Blasting repatriation, Basulto quits GOP (Florida "Cuban" activist)

[Judi Lynn]

Posted on Sat, Jul. 26, 2003

In South Florida

MIAMI

Blasting repatriation, Basulto quits GOP

After more than three decades as a Republican, Cuban exile activist Jose Basulto gave up his GOP membership to protest the Bush administration's decision to send 12 Cubans back to the island earlier this week.

At a press conference Friday outside Versailles Restaurant, Basulto and fellow Brothers to the Rescue co-founder Bill Schuss signed the back of their voter registration cards specifying a ''No party'' affiliation and then dropped them in a mailbox.

The United States agreed to repatriate the 12 Cubans who were suspected of having hijacked a boat to get to Florida, after Havana vowed they would be sentenced to no more than 10 years in prison.
(snip/...)

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/local/6388084.htm

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Comical, and predictable:

Posted on Fri, Jul. 25, 2003

Feuding exiles could cause political pain for president
BY PETER WALLSTEN
[e-mail]



JOE GARCIA, LEFT, AND LINCOLN DIAZ-BALART, RIGHT


The Bush administration's decision this week to send 12 Cuban migrants back to the island has unleashed a wave of anger among exile leaders who, for the first time, are openly questioning their commitment to the Republican president.

The fury has created a public feud between top leaders of the influential Cuban American National Foundation, who say their loyalty to Bush in the 2000 election is proving worthless, and Miami-Dade County's three Republican Cuban-American members of Congress, who have aligned themselves closely with the president.

The spat has dominated the Spanish-language airwaves in South Florida for two days, with foundation Executive Director Joe Garcia calling Rep. Lincoln Díaz-Balart politically ''impotent'' for failing to influence the president, and Díaz-Balart accusing the foundation of cozying up to communists.

''There comes a point where you cannot sit at the table when everything you see is cutting against you,'' Garcia said. ``What is it exactly we got for our vote? When you sell yourself cheaply, you get treated cheaply.'' (snip/...)

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/local/6379437.htm

(you know something's awry when these looneytoons accuse each other of being "communists." Ha ha ha ha, sneer.)

(Rep. Lincoln Diaz Balart's aunt, Mirta, is the ex-wife of Fidel Castro.)

[Mika]

1. When are the "exiles" going to realize..

When are the "exiles" going to realize that the Dem party is the party of choice when it comes to unfairly sanctioning Cuba, and Americans.

Bill Clinton, and the Dem party during his tenure, were the best thing to happen to the intransigent exilio cause.


CANF founder and Clinton fundraiser Jorge Mas Canosa & Bill Clinton

[Mika]

2. I felt that I should back up my comment

http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/JBFranklins/canf.htm

Why do Democratic political leaders like Bradley, Graham, Torricelli and even the President do the bidding of this man? Some people answer that Mas is a multimillionaire power broker whose organization donates hundreds of thousands of dollars to politicians. For example, in April 1992, with his Presidential campaign grasping for money, Governor Clinton, in what The Boston Globe called "a Faustian bargain," attended a CANF-sponsored fund-raiser in Miami's Little Havana and announced to cheers, "I have read the Torricelli-Graham bill and I like it." He also declared that the Bush Administration "has missed a big opportunity to put the hammer down on Fidel Castro and Cuba." Clinton was rewarded with $125,000 and received an additional $150,000 at another CANF-sponsored event the same day in Coral Gables. Just before a key vote on the bill last September, Presidential candidate Clinton issued a press statement urging Congress to vote for it. Clinton's fee of $275,000 was cheap, merely half the $550,000 given by Cuban Americans to President Bush on October 23, the day he went to south Florida to sign the Cuban Democracy Act into law.

Our travel and trade rights, and the rights and conditions of Cubans in Cuba, will continue to be violated and degraded by the US government unless we, the citizens of this country, unless we, the Dem party membership, start demanding changes in the current anti Cuba/ anti America policy from our Dem representatives.

