Fake Cuban Cigars (Part 1)

It's a billion dollar industry that Javier Terres believes will triple in size once the US embargo is done away with, but whose history, according to Isaiah Thompson, "is steeped in intrigue, blood, global politics, and greed." Thompson, writing for this week's Miami New Times, narrates a tragic tale of a Cuban balsero, whose pursuit of the American dream to be his own boss is ironically crushed between a corporate giant and a failed American policy of isolation which continues to divide and conquer.

According to the American Cancer Society, Americans in 2005 smoked about 5 billion cigars. Another source indicates that about 220 million of those are top-end cigars. Worldwide, billions of dollars are made in tobacco, and Altadis SA has corned the Cuban cigar market. In a 2000 joint venture with the Cuban government, Altadis SA was given official rights to 20,000 acres of Cuba’s finest tobacco fields, and brand names like Cohiba, Montecristo and Romeo y Julieta. Altadis SA has been making some headlines recently because they are the target of a bidding war that has now reached $17.4 billion, in what may be the largest purchase of cigars in European history.

Smoking bans around the world may be triggering some of the latest buyouts of tobacco companies, but there may be an extra incentive for the purchase of Altadis. Javier Terres, development director of Corporación Habanos (the joint venture with Altadis and the Cuban government) believes that when the US market opens up to Cuban cigars there might be a threefold expansion of sales, a market estimated to be worth $1.8 billion. The recent developments in Cuba, and possible changes to the US embargo, may also explain the recent bidding war for Altadis SA, a company that sells the finest Cuban cigars to the rest of the world except the US.

In the 90's, Juan Penton got a taste of that market.

[Part 2]

A Letter to Alberto Gonzalez

Blogger Leftside from A View to the South has reprinted sections of Massachusetts House Representative(10th District) Bill Delahunt's letter to Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez. In the letter, Delahunt makes a convincing argument on why Luis Posada Carriles should immediately be designated a "terrorist alien" under US laws.

The entire letter can be found here in PDF format. A must-read.

Horizon Towards Indictment

There seems to be some indication that the case of Luis Posada Carriles is not yet over.

Watching the evening Spanish news today, America TeVe's Noticias 41 is reporting that US Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez is "in disagreement" with the latest immigration decision from Judge Cardone in El Paso, Texas. The Noticias 41 website [retrieved May10, 2007] says "La administracion Bush nada contenta con libertad de Posadas Carriles" (The Bush Administration Not at All Happy with release of Posada Carriles). If Gonzalez is actually serious about this (not likely) it may give legitimacy to the serious investigation in progress by the FBI.

Anita Snow, from the Associated Press, also reports today about the federal grand jury in Newark whose "lawyers say there's a good chance that Posada will be tried in New Jersey." Oddly, Snow only quotes ONE lawyer, Gilberto M. Garcia, saying that "[t]he (U.S.) government is working very hard on this [case... and are under tremendous pressure] to get him on something." Garcia is the lawyer of five Cuban-Americans that have been called to testify for the New Jersey investigation, but all of whom claim to be innocent of any wrong-doing.

Snow also quotes Phil Peters, Vice President and "Cuba expert" of the Lexington Institute, from his blog saying "[f]ollow the Newark grand jury... The immigration charges were always a sideshow." Snow precedes this quote with an optimistic opinion that "New Jersey has the most potential to put Posada behind bars." But, Peters' New Jersey quote comes from one of four possible scenarios:

1) Posada Carriles might be deported;
2) he might be indicted in New Jersey;
3) might be extradited to Venezuela [very unlikely];
4) or, be detained under the Patriot Act.

Peters does not mention which one scenario has more potential over the other.

Finally, Anita Snow also mentions the 2005, 10-page, FBI affidavit [PDF] presented by special agent Thomas H. Rice, a 13-year counter-terrorism investigator. Its a collection of evidence that Phil Peters describes as "quite a bit" for a possible indictment. I will comment on this affidavit later, but Snow really offers little to hope for aside from the report by agent Rice.

