On Cuba’s Right-Wing Opposition
Erasmo Calzadilla
HAVANA TIMES — Some days ago, I watched a video showing an anti-government protest (and the subsequent public reprisal) staged by the Union Patriotica de Cuba (Cuban Patriotic Union, or UNPACU). I was positively impressed by the civility, intelligence and courage shown by the members of this organization, even under the direct verbal aggression – an aggression that threatened to become physical at any point – and the intolerance spurred on by the Cuban Communist Party.
Moved and angered by these events, I wrote a post in support of UNPACU. After being congratulated by commentators such as Jorgealejandro and Marlene Azor, however, I began to suspect that something was not entirely right. After searching through my own hard-drives, I found enough information to become disconcerted.
In his article Cuba: “The New Fields of the Political Opposition”, Haroldo Dilla writes that UNPACU demands a return to Cuba’s original revolutionary program and maintains “strong ties to organizations of Cuban émigrés, such as the Cuban American National Foundation (CANF), referred to as its formal counterpart by the financing programs of the US government.”
What? Is it is possible to demand a return to Cuba’s original revolutionary program while maintaining strong ties to the CANF? These people are going to fry my brain.
What I was able to extract about the CANF from my beloved Wikipedia helped me arrive at a conclusion. Here are some fragments of information:
• Its founders were members of Fulgencio Batista’s government
• Some were CIA agents and members of terrorist groups opposed to the revolution.
• In Nicaragua and Angola, they supported the counter-revolution.
• They financed terrorist Luis Posada Carriles’ escape from Venezuela, where he had been imprisoned for the bombing of a Cuban commercial airliner in Barbados.
• They supported the Torricelli and Helms-Burton Acts, that is, they support the US economic blockade on Cuba.
If it is true that UNPACU maintains such ties with the CANF and its popular demands are merely part of their political game, a mere performance, then we should take the initiative away from the brainless Communist Party militants and give this cocky lot a piece of our own minds.
Perhaps they are merely confused. Perhaps they have no access to Wikipedia or to Haroldo Dilla’s articles. I may also be the one who hasn’t gotten his bearings here. At any rate, I urge them to break all ties with such dangerous and macabre friends. Only then will they have the moral authority and the popular support needed to impel positive change in this country.
Dani just proved it to you and you still can’t accept the facts.
Again: some of the “who’s who” of Cuban dissidents stating no change in sanctions unless the regime changes: Berta Soler, lreder of ” las Damas de Blanco”; Antonio Rodiles, director of Estado de Sats,Manuel Cuesta Morúa, leader of Arco Progresista.
Source: Líderes de oposición cubana anteponen derechos humanos a acercamiento de EEUU | El Nuevo Herald – http://www.elnuevoherald.com/noticias/mundo/america-latina/cuba-es/article3311188.html
On your false claim that any dissident that thinks the embargo should be lifted wants that “immediate and unconditional” this quote may enlighten you:
“Further steps by President Obama would help the Cuban people, civil society and dissidents. It is not just a matter of discussing whether to have an embargo, although the embargo must be lifted, but of making the appropriate decisions at the right time.
Bottom line: the “right time” depends on how the Cuban regime reacts and acts.
Source: The Cuban Journalist Miriam Leiva Writes About Relations With the U.S. – NYTimes.com – http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/18/opinion/the-cuban-journalist-miriam-leiva-writes-about-relations-with-the-us.html?_r=0
No. Being against the embargo does not mean that. If she wanted an “immediate and unconditional end” she would have said so. It is the Castro regime that is on the wrong side of history.
In fact:
Martha Beatriz Roque and Felix Bonne endorse hard line policies against Cuba, Posted March 05, 2005, http://havanajournal.com/politics/entry/martha_beatriz_roque_and_felix_bonne_endorse_hard_line_policies_against_cub/
Being “against the embargo” means she wanted all US sanctions lifted immediately and unconditionally. Just like the UN, human rights groups like Amnesty International and most of her fellow “dissidents.” Deal with it. The US regime is on the wrong side of history on this one.
