Post by Dan Christensen[snipping portions of PL's posting already debunked here, or too lame
to bother with]
Post by Dan ChristensenPost by Dan ChristensenPost by PLPost by Dan ChristensenPost by PLBROTHERS TO THE RESCUE SHOOTDOWN
Tape suggests Raúl Castro ordered Brothers shootdown
[snip]
For a thorough debunking(snip)
People will have a good laugh and see your falsified pictures.
No falsified pictures, Mr. Lobbyist.
(snip)
False.
You had to admit you posted a picture of a plane that is painted in
military style as "proof" that BTTR planes were waring military colors
like that one of which you claimed it was owned by BTTR.
[snip]
Bullshit. There is a picture of a Cessna O-2 being used in what seems
be a leaflet drop over Vietnam. As a follow-up, there is a picture of
what is probably a plane formerly owned or used by the BTTR.
"probably" Dan?
Thanks for exposing yourself as a joke.
All your site is no more than lies and innuendo.
Post by Dan ChristensenWhile it
sports a new, US Navy-style paint-job today,
thanks for confirming that the paint job was put on by a person not
related in anyway to BTTR years after the shootdown
Post by Dan Christensenit is thought to be same
plane (based on it is registration number) that was referred to at the
UN debate (cited in my article).
You mean the one Alarcon falsely claimed to be owned by BTTR.
That lie was exposed with registration data and statements from the
current owner.
In short: you put a picture on your website of a plane owned by a person
that has no links to BTTR, that Alarcon falsely claimed ever belonged to
BTTR in the UN (a lie I exposed) and that was not involved in the action
as "proof" that the BTTR plane had military markings.
That says about all about how "factual" your concoctions on internhet are.
What a joke you are.
Post by Dan ChristensenPost by Dan ChristensenPost by Dan ChristensenPost by PLPost by Dan ChristensenPost by PLCASTRO'S DRUG-RUNNING LINKS PART 1
By Ernesto Betancourt
[snip]
Get real!(snip)
Get real! Betancourt is known to be a US agent!
(snip)
Sla,nder doesn't change facts.
[snip]
Quoting a known US agent
(snip)
I see you dropped the CIA claim.
backtracking desperate Dan?
As I said: slander doesn't change facts.
Address the issues for a change desperate Dan.
Castro has been linked to drugs trade by some of his own generals.
Cuba and Cocaine:
Original Air Date: February 5, 1991
Written, Produced, and Directed by Stephanie Tepper and William Cran
Gen. del PINO:
Several times I received orders from Raul Castro's office and also from
General Abrantes's office to let the airplane cross over Cuba.
Mr. de BEUNZA:
[through interpreter] Perez Betancourt told me that Aldo Santamaria was
involved in drug trafficking. He said Aldo was following Fidel and Raul's
orders but he was doing it reluctantly whereas he, Perez Betancourt, say
that if he were the boss of the navy, he would be happy to do it because
they were Fidel's orders, and that surprised me.
Mr. LLOVIO-MENENDEZ:
Tony de la Guardia knew that Fidel was involved in drug trafficking. He was
the only living witness except perhaps Raul Castro and Abrantes who knew
that Fidel was involved in drug trafficking. Fidel had to get rid of him.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/drugs/archive/cubaandcocaine.html
here are the issues again.
Address them instead of snipping them.
Cuba has been on the list of the watchdog Genocide Watch.
Mission Statement of Genocide Watch
Genocide Watch exists to predict, prevent, stop, and punish genocide
and other forms of mass murder. We seek to raise awareness and
influence public policy concerning potential and actual genocide. Our
purpose is to build an international movement to prevent and stop
genocide.
http://www.genocidewatch.org/aboutus.html
Genocide Watch is the Coordinator of the International Campaign to End
Genocide. This Campaign is an international, de-centralized, global
effort of many organizations. In addition to its work for
institutional reform of the United Nations, it is a coalition that
brings pressure upon governments that can act on early warnings of
genocide through the U.N. Security Council. The Campaign has its own
NGO early warning system and its own website: www.genocidewatch.org .
Bypassing the secrecy of government intelligence services, the
Campaign has created an early warning network to provide truly
confidential communication links that allow relief and health workers,
whistle-blowers, and ordinary citizens to create an alternative
intelligence network that will warn of ethnic conflict before it turns
into genocide.
The International Campaign to End Genocide covers genocide as it is
defined in the Genocide Convention: "the intentional destruction, in
whole or in part, of a national, ethnical, racial or religious group,
as such." It also covers political mass murder, ethnic cleansing, and
other genocide-like crimes against humanity. It will not get bogged
down in legal debates during mass killing.
http://www.genocidewatch.org/campaigntoendgenocide/about.html
Their page listing Cuba:
http://www.genocidewatch.org/images/GenocidesandPoliticidessince1945withstagesin2008.pdf
Raul Castro has been directly implicated in drug running and extra-
judicial killings:
BROTHERS TO THE RESCUE SHOOTDOWN
Tape suggests Raúl Castro ordered Brothers shootdown
A recording purportedly of Raúl Castro suggests he gave
direct orders for the shootdown of Brothers to the Rescue planes.
By WILFREDO CANCIO ISLA
Cuban Defense Minister Raúl Castro discussed plans for the 1996
shootdowns of two Brothers to the Rescue airplanes during a meeting
with official journalists just weeks after the event, according to an
audio tape obtained by El Nuevo Herald.
In the tape, a voice identified as Raúl's details the planning
carried out during a meeting of military officers around Jan. 13,
1996, the day Brothers aircraft allegedly had overflown Havana to
drop anti-government leaflets.
"I made it clear that [the decision to shoot] had to be
decentralized if we wanted it to be effective, so we gave the power
to five generals," the voice says. The Brothers airplanes "were
going to escalate this, and we had no other recourse but to make this
decision.
