 crackdown on dissent.
``We didn't know each other because most of us were not dissidents, just wives, mothers, daughters,'' recalled Berta Soler. ``But we started to chat, and to organize, and we became the Ladies in White.''

CUBA/U.S.: Singer Estefan Lobbies Obama For Dissidents Freedom.

REUTERS/    While hosting a Democratic cocktail fundraiser in her Miami home, Cuban-American singer Gloria Estefan asked President Barack Obama to work for the freedom of Cuba's jailed dissidents. The reception was closed to media, but Obama was seen viewing photographs of the Cuban dissidents, the "Ladies in White".

CUBA: Miami March Renews Exiles' Hopes.

MIAMI HERALD/    The thousands dressed in white marching along Calle 8 in Miami to show support for Cuba's Ladies in White is inspiring a Cuban exile community often ignored when denouncing human-rights abuses on the island.

CUBA: Obama Hardens Stand; Estefan Marches To Support Dissent.

MIAMI HERALD/    President Obama is criticizing Cuba's use of ``a clenched fist'' against ``those who dare to give voice to the desires of their fellow Cubans and hinted efforts to improve U.S. relations with the Raúl Castro-led government may be side-tracked after the death of dissident prisoner Orlando Zapata and the harassment by Cuban security forces of the week-long Havana marches by female relatives of jailed dissidents, the so-called Ladies in White. Meanwhile, today, singer Gloria Estefan is leading a march on Little Havana's Calle Ocho in support of the Ladies in White.

CUBA: No Incidents One Day After Protestors Dragged, Kicked, Carted-Off To Jail. World Reacts.

MIAMI HERALD/UPDATE 19 MARZO/   Protests continued without incident in Havana, one day after 30 of the Ladies In White protest group were punched and dragged-off to buses by security officials on their second day of marches. The women are conducting a week of street protests to mark the anniversary of the 2003 jailing of 75 dissidents.