Everyone in the dissident movement wants an end to the Castro regime and the embargo.
Preferably at the same time.
Contacts with the US are possible now via the P2P travel. that satisfied what she wanted. She never wanted all sanctions to end without Cuba changing.
It is nice to see that you now admit that there are more than “3 to 6” real dissidents in Cuba as you claimed in the past.
The Cuban dissident movement has varied opinions about the trade sanctions but a unified opinion about the Castro dictatorship: that has to end.
You are trying to exploit temporal differences in the “how” to remove that dictatorship while rejecting the “why” of their views.
Have you ever looked at the 492 signatories? A man that denied that there are even more than 6 dissidents can hardly consider the opinion of hundreds of them relevant I guess.
Antunez signed. Top of the top.
Farinas supports sanctions. Another top member of the “who’s who”.
Others whose names you abuse support and end to the embargo but not “immediate and unconditional” as you falsely claim.
The reality is: all dissidents, the thousands of them, support an end to the CAstro dictatorship but as a democratic movement the debate the how to do it.
You just abuse their words for the exact opposite they want.
This writer, member of the MCL movement of Paya, reflects his words.
The embargo isn’t the problem.
Paya has only supported an en to sanctions on food an medicines without conditions.
All the rest: conditional on changes in Cuba. In your book that means support for sanctions.
Roque was quoted saying, “I’m against the embargo. I would like that the embargo will be lifted. Because I believe Cuban society needs contact with North American society.”
What does “against the embargo” mean to you? Does it mean that she would have supported the embargo until such time as certain pre-conditions were met by the Cuban government? But wouldn’t that mean that she was actually FOR the embargo?
When will you learn? You really should stick to copy and paste.
The rest of your posting has already been exposed and debunked here. You are simply repeating yourself.
– As reported: 492 with lots of the “who’s who” like Antunez, the Sigler Amaya brothers.
– The dissident movement is a democracy, not an oligarchy.
– Beatriz Roque has never said she wanted the sanctions lifted unconditionally. She wants to see change at the same time.
– Pay – his won words – only asked for an unconditional end to sanctions on food and medicines. The rest was conditioned on changes in Cuba. They haven’t happened, but food and medicines can be freely sold now.
– The shackles Paya refers to is the repression of the Castro regime. Who do you think you are fooling?
“Tiende tu mano a Cuba,” says Paya when I ask what he thinks of American
policy, “pero primero pide que le desaten las manos a los cubanos.”
Extend your hands to Cuba — but first unshackle ours.
So, this writer (not Oswaldo Paya) also believes that the embargo is not the “solution” (to whatever he thinks is the “problem”). While his motives may have been more political than humanitarian, Oswaldo Paya NEVER supported these cruel and inhumane sanctions, even as a temporary measure.
1. As the New York Times article reported, a “veritable who’s who” of Cuban dissidents signed a petition in favour of lifting sanctions. The other (US-sponsored?) petition supporting sanctions was a bunch of nobodies, even according to your own dissident pals.
2. Beatrice Roque did indeed call for the lifting of these cruel and inhumane sanctions of yours. See: http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/latin_america/july-dec01/cuba_7-18.html
3. In 1999, Paya called for the “lifting of the Embargo on Cuba, with respect to medicines and food, without conditions.” 14 years later, Amnesty International reported yet again the “negative effects of the US embargo on the health of the population, particularly members of marginalized groups.”
4. In the same sentence, Paya calls on the USA (not Cuba) to “initiate a process to quickly eliminate the Embargo and the laws known as ‘Torricelli’ and ‘Helms Burton.'” That is, lift it immediately and unconditionally. Of course, that was never done either.
