Cuban Exiles Invoke US Civil Rights Struggle:
Brothers to the Rescue, Florida's MLK Institute for Nonviolence, and manipulating Cuban dissidents

Invoking MLK and Rosa Parks in Cuban Exile Politics
Claude Betancourt, 5/30/09, revised 4/6/19

A persistent theme in Cuban exile politics for over 10 years has been the invocation of Martin Luther King and the US civil rights struggle and their mapping into Cuban dissidents' struggle against the Cuban government. On May 11, 2009, three black women, members of the "Movimiento Feminista por los Derechos Civiles Rosa Parks," were arrested in Villa Clara Province, Cuba, which has a long history of racism and had open segregation prior to 1959. They had been approaching the house of Antúnez, an AfroCuban dissident who has spent many years in jail, and they went limp as the police took them away, an event reminiscent of countless scenes in the US civil rights struggle. The event was filmed, perhaps from Antúnez' house, and posted on YouTube.

The Miami Mafia has supported Antúnez' struggle, as have Ibero Spanish politicians in countries such as Uruguay, Costa Rica, and Argentina, as well as the Pope, who asked for his release when he was incarcerated. Antúnez has been adopted by the Miami based Directorio Democrático Cubano (DDC), which is supported by USAID and NED - they provided 89% of its budget in 2002. The 3 leaders of the Directorio are Javier de Céspedes, Orlando Gutiérrez Boronat, and his wife Janisset Rivero Gutiérrez, who according to the Cuban press are veterans of numerous terrorist and far right campaigns against Cuba. Gutiérrez was a leader of the terrorist/freedom fighter group Organización para la Liberación de Cuba and a supporter of the death squad related ARENA in El Salvador.

When a Congressional Black Caucus delegation, headed by Rep Barbara Lee, visited Cuba in April, 2009, the Directorio and other Miami groups, including Antúnez' sister, Berta Antúnez, criticized the CBC for their refusal to meet with dissidents. Berta Antúnez was brought up to Capitol Hill to visit with CBC staffers by Anolan Ponce, a Miami board member of the U.S.-Cuba Democracy Political Action Committee. This PAC is often called the leading lobby in support of the U.S. trade embargo against Cuba, a position contrary to that of most dissidents on the island. It lists the Fanjul sugar barons among its funders - they are pillars of the plantocracy in exile.

One of the leading AfroCuban scholars on the island, Esteban Morales Dominguez, refers to the situation in Miami in El tema racial y la subversión anticubana, 9/8/2007, Jiribilla:

"Blacks in Cuba struggle every day in the open spaces, which are now many, without allowing themselves to be tricked by those people who first need to overcome the little racist republic modeled after the 50's in Cuba, which the Cuban American extreme right has built for black Cubans in Miami. They leave the vast majority of blacks who live there in the same situation as in neo-Republican Cuba, except it is 50 years later. And they cannot say that blacks can take advantage of access to power."

Another exile platform extolling the virtues of Antúnez and Rosa Parks is the blog of Marc Masferrer, the great-nephew of El Tigre Masferrer, who maintains a page on Antúnez. El Tigre, a notorious terrorist and leader of his own private militia, actually spent time in a US federal prison for attempting to invade Haiti so he could use it as a base for invading Cuba.

The use of Rosa Parks in this context is curious. She was a great admirer of Robert Williams, who fled US political persecution from the KKK to the NAACP and sought refuge in Cuba. He eventually left there, crowded out by some of the more Russian oriented comrades who could not abide his raising various issues. But he was hardly the type of person to align himself with the exiled plantocracy in Miami, nor was she.

