Mr. President: Remember the Brothers to the Rescue killed 25 years ago today

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We hear that President Biden wants to change the tough approach that the Trump administration set against Cuba.  He wants dialogue, whatever that means, with a dictatorship.  How can you talk to a regime that locks up its own people?

From Miami to other cities, Cuban Americans will remember today, the 25th anniversary of a terrible massacre over the Florida Straits. On this day in 1996, four young men on a humanitarian mission were killed by the Cuban Air Force.   

Our friends at Capitol Hill Cubans recalled what happened that awful day.  This is from Senior U.S. District Judge Lawrence King in the civil lawsuit against the Castro regime and the Cuban Air Force (FAR):

“The government of Cuba, on February 24th 1996,in outrageous contempt for international law and basic human rights, murdered four human beings in international airspace over the Florida Straits. The victims were Brothers to the Rescue pilots, flying two civilian unarmed planes on a routine humanitarian mission, searching for rafters in the waters between Cuba and the Florida Keys.

As the civilian planes flew over international waters, a Russian built MiG 29 of the Cuban Air Force, without warning, reason, or provocation blasted the defenseless planes out of the sky with sophisticated air-to-air missiles in two separate attacks. The pilots and their aircraft disintegrated in the mid-air explosions following the impact of the missiles. The destruction was so complete that the four bodies were never recovered.””

What was “the crime”? They were flying over international waters looking for rafters and advising the US Coast Guard.   It was a humanitarian act that posed no threat to the Cuban regime.

The four victims were: Armando Alejandre Jr. (45 years old), Carlos Alberto Costa (29), Mario Manuel de la Peña (24), and Pablo Morales (29).

Three of these young men were US citizens and the 4th was a legal resident.  

On behalf of their families, I call on the Biden Administration to remember that nothing has changed in Cuba. To my knowledge, the regime has never apologized for the criminal act.

P.S.  You can listen to my show (Canto Talk).

Despite brutal repression and prison, Cuban opposition leader Jose Daniel Ferrer remains determined

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If Cuba will ever be free again, it’ll be because of Cubans like Jose Daniel Ferrer and others who remain determined to fight for freedom despite the brutality and oppression of the socialist Castro dictatorship.

Via Open Democracy:

Prison has not discouraged Cuba’s leading dissident

The human rights activist José Daniel Ferrer says recent protests have left the regime on the back foot.

José Daniel Ferrer is a prominent Cuban dissident and human rights activist, who was one of 75 dissidents imprisoned during a 2003 government crackdown known as the Black Spring. After eight years in prison, he was released in 2011 and has been permanently harassed ever since, spending more than six months in jail in 2020. He is the founder of the Patriotic Union of Cuba (UNPACU), an umbrella organization hosting many Cuban opposition organizations since 2011.

José Zepeda: Has your imprisonment made you reconsider your position on non-violent resistance?

José Daniel Ferrer: The most comfortable thing for the regime would be for us to be the violent ones, for us to be the kind of people they try to portray us as. But, as they know, these are lies, and they have to disfigure our reality to try to justify the repression.

They know that our position is precisely non-violent; it is one of reconciliation, dialogue, and a profound willingness to find solutions to the serious problems they have caused the nation.

So, they are the ones who have to use violence against us. The detainments, assaults, and robberies in our homes, and the blows that have fallen on our wives. Sometimes, even elderly members of our families are beaten in violent raids perpetrated by people without the slightest scruple, accustomed to imposing themselves by force.

These acts show who is who in this struggle. Who is constantly lying, who is violent, seeking reconciliation and a solution to the problems, and wants to keep Cuba as his fiefdom, as his private property at all costs.

JZ: Will the protests that took place in November last?

JDF: One of the questions we asked ourselves following the protests last November is whether this movement could consolidate, continue to grow. And the answer seems to be yes. From 27 November to 27 January, the government did not manage to extinguish this flame completely, as they did in 2003 when we went to prison.

I remember that during the so-called Black Spring of 2003, the vast majority of activists and people around us were so frightened (except for the most committed leaders) when they saw the 20- to 25-year prison sentences and death penalty requests. Many turned away and emigrated immediately. A year later, they were still afraid.

In the case of 27 November, there were growing signs of solidarity and support from ordinary people who saw on Facebook and YouTube what was happening, what the movement was defending.

