Special: Statements by Fidel Castro on Migration, Matanzas Aug 3
 

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                    CUBANEWS FROM RADIO HAVANA CUBA

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August 18, 1999 - Special Report:

MAIN STATEMENTS MADE BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE COUNCIL OF STATE OF THE
REPUBLIC OF CUBA, FIDEL CASTRO RUZ, IN MATANZAS ON AUGUST 3, 1999, ON THE
SUBJECT OF THE ILLEGAL MIGRATION FROM CUBA PROMOTED THROUGHOUT FORTY YEARS
BY THE UNITED STATES


In Cienfuegos, after devoting a few minutes to the subject of the Pan
American Games, I spoke about two fundamental issues: the claim filed
against the U.S. government for human damages and the fight against
international drug trafficking. Today, here in Matanzas, I must address a
matter of paramount importance: the illegal migration from Cuba promoted
throughout forty years by the United States.
Before the triumph of the Revolution, a very limited number of visas were
granted by the U.S. Embassy for Cuban nationals to migrate to that country.
Migrating to the United States was an economic aspiration for hundreds of
millions of people around the world, including millions of Europeans
attracted by the material resources and standard of living in a nation that
emerged intact from World War II as the wealthiest, most powerful country in
the world following two major conflicts in less than 25 years, each of which
devastated the rest of the world economy.
The legal procedures required for Cubans to migrate to the United States
between 1945 and 1959 were lengthy and extremely rigorous. Those who entered
the country illegally, in violation of U.S. law, invariably met with
deportation or imprisonment. Nobody dared.
With the Cold War in full swing and McCarthyism in command, anyone even
slightly suspected of communist or progressive beliefs, for which it was
enough to have ever supported the struggle for better wages, or the concept
of agrarian reform, would never be granted a visa.
Everything changed with the triumph of the Revolution on January 1, 1959.
The first to leave the country illegally were the murderers, henchmen,
torturers, embezzlers and thieves of the overthrown Batista dictatorship,
who found a luxurious refuge in the United States. Since then, entry into th
e United States with no obstacles of any kind has become the norm for all
those who illegally leave Cuba under any pretext. As soon as it became clear
that a genuine revolution had taken place in Cuba and the first
revolutionary laws were proclaimed, a mass exodus began of the upper class
sectors. The mansions they abandoned in Vedado, Miramar, Tarara and other
upscale neighborhoods in Havana were occupied by the revolutionary state.
Tens of thousands of young peasant women from the countryside and, after the
1961 literacy campaign, hundreds of thousands of scholarship students from
humble backgrounds went through these homes turned into student residences
during the first ten years of the Revolution. Thus, education became widely
accessible to the children of all of Cuban families, until the Revolution
was able to build thousands of new boarding and semi-boarding schools,
special schools and day-care centers.
It must be said that not a single one of the families of the upper classes,
while they still remained in the country, had their homes taken away from
them, nor the money they had deposited in the banks, which sometimes were
millions.
The Revolution never hindered legal exits from the country to the United
States or anywhere else in the world. Successive U.S. administrations, on
the other hand, have always encouraged illegal exits. Without exception,
visas ceased to be a necessary requirement for being received in the United
States, regardless even of criminal records or crimes committed in the past;
not a single illegal migrant was ever sent back to the country. All they
needed to do was declare that they were against the Revolution, or against
socialism, or communism, or that they were victims of political persecution.
The category of migrant also disappeared from the vocabulary used for Cuban
nationals. From that moment on, all Cubans living in any other country in
the world are called exiles. Oddly enough, they are exiles or victims of
political persecution who almost without exception can travel to Cuba as
often as they like.
Facilities for legal migration from Cuba were used to such extent and even
abused during the first years of the Revolution, that, for example, over
14,000 Cuban children were virtually kidnapped by the United States when
counterrevolutionary groups, organized from the very beginning by U.S.
intelligence agencies, surreptitiously published and distributed false
government bills to spread the criminal lie that children's custody would be
taken away from the parents. Panic was sown among many middle-class
families, who were frightened into sending their children away secretly,
without visas of any kind, on the same legal and regular airlines that flew
directly to the United States. These children separated from their parents
were met there and sent to orphanages or even detention centers for minors.
It is imperative to recall these events.
One fatal day, in late 1962, the U.S. government abruptly suspended all
regularly scheduled flights and legal departures from Cuba. Hundreds of
thousands of people lost all links to their relatives living in the United
States, including parents who had sent their children to the U.S. because of
the fears previously mentioned. The only remaining possibility was illegal
migration, which was encouraged by all means possible as part of the dirty
propaganda against the Revolution and socialism. This policy gave rise to
successive migration crises.
In February of 1963, the Kennedy administration provided a powerful
additional incentive for illegal migration: it announced that Cubans who
arrived in the United States directly from the island would be received as
refugees, while those who sought to enter from third countries would be
considered aliens and remain subject to all U.S. immigration restrictions.
The Revolution's first response to this arbitrary and harmful policy was to
open the port of Camarioca, Matanzas, on September 28, 1965, so that any
Cuban family living in the United States could use their own or rented boats
to pick up relatives in Cuba, who would be allowed to migrate with the prior
authorization of the Cuban authorities. Disregarding the orders of the U.S.
authorities, close to 1000 boats from the United States  gathered in this
small port.
Despite the fact that there were no diplomatic relations or interests
sections at that time, negotiations were held between the two countries, and
a memorandum of agreement reached on December 6 of that year established an
airlift between Varadero and the United States, which operated from January,
1966, until April, 1973.  With the exception of a number of skilled
personnel considered indispensable - while substitutes for them were being
trained - and of citizens who were or had recently been in active service in
the Armed Forces or in institutions for internal order, all those who
expressed the desire to migrate were authorized to do so. In this orderly
and safe manner, close to 260,000 people were able to fulfil their wish to
migrate to the United States, and tens of thousands of families were
reunited.
In spite of this, the United States continued to strongly encourage illegal
exits, which kept on taking place, since those traveling by way of the
airlift required a visa, and not everyone received one. The U.S. authorities
were selective, and attempted to take away from Cuba, as many as possible,
doctors, nurses, professors, teachers and other university-educated
professionals or middle-level technicians. In the United States, these
individuals were paid salaries according to their qualifications; the
salaries paid there, in the most developed and wealthiest country in the
world, were incomparably higher than those paid in a neocolony that had only
recently gained its independence, and which was at the same time
underdeveloped, poor and strongly blockaded by the powerful nation with
which it had maintained its most important economic, financial and
commercial ties since the turn of the century. Yet our country steadfastly
resisted this brain drain, and through a colossal educational effort, took
on the task of training new professionals and technicians, and multiplying
many times over the number of those who had been taken away from it.
In addition to the legislation passed by Kennedy in 1963 which so greatly
encouraged illegal migration, the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives
gathered in Congress approved the so-called Cuban Adjustment Act, signed by
President Johnson on November 2, 1966, which established special and
exclusive status for Cubans, stipulating that "the status of any alien who
is a native or citizen of Cuba and who has been inspected and admitted or
paroled into the United States subsequent to January 1, 1959 and has been
physically present in the United States for at least two years, may be
adjusted by the Attorney General, in his discretion and under such
regulations as he may prescribe, to that of an alien lawfully admitted for
permanent residence.
In its zeal to destabilize and destroy the Cuban Revolution, this extremely
vague and confusing law, with a few subsequent modifications, was the legal
basis for the automatic right to permanent resident status a year after
entering U.S. territory, granted to all Cuban nationals who leave the
country illegally the minute they set foot in the United States. A right
that has never been extended to citizens of any other country in the world.
Had the same measure been applied to the rest of Latin America and the
Caribbean, today there would be many more Latin American and Caribbean
citizens in the United States than people actually born there. Let us not
even think about what would have happened had this rule been applied to the
rest of the world.
Under such circumstances, after the airlift was suspended, it was inevitable
that sooner or later another migration crisis would appear. This is what
happened in 1980, when a situation similar to that in Camarioca was created,
but this time in the port of Mariel.
It was during President Ronald Reagan's administration, on December 14,
1984, that the second migratory agreement was concluded after negotiations
between representatives of the governments of Cuba and the United States.
According to the text of the communiqui issued, these negotiations ended
with the adoption of "agreements for the normalization of inmigration
procedures between the two countries and to put an end to the abnormal
situation which has existed since 1980." Its essential provisions were the
following:
"The United States will resume issuance of preference immigrant visas to
Cuban nationals residing in Cuba up to the number of 20,000 each year, in
particular to close family relatives of United States citizens and of Cuban
permanent residents in the United States.
"The United States side expressed its willingness to put implement - with
the cooperation of the Cuban authorities - all necessary measures to ensure
that Cuban nationals residing in Cuba wishing to migrate to the United
States and who qualify under United States law to receive immigrant visas,
may enter the United States, taking maximum advantage of the number of up to
20,000 immigrants per year."
Pay close attention to the next paragraph of the communiqui.
