"The first victory we can claim is that our hearts are free of hatred. Hence we say to those who persecute us and who try to dominate us: ‘You are my brother. I do not hate you, but you are not going to dominate me by fear. I do not wish to impose my truth, nor do I wish you to impose yours on me. We are going to seek the truth together’. THIS IS THE LIBERATION WHICH WE ARE PROCLAIMING."
Oswaldo José Payá Sardiñas (2002)
"My definition of terrorism is the systematic and deliberate attack, the murder, maiming, and menacing of innocents, of civilians, for political goals." ... "Those who fight with terroristic means end up being masters of terrorist states." - Benjamin Netanyahu, Firing Line (May 30,1986)
..."It describes so many other post-colonial states that came into existence from people who described themselves as freedom fighters, but used terroristic means and then ended up creating despotisms in their own societies. Its not unique to the Palestinians." - Bret Stephens, Firing Line (October 13, 2023)
This is the third blog entry on the unfolding events in Israel, and the
international reaction to the Hamas terrorist attacks against innocent
Israelis provides a profound reflection by journalist Bret Stephens on
the October 13, 2023 episode of Firing Line with Margaret Hoover. It is
required viewing, and available here.
The other entries raise different concerns, and are complementary to this one.
The first entry, a fact sheet was posted on October 11, 2023 which documents that the Jewish people are both the indigenous and ancestral people of the land they currently live in known as Israel.
A fourth, and related blog entry was posted on the eve of the October 7th attacks on the 50th anniversary of the surprise attack against Israel by Muslim states, North Korea, ad Cuba.
Glitz and glamour versus the harsh reality: Castro spies took part in murder conspiracy
The Cuban intelligence service should not be either romanticized or underestimated. It appears that the new film by Olivier Assayas errs on both counts.
They were
"compiling the names, home addresses, and medical files of the U.S.
Southern Command’s top officers and that of hundreds of officers
stationed at Boca Chica Naval Station in Key West."
This is not surprising because apologists tend to avoid open and transparent debates due to the weakness of their position, and the Castro regime and its agents of influence have conducted an effective disinformation campaign to smear the victims and white wash the Cuban spy network, better known as the Wasp Network (Red Avispa).
The Castro regime and their agents of influence have sought to portray these agents as unsophisticated and not a threat. "They were just trying to stop violent exiles from carrying out terrorist acts." However the two groups the Wasp Network targeted and infiltrated: Movimiento Democracia and Brothers to the Rescue were (and are) nonviolent. Secondly, the reality is that the Cuban intelligence service is incredibly sophisticated, ruthless and punches above its weight. This requires providing some historical context.
First, the Cuban intelligence service has gone by different names over the years. It was initially called the Direccion General de Inteligencia (DGI), later renamed the Direccion de Inteligencia (DI), but it was also known as G2. The Soviet intelligence service (KGB) played a role in its founding, but the much more effective and feared East German intelligence service (the Stasi) played a more formative role. John O. Koehler on page 297 of his book Stasi: the untold story of the East German secret police outlined the relationship between the Cuban and East German intelligence services.:
"The Stasi's first major task abroad was in Cuba, after Fidel Castro and Vice Premier Anastas Mikoyan signed the Soviet-Cuban pact on February 13, 1960, officially placing Cuba in the Soviet bloc. As Soviet arms shipments began, Mielke sent a number of Stasi officers of General Wolf's HVA to Havana. Led by Colonel Siegfried Fiedler, they assisted in setting up what became a first-rate intelligence service and an oppressive secret police. As a result Cuba's relations with East Germany developed as closely as those with the Soviet Union. Intelligence gathered in the United States by the Cubans was routinely shared with the Stasi. Much of the information contained in the dossier the Stasi maintained on President Ronald Reagan, for example, originated with the Cubans."
Fidel and Raul Castro were not shy about using unconventional methods, weapons and alliances. This also included drug trafficking. Havana has sought to smuggle narcotics into the United States since 1961, and been implicated time and time again. Indictments have been issued and documentaries produced that have caught the illicit activities of this dictatorship on film.
According to the UPI in 1982
the following high ranking Cuban officials were indicted by the United
States for operating a drug ring out of Cuba: Aldo Santamaria-Cuadrado,
head of the navy and a member of the Communist
Central Committee; Fernando Ravelo-Renedo, ambassador to Colombia;
Gonzalo Bassols-Suarez, a former staff member at the Cuban embassy in
Colombia; and Rene Rodriguez-Cruz, a Central Committee member and
president of the Cuban Institute of Friendship with the People.
