Exile Leader in Miami Joins Democrats

[Judi Lynn]

Exile Leader in Miami Joins Democrats
By TERRY AGUAYO

Published: September 2, 2004


MIAMI, Sept. 1 - In an unexpected move that signals the political diversification of Cuban-Americans, the executive director of a prominent Cuban-American exile group here has left his post to join a Democratic advocacy organization.

Joe Garcia, executive director of the Cuban American National Foundation, has become the senior advisor in Florida for the New Democrat Network, a Washington-based 527 organization. "I think this is probably the most important election of my generation, and I have to get involved," Mr. Garcia said.

As executive director of the foundation, a nonpartisan group, Mr. Garcia's role was to promote policies affecting Cuban affairs without endorsing any political party.

Mr. Garcia, a longtime Democrat, said he chose to join the New Democrat Network because he believed no group was doing a better job reaching out to Hispanics in Florida and across the country. He began work in the new post on Monday.
(snip/...)

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/02/national/02cubans.html
(Free registration required)

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

He is executive director of the Cuban American National Foundation (CANF),
the strongest Cuban-American lobby group and the driving
force behind the U.S. embargo and isolationist policy toward Cuba.

This article says that during the 2000 election, _Bush took 82% of the Cuban vote in Florida, but this time around, the numbers have shifted:
http://slate.msn.com/id/2105268/#ContinueArticle

[Judi Lynn]

1. More information from the Miami Herald on Garcia's new job......

Posted on Thu, Sep. 02, 2004




DEMOCRATS


Push aims at luring Cuban voters

Democrats accelerate the push for Cuban-American voters, hiring Cuban American National Foundation executive director Joe Garcia to spread the Democratic agenda.

BY LESLEY CLARK

[e-mail]


Joe Garcia, the public face of one of the most influential Cuban-American groups in the country, is stepping down as executive director of the Cuban American National Foundation to lead South Florida recruitment efforts for a Democratic organization.

The move comes as both parties step up their efforts to court the massive Cuban-American voting bloc that has the potential to sway a close election in Florida. President Bush is to share the stage tonight at the Republican National Convention with his former housing secretary, Mel Martinez, who, if elected, would be the first Cuban-American U.S. senator.

But Garcia and officials with the Washington, D.C.-based New Democrat Network, said his hiring underscores what polls show is an emerging political division in a community traditionally viewed as staunchly Republican.

The New Democrat Network is an independent group that raises money in support of moderate Democrats. In 2002 it launched a Hispanic outreach effort to boost the party's standing among the fastest-growing group of voters.

Garcia, who starts immediately, will serve as a senior advisor to the group's president, and will be responsible for developing a strategy to lure more Cuban American and other Hispanics to the Democratic ticket.
(snip/...)

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/9558472.htm
(Free registration required)

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

I seriously dislike this guy, but it looks as if he can really hustle some votes, if everything goes well.

[wyethwire]

22. they opened the Kerry Edwards HQ in Little Havana yesterday

we won't concede an inch

[Judi Lynn]

23. What a jolt THAT is!Kerry-Edwards HQ in Little Havana.Wonders never cease

I've been reading as much as I could find on these guys since they held Elián Gonzalez hostage at the drunken great-uncle's house in Little Havana, and I really thought their rage and hatred generated in losing the kid to his dad, all directed at Bill Clinton, would keep them from EVER voting for a Democrat again.

They also were over-involved in swarming the Miami-Dade area, and other places in Miami where tv cameras were running, holding up their "Sore-Loserman" signs during the 2000 vote recount. They looked VERY non-Democratic in those days!

[wyethwire]

26. there was a counter-demonstrator

in a guayabera shirt and a bullhorn ranting about communists

[slojim240]

28. Sorry, I don't trust the man. And he is against a sensible policy toward

Cuba. We don't need him and I would rather the party turned down his help.

[freetobegay]

2. Great news!

Screw Mel Martinez & his mantra!

[FlaIndie]

3. it's 'Mal' Martinez

if we keep saying it, maybe it will catch on :)

[Florida_Geek]

4. Cubans Americans are upset with

* new travel rules and sending $$ to Cuban rules..... Kerry can win a large percentage of their vote by saying he will go back to the old rules.