The invocation of such US civil rights imagery dates back at least to 1995, when according to the Free Cuba Foundation, Jose Basulto's brought a group to meet with Coretta Scott King and train with the MLK Institute. They also worked with the MLK Insitute for Nonviolence, created by the State of Florida (See Spreading King's message 2/8/1996 Miami Times). Basulto is the CIA veteran and Cuban exile terrorist who founded Brothers to the Rescue, which, besides rescuing rafters, also deliver leaflets over Cuba, at least until two of their planes were shot down on February 24, 1996. Lisa Pease, Peter Dale Scott, and others did extensive research on Basulto, summarized on AfroCubaWeb in 2000. Among Basulto's many long term terrorist associations figures CIA operative Felix Rodriguez, a Bush man who was in on the Che Guevara kill and managed hangars 4 & 5 at Ilopango Air Base, El Salvador, the primary Coca Contra air base for narcotics and arms trafficking. The lawsuits filed as a result of the shoot down resulted in a judgment against Cuba that is still being paid via high phone rates as of April, 2019.

These event signalled a change in strategy for the Cuban exiles who had spent the preceeding 30 years sending Batista operatives to maim, murder, and destroy as much as they could in Cuba, resulting in over 3,000 civilian deaths.

The Free Cuba Foundation, founded in 1993 by FIU students who worked with Basulto, continued this project and put on a 1998 conference at Miami's Florida International University: Gandhi, King, and Marti: Brothers in Thought. They did a repeat in 2008, with the same title. Frank Calzón of the CIA was a major participant and has been a long term collaborator of the Foundation as has been the ---Cuban Democratic Directorate,

The question we have for Antúnez, his wife and their supporters is: why have you allied yourselves with these terrorists working for the very plantocracy, the Fanjuls, the Bacardis, the Diaz Balarts, whose fortunes were based on slavery and who have never ceased to lead the efforts to put down blacks in Cuba? As bad as your imprisonment and that of others such as Oscar Biscet was, did you ever hear of Cuban police carrying out extrajudicial killings the way the US police and especially the Miami police does regularly with absolute impunity?

The moves by Antúnez and his Miami cohorts against the CBC have prompted A Sincere and Painful Apology to the U.S. Congressional Black Caucus by Alberto Jones, who himself spent 4 years imprisoned on trumped up charges because he was successfully running the largest veterinary lab in eastern Cuba while being black. He details the overall strategy of the Miami Mafia:

"Having failed in every past military, political, terrorist or economic efforts to decapitate the Cuban government, ultra-rightwing Cuban-Americans in south Florida, in collusion with US-AID, NED, the Republican Party Foundations and others, identified an important demographic shift in Cuba during the early 90’s in favor of blacks, due to an intensified emigration tendency among Cubans of Hispanic ancestry.

Drastic changes were introduced in all counterrevolutionary groups in the US: where blacks had been previously shunned, they have now been hastily recruited and promoted to leadership positions. Numerous black study groups, foundations, leadership training, founding of religious sects, donations of hundreds of computers, encouragement to bloggers, CD, DVD and book launching, mostly depicting the severe inequalities to which blacks were subjected to by a white controlled, oppressive Cuban government, was the main thread of this racially divisive bliztkrieg, aimed at dividing the country along racial lines.

In Cuba, these aggressive, destabilizing measures took on the image of Independent Libraries, Independent Journalists, Anti-Abortionists, Human Rights Advocates and every other imaginable malformation geared to weaken, divide and conquer a nation that had fought, defended and was willing to die for its Independence and Sovereignty.

Although these despicable mercenary activities have been abundantly documented through captured instructions, tape recordings, payment receipts, confessions etc., showing a clear command and control structure in the US, a huge, well orchestrated media barrage with multiple resonance boxes across the globe has convinced tens of thousands of poorly informed citizens of their humanistic goals, unselfish sacrifices and patriotic concerns for the betterment of their people."