In a 1991 Frontline documentary, Cuba and Cocaine,
U.S. Coast Guard Lt. Commander Jeff Karonis, stated, "We would observe
in the middle of the day an air drop going on inside Cuban waters. The
scenario would be for a small twin-engine airplane with maybe 1,000 to
2,000 pounds of cocaine to fly over Cuba, drop the drugs to a
predesignated rendezvous point to several boats. Then it would exit back
down off Cuba, and many times a Cuban military vessel would be in the
immediate vicinity, right on scene with them.''
''The
evidence of Cuban involvement in narcotics trafficking was becoming so
abundant that the regime moved to protect Fidel Castro by dissociating
him from those activities.''
Patricio and Tony de la Guardia: twin brothers implicated in drug trafficking
If one still has any doubts then take a look at the role the Castro regime played in Venezuela with regards to narcotics trafficking. Consider for a moment that one of Cuba's most high ranking spies was executed in a show trial allegedly for his role in massive drug smuggling, a short time after Manuel Noriega was taken prisoner by the Americans for drug trafficking.
Partners in Crime: Manuel Noriega and Fidel Castro
"Federal
prosecutors say Noriega traveled to Havana to ask [Fidel] Castro to
mediate a potentially deadly dispute with top members of Colombia`s
Medellin cocaine cartel. They say the cartel chiefs were upset because a
major drug lab had been seized in Panama despite payment of millions of
dollars in protection money to Noriega. According to the Noriega
indictment, Castro negotiated a peace accord between the cartel and
Noriega at the 1984 meeting. The allegation forms a cornerstone of the
racketeering and drug trafficking charges against Noriega."
This brings us back to the WASP Network (La Red Avispa). The network was made up of over forty officers and agents, four escaped to Cuba when the FBI began rounding them up. Ten were captured, and five of them pleaded guilty and cooperated with the prosecution. They are unpersons in Cuba.
The Cuban Five should have been the Cuban Ten
The remaining five
spies, who had refused to cooperate with U.S. authorities or plead
guilty went on trial and the evidence against them was overwhelming.
In the first excerpt it declares that their primary
objective was "penetrating and obtaining information on the naval
station located in that city." In the next excerpt intelligence
operatives communicated about "burning down the warehouse" and sabotaging Brothers to the Rescue equipment. Also requested that they attempt to identify who would be flying at certain times.
Ten captured Wasp Network spies
In the final excerpt operatives discuss plans to prepare a "book bomb" so that it evades post office security while at the same time phoning death threats to a man they describe as a CIA agent and then having him killed via the mail bomb.
The seriousness of these planned action items would be confirmed by the February 24, 1996 shoot down where two MiGs hunted Brothers to the Rescue
planes in international airspace and used air to air missiles to
destroy two of the planes killing two pilots and two passengers based on
intelligence supplied by the WASP network.
Why was Brothers to the Rescue targeted? Brothers to the Rescue volunteers risked their lives in the Florida Straits to rescue Cuban rafters and at the same time Brothers
to the Rescue challenged the
Cuban exile community to abandon both the failed violent resistance and
appeasement approaches in order to embrace strategic
nonviolence. This
path followed the way of Martin Luther King Jr. with both civil disobedience and a constructive program. What was the end result?
Brothers to the Rescue saved more than 4,200 men, women, and children
ranging from a five-day old infant to a 79 year old man, and rescued
thousands more during the 1994 refugee crisis.
The real story is that Havana targeted Brothers to the Rescue for slander,
infiltration, sabotage and extrajudicial execution on February 24, 1996
because it viewed the organization’s nonviolent approach as an existential threat to the Castro dictatorship. International organizations recognized that Armando Alejandre, Carlos Costa, Mario de la Peña and Pablo Morales
were murdered by agents of the Cuban government on February 24, 1996 when they were blown out of the sky by air-to-air missiles fired by a Cuban MiG. This was a criminal conspiracy organized by an outlaw regime.
The first of the participants in the conspiracy to be held accountable
for his actions was Gerardo Hernandez who was sentenced to life in
prison for conspiracy to commit murder.
Transcribed and translated excerpts from seized diskettes:
DAV-118 (E) RTF (AIRPORT.DIR)
WORK DIRECTIVES FOR OPERATION “AEROPUERTO”
1-. THE IDEA OF THE OPERATION:
SINCE THE VERY BEGINNING THE ESSENTIAL IDEA OF THE OPERATION WAS FOR A-32 TO JOIN WITH THE ILLEGAL CENTER THAT WAS BEING DIRECTED BY A-4 AND WAS FUNCTIONING IN THE STATE OF FLORIDA.
2-. OPERATIONAL OBJECTIVES:
THE FUNDAMENTAL OBJECTIVE OF THE OPERATION
IS TO ESTABLISH S/A A-32 IN KEY WEST FOR THE PURPOSE OF PENETRATING AND
OBTAINING INFORMATION ON THE NAVAL AIR STATION LOCATED IN THAT CITY.