[Judi Lynn]

6. Regarding your Kennedy statement within your posts, thought you might

be intrested in taking a look at this information, in case you've not seen it before. There is a tv program which runs regularly on the Discovery Channel which was made to cover some of the new material becoming available presently:

Kennedy Sought Dialogue with Cuba

INITIATIVE WITH CASTRO ABORTED BY ASSASSINATION,
DECLASSIFIED DOCUMENTS SHOW

Oval Office Tape Reveals Strategy to hold clandestine Meeting in Havana; Documents record role of ABC News correspondent Lisa Howard as secret intermediary in Rapprochement effort

Posted - November 24, 2003

Documents Readers
Bay of Pigs Declassified: The Secret CIA Report
The Cuban Missile Crisis, 1962

Electronic Briefing Books
Double Dealing: Mexico's Foreign Policy Toward Cuba
The Submarines of October: U.S. and Soviet naval encounters during the Cuban Missile Crisis
The Cuban Missile Crisis, 1962: 40th Anniversary Conference
Jimmy Carter Directive on Normalizing Cuba Relations
Conflicting Missions:
Secret Cuban documents on history of Africa involvement
Pentagon Proposed Pretexts for Cuba Invasion in 1962
Bay of Pigs: 40 Years After
The ULTRASENSITIVE Bay of Pigs
Béisbol Diplomacy with Cuba
The Death of Che Guevara: Declassified


Washington D.C. - On the 40th anniversary of the assassination of John F. Kennedy, and the eve of the broadcast of a new documentary film on Kennedy and Castro, the National Security Archive today posted an audio tape of the President and his national security advisor, McGeorge Bundy, discussing the possibility of a secret meeting in Havana with Castro. The tape, dated only seventeen days before Kennedy was shot in Dallas, records a briefing from Bundy on Castro's invitation to a U.S. official at the United Nations, William Attwood, to come to Havana for secret talks on improving relations with Washington. The tape captures President Kennedy's approval if official U.S. involvement could be plausibly denied.

The possibility of a meeting in Havana evolved from a shift in the President's thinking on the possibility of what declassified White House records called "an accommodation with Castro" in the aftermath of the Cuban Missile Crisis. Proposals from Bundy's office in the spring of 1963 called for pursuing "the sweet approach…enticing Castro over to us," as a potentially more successful policy than CIA covert efforts to overthrow his regime. Top Secret White House memos record Kennedy's position that "we should start thinking along more flexible lines" and that "the president, himself, is very interested in ." Castro, too, appeared interested. In a May 1963 ABC News special on Cuba, Castro told correspondent Lisa Howard that he considered a rapprochement with Washington "possible if the United States government wishes it. In that case," he said, "we would be agreed to seek and find a basis" for improved relations.

The untold story of the Kennedy-Castro effort to seek an accommodation is the subject of a new documentary film, KENNEDY AND CASTRO: THE SECRET HISTORY, broadcast on the Discovery/Times cable channel on November 25 at 8pm. The documentary film, which focuses on Ms. Howard's role as a secret intermediary in the effort toward dialogue, was based on an article -- "JFK and Castro: The Secret Quest for Accommodation" -- written by Archive Senior Analyst Peter Kornbluh in the magazine, Cigar Aficionado. Kornbluh served as consulting producer and provided key declassified documents that are highlighted in the film. "The documents show that JFK clearly wanted to change the framework of hostile U.S. relations with Cuba," according to Kornbluh. "His assassination, at the very moment this initiative was coming to fruition, leaves a major 'what if' in the ensuing history of the U.S. conflict with Cuba."

Among the key documents relevant to this history:


• Oval Office audio tape, November 5, 1963. The tape records a conversation between the President and McGeorge Bundy regarding Castro's invitation to William Attwood, a deputy to UN Ambassador Adlai Stevenson, to come to Cuba for secret talks. The President responds that Attwood should be taken off the U.S. payroll prior to such a meeting so that the White House can plausibly deny that any official talks have taken place if the meeting leaks to the press.

(snip/...)

http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB103/

[Florida_Geek]

7. Thanks for the info

:toast:

[lapfog_1]

8. Yup. The Cubans are all pissed about those

60 minutes did a couple of stories. One Cuban exile visited
his two aunts likely for the last time of his life (both aunts
are very elderly, but they raised him from childhood). Anyway,
he was clearly sad and upset that the new rules won't let
him visit again for 3 years.

