Cuban congressional freak-out over Visa for Raul Castro's LGBT advocate daughter

[flamingdem]

http://www.capitolhillcubans.com/

How Hasty Was State in Granting Castro Visa?
Wednesday, May 16, 2012

This quote says everything you need to know about the State Department's irresponsible decision to grant a visa to the daughter of Cuban dictator Raul Castro.

From AFP:

"Yes, they granted it (the visa) and pretty quickly," said the spokesman for the National Center for Sexual Education, which Mariela Castro (Raul's daughter) heads.

State Department’s Apparent Open Door Policy For Senior Cuban Regime Officials & Activists ‘Dangerous’, Says Ros-Lehtinen

Concerned Department is Seeking to Hide Such Travel from Congress

WASHINGTON – U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL), Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, released the following statement today on the Department of State’s role in facilitating potential travel to the United States by Raul Castro’s daughter, Mariela Castro, and the State Department’s refusal to honor a long standing agreement with Ros-Lehtinen and the Committee on Foreign Affairs concerning travel of Cuban regime officials.

“I am greatly concerned by reports that the State Department has granted a visa to dictator Raul Castro’s daughter, Mariela Castro, to attend an event in the United States next week. Mariela Castro is a communist regime sympathizer who has labeled Cuban dissidents as ‘parasites.’ Reports that Eusebio Leal, tasked by the regime to expand tourism to the island under the guise of serving as historian of Havana, is also being granted a visa to travel to the U.S. also raises alarm. If confirmed, Castro’s and Leal’s travel would be the most recent in a disturbing pattern that is developing where the doors of the U.S. are opened to officials and activists of this state-sponsor of terrorism.

Why the State Department would issue a visa to Mariela Castro or Eusebio Leal to come to the U.S. and spew the Castro propaganda is beyond comprehension. Not only has the Castro dictatorship trampled on the human rights of its people, Cuba is a State Sponsor of Terrorism with an active and well-documented espionage network operating in and against the U.S. Granting travel and access to the U.S. by high-level regime officials is dangerous and counterproductive to our foreign policy and national security interests.

And now, we are faced with the possibility that State may seek to thwart Congressional oversight over decisions regarding travel by Cuban regime officials. It is my hope the Department will continue to honor a long-standing agreement with me on behalf of the House Foreign Affairs Committee requiring notification of State actions concerning travel by Cuban regime officials. This agreement established in 1997 was adopted in lieu of a legislative mandate I had included in funding legislation and was honored by successive Administrations.

I urge the Department of State to reject these visa requests by regime operatives Mariela Castro and Eusebio Leal and abide by its commitments to cooperate with our Foreign Affairs Committee as we seek to exercise due diligence and oversight.”

Menendez on Visa for Dictator's Daughter
at 5:05 PM
Menendez Statement on Decision to Issue a Visa for Daughter of Cuban Dictator Raul Castro

Washington – U.S. Senator Robert Menendez (D-NJ) today issued the following statement regarding a decision to issue a visa to the daughter of Cuban dictator Raul Castro, Mariela Castro Espin:

“I am disappointed by the decision to issue a visa to Mariela Castro Epsin, the daughter of Cuban dictator Raul Castro. Ms. Castro is a vociferous advocate of the regime and opponent of democracy, who has defended the regime’s brutal repression of democracy activists. Neither the United States Government nor the Latin American Studies Association should be in the business of providing a totalitarian regime, like the one in Cuba, with a platform from which to espouse its twisted rhetoric. Moreover, while an American is being held hostage in a Cuban prison I believe that issuance of a visa to Ms. Castro sends the wrong message to the regime and to Cuba’s struggling opposition movement. Lastly, she is a prominent member of Cuba’s Communist party and I don’t believe that the authority exists to provide Ms. Castro with a visa pursuant to Presidential Proclamation 5377, which prohibits providing non-immigrant visas to Cuban nationals that are officers or employees of the Government or the Communist Party of Cuba.”