ALSO, TO MAKE CONTACTS WHICH CAN PROVIDE US
WITH MILITARY, POLITICAL , BIOGRAPHICAL AND OPERATIONAL INFORMATION AS
AS TO STUDY COUNTERREVOLUTIONARY ORGANIZATIONS EXISTING IN THE AREA AND
CARRY OUT STUDIES ON THE OPERATIONAL SITUATION OF ROADS, MAINLY IN KEY
WEST.
3-. PARTICIPANTS
A-32 WILL BE THE MAIN PARTICIPANT AND HE WILL BE DIRECTLY UNDER I.O. A-4.
WORK DIRECTIVES FOR OPERATION “GIRÓN.”
1-. IDEA OF THE OPERATION
Reviewed by: LS Salomon
Declassified by: KMDJr / RJG
Cred. #10517
11/27/00 1
[…]
DHo-101 (E) CMA (Disk 17).wpd
OPERATION “PICADA’
OBJECTIVES:
1.-) TRY TO IMPEDE THE CONSUMPTION OF
INTENTIONS OF THE OPERATION P.A.L. (PAN, AMOR Y LIBERTAD) OF THE
COUNTERREVOLUTIONARY ORGANIZATION BROTHER’S TO THE RESCUE.
2.-) AFFECT AND DISCREDIT THE IMAGE OF SAID ORGANIZATION.
ACTIONS TO BE DEVELOPED:
1.-) PERFORM THE OPERATIONAL SITUATION
STUDY OF THE HANGAR AT THE OPA LOCKA BASE WHERE THE ORGANIZATION KEEPS
AND OPERATES THEIR PLANES.
2.-) THE POSSIBILITY OF BURNING DOWN THE
WAREHOUSE OF THE COUNTERREVOLUTIONARY ORGANIZATION, AND AFFECT THEIR
PLANES, MAKING IT SEEM LIKE AN ACCIDENT, NEGLIGENCE OR SELF DAMAGE.
KEEPING IN MIND THAT THIS PLACE MAY BE
SECURED AND THAT IN CASES LIKE THESE, INVESTIGATIONS ARE PERFORMED,
RUMORS WILL LEAK THAT BASULTO AND HIS PEOPLE CAUSED THE DAMAGE
THEMSELVES TO COLLECT THE INSURANCE AND GET MORE MONEY FROM THEIR
CONTRIBUTORS.
3.-) ATTEMPT TO DISABLE THEIR EQUIPMENT AND
TRANSMISSION ANTENNAE ON LAND, THE ONES THEY USE TO COMMUNICATE WITH
DURING THEIR MISSIONS, MAKING IT SEEM LIKE NEGLIGENCE.
NOTE: THESE THREE POINTS WERE REQUESTED OF CASTOR VIA RADIO MESSAGE. IT HAS TO BE DETERMINED WHAT HE HAS BEEN ABLE TO OBTAIN.
4.-) ANALYZE WITH CASTOR IF HE COULD INFORM
US AHEAD OF TIME (DETERMINE PRECISE TIME) WHEN THE BROTHER’S TO THE
RESCUE PLANES WILL BE TAKING OFF, WHO IS IN THEM AND IF THEY ARE GOING
TO LAND AT A SPECIFIC PLACE. WHAT PERSONNEL KNOWS THIS INFORMATION BEFOREHAND. AT SOME POINT, CAN IT BE DETERMINED WHO PROVIDED THIS INFORMATION.
5.-) ACCORDING TO THE FEATURES OF THE
PLANES, THEIR SECURITY SYSTEM, AS WELL AS THE HANGAR WHERE THEY ARE
LOCATED, IF AT ANY SPECIFIC MOMENT HE COULD HIDE SOME TYPE OF MATERIAL
AND KEEP IT THERE WITHOUT BEING DETECTED. WHAT SIZE WOULD THAT MATERIAL
HAVE TO BE
OPERATION PARALLELO:
THE OBJECTIVE OF THIS OPERATION IS TO DEVELOP A SERIES OF ACTIONS AGAINST CIA AGENT JESUS CRUZA FLOR.
THESE ACTIONS WOULD BE:
1.-) PHOTOGRAPH OR VIDEO TAPE HIS HOUSE, LOCATED AT:
1440 S. BAYSHORE DR.
MIAMI, FLORIDA 33131
TELEPHONE (305)358-0762
2.-) ONCE THE HOUSE IS PHOTOGRAPHED, MAKE VARIOUS THREATENING TELEPHONE CALLS (TWO OR THREE) CONCERNING HIS NEARING EXECUTION.
