It seems Cuba doesn’t like fans in the stands with signs:
Jose Garcia, a Cuban exile living in San Juan, sitting five rows behind the plate, held up a sign reading Abajo Fidel (Down With Fidel) that was clearly visible on the TV feed that was carried internationally, including in Cuba.
That led to a confrontion with as many as four credentialed members of the Cuban delegation, one of whom was escorted from the stands by armed police officers, who later returned to protect Garcia from further harassment.
Some members of the Cuban team left their dugout to watch the incident before continuing with the game. But afterward, Cuba refused to participate in the mandatory postgame news conference and, according to a high-ranking San Juan police official, threatened to pull out of the event.
”What happened was a great provocation on the part of four or five counter revolutionaries using signs and offensive language that violated the established norms of the organizing committee,” said a statement released by the Cuban team. “The local police, instead of fixing the problem, showed their support for [the protesters].”
The statement went on to say the Cuban delegation would meet with Major League Baseball officials early today to determine ”a solution” before tonight’s scheduled game with Puerto Rico.
I believe the solution is for every fan going to the game tonight to carry an Abajo Fidel sign and chant it loudly every time a Cuban player comes to bat. Major kudos to the local police, who in fact did fix the problem.
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Gosh, I wonder what the “Pators for Peace” will have to say about this.
I can just hear El Jefe’s apologists now: “Why did those pesky protesters have to go and politicize such a beautiful event?”
Suppress all information! Ah, the beauty of totalitarianism. Er….did I say beauty?
“[F]our credentialed members of the Cuban delegation….”
Those thugs are probably listed as “assistant coaches” on the Cuban travel roster.
People were arrested at the state of the union for wearing t-shirts…if it’s unacceptable in that context (which is clearly more political than baseball), then why is this different?
Why, oh why, do the bitter-enders work so hard to concoct excuses for Fidel? It would be laughable if not so disgusting.
Its the same as our (p)resident having designated protest areas. To hell with Fidel and to hell with Bush!
The prohibition on T-shirts wearing slogans (which was enforced on both a Democrat and a Republican) is a rule of Congress. It’s not hard to imagine why a legislative body might want to have rules against aggressive sloganeering.
It’s not as though people have any difficulty speaking their minds in the District of Columbia.
However, what would have happened if it was someone at Yankee Stadium with a sign that said, “Bush is a Murderer”…. different results I fear. And I know for a fact that if you had a sign at Fenway that was deemed inappropriate, it would either be confiscated or some drunk idiot would threaten you and you could both be escorted out, regardless of whether punches were thrown or not. I don’t think it would be deemed appropriate in any ballpark in this country to have a sign which insulted a players country of origin. And for a country like Cuba, where a great deal of its citizens adore Fidel Castro and are quite proud of him regardless of what we think or what he’s actually done, to insult Fidel is to insult Cuba. Does anyone have the “I’d die to protect” right to make any damn sign they want and display it? – Of Course they do, but freedom of speech and freedom to be offensive on private property are conflicting ideals in this day and age. Ask every protester active in this country. Don’t like Cuba? root for the opposing team…
To hell with YOU Steve!
Leave the politics out of this. I’m a free expression believer, but I’m sure the only motive for this was provocation, it had nothing to do with conscience. You don’t take these kind of peaceful events to make political statements. Shame on Cuba though if they withdrawal from the event, it would be another clear confirmation that there is a dictator running the country.
Someone should advise Fidel’s secret-police thugs (and any other apologist for the Maximum Leader) else who doesn’t get it) that their jurisdiction doesn’t extend to persons living in San Juan, Puerto Rico.
Both houses of Congress have dress codes and rules. For instance, you can’t wear a hat inside, at least not when I visited, and both times were in the mid nineties.
Also, the President doesn’t have designated protest areas, the city of Washington DC does. This isn’t anything new. Surprisingly, that city, like most, doesn’t want protests to affect the ability of uninvolved citizens to go about their day. Thusly, they are required to obtain permits to protest in certain areas, and can do so to their hearts delight.
I hardly think a sign that proclaims “Abajo Fidel” offensive, especially when the person holding it would have been in a house of pain had he displayed it in his former stomping grounds. It is sad that a person who has to sneak out of a totalitarian regime to freely express himself is still attacked by that regime when stating his displeasure. Luckily, the police in Puerto Rico weren’t trained in the same academy as their counterparts in Cuba.
