Cuban-American politicians against loosening travel, aid rules

[Judi Lynn]

Source: CNN

Cuban-American politicians against loosening travel, aid rules
From the CNN Wire Staff
August 21, 2010 -- Updated 0152 GMT (0952 HKT)

Washington (CNN) -- Five Cuban-American members of Congress expressed concern Friday over reports that the Obama administration is planning to announce rules loosening restrictions on travel and economic aid to Cuba. They asked the president to reconsider.

"We are deeply troubled that such changes would result in economic benefits to the Cuban regime and would significantly undermine U.S. foreign policy and security objectives," said U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Florida, ranking Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee; Sen. Robert Menendez, D-New Jersey; and U.S. Reps. Lincoln Diaz-Balart, R-Florida; Mario Diaz-Balart, R-Florida; and Albio Sires, D-New Jersey; in a letter to President Barack Obama.

"We believe the laws pertaining to U.S.-Cuba policy are clear, providing a concise road map of both permissible and prohibited transactions aimed at protecting and advancing U.S. interests," they said. "Meanwhile, changes such as those being reported in the media would undermine those priorities, could run contrary to U.S. statute, and would play directly into the hands of the Cuban tyranny.

"In light of the concerns and critical issues we have raised, we respectfully ask that you reconsider making any determinations changing current U.S.-policy toward the Cuban regime until the requirements in U.S. law are met."



Read more: http://edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/americas/08/20/us.cuba.travel/#fbid=q1U2OJnT7yd&wom=false

[Better Today]

1. Jeez, some people just aren't happy unless the hatred they cling to can be forced

on everyone. Cuban and Cuban Americans shouldn't have to pay the price for a countries politics by not being able to visit or send money to their friends and family in the "old country." I mean really, we seem to have no trouble with countries that are as bad or worse, like Saudi Arabia, Chad, Dafur, Somalia, parts of Pakistan, etc. Granted perhaps not to many choose to go to those places, I don't know, but as far as I'm aware there are no restrictions for those that choose to go.

[Billy Burnett]

6. Huh? Cuban Americans pay no price. They can go to Cuba at will ...

... and they can remit as much as they want to back home.

I don't understand your post.

Cubans who migrate to the US (legally AND illegally) receive perks not availably to any other immigrants.

It is Americans and Cubans in Cuba who pay the price, in that millions per year of American tax dollars are spent sanctioning and embargoing and funding Cuban opposition groups, and there is the lost billions of dollars in US trade with Cuba, and the negative impact that sanctions have had on US trade sectors (such as agricultural), not to mention the negative impact on availability of US products in Cuba.

Plus, American citizens and residents (without Cuban family in Cuba) are still travel banned by the US government.

Interestingly, according to polls of Americans taken over the last couple of decades there is popular support for lifting all sanctions on Cuba and American travel - but yet this is not reflected in America's "democracy".

[COLGATE4]

12. That's not accurate

Now, visits are limited to once every 2 years. Likewise, the amount of money they can send relatives there has been sharply curtailed. Also, certain American citizens and residents are permitted to visit Cuba (educational, cultural missions, etc.) You need to get your facts straight.

[Billy Burnett]

14. It is accurate. Prez Obama lifted the Bush limits on Cuban-Americans. Link

Fact ...

Obama allows unlimited travel to Cuba by relatives
http://articles.latimes.com/2009/apr/14/world/fg-cuba-policy14
Restrictions on money transfers to family
members on the island are also lifted.
Many trade restrictions remain in place.

April 14, 2009|Mark Silva and Tracy Wilkinson

WASHINGTON AND MEXICO CITY — The Obama administration announced Monday that it would permit unlimited travel to Cuba by Cuban Americans and lift limits on transfers of money to relatives on the Caribbean island while keeping in place many long-standing U.S. trade restrictions.

Anything else you need to get straightened out about my post?

[Downwinder]

15. Why should there be a difference between Americans of Cuban heritage

and Americans without Cuban heritage? Which group is the lessor citizen?

[Billy Burnett]

16. Americans of non Cuban descent are 2nd class citizens.

Cuban-Americans and Cuban resident aliens are fully endowed with their constitutional right to unfettered travel - including to Cuba.

