Once again we say not in our name: Response to Biden Administration's new policy on Cuba.

The State Department announced on May 16, 2022 a new Cuba policy they claim are "new measures to support the Cuban people." The opening and closing statements pay lip service to human rights, and mention political prisoners, but the meat of the policy is a rehash of the Obama policy.

This is not a surprise. When high ranking Biden Administration officials went to Caracas in early March 2022, it was understood that when they went to Cubazuela, they would meet with both Maduro and his Cuban handlers. At the time this trip do criticism in the press, because analysts recognized that it legitimized Maduro and sidelined Guaido.

This followed up by the "migration talks" a little over a month later between a U.S. interagency delegation led by Emily Mendrala, the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Western Hemisphere Affairs, and the Cuban dictatorship’s delegation led by Vice Foreign Minister Carlos Fernandez de Cossio. This did not inspire much confidence in the Cuban diaspora. 

President Biden, early on in his 2020 campaign, indicated that he would return to the Obama Cuba policy, and when the announcement came, the advocates for the old policy heralded its return. Early news was that for the first time since 1960 - the United States would permit financing and investing in a "Cuban private enterprise."

Will U.S. taxpayers be left on the hook if the investment fails? This has happened to their European counterparts.

The Chamber of Commerce maybe happy with this turn of events, but how does that help Cuban political prisoners or end the internal blockade erected by the Castro brothers that keeps Cubans in misery?

Hanging over all of this is the new penal code in Cuba that the Castro dictatorship approved that further clamps down on independent journalists and human rights defenders with "penalties of 10 to 30 years," and "in extreme cases, even death" for giving "information to international organizations, associations, or even people who have not been authorized by the government." 

This is why once again we say not in our name.

Our recommendation to Cuban friends of freedom is to join the Cuban Freedom March on May 21, 2021 in New York City. A new generation of young activists are speaking truth to power, and deserve all our support.

Tragic consequences of believing communist propaganda

Don't buy into communist lies.

 
Over the past couple of months there has been a debate over Senator Bernie Sanders statements on "achievements" of the Castro regime in Cuba in education and healthcare. The Sanders campaign, and their apologists, responded to criticisms by pointing out that President Obama had repeated many of the same claims.

Both Senator Sanders and President Obama were repeating Cuban communist propaganda that does not accord with reality. Sanders also doubled down citing how China had lifted more people out of poverty than any other country. This is Chinese communist propaganda, and ignores the tens of millions killed and starved by the regime.

However, they are not the only ones who have fallen for communist propaganda. Adam Serwer, of The Atlantic wrote in the article, "China’s Coronavirus Disinformation Ensnared Its Chief Target" of how President Trump believed the Chinese communist propaganda and disinformation relayed by China’s President Xi Jingping, ignoring US intelligence's assessment that they were covering up the true scale of the outbreak.

Administration officials directly warned Trump of the danger posed by the virus, but “Trump’s insistence on the contrary seemed to rest in his relationship with China’s President Xi Jingping, whom Trump believed was providing him with reliable information about how the virus was spreading in China,” The Washington Post reported, “despite reports from intelligence agencies that Chinese officials were not being candid about the true scale of the crisis.”

Taiwan and South Korea, both who never fell for the Chinese communist lies, responded quickly in late December 2019 and were able to effectively contain the spread of the Wuhan virus, and avoided to have to lock down their societies. Europe and the United States restricted flights from China later than the two Asian countries, and now face both a humanitarian and economic disaster. Taiwan and South Korea performed more extensive screening and testing of persons arriving setting up an effective quarantine. The United States had not done that.

However, there is another area of great concern and that is travel from Cuba to the United States is not being screened. Cuba has repeatedly covered up epidemics (dengue, cholera, and zika) endangering many, but continues to get a free pass in the press as a "medical super power" with positive press. At the same time the media ignores that while the Wuhan Virus spread across Cuba, the Castro regime was claiming, as recently as last week, that the virus was killed by sun and tropical temperatures advertising in European social media in countries that were being impacted.

How many tourists took the Castro regime up on its tourism invitation? What does that mean for Cubans" What does it mean for the tourists who are sick in a country without enough soap and toiletries for Cuban nationals, much less respirators? (Another bit of communist propaganda is that the embargo is the reason for food and medicine shortages, but the US does not restrict agricultural or medical products). Below is a partial list of eligible items form the Treasury Department.

Eligible   items. For   all   destinations, eligible   items   are   food   (including   vitamins); medicines,    medical    supplies    and    devices (including  hospital  supplies  and  equipment  and equipment  for  the  handicapped);  receive-only radio equipment for reception of commercial/civil    AM/FM    and    short    wave publicly available frequency bands, and batteries for  such  equipment;  clothing;  personal  hygiene items;  seeds;  veterinary  medicines  and  supplies; fishing  equipment  and  supplies;  soap-making equipment;

What does it mean for the United States when flights are arriving from Cuba on a daily basis and their are still question about passengers being suitably screened?

Is this one of the reasons that South Florida is a coronavirus hot spot?

There are tragic consequences to believing communist propaganda, and we are suffering through them today with this pandemic.