5. In the same written statement, Paya is clearly referring to the embargo as shackles on his hands. It is so universally hated in Cuba that the opposition in Cuba, such as it is, will never get anywhere as long as the embargo is in place. Consistent with all his other statements, Paya has NEVER supported the US embargo even as temporary measure. See: http://www.hispanocubana.org/archivos_pdfs/20120702_124718_revistas_id39_revista_hc_5.pdf
On what embargo Paya saw as the real problem:
“The trite insistence of calling the USA the foreign enemy is no longer credible. Today, it is precisely the USA that is Cuba’s main commercial partner in food and other products. The embargo is not the problem nor is it the solution. The rest of the world has no embargo against Cuba, and yet Cuba cannot engage freely in commercial exchanges with anybody else. The real embargo is the embargo of freedom to which the people are subjected by the regime itself.”
http://translatingcuba.com/open-letter-from-the-mcl-to-pablo-iglesias-and-his-hatred-of-cubans-orlando-luis-pardo-lazo/
Another nice example of abuse of snippets out of context.
In 2010 a majority of Cuban dissidents showed they supported the sanctions.
Martha Beatriz Roque never asked for the embargo to be lifted unconditionally.
Everyone wants to see and end to the sanctions AND the dictatorship.
Pay stated his views clearly:
“The United States of America, as a first urgent step, should lift the
Embargo to Cuba, with respect to medicines and food, without conditions, ”
where Paya states that this has to be without conditions.
So: food and medicines alone: immediate and unconditional.
NOT the rest.
That has happened.
Since 2002 and up to 2008 the USA has been the largest food supplier of Cuba.
“and initiate a process to swiftly eliminate the Embargo and the laws known
as ‘Torricelli’ and ‘Helms Burton.'”
In this part there is no mention of “immediate” nor “unconditional”.
Paya separates the two and he does that on purpose.
He also did so in this statement:
“We request that you take a first step, above all for justice and also
in good faith toward the people of Cuba by lifting, unconditionally,
the embargo against Cuba in food and medicines.”
Oswaldo Payá
This is what he said with respect to the rest of the “process”:
“Tiende tu mano a Cuba,” says Paya when I ask what he thinks of American
policy, “pero primero pide que le desaten las manos a los cubanos.”
Extend your hands to Cuba — but first unshackle ours.
Grasping at straws as always, I see. The second petition was mostly a bunch of nobodies, even according to your dissident pals and the capitalist media — in all likelihood, a desperate move by the US regime stung by the initial petition.
Over the years leading up to this anti-sanctions petition…
“Most of the dissident groups and leaders in Cuba do not support the economic sanctions imposed unilaterally by the government of the United States over the government of Cuba.”
–Elizardo Sanchez interviewed, May 2000
I’m against the embargo. I would like that the embargo will be lifted.
–Marta Beatriz Roque interviewed July 2001
“We do not support any kind of foreign pressure from abroad as a factor for change in Cuba.”
–Oswaldo Paya interviewed January 3, 2003
“As Cubans we do not accept that another country or group of countries impose its rules on the lives of our people, neither with unjust pressure nor economic isolation, be they embargos, sanctions or other types of measures.”
–Oswaldo Paya, written statement, July 26, 2007
“[The US embargo] must be lifted without conditions because it is not the solution.”
–Oswaldo Paya interviewed, April 2009
It’s obvious you don’t like the optics of your man Farinas shown standing next to the terrorist Posada Carilles in this Miami photo op. But he obviously has no problems with it. It really is hard to get good help these days, isn’t it?
Much to your chagrin, it is well known that most of your “dissident” pals have never supported these cruel and inhumane sanctions of yours. We have been over this literally hundreds of times in another forum. Whoever these 492 signers might have been, most were a bunch of nobodies even according to your dissident pals themselves!
Both groups contained some of the best known dissidents.
The second group that supported sanctions was 25 times larger.
Here’s a photograph of Huber Matos, along with Fidel Castro and Camilo Cienfiugos.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/47507277@N07/4353068657/
It was the initial petition from “dissidents” that included the top names in the “movement” such as it is. They supported proposed US legislation at the time to lift the travel ban.
