Monday, August 27, 2007

One Man's Obsession: The Smugglers Who Risk All to Free Castro's Slaves

For more than a year Babalú's Henry Gómez has been trying to convince every member of the MSM who will listen (not many) to do a story on the intrepid men who rescue Castro's captives from his clutches, otherwise known and persecuted as "smugglers," in the old Southern tradition of labelling rescuers of men as "yellow dogs," "scaliwags" and "rascallions," among the nicer names given them by slaveholders whose victims they "stole" to freedom.

Henry, of course, doesn't want the MSM to champion their cause much less recognize their merits (small chance of that). He wants the media, always hostile to Cuban refugees and those who champion their cause, to do (or invent) a story about how these men are really in Castro's service, if not agents of Castro.

There is just one glitch: no evidence exists to back up Henry's allegations except in his fertile imagination where anyone who rescues a Cuban is a villain and abetter of Castro and all Cuban newcomers should be returned to the island to add their body temperature to Henry's cherished pressure cooker where saints and sinners will be sacrificed for the greater glory of, well, Henry and those like Henry who believe that the Cuban people, not Castro, are the only obstacle to Cuba's freedom.

As Alfonso's Chardy's story in The Miami Herald points out, there are dozens of smugglers of Cubans in U.S. jails. If what Henry presumes were true, they needn't be. All they would have to do is state that Castro has some part in their activities and their sentences would be commuted in exchange for their testimony. But none has "confessed" to this because it is not true. They prefer to remain in prison for the "crime" of rescuing men from slavery than to go free for the sin (but no crime under U.S. law) of being complicit in their enslavement. Still, Henry is not convinced: maybe the smugglers really want to be in jail, or are too loyal to Castro to betray him, preferring instead to betray their families and destroy their own lives in order to continue serving him. Yes, Henry will believe anything because in fact he believes in nothing. If all men were like Henry, all men would think and act like Henry. Thankfully, most men aren't and don't.

These so-called smugglers are the moral giants of our generation, conductors on a new underground railroad that travels over the ocean, no less noble an enterprise than the first or one less fraught with dangers. Castro's Coast Guard even shoots at them and has killed at least one of them, and also imprisons them by the score. This, however, doesn't convince Henry that Castro and the smugglers are not in cahoots. On the contrary, he seems to believe that it bolsters his case. You see, according to Henry, if the Castro regime wants deniability it has to interdict and even kill a few of them. Of course, if the smugglers were in fact in business with Castro, shooting at them and killing them is not the best way to win their trust nor would it be especially good for business. You can hardly sell someone "protection" by shooting him dead. That would surely discourage the others. It should be clear, then, to anyone but a halfwit that the smugglers are Castro's quarry, not his allies. They should certainly be our heroes for challenging Castro on a daily basis, face to face and under his own nose.

As for Henry, he is a case study in self-hate and rabid assimilationism: the Cuban Tom Tancredo, who doesn't want to free Cubans, but to free the U.S. of Cuban "migrants." Though the son of refugees, Henry has a special disdain for all who flee Castro's prison today (including the 4-year old whose birth father wants to make a gift of her to Castro). No one believes more firmly that "Cubans belong in Cuba" than this self-described "American-Cuban." His stated support for Newt Gingrich and Fred Thompson leave no question as to his xenophobia and nativism, which reminds us of another first-generation American — Tom Tancredo.

Henry's post at Babalú ends with a plea to Alfonso Chardy of The Miami Herald to investigate the smugglers for supposed Castro connections. Mr. Herald Watch seems to forget that Chardy was a co-writer of Oscar's Corral Martí Moonlighters story.