All Kerry has to do is say "I think sanctions are the right
way to deal with Fidel, but this travel ban is too far out
of the mainstream" and bunnypants is toast.

Well, I can dream.

[IndianaGreen]

9. Yet, these are the same exiles that want to keep the embargo

They don't give a shit about the pain and suffering that the US embargo has brought to all Cubans, all they care about is their own shit and now they are getting a taste of what they themselves have brought to everyone else.

Such hypocrites!

[Florida_Geek]

11. YES you are right

and with Betty Castor running for Senate IMHO,,, Kerry could get a large percentage of the CA votes, IF he would

"I think sanctions are the right
way to deal with Fidel, but this travel ban is too far out
of the mainstream"

[Mika]

17. the CANF FULLY SUPPORTS A TOTAL TRAVEL BAN AND FULL SANCTIONS

The CANF is not a group disgruntled with travel restrictions - it was at their behest that Bush restricted travel even more, recently.

The news of this new alliance reflects a possible shift away from "principled travel" that Kerry was suggesting.

The CANF supports a total ban on Cuba including a total ban on any travel to the island also.


While it may be cause for celebration for partisan Dems, it certainly does not reflect any gains made in the ridiculous standoff between the USA and Cuba.

In fact, it possibly reflects a slide backwards regarding any kind of sensible normalization between Cuba and the US.


What has the Kerry camp promised this terrorist supporting organization and its leadership to garner their switch?


:scared:

[Chovexani]

21. I saw a number of signs at Sunday's big protest

There were a few signs at last Sunday's march--in Spanish AND English-- pertaining to the new travel and money rules...seems people are quite pissed off about it.

[IndianaGreen]

5. CANF supports terrorism

They are a Fascist pro-terrorist organization with many members that are openly anti-Semites. Like many other Miami Mafia organizations, CANF wants Castro overthrown and replaced with a fundamentalist Christian government.

The endorsement of a high ranking member of CANF is like getting the endorsement of the Klan or David Duke.

Now, if this had been someone of the stature of an Eloy Gutierrez Menoyo and his Cambio Cubano, it would have been something positive.

[Judi Lynn]

12. Right! Eloy Gutierrez Menoyo, who was an open opponent, after a while

and was involved in a plot to kill Castro, served time in prison, released, moved to Miami, lived there for years as a member in high standing in that community was more mature than any of them, operating his group you mentioned, despite their opposition. When he decided to move BACK to Cuba and work for change openly, setting up bidness there, many in the States were astonished. So bold!

I've read he has been treated respectfully by the government since he went back last year. Now that guy has something going for him, rather than sitting around bitching and crabbing about every damned thing.

[IndianaGreen]

14. Eloy was also one of the leaders of the Revolution

right alongside Che, Camilo Cienfuegos, and Huber Matos.

[Judi Lynn]

15. Oh, wow. You're right. I just found this image

which Say_What has posted long ago. I didn't know who the man was when I saw this the first time. Here he is as a young revolutionary, and then as he is now back in Cuba.

[JSJ]

10. if nothing else, anti-castro cuban exiles are opportunists n/t

[Mika]

18. In this case, it looks like the Dems are the opportunists

Kerry's stated policy on Cuba:
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/8848574.htm

Under a Kerry administration Cuba will remain under US sanctions

Under a Kerry administration we will still be travel banned unless our travel is deemed politically worthy by US gov jackboots

---

Mr Kerry, Tear down the wall of ignorance and hate!

[Tight_rope]

13. LOL...kicking this shit....No Cuban vote for Bush*

[truthisfreedom]

16. uhh... oops! i don't think rove expected that.

in the words of Nelson (the Simpsons): "HA-HA!"

[Mika]

19. The CANF want Title 3 of the Helms-Burton law to go into effect

This is why the CANF is upset with Bush, not the travel ban.

We should pray that Kerry hasn't agreed to put Title 3 into effect.

Title 3 will allow Cuban exiles to sue Cuba IN US COURTS for their claims against Cuba (despite the total lack of jurisdiction).