The rest of us Americans and US resident aliens are travel banned by the US government, and our constitutional right to unfettered travel remains abrogated.

[Downwinder]

17. I did not realize that there were "classes" of citizenship?

I do not have any "citizenship papers" so I have never noticed. I have noticed a class structure based upon the amount of money in your pocket, but I effectively ignore that one.

[Billy Burnett]

19. Then try to just hop one of the many flights from Miami to Cuba.

No Cuban family in Cuba - No dice (unless you go through the hoop jumps of trying to get a special OFAC permit to go).

[Downwinder]

20. I doubt that I could board a flight to Miami. n/t

[friendly_iconoclast]

43. These restrictions are a violation of the Constitution (the Fourteenth Amendment, to be exact)

Depriving rights due to national origin (i.e., those not of Cuban descent) is wrong, wrong, wrong.

Now, please understand, I have never been a fan of the Castro brothers- but these reactionaries are only helping a government
they profess to despise.

At least some Cuban-Americans understand the meaning of: Cui bono? (Who benefits?)

[lumpy]

29. Red Face ?

x

[RC]

2. Humaninatian reasons alone should be enough to totally lift any and all restrictions.

This should not be about any business people still holding a grunge over lost income, but about the Cuban people.

[lumpy]

28. Truly. Those favored Cuban Americns don't give a damn about

the Cuban people only the desire to restore their lost financial advantages in Cuba.

[Demit]

3. I'm really tired of this contingent calling the tune for everybody.

I'm surprised Bob Menendez is one of the signers here. I thought he had a more enlightened viewpoint regarding loosening restrictions.

[Judi Lynn]

4. After seeing his position on Cuba for the last decade, I believe he decided to run as a Democrat

just so the Cuban "exile" lobby would be able to have high-ranking politicians in BOTH parties.

He has been fairly decent on a lot of legislation other than Cuba, and he assumes EXACTLY the positions, attitudes maintained by the most virulent, reactionary, rabid right-wing reactionary hardliner idiots in Miami. What a colossal roadblock he is on getting any progress on Cuban travel ban and embargo changes. Sheesh.

[Billy Burnett]

18. The pro and anti sanctions crowds are a mix of R's and D's on both sides.

And it has VERY little to do with what is going on in Cuba.

No matter the political party affiliation, who takes what side depends on how the issue can be milked for campaign contributions.

The whole "issue" of Cuba and Cuba sanctions is nothing more than a false "issue" created and maintained for political campaign contribution reasons.

For both sides.

Killing the US sanctions on Cuba would be killing off a campaign cash cow - for both sides.

No "issue" = no money.

No Cuba sanctions = no issue.

Status quo rules the day. It is the American way.

[tanyev]

5. Funny how there was never a travel ban to the Soviet Union or Eastern Europe

and communism in those countries eventually collapsed of its own accord. Or if you believe the version that gives all the credit to the mighty power of Ronald Reagan's voice, how come that didn't work in Cuba which is so much closer?

[Divernan]

7. These old Cuban expats see themselves as reclaiming their estates/plantations

The first wave of Cubans who quickly followed dictator Batista's lead in abandoning their country were the land-owning, elite upper class. These were the white, Spanish families who made their great fortunes on plantations (coffee, tobacco, but most importantly, sugar) exploiting the unpaid labor of African slaves. The next wave of expats were the "middle class" casino owners & operators, corrupt government officials and brutal police, who partnered with the Mafia. They also headed to Miami. At the time that Batista fled, he had stripped the national treasury, leaving the country bankrupt.

Sadly (sarcasm), those elite Cuban families who fled to Miami, could not take assets in the form of landholdings with them. However, they firmly believe they will reclaim these valuable holdings on the death of Castro - how is not exactly clear.