THESE CALLS WOULD BE AT DIFFERENT HOURS AND
DIFFERENT DAYS. TRY TO USE THE EQUIPMENT (CALLED SCRAMBLER OR SOMETHING
SIMILAR) TO CHANGE THE VOICE. PHONE BOOTHS SHOULD BE SELECTED THAT
ALLOW A QUICK EXIT OUT OF THE AREA. KEEP IN MIND THAT THE MEASURES IS
AGAINST A CIA AGENT AND HE COULD HAVE CALLER ID TO FIND OUT THE
TELEPHONE NUMBER THAT IS CALLING AND THE ADDRESS WHERE IT IS LOCATED. ON
THE OTHER HAND, KEEP IN MIND THE REST OF THE SECURITY MEASURES THAT
SHOULD BE TAKEN IN THE BOOTH, SUCH AS FINGERPRINTS, HAIR, ODORS, SALIVA,
DRESS, THAT THERE BE NO PERMANENT PERSONNEL IN THE AREA TO RECOGNIZE
THE CALLER. DO NOT LEAVE THE CAR WHERE IT CAN BE OBSERVED, THE DURATION
OF THE CALL. DO NOT RESPOND TO ANY QUESTIONS ASKED.
3.-) PREPARE AN ALLEGED BOOK-BOMB (BOOK,
CABLE, BATTERIES, PLASTIQUE, ETC., AND SEND IT VIA EXPRESS MAIL. KEEP IN
MIND TO WRAP THE BOOK IN A PROTECTIVE PAPER, WHICH IF THE ENVELOPE IS
PASSED THROUGH THE X-RAY MACHINES, IMPEDES THE DETECTION OF WHAT IS
INSIDE, AND THEREFORE IT WILL NOT BE ROUTED THROUGH THE MAIL.
KEEP IN MIND TO OBTAIN THE ENVELOPE, AS
WELL AS THE POSTAGE, MANY DAYS IN ADVANCE AND SELECT A BUSY PLACE. USE A
SPECIFIC CAMOUFLAGE.
STUDY THE MAILBOX WHERE THE PACKAGE WILL BE
DEPOSITED, AS WELL AS THE TIME IT WILL BE DEPOSITED. ANALYZE HOW YOU
WILL GET OUT OF THE AREA.
DURING THE ENTIRE PROCESS KEEP THE SECURITY
MEASURES IN MIND, SUCH AS THE ONES MENTIONED BEFORE, GIVING SPECIAL
ATTENTION TO FINGER PRINTS DURING THE ENTIRE PROCESS.
EVALUATE THE POSSIBILITY OF USING MANOLO TO MAKE THE CALL, THE TOPOS TO DEPOSIT THE ENVELOPE AND A-4 TO PREPARE THE BOOK-BOMB.
--------------
FEBRUARY 1, 1994
CONTACT AGENDA WITH 0-4 “ESELIN”
Reviewed by: LS Salomon
Declassified by: KMDJr
MM-#10517
9/24/00 2-6
This is not my first time commenting on a film by Olivier Assayas in which Edgar Ramirez had a starring role. Back in 2010 I saw the film Carlos and highly recommended it. However on this occasion, The WASP Network movie, leaves a lot to be desired, and this is without having seen the film. The description on IMDb reads "The story of five Cuban political prisoners who had been imprisoned by the United States since the late 1990s on charges of espionage and murder."
Technically they are political prisoners but they are not prisoners of conscience. The two should not be confused with each other, but are on too many occasions. Both Adolf Hitler and Fidel Castro had been political prisoners because they killed people in the service of a political purpose, were caught, tried in a court room of their peers, and justly imprisoned for their crimes. This is very different from a prisoner of conscience, someone jailed for non-violently exercising their fundamental human rights.
The Wasp Network had planned to burn down a airport hangar, first terrorize then send a mail bomb to kill someone, and provided material intelligence that assisted in the shoot down of two civilian planes on February 24, 1996 killing four. This came out during their trial. Gerardo Hernandez, the head of the network was convicted of murder conspiracy and espionage and condemned to a double life sentence.
There has been an effort to erase the crimes of Castroism. Both the Brazilian director, Olivier Assayas, and Mexican actor, Gael García Bernal, at the WASP network press conference, perhaps unintentionally, took part in this process when they claimed that the Cuban spies had done nothing violent and were not spying but were acting out of love. This is not reality, and a slander against the victims.
It is important to recognize that this was not an isolated incident or restricted to Cuba. The founder of the Cuban intelligence service and his spy networks have played and continue to play an important role in Venezuela today.
