Agustin Blazquez with the collaboration of Jaums Sutton.
Wednesday, Dec. 12, 2001. NewsMax.com.
The long-term negative labeling of Cuban Americans by the U.S. media echoes
Castro's propaganda by calling the Miami exile community the "Miami Mafia."
That epithet, born in Castro's Havana, has been an irritant to the exiled
community not only in Miami but beyond.
The U.S. media willingly collaborate with a proven and admitted
anti-American totalitarian far-left fascist tyrant who converted Cuba into one
of seven terrorist nations. And they are giving him a platform for this and
other insults against a highly successful and law-abiding community that has
been an asset to America. This is totally reprehensible.
There is nothing further from the truth than this malicious slur. For years
I wanted to write about it, but it was not until I met former political prisoner
Luis Grave de Peralta Morell and read his recently released book, "The
Mafia of Havana," that I was compelled to do so.
Grave de Peralta is a physicist who was a professor at Oriente University in
the eastern part of Cuba. The Cuban government expelled him from his job, and
prohibited him from getting another, simply because he resigned his membership
in the Communist Party of Cuba. Thus he had the time to research and bring
together portions of Castro's speeches made over the years - and his distinct
contradictions.
The manuscript was confiscated and he was detained in 1992, accused of "rebellion
through pacific means" and sentenced to 13 years at the dreaded Boniato and
Kilo 8 prisons. This alone should give Americans an idea of how much freedom a
citizen has under Castro's boot.
Thanks to international pressure, the wife of France's president, Francois
Mitterrand, and a mission of Energy Secretary Bill Richardson, in 1996, after
four years in jail, he was taken directly from his cell, put on a U.S. Air Force
plane with other political prisoners, and sent to this country. It was not his
desire to leave Cuba, but he felt it was the only way he could be a father to
his two sons. However, his wife and two children were not allowed to come with
him, although Bill Richardson was promised that they would follow shortly.
Castro Keeps Family Apart
Castro's promise was not fulfilled. Years passed and the families remained
separated, until April 2000 when his oldest son, Gabriel, was finally allowed to
leave. But Castro still did not allow his younger son and now former wife to be
reunited with him.
Paradoxically, Castro, who was portrayed by the U.S. media and his multiple
apologists, fanatics and agents in this country as a concerned fighter on behalf
of family reunification during the Elian Gonzalez affair, is historically
nothing of the sort. Castro has been the greatest family separator in Cuba and
perhaps in the Americas. There are literally millions of Cuban family members
separated by the Castro regime.
But Luis Grave de Peralta, now with a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from
Texas Tech University, continued fighting for the reunification of his family
against all odds.
The U.S. media denied him as well as other Cuban exiles in the same
situation living in the U.S. like Jose Cohen, separated from his wife and
three children for seven years now the same coverage that they willingly
afforded Castro's puppets: Elian's grandmothers and his father, Juan Miguel
Gonzalez, Joan Brown Campbell, Wayne Smith and U.S. representatives like Maxine
Waters, Barbara Jackson Lee, Charles Rangel, Jose Serrano and others.
This distorted, censored and unbalanced presentation of the facts to the
American people prevents sympathy and public support for Grave de Peralta and
other similar cases in the U.S. by removing the element of public pressure on
Castro's regime. Therefore, the U.S. media are guilty of contributing to
maintaining his and other ongoing family separations in Cuba and the U.S. as
well as extending the suffering of the Cuban people under a brutal terrorist
regime.
Finally, Castro allowed 9-year-old Cesar and his mother to board a plane for
the U.S. on Nov. 9, 2001. But at the last minute, they were removed from the
chartered American Airlines plane in Cuba with the bogus excuse that there were
irregularities with the papers inside the two sealed envelopes given to them by
the U.S. Interests Section in Havana. These envelopes are to be opened only by
immigration officials on U.S. soil.
The envelopes were apparently opened by an American employee of ABC
Charters, William Boehmer, the "American" tour agency in charge of the
trip. (Many of these agencies handling travel to and from Cuba are said to be a
front, money-making businesses of Castro in the U.S.)
