Candidates to Cuba: Release prisoners

[maddezmom]

Source: AP

WASHIGNTON - Presidential candidates Barack Obama and John McCain called for the release of political prisoners in Cuba following Fidel Castro's resignation Tuesday.

Castro's resignation "should mark the end of a dark era in Cuba's history. ... Fidel Castro's stepping down is an essential first step, but it is sadly insufficient in bringing freedom to Cuba," Democratic Sen. Barack Obama said in a statement.

"Cuba's future should be determined by the Cuban people and not by an anti-democratic successor regime," Obama said. "The prompt release of all prisoners of conscience wrongly jailed for standing up for the basic freedoms too long denied to the Cuban people would mark an important break with the past. It's time for these heroes to be released."

Obama also urged that the United State be prepared to take steps to normalize relations with Cuba and to ease the trade embargo of the last five decades if the Cuban leadership "begins opening Cuba to meaningful democratic change."

Republican Sen. John McCain also underscored that "freedom for the Cuban people is not yet at hand" despite Castro's resignation.



Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080219/ap_on_el_pr/candidates_cuba

[EFerrari]

1. Cuba to candidates: You first. n/t

[Bacchus39]

2. why would they have to wait for the US??

and which prisoners are you talking about??

[AlphaCentauri]

18. Paya

:sarcasm:

[Bacchus39]

28. why not let Cuba set the example???

and I have no idea what that pic is supposed to mean.

[AlphaCentauri]

29. it means Paya is a dissident but not in jail

Why?

[Bacchus39]

30. well, I'm glad he's not in jail like others there

Cuba can still release political prisoners without the US taking any similar actions can't they???

[AlphaCentauri]

31. I guess the others did something wrong

Money? Paya Didn't

[Bacchus39]

32. yeah, with those desacato laws, they could have been jailed for "insulting" Castro

or perhaps some of those reporters wrote a critical review on some aspect of the revolution. however, the point is Cuba could still let them go without any reciprocity from the US. Illogical reasoning to assume that is a prerequisite for Cuba.

and wouldn't Cuba further reveal US hypocrisy if they unilaterally released political prisoners??? I mean there seems to be alot of willingness to criticize the US here. So if Cuba released the prisoners it would follow that you would be delighted with more anti-US ammunition even if you aren't worried about people incarcerated for political reasons.

[AlphaCentauri]

42. Cheap argument "you would be delighted with more anti-US ammunition"

I was following your argument but got lost in the cheap personal attack.

BTW You just miss some good news
http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/reuters/080215/world/international_cuba_dissidents_spain_dc_1

[Judi Lynn]

35. It's against the law to accept money from a foreign government in Cuba without declaring yourself an

agent, just as it is HERE.

U.S. taxpayers are forced to contribute to a program which hires people in Cuba to break Cuban law, clearly in violation of both Cuban AND our own laws as they apply to people in the States.

Really pathetic.

This kind of information is too time consuming to make it into the cable news shows, to be revealed to the very people who sponsor it, and it has always been downplayed as it shows an ugly side to American policy toward other countries which they'd rather gloss over.

[AlertLurker]

3. totally beat me to it.

good one.

[LynnTheDem]

4. Concise and to the point.

Who's #1 for own citizens jailed?

USA! USA! USA!

Then there's Gitmo, the US gulag-soon-to-be-death-camp...

[EFerrari]

7. Don Siegelman. Leonard Peltier.

This is the reason it's hard to get behind any of the Dem contenders that are left. They say stupid sh!t like this.

[CatWoman]

5. LOL

You are simply TOO MUCH!!!

:thumbsup:

[otherlander]

41. Well...

McCain, for all he pretends to be against torture, voted "yes" on the Military Commissions Act, so he's just being a hypocrite. What else is new?

Obama promised to close Guantanamo Bay if elected president. He voted "no" on the MCA, so he's not being a hypocrite in this regard. I think he's perfectly justified in saying this to Cuba, because unlike McCain, he seems to hold America to the same standards.

[EFerrari]

58. Closing Gitmo is a good step.

However, there is probably more abuse in Cook County than there is in Cuba. While what Obama says is not out of the American mainstream, it is out of touch with reality. He either knows that and is courting a voting block or he doesn't know that and needs to.

[wuushew]

6. Gee, I thought Barack wanted my vote today?

Oh well, I suppose Clinton will shortly say something even more arrogant and cancel it out.

[Freddie Stubbs]

9. He likely has enough support to win without votes of those who support foreign dictators

[EFerrari]

10. And our fake elections are at least fake American elections. n/t

[Freddie Stubbs]

11. What was fake about the November 2006 elections?

:shrug:

[EFerrari]

12. You mean besides the big policy changes that never materialized?

Some people estimate that there was enough vote shaving to cost us a real majority, Freddie. There's an article kicking around about -- I think it's called "Landslide Denied". Probably other stuff out there, too and Mark Crispin Miller has a new book coming out in April.

[fascisthunter]

15. Jayzus.... open your frickin' eyes.

America is dictating to the World!

[Zhade]

52. Um, his eyes are open -- he SUPPORTS it.

Just keep reading his posts, you'll see it pretty soon.

[High Plains]

27. Is he calling on Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, UAE to release the prisoners?

I guess some foreign dictators are more equal than others.

[EFerrari]

33. There are people on this board who only know what they've been told

about Castro since he became a bad guy for refusing to be a US client. That's all they've heard their entire lives.

[AlphaCentauri]

17. At least he has to learn how to distinguish him self from the republicans

some of the people he is referring to are accused of accepting money from a foreign government, like himself accepting money for campaigns.

[bemildred]

8. No sense of irony at all.

There we sit with a bunch of tortured "detainees" in Gitmo, and yet there is no apparent sense of embarassment at whining at Cuba about "political prisoners". Never mind that we have a many times larger percentage of our population in the slammer for thought crimes and political crimes.

