Castro falls for radio prank phone call

[Nie Trink Wasser]

http://www.washingtontimes.com/world/20030619-010057-7801r.htm

Cuba's Fidel Castro sprayed South Florida with a barrage of unprintable expletives yesterday after discovering that he was having a live radio conversation with two disc jockeys from that area who had called pretending to be Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez's aides.
While on the air, Enrique Santos and Joe Ferrero of the WXDJ-FM Spanish-language station in Coral Gables persuaded Mr. Castro to help track down a lost briefcase that contained sensitive documents.
The two, who have gained international notoriety by using ruses to ring up Latin American presidents and South Florida dignitaries, used pre-recorded phrases that can be replayed at the touch of a button to engage Mr. Castro in a four-minute conversation.
At one point, they asked Mr. Castro whether he would direct Cuban state security to help locate the missing briefcase.
Mr. Castro promised assistance, saying he'd been informed and was "satisfied."
Mr. Santos revealed the ruse by replying:
"Are you satisfied with [what] you have done on the island, assassin?"
"You fell for it just like Hugo Chavez," Mr. Santos told Mr. Castro, referring to a show in which the disc jockeys had called Mr. Chavez, pretending to be Mr. Castro.
"Fell for what? I haven't said [expletive]. Go to [expletive]," Mr. Castro said.
Infuriated that he had been tricked, Mr. Castro went off on a tirade.


The Cuban leader hurled profanities at Mr. Santos and his mother and questioned her marital status at the time of Mr. Santos' birth. Mr. Castro also questioned the disc jockey's sexual orientation.
The telephone call ended with whoops of joy in the WXDJ newsroom.
The disc jockeys had found the telephone number to Mr. Castro's government office on the Internet, Mr. Santos said.

 

[Malachi151]

Yeah I think that pretty much every leader that has been pranked like that has a similar reastion. Bush Sr. has blown up several times and for less.

 

[Cleopatra]

Malachi, I enjoy the fact that you feel obliged to defend Castro by comparing him to an elected president...

Maybe Castro's Armani suit was too tight for him that day and put hin into that " trouble".

 

[Tony]

Malachi, I enjoy the fact that you feel obliged to defend Castro by comparing him to an elected president...

Maybe Castro's Armani suit was too tight for him that day and put hin into that " trouble".

But Cleopatra, Castro was elected.

 

[Cleopatra]

But Cleopatra, Castro was elected.

Oh yes of course!! This slipped my attention

P.S. Edited to add: Guys, are you prepared for an endless analysis about Castros regime ohhh sorry Democracy, from Malachi ?

 

[Malachi151]

Oh yes of course!! This slipped my attention

P.S. Edited to add: Guys, are you prepared for an endless analysis about Castros regime ohhh sorry Democracy, from Malachi ?

Lot's of great leaders were not elected. Lot's of elected leaders have sucked. I'm not saying Castro is a great leader, simply that all leaders are human.

 

[headscratcher4]

Lot's of great leaders were not elected. Lot's of elected leaders have sucked. I'm not saying Castro is a great leader, simply that all leaders are human.

Indeed...George Bush, for example, didn't win the majority and it took a court ruling for him to "win" the election (not to start the argument again, Bush is President, so he won by the rules of the election, just not with a majority of vote).

However, the more telling point about Senor Castro is that had this been done as a joke (internally...and it couldn't be because the party controls the media), the jokesters would be facing 25 years in jail. Such are the joys of Castro style socialism...I am sure Marx would be proud of his children....

 

[Cleopatra]

Lot's of great leaders were not elected. Lot's of elected leaders have sucked. I'm not saying Castro is a great leader, simply that all leaders are human.

Do you question elections? I thought that you would complain for my bringing up the issue with the Armani suit

Bring me an example of a great leader who wasn't elected, please

 

[Nie Trink Wasser]

*vomits*

 

[Malachi151]

Do you question elections? I thought that you would complain for my bringing up the issue with the Armani suit

Bring me an example of a great leader who wasn't elected, please

Ho Chi Minh King Ghazi of Iraq.

I agree that elections are good, but not being elected in and of itself does make a leader bad. I'm obviusly pro-democracy. Picking on Fidel, while not picking on others like Bush who act the same way is kinda silly though.

BTW, have you ever watched the movie Fidel? Go rent it. Its not pro-Fidel, its pretty unbaised.

 

[aerocontrols]

Bring me an example of a great leader who wasn't elected, please

Alexander. It's right there in his name

 

[Cleopatra]

Aerocontrols

I didn't know that Cuba is a kingdom!

Malachi,ok I will rent Fidel.

 

[headscratcher4]

Ho Chi Minh

And yet, he left a legacy of one party rule, stultifying buearacracy, human rights abuses, etc. and now, thirty years after their victory over the US and achieved thier unification, the country remains one of the poorest in the world...yes, Ho was a wise visionary.

 

[Malachi151]

And yet, he left a legacy of one party rule, stultifying buearacracy, human rights abuses, etc. and now, thirty years after their victory over the US and achieved thier unification, the country remains one of the poorest in the world...yes, Ho was a wise visionary.

Well all the stuff that has happened in Vietnam can't be blamed on Minh, I mean China had a lot to do with it. Also, when a leader or country is opposed like that it undermines their position.

