Hello LeftLinkers
Below is an excellent eye-witness report of the demonstrations in Miami,
organised by the Cuban-American Mafia, to block the return of Elian
Gonzales to Cuba. Radical Women received the report from the Cuban
Consulate. It's written by a Cuban journalist in Miami who condemns the
anti-Cuba thuggery and gives some telling insights.
Comradely
Debbie Brennan
Melbourne Radical Women Organiser
________________________________________________
Subject: Eyewitness in Miami
Date: 08-Jan-00 at 19:56
From: Luis Martin, INTERNET:canagc.org
The Latest Commotion in Little Havana
By Luis Ortega
Miami
Friday, January 7, 2000
On Thursday, January 6, at 12 noon, I went to downtown Miami to see what
the big demonstration called for in front of the Federal Building to
protest the case of the child Elian was all about. What I saw there was 300
yelling Cubans with little flags. One must realize that Miami is always
congested with people and traffic. It is not exceptional for a bunch of
people yelling and waving flags on a corner to create a commotion.
In the meantime, I kept listening to all the Radio Mambi slogans on my car
radio. I heard the ex-Commander, Hubert Matos uttering frightening screams
and demanding justice. Hubert Matos has a world record on having executed a
man on a wheel chair in 1959 in Camaguey province and has become incredibly
rich in Miami with numerous businesses, to the extent that his son is on
the run for having embezzled millions from Medicare and Medicaid.
I also heard Congressman Lincoln Diaz-Balart who, in the tone of a media
pundit, accused Castro of being a monster and insinuated that Clinton is
despicable. Someday for sure there will be an investigation of the business
activities of the Diaz Balarts. There are too many of them.
Suddenly, the demonstrators, flags in hand and always yelling, began moving
eastbound on Flagler Street (yelling is a tradition among my compatriots).
Then, they sat on the street to stop traffic. I was forced to stop on a
Flagler side street, I think it was on South Miami Avenue. A stout Cuban
with a huge cigar in his mouth lay across the street with a Cuban flag
while an old man sold Cuban and American flags at $5 each. The car horns
began to sound and then I saw two men with Walkie-Talkies direct the
operations.
Miami police, made up of mostly Cubans, looked the other way. Mayor
Carollo, probably gave them orders not to become too demanding in defense
of the rights of the victimized citizens. There was a certain air of
impunity to the entire show. In other more civilized cities, all would have
been carried to awaiting cages in accordance with city ordinances. But, in
Miami, the Cuban Mafia controls everything -judges, lawyers, police, state
construction, mass media, public officials- that is, everything. Anything
goes in Miami. Dubious contracts can be concocted, the public can be
scammed, people can be taken advantage of, the loot of contracts can be
spread around, criminals can be freed from jail with light penalties, etc.
Judges here depend on the votes and campaign contributions of the Cuban
Mafia. The presidential candidates come to Miami and collect millions. It's
nobody's land.
The Radio Mafia gave the order to paralyze Miami, something easy to do in
the downtown area. In reality, there were more people on the sidewalks
watching the unpleasant spectacle of these thugs stopping traffic than the
number of demonstrators at hand.
Let's be clear about something. They spent thousands of dollars to organize
the commotion. The CANF, which is agonizing over pending trials for
fraud,=DD was at the lead of it all. The show over Elian was carried out by
the CANF as a vendetta against Clinton. Not knowing anything about Cuba and
not having inherited his father's political chicanery, Mas Canosa Jr. felt
slighted by the President's apparent willingness to rid himself of the
Foundation on his recent trip to ask him for money
In retaliation, the Foundation has wanted to show Clinton that they can
paralyze the city of Miami, Florida. But they didn't, they haven't
paralyzed anything, although they have certainly annoyed a lot of people.
Miami Cubans have become a nuisance. They agitate, yell, make a scene,
create traffic jams. They are a curse for the rest of the Cuban people who
tend to their daily chores minding their own business.
This entire event has a quality of blackmail. Although there are almost one
million Cubans in South Florida, only a only a small minority participates
in these extortions. Of course, Cuban campaign contributions are behind
this whole thing. But the American candidates have begun to investigate
where the millions are coming from. At some point, there will be an
awakening and the federal government will have to ask where these amazing
fortunes are coming from. When? Who knows.
Corruption in Miami is asphyxiating and its impunity is intolerable. The
Americans have continued to build the monster of Cuban corruption in Miami,
Florida since 1959. Now they must bear it in silence. Clinton has been
weak. The three candidates for Mayor of Miami have behave like imbeciles.
Maurice Ferrer, for example, threatened to leave the Democratic party if
Elian is deported. Carollo brayed like a donkey and Xavier Suarez went into
convulsions.
But now, this latest scene that I have been observing until 2:30 in the
afternoon of Thursday, January 6 has something infamous that reveals the
inconsistency of the Miami Cuban Mafia. Not one single Black has
participated in the operations, only whites and many mulattos. And no one
raised a voice to protest the deportation of 409 black Haitians who have
just been deported to Haiti without considerations. They speak of human
rights, but let's be clear. What they mean is rights for them only, the
Cuban whites and mulattos, almost all deserters of the Cuban revolution who
have taken Miami's businesses, many of them foul. Blacks have been
excluded. And the Haitian and Blacks of Miami will probably take this fact
into account when election time comes around.
Luis Ortega is a Cuban journalist residing in Miami
Translated and distributed by Luis Martin for non-profit educational purposes.
--
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