Exile group: Not enough money getting to Cuban dissidents

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Miami Herald

Posted on Thu, May. 15, 2008
Exile group: Not enough money getting to Cuban dissidents
BY ALFONSO CHARDY

In an already charged election year when U.S. policy toward Cuba remains a key campaign issue, a prominent exile group is calling on the Bush administration to change how it operates Cuba democracy programs so that millions of dollars can reach dissidents on the island.

In the 21-page report to be released Thursday, the Cuban American National Foundation says that less than 17 percent of $65 million in federal Cuba aid funds spent during the past 10 years went to ''direct, on-island assistance.'' The bulk of the money, the report says, went to academic studies and expenses of exile organizations, mostly in Miami and Washington.
(snip)

Francisco ''Pepe'' Hernández, the foundation president, said the report was not meant as an attack on the U.S. program. ''I have been connected to these programs and these ideas from the very beginning,'' said Hernández, who wrote an opinion column published Thursday in The Herald. ``These programs have been misused, and to see that only a small amount is reaching the island certainly drives us to do something about it.''

At least two of the organizations that receive USAID money blasted the report and said it would help Cuba's communist regime.

The Cuban Democratic Directorate, or Directorio, called the report a ``smear campaign.''
''We are profoundly disappointed and dismayed that CANF has chosen this time in history to attack and lie about a fellow Cuban pro-democracy organization,'' said Orlando Gutierrez, the Miami group's national secretary.

Frank Calzón, a former foundation official who now runs the Center for a Free Cuba in Washington, accused the foundation of harboring a communist spy.



Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation/story/534166.html

[gratuitous]

1. So the U.S. should be directly funding opposition groups in other countries?

Gee, I wonder how this shoe would fit on the other foot?

[no_hypocrisy]

2. They didn't open a Paypal account????

[Judi Lynn]

3. More background on Bush/Miami "exiles" schemes against Cuba:

Posted by DU'er magbana:

Agent Kolar, Bush’s new hope for destabilizing Cuba
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=405x3730

[Vidar]

4. Give 'em an innertube & tell 'em to swim back to Cuba.

[Mika]

5. They aren't welcome in Cuba.

The US taxpayers have funded these fascists for many decades, both Dem and repig admins - they belong to us. They are our terrorists.
Cuba has suffered enough.


Some Cuban billboards in front of the US interests section in Havana.

[Judi Lynn]

7. Priceless, Mika! First time look at the billboards they put across from the US Interests-paid agents

center! Now when their professional dissidents show up for meetings, to pick up their material perks, they'll have something to think about concerning their host government.

[acmavm]

6. These leeches have been sucking American taxpayer blood

for waaaaayyyyy toooooooo looonnnnnnggggg!

Not another dime.

[darue]

8. to hell with these terrortists and terrorist symps. we don't need their votes. hell, deport them

bastards have the never to celebrate that SHIThead carilles? Well fine, day one of the next administration he's arrested and headed to hell on earth for some extraordinary interrogation.

[Judi Lynn]

9. He'd be very familiar with that routine, considering he used to have people tortured, himself, when

he got the opportunity to serve as the head of intelligence in Venezuela back several decades. There are people still living who were tortured because he ordered it for them.

(It's somewhat interesting that so many Cuban "exiles" were in and out of Venezuela in the "good old days:" Otto Reich, head of Reagan's propaganda "Office of Public Diplomacy," was the U.S. ambassador to Venezuela back then, as well. He was later sneaked into office in the _Bush administration as a "recess appointment" when the Senate was on vacation, after they refused to confirm his nomination based on his notorious history as a propagandist with Reagan.)

[darue]

10. Otto Reich - what a name. n/t

[LiberalFighter]

11. Who receives the aid? The cuban exiles that lost in their revolt?

[Judi Lynn]

12. The "exiles" who raced to Miami immediately after the revolution were the ones who were connected

to the Batista government against who the entire country rose up and rebelled.

