Cuban exile

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Cuba is 90 miles (145 kilometres) south of Florida in the US

The term "Cuban exile" refers to the many Cubans who have sought alternative political or economic conditions outside the island, dating back to the Ten Years' War and the struggle for Cuban independence during the 19th century. In modern times, the term refers to the large exodus of Cubans to the United States since the 1959 Cuban Revolution and in particular the wave of Cuban American refugees to the U.S. during the years 1960 and 1979.

More than one million Cubans of all social classes have left the island to the United States,^[1] and to Spain, Mexico, Canada, Sweden, and other countries. Because leaving requires exit permit and substantial amount of money relative to low incomes, most Cubans can never leave Cuban soil.

Prominent exiles

Prominent exiles have included writer José Martí, who spent many years in Spain and the United States in the 19th century raising support for Cuban independence from Spain. Fidel Castro and his brother Raúl spent nearly a year and a half in Mexico (1955-1956), after being amnestied from prison. Fidel briefly visited the United States during his tenure in exile to raise support for the Cuban revolution. Since the revolution, prominent exiled figures have included Carlos Franqui who relocated to Italy; Huber Matos, who was imprisoned by Castro's government for twenty years after resigning his governmental position in 1959 before relocating to Miami; and Guillermo Cabrera Infante the prominent Cuban writer, who relocated to the United Kingdom. Ernesto Alvero; Pinnacle Healthcare, CEO & founder (Salinas, CA via Freedom Flight).

Waves of Exiles to the United States

The majority of the more than 2 million current Cuban exiles living in the United States live in and around the city of Miami. Other exiles have relocated to form substantial Cuban American communities in Union City, New Jersey; Hazleton, Pennsylvania; San Juan, Puerto Rico; Raleigh, North Carolina; Los Angeles, California; and Palm Desert, California.

Most Cuban exiles in the United States are both legally and self-described political refugees. This status allows them different treatment under US Immigration statutes than immigrants who are not categorized as political refugees. The exiles came in numerous discernible waves.

The first wave occurred after the Cuban revolution of 1959 led by Fidel Castro. A lot of the refugees came with the idea that the new government would not last long, and their stay in the US was temporary. Homes, cars, and other properties in Cuba were left with family, friends, and relatives, who would take care of them until the Castro regime would fall.

The second wave began in 1961 amid the nationalization of educational institutions, hospitals, private land, and industrial facilities. Additionally, the Castro government began a political crackdown on the opposition either incarcerating opponents or perceived opponents or executing the same. At this point, after the Bay of Pigs Invasion, Castro had gone from a self-proclaimed non-communist freedom fighter to a self-proclaimed Marxist-Leninist.

There was a smaller wave of refugees in 1965 from the Cuban port of Camarioca. Cuban exiles from Miami brought friends and relatives to Key West by using small leisure boats.

From 1965 through 1972, "Freedom Flights" from Havana to Miami transported thousands of Cuban refugees. Flights were limited to immediate relatives, with a waiting period anywhere from one to two years.

In 1980, probably one of the most impacting wave of exiles occurred during what became known as the Mariel Boatlift. The mass boatlift occurred after a number of Cubans drove a bus through the gates of the Havana Peruvian Embassy and requested asylum. One embassy guard died as a result of friendly fire when another guard machine gunned the incoming bus and hit the first one accidentally. When the Peruvian ambassador refused to return the exiled citizens to the authorities, Castro removed the Cuban guards from the embassy, basically opening the door to the 4,000 plus asylum seekers that came into the embassy within the next few days. Reacting to this unexpected and sudden exodus and embarrassed in front of the world media, Castro stated that "anyone who wants to leave Cuba can do so". This resulted in an even worse exodus through the port of Mariel, where an improvised flotilla of Cuban exiles from Miami in small pleasure boats and commercial shrimping vessels brought Cuban citizens who wished to leave the island. Within weeks, more than 125,000 Cubans reached the United States despite Coast Guard attempts to stem the movement. As the exodus became international news and an embarrassment for the Cuban government, Castro rounded up "socially undesirables," including violent criminals and mental patients, and included them among the political and economic refugees. The scale of the exodus created political difficulties for both governments, and an agreement was reached to end the boatlift after several months. Out of more than 120,000 refugees, a significant number were believed to possess criminal (political) records in Cuba. During the past 10 years exile waves have consisted of "balseros" (rafters), who brave the rough seas in homemade rafts.