After coming from Texas to Miami to be reunited with his family and waiting
11 excruciating hours at Miami International Airport, unable to establish
telephone communication with his relatives in Cuba, at 10:00 p.m., Grave de
Peralta was finally informed by a reluctant U.S. immigration officer that his
family was not on the plane.
Because of job responsibilities, he had to return, brokenhearted, to Texas.
But on Nov. 16, 2001, Cesar and his mother were finally allowed to come to
the U.S. The boy's uncle, living in Miami for almost a year now, went to wait
for them at the Miami airport for about seven hours. And on Thanksgiving Day,
father and son were finally able to reunite in Texas.
Media Bias and the Cuban Mafia
During the Elian Gonzalez saga, on April 10, 2000, The Washington Post
published on page A21 an article by Luis Grave de Peralta. But the paper
requested that he remove his reference to the government in Havana as a
Mafia-type organization.
The Washington Post has demonstrated many times its lack of scruples by
referring to the Cuban exile community in Florida as the "Miami Mafia"
and other derogatory terms, as well as publishing very insulting cartoons by the
late Herblock. Therefore, their newly acquired scruples when dealing with the
real Cuban Mafioso appear an oddity. Apparently, they are more respectful of
Castro than they are of his victims.
Grave de Peralta, who knows very well what Castro and his Mafia are capable
of doing in Cuba and abroad, presents a very powerful account of the history and
actions of the "Maximum Leader" of the real Cuban Mafia in his recent
book.
After reading his analysis of the events, I realized that the epithet "Miami
Mafia" is even more unfair and outrageous than I had realized. The term "mafia"
accurately applies to Castro's regime, his henchmen and the despotic and corrupt
elite he has created in order to maintain his power, keep the Cuban people as
his slaves and hostages, and intimidate and blackmail the rest of the world.
Considering the events of Sept. 11, it is time to grow up. There should be
no right or left. We are all Americans bound by the ideals of freedom, democracy
and justice. We have to be realistic and see things as they really are and
identify who the real bad guys are. Sept. 11 showed us the consequences of
playing political games, having a lack of resolve and allowing our mortal
enemies to infiltrate our institutions.
Castro and his Mafia organization installed themselves in power by lying and
deceiving the world. It is an illegitimate regime composed of criminals ruled by
an unscrupulous Godfather-type character who set aside the Cuban Constitution of
1940 and never intended to give up power until his death and beyond.
And because of Castro's ambition for total control, a war has been declared
against the will of the Cuban people since 1959 and over 100,000 have died. The
revolution also died decades ago; what remains is a Mafia-ruled island. Castro's
reign of terror has physically and morally ruined Cuba.
The island formerly known as the "Pearl of the Antilles" was a
very advanced and economically prosperous country. What is left of Cuba after
almost 43 years of Castro's rule is a plantation of terrified slaves with no
place to go but risk their lives trying to get to the U.S. on a raft. Cuba is no
longer a country, it is a psychological nightmare for all forced to live inside
that island prison with no end in sight.
The very well entrenched academics of the left in most of the learning
centers in the U.S. have been very busy for years imposing their agenda based on
obsolete Marxist philosophy. They have been a distorting and negative influence
on new generations of Americans. Those colleges and universities have produced
today's media.
I believe that is the main root of their insensitive view of the victims of
their Marxist icons and socialist systems.
No wonder they have to try to conceal information that is contrary to their
programmed beliefs. No wonder they refuse to see Castro as the real Mafioso and
turn their backs on and excoriate his victims. No wonder they were so vicious
during the Elian Gonzalez affair and did everything in their power to give
Castro the victory. No wonder they refuse to publicize Grave de Peralta's ordeal
and the ongoing tragedy of Jose Cohen and other cases in the U.S. and abroad of
families and children kidnapped by the Maximum Mafioso of the Americas.
But in view of the real facts about Castro and the dismal failure of
Marxism, I ask those academics of the left and members of the U.S. media, is the
real Cuban Mafia in Miami or Havana?
© 2001 ABIP
All Rights Reserved © NewsMax.com
Related link
Familia de Peralta
Home Page |