Did You Know...

Babalu Blog has the scoop.

Here’s the ABC News write-up:

Hundreds of thousands of Cubans marched by the U.S. diplomatic mission in Havana to protest a U.S. ticker tape flashing messages.

President Fidel Castro charged that the Bush administration was not only trying to torpedo relations but that the United States was also coddling anti-Cuban terrorists.

“The Bush administration, not in agreement with the decision adopted by President Carter May 30, 1977, is trying to force a rupture in the minimal diplomatic relations with Cuba,” Castro said in a brief speech in front of the U.S. mission before the demonstration began.

Castro termed the ticker, which began to send messages urging Cubans to oppose the government a week ago, “a gross provocation and perverse affront to Cuba’s dignity and sovereignty no government could accept.”

The U.S. electronic message board, with 9-foot-high crimson letters running through 25 windows on the building’s fifth floor, can be seen kilometers away.

Even as Castro spoke, the ticker sprang to life with news interspersed between messages such as, “only in totalitarian societies do governments talk at their people and never listen.”

The United States broke diplomatic relations and imposed a trade embargo on the Caribbean island soon after Castro swept to power in a 1959 revolution. Since 1977, the two countries have maintained counselor-level Interests Sections in each other’s capitals to handle visas and other matters.

“We are only trying to communicate with the Cuban people. Only a dictator would be upset,” said Michael Parmly, the top U.S. diplomat in Havana…

Hat tip to Jim Hoft, who has a video link.