Did anyone really think there wouldn’t be some controversy with Cuba in this? I applaud the person who used their FREE SPEECH capabilities. He didn’t call Fidel a murderer. Cuba should leave if they demand special treatment. I really want them there, but at what cost? You think people adore Fidel? Well, knowing somebody who was recently there you can’t even mention his name on the street for fear of being arrested by secret police.
“The prohibition on T-shirts wearing slogans (which was enforced on both a Democrat and a Republican) is a rule of Congress. It’s not hard to imagine why a legislative body might want to have rules against aggressive sloganeering.”
Actually, they don’t. When pressed on the matter, the security people who pulled out the congressman’s wife apologized and stated that they acted too quickly and that there was no law, rule or anything that allowed them to legally yank the woman out.
While I personally agree with the “Abajo Fidel” sentiment, I find most salient Chas’ point that he doesn’t “think it would be deemed appropriate in any ballpark in this country to have a sign which insulted a players country of origin.” and that INappropriate signs/t-shirts/behavior are all cause for a security escort from the stadium. If a BoSox fan can’t wear a “Yankees Suck” t-shirt to Fenway, I don’t think it’s too much to ask a fan at the WBC to refrain from directly insulting the leader of Cuba.
You mean if a citizen of Puerto Rico were wearing a “US Out” or “Statehood Now” or whatever T-Shirt, or if someone were wearing a “Stop Bush’s War” shirt, he should be tossed out of the stadium? Wow, I love how this international event is showing us the supporters of free expression. So he was “insulting” another country’s dictator? Tough. It’s also especially galling that people are supporting thuggery conducted by Castro’s secret police on foreign soil.
There is a treasure trove of information relating to the whole
MLB involvement with Cuba & related baseball matters
that’s being missed with the discussion here. Certain
individuals would be delighted about that.
There are no citizens of Puerto Rico. People who live there are citizens of the USA.
One other angle on this that I think is important. The signholder was surely banking on his sign appearing on Cuban TVs. He knew that anti-Castro protests aren’t allowed in Cuba. This was one of the only ways of showing the Cuban people that they have support from the outside.
Not that I’m a fan of politicizing sporting events but I think that’s a good enough exception.
Oh, come on. Citizen, as in a person who lives and works and eats and sleeps and whatever the hell else there. But nice rhetorical dodge, anyway. Does it somehow diminish the point if I clarify by saying that Castro’s thugs are roughing up US citizens?
I’m not trying to diminish anything. I applaud the police there in Puerto Rico heartily. I’m just making a correction.
I apologize, Adam. Thanks.
Well none of this would have happened if MLB hadn’t invited a country with a ruling regime with so much blood on its hands. Now MLB is enforcing a “sportsmanship” rule and confiscating signs. Great now MLB is an accomplice to fidel in muzzling people. Get this into your thick skulls Cuba and its policies is not morally equivalent to our country and its policies. Every single day of the year there are people protesting outside our president’s house. They protest outside his ranch they protest everywhere he goes and nobody gets arrested. In Cuba you do that and you’ll be in the gulag before you can snap your fingers.
Irregardless of how one feels about Fidel Castro, this is not the place for this type of protest. Had this been an anti-Bush sign it would have not been appropriate either.
One simply cannot politicize this type of thing and hope for it to succeed.
It is good that the Cuban players have the opportunity to play, but this kind of thing could put their future participation in jeopardy and that would be a shame.
Mr. Spangler,
I guess your point of view is that the show must go on no matter the cost. It doesn’t matter that 11 million people live in virtual slavery in Cuba. It doesn’t matter that those players aren’t allowed to leave their hotel or to mingle with the fans or do what they please like all the other players can. It just doesn’t matter as long as this tournament goes off. You would have made a great sports fan during the 1936 olympics. What’s not appropriate is trying to make GWB and fidel castro moraal equals. That kind of statement reveals your ignorance. Let me ask you something would south africa been invited to this tournament if it were 20 years ago? DOUBT it. And if it had, people protesting the apartheid regime would not have been silenced. In fact the media would have had a field day with it. But since the MSM never saw a left wing dictatorship it didn’t like, we don’t get to see any reporting on the realities of Cuban life. This tournament WOULD have been a perfect platform for the media to reveal these realities to the American public but they just aren’t interested.