There is a very costly anti-Castro hate industry in Florida which is entirely subsidized by the U.S. taxpayers. Even the Cuban economic immigrants who come to the States now are given a full array of special perks not offered to any other national group at any time, including instant legal status the moment they arrive on dry land, with no border guards, no INS people looking for them to throw them in jail and deport them as they do with other immigrants with brown or black skins, they also get instant work visas, social security, access to food stamps, Section 8 Housing, welfare, financial assistance for education, medical treatment, etc., etc., etc.

In Miami there are institutions like Radio Marti and TV Marti which together cost over 30,000,000 dollars per year to operate, completely staffed and programmed by Cuban Americans, allegedly sending desperately need information to Cuba, as they claim Cubans don't get any information from the outside world. This would be incorrect, as was pointed out years ago, by Democratic Congressman from Colorado, David Skaggs, who attempted to bump these economic black holes out of the budget. He was threatened by Cuban American Rep. Lincoln Diaz-Balart who told him he would make sure Skaggs lost every project for his state which he held near and dear to him, and he set to work knifing Skaggs in the back, and stripping away Colorado projects. When he was finished, he and the Cuban American National Foundation took out advertising in Colorado newspapers and notified Colorado residents that David Skaggs had lost the projects, and the next election David Skaggs was not elected.

People who have been to Cuba are aware that Cubans sit in their living rooms and watch tv from the States with conventional antennas. They listen to American radio stations. They all get radio and tv stations from Central America, other islands, etc, etc. A Canadian DU'er who used to post here told us she could pick up US radio stations on her Walkman when she went there on vacation.

A DU'er from Miami whose wife was Cuba used to watch American tv with her family in their living room. They DON'T NEED Cuban-Americans to scoop in $30,000,000.00 per year and design tv and radio programs to beam to them from a U.S. airplane which flies above the island sending the signals down in such a way they hope to keep Cuba from blocking them.

They have a large number of various organizations they operate, using U.S. taxpayer money, claiming it is all for the liberation of Cuba, yadda yadda yadda, etc. Enormous chunks of change are allocated continually by the U.S. Congress to be used for "freeing Cuba" projects, there are university programs ongoing in South Florida plotting and planning the Cuba they want to control as soon as anything shifts and they can get down there and seize power.

There are some organizations which scout out and sponsor various Cuban citizens, giving them money, supplies, food, etc. in exchange for their work sending out custom made articles they all pretend are journalistic productions, and the writers are "independent journalists" (not independent of their American sponsors, of course!) They also find citizens and set up small arrangements of books in their houses, pretending they are "independent librarians" who are needed to get books to Cubans which would otherwise be denied them. Cuba is the most literate country in Latin America, highest literacy rate, most educated population. They have a HUGE number of available books, and they DON'T ban books there, although in Miami, the Cuban American parents periodically attempt to keep books out of their libraries and schools which they believe make Cuban look less sinister than they would like. Theyve had a large knock-down, drag-out in the last couple of years over a child's travel book, called "Vamos a Cuba," or something similar, as one of a series of many books, all of them telling about a different country.

The "independent journalists" and "independant librarians" are all sent provisions, money, etc. There are other "dissidents" who receive money from the U.S. taxpayers, funneled to them through various Miami Cuban American groups. This is illegal in Cuba, as it is in the United States, as well. Working in ways to destabilize or provoke unrest against a government while taking money from another country is ILLEGAL here, as well.

When they have found people like that they've put them in jail. They had several Cubans who worked among them and got the goods on them, with paper trails to bank accounts which received money sent to them from the U.S., routed through Canada, etc., and had check numbers, dates, going back for 10 years. One of them worked as a personal secretary for a prominent outspoken Cuban with personal ties to the Cuban Americans in Miami, Marta Beatriz Roque, and she was tried and sent to prison. She spent a brief time there, then insisted she was ill, and was released.

http://www.cartadecuba.org/Rene,Felix,MartaAPSC.JPG


Marta visiting the U.S. Interests Section
On edit: this is Marta Beatriz Roque,
former professor of mathematics and statistics

There are other dissidents who do not take money from the U.S. and they simply don't get taken to jail, as they haven't broken Cuban laws.

