Alan Gross, Vilma Castro, and America’s Cuba Policy
Elliott Abrams at the Council on Foreign Relations:
Alan Gross, Vilma Castro, and America’s Cuba Policy
Alan Gross is a former USAID contractor who has been in a Cuban jail since December 3, 2009. The most recent reports are that he has lost 105 pounds while in prison, and may well be suffering from untreated cancer.
Vilma Rodriguez Castro is the granddaughter of Raul Castro, Fidel’s brother and the man now running the communist dictatorship.
They are linked here for one reason: while Gross suffers in a Cuban prison for the crime of helping the tiny Cuban Jewish community get linked to other Jewish communities in the world via the internet, Vilma is partying in New York.
The indefatigable Frank Calzon, who has spent his life fighting for human rights in Cuba, tells me that
according to the Cafe Fuerte blog, Vilma Rodríguez Castro, grand-daughter of Cuban dictator Raul Castro, is in New York City this week attending the contemporary Latin American art fair, PINTA 2012. She was accompanying her boyfriend, Cuban artist Arlés del Río.
According to witnesses that spotted her last night, she was wearing Chanel shoes, a Louis Vuitton purse and a Rolex watch, as if it was the most natural thing in the world.
The natural question is why the State Department granted her a visa. There is no American interest in seeing Castro family members go out on the town in New York, attired in expensive outfits acquired with money essentially stolen from the Cuban people, while Alan Gross sits in prison. Indeed allowing this to happen mocks Gross’s suffering and that of his family. If the facts here are right, the press or the Congress should be asking about our visa policy– and asking that beneficiaries of the Castro system be denied visas at the very least while our fellow citizen Alan Gross is held prisoner in Cuba. From what I can see, the decision to grant Raul Castro’s granddaughter a visa to come here and party is simply a disgrace.
"...some animals are more equal than others."
Oh, but art should never be mixed up with politics, you know. Little Vilma's just here for artistic reasons, so it's OK. Really. Ask Juanes (if anybody still remembers him). As for the ritzy apparel, well, she's probably just trying to get noticed by Anna Wintour over at Vogue. Maybe they can do a puff piece on her like they did on Mrs. Assad of Syria.
And regarding granting the visa, just as with Mariela Castro's recent visa, ask Mrs. Clinton, who was on VERY good terms with the original Vilma, Mariela's mother (another faux feminist like Hillary, who owed her position to being married to a certain man).
Alan Gross was a well-paid mercenary who denounced the U.S. before being sentenced in the hope of gaining a lighter sentence and is now suing the U.S. government for $50 million in the hope of getting a millionaire settlement. This is an insult to all Cuban political prisoners who stoically opposed the regime for decades on moral convictions, like Armando Valladares and Pedro Luis Boitel. This woe-is-me wimp should man up and feel ashamed by their example. Another decade in prison should strengthen his character and resolve.