"For its part, the United States will continue granting immigrant visas to
residents of Cuba who are parents, spouses and unmarried children under 21
years of age of United States citizens. These inmigrants will not be counted
against the annual limit indicated above."
In other words, it was specified that the figure of 20,000 could be amply
surpassed with the category of relatives of those who were already U.S.
citizens.
"Cuba will accept the return of those Cuban nationals who came to the United
States in 1980 via the port of Mariel and who have been declared ineligible
to enter the United States legally. The number of such persons is 2,746 and
their names appear on an approved list. [...] The returns will be effected
at a rate of 100 each calendar month."
The agreement further included 3,000 visas each year for "those persons who,
having been released after serving sentences for acts which Cuban penal
legislation defines as Offenses against the Security of the State, wish to
reside permanently in the United States."
The latter were included as the result of a demand made by Cuba, based on
the consideration that these individuals had acted following instructions
from the United States, which therefore had a moral obligation to grant them
visas, since their counterrevolutionary activities at the service of a
foreign power caused them to be shunned in our country and rendered
difficult their reinsertment into society.
The total number of Cuban migrants seemed sufficient. Although no time limit
was established, over 300,000 people could have migrated in a legal and safe
manner over the course of ten years, taking into account all three
categories.
What happened with this agreement, which was undoubtedly positive and
provided an unquestionably reasonable and just way to deal with the problem?
With regard to the quota of up to 20,000, during 1985 - the first year that
the agreement was in effect - only 1,227 visas were granted for legal
migration. During the years 1986 and 1987, there was not a single departure.
The agreement had been suspended as a consequence of Cuba's reaction to an
unnecessary and eminently hostile measure adopted by the Reagan
administration, namely, the creation of an official subversive radio station
which they named, in a deliberately hurtful and insulting manner, after Josi
Martm, the apostle of our independence and the most profound political
thinker of our America, the prophet and visionary who was the first to
denounce the United States' expansionist policy in this hemisphere at the
expense of the Latin American peoples. Following this suspension, exchanges
and negotiations between representatives of the two countries were resumed.
We did not want this provocation to result in a definitive suspension of an
agreement which, if accurately implemented, could solve the migration
problem. It came into effect again during the last year of the Reagan
administration.
In 1988, the quota of 20,000 visas for that year was not fulfilled either;
only 3,472 visas were granted, that is, 5.8 times fewer than the number
agreed upon;
in 1989, 1,631 (12.3 times fewer);
in 1990, the number dropped to 1,098 (18.2 times fewer);
in 1991, it increased slightly to 1,376 (14.6 times fewer);
in 1992, it dropped below 1000, with only 910 visas granted, 22 times fewer
than the number agreed upon;
in 1993, the total was also under 1000, namely, 964, x times fewer.
And in 1994, by the end of July of that year, the number of visas granted
totaled up to 544 in seven months, at the ridiculous rate of 77 per month.
The commitment to grant an average of 1,667 visas a month had been reduced
to this.
None of the last three U.S. administrations in office between 1984 and 1994
had fulfilled the agreement. Notice that under the Clinton administration,
which was also legally bound to comply with the agreement signed by the
United States on December 14, 1984, the number of visas granted never
surpassed 1000:
964 in 1993;
544 in 1994.
Only one of the three categories agreed upon was fulfilled at a higher
level, once the agreement came into effect again, namely, that pertaining to
counterrevolutionaries sentenced with prison terms and their relatives. The
quota for this category was fulfilled at 71.71 percent during the eight
years in which the agreement was applied, while the quota of 20,000 a year
for Cuban nationals who wanted to migrate to the United States was fulfilled
only at 7.01 percent. And with regard to the commitment to grant, above and
beyond that 20,000, an additional number of "immigrant visas to residents of
Cuba who are parents, spouses and unmarried children under 21 years of age
of United States citizens", without including these visas in the annual
number of immigrants previously indicated, it can be inferred from the
abovementioned figures that it was fulfilled at 0 percent.
Of the total number of visas that should have been granted in accordance
with the quota of up to 20,000 a year, which should have added up to 160,000
from the time the agreement was signed - that is, over the course of eight
years, not taking into account the two years during which the agreement was
suspended - only 11,222 were granted, i. e., 14.3 times fewer than
stipulated.
According to our estimates - although we do not know the exact number of
people of Cuban origin who have become and continue to become U.S. citizens
throughout more than 25 years of legal and illegal migration to that country
- close to 200,000 people did not receive visas. If the two years of the
suspension caused by the provocation of the subversive radio station are
taken into account, the number of those who did not receive visas, would be
over 240,000 since the agreements were signed.
The United States failed spectacularly in fulfilling the agreements, and
unscrupulously dodged the commitments it had made, while our country was
humiliatingly deceived. Cuba, for its part, fulfilled to the letter its
obligations under the agreement; it facilitated legal departures, and did
not fail to receive a single one of the individuals on the list of
excludables, who were sent back to Cuba. At the same time, despite the
solemn promise made by the U.S. administration as part of the agreement,
when it expressed its willingness "to implement - with the cooperation of
the Cuban authorities - all necessary measures to ensure that Cuban
nationals residing in Cuba wishing to emigrate to the United States and who
qualify under United States law to receive immigrant visas, may enter the
United States, taking maximum advantage of the number of up to 20,000
immigrants per year", the Cuban Adjustment Act, the main incentive for
illegal exits, remained in full force.
Reagan, who had sufficient authority and ample support from Congress, and
who could have repealed this law after signing the commitment to adopt all
necessary measures to ensure that entry into the United States took place
through legal means, did not do so. Either did the Bush administration. And
the Clinton administration, which had a broad majority in Congress until
January of 1995, was not even interested in the issue.
The fact is that as the agreement continued to be unfulfilled and the number
of visas granted for legal travel to the United States decreased every year,
the number of people who attempted to migrate to that country illegally
increased every year:
2,060 in 1990;
8,593 in 1991;
9,584 in 1992;
15,772 in 1993;
and 15,067 in just the first half of 1994, for a total of 51,076 in four and
a half years.
Those who actually arrived in the United States numbered as follows:
467 in 1990;
1,997 in 1991;
2,511 in 1992;
4,208 in 1993;
and 4,092 in the first half of 1994, for a total of 13,275.
During that period, in spite of the total lack of cooperation on the part of
the U.S. government, the Cuban authorities managed to prevent the departure
of three illegal migrants for every four who attempted to leave, which
demonstrates the seriousness with which we assumed our commitment to
normalize the flow of migrants. Despite Cuba's unilateral efforts, in the
first half of 1994, the number of Cuban migrants who illegally arrived in
the United States was 7.5 times higher than the 544 visas granted out of the
quota of up to 20,000 visas that the United States should have granted for
legal travel on the basis of the agreement signed.
Shortly after taking power, the Clinton administration, far from
discouraging illegal migration in order to fulfill the commitments of this
agreement, intensified the economic blockade against our country, at a time
when the collapse of the socialist block and the disintegration of the USSR
resulted in Cuba's loss of its main markets and most important sources of
supplies of fuel, raw materials and equipment, as well as a significant part
of its supplies of grain and other essential food commodities.
Months before assuming office, Clinton had already supported the bill
introduced by Congressman Torricelli, a Democrat, which was approved by the
U.S. Congress in 1992 and signed by President Bush on October 23 of that
year. Some time later, already in office, Clinton would sign on March 12,
1996 - in the presence of the most notorious leaders of the Cuban-American
National Foundation and its closest allies in Congress - the brutal
Helms-Burton Act.
The huge accumulated potential of over 240,000 people who waited throughout
ten years for the visas promised in the agreements signed on December 14,
1984, together with the Cuban Adjustment Act and a tightened blockade, in
addition to over a thousand hours a week of incessant subversive propaganda
and political and psychological warfare waged from the United States,
encouraging social indiscipline, crime and illegal migration, inevitably had
to cause - and eventually did cause - a serious migration crisis.
The total impunity and incentives with which all those who illegally left
Cuba were received in the United States, were contributing to all sorts of
acts of violence, the use of weapons, and even the murder of humble crew
members or security guards during the hijacking of boats used to illegally
migrate to the United States.
>From the very first moment, the Cuban authorities were instructed not to
attempt to intercept stolen or hijacked boats departing from the docks or
coasts with people on board. These instructions were necessary in order to
avoid accidents, for which our country would always be held responsible.
Earlier, precise instructions had been given not to use weapons under any
circumstances to prevent such departures. Our country had no obligation to
protect the coasts of the United States. Cuba, which had always authorized
legal migration, finally ceased assuming sole responsibility for all efforts
to combat illegal exits, while these exits were increasingly encouraged from
the country where these illegal migrants were headed to. Our authorities
limited themselves to trying to dissuade those attempting to leave with
inadequate means of transportation, and to observing from their patrol boats
those attempting to leave in one way or another, providing help when
necessary, as they approached the numerous U.S. Coast Guard vessels awaiting
them near the 12-mile limit of our territorial waters. Under these
circumstances, only one thing could happen. This is how the third migration
crisis arose.
