Marco Rubio lectured on Democracy and denounced as “nonsensical” by lifelong victims of Stalinist education
From Ernesto Morales Licea in the Huffington Post today, courtesy of Yoani Sanchez:
"when the government begins to regulate, for example, where its citizens can or cannot travel, the foundations of democracy, by definition, are cracking. This basic premise, it seems, has been forgotten by Senators Marco Rubio (Florida), and Bob Menendez (New Jersey), in their attempt to block the Obama administration's expansion of travel to Cuba.
And I stress "attempt," because, fortunately, when there is great nonsense there will always be great common sense to contain it: Their proposal has just been rejected, and at least for now Congress won't even discuss it.
"I am not willing to believe in the purity of intentions, the moral honestly of those who allegedly advocate for the welfare and full freedom of Cuba, but who at the same time ignore their families and don't interest themselves in whether they are able to eat twice a day or are clothed in rags.
The truth is that in the vast majority of cases, those who argue vehemently against financial aid for Cuban families, and against family visits, meet one of two conditions: (1) They have no one on the Island, or (2) They are terrible children, terrible parents, terrible siblings; and in that case their opinion means nothing to me.
Entire lecture here, courtesy of George Soros' largesse.
One question: is Morales-Licea, who seems frantic to travel back and spend (his U.S. gov. "refugee" or "asylee" benefits?) on behalf of his former "oppressor", here as a "political refugee?" or seeking "political asylum?" Enquiring minds want to know.
Unreal
Is Morales Licea a "political refugee?" or seeking "political asylum?"
Maybe Alberto de la Cruz or Val Prieto can answer you.
After all, it was Alberto who had lunch with him two weeks ago (and chronicled it in this blog) and Val Prieto who (deservedly) called him "a straight up, stand up guy, a brilliant writer and one hell of a ballsy MF" (which he is, as he was an opposition blogger from INSIDE Cuba, instead of Louisiana)
Let's be clear: Morales-Licea's opinions are open for debate and I'm sure he'll be the first one to say so. What is not open to debate is his character, especially with a low blow such as suggesting he's only interested in receiving refugee benefits and sending them to Cuba. Read your own damn blog. Unreal.
Pepito:
If Ernesto is entitled to question Menendez' and Rubio's dedication to democracy and compare them to the Castro regime, and if he is entitled to declare all Cubans in exile who do not send their family members in Cuba money as "terrible," then certainly Humberto is entitled to question his motives.
That's the beauty of freedom of speech.
I’m not going to suggest to anyone not to help their family, but I’ve said it before and will repeat--if you claim you’re a refugee, gain your freedom and then go back while the very same government that was supposedly persecuting you is still in power, then you are a liar and should go back and get in the immigration line waiting to come to the U.S. Also note, it seems to me that there are some people happy to accept help from exiles, and talk the talk, and then turn around and start with the castro comemierda as soon as they find out freedom is not free. For shame.
Albertico: This is not about freedom of speech. Yes, we all have the right to make a fool out of ourselves, a right Fontova avails himself of frequently. If only he read this blog with more attention than he reads the Huffington Post.
What about you? Don't you think you at least owe a clarification to an honest person who impressed you enough over lunch to compose a great post? Tell Fontova he is not receiving any government benefits, and he's not traveling to Cuba - because he can't.
Ditto Ziva,
Alberto and Val,
My suggestion is that you must be careful of these new arrivals as we don’t know their hidden agenda as this Ernesto Morales Licea character is quickly showing.
This person is prime example of the kind of individuals that the Castro tyranny breeds and cannot be fully trusted until they prove themselves.
I say send this treacherous character Ernesto Morales Licea back to his beloved uncle Fidel.
They deserve each other.
FFC, perhaps instead of Miami, he should relocate to Spain where he can experience first hand Cuba engineered freedom and tell his story to other recent exiles from Combinado et al.
Pepito:
This is ALL about freedom of speech. Ernesto is free to express whatever he thinks in whatever venue he chooses and will accept him. And Humberto, as one of our contributors and beloved member of the Babalú family, he is also free to express his point of view here whenever he chooses.