Cuban Comandant Ramiro Valdes and President Hugo Chavez
Ramiro Valdes went to Venezuela in 2010 supposedly to address the then already existing electricity crisis .In February of 2010 Ramiro Valdes,
then age 77, was hired "as a consultant for that country's energy
crisis" but his expertise is not in energy. He is viewed by some Cuba
experts as "the No. 3
man in the Cuban hierarchy."
Valdes in 2010 was the Vice President of the Council of State and Minister of
Communications in the Cuban government. His role in Communications was figuring out in 2007 a way to muzzle the internet, what he called a "wild colt of new technologies." Afro-Cuban
scholar Carlos Moore offered the following observation on Commander Valdes in 1961 and in 2010:
Ramiro Valdes was an inflexible, totalitarian and brutal person. He was
the most feared man in Cuba. The repressive policies of the regime were
crafted by him. Valdes
struck fear into the hearts of Cubans (even revolutionary ones). Today,
he apparently continues to be the same dogmatic, sectarian and brutal
person he was at the height of his power, but he is no longer the
powerful figure that he used to be.
In addition to domestic repressive forces there is a foreign presence heavily embedded in the Venezuelan military and intelligence services. The head of the opposition National Assembly of Venezuela
on May 15, 2016 complained, over social media, of the presence of
60 Cuban officers. This included a Cuban general, who he identified by
the last name Gregorich, who had a leadership role that included issuing
orders to Venezuelan troops. Capitol Hill Cubans identified the Cuban General as Raul Acosta Gregorich.
The Venezuelan regime, that Cuban spies and military helped to build, looks remarkably more similar with each passing year to the dystopian regime they created in
Cuba.
Obama policy marginalized dissidents, legitimized regime. Fidel Castro died and Miami celebrated. Meanwhile more repression in Cuba, new prisoners of conscience, and a more aggressive posture in Venezuela. The Trump Presidency has begun the process of undoing some of the previous Administration's Cuba policy.
Cuba in 2017 is a captive nation that since 1959 has been subjected to a
communist regime run by the Castro family. 11 million souls continue to have their lives coarsened by a totalitarian regime that systematically
violates the human rights of all Cubans. The Obama Administration's Cuba policy continued to unfold further marginalizing dissidents, legitimizing the Castro regime internationally until the final days of his presidency. Three decisions cemented the Obama White House's legacy on Cuba at the expense not only of a free Cuba but of the lives and security of American citizens.
On October 14, 2016 The White House issued a Presidential Policy Directive ( PPD) that calls
for the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) to
"support broader United States Government efforts to normalize relations
with Cuba, with Intelligence Community elements working to find
opportunities for engagement on areas of common interest through which
we could exchange information on mutual threats with Cuban
counterparts." A former NSA official wrote that "Obama just opened the door for Castro's spies."
On January 12, 2017 The White House released a "Statement by the President on Cuban Immigration Policy"
that does two concrete things: Further restricts the Cuban Adjustment
Act and ends the Cuban Medical Professional Parole Program. The Obama administration secretly negotiated with the Castro
regime and did not consult with Congress in restricting the Cuban Adjustment Act, which is US law.
FALN
placed more than 130 bombs in American cities — including one in New
York on Jan. 24, 1975. The explosive went off in busy Fraunces Tavern
during lunch hour. Four people died, including Frank Connor, a
33-year-old father. “I
faced Lopez six years ago at his parole hearing ... If he had expressed
any atonement, any sympathy or empathy ... we’d have recommended he be
released. But he didn’t,” said Joe Connor, who was a 9-year-old when his
father was killed. López got 10 years tacked onto his sentence when he
and a fellow FALN member were caught plotting a prison break that
included killing their guards.
Zach Dorfman in The Wall Street Journal wrote an important analysis on June 8, 2017 of how Fidel Castro supported terrorism in America and the role played by the dictatorship in funding and training the FALN. Long time Cuban activist Frank Calzon in a June 5, 2017 oped in The Miami Herald provided a partial summary of the Castro regime's support for international terrorism including the United States:
"A summary of Havana’s support for terrorism should include the heist of
$7 million from Wells Fargo in West Hartford, Connecticut, in 1983. The
money was taken to the Cuban Embassy in Mexico and turned over to the
regime. Castro’s Cuba has also been associated with the infamous
terrorist Carlos, who in 1975 kidnapped 70 hostages in Vienna (three
people were killed) at a meeting of oil ministers from OPEC. “Carlos”
who committed several murders in France was, according to The Guardian,
provided by Cuba “with passports, money and five apartments in Paris.”
As a result, the Quai d’Orsay expelled several Cuban diplomats."
Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/op-ed/article154513419.html#storylink=cpy
2016: Year of change at the top The past year ushered in a historic change that many had awaited with great anticipation and that was the death of Fidel Castro on November 25, 2016. Celebrations broke out in the streets of Miami where tens of thousands of Cubans and Cuban Americans went out to celebrate the tyrant's departure.
Cuban American voters played a role in ushering in another, but unexpected change, with Mr. Donald J. Trump winning the Presidency of the United States.President elect Trump had a clearer and historically more accurate view of Fidel Castro that he expressed in a statement following the dictator's death that read in part:
"Today, the world marks the passing of a brutal dictator who oppressed
his own people for nearly six decades. Fidel Castro’s legacy is one of
firing squads, theft, unimaginable suffering, poverty and the denial of
fundamental human rights."
Granting unilateral concessions to long term items that the Cuban government had wanted for decades as President Obama did over eight years did not endear him to the Castro regime. Instead they viewed him as weak and it manifested in high profile ways.
President Obama does the wave with Dictator Raul Castro at baseball game
“Obama! Obama! with what fervor
we’d like to confront your clumsiness, to give you a cleansing with
rebels and mortar, and send you a hat of lead to the head.”
Not fearing reprisals for bad actions the regime has been more aggressive at home and abroad engaging in violent repression to the detriment of Cubans and Venezuelans.
Human Rights
In 2016 there were 9,940 politically motivated arrests in Cuba documented by the Cuban Commission of Human Rights and
National Reconciliation. There are new prisoners of conscience. Compare this with 2009, the first year of the Obama Administration, there were just 869 arbitrary detentions
documented. During the eight years of the Obama White House there was more than an eleven fold increase in politically motivated arbitrary
detentions with 2016 being the worse. Religious repression escalated in Cuba in 2016 with pastors beaten up, Churches confiscated, and some demolished by the dictatorship.
Sirley Avila Leon denounces death threats against her son and mom
Update on 2015 machete attack victim
Sirley Ávila León on May 24,
2015 was the victim of a brutal machete attack carried out by
Osmany Carriòn, with the complicit assistance of his wife, that led to
the loss of her left hand, right upper arm nearly severed, and knees
slashed into leaving her crippled. Following the attack she did not
receive adequate medical care and was told quietly by medical doctors in
Cuba that if she wanted to get better that she would need to leave the
country. The regime had been embarrassed by a campaign she organized to keep a school open. She arrived in Miami on March 8, 2017 and thanks to the Cuban exile community a team of medical doctors attended to her and by September of 2017 Sirley was walking and returned home to Cuba. She found her home occupied by strangers and went to her mother's house. A short time later a camera was set up outside to spy on her. By mid October 2016 Sirley was getting death threats from state security and feared for her life. She fled back to the United States a couple of weeks later and sought asylum.
New prisoners of conscience
Cubans had to mourn the death of Fidel Castro or else face punishment. Oswaldo Payá Sardiñas was the founding leader of the Christian Liberation Movement (MCL) and when he was killed on July 22, 2012 along with the organizations youth leader, Harold Cepero Escalante a new leader was selected: Eduardo Cardet Concepción. The new MCL leader was traveling abroad when Fidel Castro died on November 25, 2016 and gave a frank assessment of the old tyrant's legacy in Cuba. When he returned to Cuba five days later he was beaten up in front of his family, jailed and in March of 2017 sentenced to three years in prison. An entire family: Maydolis Leyva Portelles, the mother, twin sisters Anairis, Adairis Miranda Leyva and their brother Fidel
Manuel Batista Leyva were taken away and detained for not grieving Fidel Castro's death and going out during the official period of mourning.
Jailed pro-democracy leader Eduardo Cardet of the Christian Liberation Movement
Dissident arrested and sent to psychiatric facility as punishment
On May Day in Cuba before the world's cameras a lone Cuban ran down the path the parade would take, waving an American flag he was tackled down by State Security and jailed. Daniel Llorente Miranda was charged with "public disorder and resistance" and was initially held at the Technical Department of Investigations of the Police in 100 and Aldabó. Weeks later he was transferred to the Comandante Dr. Bernabé
Ordaz Ducungé Psychiatric Hospital better known by its pre-revolutionary
name Mazorra.
Using
psychiatric facilities to torture dissidents is a practice that
originated in the Soviet Union but was adopted early on by the Castro
regime's intelligence services. Mazorra is a madhouse of death were patients have died by the score from exposure to the elements and neglect by hospital staff.