In a January 16 letter to the chairmen and ranking members of the
House and Senate Committees on Appropriations, the House Committee on
International Relations, and the Senate Committee on Foreign
Relations, President Bush informed legislators of his intention to
suspend for an additional six months Title III provisions of the Cuban
Liberty and Democratic Solidarity Act of 1996 (more commonly known as
the Helms-Burton Act).

Title III, which permits legal actions to be brought against firms
trafficking in confiscated properties in Cuba, drew criticism from
U.S. allies when the law was first introduced. In its final form, the
law requires the president to either waive or enforce Title III
provisions every six months. Former President Bill Clinton suspended
Title III throughout his second term in office.

In announcing his intention to continue suspension of Title III, Bush
cited "the national interests of the United States" and asserted his
belief that such action "will expedite a transition to democracy in
Cuba."

Following is the text of the president's letter:

http://usinfo.state.gov/regional/ar/us-cuba/burton17.htm

[Coventina]

20. Assassination attempt in 5....4....3...2....

Those wacko "Cuban exiles" are bloodthirsty thugs.

[jmcgowanjm]

24. I would love to send Arkansas Rice to Cuba-Whatcha say Kerry?

Torrijos, a social democrat and son of former
general
Ricardo Omar Torrijos(mysteriously killed by the CIA),
who ruled here until 1981 and
was
a close friend of Castro, said that "as of September 1,
we
will begin working to restore normal diplomatic relations
with
the Republic of Cuba."

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/20040827/wl_afp/panama_cuba_040827085210

[Judi Lynn]

25. I read that Arkansas Senator Blanche LIncoln, and 9 other senators

were prohibited by _Bush from holding their own trade exhibition in Cuba last year, in October. I have read Lincoln has made multiple trips there on behalf of Arkansas rice producers, etc. (Maybe chicken, too?)

_Bush's destroyed EVERYTHING these people had been doing in the tiny ways available since 2000, after Hurricane Michelle hit Cuba.

Some day, _Bush will have to go, and all America's food producers, and related businesses will be right back in there. They are NOT going to fuggedaboudit.

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

From your article:

Washington said it had not pressured Panama to pardon the four Cubans.
"This was a decision made by the government of Panama," deputy State Department spokesman Adam Ereli said.



"We never lobbied the Panamanian government to pardon anyone involved in this case, and I'd leave it to the government of Panama to discuss the action."


Torrijos said the crimes perpetrated by Carrillo and his accomplices were so serious "they cannot justify a decision of this nature (the pardon) five days before the presidential term ends."
(snip/...)

Like we can actually trust them on this: they did NOT pressure Panama to let the killers go. Yeah, you bet. They can't keep their giant noses OUT of Latin America.

[jmcgowanjm]

27. Oh Yeah, JudiLyn

Meanwhile, the M/V Orso, the first U.S. ship in almost 40 years
to carry U.S. products to Cuba, was to have docked at the Port
of Havana on April 21. But Cuba refused docking permission
the night of April 20, the New York-based U.S.-Cuba Trade
and Economic Council (CTEC) reported on
May 2.

I thought this ship had unloaded. Unbelievable!

With free trade, annual rice exports to Cuba could be
from 550,000 to 600,000 metric tons--20% of the United
States' total rice exports, estimates Richard E. Bell, president
of the Arkansas-based Riceland
Foods.

And I'll tell you right now, you go against Riceland and these
guys: USA Rice Chairman Gary Sebree, USA Rice
President and CEO Stuart Proctor, Director of Latin
American Promotions Marvin Lehrer, and the following USA
Rice members: rice producers Linda Zaunbrecher of
Gueydan, La., and Paul T. Combs of Kennett, Mo., Terry
Harris of Arkansas-based Riceland Foods, Marvin
Baden of Arkansas-based Producer's Rice Mill,
Antonio Benavides and Javier Ferrer of Texas-based
Riviana Foods, and Ramiro Velasquez of California-based
The Rice Co. You gotta be at the very top. These guys have the ear of at least one Fed Reserve Gov.

http://www.cubanet.org/CNews/y01/jun01/18e8.htm

And, yes, Blanche knows Tyson, and Tyson knows Chicken.