There is nothing that is in need of "clarification." If Ernesto wants to answer Humberto's questions, he knows that I would be more than happy to grant him the forum to do so. But that is Ernesto's decision, and his alone. I cannot answer for him any more than I can answer for you.
In addition, I would like to remind you that you have been banned from commenting on this site for your inanities. I have allowed your comments to be published in the interest of public discourse and as long as you further this discussion in a respectful manner.
Yes Ziva, you have a strong point.
I don't know, some of these new arrivals have a knack for disappointing me with their actions.
Now I remember who this Pepe Verdad comemierda is! He is not worthy to clean the fish Humberto catches...
"We all have the right to make a fool out of ourselves, a right Fontova avails himself of frequently." --- Pepe Verdad
Ernesto is not a refugee or asylee, he came with a family reunification visa, he married an american citizen. By now he may even have his permanent resident. I wonder how many of those who are so quick to criticize him would have the cojones to do IN CUBA what he did.
[...] En Babalú Blog. [...]
Albertico (I'm assuming chiqueando is respectful in your book): from the beginning I said his opinions are open to debate, so you know the issue is not freedom of speech.
The issue is that Fontova made an unwarranted character attack on a courageous and honest person, with no proof and for no reason other that he can't come up with a cogent argument to refute Morales Licea. Not just any person, but somebody YOU profiled in this blog as an example. Personally, I stand for my friends with the facts and to be honest with you, it's disappointing you are not doing it. Ban this comment if you want, but you know the facts of Morales Licea's life and you should at least clarify them.
Let me tell you why this bothers me, should bother you, and you should be not so quick to dismiss it from the "public discourse": our differences of opinion between groups of exiles, even if strong, should not make us to turn on each other. This is not about disagreements not being discussed, it's about not losing track that is a disagreement, not a reason to suspect loyalties or become enemies. The "lifelong victim of Stalinist education" has much to teach Fontova (and some of the people commenting in this thread) in this regard.
Pepito:
You need to take a step back and look at this situation in its entirety. This is not about any of us jumping to defend Ernesto's honor, this is about everyone speaking freely what they think and believe.
Ernesto's HuffPo piece called into the question the dedication that Bob Menendez and Marco Rubio have towards the institution of democracy. In my humble opinion that is a ridiculous premise to base an argument against new sanctions on the Castro regime. Nevertheless, Ernesto has the right to use any premise he desires, regardless of how ridiculous I may think it is. Just the same, Humberto has the right to use any premise he feels inclined to use, regardless of how ridiculous you may think it is.
Ernesto and Humberto can both defend themselves, and they don't need any of us to fight their battles.
Ditto alberto,
"The "lifelong victim of Stalinist education" has much to teach Fontova (and some of the people commenting in this thread) in this regard."
No comas tanta mierda Pepito...
Here is a dude that has fought the dictatorship from the inside and put his life on the line to highlight the atrocities of the Castro regime and we just sit back here and basically call him a communist.
"I say send this treacherous character Ernesto Morales Licea back to his beloved uncle Fidel. They deserve each other."
Can't we have a difference of opinion on US policy towards Cuba without having to resort to this? It is clear his ultimate goal is an end to the castro dictatorship, but we just throw the baby out with the bath water.
We spend so much time fighting each other and giving each other litmus tests that we forget what the true goal is. We are just so quick to turn on each other...
Cubahorn,
Can it not be said that it was Ernesto who tossed the baby out with the bathwater?
Cubanhorn:
Is your call for unity directed at Ernesto Morales Licea as well? Unity requires all to unite and put aside differences, not just for one group to acquiesce and tolerate another group. There will always be differences, but that is just part of what keeps us apart. Only mutual respect can bring us together, otherwise, there will never be true unity.
cubanhorn, read the post.
Ernesto Morales Licea treacherous actions and statements to the Huffington Post started this whole mess and left himself open to our criticism. I'm not willing to cut him any slack whatsoever.
I say for the second time, send him back to Cuba to his uncle Fidel.