Exile activity in the United States

Canek Sánchez Guevara, the exiled grandson of Che Guevara, is sharply critical of the Castro dictatorship.^[3][4][2] He speaks about rampant bureaucracy, corruption, and nepotism in the Castro dictatorship.^[2]

There is a large exiled Cuban-American population residing in the United States, especially in and around Miami, FL and Union City, NJ. Those who oppose the communist government are represented in part by the Cuban-American lobby, which supports the U.S. embargo against Cuba and pressing the communist government for political change.

Even members of the Cuban ruling class have defected and joined the opposition. Juanita Castro, Fidel and Raul Castro's sister, has defected to the United States and denounced the regime: "I cannot longer remain indifferent to what is happening in my country. My brothers Fidel and Raúl have made it an enormous prison surrounded by water. The people are nailed to a cross of torment imposed by international Communism."^[5]

Other Cuban-American groups, some of which are also opposed to the communist government, advocate different policies, opposing the embargo and favoring more cultural and economic engagement. The Cuban government accuses Miami-based exiles of organizing over 700 armed incursions against Cuba over the past 40 years such as Alpha 66's 1994 and 1995 machine-gun attacks on the Guitart Cayo Coco Hotel.

On September 8, 2006, it was revealed that at least ten South Florida journalists received regular payments from the U.S. government for programs on Radio Martí and TV Martí, two broadcasters aimed at undermining the Cuban state. The payments totaled thousands of dollars over several years. Those who were paid the most were veteran reporters and a freelance contributor for El Nuevo Herald, the Spanish-language newspaper published by the corporate parent of The Miami Herald. The Cuban state has long contended that some South Florida Spanish-language journalists were on the federal payroll.^{[6][dead link]}

In November 2006, U.S. Congressional auditors accused the development agency USAID of failing properly to administer its program to promote democracy in Cuba. They said that USAID had channeled tens of millions of dollars through exile groups in Miami, which were sometimes wasteful or kept questionable accounts. The report said the organizations had sent items such as chocolate and cashmere jerseys to Cuba. Their report concludes that 30% of the exile groups who received USAID grants showed questionable expenditures.^[7]

Groups

• Cuba Democracy Caucus - A bicameral and bi-partisan congressional group that was created with the stated purpose of "promoting discussion and proactive policies designed to hasten Cuba's transition towards a free and democratic society."

• Brothers to the Rescue - A group of Cuban-American activists whose primary objective is to aid Cuban refugees and immigration seekers. The group have also attempted to distribute oppositional literature in Cuba via airdrops over Cuban territory.

• US-Cuba Democracy Pac - A special interest group that lobbies the United States Congress and White House with the stated goal of "promoting an unconditional transition in Cuba to democracy, the rule of law, and the free market." [1]

• Cuban Liberty Council - Lobbying group for Cuban-Americans in the United States.[2]

• Cuban American National Foundation - Lobbying group for Cuban-Americans in the United States. [3]

• International Committee for Democracy in Cuba Group headed by former Czech president Václav Havel aimed to coordinate the approach of European and western hemisphere countries towards Castro’s government. [4]

• Cuban Libertarian Movement - a loose network of collectives and individuals comprising the Cuban anarchist movement, which is anti-capitalist, anti-Castro, and seeks change along libertarian socialist/libertarian communist or similar lines.

• Vigilia Mambisa - A group of Cuban-American demonstrators headed by Miguel Saavedra and known for their street-theater tactics and their rapid response to calls for protest aired on Miami Spanish-language stations such as WAQI AM-710 (Radio Mambi) and WWFE 670-AM (La Poderosa).^[8]

Timeline of invasions and terrorist attacks

• The Escambray Rebellion (1959 - 1965) was a group of Cubans that had fought side by side with Castro against Batista's government and many who did not want Cuban falling to a Communist Regime, began to take up arms against the new Communist regime, particularly in the Escambray Mountains region of Cuba. The Cuban government labeled them as bandits. The War Against the Bandits was the Communist government's campaign against rebelling peasants. Soviet tanks, helicopters, and flame-throwers were used to destroy the rebellion.^[9] By July 26, 1965 Fidel Castro claimed to have liquidated "all the Bandits in Cuba".