Obama era witch-hunt against Hispanic New Jersey Senator who dissented over Iran, Cuba policies ends

Politically motivated witch-hunt by Obama Administration against Democrat Senator who opposed him on Cuba and Iran policy ends. 

Senator Robert Menendez of New Jersey vindicated

On July 31, 2018 the U.S. Justice Department dropped its case against Senator Robert Menendez bringing to an end a four year long witch-hunt following a mistrial back in November 2017.

From the very beginning, I never wavered in my innocence and my belief that justice would prevail. I am grateful that the Department of Justice has taken the time to reevaluate its case and come to the appropriate conclusion.

— Senator Bob Menendez (@SenatorMenendez) January 31, 2018

Democrats talk a lot about Russian strongman Vladimir Putin ordering the hacking of the 2016 elections, but are very quiet about Cuba's Castro dictatorship smearing a sitting Cuban American Democratic Senator in order to sideline him from taking part in the policy debate on Cuba in early 2014 as the leading Democrat in the Senate Foreign Relation Committee. 

Despite the Central Intelligence Agency having credible evidence that the Castro regime's intelligence service was behind the smear the Obama Justice Department refused to pursue that line of investigation, even "though those allegations [against Senator Menendez] didn't pan out."

The alleged Cuba connection was laid out in an intelligence report provided last year to U.S. government officials and sent by secure cable to the FBI’s counterintelligence division, according to the former official and a second person with close ties to Menendez who had been briefed on the matter. The intelligence information indicated that operatives from Cuba’s Directorate of Intelligence helped create a fake tipster using the name “Pete Williams,” according to the former official.

These facts were inconvenient to the Obama's Administration, then secret drive, to normalize relations with the Castro regime which became public on December 17, 2014.

Three and a half years later the new U.S. - Cuba policy of the Obama Administration has yielded negative results with the Castro regime legitimized and strengthened internationally, causing more harm in Latin America generally, and in Venezuela particularly. Two dozen American diplomats have been seriously harmed in Havana and the embassy shuttered.

Senator Menendez is a profile in courage who confronted the leader of his own party, on what he knew to be great errors in policy in Iran and Cuba that harmed the people of those two countries nd undermined U.S. national interests.

This is in stark contrast to Senator Jeff Flake of Arizona, who has spent a long career as an apologist for dictatorships, even when it endangered American lives.''

One year ago today the Obama Administration closed the door to Cuban trafficking victims

Setting the record straight

Closing the door on Cuban victims of human trafficking.

 Florida Keys News reported on December 22, 2017 that "[f]or the second time in three months, Cuban migrants made landfall in the Florida Keys this week." This blog also documented Cubans trying to reach the United States in May of 2017. According to Elena Toledo writing in the PanAm Post 15,135 Cubans were declared “inadmissible” in the United States in 2017 and 14,037 Cubans were rejected from entering through Laredo, Texas alone. According to the Miami Herald, 15,410 Cubans entered the United States in fiscal year 2017.

These draconian measures are the result of an order issued by the Obama Administration one year ago today. The Office of the Press Secretary at The White House on January 12, 2017 released a "Statement by the President on Cuban Immigration Policy" that did two concrete things: further restricted the Cuban Adjustment Act and ended the Cuban Medical Professional Parole Program.

President Obama ended programs protecting Cubans to placate Castro

The Obama administration secretly negotiated with the Castro regime, and did not consult with Congress, in restricting the Cuban Adjustment Act which is US law. This is the second time that it has happened. From 1966 until 1995 The Cuban Adjustment meant that if a Cuban touched US territorial waters the Coast Guard would pick them up and take them to shore and they would obtain residency. Bill Clinton in 1995 reinterpreted the law to mean that Cubans had to touch land (dry feet) or be deported if caught in the water (wet feet). Now Obama has re-interpreted the law a step further saying that he will deport all Cubans who arrive in the US without a visa. This is a narrower interpretation of the law by the Executive branch without consulting with Congress.

President Barack Obama on January 12, 2017 also shut the door on Cuban medical doctors, in third countries, victims of trafficking. Months earlier the Obama Administration  politicized the Trafficking in Persons Report of the State Department, undermining its credibility. This was done by the White House to placate long standing demands of the Castro regime and to whitewash the dictatorship's terrible record on human trafficking. Consider the following:

In 2006 the case of Cuban workers forced to work 112 hours a week for 3 cents an hour in Curaçao made the news. Workers had been unpaid; their compensation was deducted from Cuba’s debt to the Curaçao Drydock Company.

In 2008 The Miami Herald reported that "more than 31,000 Cuban health workers -- most of them doctors -- who toil in 71 countries brought in $2.3 billion last year, ..., more than any other industry, including tourism."

Medical doctors trafficked for the profit of the Castro regime.

The Obama State Department's last TIP report (2016) despite trying to minimize the Cuban governments involvement in human trafficking affirmed that "Cuba is a source and destination country for adults and children subjected to sex trafficking and forced labor. Child sex trafficking and child sex tourism occur within Cuba." Furthermore reported on how the Castro regime "uses some high school students in rural areas to harvest crops and does not pay them for their work but claims this work is not coerced."

