From an article on a November 7 “exile summit” where Senator Marco Rubio spoke by telephone with activists in Havana:
From Cuba the opposition member Berta Soler, who took the helm of the Damas de Blanco, commented to Rubio that “people in all the towns and cities of Cuba are ‘lifting the veil from their eyes’ because they have come to understand the need for freedom.”
Antunez, for his part, told Senator Rubio not to miss the fact that soon a revolution or large-scale civil uprising will present itself because the people will no longer tolerate tyranny and human rights abuse.
Finally [Rubio] said that the word should be spread in the United States, in every public forum, about what is happening in Cuba and he announced, “I will speak with all the U.S. media to make known what men and women are living through for seeking freedom.”
“We will involve even more all the funds that the United States government has at its disposal to continue promoting more strongly the programs to free Cuba from communism and, at the same time, we are going to investigate how they are being administered now.”
4 comments:
Great. More ammunition for the hard liners that they should keep the pressure on Cuba for the impending "uprising" that will never happen. I have to be cynical and say these dissidents are only saying what Rubio wants to hear in hopes of getting more/continued funding. If they are getting funding, the last thing they are going to say is that they've made no progress, out of fear of losing such funds.
Here's the amazing summation, if the Republican Party wants to win the next election, Mario will be as toxic, IMO, as Sarah Palin four years ago. This is exactly what I don't want in a VP candidate. I'm not a fan of the present Prez, but you've got to be kidding considering Mr.
Rubio. First he gets the facts wrong
about his parents and now we're going to have a full on revolution in Cuba. It's called Latin America
and I assure you that if you create
a revolt in Cuba, you might as well
start another major USA military presence in South America.
US aid to the dissidents is a complicated subject.
On one hand the dissidents are fired from all jobs and have no way to earn a living.
Some night argue that this might change in the immediate future if the private sector opens up.
But I do not think so because even in this case the dissidents would have to have a government license and this would probably not be granted to them.
So if they are to continue their activities in opposition to the government they have to be financed from abroad.
Without this financing they would have to become inactive, starve to death or leave the country to continue their opposition activities abroad.
But, given the open nature of present US subsidies, receiving such subsidies opens them up to the charge of being US agents and makes it possible for them to be prosecuted by and jailed by the Cuban authorities whenever they choose to do so.
So it might be more intelligent for the method of US financing to be modified in order to protect the dissidents from government persecution.
Instead of funding the Cuban dissidents directly through the US budget, which makes it impossible to hide this open interference in the internal affairs of another country and the quantities involved, why is not such funding provided out of secret CIA funds channelled through a non profit charitable corporation.
This would also allow non taxable donations by private individuals and allow the US Cuban community to contribute additional quantities to the support of the dissidents in the island.
Since present day embargo regulations allow this, the non profit corporation could then send subsidies to the dissidents or their families in the island through Western Union in the name of friends or family members living in the US.
The Cuban government would have no way of knowing which of these remitances would be being sent by private individuals or from US government subsidies.
This would be an intelligent way to kill two birds with one stone.
The subsidies to the dissidents could be increased by private contributions and this could be done without automatically incriminating them as foreign agents.
Equinongo
Mr. Peters,
Please consider some final thoughts on this subject.
US government contributions to the dissident activities should be gradualy phased out and, while they last, should be based on matching private contributions to stimulate the effort to collect private contributions.
The Cuban exile community in the US should be made to gradually assume an increasing portion of the financing for their homeland's struggle.
It is after all our own responsibility and not the US taxpayer's to assume this load and our community is wealthy and patriotic enough to be able to be willing and able to do this.
The liberation of our homeland should be accomplished by the sacrifice of all of the Cubans in the US and should be spent in the highest proportion possible on the financing of the struggle.
Contributing to the liberation of our homeland not be a source of enrichment nor a means of corruption for any group within our own community.
The collection and expenditure of such funds should be supervised closely by the IRS to make sure that corruption and graft does not occur.
Equinongo
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