"I told them [MiG pilots] to try to knock them down over [Cuban]
territory, but they [the Brothers aircraft] would enter Havana and go
away... Of course, with one of those missiles, air-to-air, what
comes down is a ball of fire that will fall on the city," the voice
says. "Well, knock them down into the sea when they reappear. If
not, consult with the people in authority."
The two Brothers Cessna C-337 were shot down by MiGs Feb. 24, killing
Armando Alejandre, Carlos Costa, Mario de la Peña and Pablo Morales.
Brothers to the Rescue has denied any violations of Cuban airspace.
The 11-minute recording was taped during a June 21, 1996,
conversation at a Cuban Communist Party office in the eastern city of
Holguín between Castro, government officials and journalists from the
government's Radio Rebelde network.
The authenticity of the recording could not be independently
confirmed. A telephone call Sunday to the Cuban diplomatic mission in
Washington went unanswered.
RECORDING'S SOURCE
The recording was obtained by a Havana journalist who requested
anonymity for his own security. Cubans in Miami who listened to it
say they believe it is indeed Raúl's voice. The Holguín newspaper
carried a report on Raúl's presence there the day after the meeting.
The recording was delivered to El Nuevo Herald through Nueva Prensa
Cubana, a Miami agency that represents several dissident journalists
in Cuba.
On two occasions, the voice on the recording is heard warning the
government journalists to "publish nothing about this."
Cuban leader Fidel Castro told CBS News anchor Dan Rather in April of
1996 that he had given general orders that violations of Cuban
airspace should be stopped, but that neither he nor Raúl had given
the specific order for the Feb. 24 shootdown.
Fidel Castro temporarily ceded power to his younger brother three
weeks ago after undergoing "complicated" intestinal surgery. He is
reported to be recovering but has not been seen in public since
although photos and a video have been released.
Cuba has long maintained that the Brothers' Cessna 337 planes were
shot down within its territorial waters. But an investigation by the
United Nations' International Civil Aviation Organization concluded
they were well outside Cuban waters.
The tape does not specify the names of the five generals empowered to
order the shootdowns. In August 2003, federal prosecutors in Miami
indicted three Cuban officers for the attacks: Gen. Rubén Martínez
Puente, then head of the anti-aircraft command, and MiG
pilot-brothers Alberto Lorenzo and Francisco Pérez Pérez.
ON FULL ALERT
In the recording, the voice says that Cuban military forces were put
on full alert after Brothers airplanes allegedly violated Cuban
airspace on July 13, 1995.
'One MiG-23 got behind them... 'I have him, I have him,' he said.
'Let him go,' he was ordered," says the voice, adding later that the
order to stop the incursions remained in force as of the Holguín
meeting. "The order stays."
In the tape, the voice also says that just before the Holguín meeting
the speaker ordered the emergency landing of a plane carrying Fidel
Castro from central Cuba to Havana because air force radars had
detected "several" suspicious marks in Havana province.
"I ordered that the plane land in Varadero," the voice says. 'It
was necessary to say that the order was mine. 'Make it land in
Varadero!' and [Fidel] told them to obey it."
José Basulto, president of Brothers to the Rescue, and relatives of
the dead pilots have long insisted on bringing Raúl Castro before
U.S. justice for the shootdowns.
"This is the type of proof we have been seeking from day one as
confirmation that the murder was premeditated," said Maggie
Alejandre Khuly, sister of pilot Armando Alejandre.
Basulto, who was in another plane during the attacks, said the tape
"points to Raúl Castro as the direct source of the decision to down
the airplanes... This is a record of the plans for the crime."
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CubaVerdad/message/25231
Cuba and Cocaine:
Original Air Date: February 5, 1991
Written, Produced, and Directed by Stephanie Tepper and William Cran
Gen. del PINO:
Several times I received orders from Raul Castro's office and also
from
General Abrantes's office to let the airplane cross over Cuba.
Mr. de BEUNZA:
[through interpreter] Perez Betancourt told me that Aldo Santamaria
was
involved in drug trafficking. He said Aldo was following Fidel and
Raul's
orders but he was doing it reluctantly whereas he, Perez Betancourt,
say
that if he were the boss of the navy, he would be happy to do it
because
they were Fidel's orders, and that surprised me.
Mr. LLOVIO-MENENDEZ:
Tony de la Guardia knew that Fidel was involved in drug trafficking.
He was
the only living witness except perhaps Raul Castro and Abrantes who
knew
that Fidel was involved in drug trafficking. Fidel had to get rid of
him.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/drugs/archive/cubaandcocaine.html
More evidence:
CASTRO'S DRUG-RUNNING LINKS PART 1
By Ernesto Betancourt
The New Australian
Australia
Colaboración:
Paul Echaniz
Agosto 28, 2001
Castro's links to drugs go back to the time when he was in the Sierra
Maestra. When he survived the disastrous landing of the Granma in
1956, the
first local protector he had was Crescencio Perez, a local peasant
"capo"
who controlled production and marketing of many crops, including
marihuana.
When some of the revolutionaries realized who their savior was and
complained to Castro, he told them that for the time being they had to
depend on him. Such issues would be dealt with afterwards. Later on,
Crescencio became a peasant revolutionary hero.
Once in power, Castro was not, and still is not, averse to associate
with
drug or any illegal or unsavory activity as long as it helps him stay
in
power. There are four drug cases involving Cuban officials at the
highest
level which have resulted in U.S. grand jury indictments:
a. In 1982, four high ranking Cuban officials were indicted by the
Guillot
Lara Gran Jury for arranging a drug smuggling operation through which
drugs
were brought into the U.S. in exchange for smuggling weapons to the
M-19
guerrilla movement in Colombia, which was being supported by Castro.