Not mentioned in either the 2015 or 2016 TIP reports are the killings of fleeing refugees in December of 2014 and April of 2015. On December 16, 2014 the Cuban coastguard ram and sank a boat with 32 refugees, one of them, Diosbel Díaz Bioto, was killed. Yuriniesky Martínez Reina (age 28) was shot in the back and killed by state security chief Miguel Angel Río Seco Rodríguez in the Martí municipality of Matanzas, Cuba on April 9, 2015 for peacefully trying to leave Cuba. A group of young men were building a boat near Menéndez beach to flee the island, when they were spotted trying to leave and were shot at.

Yuriniesky Martínez Reina shot and killed on April 9, 2015

Kimberly A. McCabe in her book "The Trafficking of Persons: National and International Responses" wrote the following on Cuba and human trafficking:

"Cuba is a source country for women and children trafficked for sexual exploitation and forced child labor and has been identified as a destination for sex tourism. Cuban adults and children are also trafficked for forced labor in commercial agriculture, such as tobacco farming. There are also reported cases of Cubans being trafficked to the United States for debt bondage. Cuba's thriving sex trade caters to thousands of tourists every year from Europe, Latin America, and North America and involves not only the young boys and girls who are victims of abuse but also the state-run hotel workers, cab drivers, and police officers who may identify the commercial sex areas for those interested in participating in sexual exploitation. 

Months after the door was closed to Cuban doctors in third countries, to placate the Castro regime, The New York Times in a September 29, 2017 article titled "Cuban Doctors Revolt: ‘You Get Tired of Being a Slave’" exposed the Castro regime's trafficking in medical professionals.

"In a rare act of collective defiance, scores of Cuban doctors working overseas to make money for their families and their country are suing to break ranks with the Cuban government, demanding to be released from what one judge called a “form of slave labor.” Thousands of Cuban doctors work abroad under contracts with the Cuban authorities. Countries like Brazil pay the island’s Communist government millions of dollars every month to provide the medical services, effectively making the doctors Cuba’s most valuable export."

Closing the door on thousands of Cuban medical doctors and dooming them to be exploited by a military dictatorship so that regime elites can cash in on billions of dollars was a decision taken by the outgoing Obama Administration on January 12, 2017. It is important to remember and observe this lamentable statement by President Obama on Cuban migration one year later.

FCF co-founder addresses attack on U.S. diplomats in Cuba in The Miami Herald

 "The types of injuries suffered by diplomats since November 2016 are new but Cuba’s outlaw behavior towards them is not." - John Suarez

Letter to the Editor published today in the Miami Herald on page 16A

CUBA LIES

The Miami Herald’s September 19, 2017 editorial “Unless Cuba comes clean about the embassy attacks on U.S. diplomats, it will put renewed ties at risk” offers an overview of the “strange case” of American diplomats and their dependents harmed in Cuba.

But three points should be considered.

First, Raul Castro lies, and there are two recent examples. Castro on March 21, 2016 in the joint press conference with President Obama said that there were no political prisoners in Cuba, and if any were identified they would be released immediately.  A list of current Cuban political prisoners was provided, but they were not freed. In July 2013, Cuban officials were caught trying to smuggle war planes, missiles and technology related to ballistic missile programs hidden under 220,000 bags of sugar to North Korea and lied about it. This was in violation of U.N. sanctions.

Second, Obama did not achieve an end to the Cold War with Cuba. On Jan. 2, 2017 Cuban troops marched in a parade over which Castro presided chanting that they would repeatedly shoot the first African American President in the head so many times that they would make a “hat of lead to the head.” Considering that American diplomats in Havana were already suffering brain trauma since November 2016 perhaps this should be looked at in a new light.

Third, the statement by the Cuban embassy in Washington on September 19, 2017 that "Cuba strictly observes its obligations to protect foreign diplomats on its soil" is not true. There is a decades old pattern of hostility. 

The types of injuries suffered by diplomats since November 2016 are new but Cuba’s outlaw behavior towards them is not.

- John Suarez

 Coordinator

 Free Cuba Foundation

 Miami

http://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/letters-to-the-editor/article174764336.html

Silent Vigil for Justice at FIU on February 24th for Brothers to the Rescue shootdown martyrs

"To forget the victims means to kill them a second time. So I couldn't prevent the first death. I surely must be capable of saving them from a second death." -  Elie Wiesel

What:   Vigil for BTTR shoot down victims 

When:  Gather Friday, February 24, 2017 @ 3pm Vigil starts 3:21pm

Where: Main Fountain

             Florida International University 

             11200 South West 8th Street Miami, FL 

Vigil hosted by the Free Cuba Foundation at the main fountain at Florida International University between 3:21pm and 3:27pm the times that two Brothers to the Rescue planes were destroyed by air-to-air missiles fired by Cuban MiGs as they flew through international airspace searching for rafters. 

Family members and friends of Carlos Costa, Pablo Morales, Mario De La Peña and Armando Alejandre Jr. will be in attendance. This event is for FIU students and members of the FIU Community and has been held annually since 1996. 