The regime knows that they have not been able to control the protests, which will continue to grow and strengthen. In the latest arrests, a high-ranking officer told me that he knows that the objective conditions – as they like to use the Marxist-Leninist terms – for change in Cuba are in place, but that the subjective conditions are not, because the people are for something else and not for producing change.

I told him it was inevitable that Cubans will eventually say, “Enough! I want my rights, I want my freedom”.

Continue reading HERE.

Reports from Cuba: In other times . . .

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Yoani Sanchez writes in 14yMedio from Havana via Translating Cuba:

In Other Times…

Luis Robles Elizastigui, detained on December 4 for protesting with a banner on Boulevard San Rafael, in Havana, while citizens on the street tried to come to his rescue.

What are the signs that predict the end of an authoritarian system? What symptoms does a despotic regime show as its decline approaches? These two questions have obsessed me in recent days, in the midst of unprecedented events that have been happening on this Island for weeks. Are they the clear death rattles of a dictatorship or just the rearrangement of a political model that refuses to die?

Protests in front of ministries, officials fighting back with an improvised and defensive discourse, massive solidarity against those stigmatized by official propaganda and an increase in social criticism, which no longer targets only the branches but goes against pillars of the system such as its leaders, its management of history and its management of national resources. Are these the agonies? Has the end already begun?

In other times, the audacity of those who now complain on social networks or outside an institution would have been answered more forcefully. The video clip Patria y vida, which has caused so much bitterness in Cuban officialdom, would have unleashed a fury of concerts in squares and parks throughout the country, to which the Government would bring its most faithful artists, in an endless and expensive show of “revolutionary reaffirmation.”

At the beginning of this century, the so-called Battle of Ideas was just that, a strategy to harness, through the channel of obedience, a society that had been ideologically “slackening” during the hard years of the Special Period. Those constant massive acts and the creation of social workers, red guards who responded directly to power, were some of the strategies used to tighten the political screw.

In the past, for every young person who stood in front of the Ministry of Culture this January, the Plaza of the Revolution would have mobilized another hundred – shouting slogans and waving banners – to  “crush” with numbers the daring ones who demand greater creative freedoms and the end of censorship. The morning assemblies in schools with visceral attacks on these “enemies” and the meetings of militants to start commitments to support the system would have multiplied to the point of paroxysm.

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Colossal Castrophile Gerard Depardieu accused of rape and sexual assault again

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Best friends forever: Murderous tyrants can be very funny, you know….

From our Great Friends of Murderous Tyrants Bureau with some assistance from our Bureau of French Actors Who Drink Fourteen Bottles of Wine per Day

One of Babalu’s favorite French actors is in the news again, this time for being accused of raping a much younger woman in his Paris apartment in 2018.

Depardieu was a great fan and friend of the late Maximum Leader Fidel Castro, and once said their close relationship was anchored in their “common fondness for eating.”

He also had this to say:

“I met him 1992 when I made him pâté,.. He loves to eat also, and is very curious about food… He is a friend and I go hunting with him and with Raúl….They know everything about everything and they are normal people.”

As one might expect from any friend of Fidel, when a socialist French government raised taxes on the rich, Depardieu immediately fled from his native land so his vast wealth could remain in his hands.

Among other great accomplishments, Depardieu has boasted of consuming fourteen bottles of wine per day.

Aaah… the many pleasures of being a wealthy, famous, and leftist bon vivant!

Salut, mon petit chouchou !

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Remembering the murders of Orlando Zapata Tamayo and the Brothers to the Rescue pilots

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We must never forget how Cuba’s Castro dictatorship murdered five innocent people and has yet to face justice for this crime and the countless other crimes against humanity it has committed.

Via the Center for a Free Cuba:

Truth, Justice, Memory and the Brothers to the Rescue shoot down at 25 and Orlando Zapata Tamayo at 11

In Cuba’s recent modern history, February 23, 2010 and February 24, 1996 are two days that run back to back that many remember with great sorrow, although separated by 14 years.

Eleven years ago on February 23, 2010 Cuban prisoner of conscience Orlando Zapata Tamayo died after years of physical and psychological torture that began in 2003 that drove him to repeatedly protest prison conditions and beginning on December 3, 2009 to undertake a water only hunger strike that ended in his death. Aggravating this already extreme situation, was that prison officials repeatedly denied him water in an effort to get him to end the strike. Amnesty International condemned the death at the time and urged Raúl Castro “to immediately and unconditionally release all prisoners of conscience after a political activist died following a hunger strike.” Eleven years later and the prisoners of conscience are still there, and the International Red Cross has not had access to Cuban prisons, save for one brief period over 30 years ago in 1989.

