Placing a Massacre of Cuban Civilians Into Context

[naaman fletcher]

http://blog.panampost.com/2013/07/placing-a-massacre-of-cuban-civilians-into-context/

Cuba is being subjected to a totalitarian dictatorship that for over half a century has erased and rewritten inconvenient chapters of its history. As was the case with the Soviet Union under Stalin, the scale of the crimes cannot be accurately measured during the life of the dictator. Occasionally, however, state security and the propaganda machinery, unable to cover up a particular crime, offer an insight into the regime’s underlying nature. The events of July 13, 1994, are one such instance.

What Happened

The July 13, 1994, massacre that took place just six miles off the Cuban coastline and claimed thirty-seven lives, the majority women and children, is one instance where the true nature of the Cuban government was exposed. Three Cuban families seeking a better life away from the dictatorship sought passage aboard the Cuban tugboat the “13 de Marzo.” The captain of the tug was part of the group wanting to leave, and it left Havana on Wednesday, July 13, 1994 in the early morning hours.

Six miles from the Cuban coast line the “13 de Marzo” tugboat was confronted by three other tugboats. Amnesty International, in their 1997 investigation, reported that the vessels which attacked the “13 de Marzo” were named and identified as belonging to the Ministry of Transport:

...

Despite the “13 de Marzo” tugboat attempting to surrender and the mothers holding up their children begging for mercy the other tugboats continued to ram them and use high pressure hoses to blast the passengers overboard. Following this they began to circle the wreckage with the aim of creating a whirlpool affect to ensure that any survivors would drown. Their plans were dashed, however, when a Greek trawler passing by witnessed the massacre. It was then and only then that the attack was suspended and the survivors picked up.

Read more: http://blog.panampost.com/2013/07/placing-a-massacre-of-cuban-civilians-into-context/#ixzz2YUM7OKni

[Mika]

1. No mention of the hijacker's murdering the boat owner & his wife.

The owner of the ferryboat and his wife lived aboard. They were murdered in the process of stealing their boat.
Interesting that this isn't mentioned in this crafty piece of horseshit.

I surely hope that DUers aren't supporting violence against peaceful Cubans.

[naaman fletcher]

2. I guess,

that is supposed to mitigate what the Cuban government did to everyone on board?

[Mika]

3. The Cuban Coast guard action does not equal the gov't in total

Just as it doesn't here.
They apprehended fleeing murderers in a ferry boat not fit to cross the gulf.
BTW, it was the Cuban CG that rescued the survivors.

[Mika]

4. If you are going to apply that standard then what say you about USCG actions re: Haitians?

Many times the boarding actions undertaken by the USCG on overcrowded Haitian boats have resulted in sinkings and deaths also.

Pot, meet kettle.

[naaman fletcher]

5. The US coast guard

tries to drown the survivors of haitian boats?

[Mika]

6. No. Neither did the Cuban CG.

If the murderer hijackers were seeking "freedom", why didn't they do so legally?
The US offers more immigration visas to Cuban THAN ANY OTHER NATION.
Now, if they failed a US led background check, then that explains their illegal effort.
Turns out, that was the case. They failed a criminal BG check.
That's where the US's "wet foot/dry foot" policy comes into play.
ANY Cuban - no matter their criminal background nor the fact that they failed this US background check - gets to stay in the US if they touch US soil.
Pretty much a magnet program for Cuban criminals who have failed the US immigration background check that applicants around the world must pass to get their application approved.

[Socialistlemur]

9. I thought Cuba was a communist country?

How could a tugboat be owned by a couple living aboard? In Cuba the government owned everything in those days. Even today as they abandon communism and start to practice Chinese style fascist capitalism they don't allow Cubans to own large boats, I assume.

[Mika]

11. Mmmm. The odour of fresh swill pulled outta yer netherregions.

[Mika]

7. Found this on an old DU thread (hat tip to Judi L)

When the 13 de marzo got under way, the crews of three neighboring tugs at the dock woke up and set out in pursuit. They overtook the hijackers about six miles outside the harbor and tried to turn the stolen tug back. In the course of this effort, the 13 de marzo collided with the pursuit tugs and sank. The Cuban coast guard arrived on the scene when people were already in the water, and succeeded in picking up half of them. The rest drowned.

The Cuban authorities interviewed the survivors the following day and released all but the ringleaders. Prieto himself was among the fatalities.

The first hurdle to be jumped to characterize this as a "human rights abuse" was to cast it as a government action. Vigilante action by civilians doesn't qualify.

In pursuit of this aim, survivors' accounts began to surface that displayed a familiar brand of nuttiness. The crews of the pursuits tugs were identified by the survivors as Cuban G2 agents in disguise. They could tell because, drowning in the dark in a storm-tossed ocean, they observed symptoms of seasickness in the crews.

This may have been a bit too much to swallow even for the human rights agencies, although they published such claims in their findings. They gave the additional ground that the tugs were owned by the Ministry of Transport and therefore anything done by its employees was a government action.

(On this theory, the U.S. is guilty of major human rights violations every time a civil servant "goes postal".)

Honorable mention should go to the witnesses who reported that the tugs sailed very rapidly in circles around the people in the water, creating a whirlpool that sucked them under.

Then there are the conflicting accounts of exactly how the 13 de marzo sustained the damage that sank her. The Cubans say one of the tugs cut across her course trying to stop or turn her and was rammed by the hijackers. The survivors say the pursuit tug deliberately rammed the 13 de marzo in the bow.