Fact Sheet on Brothers to the Rescue Shootdown

February 24, 1996 shoot down was an act of state terrorism that blew two civilian aircraft out of the sky with air to air missiles while in international airspace after regime planned the act months beforehand with its espionage network in the United States.

 FACT 1: By definition: Terrorism is the calculated use of violence (or the threat of violence) against civilians in order to attain goals that are political or religious or ideological in nature; this is done through intimidation or coercion or instilling fear)
http://wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn?s=terrorism  


FACT 2: Cuba is responsible for violating the right to life (Article I of the American Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Man) to the detriment of Carlos Costa, Pablo Morales, Mario De La Peña, and Armando Alejandre, who died as a result of the direct actions of its agents on the afternoon of 24 February 1996 while flying through international airspace.

Inter-American Commission on Human Rights September 29, 1999 Report on the Merits http://www.cidh.org/annualrep/99eng/Merits/Cuba11.589.htm 

FACT 3: Cuba is responsible for violating the right to a fair trial (Article XVIII of the American Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Man) to the detriment of the relatives of Carlos Costa, Pablo Morales, Mario De La Peña, and Armando Alejandre, in that to date the Cuban authorities have not conducted an exhaustive investigation with a view toward prosecuting and punishing the perpetrators and have not indemnified those same relatives for the damage they suffered as a result of those illicit acts.

Inter-American Commission on Human Rights September 29, 1999 Report on the Meritshttp://www.cidh.org/annualrep/99eng/Merits/Cuba11.589.htm 

FACT 4: In Alejandre v. Republic of Cuba, 996 F.Supp. 1239 (S.D.Fla. 1997), a federal district court awarded the families of three of the four occupants of the “ Brothers to the Rescue” planes shot down by Cuba in 1996 a total of $187.7 million in damages against Cuba.

Lawsuits Against State Supporters of Terrorism: An Overview by Jennifer K. Elseahttp://www.law.umaryland.edu/marshall/crsreports/crsdocuments/RS22094_06232005.pdf 

FACT 5: WASP spy network was involved. One of the “illegal officers” (Gerardo Hernandez) was convicted of conspiracy to commit first-degree murder based on his role in the February 24, 1996, shoot-down of two unarmed civilian aircraft in international airspace by Cuban Air Force jet fighters, which resulted in the deaths of four people, three of them U.S. citizens.

Department of Justice on Obama Commutations 
http://www.justice.gov/pardon/obama-commutations#dec152014 

FACT 6: Brothers to the Rescue had spotted and saved thousands of rafters in the Florida Straits and was engaged in such a mission on that day. The one plane that skirted the boundary briefly was the only one to return. The other two were shotdown miles away from Cuba’s boundary having never entered or touched it on that day and the planes had been in contact with the Cuban tower throughout the flight.

ICAO Resolution on February 24 shootdown http://www.unhcr.org/refworld/country,,UNSC,,CUB,4562d94e2,3b00f1522b,0.html 

FACT 7: On July 26, 1996 the United Nations Security Council: "Noting that the unlawful downing of two civil aircraft on 24 February by the Cuban Air Force violated the principle that States must refrain from using weapons against airborne civil aircraft, the Security Council this afternoon condemned such use as being incompatible with the rules of customary international law "

ICAO Resolution on February 24 shootdown 
http://www.unhcr.org/refworld/country,,UNSC,,CUB,4562d94e2,3b00f1522b,0.html

FACT 8: Ana Belen Montes, the US intelligence community's top analyst on Cuban affairs had throughout a sixteen-year career at the Defense Intelligence Agency sent the Cuba intelligence service sensitive and secret information and helped to shape US opinion on Cuba. Investigation against her was triggered by her odd behavior before and after the Brothers to the Rescue shoot down. On September 21 2001 Ana Belen Montes was arrested and subsequently charged with Conspiracy to Commit Espionage for the government of Cuba. Montes eventually pleaded guilty to spying, and in October, 2002, she was sentenced to a 25-year prison term followed by 5 years of probation.

True Believer: Inside the Investigation and Capture of Ana Montes, Cuba's Master Spy http://www.amazon.com/True-Believer-Inside-Investigation-Capture/dp/1591141001 

FACT 9: On December 27, 2010 and again in a January 19, 2011 clarification the defense of Cuban spy-master Gerardo Hernandez acknowledged that "there was overwhelming evidence that the 1996 shoot-down of two Brothers to the Rescue planes occurred in international airspace, not Cuban territory."

The Miami Herald: Cuban spymaster now claims Brothers to the Rescue shooting was outside Cuban airspace by Jay Weaver December 27, 2010

FACT 10: On December 17, 2014 President Barack Obama commuted Gerardo Hernandez’s two life sentences and returned him along with two other spies jailed for crimes in the United States to Cuba where they were received with a hero’s welcome in what is an immense propaganda victory for the Castro regime.

Department of Justice on Obama Commutations 
http://www.justice.gov/pardon/obama-commutations#dec152014 

A time for choosing for a free Cuba

Don't mourn, organize!