In the blogoshpere, Leftside has excellent queries about Judge Cardone's decision.

The case of Luis Posada Carriles seems to have some potential for real justice, but only time will tell.

Luis Posada Carriles Exonerated!

Radio Mambi, Miami's most listened to Spanish AM Radio Station, received first news of Luis Posada Carriles' exoneration today.

Arturo Hernandez, lawyer for Posada Carriles, called early into Radio Mambi's two-hour radio show La Mesa Redonda, hosted by Armando Perez-Roura. He recounted the courtroom events in El Paso, around 3pm, when federal judge Kathleen Cardone suddenly called all parties into the courtroom. Hernandez recalls that he was nervous and the courtroom atmosphere as tense, when Judge Cardone entered the courtroom with her 38-page ruling. "Gracias a Dios" said Hernandez, and then allowed Luis Posada Carriles to say a few words [and first words after being freed] on the air.

"Ya estoy libre... estoy un poco emocionado," said Posada Carriles. "Gracias a Dios, a ti, a todos mis hermanos, a la gente de Cuba... por tener la victoria... me faltan las palabras."

(Finally I'm free... I'm a little emotional. Thank God, to you, to all my brothers, to the people of Cuba... for having the victory... words fail me.)

[Listen to an excerpt]

The Miami Herald and El Nuevo Herald have short summaries of the federal judge's ruling today, but the best explanation is coming from the AP.

Since last week, Hernandez had been trying to argue that Luis Posada Carriles' naturalization interview be excluded from his upcoming trial. Hernandez argued that the events surrounding the interview pointed to "entrapment." It seems that Judge Cardone agreed.

According to the AP (Juan A. Lozano), Judge Cardone believed "the naturalization interview was a pretext for the criminal investigation." This is basically what the 38-page ruling argues. Judge Cardone extensively describes many technical irregularities related to the naturalization interview (tapes and transcript), suspicions and four "anomalous" qualities:

(1) it lasted eight hours over the course of two days as opposed to the usual maximum of thirty minutes,
(2) it involved two interviewers,
(3) the Government provided an interpreter,
(4) there were a total of four attorneys present – two defense attorneys and two Government attorneys, and
(5) it was both audio and videotaped.

The Houston Chronicle has a link to the 38-page ruling [pdf]. Judge Cardone concludes with:

"The realm of this case is not, as some have suggested, terrorism. It is immigration fraud. Terrorism, and the determination of whether or not to classify an individual as a terrorist, lies
within the sound discretion of the executive branch. It does not lie with this Court."

I totally agree. Just as Jose Padilla was indicted by US Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez for "intention of fighting in violent jihad", so should the US pursue these same charges towards Luis Posada Carriles, and his "violent jihad" against the Castro government.

Meanwhile in Miami, calls poured into the telephone lines at Radio Mambi in celebration. The 11pm news (Univision Noticias23) had Miguel Saavedra expressing his joy over his hero finally being liberated. Soon, Santiago Alvarez and Osvaldo Mitat will be released too. The only one left for some hard-liners is Eduardo Arocena. Will he also be freed?

Luis Posada Carriles is scheduled to arrive soon in Miami, an investigation by a New Jersey federal grand jury not on his mind. Another day approaches Miami.

[Photo by Patricia Giovine/EFE]

History of Violence in Miami

"That's when the shit hit the fan," writes Vivien Lesnik Weisman on her blog. "Bombings, death threats and drive by shootings would typically scare the shit out of somebody and make them shut the fuck up, but not my dad."

Yesterday, the Miami Herald's movie critic, Rene Rodriguez, had an article published about a new documentary titled The Man of Two Havanas. Rodriguez interviews the writer and director, Vivien Lesnik Wiesman, and writes about the focus of the film: Max Lesnik.