Communications were established once again between the governments of the
two countries through different channels. At no time did Cuba back away from
the search for a genuine solution. As a result of intense negotiations
between delegations from the United States and Cuba, which took place in New
York, and with the cooperation of common friends of the United States and
Cuba, the two sides eventually agreed upon certain formulas. While these
were not linked to an end to the economic warfare against our country - a
major factor spurring illegal migration - they included once again, and
seriously this time as it appears, measures such as the granting of no less
than 20,000 visas annually for legal and safe migration to the United
States, and on this occasion, the commitment for the U.S. Coast Guard to
intercept beyond Cuba's territorial waters those attempting to illegally
migrate, and to send them back to Cuba. Our commitment was that those
returned would be sent back to their place of residence with the guarantee
that they would not be sanctioned in any way for attempting to leave the
country illegally. This has been fulfilled in the case of all the people
returned, without exception.
For our part, we committed ourselves to halting mass migration without the
use of force, relying entirely on persuasive methods. The adoption of this
procedure was a Cuban proposal.
Once again, with mathematical exactitude, we fulfilled this commitment, and
we did it in just a few days, without resorting to the use of force at any
moment, with the cooperation of the people and the proper use of the mass
media to explain the contents and the fairness of the agreement. We set a
deadline for the owners of vessels located on the coasts for migration
purposes to remove them. The owners themselves cooperated. Means of
transportation that could be used for illegal migration were intercepted on
land. All this was easy to achieve. The combination of measures adopted at
that moment by both sides almost totally paralyzed illegal exits from the
country.
If we leave aside the fact that the U.S. authorities always select a
percentage of illegal migrants for reasons that are neither explained nor
clearly justifiable, which we suspect of being politically motivated to
appease the die-hard enemies of the agreements, we can state that the
migration agreements have been essentially fulfilled by both sides, in a
rigorous and serious manner:
7  Close to 80 percent of illegal migrants intercepted at sea have been
returned to the country.
7  No fewer than 20,000 visas have been granted to Cuban nationals each year
since the agreements came into effect.
According to figures supplied by the Immigration and Aliens Department of
the Ministry of the Interior, between October 1, 1994 and September 30,
1995, its offices received 26,634 citizens with visas granted by the U.S.
Interests Section.
Between the same dates from 1995 to 1996, the figure was 15,547;
from 1996 to 1997, 13,201;
from 1997 to 1998, 17,263;
and between October , 1998, and July 2, 1999, still two months short of the
period indicated above, a total of 21,429 visas were granted.
As you can see, in the first year that the agreement was in effect, in
addition to the 20,000 visas agreed upon, another 6,589 were granted to
people from the large group who had requested them on the terms of the
previous migration agreement, which was never fulfilled. If an average of
only 15,000 visas were granted for the years 1995-1996, 1996-1997 and
1997-1998, it is because the U.S. requested and we agreed, as an act of good
will, to factor in over the course of three years the visas granted to
15,000 illegal migrants temporarily sheltered at the Guantanamo Naval Base,
for whom the U.S. had found no other solution. In spite of this, 94,074
visas were granted, and as a result almost 100,000 people have been able to
legally migrate to the United States by safe means, without the loss of a
single life.
The fulfillment of the agreements is subject to a systematic analysis and
control.
Once again, throughout the history of the Revolution, for more than forty
years, the main obstacles in the fight against illegal migration are the
absolute tolerance and the exceptional privileges accorded to Cuban citizens
who arrive illegally in the United States. Those who do this are precisely
those whom the U.S. authorities do not consider eligible to receive visas.
Even if we admit that a certain percentage of them were not patient enough
to wait, and that others simply let themselves be carried away by a taste
for adventure and illusions about the wonders of a consumer society that
they see in movies, television series and advertisements in magazines and
newspapers, many of those who illegally migrate are indisciplined
individuals, people who don't want to work, or marginal elements with
antisocial behavior, potential criminals or criminals with police records,
to whom the U.S. Interests Section would never grant a visa.
Every time an illegal migrant reaches the United States, he or she poses, in
turn, the desire or need to reunite family members and friends there, thus
increasing and further promoting illegal exits.
The infamous Cuban Adjustment Act is at the root of this phenomenon, which
in no way benefits U.S. society. The United States will never be able to
reestablish discipline on its own coasts while this law remains in effect.
The high authorities of the United States, past and present, bear the full
responsibility for those who have perished and still run the risk of
perishing in these ventures throughout the last three decades, as the result
of a policy that is immoral, anachronistic and fully devoid of ethics and a
sense of humanity.
Taking advantage of these circumstances, the most intransigent enemies of
the latest migration agreements, many of them entrenched in important U.S.
political institutions and closely linked to the mafia of the so-called
Cuban-American National Foundation, tirelessly conspire to destroy them.
The encouragement of and incitation to illegal migration have increased.
Between January and July of the current year, the subversive Radio Martm
station has broadcast information that serves as blatant or veiled
incitation of illegal exits from the country. We have chosen just a few
examples.
In a January 20, 1999, broadcast, it was announced:
"The growing tide of Cuban migrants arriving in Florida presumably as a
result of illegal trafficking, has led U.S. officials to think that perhaps
the island's government has relaxed the control of its borders."
On March 9: "Cubans continue to arrive on the coasts of Florida in groups
who acknowledge having paid for this illegal smuggling."
On April 1, 1999: "The exodus grows larger every day. They seek to escape
from the economic problems they face in the country, which continue to
worsen. The need to achieve what they want in material terms leads Cubans to
go abroad any way they can."
On April 21, 1999: "So far this year, some 600 Cubans have been detained by
U.S. authorities. According to U.S. laws, Cubans who manage to reach land
have the possibility of  remaining in the United States and legalizing their
migration status. The majority of those who are intercepted on the high seas
are repatriated."
Nobody knows how or why, but the fact is that in late April, the U.S.
Immigration and Naturalization Service adopted an unfortunate, unnecessary
and inopportune decision, widely publicized by Radio Martm and other radio
stations. This decision and the broad publicity it received constitute a
genuine act of sabotage against the migration agreements.
Likewise, the other subversive radio stations in Miami highly emphasized
the news. We will limit ourselves to reporting only what was broadcast by
the official subversive radio station in the United States on April 29: "The
34 undocumented migrants who arrived in Florida during the last 24 hours
according to the U.S. Border Patrol figure among those who will benefit from
a new relaxing of the Cuban Adjustment Act, which now grants the immediate
right to work. The Immigration Service announced in Washington that it has
not changed its migration policy towards Cubans who arrive illegally in the
United States, but rather has clarified the law to allow them to achieve
permanent residence and work permits. The Cubans, together with their wives
and children, who have arrived in places not designated as ports of entry
into the United States, are eligible through parole, and can subsequently
regularize their situation in the United States. An Immigration Service
spokesperson said that this clarification was put into effect immediately
and has greatly helped Cubans who arrive through beaches, airports or
seaports. The Immigration Service instructions also indicate that Cubans who
are in United States without having been admitted legally should present
themselves to an Immigration Service official to receive parole, and one
year later they will also obtain permanent residence."
Such reports were broadcast repeatedly by this and other similar radio
stations.
Curiously coinciding with these reports, rumors began to be spread from the
United States purporting that the Cuban government would imminently
authorize illegal exits from the country.
Back in January, as I already mentioned, the official subversive radio
station said that "the island's government has relaxed the control of its
borders."
On May 25, it announced: "Different reactions have been provoked by a press
report stating that there could be another mass exodus of illegal Cubans
towards Florida. The flow of rafters has increased over recent years,
according to figures from the U.S. Coast Guard. In 1997, 406 rafters were
intercepted; in 1998, 1,047; and this year, up until the month of May, the
figure is 488."
Two days later, on May 27, the radio station reported: "In the Puerto Rican
press, a series of news reports have appeared that reflect concern over the
Cuban government's opening of  maritime borders, which will provoke an
avalanche of migrants to the United States. This has been gathered through
conversations heard in Havana and other provinces."
You can see how in the same news report in which they speak of concern in
Puerto Rico, this official subversive radio station states categorically, as
if it were a real and incontrovertible fact, that this concern is due to
"the Cuban government's opening of maritime borders, which will provoke an
avalanche of migrants."
On June 1, they broadcast: "It is believed that alien smugglers are charging
between 2,000 and 8,000 dollars per person. Statistics indicate that in the
last eight months, 1,177 people arrived in U.S. territory this way, as
compared to 615 during the entire 1997-1998 fiscal year."
It was soon possible to observe the highly negative effects of the
combination of the repugnant trafficking of migrants carried out from
Florida, the stupid decision adopted by the Immigration and Naturalization
Service, the gross campaigns waged by the official subversive radio station
and others of its kind to promote illegal migration, and the rumors and even
totally unfounded news reports regarding the Cuban government's alledged
opening of maritime borders. The official radio station itself openly
confessed that "the immense majority of those who arrive illegally on the
Florida coasts are transported by smugglers who operate out of the United
States."