[The Croquist]

20. Most of our prisoners are there for drug crimes

Apparently hurting no one but yourself is worse then sending American soldiers to the Middle East to die in a useless war.

[bemildred]

44. Yeah, I consider them all to be political prisoners.

Unless they actually did something to someone else.

[EFerrari]

50. We need to add the mentally ill to this list

because prison is our default for them.

[Zhade]

54. To be fair, Obama (not really my guy) did say he'd close Gitmo.

Of course, talk is cheap...

[peacetalksforall]

13. Obama is really a disappointment on this one.

Where is his preciseness?

Prisoners. Democracy.

He sounds just like a Republican on this one.

What about the doctors they train for free and send all over the world.

What about a political embargo and hate perpetuation against some good people.

I wish I had not read what he said.

I don't think I have anyone to represent me.

I only have a nicety - that a female or Black American can reach the Presidency, but at what price?

In other words, I can't go door-to-door for either.

Is there no leader who will take the lead on Cuba and cut the crap? Stop the hate Castro, hate Cuba madness and obsession of the U.S.? Reagan claimed he brought down the wall on what date? That was the last day that the U.S. should have stopped acting like moral hypocrites. THat was the last day that the U.S. leaders should have stopped pandering to Cuban-Americans for their votes.

[fascisthunter]

14. The Hypocrisy is Mind Blowing

[AlphaCentauri]

19. For Latin America there is no dem* or rep*

to them is the same thing

[The Croquist]

22. There is no Hypocrisy, they were talking about Guantanamo

If the Cuban civilians marched unarmed into Gitmo, opened the cells and took them back into unoccupied Cuba do you think we would shoot unarmed civilians? I always thought that Argentina should have tried that in the Malvinas (Falkland) Islands rather then invading.

I don't think even Bush is that stupid.

[EFerrari]

23. Are you kidding? They opened fire on Katrina survivors

for trying to cross an overpass.

[High Plains]

16. One million non-violent prisoners in the US

High Plains to candidates: Look in your own backyard first, jerks.

[DeepModem Mom]

21. I'm in a minority here, but I fail to understand why we support repression...

in any country -- our own, or anywhere else. Our own country does not hold a patent on wrongdoing. I post articles from time to time about the worst kind of repression in other countries in the world, and the threads sink like a stone after a few responses having to do with nothing except the U.S. I take from that a lack of caring about, for example, the rounding up and jailing of dissidents in China in the run-up to the Olympics. Nobody cares. Because there is wrongdoing in our own country, we give repressive regimes around the world a pass.

[AlphaCentauri]

24. don't know

By Eduardo Galeano

The Berlin Wall made the news every day. From dawn to dusk we read about it, heard about it, and saw it: The Wall of Shame, the Wall of Infamy, the Iron Curtain.

Eventually, this wall, which deserved to fall, fell. But other walls have sprung up, and continue to spring up, and though they are far larger than the Berlin Wall little or nothing is said about them.

Little is said about the wall the United States is erecting along its border with Mexico, or the double razor-wire fences around Ceuta and Melilla, the Spanish enclaves on the Mediterranean coast of Morocco. Next to nothing was said about the West Bank Wall, which perpetuates the Israeli occupation of Palestinian lands and will soon be 15 times longer than the Berlin Wall. And the Moroccan Wall, which for 20 years has perpetuated Morocco’s occupation of Western Sahara, goes unmentioned altogether. This wall, continuously mined and surveilled by thousands of soldiers, is 60 times longer than the Berlin Wall.

Why is it that some walls are so vocal and others are so mute? Would it be because of the walls of uncommunication that the major media erect each day?

In July 2004 the International Court of Justice in The Hague ruled that the West Bank Wall violated international law and ordered it torn down. Thus far, Israel hasn’t found out about it.

In October 1975 the same court found that there was no ‘tie of territorial sovereignty between the territory of Western Sahara and the Kingdom of Morocco’. To say that Morocco was deaf to the court’s finding is an understatement. It was far worse: the day after the decision was issued, Morocco began the invasion, the so-called ‘Green March’, and before long it had seized vast areas and expelled the majority of the population in a wave of blood and fire.

And so it goes.

A thousand and one UN resolutions have confirmed the Saharawi people’s right to self-determination.

What good were they? A plebiscite was to be held so the population could decide on its fate. To ensure victory, the Moroccan monarch filled the invaded territory with Moroccans. But before long not even the Moroccans were deemed trustworthy. And the King, who had said Yes to the plebiscite, said Who knows? And later he said No, and now his son, who inherited the throne, also says No. The denial is the same as a confession. By denying the right to vote, Morocco confesses that it stole a country.

Will we continue to accept such developments? To accept that in a universal democracy we subjects have a right only to obedience?

What was the effect of the 1,001 UN resolutions against Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territory? And the 1,001 resolutions against the blockade of Cuba?

As the old saying goes: ‘Hypocrisy is the tribute vice pays to virtue.’

These days patriotism is a privilege of dominant countries. When the dominated countries try it, patriotism smells suspiciously like populism or terrorism, or simply deserves no attention.

The Saharawi patriots who have fought for 30 years to regain their place in the world have won diplomatic recognition from 82 nations, including my country, Uruguay, which recently added its name to the large majority of the countries of Latin America and Africa.

But not Europe. No European country has recognized the Saharawi Republic. Including Spain. This is an instance of serious irresponsibility, or perhaps amnesia, or at least disaffection. Three decades ago the Sahara was a colony of Spain, and Spain had a legal and moral duty to protect its independence.

What did imperial rule leave behind? After a century, how many professionals did it train? Three: a doctor, a lawyer, and a trade expert. That is what it left behind. That and a betrayal. It served up this land and its people on a platter to be devoured by the Kingdom of Morocco.