The
officers indicted included Admiral Aldo Santamaría, who was the Cuban
Navy
Chief and one of the closest Castro collaborators; Fernando Ravelo,
Ambassador to Colombia and later to Nicaragua; René Rodríguez Cruz,
President of the Cuban People's Friendship Institute, a close Castro
collaborator, since deceased; and, Gonzalo Bassols, a Cuban diplomat
accredited to Colombia at the time. The most important of them in
terms of
relevance to the issue under discussion is Admiral Santamaría. He was
a
member of the Honor Tribunal condemning Gral. Arnaldo Ochoa!
b. One of the central events in the Noriega indictment and trial
involved
Castro's mediation between Noriega and the drug cartel over the
seizure of a
cocaine laboratory in Panama which Noriega had allowed to operate
there in
exchange for a payment of $4 million dollars. According to the
indictment,
Noriega traveled to Cuba on June 27, 1984, at Castro's request, on his
way
back from Paris. Castro offered his good offices to settle the
disagreement
between the drug cartel and General Noriega. A mediator role that
requires
good relations with the drug lords. Good relations that extend to the
present.
c. In 1989, Robert Vesco was indicted by the Carlos Lehder Grand Jury
in
Jacksonville, Fla. for arranging safe passage for drug planes over
Cuban air
space. According to the indictment, Vesco obtained approval from Cuban
authorities for this arrangement. Later on, in an interview over Radio
Martí, former Cuban Air Force Deputy Chief, General Rafael del Pino,
who
defected in 1987, reported that all the planes flying over Cuba which
veered
off from the approved air corridors for commercial and private
aircraft, had
to be cleared with the office of Raúl Castro at MINFAR.
In a program broadcast over Cuban TV on the Ochoa trial, one can see
an
indignant Fidel Castro calling SOBs those who pointed out Raul's
involvement
in drug traffic. But, his indignation does not explain away the truth:
only
Raúl Castro had overall command of the forces which allowed the
smugglers to
land in Cuba and provided them radar assistance and protection from
U.S.
Coast Guard cutters.
d. But the most worrisome of all the indictments for Castro was the
one that
ended in the conviction, on April 23, 1989, of Reinaldo Ruiz and his
son
Rubén. Reinaldo Ruiz was a cousin of Captain Miguel Ruiz Poo of Cuba's
Ministry of the Interior. The Ruizes were allowed by Cuban authorities
to
land their plane at the Varadero Beach airport for refueling after
dropping
their drug cargoes off the Cuban coast near the Bahamas. Drug
smuggling
motorboats (lancheros), would come from Florida to pick up the
cargoes.
Cuban Coast Guard radar monitored U.S. Coast Guard cutters and helped
the
Alancheros evade them.
These four indictments provide ample evidence, from US judicial
sources,
that the Castro regime, at the highest level, was involved in drug-
running
activities. It has been claimed that these activities may have been
undertaken by rogue Cuban government officers on their own and without
Castro's knowledge or, much less, approval. Nobody who has the most
limited
inkling of how the Cuban regime works could give credit to this
explanation.
True, Castro wants the world to believe there is such a possibility
because
he is in utmost fear of meeting the Noriega fate.
As will be shown in the next section, a search for the ability to deny
any
potential Castro involvement in drug traffic was one of the reasons
for the
Ochoa trial. Although, in order to avoid falling into the trap of
reductionism to a single cause, it is acknowledged that the need to
dispose
of an emerging highly popular rival also played a role. Ochoa's
actions
reveal the intention to challenge Castro's power monopoly in many
directions, in Cuba's relations with the Soviets, in directing
military
operations overseas and in managing the drug traffic.
The Ochoa Trial, Drugs and the Castro Brothers
The implications of the last US indictment, the Ruiz case, require
some
amplification because it is the central event leading to the Ochoa
trial. It
is precisely the use of Cuban air space and refueling facilities, as
well as
providing drug smugglers radar support to evade the US Coast Guard
that was
one of the central issues raised during the trial against Ochoa. This,
despite the fact that, at no time during that period, was Ochoa in
command
of the forces involved in controlling Cuban air space, territorial
waters
and shores in the areas where these operations were taking place.
However, this does not exonerate Ochoa. He just did not realize the
consequences of becoming entangled with Ministry of Interior
operations
fully approved by Fidel Castro and directed by his brother Raul. Once
discovered, Ochoa, along with some other key operatives, were to be
made
sacrificial lambs to save Castro's good name and the reputation of the
revolution.
Radio Martí was able to interview Reinaldo Ruiz in prison shortly
after he
was sentenced in 1989. We were told we had to wait for the sentencing
to
avoid the implication that what he said was the result of some plea
bargaining. In the interview with our reporter, Ruiz explained that he
had
been involved in a MININT people-smuggling operation through Panama
and
wanted to make use of it himself to get some of his relatives out of
Cuba.
It was while he was engaged in this effort that he claims he was
approached
by his cousin, Captain Ruiz Poo, to use his people-smuggling network
for
drug smuggling into the U.S.
At the time, Captain Miguel Ruiz Poo was working for the convertible
currency (MC) operation of Cuba's MININT, which was headed by Colonel
Tony
de la Guardia, another of the officers executed by Castro. Reinaldo
Ruiz
claims he agreed to do it after some hesitancy. His son flew as
copilot of
the planes landing at Varadero and he himself went into Cuba on
various
occasions, enjoying VIP treatment from Cuban authorities. Reinaldo
Ruiz
stated that, in some occasions, the Cubans even took him to Havana as
a
government guest. Mr. Ruiz claimed in the interview that he had no
doubt
that what he was doing had the approval of Castro. As an exile, he
would
have never taken the risk of going into Cuba had he had any doubt
about who
was behind those activities. A most plausible explanation.