Is this a coincidence? Is it a curious synchronism of unrelated factors, or
is it a genuine plot hatched by the terrorist mafia of the Cuban-American
National Foundation and the extreme right-wing sectors of the U.S. Congress,
acting in complicity with the heads of the Immigration and Naturalization
Service, and those who actually direct and draw up the guidelines for the
official subversive radio station?
An undeniable evidence of the shameless conspiracy against the migration
agreements of 1994 and 1995, is provided by the events that took place in
Florida in late June and early July.
A genuine trap was set for the U.S. Coast Guard, the institution to which
the U.S. government assigned the task of intercepting at sea attempts to
illegally enter the United States. The job was an easy one when it was
limited to providing aid to those traveling by raft, rowboat, or slow and
flimsy vessels during the crisis that preceded the agreements. Now they had
to contend with speedboats manned by mercenaries returning to Florida after
picking up their human cargo from isolated spots along the Cuban coasts. In
Florida, they also had to deal with the hostility of the Cuban-American
mafia determined to destroy the migration agreements.
In late June, that mafia dealt an overwhelming blow to the U.S. Coast Guard.
Knowing the exact time that a rowboat would reach a certain spot in Miami
Beach, they awaited with a large crowd from the mass media. Those on the
boat jumped into the water 500 meters before reaching the shore. The Coast
Guard tried to prevent them from reaching land, where they would
automatically become legal aliens and receive residence in accordance with
an absurd and anachronistic law in force for more than 33 years, which
nobody in the world can understand or explain.
The show came off perfectly. News agencies sent out dozens of dispatches and
the event was broadcast around the world through the mass media.
On June 29, the EFE news agency stated the following in one dispatch: "Six
Cuban rafters played the starring role today in a dramatic odyssey, with
live TV coverage, as they attempted to reach Miami Beach swimming, in spite
of Coast Guard efforts to stop them. A Cuban migrant managed to swim ashore
in Miami Beach, after evading the U.S. Coast Guard patrol boats that tried
to intercept him and prevent him from touching land.
"When he reached the beach between Collins Avenue and 85th Street, he raised
his hands while applauded by those expecting him. Police arrested him
immediately.
"Another four rafters from this same group aboard a small wooden boat with
no motor were arrested by U.S. authorities after a dramatic chase, broadcast
live by the Hispanic channels in Miami, Telemundo and Univisisn, which
interrupted their regular programming to report this event.
"[...] The six Cubans presumably set out from Caibariin, on the northeastern
coast of Cuba. The group is made of young men dressed only in shorts. They
jumped into the water when surrounded by Coast Guard boats and helicopters.
"The Coast Guards sprayed them with fire hoses from their cutters to prevent
them from swimming to shore and the TV images even showed how some officials
tried to forcibly stop the Cubans who were in the water."
Under the headline "Exiles React Angrily", El Nuevo Herald published the
following on June 30, 1999: "The indignation, wrath and disappointment of
the Cuban exile community resounded in southern Florida on Tuesday, after
Coast Guard Service boats intercepted a group of Cuban refugees trying to
reach shore.
"[...] Televised images of six Cubans swimming towards the beach while
harassed by members of the federal agency, originated a few minutes after
3:00 p.m. a spontaneous protest demonstration by hundreds of exiles at the
beach where two of the refugees arrived, and in front of the Coast Guard
station in Miami Beach.
"[...] Radio stations were bombarded with phone calls while hundreds of
demonstrators marching towards the Coast Guard station blocked the streets,
preventing cars from going either way on the MacArthur Causeway.
"[...] Miami Beach police reported that demonstrators blocking the street
prevented a woman from taking her sick child to the hospital.
"[...] Outside the Coast Guard station, the protests intensified. The number
of irate demonstrators carrying banners and placards increased constantly.
At the closing of this edition they were still there.
"[...] The wave of protests even reached the U.S. Congress.
"Republican Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen of Florida considered this
action an act of aggression against Cubans who have expressed their desire
to live in freedom and democracy.
"New Jersey Senator Bob Torricelli, a Democrat, requested humanitarian visas
from the State Department for the four Cubans who were unable to reach the
shore and are now on board a Coast Guard cutter.
"Republican Congressman Lincoln Dmaz-Balart wrote to President Bill Clinton
stating his indignation over the measures taken by the Coast Guard on
Tuesday.
"A White House spokesperson reported on Tuesday that Clinton had been
informed of the events that occurred on the Florida coasts.
"This appears to be the result of an alien smuggling operation, in which
the Cubans paid thousands of dollars to be dropped near the shore, stated a
White House spokesperson who preferred to remain anonymous."
Attacks against the migration agreements began immediately. On June 30
itself, El Nuevo Herald stated in an editorial: "Images of the Coast Guard
harassing and arresting six Cuban refugees trying to reach Florida shores
swimming say more than hundreds of words about the migration policy between
Cuba and the United States."
A Reuters' cable dated July 1 from Miami reported that "Representative
Lincoln Dmaz-Balart urged the U.S. government to suspend an immigration
agreement under which all Cuban migrants intercepted at sea are generally
returned to Cuba and those who touch land are allowed to stay in the country
and request political asylum.
"Dmaz-Balart also urged Washington to implement a serious and vigorous
program to aid Cubans struggling to overthrow President Fidel Castro's
government.
"The Cuban crisis and the tragic oppression of the Cuban people cannot be
treated as a migration issue any longer. It has to be faced in all its
magnitude, said the congressman."
Under the headline "Doubts on How the Rafters Reached Florida", the NOTIMEX
news agency reported on July 1: "The United States released six Cuban
rafters in response to the protests of exiles, amidst differing versions of
how they had actually reached U.S. shores, not by crossing the sea to Miami
Beach in a rowboat.
"Investigators said they are convinced that the six Cubans had been dropped
near the Florida coasts, after contradictory information was given during
interviews.
"After six days in an open boat as they said, they would have been
dehydrated and exhausted, and unlikely to have the energy to swim ashore
after jumping in the ocean, indicated Dan Geoghegan, spokesman of the
Border Patrol in Miami.
"Their lips would have been completely dry, and that was not the case,
declared Jim Orgeck, a Border Patrol agent who interviewed the aliens."
On July 1, 1999, under the headline "Cubans Arrested in Florida Introduced
by Smugglers," CNN in Miami reported:
"The U.S. Border Patrol announced Wednesday that it believes the six Cubans
arrested when trying to land in South Florida were part of an alien
smuggling operation.
"The chief of the Patrol's Miami office, Keith Roberts, said that some of
the statements of the Cubans arrested on Tuesday were inconsistent. Most
outstanding was the fact that they did not show many signs of having been
exposed to the sun, nor were they dehydrated, as most Cuban rafters are, he
said.
"Their hands were not damaged as they normally would be after rowing from
Cuba to Florida. Authorities maintain that even though the arrival of the
Cubans on a small boat caused a deep impression on local TV, the operation
had been orchestrated by illegal alien smugglers.
"[...] The State Department granted asylum to all six," ended CNN.
It is highly unlikely that a row boat that set out from Caibariin, in the
central part of the island, could reach the United States through Miami
Beach, 400 kilometers away, at a spot between a city street and an avenue,
with the occupants arriving fresh as daisies.
On that same day, July 1, El Nuevo Herald published that "Hialeah Mayor Razl
Martmnez participated in a brawl during the early morning hours of Wednesday
on the Palmetto 826 Highway, which ended with head injuries to the chief of
police and seven persons arrested.
"The incidents broadcasted on local television show the mayor running down
the expressway in shirt-sleeves and turning around to exchange punches with
a smaller, thinner man, while several policemen and other individuals tried
to separate the two.
"It all took place around 2:00 a.m., when a civic protest in support of the
Cuban rafters harassed by the Coast Guard on Tuesday afternoon turned into a
field battle.
"According to the mayor, he was hit first. I won't allow anybody to punch
me and go on as if nothing had happened; I will not turn the other cheek,
said Martmnez commenting on the fight.
"The right of the people in Hialeah to protest will always be respected,
but I will not allow hoodlums to take hold of our streets, added Martmnez
when explaining what had happened.
"Minutes after this incident, Rolando Bolaqos, chief of police of the
municipality, was hit on the head with a rock. He was taken to a nearby
hospital where he got six stitches.
"Bolaqos told El Nuevo Herald that the incidents were headed up by groups
of gangsters."
A dispatch from EFE on July 2 reported that "forty Cuban exile organizations
requested the repeal of the migration agreements signed between Washington
and Havana, alledging that the treatment received by the six Cuban rafters
who swam 500 meters to reach Miami Beach is a consequence of such
agreements.
"These organizations, most with headquarters in Miami, stated in a
communiqui that these acts are a direct consequence of the migration
agreement signed in 1995.
"The organizations also demand the immediate revision of the policy of
rapprochement towards Cuba, so that Fidel Castro's stay in power and that of
his regime are not further prolonged, as well as the strengthening of
support for internal opposition in Cuba."
An AFP dispatch on July 3 stated: "Hundreds of Cuban Americans demonstrated
this Saturday to demand the repeal of the migration agreement between
Washington and Havana.