Until the last decades of the 18th Century, Cuba was a relatively underdeveloped island with an economy based mainly on cattle raising and tobacco farms. The intensive cultivation of sugar that began at the turn of the nineteenth century transformed Cuba into a plantation society, and the demand for African "slaves", who had been introduced into Cuba from Spain at the beginning of the 16th century, increased dramatically. The slave trade with the West African coast exploded, and it is estimated that almost 400,000 Africans were brought to Cuba during the years 1835-1864. In 1841, African slaves made up over 40% of the total population.
In the 20th century,
"The corruption of the Government, the brutality of the police, the regime's indifference to the needs of the people for education, medical care, housing, for social justice and economic justice ... is an open invitation to revolution."
— Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., when asked by the U.S. government to analyze Batista's Cuba

RELATIONSHIP WITH ORGANIZED CRIME
"Brothels flourished. A major industry grew up around them; government officials received bribes, policemen collected protection money. Prostitutes could be seen standing in doorways, strolling the streets, or leaning from windows. One report estimated that 11,500 of them worked their trade in Havana. Beyond the outskirts of the capital, beyond the slot machines, was one of the poorest, and most beautiful countries in the Western world."

— David Detzer, American journalist, after visiting Havana in the 1950s

Meyer Lansky became a prominent figure in Cuba's gambling operations, and exerted influence over Batista's casino policies. Lansky associate Chauncey Holt described Batista as "always in Lansky's pocket." Lansky also turned Cuba into an international drug trafficking port. The Mafia's Havana Conference was held on December 22, 1946 at the Hotel Nacional de Cuba. This was the first full-scale meeting of American underworld leaders since the Chicago meeting in 1932.

Lansky set about cleaning up the games at the Montmartre Club, which soon became the in place in Havana. He also wanted to open a casino in the Hotel Nacional, the most elegant hotel in Havana. Batista endorsed Lansky’s idea over the objections of American expatriates like Ernest Hemingway and the renovated casino wing opened for business in 1955 with a show by Eartha Kitt. The casino was an immediate success.

As the new hotels, nightclubs and casinos opened Batista wasted no time collecting his share of the profits. Nightly, the "bagman" for his wife collected 10 percent of the profits at Trafficante's interests; the Sans Souci cabaret, and the casinos in the hotels Sevilla-Biltmore, Commodoro, Deauville and Capri (partly owned by the actor George Raft). His take from the Lansky casinos – his prized Habana Riviera, the Hotel Nacional , the Montmartre Club and others – was said to be 30 percent.
SUPPORT OF US BUSINESS AND GOVERNMENT
"At the beginning of 1959 United States companies owned about 40 percent of the Cuban sugar lands - almost all the cattle ranches - 90 percent of the mines and mineral concessions - 80 percent of the utilities - practically all the oil industry - and supplied two-thirds of Cuba's imports.”

In a manner that antagonized the Cuban people, the U.S. government used their influence to advance the interests of and increase the profits of the private American companies, which "dominated the island's economy." As a symbol of this relationship, ITT Corporation, an American-owned multinational telephone company, presented Batista with a gold-plated telephone, as an "expression of gratitude" for the "excessive telephone rate increase" which Batista had granted at the urging of the U.S. government.

Earl T. Smith, former U.S. Ambassador to Cuba, testified to the U.S. Senate in 1960 that "until Castro, the U.S. was so overwhelmingly influential in Cuba that the American ambassador was the second most important man, sometimes even more important than the Cuban president." In addition, nearly "all aid" from the U.S. to Batista's regime was in the "form of weapons assistance", which "merely strengthened the Batista dictatorship" and "completely failed to advance the economic welfare of the Cuban people". Such actions later "enabled Castro and the Communists to encourage the growing belief that America was indifferent to Cuban aspirations for a decent life."

Senator John F. Kennedy, in the midst of his campaign for the U.S. Presidency, described Batista's relationship with the U.S. government and criticized the Eisenhower Administration for supporting him, on October 6, 1960:

Fulgencio Batista murdered 20,000 Cubans in seven years ... and he turned Democratic Cuba into a complete police state - destroying every individual liberty. Yet our aid to his regime, and the ineptness of our policies, enabled Batista to invoke the name of the United States in support of his reign of terror. Administration spokesmen publicly praised Batista - hailed him as a staunch ally and a good friend - at a time when Batista was murdering thousands, destroying the last vestiges of freedom, and stealing hundreds of millions of dollars from the Cuban people, and we failed to pressfor free elections.