By the way I had to deal with some of these new arrivals over the years and I learned that you must be careful with some of them because they're the byproduct of the Castro tyranny and are not what they appear to be. That dog has bitten me several times.
Ernesto made the following low blow, ignorant statement:
"The truth is that in the vast majority of cases, those who argue vehemently against financial aid for Cuban families, and against family visits, meet one of two conditions: (1) They have no one on the Island, or (2) They are terrible children, terrible parents, terrible siblings; and in that case their opinion means nothing to me."
Without having a single clue what the early generation of Cuban exiles had to go trough in America in the sixties and seventies to make the American dream at a time when you could barely call your relatives in Cuba, let alone travel to the island in the tourist fashion they do today.
Late arrivals like Ernesto today have it easy as we the early arrivals paved the way for them and those early arrivals had no time or resources to engage in all these travel and sending remittances to Cuba like they do because these early arrivals had to sacrifice plenty and work very hard to make it and survive here in America.
I still remember when my grandfather tragically died in Cuba many years ago that my father could barely speak to my uncle for five minutes to get the some of the details before the phone call was cut from Cuba by those who monitored the calls.
That was our reality back then a reality Ernesto Morales Licea never lived it so he should show at least a little respect for those of us who do not approve of supporting the Castro tyranny by sending support to Cuba because we have ample reason for our stance.
The truth is that it is not that we don't want to help our families in the island but that the Castro regime holds them hostages for our money because at the end of the day this money is what finances the Castro tyranny and Ernesto Morales Licea is a complete imbecile if he doesn't understand this fact.
For Ernesto Morales Licea is very easy to have the exiles here working like dogs to be sending their hard earned dollars to his uncle Fidel with the pretext of helping their families in the island. Eso es muy facil.
So in my view Ernesto's opinions mean nothing to me too as I could care less about him and will never get my support.
For the third time, send his treacherous ass back to uncle Fidel, que se joda.
Alberto, Val:
Yes, I would say the same thing to Ernesto. There is no reason to call people who chose not to send money back to their families 'terrible'. I am lucky, I fall into that first group so I don't have that moral dilemma. If I went to his blog or HuffPo, I would make the same comment there, but I don't visit those sites.
What I don't think he did in his post was question anyone's motives and desire to see castro gone, which is what some here did. I can't think of a bigger insult for a Cuban, Cuban-American than calling his desire for a free Cuba into question.
I guess I'm just tired of all this in-fighting between us. Zoe vs. Yoani and Bustos, Humberto vs. Raices de Esperanza etc...
cubanhorn,
I, too, am tired of the infighting, and Ill state, once again, that we Cubans are our own worst enemies. That said, it is our unfortunate reality, as Cubans who work for the freedom of Cuba and ALL Cubans, to have the responsibility upon our shoulders to highlight or criticize those who do that cause a disservice, whether be design or happenstance or simply being wrong.
cubahorn,
By the way I have still plenty of family in Cuba and for years I sent them medicines (bought here) only, because I don't believe in sending money there and my family is fully aware of it.
I have a true story for you,
In the late sixties a relative sent my family the first and only package with clothes to Cuba and the package was confiscated due to a bomb incident at the main office of the Havana Post Office. Our relative had made great sacrifices to send that package and after we learned what happened we told our relative not to ever send us anything again.
Unfortunately the people in the island today have grown to be dependent on help from outside and unwilling to lift a finger for their own freedom.
After witnessing what has happened for the last several weeks in Egypt (and now in Libya) it pains me to say that the people in Cuba deserve to receive shit from their relatives abroad unless they revolt in mass against the Castro brothers.
Let them demand freedom from their uncles Fidel and Raul as it is about time for them to stop being such a bunch of pendejos.
You will never in a million, gazillion years guess who posted Morales-Licea's article:
http://www.cubastudygroup.org/index.cfm/newsroom?ContentRecord_id=77ff774f-b68b-4c10-bab8-fbc3b6b39570
Runs first on the site of the Hungarian born Soros--now on the site of the Cuban-born one, who probably commissioned it in the first place.
Agreed, Val. Thanks for the forum to talk about these topics.