“A veritable who’s who of Cuban opposition figures”
http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/brooklyn/time-update-policy-cuba-dissidents-article-1.184886
“The first time that so many Cuban dissidents have joined forces in supporting a single piece of US legislation.”
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/10290492
AP’s report on the subsequent counter-petition suggests that its signers did not include many of Cuba’s supposed dissident and political opposition community.
“It featured 492 signers from all over Cuba, but most were little-known, even among the island’s small and divided dissident and political opposition community.”
http://www.newsmax.com/InsideCover/CB-Cuba-US-Travel/2010/06/17/id/362333/
Paying one’s respect at the grave doesn’t mean you identify 100% with the actions of a person. It is an expression of an “on balance” view.
As far as the picture of the university seminar goes I read that very different. I see Huber Matos and Farinas “joined at the hip” and others standing around.
If one can conclude any association from the picture it is between Huber Matos and Farinas.
I think Farinas by now has recovered from his hunger strikes. I don’t think he still needs to lean on anyone.
I also remember the lineup of the 2010: a few dissidents demanding – not even unconditionally it seemed – an end to the sanctions.
The 500 had a lot of the top names in the Cuban dissident movement in it, but then you have shown you have a limited knowledge about Cuba.
You have a vivid imagination. He just has his arm around him.
Typical pictures of known people present in a university seminar. No more. No less.
As far as the 2010 letters: the overwhelming majority of Cuban dissidents supported sanctions including a lot of the “who’s who”.
You are as always extremely selective in your “interpretation” of the facts.
I don’t know about “body language.” Farinas seems to be leaning on Mato for support. Do we have any recent photos of Farinas clearly standing on his own and not leaning on anyone or anything?
Yes, I remember in 2010 when, as the New York Daily News put it, “a veritable who’s who of Cuban opposition figures” had signed a petition to support recent US legislation to lift the travel ban. The BBC said it was “the first time that so many Cuban dissidents have joined forces in supporting a single piece of US legislation.”
A bunch of nobodies signed a (US-sponsored?) counter-petition. As AP reported, “It featured 492 signers from all over Cuba, but most were little-known, even among the island’s small and divided dissident and political opposition community.”
My guess is the US Interests Section must have shit themselves when the hired help stepped out of line, so they fabricated their own list — maybe forcing visa applicants to sign it.
Paying respects at someone’s grave does mean showing respect for that persons views and actions. Having your photo taken with FIVE people including Carilles also suggests support for that person. His body language with Huber Matos is irrelevant. On neither of these occasions has Farinas disassociated himself with the people concerned. It isn’t me who is tainting him with violent acts. It is him doing it himself and as spokesman for a party he is implicating his party as well.
You are pretty much conceding that he is supporting the Bay of Pigs invasion and the embargo, but you need to remember that this was a US government organised event which would have put some of Batista’s worst torturers into power and handed Cuba back into the hands of the mob.
After all your lobbying and propagandizing over the years, it must be frustrating as hell for you that no one, not human rights groups like Amnesty International, not your closest allies at the UN, not even your own government is buying into your lies and rationalizations for these cruel and inhumane sanctions of yours.
Posada Carilles was found not guilty in the first trial about the shooting down of the plane if I remember correctly. A new trial – strangely violating the universal principle of “non bis in idem” – found him guilty in Venezuela.
I am no fan of Mr. Carriles, but I am also no fan of Mr. Castro.
“In the Fall of 1958 Fidel Castro invented a terrorist tactic that would endure. Castro’s sinister advance in terrorism introduced the world to political hijackings of international commercial airliners. Unlike earlier commandeering of commercial aircraft as a means of travel for the desperate, or cash for criminals taking hostages and property to ransom, Castro’s rebels pioneered a new kind of hijacking aimed at obtaining publicity and political gains.