[Octafish]

8. Thank you for an excellent overview, Divernan.

Cuba was where the United States will soon be.

[Billy Burnett]

13. Unfortunately, America's revolutionaries are tea baggers.

[Mika]

9. Before and after the 1959 Revolution.

Before the 1959 revolution

75% of rural dwellings were huts made from palm trees.

More than 50% had no toilets of any kind.

85% had no inside running water.

91% had no electricity.

There was only 1 doctor per 2,000 people in rural areas.

More than one-third of the rural population had intestinal parasites.

Only 4% of Cuban peasants ate meat regularly; only 1% ate fish, less than 2% eggs, 3% bread, 11% milk; none ate green vegetables.

The average annual income among peasants was $91 (1956), less than 1/3 of the national income per person.

45% of the rural population was illiterate; 44% had never attended a school.

25% of the labor force was chronically unemployed.

1 million people were illiterate ( in a population of about 5.5 million).

27% of urban children, not to speak of 61% of rural children, were not attending school.

Racial discrimination was widespread.

The public school system had deteriorated badly.

Corruption was endemic; anyone could be bought, from a Supreme Court judge to a cop.

Police brutality and torture were common.

___



After the 1959 revolution
http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/43b/185.html

“It is in some sense almost an anti-model,” according to Eric Swanson, the programme manager for the Bank’s Development Data Group, which compiled the WDI, a tome of almost 400 pages covering scores of economic, social, and environmental indicators.

Indeed, Cuba is living proof in many ways that the Bank’s dictum that economic growth is a pre-condition for improving the lives of the poor is over-stated, if not, downright wrong.

-

It has reduced its infant mortality rate from 11 per 1,000 births in 1990 to seven in 1999, which places it firmly in the ranks of the western industrialised nations. It now stands at six, according to Jo Ritzen, the Bank’s Vice President for Development Policy, who visited Cuba privately several months ago to see for himself.

By comparison, the infant mortality rate for Argentina stood at 18 in 1999;

Chile’s was down to ten; and Costa Rica, at 12. For the entire Latin American and Caribbean region as a whole, the average was 30 in 1999.

Similarly, the mortality rate for children under the age of five in Cuba has fallen from 13 to eight per thousand over the decade. That figure is 50% lower than the rate in Chile, the Latin American country closest to Cuba’s achievement. For the region as a whole, the average was 38 in 1999.

“Six for every 1,000 in infant mortality - the same level as Spain - is just unbelievable,” according to Ritzen, a former education minister in the Netherlands. “You observe it, and so you see that Cuba has done exceedingly well in the human development area.”

Indeed, in Ritzen’s own field, the figures tell much the same story. Net primary enrolment for both girls and boys reached 100% in 1997, up from 92% in 1990. That was as high as most developed nations - higher even than the US rate and well above 80-90% rates achieved by the most advanced Latin American countries.

“Even in education performance, Cuba’s is very much in tune with the developed world, and much higher than schools in, say, Argentina, Brazil, or Chile.”

It is no wonder, in some ways. Public spending on education in Cuba amounts to about 6.7% of gross national income, twice the proportion in other Latin American and Caribbean countries and even Singapore.

There were 12 primary school pupils for every Cuban teacher in 1997, a ratio that ranked with Sweden, rather than any other developing country. The Latin American and East Asian average was twice as high at 25 to one.

The average youth (age 15-24) illiteracy rate in Latin America and the Caribbean stands at 7%. In Cuba, the rate is zero. In Latin America, where the average is 7%, only Uruguay approaches that achievement, with one percent youth illiteracy.

“Cuba managed to reduce illiteracy from 40% to zero within ten years,” said Ritzen. “If Cuba shows that it is possible, it shifts the burden of proof to those who say it’s not possible.”

Similarly, Cuba devoted 9.1% of its gross domestic product (GDP) during the 1990s to health care, roughly equivalent to Canada’s rate. Its ratio of 5.3 doctors per 1,000 people was the highest in the world.

The question that these statistics pose, of course, is whether the Cuban experience can be replicated. The answer given here is probably not.

“What does it, is the incredible dedication,” according to Wayne Smith, who was head of the US Interests Section in Havana in the late 1970s and early 1980s and has travelled to the island many times since.