A few years ago, Javier Corcuera interviewed in a Baghdad hospital a victim of the bombing of Iraq. A bomb had destroyed her arm. Just eight years old, after eleven operations, the girl said: ‘If only we didn’t have oil.’

Maybe the people of the Sahara are guilty because off their long coastline lies the greatest treasure of fishes in the Atlantic Ocean and because beneath the immensity of its seemingly empty sands lie the world’s largest phosphate reserves and perhaps oil, natural gas and uranium.

This prophecy could be, though isn’t, in the Qur’an: ‘Natural resources will be the curse of the people.’

The refugee camps in the south of Algeria are in the most desertic of all deserts. It is a vast void, surrounded by nothingness, where only rocks grow. And yet in this place, and in the liberated areas, which are not much better, the Saharawis have been able to construct the most open and the least machista society in the entire Muslim world.

This miracle of the Saharawis, who are very poor and very few, cannot be explained solely by their tenacious will to be free, which is abundant in these places where everything is lacking. It is also largely a factor of international solidarity. And the majority of assistance comes from the people of Spain. Their vital solidarity, memory and dignity are far more powerful than the waffling of governments and the cynical calculations of business.

Note: solidarity, not charity. Charity humiliates. Do not forget the African proverb: ‘The hand that receives is always lower than the hand that gives.’ * The Saharawis wait. They are condemned to perpetual anguish and perpetual nostalgia. The refugee camps carry the names of their kidnapped cities, their lost meeting places, their haunts: L’ayoun, Smara, Dakhla.

They are called children of the clouds because they have always chased the rain.

For more than 30 years they have also pursued justice, which in our world seems rarer even than water in the desert.

[DeepModem Mom]

25. Thank you so much for this post -- I've learned from it, as I'm sure others will. nt

[EFerrari]

26. Do you think there are posts to this thread in support of repression?

I don't read them in that way, myself. It's more that there are probably enough abuses in Chicago to keep the Senator busy for a while. Maybe he could start there and work his way south.

Maybe if we were really minding Chicago, we'd be less apt to start disasters like Iraq.

I feel very worried for Cuba right now, DeepModem Mom, because Bush has allocated 80 million dollars to encourage "regime change" there and we've all seen how well his government has planned to keep the people safe. I was really hoping Mr. Castro would last until we get a Democrat in the White House who remembers what "diplomacy" means. :(

[Judi Lynn]

34. For years we've been financing, underwriting political "dissidents" in Cuba,

at an enormous price, buying their services to antagonize and disrupt their government, to write articles against the Cuban government, and generally raise hell.

Our Interests Section heads have thrown open the doors to them, and they come and go to the Interests Section at all times of the day and night, have meals there, use all the office equipment, and also have been given their own office materials through the non-volunteered auspices of the American taxpayers.

If this were to happen in THIS country, people would be going to jail here, and that's no joke. It's ILLEGAL HERE. It CAN'T HAPPEN HERE. FORBIDDEN BY LAW. Yet, each year, more millions are allocated by Congress to fork over to these "brave" "dissidents," or U.S. employees to make as much trouble as possible.

You recall the hellish noise that surrounded a luncheon given for Al Gore when people thought he was taking money from Chinese nuns, or something similar. All hell broke loose for a while.

Hokey "independent librarians" have likewise been enlisted, under the claim Cuba doesn't allow Cubans to read any books, by golly! They are ALSO on the gravy train from Washington.

You just might find this article on U.S.-paid "independent librarians" very interesting:

June 18 / 19, 2005

Librarians as Spooks?
The Scheme to Infiltrate Cuba's Libraries
By DIANA BARAHONA

The U.S. has been pretty successful at mobilizing world opinion against Cuba since the late 1980s. Emboldened by the fall of the Soviet Union it has gone to considerable trouble and expense to bring down the revolution that refuses to be defeated a scant 90 miles off the empire's shore. Part of this effort has involved creating an artificial opposition movement on the island and enlisting liberal organizations and intellectuals to support it. But U.S. librarians, targeted by name in the State Department's 400-page destabilization blueprint, the Report to the President of the Commission for Assistance to a Free Cuba, not only refuse to play the game but are trying to assist their Cuban colleagues to improve their libraries.

The rent-an-opposition has several components: independent trade union groups, independent journalists, independent political parties and independent libraries ­ all paid and directed by the U.S. Interests Section. They are also composed of the same people; one person may be an independent press agency, a political party, and run a library out of his house. The depth of U.S.-style "civil society" was evident May 20-21 at the Congress of the Cuban Dissident Movement in Havana. Financed with a special congressional grant of $6 million and featuring a videotaped greeting from Bush himself, this gathering was supposed to bring together 360 dissident organizations; it barely drew 100 people.

Cuba not only has libraries, it has a lot of them ­ 400 to be precise, plus 6,000 school libraries. So why has the State Department created a network of independent libraries there? What exactly is an independent library? Rhonda L. Neugebauer and Larry Oberg, both university librarians, went to Cuba to meet with colleagues and study the library system in 2000. But they also visited the so-called independent libraries run out of people's houses. What they found were carefully-chosen drop-off and contact points for personnel from the U.S. Interests Section and others, who visited them on a regular basis to deliver materials and money. They also discovered that by keeping bookshelves with these materials in their homes, the "librarians" qualified for a monthly stipend ­ "for services rendered," as one of them put it. They found no evidence that anyone ever checked out a book, and when they enquired of neighbors, nobody even seemed to know the libraries were there.

But the story doesn't end there. For years Neugebauer has been trying to set up a program of exchange and assistance to Cuba's real libraries, which not only lack funding for books and journals, but also for copying and computer equipment, and phone lines and technical support for internet access. But she and others are confronting a heated campaign to get the American Librarian Association and related organizations to condemn the Cuban government and support the independent libraries, waged by a New York librarian named Robert Kent.