But the Ruiz operation had been infiltrated by the DEA. The pilot of
the
plane was an undercover DEA agent and he recorded in videotape many of
the
conversations they had. The U.S. requested the extradition of Reinaldo
Ruiz
from Panama early in 1988. According to Reinaldo Ruiz, he was
surprised when
Panama granted the request. However, he was convinced all along that
the
Cubans would get him out somehow before his being convicted. According
to
the Norberto Fuentes report, Fidel Castro considered this setback was
a
consequence of Raul's incompetence in handling the operation.
As far back as 1980, the Minister of Interior at the time, Ramiro
Valdez,
stopped marihuana smuggling operations ordered by Fidel when Castro
refused
to issue written orders to him to undertake them. In early 1983, the
Minister of Interior ordered Tony de la Guardia to make a feasibility
study
for a drug money laundering center at Cayo Largo, south of Cuba, and
de la
Guardia is also asked by Fidel to establish contacts with Pablo
Escobar, the
Colombian drug cartel head. Castro initially delayed a proposal from
the
Colombian M-19 movement to engage in an exchange of weapons for coca
because
the proposal had been addressed directly to him by Jaime Bateman.
Evidently,
after Bateman's death in an airplane accident, a more discrete
arrangement
was made - leaving Castro out of the loop - that led to the above
mentioned
Guillot Lara Grand Jury.
In the Fall of 1983 Fidel told Abrantes, who was really acting as
Minister
of Interior, and two MININT officers, Jose Luis Padron and Tony de la
Guardia, that he wanted to be shown the feasibility of undertaking
drug
operations while overcoming three obstacles: the requirements
established by
Ramiro Valdez of written orders, the clumsiness of the Chief of the
Navy,
Aldo Santamaria and other Raul collaborators, already indicted in the
US, or
the level of formal commitment expected by the Colombian M-19. In
other
words, as Fidel Castro was moving towards expanding his involvement in
the
drug traffic, he wanted to ensure deniability for himself.
When Reinaldo Ruiz was convicted on April 23, 1989, the contents of
some of
the videotapes recorded by the DEA undercover agent were given ample
coverage by mass media, among them one in which Reinaldo Ruiz is seen
saying
that the money they were paying "went straight into Castro's drawers."
He
also alleged that, on one occasion, while they were waiting at the
Varadero
Airport tarmac, Raúl Castro was at the airport and one of his
bodyguards
approached them requesting marihuana.
One can imagine the panic this caused among Castro and his
collaborators.
Neglect of the fate of a low minion in the drug operation being run by
Cuban
intelligence all of the sudden had entangled directly the
revolutionary
leadership. And in an American court of all places. Plausible denial
was no
longer credible.
http://www.lanuevacuba.com/archivo/e-betancourt-88.htm
CASTRO'S DRUG-RUNNING LINKS PART 2
By Ernesto Betancourt
The New Australian
Australia
Colaboración:
Paul Echaniz
Septiembre 1-2, 2001
According to one of the Cuban TV tapes of the Ochoa trial, it is
precisely
on April 24, 1989, the day after the conviction of the Ruizes, that
Captain
Miguel Ruiz Poo got a call from Major General Abelardo Colomé, a close
collaborator of Raúl Castro, who is now Minister of Interior and at
that
time was head of MINFAR intelligence, inquiring on what was going on.
In his
testimony, Colonel de la Guardia stated that he tried to calm down
Captain
Ruiz Poo by explaining that General Colomé was inquiring about the
status of
collections from the operation.
It is this conversation that led to the dramatic testimony seen later
on in
the TV program covering the trial, showing Captain Ruiz' pathetic
effort to
save himself by referring to comments by other accused officers about
higher
ups being involved in the drug operation. After Captain Ruiz started
sobbing
uncontrollably in the witness stand, he is hurriedly removed from the
court
and the next day he is not allowed to expand on his clarification by
the
prosecutor, while other witnesses are brought to deny that any
involvement
at the highest level was ever discussed and to question that anybody
had
grounds to even think of such a possibility. The reaction to the
highly
emotional revelation of a clearly terrified witness reveals that the
higher
ups involvement issue was central to the rationale for the trial.
One version of the Ochoa trial, which reached Radio Martí at the time,
was
that Ochoa was preparing to challenge Castro. He had discrete
encouragement
from the Soviets, Gorbachev had visited the island earlier in 1989,
and was
not very pleased with Castro's defiant stance towards Glasnost and
Perestroika. General Ochoa twice attended Soviet military schools and
developed close links with Soviet generals when he commanded Cuban
forces in
Ethiopia and Angola. Under this version, knowing about Castro's plans
to
cooperate with the drug cartels in exchange for massive investments in
Cuban
tourism, Ochoa sent his aide Captain Martínez, also later executed by
Castro, to meet Pablo Escobar in Colombia to get evidence for the
challenge
he was planning.
Another, much more plausible version, emerges from the Norberto
Fuentes
report. It reveals that Ochoa was distrusted by Raul, who sent General
Leopoldo Cintras Frias as Ochoa's deputy in Angola to try to control
him. In
a preview of the trial that took place later on, on May 28, 1989, Raul
gave
Ochoa a dressing down, while already under preliminary arrest, in the
presence of Grals Ulises Rosales del Toro and Abelardo Colome. Raul
raised
with Ochoa, for the first time, the issue of sexual orgies, while
adding as
factors under consideration that he:
i) openly disobeyed Fidel's orders in waging the last phase of the war
in
Angola;
ii) was developing too close a relationship with Soviet generals there
(at a
time when Fidel had given orders to Minister Abrantes to start
watching
Soviet contacts with Cuban officials);
iii) had supported the attack on La Tablada garrison in Buenos Aires
by
Argentine guerrillas without having cleared it with his superiors;
and,
iv) more worrisome of all, had established his own connection to Pablo
Escobar to engage in drug operations.
