canf.org

An Archive of Cuba's Victims: The Castro Brothers' Legacy of Blood and Tears

Wed, 31 Dec 2008 07:19:22 PST

SUMMIT, N.J., Dec. 30 � In anticipation of the 49th anniversary of the Cuban Revolution on January 1st, Cuba Archive, a non-profit organization based in New Jersey, has unveiled an electronic database of its documented victims. With cases encompassing all sides of the political spectrum, the magnitude, gravity, and systematic nature of the crimes of the Cuban Communist leadership leave no doubt of its long and profound disregard for human life.

Cuba won't let our kids leave, medical workers say

Tue, 18 Nov 2008 10:10:41 PST

Melvis Mesa & Fausto Batista

By FRANCES ROBLES AND CASEY WOODS, Miami Herald, November 18, 2008

Inside her bedroom on Cuba's Isle of Youth, 7-year-old Daviana Gonz�lez prays to be reunited with her mother after more than five years, relatives say. In Camag�ey, Marta Daniela Batista, another little girl separated from her parents, is said to suffer from mental health problems.

The girls are children of Cuban medical professionals living in Miami who deserted their posts in various nations where the Cuban government sent them to help spread ideology and earn income for their cash-starved homeland.

But the price for desertion was higher than the families believed possible: The Cuban government is denying the little ones permission to leave, even though they have U.S. visas that would allow them to come here.

Current Cuba policy is weak and ineffective

Mon, 17 Nov 2008 10:04:33 PST

Camila Ruiz Gallardo

By Camila Ruiz Gallardo, Director of Government Relations for the Cuban American National Foundation.

Essay published November 16, 2008, Issues and Ideas, The Miami Herald

The word ''change'' seems to spark a range of diverse emotions in South Florida. For some, the word represents hope, an opportunity to adjust course with the goal of achieving a better outcome. For others, it evokes alarm, uncertainty, a rejection of past efforts. Merriam-Webster doesn't offer much help in its own definitions, which include: to alter as well as: to transform. So you can appreciate the complexity of using the word when applying it to Cuba policy, something so many in this community care deeply about.

Obama's win challenges Castro ideals

Mon, 17 Nov 2008 09:59:11 PST

Editorial By Myriam Marquez (The Miami Herald, November 16, 2008)

T he Obama conundrum threatens the Castro brothers' dysfunctional dynasty. Democracy and capitalism, the duo's argument goes, is only good for the white and the comfortable preying on the black and poor.

Then this son of a black Kenyan dad and a white Kansas mom gets 53 percent of the vote in a country where black Americans are only 12 percent of the population. He wins over the suburbs, grabs the youth vote, sweeps the Hispanic vote, attracts about half the white and elderly vote and overwhelmingly claims the Jewish vote despite Hussein for a middle name.

Explain that to 11 million Cubans -- the majority black or mestizo -- who have been spoon-fed the regime's ''racist U.S. imperialists'' propaganda for five decades.

Will Obama end the Cuban Embargo?

Fri, 14 Nov 2008 14:54:16 PST

Paloma leaves scenes of ruin and despair in Cuba

Wed, 12 Nov 2008 09:53:25 PST

(By Ray Sanchez, Sun Sentinel, November 11, 2008) HAVANA - During every major story, there are things a reporter sees that don't make it into the daily updates. Ray Sanchez, the Sun Sentinel's Havana bureau chief, was among the first foreign journalists to reach the town where Hurricane Paloma made landfall.

These are some of those scenes from a hurricane in Cuba.

Paloma destroys hundreds of homes in Cuba

Mon, 10 Nov 2008 08:21:31 PST

AP Photo/Javier Galeano Santa Cruz del Sur

CAMAGUEY, Cuba (By Anne Marie Garcia, AP) � Crashing waves and a powerful sea surge from Hurricane Paloma destroyed hundreds of homes in Cuba, the government said Sunday as the cyclone weakened into a tropical storm.

On an island still reeling from the destruction of two recent hurricanes, early damage reports were limited. But state media said the late-season storm toppled a major communications tower, interrupted electricity and phone service and sent sea water almost a mile (1.5 kilometers) inland, ravaging a coastal community near where it made landfall

No storm-related deaths were immediately reported.

Door open for CANF to help shape policy

Sun, 09 Nov 2008 10:37:06 PST

The Miami Herald, Sunday, November 9, 2008

Editorial by Myriam Marquez

With Democrats in control of the White House and Congress, the Cuban American National Foundation is sitting pretty after wandering the political wilderness for eight years.

