Man with banner scales crane before Trump speech in Florida
Updated 4:16 pm CST, Monday, February 18, 2019
SWEETWATER, Fla. (AP) — A man with a banner and an American flag climbed a construction crane near a Florida campus where President Donald Trump came to speak Monday about the political turmoil in Venezuela.
The man spent about two hours atop the crane at the edge of Florida International University's campus in the Miami suburb of Sweetwater.
Sweetwater Police Chief Placido Diaz said the man forced his way onto the construction site and scaled the crane to make a political statement. He faces multiple charges, including trespassing.
WPLG-TV reports the man's banner read, "''Mr. Presidente, Please have mercy for E. Arocena." The words "Cuban exile" were written at the top of the banner.
Read more: https://www.chron.com/news/education/article/Man-with-banner-scales-crane-before-Trump-speech-13624978.php
LBN:
https://www.democraticunderground.com/10142269190
- click for image of Eduardo Arocena -
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_HyyDHyAwI6k/SPgWh5802XI/AAAAAAAADbI/hHV8vxmc4Z4/s400/Arocena+fbi+hq.jpg
History Commons:
Context of 'September 10, 1984: Anti-Castro Cuban Testifies Ship with Germs Sent to Cuba in 1980'
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September 10, 1984: Anti-Castro Cuban Testifies Ship with Germs Sent to Cuba in 1980Edit event
Eduardo Arocena, leader of the Cuban-exile militant group OMEGA-7, testifies during his trial in New York that in the latter part of 1980 a ship traveled from Florida to Cuba with “a mission to carry some germs to introduce them in Cuba to be used against the Soviets and against the Cuban economy, to begin what was called chemical war, which later on produced results that were not what we had expected, because we thought that it was going to be used against the Soviet forces, and it was used against our own people, and with that we did not agree.” The testimony is later used by some to support the allegation that Cuba’s 1981 Dengue fever epidemic, which infected 300,000 and killed 154, was the result of US biowarfare. [BLUM, 1995; COVERT ACTION QUARTERLY, 1999; COUNTERPUNCH, 10/11/2003]
Entity Tags: Eduardo Arocena
http://www.historycommons.org/context.jsp?item=cuba_1778#cuba_1778
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DECEMBER 21, 2018
Bush, Posada and Dirty War Against Cuba
by W. T. WHITNEY
. . .
Tried in New York in 1984 for murders and terrorism, CIA agent Eduardo Arocena, a Cuban-American with terrorist associations, confessed to have introduced harmful biologic agents in Cuba. Many think he had a role in promoting the 1981 epidemic. Gonzalez catalogues diseases of pigs, dairy cattle, sugar cane, plantain, citrus fruits, and coffee plants for which he blames the United States.
More:
https://www.counterpunch.org/2018/12/21/bush-posada-and-dirty-war-against-cuba/
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Wikipedia, on "Omega 7", an "exile" group of terrorists:
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Indictment of Eduardo Arocena
On September 22, 1984 Eduardo Arocena was convicted on 26 charges which included murder and bombings, many of which Arocena confessed to prior to his conviction. Arocena was ruled to serve a mandatory life sentence. During Eduardo Arocena's trial, he claimed to have been taken to the FBI offices in New York City where he accused the Bureau of drugging him to the point of unconsciousness to which he found needle marks in his arms when he awoke. According to Arocena, the FBI had tried to coerce him into speaking about a variety of terrorist groups and operations.[5] This story has never been confirmed by the F.B.I. When Eduardo Arocena was put on trial he initially denied being the leader of Omega 7, claiming that he was simply "obsessed with Communism" and had worked alongside the C.I.A. in Cuba in order to look into communist activities in Cuba. Arocena also denied ever taking part in terrorist actives in the United States, but did state that he was trained in the use of explosives by the C.I.A. in Florida. Arocena also stated that he once traveled Cuba, and releasing "germs" in the environment in order to start a chemical war between Cuba and the United States. In 2008 Arocena's wife Miriam led a campaign, which petitioned for the release of her husband. Miriam suggested that the life sentence her husband received was unwarranted given the nature and patriotic reasons of Eduardo Arocena's actions.[citation needed]
Known attacks
On February 1, 1975 the group bombed the Venezuelan consulate in New York City Arocena confessed to putting a hit out on Eulalio Jose Negrin who had negotiated with Cuba about the release of political prisoners. Arocena did not approve of any diplomatic negotiations with Cuba and therefore ordered Remon to kill Negrin. Remon completed the hit by murdering Negrin with a submachine gun in front of Negrin's teenage son.
