Cuban exile and former CIA operative speaks out on Kennedy Assassination

Eugenio Rolando Martinez (Musculito)

Eugenio Rolando Martinez (Musculito) was born in Pinar del Rio, Cuba on July 8, 1922. In the 1950s during the Fulgencio Batista dictatorship he ran guns for Carlos Prio Socarras , the then exiled and last democratically elected president of Cuba. Musculito was engaged in the war against Batista. Following Batista's overthrow when Fidel Castro revealed that democracy would not be restored Rolando returned to the armed struggle now with the CIA. 

On November 20, 2013 the former CIA operative was interviewed about what he believes happened to John F. Kennedy fifty years ago in Dallas on November 22, 1963 and on Lee Harvey Oswald's role.

Abandoned Battlefield: Still relevant after 12 years

Abandoned Battlefield

Eusebio de Jesús Peñalver Mazorra

John Suarez
June 2, 2001

The battle of ideas surrounding the Cuban revolution in the United States has not been fully joined. The Cuban freedom movement has lobbyists, congressmen, journalists, and a couple of foundations and centers focused on opinion makers and politicians in the United States. The Castro regime has all that and more. The pro-Castro lobby is outspending the freedom movement 10 to 1, and they have engaged with grassroots left-wing allies at the local level nationally and in the academia.

Last month, members of the Free Cuba Foundation joined together with California Young Americans for Freedom and Free Vietnam Youth and embarked on a lecture tour of the state of California. What we found was that representatives of the Castro regime had already been visiting colleges and community centers throughout the entire state for years. Even young Conservatives who are ideologically anti-communists knew little about Cuba other than they were against what the communists were advocating.

From Orange County in the south to San Francisco in the north of California revolutionary icons were everywhere to be seen. Che Guevara emblazoned on posters and t-shirts. Speaking at the University of California, Davis and translating for ex-political prisoner Eusebio de Jesús Peñalver Mazorra at the University of California, Santa Barbara we realized that in the battle of ideas in many parts of the United States the pro-Castro forces have a monologue even more one sided than Castro's in Cuba.

In Cuba the dissident movement although often imprisoned, driven into exile, tortured, and in some cases murdered by the regime is known and has an impact at the grassroots level, and via Radio Marti on a national level in Cuba. The difference between what takes place in Cuba and what is taking place here is the double tragedy. In Cuba the tragedy is that the regime in power systematically attempts to silence the pro-democracy movement using the power of the police state they have erected. In the United States the tragedy is that Cuban Americans have the right to challenge the regime throughout the country, but have largely confined ourselves to New Jersey and Miami.

The reasons for this abandonment of the United States grassroots campaign are two-fold:

First, pro-democracy groups have been working outside of the United States to gather support in Latin America, Europe, and Asia. The vote in Geneva condemning the Castro regime's human rights record is partly a result of this effort, and is of great importance and needs to be continued.

Secondly, the United States has at the level of the Federal government maintained a more or less steadfast policy maintaining sanctions, and denouncing the human rights violations in Cuba. Pro-democracy groups have maintained offices in Washington DC to lobby the US Congress and the Executive branch.

This was a suitable strategy while the Cold War was going on, and Castro was receiving his subsidy from the Soviet Union and exporting revolution throughout Latin America and Africa posing a strategic threat to the United States as an arm of the Soviet empire. The collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War changed that calculus. The regime since at least the early 1990s has sent young communists to speak on college campuses. They have engaged with elements of the New Left and in recent years have built coalitions with business interests that want to trade with nations like Cuba, Libya, Iraq, and Iran.The pro-Castro coalition in the United States spans the ideological divide, and has even more lobbyists, congressmen, journalists, foundations and politicians at their disposal than does the Cuban freedom movement. In addition, the pro-Castro coalition has been working the grassroots to expand their coalition into areas the freedom movement has not even tapped into on a sustained basis.

The pro-Cuban freedom movement needs to find its friends all across the ideological divide, and needs to break the monologue that the pro-Castro side has maintained in too many parts of the United States. The freedom movement needs to speak truth to power, and live by the very same liberties the movement wants to see in Cuba. The ends do not justify the means. The freedom movement inside of Cuba is based on a non-violent strategy consistent with its end goals. The freedom movement abroad must follow their lead. Violence and human rights violations are the tool of the Castro regime and his coalition.