The most notorious of the 1958 hijackings took place on November 1, 1958: Cubana Flight 495 from Miami to Varadero, a Vickers Viscount 755D four-engine turboprop airplane. Minutes before landing, five passengers drew firearms announcing they were Castro rebels and were seizing the aircraft.”
“After apparently making a number of aborted landing approaches in the Mayari area, the Viscount attempted to land at Preston. On approach to Preston a hijacker exited the cockpit and taking a seat at the back told the passengers to brace for a crash because they were out of fuel.
Instants later the Viscount crashed into the dark waters of Nipe Bay, at about 9:00 PM.
The Director of Preston Hospital, Dr. Octavio Ortiz Padró, rapidly set up emergency facilities for victims of the disaster. But only three survivors were rescued: Osiris Martinez (whose American wife and their three infant children perished in the crash), Omara González and her
young cousin Luis Sosa (both traveling with their grandfather, who did not survive). Ten passengers (seven of them Americans) and the entire crew of four perished.
http://cuba1952-1959.blogspot.be/2011/11/1958-castro-m-26-7-airliner-hijacking.html
So if you want Posada Carilles in the dock and are honest you should want Fidel in the dock as well.
Why am I not surprised?
I remember the “post editing” in Cuba of the pictures of Fidel, Camilo and others with Huber Matos.
One had a picture of Huber and Fidel on a tank. I saw that in the Cuban press back then. When I saw it again Huber had been “cleansed” from the image.
That of course didn’t fool me who had “local an
direct knowledge” of what really happened and I guess the dictatorship knew that. But then it also knew that with this doctored photo it could mislead Cubans that had no direct knowledge of the events – younger people – and people outside Cuba that would even have less of a clue about the real facts.
You are one of those. You are the clear result of disinformation as you have shown here over and over again.
My advise: read up and start being a lot more critical about Castro sources.
Paying respect at a grave and being at a university presentation where lots of people are is hardly support for terrorism.
Note also that in your picture he has his arm around the revolutionary hero and victim of Castro repression Huber Matos. A man widely respected on both in Cuba and amongst the exiles. The pictures show Carilles in the picture, but the close association (arms around each other) is with Huber Matos.
As far as you wanting to imply anything from these pictures: what we see are your words, not those of Farinas.
I have never heard Farinas speak on the bay of pigs invasion, but it is of course clear he would have preferred that Castro never would have had an opportunity to come to power. The Escambray rebellion and the Bay of Pigs invasion were of course both aimed at stopping Castro. Both were part of the Cuban civil war.
Farinas has supported continued trade sanctions on various occasions, but so have lots of others.
Remember that when in 2010 a few dissidents wrote a letter demanding changes / an end to the sanctions regime about 500 other signed a letter asking for the sanctions regime to continue.
The short version of this is: your attempt to taint Farinas through association with violent acts is unjustified. The man is a respected and brave dissident that has received lots of awards including the Sakharov prize of the European Parliament. His strength of conviction and struggle for peaceful change are above any doubt.
The problem with the Carilles case is that the facts are blurred and that it has become hard to see the Forest through the trees.
It is clear he was involved in the armed struggle. The whole terrorism thing is less clear.
For the bombing of the Cuban plane he was first acquitted and then convicted. Not conclusive.
The US also looked at the bombing case, but could not pursue the case.
Terrorism has to be rejected outright, but intellectually honest people reject terror acts on both sides. Those that attack Carilles most often are blind to the terrorist acts of the Castro regime.