This last issue involved a project to build a coca laboratory in
Angola in
association with Pablo Escobar; for which, Ochoa had asked Tony de la
Guardia to take charge of developing a marketing network in the US and
Western Europe. Up to that time, the drug smuggling operations
undertaken by
Tony de la Guardia on behalf of the Ochoa/Escobar group, which had
started
early in 1987, had generated small amounts of money, the rate was
about
$1,200 per kg of coca, and were aborted on several occasions due to
sabotage, apparently encouraged by Castro. As a result, Ochoa was
moving to
set up his own smuggling operation independent of the MININT MC
Department.
From the Fuentes report, it is evident that Castro was engaged in
many
simultaneous drug smuggling arrangements. In the end, Fidel emerges as
a
distant Godfather, always in the background, having the final say in
deals
with Vesco, Ledher and others. Some of the deals proposed involved
substantial amounts. For example, through one of Tony de la Guardia
subordinates, Lt. Col. Rolando Castañeda Izquierdo, Carlos Ledher
proposed a
$ 7 million a week arrangement for regular shipments. That would
generate a
flow of $ 364 million dollars a year. It is deals of this magnitude
that
could explain how Cuba finances the gap in its balance of payments. In
another such deal, Abrantes, under Fidel orders, instructs Tony de la
Guardia to find buyers in Europe for $ 50 million dollars of coca.
Of all the sins of Ochoa, challenging Castro as the Cuban Godfather,
was his
worst offense. It was not only a threat to Castro's absolute rule, it
also
endangered his careful efforts at covering up Cuba's involvement in
drug
smuggling. The Ruizes sentence precipitated events.
With his obsession to give a legal cover to the most arbitrary actions
he
wants to undertake, Castro decided to orchestrate a trial to eliminate
the
threat Ochoa presented to his leadership of the regime and, in the
process,
to cleanse himself from any involvement in drug traffic. To ensure
their
silence, he executed the four that not only knew about his
entanglement with
drug trafficking, but were closely involved in Ochoa's operations.
Later on, he would also get rid of the Minister of Interior, Jose
Abrantes.
Abrantes was dismissed as Minister of Interior as a result of the
Ochoa
trial, but not because he was involved with Ochoa. Quite the contrary.
He
was the executor of the Castro orders in relation to drug operations.
It is
quite possible that Raul saw in the whole mess the opportunity of
bringing
the MININT under this control. He was able to do so by placing Gral.
Abelardo Colome, one of his most trusted officers, in charge of the
MININT.
After his dismissal, Abrantes was tried and sentenced to prison for
omission
in preventing the corrupt activities of his subordinates. While in
prison in
Guanajay, on January 18, 1991, he had a confrontation with Gral.
Patricio de
la Guardia, Tony's twin brother, one of the defendants at the Ochoa
trial
sentenced to prison. According to the Fuentes report, Abrantes told
Patricio
that Fidel had authorized everything. Patricio was indignant upon the
confirmation that his brother was executed for having undertaken tasks
ordered by Fidel. On January 21, 1991, three days later, Abrantes died
in
prison. +Granma reported he had a heart attack. Actually, it is
reported he
died as a result of an overdose of a heart medicine he needed, a
frequent
outcome in Castro's jails.
Those defendants in the Ochoa trial serving time in prison got a
warning:
revealing the involvement of Castro in the drug operations could be a
fatal
indiscretion. Meanwhile, as recent events reveal, Castro continues
tolerating drug traffic through Cuba, the crime for which he executed
Ochoa,
free of any local competition in his role as Godfather.
For example, in January, 1996, Jorge Gordito Cabrera, was arrested in
the
Florida Keys and charged with importing 6,000 pounds of cocaine. At
the time
of his arrest, El Nuevo Herald reported he was carrying a photo of
himself
with Fidel Castro. Later that year, he pleaded guilty and was
sentenced to
19 years in prison. To make the matter more bizarre, during the
campaign
finance scandal, it was revealed that three weeks before his arrest,
in
December, 1995, Mr. Cabrera had pictures taken of him with the First
Lady,
Mrs. Hillary Clinton, at a White Hopuse Christmas party.
Before meeting with Hillary Clinton he had pictures taken with
Vice-President Al Gore at a Miami fund raising party. It turned out
Mr.
Cabrera had made a $20,000 contribution to the Democratic Presidential
campaign at the urging of Mrs. Vivian Mannerud, a pro-Castro activist
in
Miami who owns a company that provides travel services to Cuba. She
had
approached him during a visit both had made to Havana earlier in 1995.
The
funds were returned, of course, but the scandal remains.
A more recent drug incident took place on December 3, 1998 in
Cartagena,
Colombia. That day the Colombian police seized 7 tons of cocaine bound
for
Cuba to be transshipped later to Europe and the United States.
According to
the head of the Colombian National Police, drug runners Aare employing
a new
trend of loading cocaine into containers transported initially to Cuba
for
distribution in smaller shipments to the United States and other
international consumer markets.
In this case, the shipment was made under the disguise of raw
materials for
a plastic factory owned by two Spanish investors in a joint venture
with a
Cuban government enterprise, which had 51 per cent ownership. Later
on, the
Colombian police announced records of the firm involved revealed that
there
have been seven or eight earlier shipments following a similar
pattern.
Castro was enraged at the Colombians over making this incident public.
In a
speech in January, 1999, he quoted drug arrests statistics to prove
how hard
Cuba is fighting drugs. That Cuba is fighting drug smuggling is
another
theme of Cuba's current propaganda. Unfortunately, there are some in
the US
Government who believe that. They are even willing to share with
Castro US
drug smuggling intelligence. However, others, in Colombia, claim that
those
Castro is arresting are from rival cartels.