The Man of Two Havanas is a personal exploration for the director as much as it is a documentary on Max Lesnik. Rodriguez describes it as "about a woman who, in the process of getting to know her father better, ends up discovering a passion inside her she did not know existed."

Lesnik Weisman's blog, at the Huffington Post, writes that "Terrorism in America did not begin on September 11th. In the 1970s and 1980s, there was a reign of terror in Miami. There were as many as seven bombings in one day and hundreds per year. The culprits were not Communists. They were Americans. And my family was at the epicenter." One of the targets was Max Lesnik.

Max Lesnik in the eighties had adopted a political viewpoint that was found intolerable by some in the Cuban exile community. He was opposed to US policy towards Cuba. He published a political magazine called Replica, whose main office was repeatedly bombed and threatened.

Lesnik Weisman's film premiered last month in New York to a standing ovation.

The hard-line on Cuba policy, and its intolerance for an alternative, is difficult to understand, especially in the United States of America. I first noticed this phenomenon during the Elian case in 2000, but have noticed that the hard-line stance goes way back.

Jim Mullin, from the Miami New Times in 2000, wrote that "[l]awless violence and intimidation have been hallmarks of el exilio for more than 30 years." Mullin added a long timeline of violent episodes in Miami related to Cuban issues. Many incidents include Max Lesnik's office for Replica magazine.

Below I include excerpts from Joan Didion's 1987 book Miami, where she describes another violent episode from 1986. Reading about this event gave me some insight to the history of the hard-line position in Miami. It also provides greater context and an explanation to what occurred on January 19th of this year: The Attack on the Bolivarian Youth.

[Photo above of Max Lesnik with Fidel Castro]

MIAMI by Joan Didion

[Events from March 1986]

"It appeared that many eggs had been hurled, and some rocks. It appeared that at least one onion had been hurled, hitting the president of the Dade County Young Democrats...

"From noon of that Saturday until about three, when a riot squad was called and the South Florida Peace Coalition physically extracted from the fray, the police had apparently managed to keep the Alpha 66 demonstrators on the Alpha 66 side of the barricades... The two thousand Alpha 66 demonstrators had apparently spent the three hours trying to rush the barricades, tangling with police, and shouting down the folksingers with chants of 'Comunismo no, Democracia si,' and 'Rusia no, Reagan si.'

"The mayor of Miami, Xavier Suarez, had apparently stayed on the Alpha 66 side of the barricades, at one point speaking from the back of a Mazda pickup, a technique he later described in a letter to the [Miami] Herald as 'mingling with the people and expressing my own philosophical agreement with their ideas - as well as my disagreement with the means by which some would implement those ideas.'

"'Unfortunately, they have the right to be on the other side of the street' was what [Xavier Suarez] apparently said as the time, from the back of the Mazda pickup... but the fevers of the moment continued for some weeks to induce a certain exhortatory delirium in the pages of the Herald.

"'I was raised to believe that the right to peaceful dissent was vital to our freedoms,' one such letter read, from a woman who noted that she had been present at the Peace Coalition demonstration... 'Apparently,' she continued, 'some in the Cuban community do not recognize my right.... Evidently, their definition of human rights is not the same as that of the most native-born Americans.'

"Voltaire was quoted, somewhat loosely ('I disagree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it'), and even Wendell Willkie, the inscription on whose grave marker ('Because we are generous with our freedom, we share our rights with those who disagree with us') was said to be 'our American creed, as spelled out in the Constitution.'

"A Herald columnist, Carl Hiaasen, put the matter even more flatly: 'They have come to the wrong country,' he wrote about those pro-contra demonstrators who had that Saturday afternoon attacked a young man named David Camp, 'a carpenter and stagehand who was born here, and has always considered himslef patriotic... They need to go someplace where they won't have to struggle so painfully with the concept of free speech, or the right to dissent. Someplace where the names of Paine and Jefferson have no meaning, where folks wouldn't know the Bill of Rights if it was stapled to their noses.'"