Kent founded an organization called Friends of Cuban Libraries in 1999. When he traveled to Cuba in May of that same year, Kent made contact with Aleida Godínez, an intelligence agent posing as a dissident. According to Godínez, Kent introduced himself as Robert Emmet and even held a passport with that name. He said he had come as an emissary of Frank Calzon, executive director of the Center for a Free Cuba.



"Robert Emmet" and Aleida Godinez.

"Emmet" didn't bring books or spend any time studying libraries; "He put a lot of emphasis on the role of the independent press," says Godínez. "He said absolutely nothing about the so-called independent libraries. He barely mentioned to me that he was a librarian."

Instead, Kent arrived with surveillance equipment ("a camera, a shortwave radio, a 10-band transmitter and receiver, and a watch, a Cassio brand") and lots of cash, which he passed out to various dissidents. But the most disturbing aspect of the librarian's visit was that he allegedly asked Godinez to help him ­ with drawings and photographs ­ map out the security measures at the home of Vice President of the Council of State, Carlos Lage Davila. Godínez says he gave her $100 for film for that purpose. Understandably, "Emmet" was detained and expelled for espionage.

As if this weren't weird enough, 1999 is the same year the founder of Reporters Without Borders, Robert Menard, went to Cuba, and the behavior of the two men was identical. Both came as friends of Calzón and both arrived with cash and electronic equipment and sought out dissidents. Both asked questions unrelated to the ostensible purpose of their trips: Menard asked his contact, also an undercover agent, if he knew of any "disgruntled" people in the Cuban armed forces. Kent says his numerous trips to Cuba were financed by Freedom House, a Miami-based outfit funded by the State Department.

http://www.counterpunch.org/barahona06182005.html

(By the way, the mural on the wall behind Aleida Godínez depicts the young Cuban teachers who were the first wave of Cuban educators, often teenagers who went out from the big cities out into the countryside and started teaching EVERYONE who could not read how to read immediately after the revolution.

They ordinarily went wherever the people were, and often sat around tables by lanternlight at night working with their students.

The counterinsurgents who were left in the hills physically assaulted them. Some of the teachers and their students were killed.

Here's a group photo of people celebrating the literacy program, waving their giant pencils in the air!



Here's an interesting quote from an article I found some years ago:

The idea was that only with higher literacy and education levels would the revolution, now creating a new government and a new society, be able to solve Cuba's social problems. "No creer, leer!" was the message: don't just believe, read! More than 100,000 young people, mostly teens, some younger, formed the core of 268,000 literacy teachers. The youngest was 7, shown below in his uniform and in his literacy campaign ID card.

http://www.communitytechnology.org/cuba/photos.html

[Bacchus39]

36. there are no dissidents in Cuba, just paid agents of the US

isn't that the Cuban government line???

except for the "problem" of those who ESCAPE Cuba on rafts and the like. that's not so easily explained away.

[Judi Lynn]

38. You bet, escape. Just like those who avoid dying in the desert are "escaping" Mexico,

or those who avoid drowning between Haiti, or the Dominican Island by making a trip hundreds of miles in tiny, boats are "escaping" their countries.

The difference in the Caribbean migration from other islands, and in the overland migration from Central America and Mexico is that when all other immigrants arrive here, they will be deported if they are caught, but Cuban immigrants, if they make it to U.S. soil without being intercepted at sea will be receiving the full benefits of the Cuban Adjustment Act, created JUST FOR THEM, extending the largesse of the American taxpayers in the form of instant access to social security, food stamps, Section 8 housing, medical treatment, even financial assistance for education.

They deliberately put together a package of benefits to attract Cuban immigrants, and it was lobbied by the Cuban clown Congresspeople from Florida. The more Cubans piling into South Florida, the larger the Cuban community, the more powerful the Cuban bloc becomes.

This little pot of gold, combined with instant security from deportation does NOT await any of the other nationalities who are "escaping" their governments in exactly the same way Cubans are "escaping" theirs. Don't even think you're going to fool anyone.

Reminds one of the immortal words of Cuban idiot leader in Miami, Jorge Mas Canosa:

7/1/94 7/31/94 The Miami Herald reprints an interview with Jorge Mas Canosa from the Spanish newspaper El Pais. Mas Canosa was asked by El Pais whether he believed Americans would take over Cuba if Fidel Castro fell. The Herald quoted Mas Canosa as saying, in part, "They haven't even been able to take over Miami! If we have kicked them out of here, how could they possibly take over our own country?" (MH, 7/28/94; WP, 7/28/94)

http://64.233.161.104/search?q=cache:xQqmOHDYWkoJ:cuban-exile.com/doc_126-150/doc0146b.html+Jorge+Mas+Canosa+%22El+Pais%22+%22They+haven%27t+even+been+able+to+take+over+Miami%22&hl=en

That's just dreamy!

[Bacchus39]

40. of course people from other countries flee as well

its certainly a sign of dissatifaction with their countries of origin is it not???????? dissidents if you will.

now another difference you fail to mention is that Cuba's government makes it illegal to leave without an approved exit stamp. its not illegal to emigrate from the DR or Mexico or Haiti. no-one is preventing them from going in the first place. how many Cuban immigrants in the US do you think there would be if the Cuban police state permitted them to leave?

[AlphaCentauri]

43. Many Cubans have been rejected at the Interests Section in Havana

Last year there where 20 000 visas allocated for Cubans who wish to emigrate to the US but only 15 000 were approved.