Time to mobilize and make ourselves heard

In ten days the President of the United States will be hosted by dictator Raul Castro when he visits Cuba. This will serve as "a capstone" for President Obama's Cuba policy that since 2009 has extended a hand of friendship to the Castro regime while simultaneously withdrawing it from the Cuban democratic opposition.

We have two options mourn this betrayal of American values or identify other young Cubans who agree with us and mobilize with public protests to demonstrate our displeasure while at the same time highlighting the plight of Cubans on the island and the need to support human rights and the democratic opposition there.

Free Cuba Foundation has taken the lead in protesting the Obama administration's policy and Hillary Clinton's vow to lift the embargo and continue down the same path.

Therefore, as a member organization in the Assembly of the Cuban Resistance coalition, we call on people of good will to join us on Sunday March 20, 2016 at 11:00am to show our solidarity with Cubans struggling for freedom in Cuba. 

What: March in Support of Cuban Civil Society

When: March 20, 2016 at 11:00am
Where: Intersection of SW 13th Avenue and SW 8th Street
Gathering at the Brigade 2506 Monument and walking to the Casa del Preso Político cubano

Cuban Espionage in the US: The WASP network

The murderous effectiveness of the Castro spy apparatus among us

 On Thursday, October 15 lecture on “Cuban Espionage in the U.S.: The W.A.S.P. network” was held in FIU’s Rafael Diaz-Balart College of Law building (Hall Room #1009) and started at 12 noon with Sebastian Arcos Cazabon, of the Cuban Research Institute; Hector M. Pesquera, FBI agent, Miami Field Office who investigated the WASP network; and David M. Buckner, who prosecuted them in U.S. v. Gerardo Hernandez, et al. Below are excerpts from the presentations and provide new insights into this deadly Cuban spy network that conspired to murder American citizens o U.S. soil and international airspace. The plan to terrorize and mail bomb an alleged CIA agent in Florida did not materialize. However the shoot down of two civilian planes in international airspace on February 24, 1996 did claim four innocent lives. Unfortunately, President Barack Obama commuted the sentences of the men responsible for this setting them free on December 17, 2014.

 

Free Cubans Protest Failed Obama-Kerry Cuba Policy

Standing up for freedom

The Free Cuba Foundation protested the Obama administration’s failed Cuba policy on Friday, August 14, 2015 starting at 6:00pm on the sidewalk in front of La Carreta Restaurant located on 8650 Bird Rd along with members of the South Florida community.

We conducted a burma shave style protest using a series of signs to get our message across along with the images of some of the Cuban and Venezuelan victims killed by the Castro regime on Obama's watch. The above animated GIF recreates it. The protest ended with a silent prayer vigil for victims of Castroism and for a free Cuba that was followed by members of the community singing the Cuban national anthem.

The Free Cuba Foundation is a student movement founded at Florida International University in 1993 that since 2009 has been a member of the Assembly of the Resistance, a coalition of more than 50 organizations inside and outside of Cuba.

Stand up and be counted: Protest failed Cuba policy

Stand up for human rights and a free Cuba.

 Free Cubans Will Protest Failed Obama-Kerry Cuba Policy

The Free Cuba Foundation will protest the Obama administration’s failed Cuba policy on Friday, August 14, 2015 at 6:00pm on the sidewalk in front of La Carreta Restaurant located on 8650 Bird Rd and invites the South Florida community to join us.

We will be conducting a burma shave style protest using a series of signs to get out our message. Protest will end with a silent prayer vigil for victims of Castroism and for a free Cuba.

The Free Cuba Foundation is a student movement founded at Florida International University in 1993 that since 2009 has been a member of the Assembly of the Resistance, a coalition of more than 50 organizations inside and outside of Cuba.

When: August 14, 2015 at 6:00pm
Where: Sidewalk in from of La Carreta Restaurant (8650 SW 40th Street Miami, FL)
Why: To protest failed Obama-Kerry Cuba policy 

Take six minutes to denounce state terrorism on February 24th

Take part in Cuba's national reconciliation

On September 29, 1999 the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights released a report on the merits concerning the Brothers  to the Rescue shoot down. The report begins as follows:  

"On 25 February 1996, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (hereinafter “the Commission” or “the Inter-American Commission”) received several complaints brought against the Republic of Cuba (hereinafter “the State,” “the Cuban State,” or “Cuba”) according to which a MiG-29 military aircraft belonging to the Cuban Air Force (FAC) downed two unarmed civilian light airplanes belonging to the organization “Brothers to the Rescue.”^[1] According to a report issued by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), the incidents occurred on 24 February 1996 at 3:21 p.m. and 3:27 p.m., respectively, in international airspace. The air-to-air missiles fired by the MiG-29 destroyed the civilian light aircraft, immediately killing Armando Alejandre Jr. (45 years old), Carlos Alberto Costa (29), Mario Manuel de la Peña (24), and Pablo Morales (29). The complaint concludes with the Commission being requested to begin proceedings in accordance with Articles 32 et seq. of its Regulations and to declare Cuba responsible for failing to comply with its international obligations contained in the American Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Man (hereinafter “the Declaration” or “the American Declaration”) for violating the right to life and the right to a fair trial as set forth in Articles I and XVIII of said international instrument."