Jorge Mas Santos -- scion of the architect of U.S. policy toward Cuba before ultra-conservatives walked out of CANF in a huff in 2001 -- now has the ear of President-elect Barack Obama.

Mas Santos' father, Jorge Mas Canosa, was brilliant at positioning CANF as a human rights group backed by Republicans and many Democrats in Congress during the Reagan years. When George H.W. Bush was running for reelection in 1992 against Bill Clinton, Mas Canosa tried to straddle both sides.

CANF�s Francisco �Pepe� Hern�ndez talks to CubaNews

Wed, 05 Nov 2008 12:22:50 PST

Francisco "Pepe" Hernandez

By Larry Luxner, CubaNews, November 2008

Regardless of who wins the White House on Nov. 4, Francisco �Pepe� Hern�ndez insists that Washington�s policy toward Cuba must change.

S ince 1991, Hern�ndez has been resident of the Cuban American National Foundation, a Miami-based exile group that has between 20,000 and 25,000 members and operates on a $1.5 million annual budget.

In an interview Oct. 6 with CubaNews, the retired economist and businessman said it�s time to �do away with all these absurd restrictions of the Bush administration� concerning Cuban-American travel and remittances.

Help Cubans Enact Change from Within

Tue, 04 Nov 2008 04:43:27 PST

Chairman Jorge Mas Santos

The Miami Herald

Help Cubans enact change from within
Op-ED by Jorge Mas Santos
Posted on Saturday, 10.25.08

P resident Ronald Reagan in the State of the Union speech in 1985 said: ''We must not break faith with those who are risking their lives to secure rights which have been ours from birth. Support for freedom fighters is self-defense.'' This commitment translated into a vigorous program of substantial, direct support to the democratic opposition in the Soviet Union and the Eastern bloc.

U.S. policy on Cuba has been devoid of such a vision, turned, instead, into a mere domestic issue where lip service is paid to the cause of freedom but little is done in the way of substance. Two primary considerations have driven U.S. policy on Cuba: the Cuban-American vote in South Florida and avoiding a mass migration from Cuba. For many years, our community's vote could be guaranteed by a photo opportunity in Miami and the quintessential anti-Castro, rhetoric-filled speech. No longer is this the case.

Help Cubans Enact Change from Within

Fri, 31 Oct 2008 17:05:56 PST

The Miami Herald

Help Cubans enact change from within
Op-Ed by Jorge Mas Santos
Posted on Saturday, 10.25.08

P resident Ronald Reagan in the State of the Union speech in 1985 said: ''We must not break faith with those who are risking their lives to secure rights which have been ours from birth. Support for freedom fighters is self-defense.'' This commitment translated into a vigorous program of substantial, direct support to the democratic opposition in the Soviet Union and the Eastern bloc.

U.S. policy on Cuba has been devoid of such a vision, turned, instead, into a mere domestic issue where lip service is paid to the cause of freedom but little is done in the way of substance. Two primary considerations have driven U.S. policy on Cuba: the Cuban-American vote in South Florida and avoiding a mass migration from Cuba. For many years, our community's vote could be guaranteed by a photo opportunity in Miami and the quintessential anti-Castro, rhetoric-filled speech. No longer is this the case.

Food shortages bring crackdown in Cuba

Thu, 30 Oct 2008 16:15:06 PST

(Sun Sentinel, By Ray Sanchez, Direct from Havana, October 30, 2008)

The pizza shop has been closed all month.

In a country long accustomed to shortages, the back-to-back assaults of Hurricanes Gustav and Ike in late August and early September spurred widespread shortages of food. Most of the flour in the hands of the state was diverted to the hardest-hit provinces.

How to Win the Cuban American Vote

Sat, 25 Oct 2008 01:38:46 PST

The Washington Post

How to Win the Cuban American Vote
By Jorge Mas Santos
Saturday, October 25, 2008; Page A15

U.S. policy toward Cuba is at best static and at worst counterproductive, a source of increasing frustration to many Cuban Americans. This sad status quo contributes to the challenge that Cuban Americans will face on Election Day as, once again, particularly in Florida, our vote will probably help determine the next occupant of the White House.

The overwhelming majority of Cuban Americans expect the next president to abandon today's failed "wait and hope" policy and adopt a policy of support and engagement directed toward opening new avenues of freedom for the Cuban people as well as enhancing stability in the United States.

