Is Oscar Corral In Cabaiguán, Cuba?

Rafael Izquierdo is losing the custody case in Circuit Judge Jeri B. Cohen's courtroom. She may still rule for him as she always intended to do, but a strong and unshakable foundation has been laid for an appeal, thanks to the mother and the father's self-confessed perjury, conspiracy to fabricate evidence, obstruction of justice and monumental contempt of court. In fact, they and their lawyers have pretty much committed every crime that can be committed in a courtroom. The Miami Herald, always willing to do whatever it takes to make sure that Castro always comes out on top, has sent an unnamed reporter to Izquierdo's hometown of Cabaiguán to tells its readers the "real story" about Judge Cohen's pampered pet who should now be in custody and awaiting trial for the aforementioned crimes, to which he and his ex-girlfriend, and they alone, enjoy immunity from prosecution in this country.

As is The Herald's longstanding policy, it does not identify its "Man in Cabaiguán," who is repporting clandestinely because The Herald is not authorized by the Castro regime to report from Cuba. Of course, that is only a formality. The Castro regime probably made every accommodation for The Herald reporter, and the greatest accommodation of all, looking the other way at this charade. The DGI certainly knows more about The Herald's "embedded" journalist than The Herald does. In fact, his dossier is probably heavy with visuals of the kind that could compromise his reputation and ruin his career. In Cuba, of course, the police wouldn't stop a Corral and Yamilet from getting together; it would just film and record the proceedings and keep everything quiet — for a price, of course.

Are we insinuating that Oscar Corral is The Herald reporter on assignment in Cabaiguán, Cuba? No, we don't think so, though the wooden houses in Cabaiguán are lined with cork, and, we suspect, wherever Oscar is, his walls are lined with cork, too. [Oh, that was nasty; but today is the first anniversary of Corral's "Martí Moonlighters" story, so a little nastiness is certainly coming to his debauched self today].

The Izquierdo clan in Cabaiguán has been instructed not to speak to foreign reporters, and has challenged them to produce their credentials when inopportuned with questions and even threatened to denounce them to the authorities. Well, we certainly can't expect any irregular behavior from them: no grandmothers grabbing at their grandchildren's crotches and such.

Their neighbors have been told to assert when questioned by strangers that "This case isn't at all like Elián's." Then, in the same breath, they will repeat what Elena Pérez has said dozens of times on and off the witness stand: "Blood ties are sacred."

Sacred to whom? Certainly not God. He placed His only begotten son in the custody of a carpenter who was no relation to Him to be raised as the carpenter's son. God understood that He really couldn't raise his son on earth as God. Would that Rafael Izquierdo understood or cared that he too can't raise his own daughter in Cuba as his daughter, since she, like Elián, would belong to the state, and not just theoretically as all Cuban children do, but as Elián does for a fact and as Elenita will also if returned to Cuba.

Are blood ties "sacred" to the state? The Cuban state does not recognize paternal rights based on blood or anything else. It alone is the sole guardian of Cuba's children with the right to supercede the parents' authority in all matters pertaining to their children. It can't exert that "right" every day and every minute over every Cuban child, no does it need to; but it will certainly micromanage every second of Elenita's life in Cuba, as it has Elián's for the last 7 years. This will no doubt mean some material comforts for her and her family not enjoyed by ordinary Cubans, but these will be offset by the indignity of being raised in a glass tube, and, in effect, spending the rest of her childhood under house arrest for as long as anybody remembers her name or story. (For Elián this is a life sentence).

When, then, is blood "sacred" in Cuba? The answer must be that blood is "sacred" only when a father is being used as an instrument for the re-enslavement of his offspring. Then "blood" serves a purpose: the interests of the State: the interests of Castro. It is those interests — none other — that The Miami Herald's reporter in Cabaiguán is protecting, as usual.