Miami's Cuban-Americans divided over president's Cuba plan

[Say_What]

<clips>

MIAMI --
While many Cuban-Americans said they supported President Bush's call Friday for a tougher approach toward Fidel Castro, others thought Bush's proposals were fueled by next year's presidential election.

Bush said the United States would tighten enforcement of its embargo on Cuba and provide a haven to more fleeing Cubans. He also announced a plan to step up enforcement of existing restrictions against the communist government, such as the ban on tourism by Americans, and increased inspections of people and shipments going to and from Cuba.

A founder of the hard-line Cuban Liberty Council, Ninoska Perez-Castellon, said she supported Bush's planned crackdown on illegal travel because tourism is a key supplier of dollars to Castro. Most Americans are banned from traveling to Cuba, with exemptions for student groups, working journalists, lawmakers, researchers and a few others.

"We're extremely pleased because this is what we have asked for specifically, that the law be enforced," she said. "This administration is perfectly aware that those sanctions on Castro have to remain."

<http://www.heraldtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20031010/APN/310100920>

[liberalmuse]

1. Disgusting!

I'm tired of U.S. policy being dictated for the benefit of the reminants of Batista's regime and its supporters. I hope this atrocity backfires on Bush in a big way.

[DoYouEverWonder]

2. W wouldn't dare not to give

this small but powerful group whatever they want. Without them he would not be pResident of the US.

[Say_What]

3. Thanks to Radio Mambi inflaming *exiles* to shut down the recount

<clips>

Hate Radio Mambi
Bringing along a tape of Radio Mambi could help get the court's ear. The biggest Spanish-language radio station in Miami harangued its listeners to come out and help shut down the recount by joining the demonstrators surrounding the county building.

"We were trying to stop the recount; Bush had already won," Evilio Cepero, a reporter for Radio Mambi, told The New York Times, as if obstructing a court-sanctioned ballot recount, and using your press pass to do it, was the most natural thing in the world. (Why, even Bob Dole thinks it is.)

According to the Times, Cepero "played a key role in the protests, roaming around the building outside and, with a megaphone, addressing a crowd of perhaps 150 people." In addition, he "regularly cut into Radio Mambi broadcasts to encourage people to come downtown."

The Radio Mambi haranguing should not be underestimated. Spanish radio traditionally has been FLOCO's main m&t (mobilizing and terrorizing) tool. And since election night, Little Havana had been rife with talk of taking to the streets and getting revenge against Gore.

http://www.thegully.com/essays/america/001127miami_dade.html

<>

[Judi Lynn]

5. Cuban "exile" radio "rent-a-thug"

Same situation described in your article!

(snip) NOVEMBER 27, 2000. A 900-pound gorilla may be sending George W. Bush to the White House. Chanting its name, a mob of angry Republican operatives staged a calculated near-riot on Wednesday November 22 inside the Miami-Dade county building.

The gorilla's name is FLOCO, short for Fear of those Loco Cuban-Americans. It was the mere mention of the dreaded tire-burning, car-bombing, vote hoarding, billionaire beast, and not the silly yelling, pushing, shoving, stomping, banging, and showing of fists of the well-fed, heeled, and organized Republican apparatchik, that made the three-member canvassing board pull the plug on a vote recount that would have put Al Gore on top. (snip)
http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,89450,00.html


(snip) The city's most influential Spanish-language radio station, Radio
Mambi, called on staunchly Republican Cuban-Americans to head down-
town to demonstrate. Republican volunteers shouted into megaphones
urging protest. A lawyer for the Republican Party helped stir ethnic
passions by contending that the recount was biased against Hispanic
voters.
http://commons.somewhere.com/rre/2000/RRE.Florida.recount17.html


(snip) The angry crowd that menaced (and consequently affected) the Miami-Dade election officials was summoned by Radio Mambi, closely connected to the Anti-Castro Cuban community in Miami. (“Miami’s Cuban Americans May Get the Last Word” by Peter Dale Scott; Pacific News Service web site; http://pacificnews.org; 12/4/2000.) (snip)

(snip) If Gov. George W. Bush wins the presidency because votes in Miami-Dade County were not recounted, consider it a payback for past favors granted Cuban terrorists by George Bush Sr.

When the Miami-Dade Canvassing Board reversed itself and voted to stop recounting ballots, at least one of the three members said his decision was influenced by the vehement protests of Radio Mambi.