Felix Garcia Rodriguez was murdered on September 11, 1980 while driving a station wagon after being shot in the neck by a member of Omega 7.
During the indictment of Eduardo Arocena, Omega 7 was found guilty of at least seven bombings in the Miami, Florida area.
More:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omega_7
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U.S. Department of Justice
Federal Bureau of Investigation
Washington D.C. 20535
October 29, 1993
OMEGA SEVEN (7)
Omega 7, a violent Miami, Florida-based anti-Castro Cuban terrorist group, was formed on September 11, 1974, by Eduardo Arocena. The name Omega 7 comes from the fact that there were seven original members from different anti-Castro Cuban factions. The number of individuals actively participating in this group was believed to be less than 20 members. However, Omega 7 was condoned and supported by the Cuban Nationalist Movement (CNM), whose membership and resources were considerably larger. The CNM, a violent anti-Castro Cuban exile group, was founded in 1960. However, pressure on the CNM as a result of the September 21, 1976, car-bomb assassination of the former Chilean Ambassador Orlando Letelier, and the arrest of Armando Santana, its leader in the late 1970s, essentially destroyed the group.
The main areas of operation for the Omega 7 were the New York, New Jersey, and Miami, Florida, areas. Its primary targets were representatives of the Cuban Government or any individual, organization, facility, or business that dealt with or supported in any way, the communist government of Fidel Castro. The majority of Omega 7 attacks were bombings, shootings, and assassinations. Its terrorist attacks were usually well-planned and flawlessly executed. Many of the Omega 7 members were veterans of the Bay of Pigs invasion who were trained in demolition, intelligence, and commando techniques. Their expertise, combined with the financial resources available to them through the exiled Cuban community, gave the Omega 7 an almost unlimited potential for terrorist activity.
In 1983, Arocena was arrested and prosecuted on 42 counts of violating Federal statutes pertaining to conspiracy, explosives, firearms, destruction of foreign government property within the United States, and destruction of property in interstate and foreign commerce. Several Omega 7 members were prosecuted during 1984, for refusing to testify before a Federal Grand Jury. During 1986, three of its members pled guilty to conspiracy to destroy property of a foreign government. There have been no Omega 7 attacks since 1983.
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THE FBI INVESTIGATION
During December, 1980, shortly after a bombing at the Cuban consulate in Montreal, Canada, Pedro Remon and Ramon Sanchez were stopped by U.S. immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) officials when they attempted to run the border back into the United States. Their identities were determined and they were released by INS. The information obtained by INS was forwarded to the FBI and the Omega 7 investigation began to focus on their activities and those of their associates Eduardo Arocena, Andres Garcia and Eduardo Fernandez Losada. All these suspects were from the Newark, New Jersey area with the exception of Sanchez, who was known as a staunch anti-Castro activist from Miami, Florida, who had a previously proven propensity for violence.
Investigation into Pedro Remon's background indicated that he was in frequent telephonic contact with Eduardo Arocena, with many of the telephone calls occurring around the times of Omega 7 crimes. Moreover, record checks and interviews at car rental agencies disclosed that Arocena and Remon had rented cars at Newark International Airport shortly before several Omega 7 crimes. Comparison with New York City Police Department records revealed that one of Arocena's rental cars received a parking ticket across the street from the Cuban Mission to the United Nations (CMUN) in New York on the day Omega 7 assassinated Cuban diplomat Felix Garcia Rodriguez. Subpoenaed records turned up a copy of Arocena's canceled check paying the parking ticket.
More:
http://cuban-exile.com/doc_001-025/doc0011.html
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Eduardo Arocena
The Miami Herald, February 15, 1985, Editorial: "Arocena and Terror."
Often, looking back provides an indication of how much -- or how little -- progress has been made. The conviction of Omega 7 terrorist Eduardo Arocena in Federal court in Miami provides an excellent opportunity for Dade Countians to look back.
A decade ago, this community was fearful even to denounce terrorism. A few anonymous thugs wrapped themselves in the Cuban flag and threatened to bomb and kill anyone who dared question whether their actions benefited the cause that they purported to espouse.
Radio commentator Emilio Milian had his legs blown off by a bomb beneath his car. He had incurred the terrorists' wrath by criticizing their indiscriminate violence in South Florida. Months earlier, anti-Castro leader Jose Elias de la Torriente had been shot in the back. The list goes on and on.
More:
http://eduardoarocena.blogspot.com/