THOUGHTS FROM INSIDE CUBA


"I am under the impression that President Clinton, after being hit repeatedly by Castro, turns his other cheek as well as other parts of his body," said Elizardo Sampedro Marín in Havana.

"I think Castro is the person who has made the most public criticism of the US in the last 100 years. Despite that, Clinton responds by authorizing more flights and more family remittances to Cuba. Signing immigration agreements makes him the guardian of Castro’s coats, and the postponing of the full implementation of Helms-Burton and constantly sending Congressmen, businessmen and even the President of the US Chamber of Commerce to openly flirt (with Castro)." added Sampedro Marín.

Since Cuban exiles’ opinions are normally dismissed – Cubans apparently loose all credibility in the US after becoming exiles – I will be quoting a Cuban source who, by living the unprivileged life of an ordinary Cuban citizen, certainly is more of an expert than those US academics visiting and doing "research" in Cuba.

Elizardo Sampedro Marín is one of those Cubans who overcame the fear that permeates Cuba’s archipelago. He firmly believes in freedom, human rights and democracy. His goal is to see the restoration of the 1940 Constitution of Cuba (the most modern and advanced in the Americas) that Castro set aside on February 1959, barely a month after taking power.

Sampedro Marín was brave enough to take a stand and became Castro’s (highly) unauthorized National Delegate of the Coalition to Restore the Constitutional Government to the Republic of Cuba. For that he is living on borrowed time . . ..

He finds Clinton’s attitude on Cuba as rising from internal economic pressures and bad advice. He worries about the recent developments in Venezuela and Colombia and sees them as directly related to the Cuba of Castro he knows so well.

"Venezuela is taking a road well known to Cubans," he says, Colombian thugs from "their strong positions are boycotting with their deeds all peace negotiations while claiming cooperation. Following Castro’s advice, they reject the possibility of converting their narco-guerrillas into a political party, in order to avoid what happened to the Sandinistas (in Nicaragua) and the communist guerrillas in El Salvador and Guatemala. These supposed negotiations are being used to gain time and provide important positions from which to lunch a final offensive (on Colombia)."

Sampedro Marín questions, "Under the circumstances, who said that Castro is weak and his regime is not a potential threat for the Latin American region and the US?"

If these problems are overlooked by the Clinton administration, they could eventually unleash a massive immigration problem for the US of Venezuelans and Colombians. Because of Hugo Chávez, (Castro’s ally in Venezuela) and the advancing 12,000-strong guerrillas in Colombia, people from both countries are already coming to the US via Miami.

On September 5, the respected Semana Weekly in El Salvador reported that the rebels of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) had bought 16 Russian-made SAM surface-to-air-missiles last May in Nicaragua. These missiles (SAM 7s, 14s and 16s) are capable of knocking helicopters out of the air. The US State Department has already informed Colombian President Andrés Pastrana of the purchase.

Sampedro Marín states, "The danger is that when the 21st century’s huge economic, political and propaganda resources fall into the hands of a Mafia-like group of terrorists, drug-traffickers and left-wing extremists, an extraordinary amount of bloodshed and suffering will result. To get rid of them the US will have to get involved in a war like Kosovo."

Important figures of the Clinton Administration in charge of fighting drugs, militaries from the Southern Command and high-ranking officials of the State Department visited President Pastrana in Colombia. Castro responded with a marathon speech that lasted until the wee hours of August 19 at the closing of the Anti-Capitalist Youth Conference in Havana warning the US to stay out of Colombia.

Castro told the crowd of fanatic youths that any US intervention in Colombia would be "a colossal disaster" for the world. Why is Castro so interested in keeping the US out of Colombia? Is he scheming to leave the doors open for the guerrillas that he created, trained and armed to take over that country? What does Castro have in mind for the Colombian people and neighboring countries?

Let us not forget that Castro has been interfering in Colombia since 1948 when he participated in the communist-organized riots known as "the Bogotazo."

Sampedro Marín commenting about what the official Cuban newspaper Granma published recently said, "The Cuban communists called it (the US intervention to help the Colombian emergency situation) interference. But they purposely overlook that Castro sent 300,000 Cuban soldiers to solve Angola’s internal affairs. And that Castro sent his soldiers to many African countries; and intervened in the conflict between Somalia and Ethiopia. He invaded Latin America with his communist guerrillas. In Santa Clara City (east of Havana) there is a mausoleum with the remains of the guerrillas who died fighting in Bolivia, another nation that did not request Castro’s assistance.

But if the government of Colombia asks for US or OAS (Organization of American States) help to rid the country of the guerrillas that are menacing peace in the Americas, then Castro and his collaborators claim ‘interference.’"

Credible official sources have confirmed that Cuba is getting ready for the possibility of an US-OAS military intervention in Colombia. Instructions were given through the Sao Paulo Forum in Brazil to the vocal and well-organized communist support groups throughout the American continent. This includes left-leaning human rights organizations, Indians, students, etc. in all Latin American countries in order to internationalize the rejection of a "Yankee interference" in the internal affairs of Colombia.

Sampedro Marín says, "Castro is preparing a colossal propaganda offensive, superior to the one he used against the US when the Gulf War (Castro sided with Saddam Hussein) and recently about the crisis in Kosovo" since Castro sides with the Serbs and Slobodan Milosevic.

Lack of US resolve or a paralysis of military operations in response to an orchestrated propaganda campaign fostered by Cuba and its international communist network, according to the analysis of Sampedro Marín, "could trigger the birth of a triangle between Castro, Chávez and the Colombian thugs. This could make Castro’s golden dream a reality: an Empire of Mafia-like terrorists and leftist-extremists empowered by drug-money, kidnapping and money laundering, capable of launching an offensive directly against the US to attack the foundations of democracy in the world." A tall order, but Castro sees himself as very tall.

Proudly displayed at the Museum of the Revolution in Havana, is a letter that Castro wrote to his secretary, Celia Sanchez on June 5, 1958, while he was in the Sierra Maestra Mountains before Batista left Cuba. This is of particular interest to help understand Castro’s violent nature and goals. He wrote, "When this war is over, a much wider and bigger war will begin for me, the war I am going to wage against them (the US). I realize that this is going to be my true destiny."

FIN


Agustín Blázquez with the collaboration of Jaums Sutton
Mrf Blazquez is the Producer/Director of the documentary COVERING CUBA
ABIP 1999

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