We would invite the comrades in Cuba to reflect on why it is that the exiled plantocracy sees you as so vulnerable on this issue. Is it the on-going tendency to negate race as a factor, an approach supposedly in harmony with republicanismo ideology, where the negation of race as a factor is derived from José Martí's "Cubano es más que blanco, más que mulato, más que negro."? Martí is actually one in a long line of South American Republican thinkers stemming back to the French Republic and its insistence on citizenry over any other factor, as described in Nation and Multiculturalism in Cuba: A Comparison with the United States and Brazil by George Zarur.

It is more likely that the Miami Mafia is aware through countless reports of how blacks in Cuba are having a hard time, have had to take a back seat in the tourism industry, and are not receiving remittances which are mostly coming from Ibero Spanish sources abroad to their family. They are suffering the daily indignities ably described by Eugene Godfried, who worked many years in radio in Cuba, including Radio Havana. So, it is not that the comrades are unaware of the situation in Cuba, rather, they are caught between their adherence to the ideological trends we have mentioned and the realities of Cuba. They have difficulty even addressing the criticism as race does not matter.

This issue is not going away, the battle lines are drawn and the polemics will only increase. What will happen when 500,000 to 3 million Americans visit Cuba, some solid portion of them African Americans? At the very least, Cubans will see the illusion in their oft repeated statistic that 90% of African Americans live in poverty. What will happen as the US Government, through NED, CIA, the US Interests Section, and countless others, turns up the dollar volume devoted to this issue? They are very much counting on Cuba's reticence to address this in a priority manner.

Articles

Black Vs. White - Miami Remains The Same  5/27/2009 Miami New Times: "As much as I hate it when politicians play the race card when they are facing possible criminal charges, I can't just dismiss it either in the case of Spence-Jones. After all, Sarnoff is the city's only Anglo commissioner and Arriola is one of the most prominent Anglo Cuban Americans in Miami. Together they initiated a criminal probe into the city's only black, and only female, commissioner."

Antúnez, 6 others arrested in Havana  5/25/2009 Uncommon Sense: "Former Cuban political prisoner Jorge Luis García Pérez "Antúnez" and six other anti-government activists were arrested in Havana on Sunday while commemorating the 37th anniversary of the death of political prisoner Pedro Luis Boitel. The group, which also included Antúnez's wife, Iris Pérez Aguilera, held a ceremony at Colón Cemetery in Havana, followed by march down 23rd Street in Havana, where they were arrested."

A Sincere and Painful Apology to the U.S. Congressional Black Caucus  5/20/2009 Black Agenda Report: "None of the Afro-Cubans who are attempting to earn world prominence by opposing the Cuban government have ever offered an aspirin to our group or others engaged in similar humanitarian endeavors, which makes their purported platform questionable at best… These are the real battles for justice, equality and the future of our nation, that all Cubans and Afro-Cubans especially should be waging, not siding with those who castrated our independence in 1898 or those who enabled this massacre and kept us segregated, impoverished, ignorant until 1959 and today, are shamefully relying on the dark skin of some, willing to sell their intellect and soul to the highest bidder, by attempting to intimidate, blackmail or create a negative political scene against members of the CBC, who have courageously stood by their brothers in Cuba for the past 25 years. We will not be threatened by letter carriers, book writers, open mike AM Radio Talk Show hosts in Miami, New Jersey or California, or by Cuban-American politicians in State Houses and in the US Congress with their segregationist past here and in Cuba, attempting to silence members of the CBC, with worn out Jim Crow tactics."

Armando Valladares’ CIA organization linked to plot against Evo Morales  5/15/2009 Granma: "The Bolivian district attorney’s office has identified Hugo Achá Melgar who, according to the AFP news agency, is Bolivia’s representative to the U.S. Human Rights Foundation (HRF), as providing the bulk of the funds for the terrorist gang foiled in Santa Cruz while plotting to assassinate President Evo Morales. The HRF is a New York-based nongovernmental organization known for its activities of interference and CIA links. Its general secretary, Armando Valladares is a terrorist of Cuban origin. District Attorney Marcelo Sosa, who is leading the investigation in this case, identified Achá, alias "Superman," along with Alejandro Melgar, "El Lucas," as being involved in and funding the plot."