(p.71-75)

[Didion, Joan. (1987). Miami. New York: Simon and Schuster.]
[Miami-Dade Public Library - FLA 301.4537 d556m]

Towards May 11th

Last week presented some interesting news related to the case of Luis Posada Carriles.

The most surprising was the Miami Herald article revealing that three FBI agents traveled to Havana, Cuba "to interview witnesses, review Cuba's forensic evidence -- including bombing materials -- and visit crime scenes..." concerning the case of Luis Posada Carriles.

That very same day, three leading Cuban-American US Representatives held a press conference condemning the actions of the FBI and the US Justice Department. The three politicians stated that "[t]he only 'evidence' that the terrorist regime in Havana could provide... would be fabricated evidence." The following day the local newspaper Diario Las Americas supported the statements of the three Cuban-American Representatives with an editorial saying:

"Fidel Castro must have had a ball making fun of the tree [sic] FBI agents who went to the Cuban government for information... Unfortunately, when least expected, things like this happen in the United States that have no logical explanation before the nation or international public opinion that knows that the mentioned tyranny rarely tells the truth and even less in matters of this nature."

It seems that Diario Las Americas has little confidence or respect for the information-gathering expertise of the US Department of Justice and its three FBI special agents, and may even doubt their commitment to the security of the nation.

Also on that day (Friday), National Public Radio (by Dina Temple-Raston) followed on the FBI story and reported that the "The Department of Justice has been torn about how to handle [the case of Luis Posada Carriles]." NPR quotes Peter Kornbluh, director of the Cuba Documentation Project at the National Security Archive, saying that "[t]he FBI going down to Havana looks like an indication of the Bush administration's seriousness... [about holding Posada accountable]."

Meanwhile, in the legal front, Radio Mambi reported early last week that Posada Carriles' lawyer, Arturo Hernandez, filed a motion arguing that his client's history with the CIA is relevant to his immigration trial on the 11th. The US government filed their own motion on the contrary, stating that Luis Posada Carriles and the CIA have not had links for more than 30 years, and that his history with the US is irrelevant to his immigration trial.

By Friday last week, Arturo Hernandez attempted another legal maneuver to have his client's 2006 naturalization interview excluded from trial. Hernandez argues that "U.S. officials entrapped Posada during the two-day naturalization interview." It is in this 2006 interview, according to the Department of Justice, that "Posada allegedly made several false statements regarding his March 2005 entry into the United States, including statements about the transportation routes and methods used, as well as individuals who accompanied him."

This week, US News and World Report (by Liz Holloran) publishes an article that describes the general ambivalent sentiments of the media towards the case of Luis Posada Carriles. Hollaran, just like Temple-Raston (NPR), writes that "Posada has been a political hot potato for a slew of U.S. government agencies." She quotes a local Cuban-American saying:

"All the leaders of the counterrevolution should be living free among us... Yes, some people call it terrorism, and unfortunately, some people have to die. But an armed struggle is an armed struggle... [Posada's] heart is still in the right place... You die with your convictions and beliefs."

Luis Posada Carriles is scheduled to go on trial this Friday (May 11th). Several organizations are planning to hold demonstrations in El Paso, Texas, outside the courthouse that day, and possibly as many days as the trial endures. Additional information can be found here.

Luis Posada Carriles' former immigration attorney, Eduardo Soto, is planning to make a movie of his former client's life. He plans to call it: Made in the USA. How touching.

[Addendum: Democracy Now! has an excellent interview with Peter Kornbluh from the National Security Archives. He responds to the recent FBI trip to Cuba:

"[N]ow we have a situation where the FBI is obviously working again with the Cuban authorities to gather information on the hotel bombings, and if Luis Posada is actually indicted in New Jersey, and other co-conspirators from the New Jersey area, of funding and conducting these attacks against the hotels, I do believe that this will be a very, very important statement by the Justice Department to bring terrorists to justice, frankly, and could be a turning point in the history of US-Cuban relations."]