Hi (again --oops)

[Chavista]

Hi. I posted an introduction in the Chat thread, but guess I should have posted here. Any way, I am new here and found the forum by accident. I'm interested mostly in American (North, South, Central) politics. These days, I'm very interested in the political situation in Venezuela as you can probably tell by my user name. I also have a website called chavista.org about Hugo Chavez with sections in english and spanish. In the late 90's I worked on a government project in Havana so I'm always up for a talk about Cuba! :)

[ReD_ReBeL]

welcome Comrade have fun. lol so...whats Cuba like? what kind of leader is Fidel to the Cuban people? do the people sincerly admire Fidel? is there any street poverty as u could see ie.homeless people, people begging for money.

[Simotix]

I was wondering the same as above, and also - is there many American tourists in Cuba?

[Chavista]

In Old Havana you would sometime see "hustlers" eg young men or woman who would try to romance you for a night out / dinner or something (mostly older teens looking for fast money), but I did not see anything close to the homelessness/poverty you see somewhere like San Francisco. For example, everytime I go to San Fransisco people beg me for money and that never happened in Cuba.

Most people there like Fidel. Their view is that he is doing the best he can under bad circumstances. He is most popular with people old enough to remember how horrible things were before he came along, but a lot of younger people like him too. I probably only talked to a couple people who didn't like him. The big myth is that you can not speak your mind in Cuba -I did not find that at all. People are very outspoken and will tell you exactly what they think positive or negative.

I would like to hear from someone who has been there more recently to see how things have changed (for the better or worse). For example, when I was there you could use USD which is now again illegal.

Overall, it is a great country. I'd encourage any one to visit. It is also very safe. I've walked around the cities at night alone (I'm a woman) and never had any problem. Even in richer countries like Costa Rica, I did not do that.

[Simotix]

I am thinking about trying to have a trip down there this summer. I will be 18, however, would it be hard to get a visa or whatever needs to be done to go there? I have no looked into it much, just thought about it.

[Chavista]

I think it is pretty straight forward.

[carlito]

I'm gonna go, eventually...
but, money consticts me.
I havent really read whats going on with the country recently, Is the economy still bad, or are things improving in the country?

[Chavista]

I haven't been there since they got rid of USD again so I'm not sure.

[Imagine]

Cuba is a wonderful place to visit. i think everyone must go there once in there lifetime. i plan on living there someday. if anyone gets a chance to go, definetly rent a motorcycle or scooter and drive around the cities outside the resort.

[bolshevik butcher]

I'd love to visit latin america. Nice to see someone on rev left whos been there and done it.

[Magraheed]

Ahhh welcome!! I plan to go to latin america next summer, and as ewan said, it's great to have someone on rev left whos been there and done it!

Enjoy Comrade :P

[drain.you]

Welcome comrade, nice website also. Hope you have a nice time here :D