This stridently anti-Communist station is an arm of the violently anti-Castro Cuban American National Foundation (CANF), founded in 1981 by a former CIA terrorist, Jorge Mas Canosa, with the encouragement (some say, at the behest) of the newly elected Reagan-Bush administration. (snip/...)
http://pacificnews.org/jinn/stories/6.24/001207-miami-dade.html

[Judi Lynn]

6. One author's comments on a radio-dispersed Cuban thug group

"Vigilia Mambisa"

(snip) Unpublished Update to Story on Miami's Cubans
Since these stories were published, it has become clear that those protesting inside the building of the Miami-Dade recount consisted primarily of out-of-state paid Republican campaign workers, congressional staff (including an aide to Tom DeLay), and one Congressman (Lincoln Diaz-Balart). The number of Miami Cuban protesters was relatively small, perhaps only a couple of dozen. They were mostly from a small but tightly-disciplined Cuban splinter faction, Vigilia Mambisa, which has been accused of organizing protests for a fee. (The group's leader denies the accusation.)

Vigilia Mambisa particpated actively in the Bush electoral campaign, some of its members being paid to call radio stations from Republican phone banks. The CANF, in contrast, remained neutral during the election, preferring to cultivate its political influece with both political parties.

All this however increases rather than reduces the importance of the connections laid out in my published story. The protest in the building was in accordance with a permit obtained jointly by the leader of Mambisa and the Republican Party. The day after their victory in Miami-Dade, Mambisa followers were bussed to Fort Lauderdale in Broward County. After a day of protests there, they took part in the victory banquet, to which Governor Bush phoned to express his thanks. In both counties, the Cubans were thrust in front of the TV cameras, to create the false illusion that the demonstrations were the spontaneous outbursts of local citizens.

Do not forget the role of CANF's Radio Mambi in reinforcing this illusion. The whole precedure, which involved violence in intimidating and obstructing the Canvassing Board, is now seen as an event planned and orchestrated jointly by Cuban extremists and elements in the Republican Party.

http://ist-socrates.berkeley.edu/~pdscott/pdsup.html

[sistersofmercy]

4. See I think it's a game of scramble, break the dems up by scrambling

them to different issues. Just take a look we're breathless.

[Judi Lynn]

7. Little Havana reaction mixed to Bush Cuba initiative

Little Havana reaction mixed to Bush Cuba initiative

Miami-AP -- There's mixed reaction to President Bush's new Cuba initiative that seeks to crack down on illegal travel to the island.

At a Little Havana coffee shop in Miami, several Cuban-Americans praised the plan to stop American tourists from going to Cuba through third countries. Rudy Babun (BAH'-buhn) says anything that reduces dollars going to Fidel Castro's government is good. (snip)

(snip) And some Cuban-Americans think the Bush idea has things backward. Carlos Rivero says the U-S should be opening up travel to Cuba instead of continuing a policy that's failed for decades. He says it's time to try a new approach. (snip/...)

http://www.kron4.com/Global/story.asp?S=1477862

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Pretty neat, isn't it, our own pResident plotting to find a way to keep American taxpayers from travelling to a country which has NEVER launched a war on the U.S., it's COLLOSSAL NEIGHBOR? Smoooooth. So elegant. We are blessed.

[bluestateguy]

8. 30-40% of the Cuban vote and Bush loses Florida

Many of the younger Cubans don't partake in Jorge Mas Canosa style exile politics. They're Americans and don't spend their time obessing over Castro. A candidate like Clark or Dean could win 30-40% of the Cuban vote and doom Bush in Florida.

[Judi Lynn]

9. New scribblings on Bush's big deal Cuba plans

Bush tightens travel to Cuba, plans for transition
By Bob Deans, Cox News Service
October 11, 2003

WASHINGTON - President Bush announced measures Friday meant to further squeeze Fidel Castro and help speed the return of democracy to Cuba.

Bush ordered the Homeland Security Department to crack down on illegal U.S. tourism to Cuba, in an effort to deny Fidel Castro's Communist government millions of dollars in annual revenue.

He also said he would raise the number of Cubans eligible for legal admission to the United States, even as he tightens controls on illegal refugees who hazard the 90-mile journey across the Straits of Florida.

And Bush directed Secretary of State Colin Powell and Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Mel Martinez, a Cuban native, to co-chair a new commission to develop a comprehensive plan for rapid U.S. assistance in the event of Castro's fall, or death. (snip/...)

http://www.gomemphis.com/mca/nation_and_world/article/0,1426,MCA_454_2338719,00.html

(Is this author profoundly ignorant, or is he simply a propagandist?)