This idea is not as farfetched as it may appear. At the trial of the
Mexican
Drug Czar, who was arrested two weeks after being praised as an honest
man
by US Drug Czar General Barry McCaffrey, it was revealed that the Drug
Czar,
General Jesus Gutierrez Rebollo, was using Mexican Army and Air Force
resources to help drug capo Amado Carrillo Fuentes, the so-called King
of
the Skies, eliminate his competitors.
That means that the sophisticated equipment the US provided to the
Mexican
army to fight drug smuggling was actually used by one of the capos
against
his competition. Since, as is commented further down, Carrillo Flores
had
close links with Castro, it is quite likely that the recent Castro
efforts
to reach an agreement to have access to US intelligence and equipment
were
intended to replicate that experience.
http://www.lanuevacuba.com/archivo/e-betancourt-89.htm
CASTRO'S DRUG-RUNNING LINKS PART 3
By Ernesto Betancourt
The New Australian
Australia
Colaboración:
Paul Echaniz
Septiembre 8-9, 2001
Cuba does not generate the savings required to finance investments.
Hotels
are reported to be built with Cuban funds, one logical conclusion is
that
Cuba is a huge money laundering center for the cartels. After all,
wasn't
this Ochoa's plan? We will elaborate on this hypothesis using the
figures
provided in the ECLAC report.
Some Relevant Indicators on Hotel Investment
1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996
Room stock (000) 12.9 16.6 18.7 22.1 23.3 24.2 26.9
Additions (000) -- 3.7 2.1 3.4 1.2 0.9 2.7
Estimated investment (million US dollars) -- 370 210 340 120 90
270
Peso equivalent (million pesos @20 rate) -- 7400 4200 6800 2400
1800
5400
Gross domestic investment (million pesos) 4872 2274 975 965
1036
1500
1900
Domestic savings (million pesos) 2327 820 555 577 794 985 1380
Year end market exchange rate in pesos per dollar 7 20 45 100
60
25 19
Except the estimates for hotel investment in dollars and their
conversion to
Cuban pesos, all the figures are taken from tables in the statistical
annex
of the ECLAC report. Since no table is provided in the ECLAC report
for the
flow of remittances, and the US$ 800 million figure is mentioned only
in the
text, no equivalent numbers are available to compare for the years
covered
in the above table. Some questions may be raised on the use of a rate
of 20
pesos to the dollar to do the conversion of the investments to current
Cuban
pesos. As can be appreciated from the last line, if anything, this
rate
underestimates the pesos equivalent which in 1993 reached 100 to the
dollar.
Therefore, it provides a conservative conversion to Cuban current
pesos.
According to the tables provided in the ECLAC report, Cuba built
14,000
hotel rooms of international level quality between 1990 and 1996. The
ECLAC
Report acknowledges that these hotels are built with Cuban financing.
The
benchmark figure for hotel investment in the Caribbean is between 100
and
125 thousand US dollars per hotel room. Applying the lower figure to
allow
for lower labor costs in construction in Cuba we arrive at a total
investment during the period of 1,4 billion US dollars.
The amount of dollars required would be lower if Cuba could provide
more
inputs, however, the collapse of Cuban industry since the end of
Soviet
assistance does not allow for use of local components other than
labor,
cement and perhaps some steel bars for concrete structures.
International
quality hotels require equipment above Cuban production standards.
According
to ECLAC, even food items for tourism, such as eggs and chicken, are
imported due to the poor quality of Cuban production.
The contradictions and inconsistencies these figures reveal are
related to
the relation between investment in hotels and total national
investment and
savings reported in the national accounts. As can be observed, the
peso
equivalent of the hotel investment in all years exceeds the figures
reported
by ECLAC in its report for both gross domestic investment and national
savings. More so, when we consider that hotel building is not the only
national investment. There is a fact that is unquestionable: hotels
have
been built.
As commented above, the information on foreign investment provided to
The
Economist Intelligence Unit did not include hotel investment either.
The
question is why do the aggregate figures from national accounts do not
reflect those investments. Unless there is some explanation resulting
from
the techniques followed for computing the national accounts, the only
possible explanation is that financing for these investments has been
handled outside the conventional national accounts: money laundering
or drug
trafficking.
What is the evidence supporting the money laundering hypothesis?
Here is where money laundering enters as another plausible explanation
for
how investments in hotels are financed. Not only by the coincidence of
this
massive expansion starting precisely the year after General Ochoa was
executed. As commented above, there was a hypothesis that Ochoa had
uncovered this scheme and was trying to document it to justify his
challenge
to Castro. The other, more credible, hypothesis is that Ochoa was
trying to
become a Castro rival as a capo in drug smuggling. Whatever is the
actual
explanation, when Castro discovered what Ochoa was up to, he decided
to turn
the tables on him and use the accusation of dealing with the drug
lords to
discredit Ochoa and justify his execution.
Castro's involvement with the drug lords is more than documented by
the four
grand jury indictments mentioned above. And this involvement did not
end
with the Ochoa trial. The arrest of Jorge Agordito Caberra, with a
photo
with Castro, raises the possibility Castro was considering gaining
some
influence, a la Chinese, with the Clinton Administration.
The cocaine shipment seized in Colombia in December, 1998, one of
seven or
eight previous ones, owned by foreign investors who were partners in a
joint
venture with the Cuban government could take place only with some
previous
clearance by Castro himself. The fact no regime official has been
fired or
prosecuted for acting on his own, points to Castro as the approving
authority and not the doings of some rogue officer. It is evident drug
smuggling has survived the Ochoa execution, and so has money
laundering, but
following another tract.