[Judi Lynn]

3. Here's a great article on the lil' Miami "exile" tyrant, Jorge Mas Canosa

Showing what fiendlish power he had over our guys. This snippet concerns _{Bush the Elder:}


(snip) Having previously said he had "problems" with the Torricelli bill, Bush grabbed back the headlines with a declaration that would, by Executive Order, implement a new policy that was sneakingly similar to a provision in the bill. The order would restrict further shipping to Cuba by prohibing entry into U.S. ports by vessels that engage in trade with Cuba.

Bush's State Department, which had been vehemently against trade restrictions, kept diplomatically silent. Off the record, one official admitted to a Herald reporter, "We're bending over on this and taking it."

Columnist Georgie Anne Geyer also spoke with insiders at State: "State Department officials admit that Mr. Mas' Foundation...has been responsible for the fact that the United States has basically formulated no policy of its own toward Cuba because of fear of the Foundation's tactics.... To say that U.S. policy on Cuba at this crucial moment -- when the next and defining stage of Cuban history is being formed -- is thus being run by a bunch of nuts and ambitious egomaniacs is not too far from the truth."

Sticks and stones may break his bones, but Georgie Anne Geyers' words couldn't wipe the smile off Jorge Mas' face. Didn't she realize what it was really all about? Didn't she realize the whole Torricelli bill controversy, the maneuvering to get Bill Clinton to back it, the display of muscle that forced President Bush to do a perfect backflip -- all of it was a message to Fidel Castro. It was to show him, after all these years, who still calls the shots here in Cuba America. Jorge Mas has taught that lesson more than one time. (snip/...)

*
http://cuban-exile.com/doc_051-075/doc0063.htm

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Also, I didn't know until a few minutes ago that after Jorge Mas ran off David Lawrence, the former Miami Herald publisher, (his "exile" pressure campaign resulting in Herald paper vending machines getting covered with human feces all over town, and Lawrence and his staff receiving bomb threats, to the extent he started checking under his car before driving it before begging for a truce) the Knight Ridder replaced him with a Cuban publisher. AMAZING!

First, the link to the Mas pressure on Lawrence:

(snip) Anywhere else, Mas Canosa's remarks might have been ignored. In the darker recesses of Miami's exile community, however, his words were clearly a call to arms. Within days Herald publisher David Lawrence, Jr., and two top editors received death threats. Anonymous callers phoned in bomb threats and Herald vending machines were jammed with gum and smeared with feces. Mas Canosa's Cuban American National Foundation quickly denied responsibility and condemned the hijinks, but Mas's words were highly inflammatory in a city where public red-baiting has served as a prelude to bombings and, in past years, murder.

That was in January, but editors at the Herald still feel besieged. Foundations ads saying "I don't believe The Herald" in Spanish are appearing on Dade County buses. Lawrence has heard that foundation people are sounding out advertisers over whether they would support a boycott -- a troubling prospect in a recession. (snip/...)

http://www.cjr.org/year/92/3/miami.asp

Now, the new publisher:

(snip)Media/Mediator
Alberto Ibarguen L'74
Publisher, The Miami Herald & El Nuevo Herald
Chairman, The Miami Herald Publishing Group

"So many people in the Miami community came to the United States under the same circumstances. And, if it’s not their own story, then it’s the story of someone they know,” states Alberto Ibargüen. Born in Puerto Rico of a Cuban father and a Puerto Rican mother, Ibargüen possesses a unique empathy for this scenario that has emboldened the Miami Cuban-exile community and riveted the world to the ongoing serial drama.

For the first week of January a sampling of issues of El Nuevo Herald, Miami’s dominant Spanish language newspaper, showed the wide-eyed expression of Elián González above the fold with a smaller picture of Dan Marino’s season-ending victory for the Dolphins. In its parent paper, the English language Miami Herald, the same images were shown but in reverse proportion. It is a telling illustration of the co-existence of communities on parallel tracks in Miami with different issues of importance to them. Of the city’s 1.4 million Hispanics, more than fifty percent are of Cuban origin.

As a lawyer, Ibargüen understands INS law, but his opinion is that “the Attorney General’s (Janet Reno) statements saying that Cuba is not so bad to return to are uninformed. As a publisher, Ibargüen has the liberty to examine all sides of this complex and emotional story without choosing sides. (snip/...)

http://www.law.upenn.edu/alumnijournal/spring2000/feature2/media.html

UN-bleeping-BELIEVABLE.

