Some News...

THE CREATION OF BISCET

Tomorrow, our three favorite members of Congress (Ileana, Lincoln and Mario) will be making an important presentation at Mario Diaz-Balart's Miami district office. Beginning around 10:30am, the three will officially inaugurate their Oscar Elias Biscet awareness campaign, recent winner of the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Part of the campaign was reported by Pablo Bachelet for the Miami Herald on Monday:

"Miami Republican Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen said Monday, Biscet supporters will begin an awareness campaign on U.S. college campuses with T-shirts and other items, calling Biscet 'a new hero for a new Cuba.' Among the campuses: University of Miami, Miami Dade College and Florida International University."

The three members of Congress called in to Radio Mambi Wednesday evening (between 6-6:30pm) detailing some of the event, which will include a video about Biscet. On the show, Mario Diaz-Balart, still delighted by Pres. Bush's recent speech on Cuba, made sure to let listeners know that if you don't spend at least sometime EACH DAY being active for a Free Cuba, then you "don't deserve to be called Cuban."


THE IBERO-AMERICAN SUMMIT IN CHILE

The 17th Ibero-American Summit began yesterday, and so far most of its invited guests which include all Latin American nations, Spain, Portugal and Andorra, have made the trip to Chile. Cuba's Vice-President, Carlos Lage, was in attendance for the Summit and appeared on Chilean television saying that Fidel Castro was "reading, studying, analyzing, offering ideas, thoughts, giving us ideas for us to continue the battle for the ideals of justice and solidarity to which he has dedicated his entire life."

There are indications that members of the Summit have already "approved a special communiqué" that condemns the US embargo towards Cuba and supports the extradition of Luis Posada Carriles to Venezuela. These resolutions against US policy have been persistent at the Summit since 2005 and 2006.


MIAMI BOOK FAIR INTERNATIONAL

This Sunday, Ann Louise Bardach, author of several articles and books on Cuba (and famed interviewer of Luis Posada Carriles) will be present at the Miami Book Fair, among several other famed authors. Bardach has recently released The Prison Letters of Fidel Castro, and is scheduled to release a new book next year titled Without Fidel: The Death of Castro and Other Tales.

Bardach will be present with Patrick Symmes, long-time travel writer, and famed author of Chasing Che, the book which soon became the film The Motorcycle Diaries. Symmes is the recent author of The Boys from Dolores: Fidel Castro's Classmates from Revolution to Exile and, with Bardach, will present a discussion titled "Portrait of [Fidel] Castro as a Young Man" at 3pm [PDF of Sunday Schedule].

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The Prison Letters of Fidel Castro produces letters that began in 1953, after Fidel Castro was arrested for his attack on the Moncada Barracks. One of the persons that Fidel wrote to was Luis Conte Agüero, a former close friend, but today one of his fiercest opponents. Conte Agüero has his own show on a local Spanish station (TeleMiami) which runs weekdays from 11am to noon. He's a hard-liner who describes his intransigence in the memory of Jose Marti and Antonio Maceo, 19th Century heroes for Cuban independence.

But, before the conflict between Fidel Castro and Conte Agüero, he wrote with great praise of Fidel as the leader of the 1959 Revolution, and included in the prologue of the original release of 1959's The Prison Letters of Fidel Castro:

"This is Fidel Castro Ruz: Endurance, sacrifice, stoicism, study, brotherhood, foresight and destiny, beating heart, closed fist, will to make history; flower and firearm, bread and spirit, milk and spear, land and dream."

Today, Conte Agüero writes that Fidel "subverted and defiled the eternal values of liberty." But, its revealed that Fidel Castro was very clear in his letters to Conte Agüero of being a communist and opposed to freedom of speech. In a great article by Meg Laughlin for the St. Petersburg Times, Laughlin points out that Fidel laid out his plans "to take land and sugar profits from the wealthy and redistribute them to sharecroppers and workers." Furthermore, Fidel specifically wrote to Conte Agüero that "[t]he apparatus of propaganda and organization should be so powerful as to implacably destroy anyone trying to create fissures, cabals, and schisms or to rise against the movement." Conte Agüero seemed to not be bothered by these personal statements when he wrote his prologue in 1959.

Today, Laughlin gets a reply from Conte Agüero saying: "Communism did not occur to me at the time." And, concerning the use of propaganda to "implacably destroy" their opponents, Conte Agüero says: "In the very early days, it was necessary for consolidation."