---

[Tempest]

27. Thank you Mika

That was some really good info.

[Scruffy1]

31. Grae post-thanks dor this

Of course I have always suspected the real reason for the embargo is that it would expose the American people to a government that works for the people not for the masters. Especially those that rape third world nations in the name of development. Oh all those benefits will flow from development.....later, much later. Just be patient and die.

[Mika]

33. I agree with you 100%

[Divernan]

32. Excellent summary.

Your long post and mine really only give a brief overview of Cuba's history and current situation. I got involved in a group project analyzing Castro's ascent to power when I was in graduate school back in the 70's, and it has been my dream since then to visit the island - even more so since I started scuba diving in the Caribbean, and that beautiful island remained a "forbidden zone" to US citizens - although I know various American divers who have flown there from Canada or Cancun. I once was signed up to go on a humanitarian/education mission to Habana, but then Bush clamped down even more and cultural visits were also forbidden.

[Mika]

34. Thanks for your post too.

I had visited Cuba several times as a youth and then on some work brigades as a young man, and then had spent a couple of semesters there studying marine biology with the UofMiami marine biology research group (when it was legal) in Cuba. I met and fell in love with a wonderful Cuban woman and her family. After many trips, including a cycling tour of Cuba end-to-end, with me going there and her coming here (Miami), we got married. I lived in Cuba for about 2 years in one stretch, and that included the entire 1997-98 election cycle. I've seen and lived Cubañia - and I love it

Cuba is NOTHING like the picture that the RWnutz and RW Cubano exiles depict. Nothing.


:hi:

---

[Judi Lynn]

37. Too bad the loudest Cuba-bashers have never taken the time to learn the facts you've posted.

The reality is totally different from the package they've bought!

May I add some information I stumbled across a few minutes ago regarding US media manipulation of the "minds" of the gullible?

U.S. Aggression & Propaganda Against Cuba
Why the unrelieved U.S. antagonism toward Cuba?
by Michael Parenti
Z magazine, September 2004

~snip~
Manipulating Public Opinion

How the corporate-owned capitalist press has served in the crusade against Cuba tells us a lot about why the U.S. public is so misinformed about issues relating to that country. Following the official White House line, the corporate news media regularly denies that the United States harbors aggressive designs against Cuba or any other government. The stance taken against Cuba, it was said, was simply a defense against communist aggrandizement. Cuba was repeatedly condemned as a tool of Soviet aggression and expansionism. But now that the Soviet Union no longer exists, Cuba is still treated as a mortal enemy. U.S. acts of aggression-including armed invasion-continue to be magically transformed into acts of defense.

Consider the Bay of Pigs. In April 1961, about 1,600 right-wing Cuban ëmigrés, trained and financed by the CIA, and assisted by hundreds of U.S. "advisors," invaded Cuba. In the words of one of their leaders, Manuel de Varona (as quoted in the New York Daily News, January 8, 1961), their intent was to overthrow Castro and set up "a provisional government" that "will restore all properties to the rightful owners." Reports of the impending invasion circulated widely throughout Central America. In the United States, however, few people were informed. The mounting evidence of an impending invasion was suppressed by the Associated Press and United Press International and by all the major newspapers and newsweeklies-in an impressively unanimous act of self-censorship.
Fidel Castro's accusation that U.S. rulers were planning to invade Cuba was dismissed by the New York Times as "shrill... anti-American propaganda," and by Time magazine as Castro's "continued tawdry little melodrama of invasion." When Washington broke diplomatic relations with Cuba in January 1961, the New York Times explained, "What snapped U.S. patience was a new propaganda offense from Havana charging that the U.S. was plotting an 'imminent invasion' of Cuba." In fact, the Bay of Pigs invasion proved to be something more than a figment of Fidel Castro's imagination.