Antúnez declara que superará protesta de ayuno para comenzar nueva fase de acción en Cuba  5/12/2009 Directorio Democrático Cubano

Cuba: Arrestos y Represion en Placetas 5 de mayo de 2009 - "Movimiento Feminista por los Derechos Civiles Rosa Parks"  5/11/2009 Directorio.org: [Villa Clara has a history of racism that the dissidents are responding to with their formation "Movimiento Feminista por los Derechos Civiles Rosa Parks."] "Las imágenes, captadas en Placetas, Villa Clara muestran cómo Donaida Pérez Paseiro, Damaris Moya Portieles y Yaité Cruz Sosa, todas miembros del Movimiento Feminista por los Derechos Civiles Rosa Parks, son interceptadas en la calle 7ma del sur, golpeadas y removidas de la vista de la cámara a la fuerza por oficiales uniformados y encubiertos de la Seguridad del Estado mientras se dirigían a la vivienda del destacado líder opositor Jorge Luis García Pérez Antúnez. Según declaraciones dadas al Directorio por las víctimas de esta agresión, después de los eventos capturados en las imágenes, las activistas fueron trasladadas a otra calle y allí fueron golpeadas y lanzados sus cuerpos contra los autos patrulleros, aplicándoles técnicas de estrangulación e inmovilización. Damaris Moya fue arrastrada por el pavimento y le partieron el labio superior, con mucho sangramiento. Donaida Pérez recibió patadas por las costillas por parte de los represores quienes le gritaron "¡Cállate negra!" Fueron llevadas a los calabozos de la sede de la policía política en Placetas y allí permanecieron durante tres horas en la celda #3 de ese centro represivo."

Secretaría Nacional  5/7/2009 Directorio Democrático Cubano: Javier de Céspedes, Orlando Gutiérrez Boronat, and his wife Janisset Rivero Gutiérrez, are veterans of numerous terrorist and far right campaigns against Cuba. Gutiérrez was a leader of the terrorist group Organización para la Liberación de Cuba and a supporter of ARENA in El Salvador.

Sister of Cuban dissident 'Antunez' looks to sway lawmakers  5/7/2009 Miami Herald: "The sister of a prominent black Cuban activist delivered a sharply worded letter from her brother Wednesday to three members of the Congressional Black Caucus who met last month in Cuba with Fidel and Raúl Castro -- but no dissidents. Berta Antúnez's visit comes as efforts to open Cuba to travel and trade heat up on Capitol Hill, and Antúnez said through an interpreter she didn't want Cuban democracy activists to be overlooked. ''They were indifferent to the suffering of the Cuban people, but now the world gets to know who these people are,'' said Antúnez, who was accompanied to the Capitol by Anolan Ponce, a Miami board member of the U.S.-Cuba Democracy Political Action Committee, the leading lobby in support of the U.S. trade embargo against Cuba."

Afro-Cuban dissident seeks US lawmakers' help  5/6/2009 AP: "Rush, and California Democrats Barbara Lee and Laura Richardson spent two hours talking with Castro on April 7 during a visit to the island. The three were part of a larger Congressional Black Caucus delegation that met with Castro's brother, Cuban President Raul Castro, and other officials about improving relations between the two countries. After his return, Rush said he takes "a back seat to no one when it comes to standing up for human rights - anyone's human rights." The FBI, under J. Edgar Hoover, pursued him for his efforts to seek justice for African-Americans and others, including his leadership role in the Black Panthers."

Antunez Letter to CBC Members  5/5/2009 Capitol Hill Cubans: "When we recall the fight and integrity of Martin Luther King and Rosa Parks, without whom you would still be giving up your seat on the bus and would not have the right to vote, we ask ourselves if the legacy of those who conquered the space of opportunity that you enjoy today, has been reserved only for political speeches and has ceased to be a commitment of your generation to justice and truth."