Students and faculty expelled for their beliefs Fếlix Yuniel Llerena López, a 20 year-old religious freedom
defender, was expelled
from the Enrique José Varona Pedagogical
University in Havana on May 8, 2017 following a visit to the United
States. 18-year-old journalism student, Karla Pérez González, was
expelled from Marta Abreu University of Santa Clara for “political
reasons” on April 12, 2017 and her expulsion ratified three days later. 24 year old David Mauri Cardoso was expelled from the University of Cienfuegos in February of 2017 after he honestly answered politically loaded
questions in what was supposed to be a Spanish literature exam.If you have a relative who is a
dissident, although you are not, you can still be fired from your job.
Professor Dalila Rodriguez from the University of Las Villas was expelled from her job on May 9, 2017 because her father, Leonardo Rodriguez is a dissident. These are not new tactics. Expelling students and denying them an education
for their political orientation has a long and shameful history in Cuba under the Castro regime too
often ignored.
Trade with Cuba collapsed during Obama Presidenecy
Venezuela: Cuba's colonial possession
On May 15, 2016 Henry Ramos Allup, the head of the National Assembly of Venezuela complained over social media of the leadership role played by a Cuban general and 60 Cuban officers over the Venezuelan military to maintain Maduro in power and continue exploiting Venezuela's natural resources. Despite this long time reality Secretary of State John Kerry in August of 2015 reported "the United States and Cuba are talking about ways to solve the
Venezuelan crisis."
Mary O'Grady writing in The Wall Street Journal in an oped titled "How Cuba Runs Venezuela" explained:
"Havana doesn’t care about Venezuelan poverty or famine or whether the regime is unpopular. It has spent a half-century sowing its ideological “revolution” in South America. It needs Venezuela as a corridor to run Colombian cocaine to the U.S. and to Africa to supply Europe. It also relies heavily on cut-rate Venezuelan petroleum. To keep its hold on Venezuela, Cuba has embedded a Soviet-style security apparatus." ... Every Venezuelan armed-forces commander has at least one Cuban minder,
if not more, a source close to the military told me. Soldiers complain
that if they so much as mention regime shortcomings over a beer at a
bar, their superiors know about it the next day."
The Obama Administration's view that the Castro
regime can be a partner in resolving the crisis in Venezuela indicates that it did not understand that it is the Cuban dictatorship that is causing the crisis and has existential reasons to continue driving the South American nation into becoming another Cuba. The new Trump Administration appears to be going in another and saner direction on both Cuba and Venezuela policy.
Cuba, National Security and the war on terror.
U.S. Marine Corps. Lt. Gen. Vincent R. Stewart, director of the Defense
Intelligence Agency reported to the Senate Armed Services Committee in his written submission
on May 23, 2017:
“Russia and
China are preeminent among the foreign intelligence threats to DoD and
U.S. national security through their robust use of traditional and
nontraditional collection efforts against U.S. personnel, operations,
and capabilities. Iran and Cuba also pose persistent foreign
intelligence threats to the United States. Cuba’s intelligence
apparatus, for example, maintains a robust capability and an intent to
give priority to collection on the United States.
The previous Administration's director of national intelligence had reported similar information in February of 2016 to the same committee that also highlighted Cuba as one of four main threats.
Undeclared military cargo Cuba tried to smuggle to North Korea
Smuggling heavy weapons to North Korea (2013)
Panamanian President Ricardo Martinelli tweeted
the above photo with the following text on July 15, 2013: “Panama captured North Korean-flagged ship from Cuba with
undeclared military cargo.” On March 6, 2014 a panel of UN experts reported that in the the shipment of smuggled weapons sent by Cuba to North Korea, hidden under bags of sugar, what was found, in part, was: "A
total of 25 standard shipping
containers (16 forty-foot and 9 twenty-foot) and 6 trailers were found,
for a total of about 240 tons of arms and related materiel."
The Cubans
were caught trying to provide the North Koreans with surface to air missile systems (SA-2 (C-75 Volga) and SA-3 (C-125 Pechora), two MiG
21 jet fighters, and 15 MiG-21 engines, eight 73 mm rocket propelled
projectiles
(PG-9/PG-15 anti-tank and OG-9/OG-15 fragmentation projectiles) to be
fired with recoil-less rifles, as well as a single PG-7VR round, a high
explosive antitank tandem charge to penetrate explosive reactive armor,
were also in the shipment.