Cuba-E.U. standoff ends with cooperation accord

Fri, 24 Oct 2008 11:23:13 PST

(By Anne Marie Garcia, Associated Press, October 24, 2008) Cuba and the European Union ended a five-year standoff on Thursday by signing an agreement that calls for EU members to send the island $1.3 million in immediate hurricane recovery aid and up to $38.8 million) more in financing next year.

The agreement signed by Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe P�rez Roque and E.U. Commissioner Louis Michel restarts dialogue and cooperation that stalled in 2003, when the communist government launched a crackdown and sentenced 75 dissidents to long prison terms.

ECONOMY-CUBA: "Impossible to Escape Impact" of Crisis � Experts

Thu, 23 Oct 2008 12:46:54 PST

Nickel Production in Cuba

HAVANA, Oct 22 (By Patricia Grogg, IPS) - After three years of high growth, uncertainty is hovering over the Cuban economy once again, although experts are not yet ready to predict exactly what impact the current global financial turmoil will have on the island.

The global crisis coincided with the worst natural disaster to hit this Caribbean island nation in five decades, caused by hurricanes Gustav and Ike, which produced an estimated five billion dollars in losses.

Three Cuban workers win $80 million in slave labor case

Tue, 21 Oct 2008 10:12:06 PST

Alberto Rodriguez, Fernando Hern�ndez, and Luis Casanova

(By Frances Robles, Miami Herald, October 21, 2008) Three Cuban men forced to work 16-hour shifts at 3 � cents an hour repairing ships for a Cuban joint venture in Curacao won an $80 million judgment Monday in U.S. federal court in Miami.

Alberto Justo Rodr�guez, Fernando Alonso Hern�ndez and Luis Alberto Casanova Toledo -- Cuban nationals who now live in Tampa -- sued the Curacao Drydock Co., alleging the company conspired with the Cuban government to force them into virtual slave labor.

Cuba says Mexico agrees to return Cuban migrants

Mon, 20 Oct 2008 10:59:42 PST

Felipe Perez Roque

(By Associated Press - October 20, 2008) MEXICO CITY -- Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque said on Sunday that Mexico has agreed to return Cuban migrants who arrive without documents, a move that may threaten the main exit route for Cubans seeking to leave the island.

Migrants smugglers have increasingly stolen boats in Florida to carry migrants from Cuba to Mexico's Caribbean coast. Most evade Mexican officials and the few caught are rarely deported. In most cases, they are given transit permits that allow them to reach the U.S. border.

Cuban dissidents say Zapatero must insist on prisoner releases

Fri, 17 Oct 2008 09:32:10 PST

Oscar Espinosa Chepe

(EFE, Madrid, October 17, 2008) Representatives of Cuban dissident groups say a visit to the communist-ruled island by Spanish Prime Minister Jos� Luis Rodr�iguez Zapatero would only make sense if it is accompanied by a commitment by Havana to free political prisoners.

The visit "would be very positive if there were a response on the part of the Cuban government in the sense of freeing the peaceful prisoners of conscience and respecting human rights," economist Oscar Espinosa Chepe, one of 75 government opponents arrested and sentenced to lengthy prison terms in Spring 2003 for allegedly conspiring with the United States to undermine the revolution.

2 Cuban soccer defectors ready for a new start in U.S.

Mon, 13 Oct 2008 12:34:28 PST

Cuban Soccer Team

By Michelle Kaufman, The Miami Herald, Washington DC -- Pedro Faife's name was on the Cuban roster for Saturday night's World Cup qualifier against the United States, but the 24-year-old midfielder was nowhere near RFK Stadium.

He slipped away from the team's hotel at 2 p.m. Friday afternoon with a maternal aunt and cousins, who drove him 750 miles to their Orlando home. He spent Saturday celebrating his newfound freedom shopping for shoes, clothes and toiletries.

Oficial de EEUU ratifica acusaci�n de espionaje castrista

Fri, 10 Oct 2008 10:17:59 PST

(Por Juan Carlos Chavez, El Nuevo Herald, 10 de octubre de 2008) El teniente coronel Chris Simmons, analista del Ej�rcito de Estados Unidos, reafirm� el jueves sus acusaciones de espionaje contra dos personalidades del exilio y una investigadora de Washington, implicados como presuntos informantes o antiguos colaboradores del r�gimen de La Habana y quienes no descartaron la posibilidad de entablar una demanda.

Simmons sostuvo que no tem�a ir a corte en el caso de tener que enfrentar acciones legales por parte de las personas que nombr� el mi�rcoles en un programa de televisi�n sin documentar pruebas y bas�ndose �nicamente en testimonios de supuestos desertores de la inteligencia cubana.