International Support for Cuban Pro-Democracy Activist Antunez  4/23/2009 AP

Líderes Internacionales Democráticos se Solidarizan con Activista Cubano Antúnez a 66 Días de Ayuno  4/23/2009 Directorio Democrático Cubano: "Una docena de líderes de países africanos encabezaron la lista de firmantes, entre ellos Eddie Jarwolo, director del Movimiento Nacional Juvenil para Elecciones Transparentes–Socios para el Desarrollo Democrático en Liberia; el juez Mukete Tahle Itoe de Camerún, el Secretario General de la Red Mundial para la Buena Governancia, una organización anti-corrupción; y Anyakwee Nsirimovu, Director Ejecutivo del Instituto para los Derechos Humanos y Ley Humanitaria en Nigeria, quien ha sido perseguido por su activismo en contra de la corrupción. “Le hago un llamado al gobierno cubano a sostener el concepto de la democracia multipartidista basada en la proliferación de diversos criterios políticos y alternativas comenzando por la tolerancia manifiesta a los políticos de oposición y muestras de preocupación y respeto por la dignidad de cubanos vulnerables como obligación del gobierno, ni como favor, ni como opción,” señaló Eddie Jarwolo."

Coddling Cuba - Why do the members of Congress rushing to befriend the Castros ignore the island's pro-democracy movement?  4/9/2009 WaPo: "Mr. García, better known as "Antúnez," is a renowned advocate of human rights who has often been singled out for harsh treatment because of his color. "The authorities in my country," he has said, "have never tolerated that a black person [could dare to] oppose the regime." His wife, Iris, is a founder of the Rosa Parks Women's Civil Rights Movement, named after an American hero whom Afro-Cubans try to emulate. The couple have been on a hunger strike since Feb. 17, to demand justice for an imprisoned family member. They are part of a substantial and steadily growing civil movement advocating democratic change in Cuba -- one that U.S. advocates of detente with the Castros appear determined to ignore." [Antúnez is largely unknown in Cuba, his fame is due to the exile drumbeats.]

A question about Cuba and Martin Luther King Jr.  4/6/2009 Uncommon Sense: "Cuban civil rights activists remember Martin Luther King Jr."

Agent Kolar, Bush’s new hope for destabilizing Cuba  4/30/2008 Granma: "Kolar did not suspect at that moment that before the year was over his troop of conspirators would be dispersed by a hurricane: a report in December from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) revealing that USAID officials assigned to Cuba concealed the final destination of $65.4 million in grants from this federal agency that went to their friends in Miami and Washington. The suspects indicated by the GAO report included two of Kolar’s best supporters: Frank Calzón and Orlando Gutierrez-Boronat, who received millions in subsidies."

Miami Protesters Say: Jail Killer Cops!”  12/1/2007 Socialist Action: "Rage over the deaths of four unarmed Black men by Miami cops over a 19-day period has sparked angry protests against police brutality. The rash of deaths began on Oct. 25 when a young Haitian man, Gracia "BG" Beaugris, was shot three times while walking home with his father's laundry. While Miami officials promise an investigation, the state attorney's office has not convicted a single cop involved in the death of an African American in 20 years, despite many such cases. No indictments in the recent deaths have been filed."

Rosa Parks would be proud  3/11/2007 Uncommon Sense: "American civil rights icon Rosa Parks didn't take any grief from those who would repress her. And neither does the Cuban human rights activist and independent librarian Juan Bermúdez Toranzo. Journalist Roberto Santana Rodríguez, in a story posted at Payo Libre, reports that the 40-year-old Bermúdez — who runs the "Rosa Parks Independent Library" — was arrested as he left the the U.S. Interest Section in Havana on March 5." [Uncommon Sense is the blog of Marc Masferrer, nephew of El Tigre, who spent time in US Federal Penitentiary for attempting to seize Haiti as a base for anti-Castro activities.]