From wikipedia on the flight
Cubana Flight 455 was a Cubana de Aviación flight departing from Barbados, via Trinidad, to Cuba. On October 6, 1976 two time bombs variously described as dynamite or C-4 planted on the Douglas DC-8
aircraft exploded, killing all 78 people on board, including all 24 members of the 1975 national Cuban Fencing team, which had just won all the gold medals in the Central American and Caribbean Championship.[33]
Investigators from Cuba, Venezuela and the United States traced the planting of the bombs to two Venezuelan passengers, Freddy Lugo and Hernán Ricardo Lozano. Both men were employed by Posada at his private detective agency based in Venezuela, and they both subsequently admitted to the crime. A week after the men’s confessions, Luis Posada and Orlando Bosch were arrested on charges of masterminding the attack, and were jailed in Venezuela.[34] Declassified FBI and CIA reports show that the agencies suspected his involvement in the airline bombing within days of its occurrence.[35][14] It was reported that several Miami residents and Bosch met in the Dominican Republic shortly before the bombing and issued a statement declaring their intention of waging a terrorist campaign against Cuba.[1] A declassified CIA document dated October 13, 1976 quotes Posada – at the time in Caracas – as saying a few days before Cubana flight 455 exploded: “We are going to hit a Cuban airliner… Orlando has the details”.[36]
On the bombings of tourist resorts –
In 1997, Posada was implicated in a further series of terrorist bombings in Cuba intended to deter the growing tourism trade on the island. An Italian-Canadian, Fabio di Celmo, was killed and 11 people wounded as a result. In reaction to Celmo’s death, Posada told reporter Ann Louise Bardach in a 1998 taped interview that “the Italian was in the wrong place at the wrong time, but I sleep like a baby.”[24]
In a taped interview with The New York Times, Posada said: “It is sad that someone is dead, but we can’t stop.”[38] Posada was reportedly disappointed with the reluctance of American news organisations to report the bombing attacks, saying “If there is no publicity, the job is useless.[27] He later recanted the confession.[40]
Raúl Ernesto Cruz León, who Posada admitted was a mercenary under his employment, was sentenced to death by the Cuban authorities after admitting to the attacks.[27]
Posada also claimed that Jorge Mas Canosa, the head of the Cuban American National Foundation, was well aware of the attacks, but the two men agreed never to discuss the operations.
Farinas went to lay flowers at the grave of Jorge Mas Canosa http://www.martinoticias.com/content/farinas-miami-tumba-de-mas-canosa/22493.html. That shows clear support. Also see the pictures of his meeting with Posada Carilles http://nyhavanablogging.wordpress.com/2013/10/30/tell-me-who-your-friends-are-and-i-will-tell-you-who-you-are-a-murderer/. As you can see these aren’t pictures of a crowd – he is clearly identifying himself with a small group which includes Carilles. He also called Carilles a “fellow oppositionist”, but unfotunately can’t find that reference again. And you are wrong – you can imply from this that he supports the Bay of Pigs and the embargo.
It’s surprising the number of senior commanders of the Revolution who were jailed, executed, exiled, or died in mysterious circumstances.
Must be bad luck or something.
Thanks for showing your utter ignorance about Cuba.
The short version:
Huber Matos Benítez (26 November 1918 – 27 February 2014) was a Cuban dissident activist and writer. Previously, he had been a revolutionary who assisted Fidel Castro, Che Guevara and other members of the 26th of July Movement (M-26-7) in successfully overthrowing the dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista as part of the Cuban Revolution.
Matos had opposed Batista since the general’s effective coup in 1952, which he regarded as unconstitutional, but became increasingly critical of the movement’s shift towards Marxist principles, and closening ties with leaders of the Communist Party of Cuba (PCC). Convicted of “treason and sedition” by the new Castro regime, he would spend 20 years in prison (1959–1979) before being released in 1979.
On his revolucionary activity:
A Partido Ortodoxo member at the time of Batista’s coup of 10 March 1952, Matos became involved with the resistance movement to Batista that began gathering steam throughout the country. He soon moved to Costa Rica where he spent the next several years while at the same time back home in Cuba, the struggle against Batista moved to its armed stage,
eventually evolving into Cuban Revolution. From Costa Rica, Matos kept in contact with the M-26-7 revolutionaries stationed in Sierra Maestra hills while helping their aims logistically and organizationally. He
was also able to get in touch with the president of Costa Rica José Figueres who supported Cuban rebel aims and helped Matos obtain weapons and supplies.