Such is the predominance of the anti-communist orthodoxy in U.S. public life that, after the Bay of Pigs, there was a total lack of critical discussion among U.S. political figures and media commentators regarding the moral and legal impropriety of the invasion. Instead, commentary focused exclusively on tactical questions. There were repeated references to the disappointing "fiasco" and "disastrous attempt" and the need to free Cuba from the "communist yoke." It was never acknowledged that the invasion failed not because of "insufficient air coverage," as some of the invaders claimed, but because the Cuban people, instead of rising to join the counterrevolutionary expeditionary force as anticipated by U.S. leaders, closed ranks behind their Revolution.

Among the Cuban-exile invaders taken prisoner near the Bay of Pigs (according to the Cuban government) were people whose families between them had previously owned in Cuba 914,859 acres of land, 9,666 houses, 70 factories, 5 mines, 2 banks, and 10 sugar mills. They were the scions of the privileged propertied class of pre-revolutionary Cuba, coming back to reclaim their substantial holdings. But in the U.S. media they were represented as dedicated champions of liberty-who had lived so comfortably and uncomplainingly under the Batista dictatorship.

More:
http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Caribbean/US_Aggression_Cuba.html

[Billy Burnett]

38. Good find, Judi.

Thanks for taking the time to root it out and post it.

Cuba did have a lot of TV's before Castro ... two sets in every room of the plantation mansions.

Now, most everyone has one ...


:hi:

[mike r]

10. You nailed it!

Thanks for the historical perspective.

[ensho]

11. kick

nt

[Tempest]

26. +100000. n/t

[Judi Lynn]

35. What a pleasure seeing your focused, factual post. It's information US citizens have been deprived

by our own corporate polically programmed media from the first.

I appreciate your last paragraph in mentioning the enormous number of politically murdered people under Batista, and the "police state."

It has always been so strange hearing our right-wing propagandists passing this around as a charge against the post revolutionary Cuba. It's precisely the REASON for the revolution against Batista/Mafia/US rule in the first place! They're only approximately 60 years late with their perceptions of Cuba!

[Billy Burnett]

39. A lot of the Batista death squad activity was being blamed on the pro Castro/revolutionaries.

Anyone having this sign up during 1957/58 showed support for the mountaineers (Fidel and Raul Castro, Che, etc), and was taking a great risk ...

http://thumb10.shutterstock.com.edgesuite.net/display_pic_with_logo/3525/3525,1255539704,7/stock-photo-wooden-propaganda-sign-viva-fidel-in-cuban-countryside-38863390.jpg

[Judi Lynn]

45. It figures, doesn't it? The US citizens have been TOTALLY in the dark about the Batista era

deathsquads, wouldn't you say? THAT material either is stumbled across while reading, or located through hard researching, it has NEVER been acknowledged by the "exile" community or the U.S. corporate media.

I've been horrified by the acts they've committed from the first until the last one I've learned. Horrified. That death squad activity continued when the idiots moved to Florida after the revolution. The operator of a death squad, "Masferrer's Tigers," Rodolfo Masferrer, was blown up in Florida by a car bomb placed by other "exiles" from a warring faction. In Cuba, he was a Senator, and a newspaper publisher, and he and his henchmen terrorized Cubans with stark brutality. Good Batista supporter, of course, a man who forced victims to dig their own graves first before they were murdered and thrown into them. Put people in burlap bags, set them on fire. Picked up people in their speeding cars, tortured, murdered them, and threw them back out, or hung them from light poles, or even quartered them and hung their pieces in trees, as they did in Saniago de Cuba.

Only 90 miles from Floria. Not a peep here in our corporate media about these monsters. Not one bleeping word. The U.S. government supported that regime, instead! They kept the dissidents repressed the right way: they tortured and killed them.

[The abyss]

44. Well stated!

Excellent historical background!

[flamingdem]

51. Some families left a relative in Cuba so that later they could reclaim property

This is something I heard about when I was there. Castro did not strip all land or homes and many mansions are still in the name of one of the original owners. So those in Miami plan to build upon those holdings.

If you want to acquire the deed to a home it's not that difficult. There are ways if the foreigner contributes money but the deed must be in the name of a Cuban.

Many foreigners "fall in love" with a Cuba, get into such an arrangement and find out they have no rights when it comes to a break up.

[L0oniX]

21. Hey Miami STFU!

[Billy Burnett]

22. You STFU. (Not really.)

I live in Miami.