[Mika]

31. Don't forget, Poppy Bush pardoned Orlando Bosch on his last day

http://www.wsws.org/articles/1999/oct1999/corr-o26.shtml

--

http://www.webguild.com/SENTINEL/bush_pardon.htm

Orlando Bosch is the perpetrator of a 1976 bombing of a Cubana airplane carrying seventy-three civilians who were all killed. This was the world's first terrorist action involving the bombing of a civilian airliner. Bosch was recruited, trained, and supported by the CIA. He was then pardoned by the previous Bush administration, and to this day walks freely through the streets of Miami.

Bosch, had been serving a prison sentence but was freed as the result of a campaign launched by Jeb Bush and his right-wing Cuban supporters in Florida. The terrorist activities of Orlando Bosch are fully documented in the book Deadly Secrets by Warren Hinkle and William Turner, who in turn drew their information from a Senate investigation led by Senator Kerry into the activities of the CIA. Evidence showed that the bomb was placed by Cuban-American mercenaries, in the pay of the US Central Intelligence Agency, the CIA. The two terrorists who admitted that they placed the bomb on the Cubana flight—Luis Posada Carriles and Orlando Bosch—are currently free, receiving refuge in the United States.

According to the New York Time of August 17, 1989, Cuban right-wing congressperson Ros-Lehtinen met with former President Bush to negotiate Bosch's release. The meeting was arranged by her campaign manager, Jeb Bush, who had earlier met with Cuban hunger strikers also demanding the release. Bosch was pardoned on July 18, 1990 and the New York Times was the lonely voice denouncing Bush's pardon on an editorial published July 20, 1990.

Bosch was a cohort of Posada Carriles, a Cuban pediatrician who became a world renowned terrorist for the CIA. Carriles has taken claim for the recent wave of hotel bombings in Havana, Cuba. Both men were trained together at Fort Benning, Georgia. Bosch was the founder of the "Command of the United Revolutionary Organizations" formed to cooperate with the DINA Chilean secret police and other Latin American repressive organisms in the murder of leftists throughout the region, including the assassination of the Chilean ambassador, Letelier, in Washington, DC.

More......
http://www.webguild.com/SENTINEL/bush_pardon.htm

[Judi Lynn]

32. Isn't this pathetic?

He had been refused entry by over 30 countries, and he was most definitely unwanted here by everyone other than some Cuban "exile" hardline racist, extremist rightwingnuts and a strange fringe element in our own government.

He was spotted and noted in the crowd around Elián Gonzalez. He lives in freedom in Miami, despite the murder of 73 souls on October 6, 1976. He has an actual "Dr. Orlando Bosch Day" named for him by the Miami City Commissioners.

WE get the occassional drifter posters here who perceive people like these terrorists, who've terrorized the hemisphere for over 40 years as being just fine, and killing and harming anyone in their road as being completely acceptible. Killing everyone who's not right-wing is peachy keen.

So much for our well-touted "freedom." Not well regarded as a right for just everyone in our own country.

[progressivebydesign]

29. This is great news! n/t

[struggle4progress]

30. kick

:kick:

[TahitiNut]

33. "NDN"?? It figures.

:eyes:

[Tatiana]

34. I'm disappointed.

How many of our values do we have to ignore? How much will we have to whore ourselves to win? CANF is a terrorist organization. They represent everything I abhor about that Cuban American Miami Mafia and the fact that Kerry is willing to associate himself with such trash is... ***Sigh*** Disappointing.

I thought we were the party of Kennedy. If Kennedy hadn't been assassinated, we would have normal relations with Cuba right now. He was a man who took responsibility for his actions (Bay of Pigs). And Kerry, well, he's on the wrong side of the issue regarding CANF, Chavez, and this stupid embargo.

[Mika]

35. Kerry's Cuba policy in general is disappointing.

The cozying up to CANF terrorists probably means that Kerry's anti Cuba policy will lurch even farther to the right.

As it is now, Kerry's stated policy is abhorrent.


Kerry's stated policy on Cuba:
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/8848574.htm

Under a Kerry administration Cuba will remain under US sanctions

Under a Kerry administration we will still be travel banned unless our travel is deemed "politically worthy" by US gov jackboots


Mr Kerry, Tear down the wall of ignorance and hate!

[Zhade]

36. CANF + DEMS = MADNESS!

CANF, supporter of terrorists.

Jesus.

[Mika]

37. Then you won't like this..

CANF founder and Clinton fundraiser Jorge Mas Canosa & Bill Clinton