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Florida businessman plays Santa in Cuba; jailed dissidents’ kids get gifts from US exiles

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Tagged: children, Cuba, Cuban

Wearing a Santa suit and a wide grin, a wealthy Florida rancher doled out sneakers and sweets to Cuban children on Sunday, bringing holiday cheer to this communist-run island where the Christmas season goes largely unobserved.

About 150 kids ages 5 to 15 shrieked with pleasure, applauded and shouted “Viva Santa Claus!” as John Parke Wright tottered into an auditorium at a Roman Catholic convent on Havana’s eastern outskirts.

“Feliz Navidad!” he bellowed, Spanish for “Merry Christmas!”"*