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AfroCubaWeb
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Ros Lehtinen and Cuba Travel
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Ileana Ros put out a press release on 1/3/12 attacking the Smithsonian Cuba tours, which start at $5450.
'the Smithsonian Institution’s, a taxpayer-funded entity, upcoming trips to Cuba under a so-called People-to-People Cultural Exchange Program:"
As she well knows, these trips are pricey and not paid for by tax dollars, quite the contrary. Moneys go to both governments! The Cubans have to pay their US agribusiness bill.
"“The Smithsonian’s 10-day trips to Cuba will amount to little more than a tropical vacation. Americans participating in these trips will not see the brutal reality of the Castro dictatorship. They will not be visiting run down hospitals where sick Cubans have to bring their own bed sheets and medications, nor will they have the opportunity to sit in a court room where peaceful pro-democracy advocates are sentenced because due process and a real judicial system are non-existent."
OK, wealthier folks spending $5K on a cultural visit is a wonderful tropical vacation. Americans will talk with all sorts of Cubans in ways she cannot control, which is alien to her Plantocracy mentality. As for the real judicial system, does she mean the one in Miami where the police routinely carry out random extrajudicial killings of afrodescendientes? I won't even touch the medical system, where so many Americans have no insurance and suffer from an onslaught of chemically induced illnesses.
“The nature of the Smithsonian’s upcoming trips to Cuba becomes clear merely by looking at the ad promoting it. [Travel to Cuba: People-to-People Cultural Exchange] The ad fails to mention that Cuba is a state-sponsor of terrorism or that Castro’s thugs repeatedly and routinely beat and harass the innocent Ladies in White while they peacefully march down a street. It does not mention that an American citizen is being held hostage by the regime simply for seeking to lift the veil of censorship that the dictatorship imposes on the Cuban people."
Ileana Ros is widely recognized as one of the US's more serious practicioners of state terrorism, having energetically and effectively backed Orlando Bosch, Luis Posada Carriles, Guillermo Novo, and others. In this she continues the Plantocracy's bully boy tactics, rancheadores slave catchers gunning down the Maroons, like the Perez family in Guantanamo, or their masters, the Bacardis, the Fanjuls, and that ilk. But she goes far beyond that, having joined forces with the ultra-derechistas of the Zionist movement, such as those who protect Mujahedeen e Kalk, the Iranian anti-Shah, anti-clerical cult whose abundant funds of unknown provenance bribe the likes of Howard Dean and various other high officials. They are believed to be involved in the current wave of scientist assassinations in Iran, a destabilizing factor. Not to mention her links to the number two industry in the world, narcotics, right after armaments. She has supported Luis Posada Carriles, whose work has been ably detailed by DEA agent Celerino Castillo, back to when he was second in command of the contra resupply operation at Ilopango Air Force base in Salvador, at Hangars 4 and 5. As for the Ladies in White, even if tales of their beatings were true, how would Miami react to paid agents of a hostile foreign power, say Iran, carrying on there? We have the well established moral equivalency of a beating in Cuba equals many murders elsewhere. And in fact, there are those who say it is not true the Ladies in White were beaten, as in the Chismes section on this site: "Reliable eyewitnesses state that when the dissident Ladies in White were assaulted recently during one of their protest marches through Havana, the security forces and party members made every effort to protect them from a hostile crowd. In one instance that did not work, that was the instance used in the propaganda video that is circulating about the event."
"Americans will not be able to interact with a typical Cuban family as they conduct their daily desperate search for food, stop by a dormant newspaper’s office that no longer operates because there is no freedom of the press, or visit the ever-growing prisons where countless political prisoners languish in their cells for exercising freedom of expression. These are the real cultural experiences in Cuba. Instead, these tourists will experience a false depiction of Cuba through a biased and censored ‘tour’ of the island."
Yes, and how many of her constituents find they cannot live on social security of $500/months, but live quite well on that in Cuba, where many are staying illegally? And can she give us an accounting of all the economic activity she has personally stopped in Cuba? Such as these trips she is trying to suppress? As for prisons, she needs to do some basic math and understand the fact that the US is the world champion in locking people up, if that is possible for her.
'“It is deeply disappointing that the Smithsonian Institute, primarily funded by American taxpayers, is facilitating access to U.S. dollars, which enables the Castro regime to make a hefty profit. The trips not only illustrate a blatant disregard for human rights conditions on the island by an entity that receives U.S. government funding, but provide the deplorable Havana tyranny a sense of legitimacy.”
Get with the program, Ros. Agribusiness needs the money, the US needs the jobs. These will not be affected by your concern for human rights, like your concern for the rights of the MEK terrorists, or for the many Cuban American terrorists you support, not to mention your support of murderous countries such as Honduras, Israel, Colombia and the other serial rights violators.
Congresswoman
objects to Smithsonian tours to Cuba 1/4/2012 WaPo: "In
a blistering press release, Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.) said the
Smithsonian was helping what she called “the deplorable Havana tyranny” by
sponsoring trips to Cuba."
Ros-Lehtinen
says Smithsonian trips to Cuba a cash gift to Castro 1/4/2012 The
Hill: "Ros-Lehtinen stopped short of saying she would move to block
the Smithsonian trips but said the visits would do nothing to help Americans to
see the brutality of the Cuban regime. "Instead, these tourists will
experience a false depiction of Cuba through a biased and censored ‘tour’ of
the island," she said. "The Smithsonian's 10-day trips to Cuba will
amount to little more than a tropical vacation," she said. "Americans
participating in these trips will not see the brutal reality of the Castro
dictatorship."
Travel
to Cuba: People-to-People Cultural Exchange 1/4/2012 Smithsonian: "Smithsonian
will offer multiple departures of a new People-to-People Cultural Exchange
Program to Cuba in 2012. Thanks to a special license issued by the U.S.
Department of the Treasury, Smithsonian Institution invites you to participate
in this meaningful Cultural Exchange program with the Cuban people who are
involved in the arts, cultural traditions, agriculture, natural history and
education. •Travel Dates are: May 4 - 13; May 11 - 20; November 9 - 18;
November 30 - December 9, 2012*. (*pending license renewal)"
Ros-Lehtinen
accused Smithsonian of "supporting Cuba and terrorism 1/4/2012 Walter
Lippman: by Jean-Guy Allard - "Hysterical, Ros-Lehtinen accused
prestigious institute of "supporting Cuba and Terrorism"
Ros-Lehtinen
Concerned about Smithsonian-Sponsored Trips to Cuba 1/3/2012 US
House: "“The nature of the Smithsonian’s upcoming trips to Cuba
becomes clear merely by looking at the ad promoting it. The ad fails to mention
that Cuba is a state-sponsor of terrorism or that Castro’s thugs repeatedly
and routinely beat and harass the innocent Ladies in White while they peacefully
march down a street. It does not mention that an American citizen is being held
hostage by the regime simply for seeking to lift the veil of censorship that the
dictatorship imposes on the Cuban people."
Ros-Lehtinen:
says the presence of Cuban children in the United States is “a danger to
national security” 10/22/2011 Cuba Soidarity: "The
presence of the 22 children of Cuban children’s theater group La Colmenita
(The Beehive) is part of a policy that “undermines U.S. foreign policy
priorities and interests of national security,” said Congresswoman Ileana
Ros-Lehtinen, Chair of of Foreign Affairs of the House of Representatives.
Ros-Lehtinen is famous for her links with terrorist circles of Cuban
Miami."
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