he graduated from the university of cuba with a degree and political economy from 1964 to 90. 99 declined the career ladder from that of an ordinary worker to the head of the ideological department, but the central committee of the communist party of ukraine. from 1990 he was a member of the central committee of the communist party of the soviet union. eventually achieved the position of chairman of the supreme soviet of ukrainian ssr . in 1990 activists from the people's movement visited the usa and met with representatives of the u. s. administration. including pentagon chief dick cheney. people's movement leafless began appearing in ukraine, stating that the republic was providing food for all of russia, and that secession from the u. s. s. r. would transform ukraine into a country as prosperous as france ah, in the context of the u. s. s. ours longstanding economic crisis, such claims had a significant effect on society. the peoples movement of ukraine was rapidly moving in a more nationalistic direction. it entered parliament as a force in opposition to the communist party. in his ch

joining me now, rosa maria, founder of cuba desia, and an associate professor at the university of pennsylvania'sool. thank you for being with me. rosa, you said that you plan to go today to cuba to witness what's going on. that's going to be a difficult thing. i mean, you could probably be arrested if they did let you in. >> yeah, and that's a possibility, but to return to our country is our right, jose. and we are going to try until the last moment and we are not going to stop. actually, i'm talking to you and behind me is the airplane in which we planned to go to havana. the pilot just made the last call, the last request for permits 20 minutes ago and the authorities just said it's denied. when we asked for a reason, they say, they say we cannot disclose, but it is denied. and it's obvious just the fear that the cuban regime has to their own people. it's obvious that this threat with a very aggressive way of violence is taking place already. and that's why they don't want new eyes on the field. that's why they denied the enter to our entire delegation that was formed also by several neps, mem

cuba has never been free. >> the voices of cuban-americans. we are joined now by lillian, professor of cuban and caribbean history at the university of florida. with us. talk about how the government was able to squash yesterday's planned demonstration. they did not just crackdown on demonstrate his once they hit the streets, they prevented him from hitting the streets in the first place. >> they had in the planning using security forces in league with the committees for defense of the revolution, which are these local watch committees that exist on every block for 30 years now. they have been pretty passive, but in the last two years, they have taken to doing things like going outing patrolling streets, like they did yesterday, and staking out the homes and keeping people under house arrest, not just for 24 hours, but for months at a time. they taunt the victims inside and intimidate the neighbors, so we had about 200 incidents of that yesterday, and it is not expected any of the back of his who organizes will be released from there soon. >> tell us about these activists, who are they? >> a lot of them are artists and intellectuals who have

cuba has never been free. >> yang: the voices of cuban- americans. now we're joined by lillian guerra. she is a professor of cuban and caribbean history at the universityof florida. talk a little bit about how the government was able to sort of squash yesterday's planned demonstration. they didn't just crack down on demonstrators once they hit the streets, they prevented them from hitting the streets in the first place. >> they definitely had in the planning using their security forces in lead with the committees for defense of resolution which are local watch committees, they exist on every block. for about 30 years now they have been pretty passive, but in the last few years, they have been taken command of doing things like going out and cord thing streets which they did yesterday, also staking out the homes and keeping people under house arrest, not just for a 24-hour period but for months at a time. they taught the victims inside, they intimidate all the neighbors. so we have about 200 incidents of that yesterday, and it's not expected that any of the activists who organized this will be released from their house arrest anytime soon. >> reporter:

you not unique of their universal and all the things tht are universally bad and alsoca the actually seems to be the upside down philosophy. >> everywhere i go bump into people from cuba, our former soviet union, they see that we are talking about with crystal clarity and the only reason that i think i see it, maybe more clearly than my friends is because my mother grew up in east germany my father grew up in greece and the communist try to take after the second war they raised me about trying harg to know how particularly weekend and cruel communism is and therefore without thinking to love america simply because freedom is the antithesis of that but i am kind of amazed at what to say that americans somehow are so myopic, so blessed and they think this is normal and i think what we've always had here is normal rather than a wild idea that almost should not logically have succeeded but it did so we should be grateful and we should keep the republic. do you have hope because of where we arere now the people ae waking up to this is been asleep to it printed. >> i think they are ready the other day, i'm speaking with somebody who wildly disagreedeb with me, son of a majo

of things that are uniquely good about america they're not unique they are universal. they are universally and seems to be the upside down philosophy. >> everywhere i go i bump into people from cuba or former soviet union they see what we are talking about with crystal clarity. the only reason i think i see it a little bit more clearly is my friend because my mother grew up in east germany, my father grew up in greece when the communist try to take over the raised me without trying very hard to know how particularly wicked and cruel communism is. and therefore, even without thinking to love america simply because freedom is the antithesis of that. i am amazed by what you say americans are somehow so myopic, so blessed they think this is normal. they think what we've alwaysd had here is a normal rather than a wild idea that should not logically have succeeded but did. we should be grateful we should keep the republic. do you have hope that because of where we are now people are waking up to this that could have been asleep to it? >> ice book with some who wildly disagrees with me is a professor at a major usuniversity and said i disagree with everything you say. but i want to have