Thanks for this. Many people here have some romantic vision of Cuba that is influenced by well-designed Cuban operations to accomplish exactly what they're accomplishing: influencing gullible left-leaning Americans to support Cuba. I remember when I was at the University of Houston, there was a Cuban Friendship Committee that held Cuban 'cultural' events for students. Interestingly many of the students invited to those events were majors in areas of rather strategic interest: journalism students. Interesting even more so were the free and discounted trips to Cuba being covertly offered to select students. The leader of this group even assisted with obtaining Cuban travel permits from the Cuban government. Now just why would that "Friendship" committee be so friendly? I have first hand experience because I was both a journalism student, a Reuters contract photojournalist and the photo editor of the student newspaper; so I was invited to these Friendship events almost constantly. This was back in 1995-1997. There certainly wasn't any other 'student' organization offering free trips for 'cultural' exchange, except for Hillel, but that's another discussion altogether..

The point is that there is a powerful clandestine and covert effort by the Cuban government to manipulate American influencers to present the image of Cuba that is so frequently transmitted. It's exceptionally effective; just read some of the comments posted on this very thread. However the reality on the ground is much different than Michael Moore would have you believe.