Jailed exile couple: Spies or political scapegoats?

[Judi Lynn]

Posted on Tue, Jan. 31, 2006
Jailed exile couple: Spies or political scapegoats?

BY MAYA BELLThe Orlando SentinelMIAMI - For years, Carlos and Elsa Alvarez starred in their own immigrant success story. They had a home worth $720,000, advanced degrees, accomplished sons, friends in high places and positions of trust.

A longtime education professor at Florida International University, he was an expert in conflict resolution who conducted psychological exams for police agencies. A coordinator of the university's clinical programs, she was regarded as a top psychotherapist.

Today, the couple are held in a federal lockup after authorities say they confessed to nearly three decades of spying for the Cuban homeland they fled long ago.

Their stunning arrests Jan. 6 are roiling Miami's exile community, drawing unwanted scrutiny to Florida International University and highlighting the chasm between those who support isolating the communist island and those who favor dialogue and reconciliation. For hard-line foes of Cuban President Fidel Castro, the Alvarez case is just more proof of an open secret: Cuban spies abound.
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http://www.charlotte.com/mld/charlotte/news/nation/13754633.htm

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Cuba: Obsessive Target of the Bush Administration
by Salim Lamrani*

The United States’ obsession with Cuba never ends. Condoleezza Rice has just ordered the stiffening of the economic blockade against the island while, at the same time, the US chargé d’affaires in Havana makes efforts to create a pseudo-opposition at the service of the United States. The Bush Administration hopes that the embargo makes life so difficult for the Cuban people that they overthrow the government, which would allow Bush to put his men in power.

The cruel state of siege that the United States has imposed on Cuba since 1959 stiffens day after day. Now, they openly confess that their goal is overthrowing the government in Havana by any means while the sufferings caused to the population only have a secondary importance for the White House. <1>. The transformation of the Latin American political scene, with the consolidation of Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez’s prestige and the spectacular victory garnered by Evo Morales in Bolivia, has done nothing else but to strengthen the US willingness to put an end to the Cuban “bad example”, a synonym of hope for the Latin American people who have suffered decades of ultra-liberal policies <2>.

On December 19, 2005, the US Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, met with the Commission for Assistance to a Free Cuba aiming at stiffening economic sanctions against the Caribbean island. Set in 2003 by President George W. Bush, the Commission had published a first report in May 2004 with new coercive measures against the island including one that provides that Cuban-Americans can only visit their relatives in Cuba for a period of no more than 14 days every three years. <3> Not pleased with the terrible human consequences caused by this unprecedented economic strangulation, Ms. Rice has anticipated other aggressive measures for May 2006. <4>.

One of Washington’s main destabilization policies is the promotion of internal subversion, organized and financed with unscrupulous elements that are attracted by the offered emoluments. The current budget earmarked for the creation of an internal opposition rises to more than $50 millions. <5>.
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http://www.voltairenet.org/article134700.html

[leveymg]

1. But, had they blown up a Cuban airliner, we wouldn't deport them.

Strange double-standard from the weird world of BushCo.

[xxqqqzme]

2. christ on a pogo stick

can't we just leave Cubans 2 themselves. Does this bunch of fascist never stop looking for new peoples 2 bully in the school yard. I am so sick of these illegal power grabbers.