"Miami Mayor Joe Carollo expressed his solidarity with the demonstrators in
the Little Havana district of Miami.
"With the coming presidential elections of 2000, none of the main U.S.
political parties wants to offend the Cuban Americans, since victory in the
state of Florida, and theoretically, the White House itself, could depend on
their votes."
On that same day, July 3, El Nuevo Herald published, among other things,
that the "policy traditionally adopted by the Immigration and Naturalization
Service is to repatriate Cubans who are still wet, who have not touched
land. According to Kelly Spellman, a Miami spokesperson for the Immigration
and Naturalization Service, the local office had nothing to do with the
decision to let these Cubans stay in the U.S. This is something that came
from higher up, directly from Washington."
On July 6, an EFE dispatch said: "The Washington authorities are analyzing a
Cuban proposal to return to the United States 26 U.S. citizens being held on
the Caribbean island who are suspected of trafficking in illegal migrants,
the State Department announced today.
"No formal response has been given to the Cuban government, except to
ensure our commitment to fight against alien smuggling, said James Foley,
assistant spokesperson of the State Department.
"[...] More than 1,200 Cuban immigrants arrived on the coasts of Florida
during the first half of this year, most or them brought by groups of
smugglers who operate out of this state and charge up to 10,000 dollars for
the trip, according to the Border Patrol."
On July 6, the EFE news agency stated from Miami that "the arrest in Cuba of
two alien smugglers who operate out of Miami confirms local authorities'
suspicions of a flourishing illegal trafficking of Cubans.
"Eighty percent of the Cubans who have arrived on Florida's coasts have
been brought by smugglers, said Daniel Geoghegan, a Border Patrol
spokesperson."
The following day, NOTIMEX reported from Washington: "The U.S. government
admitted today that the smuggling of undocumented Cubans is increasing.
However, it denied that this situation could be considered a migration
crisis from Cuba towards the U.S.
"The Clinton administration said it is aware of the increase in the number
of U.S. organizations involved in the smuggling of undocumented Cubans.
"According to the State Department, there has been an increase in the
number of undocumented Cubans who have entered or tried to enter the U.S.
This shows that there are more organizations involved in the trafficking of
immigrants from the Caribbean island.
"There are no indications that Cuba has relaxed its migration policy to
promote undocumented migration, and we expect the Cuban government to
continue fulfilling the migration agreements, said the State Department
spokesperson.
"The United States is committed to promoting legal and safe migration and to
fulfilling the mutual agreement signed with Cuba on September 9, 1994, and
ratified on May 2, 1995, stressed the diplomatic spokesperson."
But there was more trouble in store for the Coast Guard. Ten days after this
incident, a Coast Guard vessel tried to intercept another boat that was
attempting to reach the coast 50 kilometers north of Miami. The boat did not
obey orders and manoeuvres were carried out. The Coast Guard vessel hit the
side of the other boat, which had 12 people on board; the boat sank, and one
woman drowned.
According to an AP dispatch, the Cuban boat involved in the July 10 incident
was trying to cut the bow of the U.S. patrol boat, 16 kilometers from
Hillsborough Cove and 57 kilometers north of Miami. After the collision, the
boat sank in six minutes.
"The incident has taken place at a time when relations are tense between the
Cuban exiles of Miami and the Coast Guard."
CNN reported that "the body of a Cuban woman that had disappeared last night
along the coast of Florida was recovered today. The boat she was on collided
with a Coast Guard vessel and sank."
CNN added that the Coast Guard was "under scrutiny since the incident of
June 29."
Reuters reported from Miami on July 10 that "the Cuban migrants involved in
the collision with the U.S. Coast Guard had threatened the Coast Guard
officers with a machete before the accident that caused the sinking of their
boat and the death of a woman, said authorities here on Saturday.
"This death provoked wrath in the large Cuban community in Miami, which was
already furious over the incident that took place last month, in the midst
of a U.S. Coast Guard campaign to prevent illegal immigration of Cubans to
the United States."
On July 12, an EFE dispatch stated that "the collision between a boat with
12 Cuban rafters on board and a U.S. Coast Guard vessel, which resulted in
one casualty, has generated new demands from the exiles for the United
States to review the migration agreements with Cuba.
"The influential Cuban-American National Foundation condemned once again
today the migration agreements between Washington and Havana reached in 1994
and 1995, which unjustly force Cubans to be repatriated when intercepted
at sea, even if they are just a few meters from shore.
"We are asking the United States to cancel these migration agreements that
should never have come into being, declared to EFE Mariela Ferretti,
spokesperson of the anti-Castro organization."
Also on July 12, another EFE dispatch noted that "a group of 14 undocumented
Cuban migrants are trying to evade the U.S. Coast Guard off the coasts of
Miami, threatening to set themselves on fire if they are not allowed to
reach the shore, Radio Caracol reported this Monday.
"The Coast Guard confirmed that a boat with 10 to 14 passengers on board
refused to change its course approximately 40 kilometers east of Key
Biscayne, an island facing central Miami.
"Under the bilateral agreement in force since 1995, the U.S. Coast Guard is
compelled to pick up the undocumented Cubans at sea and repatriate them. But
unlike Haitians or other migrants, Cubans who reach the U.S. coasts can
normalize their migration status and have the immediate right to a work
permit.
"It is an apparent political contradiction that, according to some analysts,
promotes illegal migration from Cuba.
"Republican Congressman Lincoln Dmaz-Balart has asked for the cancelation
of the migration treaty and the Cuban-American National Foundation is also
lobbying other congressmen in this regard."
How will the U.S. be able to intercept speedboats? How will they be able to
prevent an accident even in the case of normal boats that refuse to obey
orders? How can they implement their contradictory laws and prevent their
country from becoming ungovernable? They will have no other option than to
abolish the preposterous law that destroys the basis of authority of their
own Coast Guard. They are at the mercy of permanent blackmail and of
whatever manipulations the Foundation might devise. Because of the
organizational capability of its people, Cuba can reduce illegal exits from
the country to a minimum. The task, however, becomes much more difficult
against the powerful incentive of the privileges granted to the potential
violators of their laws.
In our country, there are several thousands of private boats, sport or
pleasure boats, although not as many as in the United States. It would be
impossible to absolutely guarantee that not a single one of them could leave
from any point along the 5,746 kilometers of Cuban coastline, and as matters
stand the United States will not be able to intercept any of them.
The authorities themselves have stated publicly that the alien smugglers
have launched a campaign of disobedience.
Something even worse: it is extremely difficult for the Coast Guard to face
the most serious problem, namely, the increasing number of migrant
traffickers, who can collect their human cargo at any point along the coast,
prearranged through any of the almost 100,000 visitors of Cuban origin who
travel yearly from the United States to Cuba.
Will we have to prohibit these visits? Will we have to cut communications
and other forms of coordination to further increase cooperation with a
government that, by maintaining a legal provision impossible to justify and
sustain, is not capable of enforcing its own laws, nor of freeing itself
from the blackmail of a gang of insolent traitors who are not even the
absolute majority of the residents of Cuban origin in the United States? Why
not think of the millions of retired U.S. citizens who seek peace and quiet
in Florida, or of the millions of Latin American and Caribbean residents who
do not enjoy the same privileges that have always been granted to those who
left Cuba illegally without visas or any other documents?
Why not think that, like most of the citizens of the United States, a large
majority of residents of Cuban origin oppose the genocidal and immoral
blockade against their country of origin and their own relatives?
The U.S. government should learn that an increasing number of those
residents want communications, normal travel from the United States to Cuba
and vice versa, and legal and safe migration, without the loss of a single
life.
Who really violates human rights? Who endangers many lives with illegal
trips? Who are the ones trying to force millions of Cubans to surrender
through hunger, millions of Cubans who will never give in or sell out? How
long can the United States maintain this absurdity? If only votes and votes
alone are what the U.S. leaders are interested in, it is time for them to
understand that this policy will end up costing them many votes.
On July 13, an EFE dispatch reported that "three Cuban-American members of
Congress, two Republicans and one Democrat, accused the governments of
Washington and Havana of promoting the illegal departure of Cubans towards
the United States to help Castro's economy.
"Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and Lincoln Dmaz-Balart, both Florida Republicans, and
Robert Menindez, a New Jersey Democrat, expressed their disappointment with
President Bill Clinton's administration in view of all the decisions they
adopt to the benefit of the Cuban government.
"The members of the House spoke to the press after a meeting with
representatives of the State Department, the Department of Justice and the
Coast Guard, regarding the latest incidents involving Cuban rafters in
Florida waters."
On July 13, the AFP news agency stated that "Jorge Mas Santos, a top leader
of the Cuban-American National Foundation, will ask Bill Clinton during his
visit to Miami for the United States to stop repatriating undocumented
Cubans picked up at sea.
"In an interview with this agency, Mas Santos, deputy chairman of the CANF
board of directors, affirmed that the anti-Castro group wants repatriations
to cease and undocumented Cubans be taken to the Guantanamo naval base
until the Cuban situation and the Fidel Castro issue are solved.