A majority of Miami-Dade county residents support ending the sanctions and all travel restrictions - including the Cuban-American demographic.

Don't endlessly fall for the media created canard that the intransigent minority represents the moderate majority of Miami.

:hi:

[L0oniX]

23. Sorry ...I assumed that most people would know I wasn't refering to all people of Miami.

[Downwinder]

24. Have there been any court challenges to the restrictions? n/t

[Odin2005]

25. The imperialist terrorists in Miami can go STFU.

[defendandprotect]

30. Quite a few of these Cuban members are RABIDLY anti-Castro .....

insanely so --

HOWEVER, I'm shocked to see my Sen. Menendez among them!!!

He's otherwise seemed rather sane!

[Billy Burnett]

36. Rabid to the point of terrorism.

Terrorists "Made in Miami, USA"
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=14097

[Judi Lynn]

40. Great information, much still totally unfamiliar to most US citizens who believe they are informed.

What a shame!

It's important for people who know about the 5 Cuban heroes who dared to go to Miami to try to head off future terrorist attacks from the "exile" community upon their relatives, neighbors, countrymen/women had collected their information in good faith, and took it to the Miami FBI, in total trusting ignorance, expecting the FBI would follow the law and arrest these men, only to find out to their horror they were ignored. Later, when they were back in their homes and apartments they were suddenly arrested, taken to jail, tried in a courtroom backed with the very "exile" terrorists they had attempted to disrupt, themselves, sitting there grinning at them.

As your article highlights, 5 U.S. generals TESTIFIED the Cuban nationals did NOT attempt to spy upon U.S. military information or property, nada. Yet they've been imprisoned, put in isolation, all scattered across the country from each other, not allowed to see their wives, mothers, children at visiting hours, have been appealed, and won, yet kept in prison, until the government could shop judges and try the case again until it finally won an overturn of the appeal. Sad, SAD, sad, sad, sad, dirty business.

[Billy Burnett]

41. Don't you have a link about Miami being #1 on the FBI terra list?

Sorry to ask, but I REALLY need to bookmark that one, if you have it.

Thanks, Judi. :hug:

[Judi Lynn]

42. Here's something I found, although it's not my original source,

which is inaccessible until I get my files open again when my desktop gets repaired! (Going nuts without it, in the meantime.)

Cuba and Alleged Terrorism: The Facts

Since the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Centre and Pentagon, there has been a concerted effort on the part of hard-line Cuban émigrés in Miami and their political allies in Washington to describe Cuba as part of an 'international terrorist network' and to suggest that the United States must act against it as part of its response to September 11. It is scandalous that these groups should try to take advantage of the September 11 tragedy to advance their own narrow agenda when international co-operation among all nations willing to work in the struggle against terrorism is of paramount importance if innocent lives are to be saved in the future. Below is a point-by-point response to the allegations to demonstrate that they lack any credible evidence and that they conveniently ignore and distort the facts.

Terrorism in Miami

Some of the same hard-line émigrés who now accuse Cuba of involvement in terrorism supported -and in some cases still support- Cuban émigré terrorism in the U.S. and against Cuba.

Militant hard-line émigré activities caused the FBI to designate Miami the "terror capital" of the United States. One of the most infamous attacks, in 1976, was that on Emilio Milian, who, on a Miami radio station, denounced terror tactics and intimidation by extremist émigrés. Milian survived, but lost both his legs in the car bomb attack.

Countless other terrorist attacks have taken place in Miami over the years, including the bombings of: the Cuban Museum of Art (in 1988 and again 1990); the home of Maria Cristina Herrera, the organiser of a conference on U.S.-Cuba relations (1988); Marazul Charters, which arranges travel to Cuba (1989 and again in 1996); Little Havana's Centro Vasco, prior to the performance of Cuban singer Rosita Fornes (1996); the Amnesia nightclub before a performance by Cuban singer Manolín (1999).<1>

More:
http://www.spectrezine.org/global/cubaandterrorism.html

Here's a partial list of Cuban exile terrorist actities in Miami only up to 2000, when the article was written:

