Reply #186: In my third article it's mentioned that this payment for services [View All]

[Judi Lynn]

rendered under these circumstances is actually a crime elsewhere. Why should Cuba be encouraged to overlook something which would bring severe penalties in our own country?

The State Department calls these activities "outreach." However, under the United States Code, similar "outreach" by a foreign diplomat in the United States could result in criminal prosecution and a 10-year prison sentence for anyone "who agrees to operate within the United States subject to the direction or control of a foreign government or official (Title 18, section 951 of the United States Code).

Many DU'ers are very well acquainted with the long history of funding "dissidents" in Cuba, and also aware of the difference between the people actually cranking out propaganda boilerplate for pay, and dissidents who believe that progress in Cuba should be from within the government and society, not managed from Miami and their flunkies, rightwing psychopaths in Washington.

Why was not Elizardo Sanchez pitched into the slammer in the terrifying "dissident" roundup? Why has he been going all over the world giving lectures, etc., and continuing to maintain that Cubans should be the ones involved in Cuba's future, not outsiders?

Why is it sidestepped by Miami Cubans and their associates in Washington that there were government agents who worked FOR YEARS within the "dissident" group and these people provided records of payment by U.S. sources going back a long time. This information was provided during their trials. Only the ones who participated in actions against the Cuban government, in cooperation with U.S. sources were pitched in jail.

You forgot to acknowledge that they've "sprung" quite a few of them not too long after sentencing them.

You did indicate Fidel Castro inappropriately blames the embargo for Cuba's economic problems. That's been a claim tossed round by Miami Cubans forever.

I provided a decent response to that charge. I have far, far more material I will be more than happy to provide.

It's worth noting that your Cuban friend, as you designate Boner set up the highjacking of this thread from Hugo Chavez to Fidel Castro. Two different people, two different lives, two different sets of circumstancies, two different philosophies, from what I can gather.



Elizardo Sanchez

Why is Elizardo Sanchez hated by rightwing Cuban "exiles?" They dispise him. They are following a totally different agenda. They seek a complete seizure of the Cuban government and the power returned to them and their appointees.

Why did Miami Cuban resident and Bay of Pigs veteran, Eloy Gutierrez Menoyo decide a couple of years ago, on a vacation in Cuba, to stay there, and start his own political party, focused on change within the Cuban government? Why has he not been flung into the deep recesses of the darkest cavern? He's doing just fine, from what I can determine.

By the way, he was harrassed and cursed in Miami because he advocated dialogue with Cuba. He seems to be the only one of that group with any respectable intelligence.