Cuba Related Heat in Miami

Dawn Gable

May Day 2012 in Havana's Revolution Square.

HAVANA TIMES, May 1 — It’s not only the basketball team and the sun that is causing temperatures to rise in Miami lately. Rather it is fire bombs, campaign investigations, new state laws and new candidates that are keeping Miami, and consequently Cuba, on everybody’s radar.

Gov. Rick Scott

Today, Florida Governor Rick Scott signed state law that prohibits local governments to contract companies that do business with Cuba, ignoring the Tampa Chamber of Commerce, the Port of Tampa and Tampa International Airport, among others, who counseled the Governor against it.

The law would affect 238 companies. One in particular is the Brazilian conglomerate Odebrecht, which has an $800 million contract with Cuba to revamp the container port at Mariel, near Havana.

However Canadian diplomats, who warned that Canadian companies might reconsider investments in Florida; and the Brazilian government representatives, have asked the US federal government to intervene. A federal challenge is likely because in 2000 the Supreme Court unanimously ruled in a similar case Crosby v. National Foreign Trade Council that states do not have autonomous authority over foreign trade.

Joe Garcia

Yesterday, Joe Garcia, once director of the Cuban American National Foundation has thrown his hat in the race for Representative of Florida’s 26th District, which was just redrawn and is now slightly less republican. Garcia will face David Rivera for the second time.

Rivera beat Garcia by 10 points two years ago, but this time Rivera’s campaign is suffering from investigations into financial wrong-doings. In fact, Garcia stated that he finally decided to run because “Rivera cannot adequately serve his constituents while his finances are under investigation by the FBI and IRS.”

David Rivera

A state probe into Rivera’s use of campaign contributions concluded that, “he essentially lived off” campaign contributions for several years”. According to the Miami Herald, the state’s report revealed that $65,000 was charged to a campaign credit card for personal expenses including “pet services, dry cleaning, dental care, medical services, and entertainment and travel expenses for his girlfriend.”

Because the statute of limitations had run out by the end of the over one year investigation, no charges could be filed.  But he is still under investigation by the IRS and the FBI.

While in office, Rivera has introduced a bill that would make Cuban immigrants wait five years to get residency. This is seen by many to be a ploy to block the newer generations of Cubans, who are typically anti-embargo, from being eligible to vote.

Marco Rubio

Rubio is now being tainted by the Rivera investigation in regards to a house they purchased together years ago. But Rubio is navigating his own legal problems. Today he publically apologized for improper use of campaign credit card. Last Friday it was announced that the Federal Elections Commission had fined him $8,000 for over $200,000 of inappropriate campaign contributions.

Orlando Bosch & Vivian Mannerud

Last Wednesday the Nuevo Herald announced an event, hosted by Junta Patriotica Cubana, to commemorate the life of Orlando Bosch to be held on Saturday the 29th, exactly one year and one day after his death. That is to say that the actual anniversary of the death of this terrorist, responsible for the murder of 73 airline passengers in 1976, fell on the exact day as the fire-bombing of Airline Brokers travel agency.

Vivian Mannerud, owner of the agency that had recently arranged for more than 300 people to attend the Pope’s visit in Havana last month, feels it is no coincidence, “There’s people that do not agree with the charter flights to Cuba and will go to any lengths to stop them….In my 32 years of business, I’ve seen this happen to many other people.”

The attacks and intimidation throughout the 70s and 80s are remembered in Miami and are well documented by Estela Bravo’s film “Free to Fly”. In more recent memory are the fire bombings of three companies doing business with Cuba in 1996.

The incident that “pulverized” the agency office is being investigated by the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. South-Florida counter terrorism officers were also on the scene.

Although the FBI in notorious for looking the other way on Cuba related violence in Florida, there is expectations that things have changed and the perpetrators will be identified and prosecuted.

If so, this may be the end of it. If not, Miami might be in for another wave of anti-Castro terror.

A recent study named Miami the third “terrorism hot spot” in the nation. Let’s hope the FBI is capable of putting out this fire.

 

One thought on “Cuba Related Heat in Miami

  • A needed light to be cast over some “little unclear” statements in this article:

    First. Gov Scott signed a law that limit the use of contributors money to be spent in projects that surpass 1 million dollars if in such projects is involved any company that make business with criminal regimes in Cuba and Syria………. Tampa Commerce Chamber and airport can advice as they please but reality is that Scott can’t go against a law approved by 99% of Florida’s congressman and senators, what means millions of people behind each congressman and senator are backing this law just because they are the ones that elected their representatives……. No one can deny it is a very popular law in Florida.
    Second. Joe Garcia is the eternal looser in Miami’s elections…… 3 times he run against different candidates for different positions and each time he received real beatings…… I only understand his stubbornness by knowing the people behind his ridiculous intents are not other that castrofascist lobby in Miami leading by Francisco Aruca….. in other words, castrofascism self is behind him…….. but…. due to information freedom and clear public records usual in USA everyone know who is who in Miami, that’s why Joe have not a chance to win in spite the millions of dollars in propaganda and manipulated opinion polls that every year give Joe the vote of an inexistent changed exile……… the exile will never change as long as castrofascism keeps committing crimes and making Cubans second class citizens in their own country…… it is something regime does not want to understand…… each Cuban that leave Cuba leaves with a strong and long lasting feeling of rejection on castrofascism…… and castrofascism cooperates to feed this feeling by mistreating these Cubans each time they visit their country and by making them to pay ridiculous high fees for any Cuban document they need, by keeping them in many cases separated of their families as political revenge and by many ridiculous actions of hate that finally are the reasons behind all Cuban’s emigration…….. castrofascism can forget its dream to put a puppet like Joe Garcia on Florida’s politic board, that will never happen as long regime keeps acting as Cuban nation’s enemy.
    Third. David Rivera and Marco Rubio,as well many other politicians in USA and around the world judged by same accountability mistake, will pay a fine for the mistake done by one of their employees and go directly to the next important thing in their work…… no one aside their political enemies put much attention in this things, even their political enemies will limit their actions to comments just like the short comments in this page ……. and the reason is simple: There is no a single politician in USA that have never been involved in a mistake like this…….. everyone have a glass roof!!!!
    Before talking of terrorism in Miami it could be good to take a look to several books written by castrofascist “intelligence” agents and publicized in Cuba where they relates, taking extremely high proud of their deeds, how most “terrorist” organizations in Miami were complete infiltrated by castrofascist intelligence and they relates how the orders that leaded such “terrorists” organizations came directly from MININT officials.
    People in Miami remember very well how agent Roque (one of the spies working with the so called 5) used to incite Brother to the Rescue people not to through flyers on Havana but bombs and he did it publicly in some radio stations in Miami……… people in USA also remember how castrofascist agent known as Mono Morales took responsibility of Barbados’s plane bombing in 1976 in a TV interview and denounced castrofascism ordered him to do it………… Morales were gunned down some days later in a confused incident.

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