[EFerrari]

37. Wow. Just, wow. I knew the vultures went out as soon as Castro

refused to hand over Cuba. I didn't know just how twisted they were. :wow:

[Judi Lynn]

39. Yep. That's only part of it. They started their bombing almost instantly, too.

They bombed a large Cuban department store, movie theater, etc., etc., etc., burned crops, poisoned livestock, even carried in biochemical warfare agents, as testified in a murder trial in New York City by Cuban "exile" terrorist/murderer Eduardo Arocena, who confessed to having done that for the CIA, himself.

They flew over Cuban passenger trains and strafed them with machine guns. Miami "Brother to the Rescue," ("Hermanos al Rescate") Jose Basulto, a big celebrity in South Florida was a terrorist of his fellow Cubans back then, flying over and shooting at them from the air.

Some freedom fighters.

[AlphaCentauri]

45. What about here at home

http://www.sptimes.com/2002/12/05/Floridian/His_father_s_voice.shtml

"The bombing of my father was a watershed moment in Miami," he said while being interviewed at the Miami offices of the Police Benevolent Association, where Milian is legal counsel and director of political affairs. "It cut his voice and at the same time it allowed other, more intolerant, voices to seize the microphone in Miami."

The would-be assassins were never brought to justice. After reconstructive surgery and learning to walk again with prosthetic limbs, Emilio Milian returned to the radio station. But when the station demanded to censor his editorials, he refused. The station fired him.

"At the time it was called the second bombing," said Milian. "It was also a warning: This is what happens to someone who doesn't adhere to orthodoxy."

The attempted murder of Milian set the tone for years to come. Although Miami is a more politically tolerant place today, for many years the car-bombings and other attacks contributed to a climate of intimidation and fear.

"When his father got his legs blown off, there wasn't a massive outcry," said Dario Moreno, director of the Metropolitan Center at Florida International University. "People kept their mouths shut."

[Judi Lynn]

60. That carbombing was one of the lowest, most underhanded, dirty, vicious acts ever perpetrated.

The very idea these drooling idiots had the audacity to actually bomb this man who had been calling for putting violence aside in Miami is so unacceptable it makes the world look so bleak, just to have these scums living in it.

I have heard people say it's well known who did it, but I can't remember who they are immediately, without diving into google to look it up. They are Cuban right-wing reactionaries who have been involved in tons of violence well before they shredded this man's legs and almost succeeded in killing him.



Emilio Milián

It was no rush to judgement the F.B.I. labeled Miami as "America's Terror Capital," at one point during the long violent frequent bombing days.

Mullin
The Burden of a Violent History
By Jim Mullin
Published: April 20, 2000

As the Elian Gonzalez media juggernaut began approaching warp speed over the past few weeks, some in Miami's Cuban-American community expressed displeasure with the portrait of them being painted by the press. The muffled grumbling became explicit on April 7 during Ted Koppel's Nightline "town meeting," beamed to the nation from Florida International University.

A panelist on that program, the University of Miami's Juan Carlos Espinosa, took off the gloves: "I think we really need to be careful that we don't continue to engage in Cuban-exile bashing, which is something I've been hearing a lot in the media coverage about Miami."

Similar sentiments have been voiced by countless others, from exile leaders to local politicians to Cuban-American celebrities. And it's true that The Elian Show isn't playing so well in Peoria, or Pinecrest for that matter. You know you've got image problems when the staid New York Times editorializes with evident concern that it appears "as if South Florida's Cuban Americans believe in mob rule."

Phrases like "mob rule" evoke frightening images of violence, which in turn sends Miami's damage-control specialists rushing to the microphones and insisting to the world that the Cuban-exile community is peace-loving, law-abiding, and (with emphasis now) nonviolent. Miami Mayor Joe Carollo in particular has been tireless in promoting that message. "Miami has been a peaceful, nonviolent community," he stressed to CNN last week. The historical record, however, clearly contradicts those assertions.

Lawless violence and intimidation have been hallmarks of el exilio for more than 30 years. Given that fact, it's not only understandable many people would be deeply worried, it's prudent to be worried. Of course it goes without saying that the majority of Cuban Americans in Miami do not sanction violence, but its long tradition within the exile community cannot be ignored and cannot simply be wished away.

The following list of violent incidents I compiled from a variety of databases and news sources (a few come from personal experience). It is incomplete, especially in Miami's trademark category of bomb threats. Nor does it include dozens of acts of violence and murder committed by Cuban exiles in other U.S. cities and at least sixteen foreign countries. But completeness isn't the point. The point is to face the truth, no matter how difficult that may be. If Miami's Cuban exiles confront this shameful past -- and resolutely disavow it -- they will go a long way toward easing their neighbors' anxiety about a peaceful future.
(snip/...)

(list follows)

http://www.miaminewtimes.com/2000-04-20/news/mullin/full

[DeepModem Mom]

46. I admit that I know little about Cuba, and I respect both your opinion and your knowledge.

I'll try to follow the situation there, after this event today, more closely and develop a better understanding of it.

[EFerrari]

49. I've learned a lot from Judi Lynn and Mika in the Latin America forum

and hope to learn more.

[Zhade]

55. Indeed, two of the best in sharing the actual truth on the situation.

Kudos to them both for their honest, informed insights!

[HuffleClaw]

47. what a stinkin' load of far right propaganda

but they parrot it ever so well don't they ?

[Judi Lynn]

48. If they ever simply took the time to think about what they hear, and compare it all against things

they've been told in the past, they might be able to arrive at a deeper understanding, but that just doesn't seem to happen.

F'r instance, during the Elián Gonzalez episode in Miami, in which he was seized and kept from returning to his only close family by the American right-wing Miami Cuban community, the information flew up into normal information channels in the newspapers that the drunken great uncle, Lázaro, had met the child earlier during a trip to Cuba, during which he stayed at the home of the child's father, Manuel, who slept in his own car to make room for the old ####, who slept there during the day, then went fishing during his afternoons, and partied at the bars and restaurants at night.