We live in a world in which the most powerful countries are democracies: USA, UK, France, Germany, Japan, Spain, Canada, Mexico, Argentina, Chile, Taiwan, and South Korea just to name a few. The movement inside of Cuba following the path of Gandhi and King will gain the support of the world with an effective freedom movement abroad echoing their actions and statements while at the same time denouncing the human rights violations of the regime. Ricardo Bofill, one of the founders of the Cuban Committee for human Rights, has spoken and written often about the importance of engaging the regime in the battle of ideas.

Many thought that with the collapse of the Soviet empire that the idea of communism would've fallen onto the ash heap of history they were wrong. The name may have been changed, but the hatred of capitalism, and the defense of left-wing tyrannies continue unabated. We must engage in the battle of ideas to win Cuba's freedom.

#FreeElCritico : Family issues a call for solidarity

 Cuban dissident and rapper Angel Yunier Remón Arzuaga, whose stage name is “el Critico del Arte” (the “Art Critic”) has been unjustly imprisoned since March 2013  and is at this moment dying on hunger strike demanding his freedom after being beaten and arbitrarily detained. His family is desperately seeking solidarity for their loved one.


Tomorrow at 7pm there will be a gathering for El Critico at Versailles located at 3555 SW 8th Street in Miami, FL.

Meanwhile let others know of his plight and spread the word over twitter using the hashtag #FreeElCritico

Learn more about his plight here, here and here.

Amnesty International Urgent Action - Cuba: Activists receive death threats in Cuba

UA: 288/13 Index: AMR 25/009/2013 Cuba Date: 15 October 2013

 

URGENT ACTION

ACTIVISTS RECEIVE DEATH THREATS IN CUBA

Juan Carlos Gonzáles Leiva and Tania Maceda Guerra

The head of a Cuban human rights organization and his wife, also an activist, have received death threats from government supporters.

 

Juan Carlos González Leiva, the President of the Cuban Council of Human Rights Rapporteurs (Consejo de Relatores de Derechos Humanos de Cuba, CRDHC) and his wife Tania Maceda Guerra, received death threats during and after a government-sanctioned demonstration. Their house, which doubles as the headquarters of the CRDHC was the site of a demonstration known as an “act of repudiation” for more than 48 hours. This was done to prevent them from travelling from their home city of Ciego de Ávila in central Cuba to the capital, Havana, for events to commemorate the death of Laura Pollán, the former head of the Ladies in White.

At 4 am on 12 October Juan Carlos Gonzáles Leiva headed to the bus station to travel to Havana, but was turned back by a police officer who said his name was on a list of people who were not allowed to leave Ciego de Ávila. Juan Carlos González Leiva, who is blind, informed Amnesty International that at 8:30 am government supporters accompanied by officers from the Cuban Revolutionary Police and Department of State Security Officials began to gather in front of his house. Three other members of the CRDHC who live in the neighbourhood managed to get into the house, but all five of them were forced to stay there until midday on 14 October.

Music was played at extreme volume for eight hours on 12 October, and the crowd shouted insults calling CRDHC members “rats” and “worms” and one security official threatened to use tear gas against them. A group of government supporters shouted “we’re going to kill you, worms” (“les vamos a matar gusanos”) and one of them entered the house and assaulted Tania Maceda Guerra. Around an hour after the act of repudiation ended, Juan Carlos left his house with two other members of the CRDHC and was accosted by two of the government supporters. They repeated the death threats against Juan Carlos González Leiva and Tania Maceda Guerra.

 

Please write immediately in Spanish or your own language:

Urging the authorities to take immediate action to guarantee Juan Carlos González Leiva and Tania Maceda Guerra’s safety, in accordance with their wishes;

Calling on the authorities to cease the harassment, intimidation and persecution of human rights activists and political dissidents while exercising their right to freedom of expression, assembly and association;

Reminding the authorities to guarantee that human rights defenders can carry out their work without fear of reprisals, as established in the 1998 UN Declaration on Human Rights Defenders.

