THE OPENING OF PANDORA’S BOX IN MIAMI

by Agustin Blazquez with the collaboration of Jaums Sutton


I never thought in my wildest dreams that my latest documentary The Rats Below was going to touch so deeply the Cuban exile community in Miami, betrayed by eight American presidents!

But now add a seemingly benign huge U.S. corporation to the list of enemies, and the community responded!

There have been all sorts of discrimination – even being excluded from a jury for being Cuban American for a trial in Miami. And being derided, maligned and literally dragged thought the mud by the liberal U.S. media, openly calling them “Miami Mafia,” has left deep scars in the heart of everyone in my community.

Now Cuban Americans are ready to know and face the truth of what unscrupulous politicians, corporations and the liberal media have done to them.

Yes, Cubans have been facing extremely overwhelming forces. It’s not just Castro, but other powerful forces, economic interests and a very hostile liberal media that have discredited and misrepresented their real democratic goals and censored all information about the real tragedy of Cuba.

It is simply unforgivable. Especially to a community that appreciates so much and is so dedicated to preserve the bases of the same freedom and democracy on which this country was founded.

When I started filming for The Rats Below in April 2003, I didn’t know where this documentary would take me. But what I discovered through the testimonies given by David Hoech, James B. Lieber, Dennis K. Hays, Larry Klayman, Jim Guirard, the late Reed Irvine and Delfin Gonzalez, was an entangled maze of corruption from U.S. corporations to the highest levels of government.

The corporation being examined here is Archer Daniels Midland, known as ADM that used the slogan “The Supermarket of the World” and now “Resourceful by Nature.” Do Americans realize that they are indeed filling the pockets of politicians?

This giant agricultural corporation with headquarters in Decatur, Illinois, is known for producing additives for combustible fuels and is a major producer of additives for food. Unknown until now is that they not only are causing damage to the Cuban desire for freedom in their homeland on an ongoing basis, but was directly involved behind the scenes in financing and playing out the operation for returning Elian Gonzalez to Castro, according to the testimonies in The Rats Below.

Difficult to believe? Consider that one of the main products ADM is trying to push is an expensive-to-produce fuel, ethanol.

President Bush in his State of the Union speech on January 31 favored the push for ethanol.

David Hoech says, “The dangers of corporations like Archer Daniel Midland here in the United States is, the rule of law is used against people that go up against them, they do not obey by the rule of law. Dwayne Andreas said when his firm was busted in 1995, ‘I own the Justice Department.’

"Corporate crime cannot exist in this country without the help of government."

James B. Lieber, lawyer and author of the book RATS IN THE GRAIN: The Dirty Tricks and Trials of Archer Daniels Midland says, “ethanol is a very questionable gasoline additive. It takes a lot of energy to produce the ethanol, in the first place, 72% more as a matter of fact according to one study, than a yield in gasoline.

"So, how does ADM get that into gasoline and how does it profit from it? Well, it gets an exception from federal excise taxes which is essentially a subsidy to the company.

"And it does that by lining up politicians on both sides of the aisles and having them support ethanol as government program.

"If ADM did not have its extraordinary power, its extraordinary relationship with the government, it would not exist as the huge multi-national company that it is.

"I’m aware of influences over all branches of government by ADM and of the application of this extraordinary power over legislators, members of Congress, the executive branch up to the President and including people on regulatory agencies, administrative agencies and watching the ADM legal proceedings, I came to be aware of great influences over courts and over United States Department of Justice.”

Lieber, "The Chairman of ADM who stepped down during the course of the scandal [a 1995 world wide price fixing conspiracy], a gentleman by the name of Dwayne Andreas, basically has been on very close personal friendly terms with every American president since the 1950s.”

Does ADM also own the White House?

We don’t hear much in the U.S. media because in order to be able to seriously influence the U.S. media, ADM sponsors the following shows: NBC “Meet the Press” and the “McLaughlin Group,” CNBC evening news programs, CBS “Face The Nation,” PBS evening “News Hour,” National Public Radio evening news hour, “Agriculture Week” and “Agriculture Today” TV programs, WAND-TV Illinois, the newspaper “Herald & Review” in Decatur, Illinois and various weekly and monthly agriculture publications.

The information and the testimonies given for the documentary kept the audience at both Tower Theaters in Miami transfixed and in silence for 105 minutes. “This is like the opening of Pandora’s box,” sums up the general comment. “We all suspected, but now we see it exposed for the rest of America to see and reach their own conclusions.”

I believe that Cuban exiles are more attuned to politics than the average American, because the Cubans have been victims of politics and are very receptive to the message of this documentary (that is not for Cuban exiles only), it is for all the inhabitants of this great country. And it is a warning of things to come if the rule of law is not applied and obeyed equally. We may lose our land and our freedoms.


Agustin Blazquez, Producer/director of the documentaries

COVERING CUBA, CUBA: The Pearl of the Antilles, COVERING CUBA 2: The Next Generation & COVERING CUBA 3: Elian presented at the 2003 Miami Latin Film Festival and the 2004 American Film Renaissance Film Festival in Dallas, Texas, COVERING CUBA 4: The Rats Below premiered in Miami and Dan Rather “60 Minutes” an inside view

ALL AVAILABLE AT: http://www.cubacollectibles.com/cuba.mv?p=108-CC4
Author with Carlos Wotzkow of the book COVERING AND DISCOVERING and translator with Jaums Sutton of the book by Luis Grave de Peralta Morell THE MAFIA OF HAVANA: The Cuban Cosa Nostra.



Éste y otros excelentes artículos del mismo AUTOR aparecen en la REVISTA GUARACABUYA con dirección electrónica de:

www.amigospais-guaracabuya.org