Miss Parks and Robert Williams  11/15/2005 University of Texas: "Nine years before her own passing, Rosa found her way to the small community of Monroe, North Carolina to speak at the hometown funeral of a man who unlike Rosa was often vilified by the civil rights movement as a dangerous radical who threatened to jeopardize the meager gains of the civil rights movement. She told the mourners of a close friend of Malcolm X that the work of a fiery defender of the world's oppressed should go down in history and never be forgotten."

El quinteto de Buenos Aires: Una sociedad al servicio de EE.UU.  5/14/2004 Argenpress: published 2/04 - "Gutiérrez Boronat es un ex integrante de la Organización para la Liberación de Cuba, acusada de múltiples actividades terroristas dentro y fuera de la isla. En la actualidad encabeza una campaña destinada a demostrar los vínculos de Fidel Castro con el terrorismo internacional. Casualmente, es el argumento esgrimido por los halcones norteamericanos que propician una agresión a Cuba. Junto a su socio Javier de Céspedes recorre América Latina difundiendo sus campañas anticastristas y apoyando a los dirigentes y movimientos de extrema derecha de la región. El año pasado el frente Farabundo Martí de Liberación Nacional (FMLN) de El Salvador pidió su expulsión del país por entrometerse ambos en la campana electoral en apoyo de la fascista ARENA."

Miami Mayor to Apologize for 'Mandela Moment'  7/12/2003 Fox News: "Miami-Dade Mayor Alex Penelas (search) said Monday he would make an official apology to former South African president Nelson Mandela (search) next week. "If Mandela were in Miami today, I think he would receive an official welcome." Penelas said. Thirteen years ago, that was not the case. In June 1990, Miami's politically powerful Cuban exile community protested a visit by Mandela, newly released from a South African prison, for his praise of Fidel Castro (search), arch-enemy of Cuban exiles but friend of the anti-apartheid movement. Despite pleas by local African-American leaders, the cities of Miami and Miami Beach, along with Miami-Dade Country, refused to recognize Mandela when he visited the area for a labor conference. The Miami City Commission rescinded a proclamation honoring Mandela. Tourists angry at the Mandela snub launched a boycott that cost the city $25 million in lost revenue. Business leaders helped end the boycott in 1993, but tensions continued in the 1990s between blacks and Cubans after several incidents where Miami police roughed up Haitians."

Exiles: We had right to make voyage  9/7/2001 Miami Herald: published 9/7/01 - "Invoking the name of civil rights figure Rosa Parks, Sánchez said he would challenge a presidential proclamation signed by Bill Clinton in 1996 that was designed to prevent Americans from causing a confrontation with the Cuban government in its territorial waters."

Nonviolence of Castro's Foes Still Wears a Very Tough Face  2/28/1996 NYT: "The change in tactics by Mr. Basulto is part of a broader movement among some anti-Castro exiles here, from the crude military actions of the past to nonviolent but aggressive methods of protest. Invoking the legacy of Gandhi and Martin Luther King, his group and others are using militant methods of civil disobedience to promote democratic change within Cuba and harsher measures against Mr. Castro by the United States… Mr. Basulto, who last November helped organize a seminar for exiles by the Martin Luther King Jr. Institute for Nonviolence, has also donated money to dissidents in Cuba on behalf of his group and belongs to a support organization formed to help them."

Spreading King's message  2/8/1996 Miami Times: "Brothers to the Rescue, the Cuban American group that made a name for Itself spotting Cuban refugees fleeing across the waters, has found an ally in its new mission to help change the communist government in Havana. Members of the group took the two-day course at the Florida Martin Luther King Institute for Nonviolence last November. They marched in the King Day parade and dropped 500,000 leaflets over Cuba calling for civil disobedience and nonviolent resistance."