It was even claimed he bought them a goat or sheep or something as a token of his gratitude, but for ordinary companionship, he preferred other bar patrons, and fishing buddies.

When I heard this, my perception of the American Cubans' plight changed COMPLETELY. I suddenly was being told they were not hiding in Florida, shaking in their boots because they feared they'd be hunted down and thrown UNDER the prisons of Cuba for having the nerve to "escape," but NOOOOOOOO, they were turning around, back when they were allowed to come and go (although ordinary U.S. citizens are and have been forbidden for some goddawful, filthy lie of a reason) and they DID come and go to and from Cuba continually. There are STILL chartered flights every day between Los Angeles and Cuba, New York and Cuba, and Florida and Cuba, to haul their asses over there, even though now, no one Cuban "exile" is allowed (formally allowed, that is) to go to Cuba more than once every three years.

A Cuban American legislator in Florida, David Rivera, got so steamed about how it looks for Cubans to come and go to Cuba, that he tried to ram through a law making it mandatory that if any of them is discovered to have gone to Cuba, they will get their food stamps privileges removed upon return for a period of time. Oh, PAINFUL! He wants to discourage it, as he has become aware that it looks very odd to ordinary Americans who have been forcefed a lie. Odd to ordinary Americans who have functioning BRAINS, that is, and who have the ability to THINK and to QUESTION things which seem to not fit what they've been told.



David Rivera, standing to Huckabee's left.

[Hand]

51. Cuba to Candidates: Chinga Tu Madre. nt

[Mika]

53. Traitors undermining their country, aiding & abetting the declared enemy for money, are "heroes"?

Wow. :wow:


What next? Scooter Libby a hero too?

:puke:

[Judi Lynn]

61. Sure! Cuban "exile" celebrity "dissident" Marta Beatriz Roque knew the writing was on the wall

when they took her to trial, and the witness against her was none other than her own secretary who had been keeping careful records for YEARS of payments she had been receiving from the U.S. for her work against the Cuban government, including dates, check numbers, banks.

There was no question about her activities after this secretary completed her detailed testimony. Any similar situation in the U.S. most surely would have been the open door to a long stretch in the slammer for an American, as this is AGAINST THE LAW here, too!

Funny how rigid adherents to propaganda myths find ways to approve crimes our own people perpetrate against others, isn't it? Apparently ALL law is subject to approval by people who think ANYTHING done which furthers your own cause is acceptable, but everyone else should be treated with savage, heart-breaking, life-destroying severity.



The lovely Marta Beatriz Roque, Miami hardliner heroine.
Even when the slimy Ms. Roque was sent to jail for her conscious crimes against her government, she was "sprung" the moment she pulled out her predictable "health reason" excuse and walked away. I knew she wasn't having too much oppression to live with when it was disclosed that she refused to allow government workers on her property who were spraying her neighborhood for the mosquito-borne Dengue Fever, a perennial Cuban hazard since the 1970's, when it suddenly appeared from out of nowhere for the very first time.

If Marta actually can tell government workers to go stuff themselves when they are trying to clear the area of Dengue Fever, she's not quaking in her boots behind her curtains.

[Mika]

56. More heroism?

This is the element Obama, Clinton, and McBush are appealing to with their anti Cuba spew.

http://www.miaminewtimes.com/2000-04-20/news/mullin/full

Lawless violence and intimidation have been hallmarks of el exilio for more than 30 years. Given that fact, it's not only understandable many people would be deeply worried, it's prudent to be worried. Of course it goes without saying that the majority of Cuban Americans in Miami do not sanction violence, but its long tradition within the exile community cannot be ignored and cannot simply be wished away.

The following list of violent incidents I compiled from a variety of databases and news sources (a few come from personal experience). It is incomplete, especially in Miami's trademark category of bomb threats. Nor does it include dozens of acts of violence and murder committed by Cuban exiles in other U.S. cities and at least sixteen foreign countries. But completeness isn't the point. The point is to face the truth, no matter how difficult that may be. If Miami's Cuban exiles confront this shameful past -- and resolutely disavow it -- they will go a long way toward easing their neighbors' anxiety about a peaceful future.

1968 From MacArthur Causeway, pediatrician Orlando Bosch fires bazooka at a Polish freighter. (City of Miami later declares "Orlando Bosch Day." Federal agents will jail him in 1988.)

1972 Julio Iglesias, performing at a local nightclub, says he wouldn't mind "singing in front of Cubans." Audience erupts in anger. Singer requires police escort. Most radio stations drop Iglesias from playlists. One that doesn't, Radio Alegre, receives bomb threats.

1974 Exile leader José Elias de la Torriente murdered in his Coral Gables home after failing to carry out a planned invasion of Cuba.

1974 Bomb blast guts the office of Spanish-language magazine Replica.

1974 Several small Cuban businesses, citing threats, stop selling Replica.

1974 Three bombs explode near a Spanish-language radio station.

1974 Hector Diaz Limonta and Arturo Rodriguez Vives murdered in internecine exile power struggles.

1975 Luciano Nieves murdered after advocating peaceful coexistence with Cuba.

1975 Another bomb damages Replica's office.

1976 Rolando Masferrer and Ramon Donestevez murdered in internecine exile power struggles.

1976 Car bomb blows off legs of WQBA-AM news director Emilio Milian after he publicly condemns exile violence.

1977 Juan José Peruyero murdered in internecine exile power struggles.

1979 Cuban film Memories of Underdevelopment interrupted by gunfire and physical violence instigated by two exile groups.