International human rights bodies and courts have concluded that the attack was a premeditated extrajudicial execution that claimed four lives. Until December 15, 2014 when President Barack Obama commuted his sentence and returned him to Cuba two days later, Gerardo Hernandez, was the only person who had been charged, convicted in a court of law, and was serving a life sentence:

1) Radio communications between the MiG29 and the military base clearly show that the fighter planes were sent out before the Brothers to the Rescue aircraft arrived at the 24th parallel level, that they were searching for a specific target, and that they even decided not to attempt any warning maneuvers to make the shoot down easier for the Cuban MiG pilots. 

2) The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights’ conclusion stated the following: “From the circumstances surrounding the events of 24 February 1996, from the disproportionate and indiscriminate use of lethal force applied to the civilian aircraft, from the intensity of that force, and from the way in which the authorities at the Havana military control tower congratulated the MiG-29 pilots after they had carried out their orders, the Commission finds sufficient evidence that Carlos Costa, Pablo Morales, Mario De La Peña, and Armando Alejandre were arbitrarily or extrajudicially executed at the hands of agents of the Cuban State. Consequently, the Cuban State is responsible for violating the right to life, as enshrined in Article I of the American Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Man.”

3) U.S. courts have also found the Castro regime guilty of premeditation in this shoot down:

A.) U.S. District Judge James Lawrence King found the Castro regime guilty in civil court of planning the shoot down before the actual attack, and noted that there had been ample time to issue warnings to the Brothers to the Rescue aircraft if these had been needed. B.) A jury in criminal court presided by U.S. District Judge Joan Lenard found Miami-based Cuban spy Gerardo Hernandez guilty of conspiracy to commit murder because of his role in providing information to the Cuban government on the flight plans of Brothers to the Rescue. C.) On August 21, 2003 a U.S. grand jury indicted the two fighter pilots and their commanding general on murder charges for the 1996 shoot down.

4) A Cuban pilot saw Cuban MiGs rehearsing the shoot down six days before.

General Ruben Martinez Puente, Francisco Perez-Perez, Lorenzo Alberto Perez Perez who were indicted on four counts of murder, two counts of destruction of aircraft and one count of conspiracy to kill U.S. nationals in August of 2003 and Juan Pablo Roque indicted in May 1999 as a foreign agent (although he also played a role in the shoot down) have yet to be pursued to the full extent of the law.

The silent vigil held on February 24th every year is a call to remembers the facts in the service of truth while demanding justice. Truth, memory and justice are necessary elements for a real and lasting national reconciliation. 

Join the hundreds of Florida International University students who since 1996 have stood up for national reconciliation in Cuba by demanding truth and justice in the Brothers to the Rescue shoot down.

Open letter to Congress opposes Obama's new Cuba policy

Former Diplomats, University Professors, Representatives of Cuba’s Democratic Opposition on the Island and in Exile, and Former Corporate Leaders Write to Congress on President Obama’s New Cuba Policy.

Fifty-eight former diplomats, university professors, leaders of Cuba's democratic opposition on the island and in exile, and former corporate leaders wrote an open letter to Congress objecting to President Obama's efforts to remove the Castros’ regime from the State Department list of governments supportive of terrorism.

The letter: “The New Cuba Policy: Breakthrough or Bailout?,” was distributed on Capitol Hill today and says that “increasing U.S. travel to Cuba under the Castro-manipulated people-to-people program will benefit the military which owns all of Cuba’s hotels and tourist infrastructure.”

Among those signing the appeal to Congress are Paula Dobriansky, former Undersecretary of State for Democracy and Global Affairs, James Cason, former U.S. Ambassador to Paraguay and former Chief of Mission at the U.S. Interests Section in Havana, Cuba, Ambassador Phillip Hughes, former Executive Secretary, National Security Council and former U.S. Ambassador to the Eastern Caribbean, Everett Ellis Briggs, former U.S. Ambassador to Honduras, Panama, and Portugal and former President of the Council of the Americas and Americas Society, and former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton.

“Removing Cuba from the list of terrorist states will reward the Castro regime for smuggling 240 tons of heavy weapons to North Korea, training and equipping Venezuela’s repressive forces, offering Russia’s Putin an espionage listening post in Cuba, and harboring dozens of fugitive terrorists and criminals, including one of the FBI’s Top Ten Most Wanted Terrorists, Assata Shakur,” they said. They added that “Cuba is the only “state-sponsored of terrorism” nation to openly harbor a fugitive on the most-wanted terrorist list.”

The corporate community was represented by: Emilio Alvarez-Recio, former Vicepresident Worldwide Advertising of Colgate-Palmolive, Néstor T. Carbonell, former Vicepresident for International Government Affairs of Pepsico, Ruben Rodriguez-Wallin, former Chairman and CEO of Bacardi, and Alberto Luzarraga, former Chairman of Continental Bank International.