There you have it. Power certainly corrupts.

The Last Protest (Part 2)

Last night, Marta Flores on Radio Mambi commented that she had hoped to see more people at the demonstration, especially younger ones. I was perhaps one of the very few under fifty. I looked around to see anyone near my age, but I was a needle in a haystack of middle-agers and retirees.

Among her remarks, Flores mentioned her disgust with a particular incident, of which I can also confirm. She mentioned that aerial banners that day had flown over the park which called on the release of the Cuban Five. I had an instant flashback once she said that because those two planes were unmistakable that afternoon. One after the other, those brightly colored planes flew over Miami's downtown highways, plainly visible to those underneath. I noticed them on my way to the demonstration, but was too far to read what they said.

According to El Nuevo Herald, the two banners read: "Posada-Terrorista-Libertad a los 5" (Posada-Terrorist-Free the 5) and "Posada-Terrorista-Enemigo de América" (Posada-Terrorist-Enemy of America). The exiles saw this as another provocation, but their demonstration saw no other distraction.

Once the final speaker finished and put the megaphone down, the sunburnt crowd began to disperse. Members of Vigilia Mambisa began to fold up their extra-large flag with care and precision, revealing the many times they had unfurled their national colors. Many walked home a short familiar route heading back to Little Havana, still wearing their miniature flags on their guayaberas. But, will it be the same ones the next time around I wondered, concerned with their progressing age.

Flores, reminisced about the old days where large crowds of Cuban-Americans would easily block Calle Ocho in protest, boasting of that old power. She was revealing her concerns about the future of the struggle. What has happened since then she asked herself. She blames communist/socialist propaganda that has poisoned their youth. What else could it be?

Far from Miami, on September 23, 2006, a protest of about 600 people gathered in Washington DC to condemn the incarceration of the Cuban Five, the largest gathering ever for that cause. Just like a bizarro reality, this group called for the extradition of Luis Posada Carriles to Venezuela, and condemned terrorism towards Cuba. These calls are also similar to the ones made in 2005 at the Ibero-American Summit in Spain where all the nations of Latin America signed a resolution calling for the extradition of Luis Posada Carriles to Venezuela, and condemning US policy towards Cuba.

Flores' concern is real. There is a shift occurring. And, that shift may have to do with the younger generation. But, I am not concerned about them like Flores, I have faith in them.

[Part1]

A Terrorist's Veil of Innocence (Part 1)

One false notion that is constantly heard and repeated is that Luis Posada Carriles is innocent because he has been "twice acquitted" for his crimes. These so-called "acquittals" relate to charges against Carriles, in which he was a primary suspect, for the bombing of a civilian aircraft in 1976.

Currently, Luis Posada Carriles is being held in a US federal prison for charges of fraud connected to his illegal entrance and false immigrant application into the US. And, just this morning in Miami, cries of injustice continue to be called out on the radio. Callers to Radio Mambi, one of Carriles' main supporters for his release, ask Armando Perez-Roura on his morning show: where's justice for this freedom fighter who was already aquitted for his crimes? And, there's a silence. It's a silence that belongs to those baffled with simple logic, based on a false premise. One of the hosts on Radio Mambi's morning show, Enrique Encinosa, responds that there is a lot international pressure in the case of Carriles, but mainly that "para los communistas no importa"[*](it doesn't matter to the Communists) if Carriles has been aquitted.

The truth is that Luis Posada Carriles has NOT been aquitted. Yet, it seems that THIS doesn't matter to Enrique Encinosa, and others who believe that Carriles is an innocent man.

The best clarification of Carriles' false "veil of innocence" has come from the Council on Hemispheric Affairs. They write that:

"Posada was first tried before a military tribunal, which acquitted him of the crime of treason. However, a higher military court found that the lower one lacked jurisdiction and annulled the entire case, which was then handed off to the civil courts. They would have prima facie jurisdiction over Posada, as he was at the time a citizen of Venezuela. Initially, the prosecutors in the civil case declined to try him; their replacements, however, saw fit to bring homicide charges against Posada, and it was during this period that he escaped from prison.

"To Posada’s potential benefit, many have interpreted this lack of a verdict to mean that two Venezuelan courts have found him innocent of terrorism. However, neither of the legal actions against him carried any precedential effect. The military tribunal annulment effectively wiped the slate clean, resetting the entire judicial process and leaving all parties situated as if no legal action had ever occurred.