The Panel noted "that some of the SA-2 and SA-3 parts could also meet the criteria defined in the list of items, materials, equipment, goods and technology related to ballistic missile programmes (S/2012/947), whose export and import by the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea are prohibited." Colombian government seizes smuggled weapons shipment bound for Cuba (2015)
On March 2, 2015 news broke
that the government of Colombia had seized a shipment of ammunition
bound for Cuba on a China-flagged ship due to a lack of proper
documentation. The BBC reported that
"Officials said about 100 tons of gunpowder, almost three million
detonators and some 3,000 cannon shells were found on board. The ship's
records said it was carrying grain products." Blogging by Boz, founder of Hxagon, a consulting and technology company that provides risk assessments and predictive analysis in emerging markets, reached
a reasonable conclusion: "Two big shipments of weapons seized in 20
months means that this is probably a regular occurrence." U.S. Hellfire missile ends up in Cuba (2014 - 2016)
A U.S. Hellfire missile,
used in NATO exercises in Europe, on its way back to the United States
ended up in Cuba by June of 2014. Despite repeated requests from the
Obama Administration, Cuba refused to return it until it became a public
embarrassment over a year later in February of 2016. This took place while the White House was secretly negotiating with the Castro regime to normalize relations.
Harboring cop killers and terrorists
Cuban diplomats for more than 50 years plotted and facilitated terrorist attacks, beat up
peaceful protesters, threatened and bitten protesters using homophobic language, and
participated in the cover up of extrajudicial killings. The case of escaped cop killer Joanne Chesimard harbored by the Castro regime is often mentioned in the press but there are many others.
Guillermo Morales who according to The Washington Post, "escaped from a hospital in New York while under police custody. He has admitted he was planting a bomb at a New York military installation when the bomb blew up, taking nearly all his fingers. He was facing 89 years in prison when he escaped. He is still believed to be living in Cuba." The New York Times reported on June 29, 2017 that Ishmael LaBeet (today goes by the name Ishmael Muslim Ali) who in 1973 "was convicted along with
four other men of murdering eight people in a shooting at the Fountain
Valley Golf Course in St. Croix, V.I., in 1972"and "in 1984, as he was being transferred from a court in the Virgin Islands back to prison on an American Airlines flight, he hijacked the plane and redirected it to Cuba, where he has lived ever since."
On July 8, 2017 The New York Times reported that there are an estimated 70 other fugitives from U.S. justice being harbored by the Castro regime. The Obama Administration removed Cuba from the list of state sponsors of terrorism but if the Castro regime today continues to harbor and host terrorists in Cuba shouldn't they return this terrorists and killers to face justice in the United States or failing to do that be returned to the list of terror sponsors?
My Administration's policy will be guided by the national security and
foreign policy interests of the United States, as well as solidarity
with the Cuban people. I will seek to promote a stable, prosperous, and
free country for the Cuban people. To that end, we must channel funds
toward the Cuban people and away from a regime that has failed to meet
the most basic requirements of a free and just society.
Ten spies that were captured and charged back in 1998 not five, but for the Castro regime the five that pled guilty and became witnesses for the prosecution are unpersons. They no longer exist in the official discourse of the dictatorship. They have been erased. As have the consequences of other Cuban intelligence operations on United States territory.
Alejandro Alonso, Linda Hernandez, Nilo Hernandez Mederos pled guilty and were all sentenced to seven years in prison. Joseph Santos Cecilia pled guilty and was sentenced to four years in prison and Amarylis Silverio Garcia de Santos pled guilty and was sentenced to three and a half years in prison.
The Cuban "WASP" spies arrested in 1998 used coded material on computer disks to communicate with other members of the spy network. From the 1,300 pages taken from those diskettes translated and used during the spy trial
the criminal and terrorist nature of the Cuban regime's operation in
South Florida emerges. The networks primary
objective was "penetrating and obtaining information on the naval
station located in that city." Intelligence
operatives communicated about "burning down the warehouse" that housed the nonviolent organization Brothers to the Rescue and sabotaging their equipment. The spies also helped to identify who would be flying at certain times.
The seriousness of these planned action items would be confirmed by the February 24, 1996 shoot down where two MiGs hunted Brothers to the Rescue
planes in international airspace and used air to air missiles to
destroy two of the planes killing two pilots and two passengers based on
intelligence supplied by the WASP network.
What was broken up
in South Florida on September 12, 1998 was a terror spy network with plans to damage property
and kill persons with the objective of planting terror. The network achieved part of their objective in providing information that led to four extrajudicial killings. George Orwell could have cited the so-called "Cuban Five" campaign as an example of newspeak on the order
of "War is Peace" only that it in this case the Castro regime declares "Terrorism is
Anti-Terrorism" "Lies are Truth"and "Terrorists are Heroes."
Meanwhile in Cuba, Lady in White, Sonia Garro, and her husband, Ramon Munoz, after being imprisoned without charges since March 18, 2012 now face a show trial and 12 and 14 year prison sentences respectively.
Truth and reconciliation also requires a measure of justice and agreement on the facts. Imprisoning nonviolent activists while celebrating terrorists as heroes are just two of many signs that the current dictatorship in Cuba is a long ways away from that.
Posts