Over the years, Castro's practice has been to handle dollar
transactions
through his own substantial personal accounts overseas, the so-called
"Reserva del Comandante." This was revealed by Jesús M. Fernández, who
defected in May, 1996 and had had access to the highest level of
financial
management within the regime. He reports that these private Castro
accounts
were used to channel Soviet financing of Cuba's military operations
overseas, subversive activities and the CIMEX enterprise, later
replaced by
the MININT's Department of Convertible Currency.
This is precisely the agency where Colonel Tony de la Guardia worked
when he
was involved in drug deals. According to Mr. Fernández, these private
accounts are also used for those economic sectors under the direct
supervision of Castro, such as pharmaceuticals and tourism, as well as
Ministry of Interior overseas operations generating convertible
currencies.
It has been established by DEA that the weight of the money generated
by
drug sales exceeds the weight of the drugs themselves. Therefore,
disposing
of the money involved in the US alone - with more than $100 billion in
retail sales yearly - is a process of industrial proportions. Trailer
trucks
cross the US-Mexico frontier with full cargoes of US dollars.
According to a
report on money laundering in The Economist, the fee at that time for
helping the cartels launder their money had increased to between 25
and 28
per cent. In the argot of the money launderers, this is called
"discounting," the cost of making a drug tainted dollar a tradable
dollar.
Ironically, through the prohibition of legal remittances in 1996, the
US
Government provided an excellent cover-up for money laundering. Money
started reaching Cuba through so-called "mules." That is, people who
traveled to Cuba through third countries carrying tens of thousands of
dollars in cash. By depositing these monies in Cuban government
accounts,
or, more likely, in the accounts of the Comandante's reserves, the
money is
legitimized.
The death of the "Lord of the Skies," Amado Carrillo Fuentes, has
lifted the
veil of another potential avenue for money laundering. According to a
report
published by The Miami Herald, Mexican authorities have obtained
evidence
that Carrillo Fuentes was a guest at a protocol house of the Cuban
government during his frequent visits to the island. There is
speculation
that among the alleged activities taking Mr. Carrillo Fuentes to Cuba
was
money laundering. Authority for assigning protocol houses is vested
exclusively on Fidel Castro and his Chef de Cabinet, Dr. Jose Millar
Barruecos, is responsible for their administration.
Finally, Cuban defectors have mentioned that, among the attractions
offered
to drug dealers visiting the Cayo Largo resort, a key south of the
island of
Cuba, is the existence of banking facilities where money laundering is
performed. As was mentioned above, Tony de la Guardia was the MININT
officer
commissioned to undertake the feasibility study to make this key a
money
laundering center.
This analysis offers only an inkling of what is going on. There is no
doubt
that there is a huge flow of laundered money worldwide and that Cuba
is one
of the channels being used. It is also evident that in Cuba nothing of
this
sort can go on without Castro's personal approval. Use of the
remittances
scam to cover-up the huge gap in Cuba's balance of trade stands on
shallow
ground. In conclusion, we can say that the available evidence
indicates
there is an unquestionable impossibility of the remittances option
offering
the main source to finance whatever is the balance of trade gap.
As to other sources, there is substantial evidence to conclude that
Cuba is
engaged in drug smuggling and money laundering. This is a huge growing
gap,
as is shown in the previously mentioned Table 4 of Jorge Perez Lopez
paper,
which in 1998 registers a trade gap amounting to US$ 2,785 million.
Therefore, even accepting the US$ 800 million estimate for
remittances,
there are two billion dollars more to explain.
However, there is not enough data to estimate the magnitude of the
resulting
financial flows. All we have is a simple way to calculate how that gap
may
be met through money laundering and drug smuggling. It reveals that to
meet
the balance of trade gap, Castro needs four dollars in money
laundering
transactions for each dollar in net proceeds and to smuggle a kilogram
of
coca for each $ 1,250. Back in 1989, the US Coast Guard had reports of
about
300 flights per year outside of the approved air corridors over Cuba
for
private and commercial flights. It is such flights that make the coca
drops
to be picked up by the Alancheros
At some future time, reliable estimates on drug trafficking volume may
be
available and it may be possible to combine the data on volume with
rates
and the money laundering fees to compute estimates of the involved
financial
flows. But the lack of data for quantification should not deter us
from
considering that drug trafficking and money laundering are the most
plausible sources for financing the Cuban balance of trade gap.
http://www.lanuevacuba.com/archivo/e-betancourt-90.htm
as I said comrade
Dan: whenever you post your lies about me I post the truth about you.
You are right to understand that your record of lies, innuendo,
insults
and support of human rights abuses discredits you.
All shame you brought on yourself by your attitude and actions.
And the exposure of the "lobbyist" lie.
Your abuse of misquotes has been exposed over and over again Mr.
serial
Liar.
When you tried to come up with your own new version of the lie
you also fell flat on your face , no?
Remember when you claimed I had been "lobbying" people In Geneva while
your pal "cuba libre" that stalked me then showed from an IP that I
was
in Santiago de Cuba at the time.
Dan's other exposed false claim:
"Taking a little break from arm-twisting in Geneva, Mr. Lobbyist?"
Link:
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.cuba/msg/b6375f9783e47aee?q=g:thl174670614d&dq=&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8
A real loser you are.
Below you will find what is behind Dan Christensen's slanderous
campaign: facts he can't deny.
- Frustration
I exposed Dan Christensen as a fraud in this group years ago when I
blew
his "cover". In SCC he tried to portray himself as an "independent
interested party" with no political agenda.
When I came across a blatantly different reply to a similar question
in
a Stalinist e-group to which I had been invited I posted it to show
his
lying hypocrisy.
Since then he has been pissed as hell as it undermined his lying
propaganda effort to mislead "those in the background" (his own words,
those that didn't have "local knowledge". He himself admitted in the
same e-group that propagandist like him can never "convince" those
with
"local knowledge".