Also signing were Michael Gonzalez, Senior Fellow, The Heritage Foundation, former U.S. Senator Mel Martinez, Robert O’Brien, Treasurer, Center for a Free Cuba, and José Sorzano, former Deputy U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations.

Two of the signatories: Miriam and Mario de la Peña are parents of Mario M. de la Peña, one of four pilots murdered by Cuban warplanes in international airspace in 1996." "One of the spies exchanged by President Obama was serving a life sentence for his role in those murders," the letter says.  General Raul Castro, then Cuba's Minister of the Armed Forces" ordered the murders and later awarded medals to the officers who pulled the trigger."

The project to raise this issue with the Congress honors the “memory of Manuel Jorge Cutillas and his lifelong dedication to the cause of freedom in Cuba." 

Following is the full text of the letter to the Congress including signatories. The signatories have signed this letter in their personal capacities; they do not reflect the views of their company, organization or university, current or past. Center for Free Cuba is a 501-c3 organization according to the Internal Revenue Service. The Center neither supports nor opposes any legislation before Congress. If you would like to add your name then sign here.

To the United States government and the Castro regime we say, not in our name!

Statement by the Free Cuba Foundation in response to changes in U.S. - Cuba relations 

Silent vigil for Brothers to the Rescue shoot down victims

 

 On 17 December 2014, President Barack Obama announced a change in U.S. Cuba policy to loosen travel and economic policies and re-establish diplomatic relations. The Free Cuba Foundation believes that if the President’s objective is improved human rights and freedom for Cubans on the island, these changes reflect an alarming level of naivety and ignorance on the subject and outline a path that can actually harm the Cuban pro-democracy movement and its march towards freedom For this reason, FCF feels the need to make its position clear in the following statement.

The Free Cuba Foundation (FCF) was founded as a youth movement in 1993. Throughout its history, FCF has been a steadfast and independent voice in favor of nonviolent resistance to injustice and tyranny. We have consistently spoken up for victims of the dictatorship demanding justice while advocating freedom and national reconciliation. Freedom will emerge within Cuba from the bottom up not from initiatives by the dictatorship or the United States that until now have only served to legitimize a brutal totalitarian dictatorship. Our movement follows the nonviolent path of Cuba’s internal democratic opposition in embracing the principles of strategic nonviolence. We have demonstrated our commitment to non-violence through our support of Concilio Cubano, the Varela Project and other opposition initiatives for nonviolent change that have existed in a hostile national and international environment. FCF will continue to pursue the goal of the non-violent opposition.

We agree with President Obama on one general observation from his December 17 statement, that one cannot keep doing the same thing and expect a different result. Unfortunately the efforts of the Clinton Administration to engage the Castro dictatorship as well as loosen sanctions before and after 1996 went unmentioned in President Obama’s comments. President Clinton began joint military exercises with the Castro regime in 1994 in pursuit of normalized relations. The shoot down of two Brothers to the Rescue planes on February 24, 1996 by Castro regime MiGs which killed Armando Alejandre Jr. (age 45), Carlos Alberto Costa (age 29), Mario Manuel de la Peña (age 24), and Pablo Morales (age 29) led to the passage and signing of The Cuban Liberty and Democratic Solidarity (Libertad) Act by Congress as an alternative to military action in an election year. 

Murdered by Castro regime on February  24, 1996

 The purpose of the attack however was not to sabotage U.S.-Cuba relations, but to cover up a massive crackdown underway in Cuba at the time to crush a national gathering called Concilio Cubano and thereby crush the aspirations of Cuban democrats in the island to peacefully gather and discuss the future of their country Despite this act of state terrorism against Americans, President Bill Clinton shook hands with Fidel Castro in 2000 and loosened sanctions that opened cash and carry exports from American corporations and the Castro regime later that same year. This change in policy turned the United States into one of the top five trading partners of the Castro regime.

Economic sanctions were never designed to overthrow the dictatorship but were part of a policy of containment to prevent the spread of its totalitarian model. The rise of Hugo Chavez and the spread of Cuban influence in Venezuela began during Bill Clinton’s presidency and are now harming the entire region undermining the democratic gains of the 1980s and early 1990s. Despite this disaster the Obama Administration began in 2009 to loosen sanctions on the Cuban dictatorship. The Castro regime’s response was to take Alan Gross, a U.S. citizen hostage. The Obama administration remained very low key about Gross’s arrest, and it was 25 days before U.S. diplomats even saw this jailed American. FCF believes that this lack of concern sent a message to the dictatorship that they could continue to arbitrarily detain Gross and use him as a bargaining chip in their goals to secure the release of five Cuban spies captured in 1998. These five had not only engaged in spying on US military facilities but planned terrorist acts on U.S. soil and were criminally involved in the February 24, 1996 shoot down.

As was the case in 1996 this policy of appeasement had dire consequences for the democratic opposition in Cuba which suffered several setbacks over the next four years. Prisoner of conscience Orlando Zapata Tamayo died on hunger strike under suspicious circumstances in 2010; Ladies in White founder Laura Inés Pollán Toledo died from a suspicious illness in 2011; and Oswaldo Payá Sardiñas and Harold Cepero died in the summer of 2012, under circumstances that point to a state security killing. Rising violence against opposition activists, including machete attacks, is a new and disturbing phenomenon.