 

PLEASE SEND APPEALS BEFORE 26 NOVEMBER 2013 TO:

Head of State and Government

Raúl Castro Ruz

Presidente de la República de Cuba

La Habana, Cuba

Fax: +41 22 758 9431 (Cuba office in Geneva); +1 212 779 1697 (via Cuban Mission to UN)

Email: cuba@un.int HYPERLINK "mailto:cuba@un.int"  (c/o Cuban Mission to UN)

Salutation: Your Excellency

 

Attorney General

Dr. Darío Delgado Cura

Fiscal General de la República

Fiscalía General de la República

Amistad 552, e/Monte y Estrella

Centro Habana

La Habana, Cuba

Salutation: Dear Attorney General

 

And copies to:

Interior Minister

General Abelardo Colomé Ibarra

Ministro del Interior y Prisiones

Ministerio del Interior,

Plaza de la Revolución

La Habana, Cuba

Fax: +1 212 779 1697 (via Cuban Mission to UN)

Email: correominint@mn.mn.co.cu

Salutation: Your Excellency

 

Also send copies to diplomatic representatives accredited to your country.

Please check with your section office if sending appeals after the above date.

URGENT ACTION

ACTIVISTS RECEIVE DEATH THREATS IN CUBA

Additional Information

Many members of Ladies in White and a number of other government critics across Cuba were prevented from traveling to Havana to attend events to mark the second anniversary of Laura Pollán’s death. The Ladies in White campaign for the release of political prisoners and for the lifting of restrictions on fundamental civil and political freedoms in Cuba.

The Cuban Council of Human Rights Rapporteurs was established in 2007. The authorities have denied it legal status, as they do to all organizations deemed to be critical of the government. It has several hundred rapporteurs based in every province of the island who monitor violations of freedoms of expression, assembly and association of human rights activists, political dissidents and independent journalists. The organization produces monthly reports which document cases of acts of repudiation, arbitrary short term detentions and sentencing following unfair trials.

Tania Maceda Guerra is an independent journalist and a member of the Ladies in White.

Acts of repudiation (actos de repudio) are government-coordinated demonstrations, usually carried out in front of the homes of government critics. They are attended by government supporters, state officials and law enforcement agencies, aimed at harassing and intimidating opponents of the government, and are often used to prevent them from travelling to take part in activities. During an act of repudiation, political opponents and human rights activists are subjected to verbal and physical abuse by groups of people chanting pro-government slogans. Police are usually present but do not intervene to stop the assaults. Such incidents frequently involve the Rapid Response Brigades (Brigadas de Respuesta Rápida), a structure set up in 1991 and composed of Communist Party volunteers whose task is to deal with any sign of "counter-revolution". Local human rights activists and others believe these incidents are orchestrated by Cuba's security services to intimidate any opposition.

Name: Juan Carlos González Leiva (m), Tania Maceda Guerra (f)

Gender m/f: both

UA: 288/13 Index: AMR 25/009/2013 Issue Date: 15 October 2013

http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/asset/AMR25/009/2013/en/955bad6d-baab-4f0a-ade3-5926190ccfe2/amr250092013en.html

Oswaldo Payá Sardiñas: The Christian Liberation Movement at 25

"It is September 8, 25 years ago my parents and a group of friends founded the Christian Liberation Movement. Happy Anniversary MCL Cuba." -  Rosa Maria Payá Acevedo

Cuban dissidents organized a movement 25 years ago today and have been resisting repression and working towards liberation for the past quarter century and continue in the struggle for freedom today.

Imagine for a moment, the year is 1988 and the Soviet Union is still in power and the Eastern Europe under their domination. Fidel Castro's dictatorship was already in its 29th year in power.  In the midst of all this a group of Cubans gathered together to defend human rights and proclaim that their goal was liberation of the Cuban people in a nonviolent process.

Despite death threats, violent repression, long imprisonment, machete attacks and the murder of prominent figures of their movement they continue in their struggle for freedom.

Let us honor them today and remember their words of freedom.

Remembering Eva Barbas and her struggle for justice

Eva Barbas mother of Pablo Morales murdered by agents of the Castro regime on February 24, 1996 and steadfastly called for justice for her son passed away yesterday. Requiescat in pace

Brothers to the Rescue remembered: Eva Barbas mother of Pablo Morales at bridge dedication in 2009:


 

Kristan Patton, FCF Chairman 2011 - 2013 looks back over his tenure

Remembering "13 de Marzo"Tugboat victims at FIU

As former president of the Free Cuba Foundation (FCF) it wasn't so much what happened on campus that affected me but rather off it. I had the opportunity to meet Polish diplomats, rebel-rousers from other countries, and the heads of the top human rights organizations in Miami that dealt specifically with Cuba.

  

The connections I made eventually led to me currently being in Frankfurt Germany working for the International Society for Human Rights. If I could go back and do things differently, really the only thing I would have changed was to get involved in FCF sooner rather than later.