THE PEOPLE (AT THAT TIME): (And I quote) ""The population of Cuba is different from that of most of the other Central American and Caribbean republics. Like in Costa Rica, its nucleus is white and of pure Spanish descent. According to estimates made during the last official census in Cuba in 1953 the white population represented 73.46 % of the total. This figure also included the descendants of other European immigrants, e.g., Poles, Italians, French, Germans. ""

""It must be stressed that Cuba, like the remainder of the Latin American countries, was not only a Spanish colony, but but was actually and densely settled by Spaniards. As these early Spanish settlers were followed by more Spaniards and European immigrants the island came to be inhabited predominantly by whites of direct European descend.""

""The second group of the population, in order of size, are the descendants of the African slaves who were brought to Cuba to woerk on the sugar plantations. The negro represents 11.83 % of the total. (Ed. note: These figures are practically reversed now with the escape from the Island of the whites and the enormous immigration of Africans, Angolans, S.Africans, etc.). The mestizos(half breed) produced by the mingling of the white and black account for 13.39 % of the population. This racial mixture of Spaniards and Africans is both a cause and an effedct of the abscence of racial prejudice -- a cause because the Spaniards mingle their blood freely with that of the Negroes and a effect because the Mestizos and Mulatos were, and still are, a living link between the two races (Antonio Nuñez Jiménez, Geography of Cuba, Havana).

Originally posted by Muaddib
It's a manufactured crisis?.... sure.... i guess nothing is happening in Venezuela, like nothing happened in the Ukraine Bout Time...right?...

Specifics, what is the comparison you're trying to draw?

How is it a democracy when Chavez is doing everything possible not to have a democracy in place? How is it a democracy when he is trying to get total control of the country. This is not an allegation, as some in here make of president Bush, there is proof of what he is doing and what he has said, that power is what he is after, total power.

There's more proof against Bush engendering those very same issues, than against Chavez.

How exactly is it a democracy when Chavez, and his supporters, are doing their best to stop any non-violent protests?

Again, see above. I happened to live in NY. We happened to host the RNC. The efforts to stop non-violent protest have never reached such a nadir.

You cannot be serious to compare what is happening in Venezuela and what is happening in the US.... How many protesters were present during the inaguration of president Bush?.... not many...

1. Written a new constitution. Fifty percent of it was written directly by the population. It was put to a referendum and it won the support of 70% of voters. This constitution extended the democratic, social and human rights of the population far beyond the boundaries of a simple parliamentary democracy. The constitution calls for participatory democratic bodies of people to organise and implement new initiatives, such as the ones mentioned here.
   
2. Eradicated illiteracy according to United Nations standards.
   
3. Lowered the infant mortality rate.
   
4. Created 3000 new Bolivarian schools.
   
5. Brought in more than 1.5 million people into the education system free of charge.
   
6. Established a free university system aimed at the poor majority traditionally excluded from tertiary education (the poor receive free textbooks, free transport to university, free meals at university). Students and staff also work together democratically to create the curriculum.
   
7. Built more houses for the poor in two years than in the previous 20 years under the old governments.
   
8. Created access to fresh, clean and safe water for millions of people for the first time in their lives.
   
9. Re-distributed millions of hectares of unused, idle yet arable (agriculturally usable) land to landless poor people.
   
10. Renamed Columbus Day (Christopher Columbus the ‘explorer’) Invasion Day and are rebuilding the nations’ knowledge of real indigenous history and indigenous resistance.
    
11. Opened popular food markets which buy food from food cooperatives, it then gets sold in the popular food markets at 30% below the price of food in the big supermarket chain stores.
    
12. Opened 1000 free kitchens have been opened to provide free meals for people without homes.
    
13. Constructed a massive free healthcare system which now provides free healthcare for the first time in history to poor workers and unemployed people.
    
14. Struggled for and won back control of the gigantic oil industry (off corrupt executives and top management) which is now managed jointly by the government and the oil workers.
    
15. Increased taxes on corporations, and forced them to actually pay their taxes (McDonalds and Coca Cola were shutdown for three days as punishment for avoiding payment of their full tax bill).
    
16. Increased the minimum wage by 30% in 2004 (this was not the first increase since 1998). Government revenue from corporate taxes and oil sales have been used for many social programs and minimum wage increases.
    
17. Banned employers sacking workers (which was declared by the government in early 2003). This has been extended and continues, allowing the rapid growth of a strongly rank-and-file-active democratic trade union movement that is washing away the pro-boss unions.
    
18. Recognition of domestic work, extending permanent social security payments to people who do domestic labour (mainly women), none of this payment is taken away if their companion is in work.