25 years ago on February 24, 1996 a Cuban MiG-29UB Fulcrum and a MiG-23ML intercepted three US civilian registered Cessna 337s (N2456S, N5485S and N2506), operated by the Brothers to the Rescue while they were engaged on a humanitarian search and rescue mission over the Florida Straits for Cuban rafters in international airspace.

At 3:21pm EST the Brothers to the Rescue Cessna 337 (N2456S) was destroyed by an air-to-air missile fired by the Cuban MiG-29 military aircraft.

At 3:27pm EST the Brothers to the Rescue Cessna 337 (N5485S) was destroyed by an air-to-air missile fired by a Cuban MiG-29 military aircraft.

Immediately killed were Armando Alejandre Jr.,45 years old, Carlos Alberto Costa, age 29, Mario Manuel de la Peña, age 24, and Pablo Morales, age 29. This was a premeditated act of state terrorism carried out by Havana on the orders of both Fidel and Raul Castro.

The third Brothers to the Rescue Cessna 337 (N2506) was able to escape and the survivors Jose Basulto, Arnaldo Iglesias, Silvia Iriondo and Andres Iriondo were able to set the record straight on the propaganda offensive already underway from Havana to misrepresent what had happened.

These are two of the many crimes committed by the Castro regime over the past 62 years, but these two reverberated internationally due to more fluid communications at the time, families willing to speak out, and in the case of Brothers to the Rescue, survivors to set the facts straight.

Continue reading HERE.

Biden HHS nominee Xavier Becerra met with Fidel Castro in 1997, refused to call for free elections in Cuba

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They called us crazy for thinking a Biden administration would bring in supporters and defenders of Cuba’s socialist dictatorship. Victims of disinformation, they said. Seems we’re not all that crazy or misinformed.

Via Fox News:

Becerra in 1997 refused to call for free elections in Cuba

California Attorney General Xavier Becerra as a congressman in 1997 refused to call for free elections following a meeting with Cuban dictator Fidel Castro, and he voted ten years later to end a trade embargo with the communist dictatorship.

Becerra, President Biden’s choice to head the Health and Human Services Department, clashed with Cuban-Americans in the House Hispanic caucus after, as chairman of the group, he traveled to the island to meet with Castro.

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Reps. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and Lincoln Diaz-Balart, Republicans from South Florida, said in 1997 that they were “personally insulted” by the then-congressman’s four-day trip to the island nation. They resigned from the caucus, which then had no Republican members left.

Diaz-Balart said that he would not contribute membership dues to the caucus until Becerra “demonstrates minimal respect for the rights of Cubans to be free and calls for free elections for that oppressed island,” according to the Los Angeles Times.

Becerra later said he could not issue a call for free and fair elections.

“This is an issue that the caucus doesn’t take positions on,” he said, so he could not make a statement, according to The Hill.

Aides to Becerra brushed off criticisms at the time, saying he had attempted to hear from all sides and had spoken to both Cuban dissidents and Castro himself. 

Becerra later defended the trip, telling NPR: “As an American citizen who has had the privilege now of being elected to Congress … I should be as educated as I can be on a number of issues.

Continue reading HERE.

The 25th anniversary of the Cuban dictatorship’s shoot down of Brothers to the Rescue civilian airplanes

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On February 24, 1996, three American civilian planes were flying over the Florida Straits in international airspace on a humanitarian mission. The flights were carried out by the Brothers to the Rescue organization on a mission to find and provide aid to Cubans who escaped the island prison of Cuba on rafts and flimsy vessels. In those days, thousands of Cubans were throwing themselves into shark-infested waters in a desperate attempt to reach freedom and escape tyranny.

On that day, the murderous Castro dictatorship in Cuba decided it was time to send a message. Acting on intelligence provided by its spies in the U.S., Fidel and Raul Castro scrambled MiGs to intercept the unarmed civilian aircraft. In what became one of the most heinous acts of cowardly terrorism in modern history, Raul Castro himself gave the order to shoot down the defenseless airplanes and murder four Americans.