The problem with so much money being poured into South Florida is that it's a huge outlay of money which actually belongs TO THE U.S. TAXPAYERS, not to them.

Last year they were embarrassed when it was discovered they were buying wierd things to send to "dissidents" in Cuba, like play stations, leather jackets, cashmere sweaters (allegedly to wear in tropical Cuba) Godiva chocolates, brandy, or some liquor I can't remember, and god only knows what else. They made stupid explanations but none of it sounded credible, clearly.

They also have been loading them down with cell phones, fax machines, computers, office furniture, food, medical supplies, simple money allowances, etc., etc. for a long time to assist them in their work as professional "dissidents," working for the U.S. This huge funding has been going on for years, and cost horrendous amounts of money.

They have also set up similar financial arrangements for other groups in New Europe they have arranged to assist them as they can go to Cuba themselves, any time, whereas there are restraints on the number of times Cuban Americans can come and go to Cuba, due to the travel ban _Bush has tightened considerably for them (and a near total ban for ordinary Americans).

The Cuban "exiles" didn't lose a revolt. They were revolted AGAINST! They have been conducting terroristic raids on Cuba and Cubans since the late 1950's, up to this very day. They used to receive some assistance from the CIA, now they ususally appear to operate on their own, but they boast they go there and kill people they don't like politically, they boast openly that when the FBI has caught them going to Cuba in boats loaded down with guns, ammunition, the FBI merely looks the other way, etc., etc., etc. They appear to believe they've got the world by the ass, and if something shifts in Cuba, they'll have total control of that island all over again. That's their plan. It's the plan the U.S. right-wing has been paying them to develope in South Florida university classrooms.

[Billy Burnett]

13. Some other examples of anti Cuba terrorists funded by and harbored in the USA

This is just a small sampling of links I've gathered over the years.

Lots of names and embedded links ...

F-4 commandos
http://www.terrorfileonline.org/en/index.php/F-4_commandos

Rodolfo Frometa, Alpha 66, Commandos F4, and some others
http://www.terrorfileonline.org/en/index.php/Rodolfo_Frometa_Caballero

Cuba-US Relations During The War On Terror
By Jane Franklin
http://andromeda.rutgers.edu/~hbf/terrorism.html

Terrorist Actions Against Cuba
http://www.radiohc.cu/heroes/ingles/cronologia/cronologia7.htm

Cuba: Victim of Ongoing Terrorism
http://www.letcubalive.org/TERRORS2.htm

Cuban Right-Wing Terrorist Group F-4 Commando
http://sandiego.indymedia.org/en/2004/04/103657.shtml

Frometal Jacket
The extreme idealism of F-4 commander Rodolfo Frometa
http://www.miaminewtimes.com/2003-02-06/news/frometal-jacket/

Terrorists continue flaunting themselves in Miami with total impunity
http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/belligerence/flaunting.htm


And a bonus link that'll keep Judi busy for a while ;) ...

Perpetrators and Backers in Cuba
www.terrorfileonline.com/en/index.php/Category:perpetrators_and_Backers_in_Cuba

[Judi Lynn]

14. Just looked at the first and last links, and it's going to be WONDERFUL reading this!

This is all so worthwhile. I'm marking your post, and working my way through it.

The bonus link is amazing. Love that photo of Congressman Lincoln Diaz-Balart's dad when he was a senator in Cuba! What a total blowhard he had to be. My GOSH. Now I know how his puffed-up, self-important, swaggering, narcissistic son got to be that way.



Like blowhard father, blowhard son!