POSTSCRIPT:

According to information furnished by Pedro Argüellos Morán, one of the 75 independent Cuban journalists imprisoned by Castro in 2003, there are two alleged smugglers confined with him at the Canaleta Provincial Prison, in the so-called "province" of Ciego de Ávila. They are Jorge Luis Echemendía Solano, 42, sentenced to 12 years in 1999 for "human trafficking," and Edvín (Edwin?) Alfonso Ruíz, 31, sentenced to 3 years in 2006 for "entering the country illegally." Both men are residents of South Florida. The Ministry of the Interior has offered to release both on the condition that they request "repatriation" (that is, agree to remain in Cuba permanently). Both have opted to complete their full sentences rather than pact with Castro. Since entering your own country or assisting others to leave it is not a crime anywhere in the world except Cuba, these men should be classified as political prisoners, or even as prisoners of conscience. Of course, they are not. International human rights organizations follow Castro's lead in such matters. One wonders how many more rescuers of men are jailed in Cuba's 300 other prisons that we know nothing about because there is no one to report on their incarceration. H/t Charlie Bravo.

Angels Who Smuggle Men to Freedom
Insanity, Homoeroticism and Xenophobia on "The Babalú [Faux] Radio Hour"
Henry Explains Fred Thompson to Us
Fred Thompson: Cuban "Immigrants" Are Suitcase Bombers
Since He Was 7
"The Most Serious, Systematic Revolutionary of Modern Times"

18 comments:

Vana said...

Manuel;

At the rate Henry is going, we shall have to admit him to The Madhouse for the demented, he wants to prove at any cost that the smugglers are connected to castro, maybe that way less will be coming here, I'm sorry but I do not understand Cubans like Henry, oh excuse me American-Cuban.
I want all those that try to cross the straits to make it safely to Miami, and as Cuban I want for them what I have FREEDOM

Anonymous said...

Manuel,

Question. I have noticed that KillCastro has returned to Babalu's blog roll and they linked to him in a few posts. Have they made up? Just found it curious given their recent falling out.

Manuel A.Tellechea said...

Angel:

I noticed that too. It seems to me that Babalú is courting Killcastro. It is not a bad idea since Killcastro could certainly give them the orientation which they so badly need and save them from committing many embarrassing mistakes. I will be glad of this even if it robs me of some material.

Babalú has has also restored Ya No Más to its blogroll. Alex seems to have taken my advice and re-activated his dormant blog. Now he has to update it. His last post was on April 28.

Given its recent erratic behavior, Babalú needs all the allies it can get.

The Wizard said...

Manuel:

I was surprised seeing my blog on Babalu blogroll.Val kick me out from his elite crew. I haven't activated that blog..Ya No Mas is Done..finish. No Mas...hahahaha

The Wizard said...

Val Prieto Hates me..I'm totally confuse. I don't understand what type of games they're playin.

Manuel A.Tellechea said...

arrozconmango:

I recall that you closed your blog around the time that Val unlinked Ya No Más. If that was the reason that you stopped blogging, then that reason no longer exists: you have been restored to Val's good graces. As you know now that is hardly a safe place to be, but it may be the impetus you need to re-start your blog.

I hope that you will reconsider your decision to stop blogging. No blogger should exert that much influence over another, nor be able to make or break anybody else's blog at will.

Anonymous said...

Angel,
KillCastro is being quoted all around, even though our name prevents us from being linked permanently in certain blogs, as many of our readers have noticed.
We re-appeared in Babalu's blog roll as desired by their editors, and we certainly do not have anything against it.
Both writers of KillCastro are men with alpha personalities, with little time for anything since our professional lifes are busy and plentiful. Whatever little time we have is spent in editorial content conversations, message exchanging, and tending to our sources, which is something that KillCastro masters, since he's got very good sources and numerically, he has more sources than I do. I am writing more on these days, as everybody has noticed too.

Anonymous said...

In my book those men are heros. Let's say that we must work in favor of the recognition of their courage, and that no effort in that sense will ever suffice. Having met people who also have risked it all against the tyranny, i can tell you that these men are never going to bend as wished by their captors and jailers. That's the honor code of the fighters.

Anonymous said...

Thank you for the update Charlie. Good luck to both of you and keep up the good work.

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