The video below is a recording of the disturbing, gut-wrenching, and infuriating radio calls made by the cowardly Cuban MiG pilots who cursed and screamed with glee over shooting down defenseless civilian airplanes and murdering the pilots:

As for the Cuban spies who provided the Castro regime with the intelligence to carry out this act of international terrorism, they were eventually captured, convicted, and sentenced to long prison terms for their acts of espionage and conspiracy to commit murder. Unfortunately, on December 17, 2014, President Obama traded them back to the Castro dictatorship in exchange for absolutely nothing. To add insult to injury, a movie was released in 2019 painting these terrorists as heroes and the humanitarian pilots as the villains.

Requiescat in pace, Armando, Mario, Carlos, and Pablo. Your courage and sacrifice will never be forgotten.

Read the facts behinds this solemn anniversary at Notes from the Cuban Exile Quarter.

From Coke to Woke

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Well, let me show my age by recalling that famous Coca-Cola ad about the “pause that refreshes.”  I guess it’s been around since 1929, so my parents probably remember it, too.  I recall that they had a Spanish version of that slogan called “la chispa de la vida,” or the spark of life.

Coca-Cola’s employee training is gone woke these days, according to news reports:

The images show a section of the training titled “Confronting Racism. Understanding what it means to be white. Challenging what it means to be racist.”

The training then moves to a slide with instructions on how employees can “be less white.”

“Be less oppressive, be less arrogant, be less certain, be less defensive, be less ignorant, be more humble, listen, believe, break with apathy, break with white solidarity” are listed as ways to become less white.

The training then claims that this effort to be less white has to start early, as children as young as three are already taught that their white race makes them inherently superior.

“In the U.S. and other Western nations, white people are socialized to feel that they are inherently superior because they are white,” the slide reads. “Research shows that by age 3 to 4, children understand that it is better to be white.”

“Try to be less white,” the training concludes.

How does a person act “less white”?  What in the world does that mean?  How do we come together by focusing so much on skin color rather than the product we make and sell?  Are we paying the price for filling our H.R. departments with social justice warriors?

The country will get more and more divided and angry.  As for me, “Diet Dr. Pepper,” based in Waco, Texas, tastes a lot better all of a sudden.

PS: You can listen to my show (Canto Talk).

Santeria: African religion persecuted by Cuba’s racist and repressive socialist dictatorship

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Victims of socialist racism

From our Bureau of Socialist Tolerance and Social Justice, with some assistance from our Enlightened Leftist Racism Desk

Never let it be said that Castro, Inc. has ever failed to be an equal opportunity repressor.

Every religion in Castrogonia is persecuted in various ways. Belief in any higher beings threatens Castro, Inc.’s monopoly on thinking, being, and acting. In other words, gods are not allowed.

And, as it turns out, Santería, the religion bequeathed to Cuba by its enslaved African workers, is as vulnerable as any other religion.

So, is the persecution of Santeria an expression of racism? You betcha. Has any leftist, anywhere, complained about this racism or tried to help Santeros (Free Yorubas) in Castrogonia? Dream on.

Cuban Black lives don;t matter. But don’t expect anyone with a Black Lives Matter sign on their lawn to admit it.

From globallibertyalliance.org

Members of the Association of Free Yorubas of Cuba (Asociación de Yorubas Libres de Cuba, or “Free Yorubas”) are regular victims of harassment by Cuban State Security.

?The association was founded in 2012 by Yorubas who disagreed with the Yoruba Cultural Association of Cuba, which is controlled by the government watchdog Office of Religious Affairs (ORA). Free Yorubas have been subject to arbitrary detentions and beatings, destruction of ceremonial objects, police monitoring, and searches-and-seizures without probable cause. State hostility towards the Free Yorubas seems to have escalated since early February 2020, when they challenged Ms. Caridad Diego, head of the ORA, to a public debate on freedom of conscience.

Free Yorubas Public Relations head Ms. Eliaisys Almeida Pavón was detained in Placetas, Villa Clara, on February 24. Executive Secretary and Vice President and married couple Ms. Donaida Pérez Paseiro and Mr. Loreto Hernández García were detained and threatened on March 11. Ms. Pérez alleges in her statement, the officials mocked all faiths, professing that “there is only one god, Fidel Castro,” and stating an obscenity about God, the saints, and orishas. On August 3, three members of the Free Yorubas were separately summoned to the Placetas, Villa Clara police station and threatened. On September 30, two Free Yorubas leaders were held overnight and beaten; one of the women left police custody with a broken arm.

The regime regularly uses police citations to harass and intimidate Free Yorubas and other believers independent of the state. The Global Liberty Alliance continues to monitor the Cuban regime’s treatment of the Free Yorubas and will fight for their freedom of belief.