FCF is concerned that releasing the three remaining spies, including Gerardo Hernandez who was serving two life sentences, one of them for conspiracy to murder four members of Brothers to the Rescue in exchange for Gross and an unknown Cuban intelligence operative, may lead to the Castro regime murdering more innocents inside and outside of Cuba. We also know as does the regime that due to short term economic interests that economic engagement with the dictatorship will not be seriously impacted by whatever new atrocities are committed. Additionally, the hostage demand having been met by the United States government also sets a dangerous precedent for Americans traveling abroad. Add to this the normalization of diplomatic relations and the further loosening of sanctions and the signal sent to the hardline elements within the regime is clear: operating with criminal impunity delivers results. This was the same message sent by President Clinton in 2000.

FCF and its members are disturbed by the President’s statement on December 19, 2014 that the 1996 shoot down was not a premeditated move by Castro but a “tragic circumstance." This statement was deficient on two basic points. First of all, two planes were shot down over international airspace not one as he stated in the press conference. More importantly, the president’s statement ignored both documented evidence as well as court decisions and investigations by international human rights bodies that have concluded that the attack was indeed a premeditated extrajudicial execution as demonstrated by the points below:

1) Radio communications between the MiG29 and the military base clearly show that the fighter planes were sent out before the Brothers to the Rescue aircraft arrived at the 24th parallel level, that they were searching for a specific target, and that they even decided not to attempt any warning maneuvers to make the shoot down easier for the Cuban MiG pilots. 

2) The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights’ conclusion stated the following:
“From the circumstances surrounding the events of 24 February 1996, from the disproportionate and indiscriminate use of lethal force applied to the civilian aircraft, from the intensity of that force, and from the way in which the authorities at the Havana military control tower congratulated the MiG-29 pilots after they had carried out their orders, the Commission finds sufficient evidence that Carlos Costa, Pablo Morales, Mario De La Peña, and Armando Alejandre were arbitrarily or extrajudicially executed at the hands of agents of the Cuban State. Consequently, the Cuban State is responsible for violating the right to life, as enshrined in Article I of the American Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Man.”
3) U.S. courts have also found the Castro regime guilty of premeditation in this shoot down:

A.) U.S. District Judge James Lawrence King found Cuba guilty in civil court of planning the shoot down before the actual attack, and noted that there had been ample time to issue warnings to the Brothers to the Rescue aircraft if these had been needed.
B.) A jury in criminal court presided by U.S. District Judge Joan Lenard found Miami-based Cuban spy Gerardo Hernandez guilty of conspiracy to commit murder because of his role in providing information to the Cuban government on the flight plans of Brothers to the Rescue.
C.) On August 21, 2003 a U.S. grand jury indicted the two fighter pilots and their commanding general on murder charges for the 1996 shoot down.

4) A Cuban pilot saw Cuban MiGs rehearsing the shoot down six days before.

 General Ruben Martinez Puente, Francisco Perez-Perez, Lorenzo Alberto Perez Perez who were indicted on four counts of murder, two counts of destruction of aircraft and one count of conspiracy to kill U.S. nationals in August of 2003 and Juan Pablo Roque indicted in May 1999 as a foreign agent (although he played a role in the shootdown) have yet to be pursued to the full extent of the law.

Silent vigil for Brothers to the Rescue shoot down victims

Every year since the week following the 1996 shoot-down, FCF members have joined together to hold a silent vigil at Florida International University on February 24th between 3:21pm and 3:27pm at the times both planes were blown up by Castro’s MiGs in remembrance of Armando, Carlos, Mario, and Pablo who gave their lives in service to others in a continuing demand for justice. This tradition has been maintained for the past 18 years and next year on Tuesday, February 24, 2015 at 3:21pm we will gather with the families of the four martyrs.

Mohandas Gandhi once observed that "Impure means lead to impure ends" and unfortunately the world may now see this theorem put into practice once again in the relations between Cuba and the United States. The day after President Obama made his statement reports emerged that Cuba’s Coast Guard had rammed and sunk a boat carrying 32 Cuban refugees. This atrocity was disturbingly reminiscent of a similar incident when, on July 13, 1994, under Bill Clinton’s watch, Cuban agents murdered 37 Cuban men, women and children attempting to escape in a tugboat.

We the present and former members of the Free Cuba Foundation say to the United States government and the Castro regime that the fruits that have emerged thus far from these negotiations point to the impure means upon which they were founded and will only lead to more grief. Therefore, with great respect we say, not in our name!

Signed by:

Brian Alonso
Grace Cuelez Droblas
Oscar Grau 
Yosvani Oliva Iglesias 
Robert Linares
Neri Ann Martinez 
Augusto Monge
Susana Navajas
Mirka Pena
Cindy Rodriguez
Raisa Romaelle
Pedro M. Ross
Juan Carlos Sanchez
Harold Alexander Silva
John Suarez
César Vásquez

(E-mail frcbfndtn@gmail.com if you are a student or University alumnus and would like to have your name added)