"In the final analysis, Posada was in the process of facing prosecution for a major crime at the time when he escaped from Venezuela."

This description is supported by the official statements of the Venezuelan Embassy in the US. They say:

"The history of the litigation in Venezuela that shows that after litigation in the military tribunals, the case was annulled on March 24, 1983, because it was conducted in the wrong forum. Subsequently, it was sent to the penal courts where, prior to a verdict by the court, Posada escaped from prison in San Juan de los Morros in Guárico state on August 18, 1985... The statutory period for trying the case has not lapsed, because according to Article 110 of the Penal Code, the statute of limitation is tolled for a fugitive until a new legal action is taken."

This is why the Venezuelan government continues to demand for the extradition of Luis Posada Carriles from the US, who together have extradition obligations to fulfill. This demand for extradition was also supported by virtually all the countries in Latin America at the 2005 Ibero-American Summit where they agreed on such a resolution.

The case of Luis Posada Carriles is pretty clear in Latin America: he's a terrorist that should be extradited and tried for his charges in Venezuela. But, here in Miami, its a totally different story.

[*]Enrique Encinosa - Radio Mambi: "En Caliente" Morning Show (February 1, 2007)

Only in Miami

In Miami, the case of Luis Posada Carriles is controversial. Let me try to explain why.

Yesterday, the infamous Orlando Bosch, co-conspirator with Luis Posada Carriles, wrote an op-ed piece for El Nuevo Herald. He wrote an entire piece on how Luis Posada Carriles is being held in federal prison for no other reason than US fear of the backlash from Cuba and Venezuela. This argument seems to be the most popular at the moment for pro-Carriles advocates, but it is a false argument. Check an earlier post for the reason why.

Anyway, Bosch highlighted an interesting parallel about his case and Carriles'. Bosch mentioned that he himself was held in federal detention after he arrived into the US in 1988, for reasons of national security (it was known then that Bosch was suspected of terrorism). Yet, unlike Luis Posada Carriles, Orlando Bosch was set free on July of 1990, after 29 months in prison. There's an important point of distinction here.

Those who have done their homework know the players that pulled the political strings to release Bosch. In 1990, with suspicious coincidence, the Cuban-American political leadership had strong ties to the administration, this time with Papa Bush. And, Jeb Bush was the key link in the eventual release. A 2001 government list titled "Examples of Controversial Pardons by Previous Presidents" written by the Committee on Government Reform for the U.S. House of Representatives, stated that:

"In 1990, the Bush Justice Department granted a parole to Orlando Bosch after being lobbied by Jeb Bush, the son of the President."

So why can't the same strings be pulled for Carriles?

THE "WAR ON TERROR"

If not for Baby Bush's so-called "War on Terror", Luis Posada Carriles would most likely be a free man.

As I stated before, the hesitancy of the US administration to free Carriles originates largely from the 2005 Ibero-American Summit in Salamanca, where the 19 nations of the Latin region stood together, calling for the extradition of Luis Posada Carriles to Venezuela. The hypocrisy of the US "War on Terror" was showing. Following this event, the US cannot release Carriles into the streets without significant backlash from a region which is already a concern. That's the reality.

So, now the US indicts Carriles for some petty crime of fraud (I agree with Carriles' lawyer, Eduardo Soto, on this point) and buy themselves some time. Hopefully, it is only until more serious evidence is uncovered in the investigations in New Jersey for money transfers to Carriles in 1997, used for the hotel bombings of that year.

Yet here in Miami, the Cuban-American political leadership is still quite adamant for Carriles' release, as it was for Bosch's release. The general population in Miami-Dade county also shares a sympathetic bond on the issue of Cuba, where Cuban-Americans make up about 50% of Hispanics, and have a firm grip on local politics. This powerful position in the community influences the local media, and allows them to paint Carriles with broad brush strokes, where all criminal evidence towards Carriles is ignored or diluted to the point of irrelevance and annoyance. Thus, Carriles is a patriot, and Armando Perez-Roura can praise his past activities as righteous and noble on his radio station, which is one of the most powerful AM stations, transmitting at 50,000 watts everyday, and one of the most listened to.

And, that's why on July 31, 2006, George W. Bush, while visiting Miami, only gave TWO broadcast interviews on his trip: one for FoxNews (surprise) and one for Radio Mambi.

Luis Posada Carriles came THIS close to being a free man.

That's Miami for you.