[flamingdem]

1. I pray that Marco Rubio weighs in - with an obnoxious statement

damning this academic for her evil communist ways. We need to see just how intolerant he really is, and he will be that for his teaparty repuke buddies in FL if he can't duck the question.

[Judi Lynn]

2. La Loba believes this country needs to clear admission of everyone from Cuba through her first!

I don't think so, you idiot.

It's about time fate shows this lunatic the door.

Robert Menendez, claiming to be a Democrat in order to get elected in New Jersey, should be outed as a creature attached at the butt to the Miami Cuban right-wing reactionaries, and nothing other.

Ileana misstates, in her letter:

This agreement established in 1997 was adopted in lieu of a legislative mandate I had included in funding legislation and was honored by successive Administrations.

Her clan in Miami had wormed itself into the embrace of right-wing Ronnie Reagan, and through the Republican Party got enough support to wield far more power than would ever be considered legitimate.

Her claim that "successive Administrations" honored her as the last word on who gets in was somewhat bogus, as there was only ONE "successive administration" after the signing of that filthy agreement, _{George W. Bush's,} and before this administration, and his position may very well have been obliged to favor the "exiles," due to the fact his father and brother and his grandfather Preston have all been involved with the Cuban oligarchy going back to well before Fulgencio Batista was elected President for the second time.

I'm sure the CANF'ers hope to make trouble with this event to direct against President Obama, but, as we have read, the younger Cubans in Florida are getting truly tired of their pathetic scenery-chewing.

Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, put a sock in it.

Hope if Mariela Castro comes, she will have enough security to keep the "exile" fanatics from taking a shot at her. She's one brave woman.

[flamingdem]

3. Great points Judy

I didn't know much of the history you mention regarding Reagan and the Bush connection to the Cuban oligarchy, figures though. I'm guessing that La Loba is going crazy today trying to pull favors and stop Mariela from entering the US, too late!

[Judi Lynn]

5. I found something a moment ago in a quick search which explains some of the Bush/Cuba connects:

Monday, January 12, 2004
American Dynasty: Fmr. Top Republican Strategist Discusses The Bush Family’s Rise To Power Since WWI
(From the transcript)

George H. Walker was a real piece of work. I mean, he was a buccaneer. He was sort of a Joe Kennedy, but with a social register type qualification. He got involved in the 1920’s with a bunch of Cuban companies, because of his ties to Percy Rockefeller and the National City Bank. They handled a lot of investments in Cuba. He was a director during the 1920’s of eight or nine Cuban companies. George H. Walker had ties to the — investment ties that were independent, so he had invested in some of these companies. One of them turned out several — several turned out to merge into something called West Indies Sugar. West Indies Sugar became one of the major American companies in Cuba, and George H. Walker Jr., the son of George H. Walker and Prescott, Bush’s cousin was a director, held a family seat on West Indies Sugar. Now during the late 1950’s, West Indies Sugar was based in the Indy province in Cuba. That’s where the Castro insurgency was developing. Castro and his people sort of shook down West Indies Sugar. They used their trucks and hit them up for money and so forth. They were unhappy with the Castro movement. In 1959 or 1960, I forget which year, Castro’s people nationalized West Indies Sugar, and at this time George H. W. Bush’s uncle was Director of West Indies Sugar. The value of West Indies sugar had been about $50 million and it wound up being virtually peanuts. I don’t know how much their stake was. I couldn’t begin to guess. It may not have been nearly as much as one would suggest from the bigger numbers. They were an unhappy set of campers when West Indies Sugar went bye-bye.

More:
http://www.democracynow.org/2004/1/12/american_dynasty_fmr_top_republican_strategist

I've seen other material on Bushes and Cuba over the last 12 years I've been looking for information, but I don't have quick access at the time. There is a lot available when there's time to look for it.