On 31 March 1958, 39-year-old Matos flew a 5-ton air cargo with ammunition and weapons to Castro’s rebels, thus actively joining the resistance in the mountains. On 8 August 1958 Castro awarded Matos the
rank of combat commander, giving him the lead of the rebel army’s ninth column that carried the honorary name of Antonio Guiteras,a Cuban leftist politician who had been assassinated more than a decade
earlier. Within six months, the revolutionary movement successfully overthrew Batista and seized control of the country. During the final assault on Santiago de Cuba,
Matos led his column. In January 1959 he victoriously rode into Havana atop a tank, alongside Castro and other revolutionaries.
Days later, on 11 January 1959, Matos was appointed as Commander of the Army in the province of Camagüey.
Let me know if this is enough info on Huber Matos or do you need more.
I have discussed Carilles before. The Cuban American community is quite divided on him. Personally, I think he is a terrorist, but I do admit I don’t have all the facts. Carilles maintains he had nothing to do with the plane bombing.
Notice that Carilles is standing alone while the others have their arms around each other.
It’s odd you have never heard of Huber Matos. If you had read any history of the Cuban Revolution, you would know of him.
Try all you want. the trade sanctions are no genocide. You just repeat this lie over and over again.
On water treatment I recently posted proof positive over about 40 units donated by US churches are operating in Cuba in protestant missions to supply clean drinking water to the people.
As far as food and medicine go I have also shown, using data on permits and actual exports executed, that it is Cuba and not the US that is limiting access to medicines and medical equipment.
Repeating a lie doesn’t make it any less a lie.
So, if Germany or France was imposing sanctions on Belgium that helped to deprive you and and your family of vital access to medicines, new scientific and medical technology, food, chemical water treatment and electricity, that would NOT be genocide, but a legitimate tool of foreign policy? You are such a hypocrite!
Never heard of Huber Matos. But I HAVE heard a great deal about the terrorist bomber, Luis Posada Carilles. A great hero to the Cuban exile community in Miami, he blew up a plane loaded with Cuban athletes killing everyone on board in 1976. No comment about him, Griffie? Not surprising.
Indeed, one of the first to be eliminated.
I never understood why he surrendered. Camilo convinced him.
The ironic part is that Fidel tried to have Camilo murdered by Matos men by sending messages with rumors that Camilo was coming to kill Huber Matos.
Huber Matos gave orders to not touch Camilo.
Camilo did not protect Huber.
The photograph you linked to includes a caption “the terrorist Huber Matos”.
Could you please describe the terrorist acts Huber Matos committed? Matos fought bravely against the dictator Fulgencio Batista, seeing far more action than Fidel Castro did who spent the entire time hiding the Sierra Maestra mountains.
After the triumph of the Revolution he fought so hard to win, Huber Matos spoke out against the growing number of Communists in the Revolutionary government Fidel was building. For this crime, Fidel sent Camilo Cienfuegos to arrest him. He was tossed into Fidel’s dungeons for 10 years for the crime of speaking the truth.
You left out one important stage in Huber Matos’ career:
Hero of the anti-Batista revolution, liberator of Santiago de Cuba …and for 20 years, a prisoner of Fidel Castro’s jails.
Over and over again the same propaganda lie. By your own quotes as recently as a week ago you have shown that the sanctions are no genocide as they do not fit the conditions set out by the Genocide convention. You are just spamming.
Please post where Farinas “clearly came out in support of both Luis Posada Carilles and Jorge Mas Canosa” and refrain from “implying” stuff. This is just a baseless propaganda attack.
Also in the picture: Huber Matos.
Hero of the anti-Batista revolution and liberator of Santiago de Cuba.
Being in the same place with someone doesn’t mean one supports their acts.
