Phil Peters Got Cheated! And So Did You (Part 2)

So Phil Peters got 30 minutes last night, and then you heard a rebuttal. You're probably thinking that this is great and democratic. And, it is. But, last night it was Jesus Marzo Fernandez who responded to Peters, and Fernandez gets TONS of airtime on Spanish-language television, and has appeared repeatedly with Maria Elvira Salazar (I even think he's appeared before for an entire hour with Salazar). In fact, Salazar usually has guests stay for the entire show. I can't recall the last time a guest stayed for only 30 minutes.

On the other hand, Marzo Fernandez appears regularly with Maria Elvira Salazar AND (for full shows) on "A Mano Limpia" with Oscar Haza , the competing political talk show at 8pm. There's no way you can miss Jesus Marzo Fernandez. He's appeared on Radio Mambi (I'm sure more than once), his articles get published in La Nueva Cuba (and I'm sure in other places), and videos of him are provided on the internet. Where's Phil Peters on Spanish-language media?

Jesus Marzo Fernandez is best known for being exiled in 1996 as a former "Secretary of the Food Committee of the Cabinet and Secretary of the Foreign Exchange Commission of the Food Group" in Cuba, and being one of the sources that revealed "the Comandante's reserves." That is, he's one among "[f]ormer cuban officials [that] insist [Fidel] Castro... has skimmed profits" from Cuba's state-owned enterprises, according to Forbes magazine. Fernandez forms the basis of Forbes magazine's repeated assumptions (and they say assumptions) that Fidel Castro has a net worth around $1 billion (which Fidel has denied of course). And now, Fernandez keep quite busy with his respectable analysis in regular appearances in Spanish-language media.

So, Marzo Fernandez comes on for the last 30 minutes after Phil Peters, and Maria Elvira Salazar asks him what he thought about Peters' comments on Raul Castro. Fernandez immediately said he had a different view of the matter. He said that Raul Castro will not make any reforms in Cuba because Granma (the state-owned newspaper) said so. He referred to a recently published "reflection" by Fidel Castro saying that socialism must continue, and other articles saying the same thing. And, that's it. Salazar as the devil's advocate was all of a sudden absent, reserved only for others like Phil Peters.

At the end of the show, Fernandez got a friendly embrace from Salazar.

[Part 1]