Speaker blasts U.S. policies toward Cuba

[Say_What]

More Cuban-Americans speaking out against the embargo and travel ban

<clips>

By CHRISTINE STEELE

FARMINGTON -- Cuban-American activist Andres Gomez spoke out against the embargo in place since the Cuban revolution in 1959 during a discussion with a crowd of students, faculty and community members at the University of Maine at Farmington this week.

Gomez is the founder of the Antonio Maceo Brigade, a Miami-based organization of Cubans in the United States who favor normalized relations with Cuba.

Gomez called the embargo, established by the U.S. government to prevent any U.S. corporation from trading with Cuba, a "policy of war, a policy of aggression." He estimated the embargo has cost the Cuban people $72 billion since its inception. He said policy has extended "in an attempt to make it impossible for the governments and corporations of other countries to engage in trade with or invest in Cuba."

The purpose of the policy, he said, is to destroy Cuba. If the embargo were lifted, Gomez said, in a few years the commerce it would generate would amount to $1 billion.

http://www.centralmaine.com/news/local/92306.shtml

[Judi Lynn]

1. Someone should tell this Cuban "exile" that there are some right-wingers

who insist that the embargo on Cuba has done no harm! Maybe a member of the subterranean D.U. "Pro-Embargo Thimk-tank" could light the way for him!

From the article:

Gomez also spoke out against the ban on U.S. travel to Cuba. He said the newer wave of Cuban immigrants, those who came to America after 1980, still have relatives in Cuba.

"They are concerned about the U.S. policy against Cuba and how it affects their families," he said. "People in the U.S. have to participate in changing this policy."

Gomez praised Cuba's health care system, with 70,000 doctors, and its literacy rate.

"How many lives would have been lost before the introduction of Cuba's universal health care?" he asked, noting the 40 million Americans who are uninsured today.

[morebunk]

2. Think were Cuba could be today were it not for the US embargo

Castro has done wonders to keep them afloat this long. Nothing Castro has done has hurt the native Cubans more than their hateful cousins who deserted and helped the US with its nasty embargo.

Evenso, many defectors use their money to send home to Cuba...we are so stupid that we think all the defectors love us. They just love what we can do for them that allows them to help the folks back home in Cuba.
If it weren't so, do you really believe that Castro would freely allow sports stars, and dancers to freely travel to other places? Would he continue to allow the cultural exchange programs taking place? As long as Americans can be led to believe that we have someone out there to hate, they will never see the truth.

[Mika]

3. Castro this.. Castro that.. Castro Castro Castro

Morebunk, Castro does not rule Cuba with an iron fist. Cubans wouldn't put up with that shit for long. They kicked Batista's US supported bloodsoaked dictatorship out of Cuba en masse.

Cuban's aren't "defectors' either. They are immigrants who, like most others from the Caribbean & Latin Americas, come here for jobs.


Its poverty that brings most immigrants here.


Except that ONLY Cuban immigrants are given the types of perks given by the US Cuban Adjustment Act. (Instant work visa, instant eligibility for a green card, instant welfare, instant Social Security, instant access to Sec 8 housing. AND THIS INCLUDES ILLEGAL ENTRANTS who are covered under the US "wet foot/ dry foot" policy for Cubans only.)


Another example: tens of thousands 'defect' from Mexico every year - hundreds of Mexicans die 'defecting' to the US.

Mexico doesn't face economically devastating US sanctions, as Cuba does.

Mexicans don't benefit from any 'Mexican Adjustment Act'


Come to Miami and you'll meet people from all over the Caribbean, from all over the Central Americas, and from all over the South Americas. They all 'defected' too.

None of their countries face economically devastating US sanctions, as Cuba does.

None of their citizens are offered an 'Adjustment Act' like Cubans are.

But they still pour into the US.


They are defecting from poverty.


The US sanctions forces poverty on Cubans in Cuba, while at the same time offering only Cubans a plethora of immigration/financial perks, so the driveling propagandists can pronounce that Cubans are 'defecting' from Cuba's political system. All that's needed for that strategy to work is a totally_ignorant_about_Cuba_policy American public.

So far, the anti Castro propaganda is working on Americans.

[Judi Lynn]

5. Found an article which reminded me of your comments

(snip) To add to their pool of top quality sportspeople, both as competitors and trainers, the wealthier capitalist countries have used their wealth to pillage the sporting talent of poorer countries, especially Third World and Eastern European countries.