I'm sure I could come up with a few more recent examples if I put my mind to it, that was just off the top fo my head. I'm thinking there was a guy in Mexico too that was good, in the 1800s.

But still I agree that elections are much better. I'm all for Cuba having elections.

 

[no one in particular]

Bring me an example of a great leader who wasn't elected, please

Amir Hamad of Qatar, although he was later elected, took power from his non-elected father in 95. He had been a pretty stand-up guy without being elected for several years. Especially compared to his neighbors.

 

[Malachi151]

Do you question elections? I thought that you would complain for my bringing up the issue with the Armani suit

Bring me an example of a great leader who wasn't elected, please

George W. Bush.. oh wait, he's not great har, har, har...

okay, that joke is way too late, but still

 

[PygmyPlaidGiraffe]

sounds too good to be true

I doubt that Chavez and Castro on seperate occassions fell for these two seperate hoaxes.

http://www.snopes.com/info/news/odd0306.asp

How reliable are the sources?

 

[Cleopatra]

George W. Bush.. oh wait, he's not great har, har, har...

okay, that joke is way too late, but still

Yeah I liked very much the other "joke" you posted as a reply to Jedi Knight in the thread about the 6 years old arrested capitalist

Anyway. I think that it's easy to be a good leader -on the long run-if you are not elected. I mean, you do what you have to do without any opposition, Press, nothing. But still History has proved that such leaders do not exist. All of you , talked about "relatively" good leaders that they were not elected.

 

[Frank Newgent]

I'm thinking there was a guy in Mexico too that was good, in the 1800s.

http://www.mexconnect.com/mex_/history/jtuck/jtbenitojuarez.html

Juárez was born on March 21, 1806, in the Oaxaca village of San Pablo Gueletao. His parents, members of the Zapotec tribe prevalent in Oaxaca, were small farmers. When he came to Oaxaca City at the age of thirteen, he could neither read, write nor speak Spanish. His destination was the house of the Maza family, where his sister worked as a servant. Sr. Maza, head of the household, not only took in the boy but showed an interest in his development. A friend of Maza was Antonio Salanueva, a devout Catholic and lay member of the Franciscan order. Salanueva taught the boy reading, writing, arithmetic, Spanish grammar and bookbinding. Both older men were so impressed with Benito's aptitude that they sent him to the Franciscan seminary in Oaxaca with the idea of turning him into a priest. Though young Juárez immersed himself in the study of Aquinas and other great Catholic philosophers, he decided in the end that his career lay in law rather than religion. Graduating from the seminary in 1827, he entered the Institute of Science and Art, emerging with a law degree in 1834. During this period he was reading works by the rationalist philosophers of the Enlightenment. In the end, he became completely imbued with their secular doctrines and abandoned the Catholic faith of his early days.

All this time Juárez was interested in politics. Between 1831-33, even before receiving his law degree, he served as a city councilman in Oaxaca and was a strong defender of Indian rights. In 1841 he became a civil judge and two years later married Margarita Maza, the daughter of his patron. After a stint as a federal deputy, he served as governor of Oaxaca between 1847-52. Though he took no part in the war with the United States, he did support a controversial measure in the legislature calling for the confiscation of church lands. Finishing his term as governor, he became director of his alma mater, the Institute of Science and Art.

The dictator Antonio López de Santa Anna returned to power in 1853 and Juárez was one of a group of liberals expelled from the country. Arriving in New Orleans in October 1853, he joined forces with such kindred spirits as Melchor Ocampo and José Guadalupe Montenegro to organize a Revolutionary Junta aimed at the overthrow of Santa Anna. During this period of exile, Juárez supported himself by working in a cigarette factory.

In March 1854 the liberal General Juan Alvarez and other activists proclaimed the Plan de Ayutla, a manifesto calling for the overthrow of Santa Anna. Returning from New Orleans, Juárez joined the widespread liberation movement that drove Santa Anna into exile in the fall of 1854. Alvarez's troops marched into Mexico City November 14 and the general took over as president, with Juárez serving as his minister of justice. In that post, he produced the "Juárez Law," one abolishing clerical immunity by limiting jurisdiction of ecclesiastical courts to ecclesiastical cases.

In December 1855 Alvarez stepped down in favor of Ignacio Comonfort, a moderate who had been a collector of customs in Acapulco. 1856 saw Juárez serving again as governor of Oaxaca. There he re-established the Institute of Science and Art, suppressed under Santa Anna. On February 5, 1857, a new constitution was adopted which further restricted the privileges of the Church. In November of that year Juárez was named minister of the interior and the following month he was elevated to chief justice of the Supreme Court.

The new constitution greatly displeased the conservatives and clericals. In December 1857 a right-wing general named Félix Zuloaga led a coup in which Congress was dissolved and Juárez arrested. Comonfort, more a centrist than a liberal, was intimidated into approving Zuloaga's action. Then Zuloaga deposed him and assumed the presidency himself. An angry Comonfort released Juárez, who escaped to Querétaro January 11. Eight days later, in Guanajuato, he proclaimed himself president. Under the Mexican constitution, the chief justice of the Supreme Court is next in line for the presidency if the chief executive dies or is unlawfully removed from office.