Four legends in their own minds

All this information is a rush! So glad to see this. Any DU'er can give him/herself a real crash course which will give him/her a whole new grasp of what the hell has been going on to make the entire world turn and stare at Miami when these guys demanded a child be kept from returning to his life-long home to live with his only surviving parent to whom he had always been very, very close, and instead, live among a bunch of wildly overwrought, obsessive strangers.

It't time so well spent. It's invaluable recent American history.

Thank you so much. Wow! :woohoo: :woohoo: :woohoo: :woohoo:

[LiberalFighter]

15. I wasn't aware of those perks. But knew that if there was any group of immigrants to loathe

it is the Miami Cubans. As long as they operate with the intent to overthrow Castro and they are part of the old regime in Cuba.

IMO these Cubans are a threat to Floridians.

[Mika]

17. Its really a BIG mistake to lump all Cuban-Americans together.

The intransigent and vocal (corporate media covered) hard liners are primarily the older generation of Cubans who lived decently under the blood soaked Batista regime who left immediately after Batista robbed Cuba's treasury and fled Cuba, in 1959, to Florida. They vote for whichever candidate or party that will funnel the most money to the anti Castro industry in Miami. Unfortunately, both repugs and Dems have pandered only to this minority demographic.

The children of that generation, born and/or raised in the US, don't have the same animus toward Castro and Cuba that their parent's generation do. They are polling more Democratic than repug.

The newer immigrants (a VAST majority of whom come to the US using a legal immigration visa and arriving via one of a few major US airlines that have regular flights to and from Cuba), were born and raised post Cuban revolution, are entirely used to the idea of socialized infrastructure (health care, education, housing, etc). They are polling Democratic by majority also.


-

[martymar64]

20. I'm glad about the new generation

The old Batistianos and their supporters? Well in my eyes, they can't die off fast enough. And that goes for Gloria Estefan, the daughter of Batista's bodyguard. She can rot in hell and serenade Batista and Meyer Lansky while she's there.

[Judi Lynn]

21. She also needs to spend some time with "Lucky" Luciano, and Santos Trafficante. n/t

[daleo]

18. That's quite a racket. n/t

[Joanne98]

16. That program needs to be CANCELED!

[struggle4progress]

19. Translation: "We're Only In it For the Money"

[AlphaCentauri]

22. OK, OK, send them 3 laptops

[Scurrilous]

23. Cuba: U.S. funneled money to dissidents

<snip>

"The head of the U.S. mission in Cuba served as an emissary between a top dissident on the island and an exile militant from Miami serving time for weapons possession, the Cuban government announced Monday at a news conference aired live on Cuban radio.

Top Cuban officials released a series of e-mails, which they allege show that dissident Martha Beatriz Roque gets regular financing from Santiago Alvarez, the benefactor and friend of alleged terrorist Luis Posada Carriles. Alvarez's group, Fundación Rescate Juridica, also allegedly sent $200 a month to dissident Jorge Luis "Antúnez" García and another $2,400 to the Ladies in White dissident group.

The Cuban government says the U.S. government's top diplomat in Havana, Michael Parmly, was the person who helped carry the money to Cuba.

"We have obtained irrefutable proof about a qualitatively new event, different from the well-known and already denounced flow of financial and material support to the domestic counter-revolution from the U.S. government and its diplomats in Havana," said Josefina Vidal Ferreira, head of the North American desk of the Foreign Ministry. "It is the unusual and scandalous fact involving the participation of diplomatic officials in the U.S. Interests Section in Havana as emissaries in the transfer of money from terrorists living in U.S. territory and counter-revolutionaries in Cuba."

Alvarez is a real estate magnate who is serving a 30-month prison sentence for stockpiling weapons in South Florida. He was also sentenced in 2006 to 10 months in prison for refusing to testify against Posada, a longtime anti-Castro activist accused of planting bombs in Havana and plotting to kill Castro.

Posada currently faces no criminal charges and is free in South Florida."

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/breaking_news/story/538918.html