• The Bay of Pigs Invasion (known as La Batalla de Girón, or Playa Girón in Cuba), was an unsuccessful attempt by a US-trained force of Cuban exiles to invade southern Cuba with support from US government armed forces, to overthrow the Cuban government of Fidel Castro. The plan was launched in April 1961, less than three months after John F. Kennedy assumed the presidency in the United States. The Cuban armed forces, trained and equipped by Eastern Bloc nations, defeated the exile combatants in three days. Bad Cuban-American relations were made worse by the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis. The invasion is named after the Bay of Pigs, which is just one possible translation of the Spanish Bahía de Cochinos. The main landing at the Bay of Pigs specifically took place at the beach named Playa Girón.

• The Cuban Project (1961 - 1962) - US President John F. Kennedy initiated a CIA operation on November 30, 1961 to "help Cuba overthrow the Communist regime" aiming "for a revolt which can take place in Cuba by October 1962." The covert plan was intended to fuel anti-Castro sentiments provoking an overthrow of the government or assassination attempts on Castro. The Cuban Project played a significant role in the events leading up to the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962. The operation was suspended on October 30, 1962, but three six-man sabotage teams had already been deployed to Cuba, and on November 8, 1962, one six-man CIA team blew up a Cuban industrial facility without permission.

• Bombing of Cubana Flight 455. On October 6, 1976 two time bombs variously described as dynamite or C-4 planted on the Douglas DC-8 aircraft exploded, killing all 73 people on board. Evidence implicated several CIA-linked anti-Castro Cuban Exiles and members of the Venezuelan secret police DISIP.

• Ibero-American Summit Dissidents (1999) - About a dozen opposition groups claiming peaceful opposition to Castro's one-party state urged Ibero-American leaders to back their cause. 40 dissidents planning the gathering were arrested in Havana before the Ibero-American Summit. [5]

Armed resistance

Groups opposing the Cuban government have been linked with numerous acts of violence outside Cuba, many of which occurred in South Florida.^{[citation needed]} Acts have also occurred in other U.S. regions and at least sixteen other countries.^[10] A series of bombings in Miami in the mid 1970s led to hearings before a U.S. Subcommittee to investigate internal security.^[11] Notable cases of violence targeting individuals include that of Luciano Nieves, who was murdered after advocating peaceful coexistence with Cuba, and WQBA-AM news director Emilio Milian who survived a car bomb but lost his legs after he publicly condemned Cuban exile violence.^[10] In 1992 Human Rights Watch released a report stating that hard-line Miami exiles have created an environment in which "moderation can be a dangerous position."^[10]

See also

Cuba portal

• Cuban American
• Cuba-United States relations
• Cuban-American lobby
• Opposition to Fidel Castro

Notes

References

• Miguel A. De La Torre. 2003. La Lucha for Cuba: Religion and Politics on the Streets of Miami. University of California Press.
• Pedraza, Silvia 2007 Political Disaffection in Cuba's Revolution and Exodus (Cambridge Studies in Contentious Politics)) Cambridge University Press ISBN 0521687292 ISBN 978-0521687294

External links

• The Cuban Rafter Phenomenon: A Unique Sea Exodus
• U.S. Congress set to Open Cuban Exiles' Passage to Island by Lesley Clark & Frances Robles, Miami Herald, February 24 2009
• Exiles Want to Expand U.S.-Cuba Relations by Damien Cave, The New York Times, April 8 2009

v • d • e Cuba – United States relations Bay of Pigs Invasion · Brothers to the Rescue · Cuban American · Cuban-American lobby · Cuban Five · Cuban Missile Crisis · Cuban opposition since 1959 · Elian Gonzalez affair · Guantanamo Bay Naval Base · Helms-Burton Act · List of Cuba-US aircraft hijackings · Luis Posada Carriles · Mariel boatlift · Operation Peter Pan · Platt Amendment · Spanish–American War · United States Ambassador to Cuba · United States embargo against Cuba · United States Interests Section in Havana