[Mika]

5. One of Clintons last minute actions, along with the Prez pardons

One of Clinton's last minute actions, along with the presidential pardons like Marc Rich, was the release of Cuban money in escrow telco accounts to the 4 Brothers to the Rescue shootdown victims families.. over $85,000,000 US.

Just why would Bill C do that after they had stabbed Al Gore in the back as they did in the 2000 selection? Some sort of quid pro quo to the "exile" community?

[Judi Lynn]

6. Never understood that, Mika!

The shoot-down was when the wheels came off the cart for Clinton's gradual easing of pressure on Cuba, wasn't it?

At the same time the shoot-down happened, if I remember correctly, Clinton was not inclined to support the Helms-Burton Act, which would tighten the screws signifigantly, (creating new, economic punishment on countries doing business with Cuba) and afterwards, he meekly bent over for them.

This is vile.

I've read that the family of one of the dead pilots refuses to have anything to do with Jose Basulto, however. This looks to me as if they feel he did something completely unforgivable toward their pilot relative when he took him on the run to intimidate Cubans again, by buzzing their island.

[Judi Lynn]

4. Wow! Here's a hot one! It's Jose Basulto claiming he's gonna "payback"

the Democrats for letting Elian go home to his dad! Wooo Hooooo!

(snip) Elian swings Cuban voters back to GOP

After backing Clinton, Cuban-American voters are ready to punish Democrats for the Gonzalez situation.
By DAVID ADAMS

© St. Petersburg Times, published November 5, 2000


MIAMI -- After eight years of experimenting with Democrats, Cuban-American voters in South Florida are going back to their Republican roots.

In large part it's because of one little boy: 6-year-old Elian Gonzalez, the Cuban boy who for more than six months was caught in a highly politicized custody battle.

Today, Elian is back in Cuba with his father. The mood in Miami has cooled down. But no one has forgotten the boy, and as Election Day nears Cuban-American exiles are getting ready to exact their revenge.

Al Gore seems set to pay the price for the Clinton administration's effort's to let the boy go back to Cuba with his dad.

"It's time for pay back," said Jose Basulto, one of the leaders of the exile street movement to keep Elian from returning to Fidel Castro's Cuba. "Not just for those of us activists, but also for many who were watching at home. To them it was personal." (snip/...)

http://www.sptimes.com/News/110500/Worldandnation/Elian_swings_Cuban_vo.shtml

:crazy: :silly: :dunce:

[IndianaGreen]

7. This is like the conflict between Rohm and Himmler

Are we going to have a "Night of the Long Knives" too!

I love it!

Florida is in play again!

[Judi Lynn]

8. One day later, the Cuban "exiles" are STILL steamed at Bush

Whoooooooo, it sounds as if they're serious! :scared:

(snip) Posted on Sun, Jul. 27, 2003

CANF outraged by return of dozen Cubans
Loyalty to the GOP is under question
BY OSCAR CORRAL
[e-mail]

KEY LARGO - The loyalty to the Republican party that has defined Cuban-American politics for two generations came under attack Saturday from leaders of the Cuban American National Foundation -- CANF -- at their annual board of directors meeting.

CANF, the most influential Cuban-American lobbying group in Washington and one of the most highly regarded exile organizations, all but declared political war on the Bush administration and GOP congressional representatives from South Florida.

The spark that ignited the backlash was the Bush administration's decision last week to repatriate 12 Cubans suspected of hijacking a boat to reach Florida. After negotiations with the Cuban government, the United States agreed to return the suspected hijackers after Castro's government pledged to spare their lives and sentence them to no more than 10 years in prison.

''This will cost them,'' (:scared:) said Jorge Mas Santos, chairman of the Foundation, referring to the Bush administration in a speech in Spanish to the board of directors. ``They can't count on the support of our community if they don't fulfill their promises. This administration until now has done absolutely nothing to fulfill the promises they made to this community. (snip/...)

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/6393740.htm

[DoYouEverWonder]

9. So will they stage another "Elian' rescue

In order to turn the Cubans against the repugs?