(snip/...)

http://members.allstream.net/~dchris/CubaFAQ204.html

This is the '04 thread I got this from ...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=606284&mesg_id=606489

[naaman fletcher]

8. Well,

It would appear that once again, there is nothing too BS that the media can say about Cuba

[Mika]

10. Some people say.

There seems to be no floor to the lows and lies bandied about Cuba.

[naaman fletcher]

13. Yeah

That's what I meant, perhaps I wasn't cleared.

Based on what you posted it looks like the whole story I posted is bullshit

[Socialistlemur]

12. The question: did the three tugboat crews which caused the sinking go to jail?

It would be interesting to see a link to the trial transcript for the three tugboat crews which caused the deaths. Under normal circumstances a boat captain ramming another boat on purpose and causing so much death would be in deep doodoo.

[Mika]

14. Generally, accidental deaths that occur during a crime are attributed to the criminal murderers.

Just like in the USA.

Your posts read like a child's posts.

[Judi Lynn]

15. Can you imagine how stupid someone would have to be to believe that story?

3 tugboats all traveling in a circle around a 4th tugboat would create a terrifying vortex which would suck down a tugboat and drown the passengers? Good holy grief. Dumb, dumb, dumb.

Dumb de dumb dumb.

All the stories also DO slide right past the fact they committed a murder to get their hands on the tug they stole.

How many people hijack a boat after neutralizing the guard, steal it, and take off in a harbor tug, which would NEVER arrive at Miami in one piece (being built for ONLY the calmest, smoothest little trips back and forth across a completely calm harbor) and expect the witnesses to bow from the waist and call out "bon voyage" to them as they set off for their free trip?

Then to imagine the Cuban government was ready in a heartbeat to order those tugboats to create a terrifying black hole in the water to suck in the hijacked harbor tug! Quick and deadly thinking, wasn't it? Oh, f'r crying out LOAD.

If a story like that had been even remotely possible the US would have used that as an excuse to invade Cuba ASAP, and crowd that place from one end to the other with US personel, claiming they were there to overthrow their government on behalf of the helpless murdering hijackers.

[center] [/center]
Funny we were all talking about Kerry at that time, isn't it? It was great seeing that thread, Mika. I was happy to save it for my files, and snickered remembering sandnsea, too. What a colossal ass.

[Mika]

16. AMAZINGLY, the US would have welcomed those cutthroats IF they had made it.

And some of the mules here would be welcoming them as simply freedom seekers.
Come - all those with the Stalinist Cuba fixated fantasies - come live in Miami among cretins like those murderers & violent hijackers (who bring babies along???) who do make it - I'd like to see how they like having murderous miscreants who would NEVER be able to get here under any other circumstance roaming about their streets with a fresh start on a career of crime.

[Judi Lynn]

17. No kidding! If Elian Gonzalez' mother, Elisabeth Broton's boyfriend, Lazaro Munero lived,

instead of drowning on his last trip back and forth, this one in which he brought some paying customers along for big bucks, he and his girlfriend from Miami, had she not drowned, too, would both be living in the bowels of Calle Ocho with Elian, despite the fact Lazaro had been in prison for having killed a man in a fight.

As even some of us outside Miami know, ANYONE from Cuba can get in here, no matter HOW many people he's killed, if he shows up on dry soil without having been intercepted at sea by the Coast Guard and returned to Cuba.
Probably he'd be given a hero's welcome if he claims to have killed any Communist Party members, too.

The City Commission members gave Orlando Bosch's name to a Miami street? Named a day of the year for Orlando Bosch? They sell paintings they claim were done by Luis Posada Carriles, act as if he's a great painter, a noble hero, instead of a mass murderer, like Bosch? All those murderers are real celebrities, too. So ugly, so hypocritical, so dishonest.

And to know Marisleysis, daughter of drunken "exile" grand uncle Lazaro Gonzalez, slyly informed Janet Reno, the Attorney General, that if someone came to get Elian, they should know that they had guns in that area, a direct reference to the fact which the Justice Department knew, the houses around the Gonzalez house were the bases of "exile" snipers with their guns trained on the yard, waiting for someone to come to get him. Then they all screamed their lungs out when they showed up at 3:00 in the morning and caught then unaware! Sheesh.

[Socialistlemur]

18. If I saw a trial transcript I could tell

Since there was no trial I tend to think the government is guilty.

[Mika]

19. Than 'n $4 will get you a cup of coffee @ Starbucks.

[Judi Lynn]

20. Trial? Really? No trial for a bogus story means the government is guilty? What? n/t

[Socialistlemur]

21. I don't think it's a bogus story

If a boat is traveling in the ocean and three other boats pursue it and by their actions cause deaths, the standard approach is to have an investigation and put those involved on trial. During the trial the justice system can decide the merits of the case and declare the captains innocent. But since such a trial didn't take place (I assume) then the government is guilty as charged by the NGOs.

Unlike you, I have a tendency to believe that everywhere we see concentrated power and a sense of impunity we can also expect serious human rights abuses. Cuba has concentrated power in a dictatorship, and they must feel a sense of impunity after having perfected a very efficient repression system which allows them to stay in power for half a century. Thus the changes we see from socialism to Chinese style fascism are decided at the very top. And the key decisions are made to make sure the "communist party" oligarchy remains in power. It's more of the same old story.

[Mika]

22. I think your assessments are bogus.

Cuba's "concentration" of power ...




You know NOTHING about the real Cuba. The one that is Cuba, not the one in your mind.

More concentration of power ...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=405&topic_id=31936&mesg_id=31970

And more ...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=405&topic_id=31936&mesg_id=32070