In frequent exchanges he got some mad he often forgot to keep up the
presence and made him show his hand and true nature:
Quote:
"In my opinion the advances made by the Revolution are morally well
worth fighting for and justify the use of these extraordinary
measures.
In this case, the ends do indeed justify the means.
..................................................................
These measures, however, would NOT be morally justified in propping
less
worthy regimes in the region -- the USA and its vassal states in the
Caribbean and Latin America come immediately to mind."
http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&selm=tirG3.176162%245r2.278940%40tor-nn1.netcom.ca
"It is wrong to think that a particular end justifies EVERY means. At
this time, for example, it would be wrong of the Cuban government to
send death squads after their opponents as happens in Mexico and
Colombia. Again, the actions of the Cuban government in detaining
these
so-called dissidents seem quite mild in comparison and are morally
justified under the circumstances."
http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&selm=txMG3.176443%245r2.284921%40tor-nn1.netcom.ca
That meant he was exposed a the hypocrite liar he is. It showed that
the
false claims he made about others (support of genocide, torture,
abuses,
..................................................)in fact only
applied
to him.
I have also frequently exposed his lies about facts and people in SCC.
"It is clear from Smith's article here (and his website, CIP Online)
that he does, in fact, support an immediate and unconditional lifting
of your beloved embargo."
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.cuba/msg/3f1fe3a55c12d7d7?dmode=source&hl=en
HIS own words:
'We should reduce tensions, not aggravate it, making it clear to the
Cuban
government that we do not have hostile intentions toward them,'' Smith
said
during a 40-minute speech at a conference titled Cuba and the United
States:
Relations in Permanent Conflict, Causes, Effects and Solutions.
''I did not say lift the embargo without conditions,'' he said.
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/world/cuba/12157593.htm
You can enter after a free registration.
Permanent copy in the Cubaverdad archive:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CubaVerdad/message/16823
Then there is the issue of his lying website: I had pages removed (for
violations of law, slander, ...), have shamed him in to changing it on
various occasions (adding links that would then expose his lies,
remove
lying caption from pictures, ...)and have in general exposed the lies
on
it (on Amnesty International for example)
What Dan claimed on his website (the misquote):
"Today, for the first time, Amnesty International has explicitly
denounced the US embargo on Cuba in humanitarian terms, and made clear
its support for the immediate and unconditional lifting of these cruel
sanctions"
http://members.allstream.net/~dchris/CubaFAQ215.html
Link to the "report": (the one Dan didn't give until I shamed him in
to it)
http://web.amnesty.org/library/Index/ENGAMR250172003?open&of=ENG-CUB
where the only thing Amnesty international asks for "immediately and
unconditionally" is the release of political prisoners.
Quote:
"in 1.
"On the basis of the available information, therefore, Amnesty
International considers the 75 dissidents to be prisoners of
conscience(2) and calls for their immediate and unconditional
release."
In 8.1
" to immediately and unconditionally release the 15 prisoners
previously named by Amnesty International as prisoners of conscience.
" to immediately and unconditionally release anyone else who is
detained or imprisoned solely for having peacefully exercised their
rights to freedom of expression, association and assembly."
en of quote
- Dogmatic hatred.
Dan Christensen is a hard-line Stalinist. His first steps in SCC were
to
defend Stalin and in other forums he has praised "workers democracy"
under Stalin.
He has admitted that he is ready to fight to the last Cuban (from his
comfortable armchair in Canada) for his cause.
By posting the reports from the international press, human rights
organizations and Cuban independent journalists I have exposed his
propaganda as a lie. That makes the man wild with rage.
As he like to see himself as the "victim" (he once claimed he was
being
censored in SCC) he therefore lashes out at people claiming that those
that contradict him are "CIA" agents (as if the CIA would care about a
third rate liar as Dan) and professional "lobbyists" probably to make
himself feel that he is "important" and to explain away his complete
propaganda failure (portraying himself as "overcome by unsurmountable
institutional odds").
- Personal hate and the "rat pack"
Dan has suffered the trauma of having part of his website remove
after
a long battle over the personal attacks and falsifications he had
posted
there.
The frequent exposures of his lies and hypocrisy only fueled the
personal hatred.
Dan ganged up with various other propagandists that people that have
been attacked by them refer to as the "rat pack". I have been the
target
of the lies and slanderous insults of this "rat pack".
They specialize in online slander (from posting private information,
attacking their business or businesses they are associated with,
inciting others to harass people, over accusing people of being "CIA
agents" or "lobbyists" to the worst things one can imagine)and direct
harassment (phone calls, letters, letters with razor blade or white
powder, loitering in front of people's houses,.. up to death threats
in
France).
All they succeeded in doing was to dramatically increase traffic to a
website I participate in ( www.cubaverdad.net )and to suffer the
consequences of their slander.
Dan Christensen had part of his website removed. The Centre Che in
France had their complete website removed and their "secretary" known
here as "cubalibre" went to jail for 6 months for a whole series of
abuses. A Spanish "subsidiary" of the rat pack still has a surprise
coming.
All because of their lies were exposed.
But then in the end this is what it boils down to:
those that don't have rational arguments find themselves exposed as
the
liars they are. When that happens all they have left are the old
slander
tactics: they attack the people that expose their lies in the hope
that
they can intimidate them.
If Dan Christensen felt he had any chance to convince people directly
he
would try to do so by posting facts and arguing facts.
He is reduced to snipping, posting the same snippets over and over
again, lies and slander.
As long as he and the rest of the "rat pack" (and their hangers on)
are
reduced to that they expose" their own failure.
Fine by me.
PL
"The Cuban government is based on lies and cheap propaganda. That is
why
it is afraid of words and the truth."
Raul Rivero, April 2006, University of Sevilla, Spain