Black Sheep of Exile has the compelling story of the Coast Guard's "accidental" murder of yet another Cuban refugee while giving chase to a boat with 34 others. The man sustained severe head injuries in the pursuit but was still alive when he was put on a Coast Guard helicopter and transported, not to a hospital, but to Opa-locka Airport's Coast Guard station, where he was pronounced dead on arrival. Coast Guard officials refused to "second guess" the pilot's decision not to fly to Homestead Hospital or Baptist Hospital, just minutes away from the airport. According to the Coast Guard's own figures, 65 Cuban refugees have died since December 2007 in interdiction attempts on the high seas, or an average of six per month (not counting the hundreds who die without the Coast Guard's assistance).
At Babalú, Val Prieto does not blame the Coast Guard for the unidentified Cuban's death: they also serve who kill the occasional Cuban straggler from Val's pressure cooker. Babalú prefers to blame the smugglers that tried to escape the Coast Guard's attempts to re-enslave the Cubans in Castro's name and Bush's (and with a nod to Bill Clinton as well).
How to Stop the Wanton Killing of Cubans on the High Seas
The Americanization of Val Prieto
Val can never put himself on the side of Cubans fleeing for their very lives, crossing the straits is not an easy task, yet those poor souls must put up with a murderous American Coast Guard, and a murderous Clinton-Bush policy.
ReplyDeleteA Cuban friend from Pinar del Rio told me it's horrible there. His uncle just left from Miami with 5 grand to help there family rebuild.
ReplyDeleteI'm afraid that with all the crap happening in the US now, nobody here cares about Cuba.
MANNY LOS BABALOCOS SE ESTAN MOFANDO DE TI ...CLARO ESTA PRIMERO SE MOFAN DEL SUFRIMIENTO DEL PUEBLO CUBANO
ReplyDeleteComments: Who'dathunkit?
send money!!!
Posted by Gusano at September 25, 2008 09:18 AM
Aquí lo que cuenta es el CASH!
Posted by albertodelacruz at September 25, 2008 09:55 AM
It's a terrible burden always being right...
Posted by George L. Moneo at September 25, 2008 10:34 AM
The funny (and sad) thing is that the proponents for removing the limits on remittances will look at this and think that this yet another reason why we need to send more cash to Cuba; so that Cubans can go to the Castro stores and buy the relief supplies Castro has stolen.
It's like giving someone money to buy back a watch from the thief who stole it from them.
Posted by albertodelacruz at September 25, 2008 10:53 AM
anonymous:
ReplyDeleteWhat you quote is the continuation of the Babalunians' cannibalistic feasting on Marc Másferrer. I will, however, address it as I do all their idiocies.
Mamey:
ReplyDeleteThey are all three and then some.
Glad to see we have just the right balance of rhetoric and righteous indignation. Come on grow a pair...like Palin!). Are they smugglers or abolitionists? (te la comistes con esa anologia). If they were doing this for free and not exploiting the suffering of the Cuban people for filthy lucre you might have a point (an excellent one I may add). I read about Harriet T. and Robin H. and those guys are not them!
ReplyDeleteIt's just total nonsense to allow all Cuban rafters into the US. There is a reason this Clinton policy has been maintained by Bush: It is what is best for the US.
ReplyDeleteAs soon as it became known in Cuba that all rafters will be picked up and given asylum in the US, how many people would leave?
Tens of thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands. Where will they go?
Who will pay for them? The Feds?
The State of Florida?
Does anyone know where I can buy a lot of duct tape?
ReplyDeleteesteban colvert:
ReplyDeleteThe wheels of the Underground Railroad were greased with a lot of "filthy lucre."
Money is not inherently evil or good; it is the purposes to which money is put that are good or evil.
The days of Cuban political refugees are long gone. Cubans coming to the US for the past 10 years (at least) are economic migrants and not much else.
ReplyDeleteI hear you guys are against the wet-foot/dry-foot policy and so am I. We are long overdue for a NO-FOOT policy.
Go back to Cuba and fight like men. Freedom is not free.
Of course, while you are here instead of fighting for the liberation of your country you are free to talk and talk and talk all you like.