"Furthermore, the Cuban-American National Foundation promotes equal rights
to migration and political asylum for those who reach the Florida waters and
those who reach American soil.
"According to Fernando Rojas, Cuban-American National Foundation
spokesperson, if a massive flow of Cuban migrants similar to that of 1994
should take place again,  when around 30,000 people migrated in precarious
vessels, the Foundation would favor a U.S. naval blockade of Cuba to prevent
tragedies at sea, even if the migrants are, from their viewpoint, political
refugees.
"During the afternoon, Clinton will be raising funds for the Democratic
Party at a lavish dinner for some 60 people in the home of Cuban-American
sugar tycoon Alfonso Fanjul.
"Mas Santos, who will attend the dinner, said Fanjul invited him precisely
because he wants to address the migration issue with the President.
"My message to President Clinton tonight will be that he has to be ready to
react forcefully, and to tell the Castro regime that it is not going to
determine the United States' migration policy, he said.
"I will also tell him that until the person causing this problem, that is,
Fidel Castro, is eliminated, this problem will not be solved. I believe our
global policy has to be that of ousting Castro from power," Mas Santos
added.
It is impossible for the mafia to hide its repugnant and diabolical
intentions. What they desire, and everything they propose and do is aimed at
precisely the unleashing of a migration crisis.
The lavish dinner did in fact take place on July 13 at sugar tycoon Alfonso
Fanjul's mansion. One of the participants was Jorge Mas Canosa's son, who
ascended to the throne a few weeks ago when he was designated chairman of
the infamous Foundation. He paid 25,000 dollars a plate, like the other 59
participants in this dinner, and around 1.5 million dollars were raised for
Al Gore's presidential campaign.
The Fanjuls are two Cuban-American brothers from a wealthy family of noble
ancestry, owners of large estates, sugar mills and sugar businesses in
several countries. Their present fortune is more than a billion dollars. One
brother raises funds for the Democratic Party, and the other for the
Republican Party. Both are closely linked to the Foundation ringleaders and
had important trade and political links with its previous president. They
dream of recovering their enormous properties in Cuba.
On July 13, El Nuevo Herald published an article stating: "To clarify doubts
in the minds of hundreds of refugees all over the country, the Immigration
and Nationalization Service ratified on Monday that all Cubans who reach
U.S. territory illegally shall be eligible for the Cuban Adjustment Act.
"Our policy is clear and consistent in this regard, said Dan Kane, a
spokesperson for the Immigration and Naturalization Service in Washington.
"All Cubans who reach American soil will have the right to the Cuban
Adjustment Act, after being processed by a district immigration center."
That same day, El Nuevo Herald reported: "Miami-Dade Mayor Alex Penelas,
believes that the increase in illegal arrivals of undocumented Cubans is a
possible indication of a mass exodus, and has ordered a general alert in all
the county's institutions.
"We are on the highest alert level in view of the possibility of a mass
exodus of refugees, said Penelas.
Under the headline "Cuban Exiles Attempt to Repeal Migration Agreement with
Cuba", the Diario de las Amiricas published an article on July 14 stating:
"After having won this confrontation with Washington on the fate of six
rafters, Cuban exiles are ready to wage the battle to annul or modify the
migration agreement with Cuba to prevent the deportation to the island of
those intercepted at sea.
"The agreement signed in 1995 was challenged last week when the U.S.
government, faced with pressures and protests from Cuban exiles, allowed
four Cuban rafters intercepted a few meters from Miami Beach to remain in
the United States."
"[...] The Cuban government has still not reacted to this violation of the
agreement, and there are persistent rumors in Miami that Havana, in
reprisal, could allow a new exodus of rafters like the one that took place
in 1994, when more than 30,000 Cubans arrived on the coasts of Florida.
"The agreement was signed precisely to prevent another rafters' crisis.
Since then, the United States has deported almost 3,000 Cubans who were
intercepted at sea and did not get the chance to reach American soil.
"[...] Washington agreed once again to grant 20,000 entrance visas to the
United States.
"The migration agreement began to flounder last Tuesday due to an
unprecedented case in the history of rafters reaching the coast of Florida
in fragile boats. For the first time, television networks broadcasted live
the odyssey of those six rafters.
"[...] In Washington, Cuban-American Congressman Lincoln Dmaz-Balart asked
Congress to cancel this dishonorable pact, the migration agreement, and
accused the Clinton administration of being the watchdog of the Cuban
regime.
El Nuevo Herald, true to its old ways, published on July 15 a new article
under the headline "Clinton Concerned Over Migration Policy":
"Before President Clinton's return to Washington, after his one-day visit to
South Florida, he made an encouraging promise on Tuesday: to review the
United States' immigration policy towards Cuba.
"According to some of the local figures who had the opportunity to meet
with the President, Clinton left Miami aware of the thinking of the Cuban
exiles and saying that it was necessary to review the agreements between
Cuba and the United States.
"We have to see if the current policy is manageable based on the problems
we are facing, said Clinton during a fund-raising dinner for the Democratic
Party."
"Jorge Mas Santos, deputy chairman of the Cuban-American National
Foundation, and one of those who spoke with Clinton, said he told the
President that it was not fair to return Cubans intercepted at sea to Cuba.

"He promised to do everything possible to review the migration agreements
with Cuba and prevent more deaths at sea, underlined Mas Santos to El Nuevo
Herald.
"The Cuban American leader added that Clinton said he feels frustrated for
not having been able to oust Fidel Castro from power.
"This Wednesday the State Department in Washington said that up to now it
has not received orders or instructions from Clinton to review or change
U.S. policy towards Cuba.
"[...] The U.S. has a program to grant 20,000 visas per year to Cubans,
precisely to discourage the dangerous crossing of the Florida Straits by
undocumented migrants, said James Rubin, a State Department spokesperson.
It is impossible to believe that the President of the United States, a man
acknowledged as cultured and intelligent, would have held such a
conversation - as reported by journalist Fernando Almanzar, of El Nuevo
Herald - that places him in an almost servile position before the crown
prince of a terrorist mafia, a superficial, naive, ignorant and conceited
individual who, judging by his own words, has absolutely no political
knowledge, and while he may have a large fortune inherited from his father,
he does not have anything at all inside his head.
I prefer to believe that these are only fabrications, distortions and
fantasies stemming from the vanity of an irresponsible, ignorant, indiscreet
and immature person.
Another media source at the service of the mafia, the Diario de las
Amiricas, reported that "three Cuban-American members of Congress accused
the U.S. government of concealing Cuba's trafficking of persons, in addition
to drug trafficking, money laundering and a series of illegal dealings."
These extremely grave and unreasonable charges against the Clinton
administration of conspiracy with the Cuban government in drug trafficking,
money laundering, migrant trafficking and other illegal dealings, were
posed, not surprisingly, by Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and Lincoln Dmaz-Balart,
both Florida Republicans, and Robert Menindez, a New Jersey Democrat, three
well-known characters financed by the Cuban-American National Foundation.
Another piece of news, more sensible and serious, was reported from
Washington by NOTIMEX on July 15, two days after the famous dinner. "The
United States announced today the setting up of a special group to combat
alien smuggling from Cuba" - it should have said from the United States - "a
problem that has tripled in one year and increased physical risks for those
interested in reaching Florida.
"The effort will be spearheaded by the Immigration and Naturalization
Service and will also involve the Federal Bureau of Investigations, the
Coast Guard, the Federal Public Prosecutor's Office based in Miami and the
Florida state government.
"Daniel Kane, spokesman for the Immigration and Naturalization Service,
explained that organized groups are now charging between 8,000 and 10,000
dollars for transporting a Caribbean person to the United States by risky
means.
"He highlighted that during the 1997-98 fiscal year, 615 Cubans being
smuggled into Florida were detected, and the number tripled to 1,700 in what
has elapsed of the 1998-99 fiscal year, which ends next September 30.
"Kane noted that the group will try to identify and bring to trial those
responsible for exploiting the islanders, since what we are trying to do is
send a strong message about the dangers of this type of illegal
transportation.
"The spokesman pointed out that the traffickers use speedboats which they
overload.  Recently forty Haitians and nine Cubans who were being
transported this way perished.
"He warned that this type of crime is punished with up to 10 years'
imprisonment and called on the Cubans in Florida, who normally pay for the
transportation of their relatives, not to risk the lives of their loved
ones.
"Every year the United States assigns 20,000 visas for Cubans and there are
many legal opportunities for them to come to Florida, he pointed out.
"Kane stressed that the traffickers also advise the people they transport
that in the event that they are intercepted by the U.S. Coast Guard, they
should threaten to set themselves on fire if they are not allowed to reach
land."
On July 16, the EFE news agency reported from Washington that "the U.S.
Immigration Service today warned traffickers of illegal Cuban migrants that
they are risking drastic federal penalties if they continue this criminal
business.
"The FBI and the State Department reminded Cubans who try to enter this
country without the relevant migration documents, that there are many
dangers in the crossing that can be avoided by being patient while their
visas are being processed by the United States Interests Section in Havana.