This has the double advantage of simultaneously weakening the competition while building up the dominance of "the West". Where the Third World country is also socialist, like Cuba, then this program is pursued with redoubled vigour.

Ever since the 1952 Olympics, where the Soviet Union participated for the first time, large amounts of money have been spent by the West to disrupt and destabilise sporting teams from socialist countries.

Everything from bribes and lucrative job offers to sex and threats have been used to persuade socialist-country sports people to "defect".

Since the overthrow of socialism in the USSR and Eastern Europe,the resultant economic chaos has made it easy for the richer capitalist countries to enhance their own sporting strength by adding impoverished coaches and athletes from these countries.
Australia, Canada, France, Germany and of course the USA, have gleefully participated in this talent theft, not only from former and present socialist countries but from poor countries in general.

Most recently,the politically inspired talent scouts for Western "sport" have been active at the Pan American Games in Winnipeg.
They have been backed up by a sensation-seeking media more interested in encouraging desertions from the Cuban team than in reporting its considerable sports victories. (snip/...)

http://www.zipworld.com.au/~cpa/garchve1/967cult.htm

[denverbill]

4. Jebus, this is one brave dude.

I don't know if the anti-Castro Cuban mafia in Miami is going to appreciate a Cuban refugee talking like that. I hope he knows what he's doing.

[Judi Lynn]

6. Human Rights Watch on Cuban exile brutality towards dissenters

This is a PDF,


August 1992 Volume 4; Issue 7



DANGEROUS DIALOGUE

Attacks on Freedom of Expression
in Miami's Cuban Exile Community
AMERICAS WATCH

THE FUND FOR FREE EXPRESSION


DIVISIONS OF HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH


Violence and intimidation of dissident political voices in the U.S.
Cuban community is nothing new. An anonymous letter printed by the New York Times in 1979 asked "how
we can permit a small group of fanatical anti-Castro terrorists to deny us our right to visit our families and to
rediscover Cuban cultural traditions?" The letter cited the recent bombings of the Cuban and Soviet
missions in New York City and the murders of two members of the Committee of 75, a group of Cuban
exiles who met in Cuba with government officials in what has widely become known as the "Dialogue,"6
negotiating the release of some political prisoners, and liberalizing arrangements for cultural exchanges and
travel. Those killed were Eulalio Negrín, director of a Cuban refugee services center, shot by two Omega 7
operatives wearing ski masks as he was entering his car in Union City, N.J., and Carlos Muñiz, director of a travel agency that books trips to Cuba. In a press release claiming responsibility for the killing of Muñiz,
Omega 7 declared that anyone who "travels to Cuba, regardless of his motives, is considered our enemy
we will be forced to judge them as we did Muñiz."7 For the first time since the Cuban revolution, there
had been serious movement toward normalizing relations with Cuba. The killings of Negrín and Muñiz, and
the discovery of bombs placed in the homes of at least twenty other Dialogue participants played a large role
in effectively derailing that movement.

The Fund for Americas Watch/Fund for Free Expression investigation of freedom of expression in
the Miami Cuban exile community had two components. The first was to document, through a series of
interviews and an examination of previously published material, incidents of intimidation of dissenting
viewpoints. Because many of these involve private actors, it was essential to proceed to the second step, an
examination of the role played by government authorities at the local, state and federal level. We found that
this role took three forms.

(1) Direct harassment of dissident viewpoints by the government itself. This is the case with
the Miami City Commission's longstanding campaign against the Cuban Museum of Arts and Culture, and
with the numerous unfounded investigations of Ramón Cernuda, the business leader who is closely
identified with Cuban human rights activists who favor a less belligerent U.S. policy toward Cuba. Some of
these incidents, like the Miami City Commission's effort to evict the Cuban Museum of Arts and Culture,
can be analyzed under international standards of freedom of expression, or, in U.S. law, in traditional First
Amendment terms.


(2) Government encouragement, primarily through
funding, of groups that have been closely identified with efforts to
restrict freedom of expression. The principal example of this is the U.S.
funding, through the National Endowment for Democracy, of groups
such as the Cuban American National Foundation. There has also been
similar funding by state and local governments in Florida.

