Don't Start the Revolution Without Me! - Jesse Ventura [50]
Headline: JEB BUSH APPEALS TO VENTURA OVER CUBA TRIP
TALLAHASSEE, Florida—Citing a lack of “basic freedoms” in Cuba, Gov. Jeb Bush urged Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura to reconsider his plans to attend a trade exposition there next month. . . .
But a spokesman for Ventura said the Minnesota governor did not agree with Bush’s “isolationist approach” and would not alter his plans.
—CNN.com, August 30, 2002
Then the feds restricted the First Lady’s passport. The only way Terry could have come would have been to sneak in and meet me there. That’s when my antennae went sky-high: Wait a minute, aren’t we home of the brave, land of the free? We’re not at war with Cuba. As members of what’s supposed to be a free society, my wife and I should be able to go there without repercussions from my own country—economic boycott or not.
Here’s the part that really got to me. Bush’s top man for the Western Hemisphere in the State Department, Otto Reich, came out publicly with the statement that he certainly hoped my group and I were not going to Cuba to sample the sex trade. Because, according to him, Cuba has a high prostitution rate. I demanded an apology from George Bush to myself and every citizen of Minnesota, for one of his underlings making such a reckless statement. I never got a response from anyone in his administration.
After the trip, when the press asked me about it, I said: “Well, in our week in Cuba, I didn’t see any of this sex trade. And if we go back again, I would enjoy for Otto Reich to come along, because obviously he knows where it’s at! Clearly he’s an expert, so I can only assume he’s partaken of it.”
Our party on the trip was very large, people from Minnesota agriculture, and others. The Cubans had a big expo-type fair, and Castro came to that. A family from Rochester, Minnesota, had brought some cattle down and Fidel ended up befriending these two cute little kids. Castro is brilliant in that he plays his publicity like a conductor of a fine symphony. He ended up bringing the kids as his personal guests to some big function, where they got to sit with him in his private box.
I found the Cuban people exceptionally friendly, and you could tell it was genuine. Not a whole lot different from other Latino countries I’ve visited. They’re all kind of out of the same melting pot, in their own ways of tradition. Being there reaffirmed my position that the American sanctions are wrong. You realize that these are only hurting the Cuban people. I guess the hope is that then the people will rise up and throw Fidel out. Except what I saw is that the Cuban people are also exceptionally patriotic. They’re stubborn. They’re not going to let us win with our embargo. They’re going to stick with Fidel until he dies. Yet, by the same token, I saw amongst them a great love for America. Not America’s government, but the American people.
I went to the fair for several days, and spoke at numerous press conferences, and even did my weekly radio broadcast live from Havana back to Minnesota. I also spoke at the University of Havana. That’s when I realized how much respect the people have for authority. I suppose it’s that way in all dictatorships, but it’s a funny story. We were walking onto the campus and I was accompanied by my two regular security guys from Minnesota, an interpreter, and three of Castro’s personal bodyguards. That’s a total of six people around me at all times. As we approached the auditorium where I was to speak, a large group of people were congregated out on the sidewalk, not necessarily waiting for us, but just there. One of Castro’s bodyguards reminded me a lot of Teofilo Stevenson, the former heavyweight boxer from Cuba—same massive body, wearing the white Panama shirt. As we reached the crowd, I saw his hand simply come up waist high, and he made a half-moon circle with his fingertips.
It was like Moses parting the Red Sea. Those people instantly separated and we passed right through the center of the