[flamingdem]

7. Isn't it interesting that this has not been widely publicized

I guess it doesn't look to good that they were colonialist sugar barons! Who knew they were shaken down, I wonder if this is mentioned in Fidel's autobiography or elsewhere.

[Judi Lynn]

4. Cuban president's daughter gets US visa

Cuban president's daughter gets US visa
Originally published: May 17, 2012 10:49 AM
Updated: May 17, 2012 11:40 AM
By The Associated Press ANDREA RODRIGUEZ (Associated Press)

~snip~
Despite the controversy, it is apparently not the first time Mariela Castro has gone to the United States. The official at her institute said Castro went to America in 2002 to receive an award for her work.

Nor is it uncommon for prominent Cubans, some with close links to the government, to receive U.S. visas. Eusebio Leal, a historian who has spearheaded the renovation of Old Havana and sits on the powerful Communist Party Central Committee, is currently on a visit to New York and Washington. Mariela Castro, despite being the daughter of Cuba's president and niece of retired revolutionary leader Fidel Castro, has no official link to the government, though her organization presumably receives state funding. It is not known whether she is a member of the Communist Party.

More:
http://www.newsday.com/news/nation/cuban-president-s-daughter-gets-us-visa-1.3723432

[flamingdem]

6. Very interesting

Eusebio Leal is speaking in Washington, that's curious. I hope La Loba is irritated about that as well.

The information about Bush is amazing. I hope there's more out there documenting his pre-Castro activities with Cuba.

[Judi Lynn]

8. Cuba's First Daughter Has Gone Beyond Castro Name

Cuba's First Daughter Has Gone Beyond Castro Name
By ANDREA RODRIGUEZ Associated Press
HAVANA May 22, 2012 (AP)

She has her uncle's penchant for speaking her mind. From her father, she inherited a disciplined tenacity.

But Mariela Castro, a married mother of three and member of Cuba's most powerful family, has paved her own way in making gay rights her life's cause. And now the 49-year-old daughter of President Raul Castro is about to make a controversial visit to the United States for a conference on Latin America.

"She has put herself at the forefront of the struggle for rights for the LGBT community," said Gloria A. Careaga Perez, a professor of psychology from the National Autonomous University of Mexico who will be on Mariela Castro's panel at the San Francisco gathering of the Latin American Studies Association on Thursday. "What she does is praiseworthy because she is a pioneer, an academic and political authority who stands up for human rights."

Requests to interview Castro were not granted ahead of her trip, and four friends and admirers declined to speak on the record, a symptom of Cubans' deep misgivings about openly discussing members of the Castro family.

More:
http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/cubas-daughter-castro-16406153

[Judi Lynn]

9. From one year ago: Mariela Castro, Raul Catro Daughter, Meets With U.S. Women Leaders

Mariela Castro, Raul Catro Daughter, Meets With U.S. Women Leaders
PETER ORSI 06/ 6/11 06:55 PM ET



HAVANA -- A group of U.S. women leaders met with Cuban President Raul Castro's daughter Monday for an exchange on topics including gender, reproductive health and gay rights.

The delegation, which arrived in Havana on Sunday, includes Democratic political strategist Donna Brazile and former U.S. Rep. Jane Harman, a California Democrat who resigned in February and now heads the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.

"I believe that Cuba is our immediate neighbor and it is time to liberalize U.S. policy toward Cuba," Harman said.

"It is very exciting to hear about some of the social changes going on in your country," she added, apparently referring to a host of economic reforms initiated by Raul Castro to try to boost Cuba's flagging economy.

http://election.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x4875794

[flamingdem]

10. It dawned on me that the Republicans started the meme about Mariela being the next President of Cuba

to cause trouble. She's not involved in government in that way but they want it to look like the dynasty will continue and create trouble around her visit. Always something going on to distort things.

Sounds like she got a very nice reception - I guess she just arrived today to San Francisco