1979 Bomb discovered at Padron Cigars, whose owner helped negotiate release of 3600 Cuban political prisoners.

1979 Bomb explodes at Padron Cigars.

1980 Another bomb explodes at Padron Cigars.

1980 Powerful anti-personnel bomb discovered at American Airways Charter, which arranges flights to Cuba.

1981 Bomb explodes at Mexican Consulate on Brickell Avenue in protest of relations with Cuba.

1981 Replica's office again damaged by a bomb.

1982 Two outlets of Hispania Interamericana, which ships medicine to Cuba, attacked by gunfire.

1982 Bomb explodes at Venezuelan Consulate in downtown Miami in protest of relations with Cuba.

1982 Bomb discovered at Nicaraguan Consulate.

1982 Miami Mayor Maurice Ferre defends $10,000 grant to exile commando group Alpha 66 by noting that the organization "has never been accused of terrorist activities inside the United States."

1983 Another bomb discovered at Replica.

1983 Another bomb explodes at Padron Cigars.

1983 Bomb explodes at Paradise International, which arranges travel to Cuba.

1983 Bomb explodes at Little Havana office of Continental National Bank, one of whose executives, Bernardo Benes, helped negotiate release of 3600 Cuban political prisoners.

1983 Miami City Commissioner Demetrio Perez seeks to honor exile terrorist Juan Felipe de la Cruz, accidentally killed while assembling a bomb. (Perez is now a member of the Miami-Dade County Public School Board and owner of the Lincoln-Martí private school where Elian Gonzalez is enrolled.)

1983 Gunfire shatters windows of three Little Havana businesses linked to Cuba.

1986 South Florida Peace Coalition members physically attacked in downtown Miami while demonstrating against Nicaraguan contra war.

1987 Bomb explodes at Cuba Envios, which ships packages to Cuba.

1987 Bomb explodes at Almacen El Español, which ships packages to Cuba.

1987 Bomb explodes at Cubanacan, which ships packages to Cuba.

1987 Car belonging to Bay of Pigs veteran is firebombed.

1987 Bomb explodes at Machi Viajes a Cuba, which arranges travel to Cuba.

1987 Bomb explodes outside Va Cuba, which ships packages to Cuba.

1988 Bomb explodes at Miami Cuba, which ships medical supplies to Cuba.

1988 Bomb threat against Iberia Airlines in protest of Spain's relations with Cuba.

1988 Bomb explodes outside Cuban Museum of Art and Culture after auction of paintings by Cuban artists.

1988 Bomb explodes outside home of Maria Cristina Herrera, organizer of a conference on U.S.-Cuba relations.

1988 Bomb threat against WQBA-AM after commentator denounces Herrera bombing.

1988 Bomb threat at local office of Immigration and Naturalization Service in protest of terrorist Orlando Bosch being jailed.

1988 Bomb explodes near home of Griselda Hidalgo, advocate of unrestricted travel to Cuba.

1988 Bomb damages Bele Cuba Express, which ships packages to Cuba.

1989 Another bomb discovered at Almacen El Español, which ships packages to Cuba.

1989 Two bombs explode at Marazul Charters, which arranges travel to Cuba.

1990 Another, more powerful, bomb explodes outside the Cuban Museum of Art and Culture.

1991 Using crowbars and hammers, exile crowd rips out and urinates on Calle Ocho "Walk of Fame" star of Mexican actress Veronica Castro, who had visited Cuba.

1992 Union Radio employee beaten and station vandalized by exiles looking for Francisco Aruca, who advocates an end to U.S. embargo.

1992 Cuban American National Foundation mounts campaign against the Miami Herald, whose executives then receive death threats and whose newsracks are defaced and smeared with feces.

1992 Americas Watch releases report stating that hard-line Miami exiles have created an environment in which "moderation can be a dangerous position."

1993 Inflamed by Radio Mambí commentator Armando Perez-Roura, Cuban exiles physically assault demonstrators lawfully protesting against U.S. embargo. Two police officers injured, sixteen arrests made. Miami City Commissioner Miriam Alonso then seeks to silence anti-embargo demonstrators: "We have to look at the legalities of whether the City of Miami can prevent them from expressing themselves."

1994 Human Rights Watch/Americas Group issues report stating that Miami exiles do not tolerate dissident opinions, that Spanish-language radio promotes aggression, and that local government leaders refuse to denounce acts of intimidation.

1994 Two firebombs explode at Replica magazine's office.

1994 Bomb threat to law office of Magda Montiel Davis following her videotaped exchange with Fidel Castro.

1996 Music promoter receives threatening calls, cancels local appearance of Cuba's La Orquesta Aragon.

1996 Patrons attending concert by Cuban jazz pianist Gonzalo Rubalcaba physically assaulted by 200 exile protesters. Transportation for exiles arranged by Dade County Commissioner Javier Souto.

1996 Firebomb explodes at Little Havana's Centro Vasco restaurant preceding concert by Cuban singer Rosita Fornes.

1996 Firebomb explodes at Marazul Charters, which arranges travel to Cuba.

1996 Arson committed at Tu Familia Shipping, which ships packages to Cuba.

1997 Bomb threats, death threats received by radio station WRTO-FM following its short-lived decision to include in its playlist songs by Cuban musicians.

1998 Bomb threat empties concert hall at MIDEM music conference during performance by 91-year-old Cuban musician Compay Segundo.

1998 Bomb threat received by Amnesia nightclub in Miami Beach preceding performance by Cuban musician Orlando "Maraca" Valle.

1998 Firebomb explodes at Amnesia nightclub preceding performance by Cuban singer Manolín.

1999 Violent protest at Miami Arena performance of Cuban band Los Van Van leaves one person injured, eleven arrested.

1999 Bomb threat received by Seville Hotel in Miami Beach preceding performance by Cuban singer Rosita Fornes. Hotel cancels concert.