(3) The response of government law enforcement agencies
to criminal acts that have been aimed at those whose viewpoints do not
coincide with those of the dominant intransigent forces. In some cases,
it is reported that police officers looked on and did nothing as violence or vandalism was taking place. In
others, those responsible for investigating violence against political or human rights activists seem to have
been more concerned with discrediting the activists than with apprehending those responsible. Finally, while
in the last few years there have been as many as a dozen bombings aimed at those who favor a more
moderate approach toward the Castro regime, none has resulted in a single arrest or prosecution.8

***
...those responsible for
investigating violence against
political or human rights
activists seem to have been
more concerned with
discrediting the activists than
with apprehending those
responsible.

http://www.hrw.org/reports/pdfs/U/US/US928.PDF

[Say_What]

7. Weapons of Mass Seduction

<clips>

Weapons of mass seduction

I have come to the conclusion that the world has become so dangerous since George W. Bush was appointed to the presidency, that it is time for me to offer my services in defense of our beloved nation. The Oct. 11 Tribune article announcing Bush's plan to tighten the embargo of Cuba was the last straw for me. I can sit still no longer and let the children of the United States carry the brunt of the fight.

According to the article, "He alluded to a crackdown on an illicit sex trade surrounding Cuba's tourism industry but offered no evidence of such a problem." I have long suspected that Castro has been deceiving the world, and in fact has been developing "weapons of mass seduction."

I served in the military honorably and am now too old to re-enlist, but I will sacrifice myself by going on an inspections mission to bring back proof that there are in fact WMS presently being produced under a web of secrecy in Cuba. I shall also sign my name to this affidavit so Karl Rove won't have to leak my identity and blow my cover.

Wish me luck, and God bless America.

James D. Smith
Pleasant Grove

http://www.sltrib.com/2003/Oct/10172003/public_f/public_f.asp

[Judi Lynn]

8. Cool letter! He's a real patriot!

He may need to investigate some of these rascals: showgirls from Batista's time. They may easily still be creeping around there, if they didn't "flee" to Miami!




http://cuban-exile.com/doc_326-350/doc0336.html

[Osolomia]

9. The steady slew of editorials opposed to Cuba policy continues

Here's the latest in a steady stream from all over the country in the past week, nothing for Dem campaigners to be concerned about if they want to loose on purpose:

Ready, set -- pander!
Bush's new Cuba sanctions are aimed at Florida voters, not Castro.

(Published Friday, October 17, 2003, 5:52 AM)

Like a harbinger of elections to come, President Bush has swung into campaign mode by promising Cuban-Americans that he'll tighten sanctions against Cuba. But the crackdown against Americans who violate the U.S. embargo against Havana won't "hasten the arrival of a new, free, democratic Cuba," as Bush said. It could, however, get some Americans in trouble and, by reducing the flow of dollars to Cuba, further impoverish many Cubans.

Specifically, Bush seeks to target visits to Cuba that purport to be for professional or cultural purposes -- and are thus exempt from the U.S. embargo -- but that are nothing but thinly disguised tourism. Violations could be punished with heavy fines, possibly even jail time.

... Someday Castro will be gone. When that happens, this country has a strong interest in a smooth transition in Havana and improvement in U.S.-Cuban relations. That's much likelier to happen if U.S. policy focuses on increasing trade and broader relations with Cubans, assuring them that Americans bear no ill will toward them and have no post-Castro designs on their country.

Fortunately, opposition to the embargo is bipartisan. Republican-sponsored legislation to ease the embargo has passed the House three times but foundered in the Senate. It's up again this year and deserves serious consideration. Whether Bush's ploy helps him win in Florida or not, it will do nothing to lay the ground for better relations after Castro or make the lot of Cubans better in the meantime.

More...
http://www.fresnobee.com/opinion/story/7604188p-8512168c.html

[Osolomia]

10. With the likes of William Buckley spewing his hatemongering propaganda

What's a Dem presidential candidate and his supporters to do now!

DUh!

October 17, 2003, 1:00 p.m.
Castro’s Mortality?
Cuban affairs.
by William F. Buckley Jr.

http://www.nationalreview.com/buckley/buckley200310171300.asp

[Say_What]

11. and in the Fresno Bee!! Freeperland USA

ROFLMAO!!! :bounce:

[Osolomia]

12. It's urging freepers to give upcoming Senate vote “serious consideration"

when few DUers have a clue what’s happening or give a damn! What a shame!