El Maleconazo en La Habana 5 de agosto de 1994  5/8/1994 YouTube: [Video of the famous 1994 riot, said to be a race riot by Afrocubans.]

Miami Police Officer Is Acquitted In Racially Charged Slaying Case  5/29/1993 NYT: "In a decision met with anger and dismay among blacks in Miami, a Hispanic police officer who was convicted there in 1989 on two counts of manslaughter in the shooting deaths of two young black men was acquitted today in a second trial on the same charges. William Lozano, the 33-year-old, Colombian-born police officer who has been the focal point of the most racially charged case in Florida in the last decade, threw his arms up in joy and embraced his lawyers when the verdict was announced late this afternoon. But relatives of the men he killed broke into tears and left the courtroom of Judge W. Thomas Spencer, saying they were at a loss to explain the decision of the six-member jury."

Miami Journal; Boycott Over Visit Of Mandela Lives On  7/13/1991 NYT: "The City Commission rescinded a proclamation welcoming Mr. Mandela, and Mayor Xavier Suarez and four other mayors from the region openly criticized Mr. Mandela for not denouncing human rights violations in Cuba. Miami's blacks, who make up about 21 percent of the city's 359,000 residents, took that as a snub of royal proportions, an insult added to decades of economic, social and political injury. In response, on July 17, 1990, a small group of the city's black leaders began an economic boycott against the tourism industry, arguably the region's most important business. Now almost a year old, the boycott continues, and organizers recently declared their intention to turn up the heat a bit by sending out videotaped messages highly critical of Miami to organizations around the country likely to hold conventions or refer people to the area. The videos will urge them to keep their convention and vacation business away. Giant cruise ships still glide silently through Biscayne Bay and rental cars still seem to take up more than two-thirds of every parking lot, but the boycott has taken its toll. A spokesman for the boycott group, H. T. Smith, a lawyer, estimated that the campaign has cost the area $27 million in convention business. Officials from the Greater Miami Convention and Visitors Bureau estimate that of more than $200 million in convention business annually, about 19 conventions or meetings worth about $8 million have been canceled." [The real number was likely far higher.]

Mandela Travels to Miami Amid Protests Over Castro  6/21/1990 NYT: "Before Mr. Mandela arrived, five of the region's Cuban-American Mayors, including Xavier Suarez of Miami, signed a declaration criticizing Mr. Mandela for not denouncing human rights violations in Cuba. Today, newspapers in the region carried advertisements asking Mr. Mandela to reconsider his statements of solidarity with the Cuban leader and small airplanes plied the skies trailing banners with protest messages."

Spreading King's message, 2/8/1996

THE MIAMI TIMES
4A Thursday. February 8, 1996

Brothers to the Rescue, the Cuban American group that made a name for Itself spotting Cuban refugees fleeing across the waters, has found an ally in its new mission to help change the communist government in Havana. Members of the group took the two-day course at the Florida Martin Luther King Institute for Nonviolence last November. They marched in the King Day parade and dropped 500,000 leaflets over Cuba calling for civil disobedience and nonviolent resistance.

Now the group is hoping that the Cuban government will permit a meeting In Havana on nonviolence and peaceful protest as a means of effecting change. Members are hoping that President Fidel Castro's avowed respect for Dr. King would be enough to facilitate the meeting. Whether or not It takes place, it Is clear that this group has come around to the belief that change can be brought about in Cuba in the same way that it was brought about by Dr. King in the United States.

There may be some, truth there but the reality is that there has been more than thtee decades of confrontation between the exile community and the United States government, on the one hand, and, the Castro government, on the other. The exile community is, for the most part, still committed to the violent overthrow of the regime in Havana.

In throwing Dr. King's principle into the volatile mix of Cuban exile politics, Brothers to the Rescue is showing a willingness to be creative. But it is unlikely to accomplish much until there is wider commitment in the exile community and leaders emerge who are willing to do as Dr.King did and stake their lives on their belief.