Farinas has rejected any violence.
Check out photo of Farinas hobnobbing with Miami’s top terrorist, Luis Posada Carilles at http://lapupilainsomne.wordpress.com/2013/10/06/un-brutal-acto-de-terrorismo-cumple-37-anos-de-impunidad/
You are avoiding the fact that Guillermo Farinas (parliamentary spokesperson of UNPACU) clearly came out in support of both Luis Posada Carilles and Jorge Mas Canosa and by implication the Bay of Pigs invasion and Helms Burton. Perhaps Canf have hired a new PR company, but it doesn’t look like UNPACU have.
If the CANF was calling for the immediate and unconditional lifting of the US embargo — as the UN General Assembly has every year for decades now — they might have some credibility. They aren’t, of course. Quite the contrary.
Recall that even Amnesty International has reported that these cruel and inhumane sanctions “help to deprive Cuba of vital access to medicines, new scientific and medical technology, food, chemical water treatment and electricity.”
Under Article 2c of the UN Genocide Convention, such sanctions are actually a form of genocide. As such, any Cuban individual or organization with any ties whatsoever to the CANF are traitors.
Don’t buy into the various lies and rationalizations you are bound to hear from embargo boosters to minimize the impact of these sanctions on ordinary Cubans. No one, not human rights groups like Amnesty International, not even the USA’s closest allies at the UN are buying into them.
The membership and ideological orientation of CANF has changed over the years. Originally, the organization took an extreme hardline against the Castro dictatorship, and it was accused of funding armed groups which carried out terrorist attacks in Cuba. The bitter irony is that many members of CANF had fought against Batista in the 1950’s only to become disillusions by the Revolution when Fidel & his circle seized a monopoly on power for themselves.
The original revolution against Batista included a promise to hold free and democratic elections and a return to the 1940 constitution. Fidel Castro reneged on this promise.
Following the death of its founder, Jorge Mas Canosa in 1997, CANF began to soften it’s hardline position. This led a substantial segment of its membership to split and form the Cuban Liberty Council in 2001. The CLC carries on the hardline tradition.
CANF used to be a strong advocate for isolation of Cuba by the USA but in April 2009 they published an article calling for lifting US restrictions on aid and travel to Cuba, and aiding civil society groups there. Today, the CANF describes their mission thus:
“The Cuban American National Foundation’s mission is to advocate for a non-violent transition to a free and democratic Cuba, a nation that fosters economic prosperity with individual equality and social justice for all. Upholds the rule of law and protects the social, economic and political rights of its entire people. To that end, CANF seeks to engage, support and empower Cubans on the island to become the architects of their own destiny by uniting, organizing and reclaiming their inalienable rights. In the continuation of the struggle for those ideals, the Cuban American National Foundation reaffirms its sacred commitment to Cuba and all Cubans.”
What is objectionable about that?
The tactic used by the Castro regime is to paint all opposition to them with the same brush, inserting the name of their favourite bête noire, Luis Posada, into every mention of the opposition. They are not all the same.
As for supporting the so called “counter-revolution” in Angola, you should take a look at the state of the Cuban supported faction which rules today in Angola. José Eduardo dos Santos is widely considered a corrupt authoritarian who rules over a country of wide inequality and abuse of political power. His daughter Isabel is the richest woman in Africa. The fact is, during the last years of the Portuguese colonial government of Angola, there were three main opposition groups, all espousing a Marxist ideology and each representing a different regional ethnic or tribal group. Cuba backed the Luanda based MPLA and helped to install them in power by force of arms, against the will of the Angolan people, and contrary to the UN agreement to hold free and fair democratic elections. The consequence of Castro’s intervention in Angola was to draw in the South Africans and thereby plunge the country into 2 decades of bloody civil war.
What Cuba needs, what Cuba has always needed since Batista’s criminal coup in 1952 and perpetuated by Castro’s seizure of power in 1959, is to hold free and fair democratic elections.