"It was recalled that the migration agreements signed by the United States
and Cuba in 1995 grant this Caribbean country 20,000 U.S. visas a year,
which can be applied for by any Cuban wishing to do so.
"These traffickers of human beings don't care about risking the lives of
these people in their efforts to make profits, said Kane."
Very recently, on July 19, AFP reported from Miami: "The Governor of
Florida, Jeb Bush, urged President Bill Clinton on Monday to respond to the
increase in the traffic of illegal migrants - most of them Cubans - asking
for more Border Patrol troops to be deployed in that Southern state.
"In March, Bush asked Secretary of Justice Janet Reno to increase the
Federal authorities' activities to stop illegal migration to that state's
coasts, and he has not yet received an answer.
"We have once again expressed our concerns to the Federal government, said
Bush.
"President Clinton must become involved, Bush noted.  We need more Border
Patrol troops and more federal resources to confront the issue of alien
smuggling.
"These smugglers have to be prosecuted and the Florida government is
willing to help the Federal government fulfill its responsibilities, he
added."
Obviously, not all American politicians, from one party or the other, share
the bizarre ideas of the Cuban-American mafia regarding illegal migration
from Cuba to the United States.
What is the Cuban-American National Foundation?
An institution of imperialism that promotes the most severe economic
blockade possible against Cuba, the Torricelli and Helms-Burton Acts, and
dozens of Congressional amendments aimed against our country; a sworn,
virulent enemy of the migration agreements signed in 1994 and 1995 and of
the slightest cooperation between the United States and Cuba in the struggle
against international drug trafficking; an unpunished organizer of attempts
to assassinate me, and the instigator of the terrorist acts against our
tourist hotels to try to ruin one of the country's most prosperous
industries and one of the main sources of hard-currency income, which
creates jobs and boosts many industrial and agricultural sectors which
supply goods and services for that activity.
It was founded in July, 1981, and cynically registered as a non-profit,
philanthropic, and educational organization, which has among its functions
to do research work, publish, and carry out educational and humanitarian
activities.
I have taken some valuable data about the origins of this institution from
material for a book being prepared about the forty years of crimes against
Cuba and from other documents prepared by well-informed sources.
During the 70s, the ideologues of the U.S. extreme right, which had
gradually become stronger since the previous decade, agreed on the need to
remodel the United States' hegemonic role in the world, and prepared the
political platform that Ronald Reagan's future administration would follow.
In 1979, that laboratory of imperialist ideas produced the so-called Santa
Fe Program, describing how the new Republican administration should act
vis-`-vis the continent's reality.
Cuba was considered, along with Brazil and Mexico, among the countries that
the United States had to give priority to in this region. Our country was
seen as the most important adversary of that Northern power in this
hemisphere. "Cuba has been a problem for American policymakers for more than
two decades", declared the extreme right.  "The problem is no nearer
solution today than it was in 1960 - indeed, the problem has grown to truly
dangerous proportions."
"The United States can only restore its credibility by taking immediate
action," noted the aforementioned Santa Fe document referring to Cuba.
Consequently, its authors proposed carrying out "frankly punitive" actions.
Among these actions, they recommended starting a political and ideological
offensive, including radio broadcasts "under open U.S. government
sponsorship," promoting internal subversion and even armed intervention, an
option which was not ruled out.
For these ideologues of the U.S. extreme right, the problem did not only
consist of changing the policy towards Cuba and going as far as necessary to
"solve the Cuban problem," but, at the same time, of devising the ideal way
to justify the new course the future administration should take in order not
to act directly but "responding" to requests from the Cuban immigrants in
the United States, and having the latter be the ones in charge of
"demanding" the change and concrete measures.
The recommendations of the Santa Fe Program were immediately adopted by the
U.S. government after President Reagan's inauguration in January, 1981.
U.S. researcher Gaeton Fonzi writes in Esquire magazine that it was veteran
CIA officer Richard Allen, at the time President Reagan's National Security
Adviser, who proposed the idea of uniting the Cuban exiles and fashion -in
his own words - "an effective bolt with which the President's aggressive
foreign policy can be implemented." In an interview with the National
Journal, Allen said, "I told them [Reagan and his team] that the best thing
they could do was to create an organization that spoke with one voice or
would seem to speak with one single voice." "I am very happy that they
followed my advise," he added.
The first step towards creating that ostensible single voice was taken in
1980 by Roger Fontaine, at the time a member of the Santa Fe Committee and
one of the ideologues of Reagan's future administration who was later in
charge of the policy towards Latin America in the National Security Council.
That year Fontaine publicly expressed "the possibility of creating a Cuban
lobby before the U.S. Congress to justify a more aggressive policy against
Cuba." The mission was defined both by Allen and Fontaine as follows: to set
up a lobby or pressure group in Washington that would work through a
Cuban-American entity to propose Congress and the government the measures
against Cuba that had already been planned by the policy makers of the new
administration.
In Washington, and in the United States at large, Cuban immigrants were
linked to terrorism, the CIA's dirty operations, and violence. Therefore, a
new type of organization had to be created which would guarantee, on the one
hand, total subordination to that policy and, on the other, a renewed image
acceptable for U.S. society.
With the order to create the Cuban-American National Foundation, the main
objective was to change the image of the Cuban emigration. The most
revealing fact of this shameless project is that most of the now millionaire
directors of the Foundation were selected from among the old men of action
of the Central Intelligence Agency. They now had to devote all of their time
and energy to a new type of political work: visits to Washington, intensive
lobbying before members of Congress and administration figures, contribution
s to electoral campaigns and other political activities, and all of this
with the greatest possible coverage by the media.
The creation of the Cuban-American National Foundation in the '80s did not
mean the end of terrorist actions against Cuba, but it did represent the
upsurge of a new form of U.S. aggression. During the Reagan and Bush
Republican administrations, the organization acted as an appendix of the
U.S. Government's foreign policy and as a pressure mechanism within the
country itself to impose that policy.
According to the above-mentioned American researcher, the Foundation
received over 200 million dollars in government funds under these two
presidents in order to carry out these functions.
Many analysts coincide in pointing out that the CIA's and the National
Security Council's conception was effectively accomplished. The Foundation
was organically integrated into the American political system. Its influence
has had a bipartisan scope and involves not only electoral political sectors
but also the government bureaucracy at different levels.
The Cuban-American National Foundation was induced from the beginning into
inserting itself fully into the lobbying which is characteristic of the
American system by means of political action committees, the so-called PACs,
which make it possible to finance political campaigns and serve to channel
their "special interests" among U.S. Senators and members of the House, as
well as in electoral campaigns.
The Foundation contributed important amounts of money for these campaigns.
Several dozen members of the House and Senators from both parties, from 1982
until the present, have benefitted from the financial contributions of the
Cuban-American National Foundation and have subordinated the United States'
national interests to those "special interests". According to reports to the
Federal Elections Committee, at some stages up to 60 members of Congress
have received contributions from the Foundation in one year. In the 1997-98
period, 52 % of the funds went to the Democratic Party and 48 % to the
Republican Party.
The Cuban-American National Foundation has developed a new, unique way of
lobbying through intimidation. Cases are known in Washington about members
of Congress who have been pressured in their electoral districts or states
and have been subjected to other subtle forms of blackmail or threats, or
their political opponents have received considerable cash contributions, for
the only reason of not having accepted the money or supported the policy
proposals of the Foundation.
The donations normally authorized for political campaigns can be
institutional or personal. There are thousands of ways to do it. The dinner
in Fanjul's mansion, where 1.5 million dollars were raised in one night, at
a rate of 25,000 dollars a plate, is one of the many apparently honest ways
of doing it.
According to data obtained through Internet from the United States Federal
Electoral Committee Records, from January, 1993, to March, 1998, the
Cuban-American National Foundation contributed as an organization 105,521
dollars to Robert Menindez; 101,050 dollars to Robert Torricelli; 62,797
dollars to Jesse Helms; 43,057 dollars to Ileana Ros-Lehtinen; 42,645
dollars to Lincoln Dmaz-Balart; and 22,200 dollars to Dan Burton, all very
well known in our country for their infamous deeds.
Between 1991 and 1998, Mas Canosa and Jorge Mas Santos made 142 personal
donations totalling more than 127,000 dollars to a group of Senators and
members of the House including Dan Burton, Robert Torricelli, Jesse Helms
and the Cuban-American Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, Lincoln Dmaz-Balart and Robert
Menindez.
These are contributions that are officially registered, as required by U.S.
electoral law. They do not include the large sums of money that are given in
cash without any kind of record. It is well known that important
personalities have received up to 80,000 dollars in one single contribution,
thus violating U.S. law. Everything is known because people are bound to
talk.