January 26, 2000 Outside Miami Beach home of Sister Jeanne O'Laughlin, protester displays sign reading, "Stop the deaths at sea. Repeal the Cuban Adjustment Act," then is physically assaulted by nearby exile crowd before police come to rescue.

April 11, 2000 Outside home of Elian Gonzalez's Miami relatives, radio talk show host Scot Piasant of Portland, Oregon, displays T-shirt reading, "Send the boy home" and "A father's rights," then is physically assaulted by nearby exile crowd before police come to rescue.

[EFerrari]

59. Freedom fighting is hard work!

:sarcasm:

[Mika]

57. It would be nice if our candidates were informed.

My bet is that they are pandering for political contributions. :think:

http://www.poptel.org.uk/cuba-solidarity/democracy.htm

This system in Cuba is based upon universal adult suffrage for all those aged 16 and over. Nobody is excluded from voting, except convicted criminals or those who have left the country. Voter turnouts have usually been in the region of 95% of those eligible .

There are direct elections to municipal, provincial and national assemblies, the latter represent Cuba's parliament.

Electoral candidates are not chosen by small committees of political parties. No political party, including the Communist Party, is permitted to nominate or campaign for any given candidates.

The Cuban government was reorganized (approved by popular vote) into a variant parliamentary system in 1976.

You can read a short overview of the Cuban system here,
http://members.allstream.net/~dchris/CubaFAQDemocracy.html

Or a long and detailed version here,

Democracy in Cuba and the 1997-98 Elections
Arnold August
1999
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0968508405/qid=1053879619/sr=1-2/ref=sr_1_2/102-8821757-1670550?v=glance&s=books

[Judi Lynn]

62. Apparently some of the "dissidents" on the U.S. taxpayers' gravy train believe they can't afford NOT

to sign up for their bags of goodies. You only live once, you know!

Here's the total budget for 2004 I had in my Cuba files:

OVERT US GOVERNMENT FUNDING, for Cuban "dissidents" 2004

(1) Center for a Free Cuba $5,049,709
(2) Grupo de Apoyo a la Disidencia $4,650,000
(3) Cuba On-Line $4,240,000
(4) Int'l Republican Institute $2,773,825
(5) Freedom House $2,100,000
(6) U of Miami: Cuba Transition Project $2,045,000
(7) CubaNet $1,333,000
(8) FIU Journalism Program $1,164,000
(9) Pan-American Dev. Foundation $1,520,700
(10) Acción Democratica Cubana $1,020,000
(11) Loyola Univ: NGO Development $ 424,771
(12) Georgetown Univ. Scholarships $ 400,000
(13) Plantados: Support for Prisoners $ 400,000
(14) Mississippi Consortium Int'l Dev $ 399,952
(15) Latin American Mission: Dry Milk $ 392,976
(16) Carta de Cuba $ 289,600

Completed projects 5,806,570
TOTAL: $34,010,103

Source: Ana Radelat, "USAID funding for anti-Castro groups tops $34 million, "
CubaNews (Maryland),
November 2004, p. 9

Now THAT'S spending some U.S. tax dollars BIG TIME on something in Cuba which is illegal there, as it is in the U.S., as well. They are really raking it in.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

CUBA: Dissidents funded by US government


23 April 2003
BY ROBERTO JORQUERA

At an April 8 press conference in Havana, Cuban foreign minister Felipe Perez Roque presented vouchers, bank receipts and photos demonstrating the truth behind the charges against 75 dissidents found guilty of conspiring with the US Interests Section (USIS) at the Swiss embassy in Havana.

Perez exhibited vouchers of monies received last year from the US by several illegal organisations in Cuba. The Centre for a Free Cuba received US$2.3 million. The Task Force for the Internal Dissidency received US$250,000. The Program for Transition in Cuba, headed by Frank Calzon, received $325,000. Support Group for the Dissidency received $1.2 million from the International Republican Institute. Cubanet, an internet magazine, received $98,000 and the American Centre for International Labor Solidarity, whose mission is to persuade foreign investors not to invest in Cuba, received $168,575.

At a series of trials of Cuban dissidents in early April it was revealed that James Cason, the current head of the USIS, had conspired with them to provide information that Washington can use in its economic, political and propaganda war against the Cuban workers' and peasants' government.

On March 18, Cuban police began charging those involved in the US-funded dissident network. They were charged under a number of different articles in the Cuban penal code and subsequently sentenced to between 15 and 27 years imprisonment.

Article 5.1 of the penal code, under which many of those arrested were charged, states that any Cuban citizen “who seeks out information to be used in the application of the Helms-Burton Act, the blockade and the economic war against our people aimed at disrupting internal order, destabilising the country and liquidating the socialist state and the independence of Cuba, shall incur a sanction of deprivation of liberty”.

Article 6.1 states that any Cuban citizen “who gathers, reproduces, disseminates subversive material from the government of the United States of America, its agencies, representative bodies, officials or any foreign entity to support the objectives of the Helms-Burton Act, the blockade and the war, shall incur a sanction of deprivation of liberty”.

Others were charged under Article 91 of the penal code that states that any Cuban citizen “who executes an action in the interest of a foreign state with the purpose of harming the independence of the Cuban State or the integrity of its territory shall incur a sentence of 10 to 20 years of deprivation of liberty or death.”

The arrests of the dissidents came after an increase in tension between Washington and Havana over intensified activity by those the US government calls “independent journalists” and “human rights organisations” within Cuba.

Since September, Cason has played the most interventionist role of any previous US diplomat in Cuba. On March 10, the Cuban government delivered a note to Cason asking him to cease his provocative statements and his role organising meetings of Cuban dissidents. Two days later, Cason organised another meeting of dissidents at his residence.

More:
http://www.greenleft.org.au/2003/535/30410

[Infinite Hope]

63. Clinton isn't the story anymore. Good. n/t