The Burden of a Violent History

~snip~

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.More:http://www.miaminewtimes.com/2000-04-20/news/mullin/1/

~~~~~

The Dialectics of Terrorism - Peter McLaren
excerpted from the book
Masters of War
Militarism and Blowback in the Era of American Empire
edited by Carl Boggs
Routledge, 2003, paper

~snip~
p165
John Pilger
There is no "war on terrorism." If there was, the SAS would be storming the beaches of Florida, where more terrorists, tyrants and torturers are given refuge than anywhere in the world.

p165
Bertell Ollman
I'm still waiting for (Bush) to declare war on Florida. Miami is a haven for terrorists, it's the terror capital of the world. All these Latin American and Cuban terrorists go there to refresh, to retire, to conduct their business. If Bush wants to make a war on terror he should start by bombing Miami and arresting the governor of Florida, even if he is his brother.... And after he's successfully done away with terrorism in Miami, then we'll talk about the next step.

More:
http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Militarization_America/Terrorism_MOW.html

[defendandprotect]

48. Thanks also for your info -- and DU'ers should really be hearing more about all of this ....

[defendandprotect]

46. Thanks -- interesting read -- and completely agree . . .

Didn't know about this ....

Miami militants are responsible for hundreds of killings and assassinations in Havana and other cities.

In fact, I had read a long time ago that more liberal Cubans were coming to Miami and, if I recall

correctly, there was some optimism about a more truly democratic approach to Cuba because of that?

Terror organizations in Miami are posing a danger not only to the Latin American countries and its leaders. Everyone who knows the truth about the life in Miami understand that there are no 'accidental' deaths: if a person dares to think and talk differently and defend his views, he is doomed to be killed.

The long list of victims features those who wanted better relations with Havana, who welcomed Bolivarian reforms in Venezuela or supported socialists in Nicaragua and Ecuador. For example, the staff of La Replica magazine were intimidated several times for their dialog with Cuba. Most Americans cannot even imagine what cruelty and extremism are hidden under the mask of luxury and resort entertainment.

I've always been concerned about these people gaining political power in our Congress --

the extremism is frightening to watch, in fact.

I've really been hoping for a turn around in our relations with Cuba --

and rather shocked re Menendez ---

[jmcauliff]

47. DU Readers Need to Push Back Against Cuban American Ultras

The coddled quintet of Cuban Americans in Congress are indeed "deeply troubled", but it is not by "economic benefits to the Cuban regime".

The roughly 100,000 Americans who will probably go for people-to-people non-tourist visits are insignificant financially to a country that received 2.4 million foreigners last year.

What makes their travel a problem for the shrinking minority of hard liners in the Cuban American community is that the travelers will bring back a far more complicated view of Cuba and the transition taking place there already and think that any travel restrictions and the embargo as a whole are ludicrous and counterproductive.

However the intensity of their feeling and the amount of campaign contributions being sent around the country from Miami create a real inhibition to travel liberalization by the Obama Administration.

This instantly transferred letter to the President is one way to counteract their baleful backward looking influence
http://www.change.org/petitions/view/mr_president_be_bold_on_people_to_people_travel_to_cuba

John McAuliff
Fund for Reconciliation and Development

[defendandprotect]

49. PETITION done . . .. HERE .....

Don't think too many are going to notice it, however --

The coddled quintet of Cuban Americans in Congress are indeed "deeply troubled", but it is not by "economic benefits to the Cuban regime".

The roughly 100,000 Americans who will probably go for people-to-people non-tourist visits are insignificant financially to a country that received 2.4 million foreigners last year.

What makes their travel a problem for the shrinking minority of hard liners in the Cuban American community is that the travelers will bring back a far more complicated view of Cuba and the transition taking place there already and think that any travel restrictions and the embargo as a whole are ludicrous and counterproductive.

However the intensity of their feeling and the amount of campaign contributions being sent around the country from Miami create a real inhibition to travel liberalization by the Obama Administration.

This instantly transferred letter to the President is one way to counteract their baleful backward looking influence
http://www.change.org/petitions/view/mr_president_be_bo...

John McAuliff
Fund for Reconciliation and Development

[classysassy]

50. If Chinese Americans

disapprove of American trade with China would that be in the news?tell those Castro hating clowns to get lost.