An editorial from The Bahama Journal
No interest in duplicity
Few Bahamians know or care for that matter that some time ago a Miami Court meted out the maximum prison terms that the law allows
April 11, 2007
Reprinted from The Bahama Journal
In this regard we are told that one man by the name Gerardo Hernandez received a double life sentence; another one Antonio Guerrero was given a single life sentence; a third man Ramon Labañino received a life sentence; a fourth convicted man Fernando Gonzalez was the recipient of a 19 year sentence; while a fifth man René Gonzalez was handed a 15 years.
We would also venture that yet even fewer Bahamians would recognize the name Luis Posada Carriles.
That he has, at one time or the other, been a man who would bomb planes and kill innocent Caribbean nationals would be a total wake-up call to most of our people; whether reference is to all the people who comprise all of the Caricom.
That is because Luis Posada Carriles and the Cuban Five are all involved in a shadowy war that has pitted exiled Cubans, their Cuban-American counterparts against each other.
We also know that certain of their politically important allies are today in a position of great power, authority and influence over certain aspects of U.S. foreign policy as it relates to Cuba and the wider region.
We are also reliably informed that Posada Carriles is apparently being facilitated in his efforts by people deeply ensconced in the United States establishment who would prefer that we do not know who they are and why they are doing what they are doing.
Also involved are issues that are germane to the so-called war against terrorism. Some would have the world believe that there are somehow ‘good’ terrorists and correspondingly some very bad ones.
In the meantime, we are today learning that one of the worst; Posada Carriles is being treated to a type of royal treatment by certain United States authorities.
This ‘treatment’ is such that he is not being called upon to face the music for the crimes he has committed against the Cuban people, the Venezuelan people and their counterparts throughout the region.
We would also suggest that politics can sometimes make for strange bedfellows. In this regard, we need only reference that marriage of convenience that has had such a profound impact on the social history of Cuba, The Bahamas, this wider region and the world.
That marriage of convenience involves a very interesting and apparently mutually satisfactory relationship that has been forged and crafted between the Cuban exile community in south Florida and certain powerful Washington based political lobbies.
It is this marriage that has allowed Cuban-Americans unprecedented power in the greatest country in the history of the world.
And so when you want to talk about power and the manner in which it is being wielded; the old Bahamian demand would be for some one to talk that.
We make this reference as we acknowledge another.
This time around, we note that there has been a series of abortive attacks on Cuba over the course of the past four decades and more. These qualify as terrorist attacks; making of those who were the attackers ‘terrorists’ in the proper understanding of the term.
We are also reliably informed that very many of these attacks have been launched against the people of Cuba from the shores of South Florida with the alleged knowledge and consent of the United States Government.
We are told and do remember well the fact that "extremists in Miami have fought a dirty war against Cuba for over almost fifty years. With the aid and comfort of the United States, Cuban-immigrant terrorists specifically target innocent men, women and children of Cuba in a type of Miami-Jihad against Cuban Communism.
The record would show that they some times target Cuban airliners, ships, restaurants, hotels, places of business all in an effort to take over the island and shape it in their own bloody image.
We will have none of this duplicity.
There should be no room for such stuff in today’s world.
In this regard, note our continuing interest in a bombing that took place in our region some thirty-odd years ago. And also while we are at it relates to a bombing that took place some years ago; presumably by people who had some relationships - albeit tangential with those of the people who bombed a Cubana airliner somewhere offshore Barbados.
In addition, take note that The Bahamas and Cuba have had diplomatic relations for all of the past three decades; and that the growth and development of tourism in The Bahamas correlates with the decline of the same industry in Cuba.
Today that interest in what happens to Cuba takes us to the story of a man who is now seventy seven years old and who faces immigration charges in Texas. Here reference is to one Luis Posada Carriles who is widely known as a terrorist.
We are today quite adamant in our conviction that this man - Luis Poasda Carries - should not be protected by a country as great as the United States of America; and that he should be brought to justice for the crimes that he has allegedly committed. |