Curiously, one of the main promoters of contributions for Robert Menindez
in New Jersey, Arnaldo Monzsn Plasencia, was convicted for money laundering
in 1985, according to the November 8, 1998, issue of The Star Ledger, and he
admitted having concealed 100,000 dollars from the Internal Revenue Service,
for which he was sentenced by an U.S. court. As you remember, Arnaldo Monzsn
Plasencia was one of the main organizers of the terrorist actions promoted
against Cuba from Central America by Luis Posada Carriles, and formerly
belonged to the terrorist organizations Alpha-66 and Omega 7, the latter one
responsible for the death of a Cuban diplomat to the United Nations, among
other violent actions against the Revolution.
At the same time, the Cuban-American National Foundation also supplies
financial and material aid to ringleaders and active members of small
subversive groups in Cuba. This support has increased since 1998 in keeping
with the United States' policy toward our country, using Cuban exiles as
emissaries to financially supply the counterrevolutionary ringleaders and
their cells.
Outside of the United States, the Foundation has financed the political
campaigns of corrupt politicians who have paid back this aid once they are
in power by granting important concessions to the companies owned by Mas
Canosa's family, mainly in the field of communications.
The services rendered to the conservative and extreme-right sectors of U.S.
politics to further the formulas of the Santa Fe Program have been
acknowledged. An eloquent fact: between 1981 and 1998 more than 150 bills or
amendments against Cuba were submitted to the United States Congress.
The Foundation also assumed other roles. In 1985, certain U.S. power groups
urged the Foundation to exert pressure to abolish the Clark Amendment, which
banned economic and military or paramilitary assistance to Savimbi's bands
in Angola. Immediately after that amendment was repealed, Ronald Reagan
authorized 30 million dollars in covert funds for UNITA.
The leadership of the Foundation has been almost totally made up by
elements who were linked in one way or another to the Batista dictatorship,
or were significantly affected by the Cuban revolutionary laws. At this
moment, after Mas Canosa's death, we can mention the following cases by way
of example: Francisco Josi Hernandez, who until very recently was chairman
of the Foundation until he was replaced by Jorge Mas Santos, is the son of
Lieutenant Colonel Francisco Hernandez Leyva, tried in Santa Clara in 1959
for war crimes committed during the Batista dictatorship and sentenced to
the death penalty; Roberto Martmn Pirez, a member of the executive committee
and head of the Foundation's paramilitary group, is the son of the
well-known Batista henchman Lutgardo Martmn Pirez, who managed to flee to
the United States; Ninoska Pirez Castellsn, director and spokesperson of the
Foundation, is the daughter of Lieutenant Colonel Francisco Pirez Gonzalez,
second chief of the bloodthirsty Seccisn Radiomotorizada (motorized
division) of Batista's police in Havana, who also left the country for the
United States; Jorge Fowler, the Foundation's lawyer, is the son of a
landowner with the same name who owned 1,900 caballermas (62,000 acres) of
land in Cuba and the Narcisa sugar mill.
Who did Reagan's team choose to chair the organization proposed by the Santa
Fe document of the American extreme right? Jorge Mas Canosa.
And who was Mas Canosa? The closest friend and comrade in arms of Luis
Posada Carriles, a monstrous character who, along with Orlando Bosch, coldly
and cowardly murdered 73 innocent people travelling aboard the Cubana
aircraft that was blown up in mid-flight after after taking off from the
Barbados airport on October 6, 1976. He directed and participated in
numerous terrorist actions and crimes that brought about the death of
valuable comrades, some of which were dramatically described in the trial
for the demand for human damages filed by the Cuban people against the U.S.
government.
A well-known article published by the New York Times on July 13, 1998
contains some interesting facts. "Two years after the Bay of Pigs invasion
ended in ignominious failure on the beaches of Cuba, two young Cuban exiles
stood next to each other in the spring sun at Fort Bennings, Ga., training
for the next march on Havana.
"It was 1963, a time of feverish American plotting against Fidel Castro's
rule. The two men were among the exiles who had survived the bungled
operation to overthrow the Cuban leader and had enlisted in the U.S. Army,
confident that President Kennedy would soon mount another attack that would
banish communism from the hemisphere.
"The orders never came, and both men soon quit the Army to begin their own
three-decade war against Castro.
"Jorge Mas Canosa, the younger of the two, emerged as the public face of the
movement, a successful businessman who courted presidents and politicians,
raised money and relentlessly lobbied the White House and Congress to get
tough on Cuba. By the time Mas died of cancer last November, after two
decades of denying any direct role in the military operations of exiles
seeking to destabilize Cuba, he had become perhaps the single most
influencial voice in tightening America's official policy of economic and
political quarantine.
"The older man, Luis Posada Carriles, a former sugar chemist, became a
leader of the exiles' clandestine military wing, plotting to kill Castro and
planting bombs at Cuban government installations. As Mas was building a
personal fortune that eventually exceeded $100 million, Posada remained in
the shadows, consorting with intelligence officers, anti-Castro militants
and even, declassified documents say, reputed mobsters.
"Now, as he nears the end of his career as the most notorious commando in
the anti-Castro underground, Posada has for the first time detailed his
37-year relationship with exile leaders in the United States and with the
American authorities."
Not much more information is needed for an accurate profile of the man who
chaired the Foundation. An active CIA agent during the months prior to the
Bay of Pigs mercenary invasion, he enlisted in the U.S. Army with Posada
Carriles after the attack was defeated, hoping to participate in a military
invasion against Cuba that would never have defeated the Revolution, but
would have cost our people hundreds of lives. After the military invasion
plans - decided upon by the U.S. government from the early months of 1962 -
were thwarted, thanks to the timely measures adopted which brought about the
October Crisis that year, putting the world on the brink of a nuclear war
and giving rise to commitments that, although not constituting a total
guarantee for Cuba, frustrated and postponed for an indefinite time a direct
military aggression against our country, both characters quit the U.S. Army.
But they never parted. They both remained CIA agents and both carried out
different tasks but within the same strategic plan of imperialism, something
which is to some extent very clearly described by journalists Ann Louise
Bardach and Larry Rother in the above-mentioned New York Times article.
Mas Canosa, by then already a millionaire, organized and financed Posada
Carriles' escape from a Venezuelan maximum security jail where he had been
imprisoned for the Barbados sabotage. The operation cost 50,000 dollars.
After Posada Carriles was free and immediately integrated into the apparatus
created by the White House in El Salvador to supply weapons for the dirty
war against Nicaragua, almost all of the Foundation officials were sent by
Mas Canosa to greet him and give him their support.
Mas Canosa, that old CIA agent, was the person the extreme right assigned
the task of grouping the Cuban exiles in the United States into an
organization which could serve to promote, through the U.S. Congress, the
shady plans previously conceived by that extremist sector against our
homeland.
>From the moment he arrived in the United States, he was an agent of
imperialism, which he served unconditionally to the last minute of his life.
He and his Foundation actively supported the worst political and
counterrevolutionary forces in Nicaragua, Angola and other countries, always
serving the interests of the United States. He dreamed of seeing the Cuban
Revolution destroyed, our people vanquished by hunger and brought to their
knees, or our country being invaded by the U.S. armed forces. He hated the
work of the Revolution and the resistance of our people with all the might
engendered by frustration and impotence.
He was a mercenary who, using all the resources of the empire, did Cuba a
great deal of harm. I will omit any other reference to his shameful and
disgraceful life.
I won't say he was a traitor to his country, because he always had one
single homeland: the United States.
The Cuban-American National Foundation and the forces of the extreme right
are now the organizers of the conspiracy to do away with the migration
agreements and to hinder any type of cooperation between the United States
and Cuba in the fight against drug trafficking.
As can be very clearly understood by all the aforesaid, every concerted step
that they take and all that they do through their allies in the U.S.
Congress and the media at their disposal, has the single aim of provoking a
migration crisis whose consequences may be incalculable.
Here and now I am categorically warning them that there is not the slightest
possibility that Cuba will not honor the obligations stemming from the
migration agreements in force, or that it will authorize mass exits of
illegal migrants. As for those that take place on an isolated basis as a
consequence of the ongoing and growing encouragement coming from the United
States, the absurd legal regulations that protect those who break both our
laws and their laws, and the privileges and prizes that they award to those
who break them, we shall be able, with the help of all of the people, to
reduce them to a minimum.
The government of the United States might show signs of doubt, hesitation,
and weakness as to what it must do vis-`-vis the hollering and blackmail of
those in Florida who try to advise, demand or decide what the government has
to do.
They dream of an armed conflict between the United States and Cuba. Their
hatred is such that they wish to see our homeland under a genocidal and
destructive attack like the one the Serbian people had to suffer.
None of this frightens us. We are revolutionaries, we act out of principle,
not out of fear. We have an educated, organized, courageous, and aware
people. We have developed all the relevant ideas to prevent anything from
altering the internal order of the country, not through the force of weapons
but through the force and awareness of the masses.
Forty years of hardships and struggle, of unyielding tenacity and
experience, are not worthless. To confront the chaos existing in the
colossal world power of the North, we have the unity, coherence, discipline,
staunchness, intelligence, and awareness of a people that has been
privileged by history and that loves and defends this small island.
 

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1999-Aug-18 13:09:27