The Roots of Indiscretion: More on Roots of Hope and the Cuba Sex Site

by

Capitol Hill Cubans addresses the participation of Cuba sex site owner Rob Sequin in a recent Roots of Hope conference in Boston. And in light of Sequin’s website’s apparent promotion of sexual tourism to Cuba, CHC wonders what type of license he receives from the Treasury Department to travel to Cuba.

(Shamelessly) Promoting Sex-Tourism to Cuba

This will get your blood boiling.

Babalu Blog has exposed several websites promoting sexual tourism to Cuba owned by Rob Sequin, editor of the Massachusetts-based website, Havana Journal.

Sequin once labeled CHC as being “dangerous to American freedoms” for opposing Congressional efforts to unconditionally authorize tourism travel to Cuba.

If by “freedoms” Sequin means allowing his audience to prey on vulnerable men and women repressed by a ruthless dictatorship (which has proven to enthusiastically profit from sex tourists) — then call us “dangerous.”

Sequin was also a constituent of former U.S. Rep. Bill Delahunt (D-MA), a favorite of the Castro brothers.

As regards Delahunt, he once stated:

“The congressman’s staff has been a fantastic source of information and has introduced me to some very knowledgeable and influential people in the Cuba arena.”

Fascinating.  But it gets worse.

Last week, Sequin was invited to participate in the Roots of Hope annual conference, held at Boston College.

At the conference, he shared the stage and conference agenda with representatives of the U.S. and Cuban Catholic Church, all of whom zealously lobby to unconditionally lift sanctions against the Castro regime — a Shakespearean irony, of sorts.

Upon being informed about the sex-sites (better vetting next time), Roots of Hope posted a condemnatory statement — in response to which Sequin first apologizes (in the comments section), but then adds insult to injury:

“[T]he main purpose of the site was designed to be more educational featuring YouTube videos and main stream news articles.”

Educational?

Here’s a direct quote from Sequin’s website, sexincuba.com:

“Seriously, Cuba is the place to get laid… man, woman, straight or gay! There may not be freedom of speech but there certainly is freedom of sex.”

Does that sound educational?

Let’s pray that’s not what the Treasury Department has in mind when issuing “educational travel” licenses to Cuba.

Which brings up another question — what type of license does Sequin travel to Cuba under?

Regardless, he’s obviously violating the terms of the license.

25 thoughts on “The Roots of Indiscretion: More on Roots of Hope and the Cuba Sex Site”

  1. I like to think of myself as a pretty informed when it comes to the Cuban debate. I pretty much know most of the characters on both sides of the issue, but I had never heard of this sex peddler Rob Sequin. If Raices de Esperanza had to stack their presentation with zealous lift-the-embargo, engage-castro types and in the process dig in deep [and get dirty] by including a relatively obscure sex peddler panelist while ignoring well-known prestigious and accomplished “hardline” panelists, they have really lost themselves along the way and have as Babalu states become partisan. What a shame.

  2. I did some snooping around the Roots of Hope site and found a link to the panel at which Sequin spoke. While Sequin is a disgusting individual, the panel at no point mentions anything about lifting the embargo or engaging the Castro government. Let’s not crucify such a worthwhile organization without first doing some real research of our own.

    http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/13860121

  3. Bola de Humo,

    Gimme a break. One need only look at the players involved in said panel: Sequin, a Delahunt groupie and Cuba profiteer; Carlos Saldrigas, Mr. Cuba Studay Group, lift the embargo, lift travel restrictions and also Cuba profiteer, Manny Hidalgo, Mr. Microloan; and the catholic Church, the regimes most recent partner in crime.

    One also needs to be forthright: the panel was and spoke about the expansion of cultural exchanges and more people to people contacts. the only way to do that is through engagement with the castro regime and its officials.

    That the embargo wasnt specifically mentioned is a moot point. all panelists present knew that to be the elephant in the room.

  4. Capitol Hill Cubans gets it 100% right by focusing its attack on Rob Sequin, and not on Raices. Raices unconditionally condemns Sequin’s actions, and Sequin’s assertion that it was educational would be laughable if it wasn’t so seriously offenssive.

    Ray, absolutely not true that Raices is stacking the deck with engage-castro types. They have had voices ranging from Marco Rubio, Jaime Sucklicki, Orlando Gutierrez, and others, all the way down to people like Sequin. In these debates many Raices members have challenged all panelists, in the spirit of a true open forum (something that would never exist in Cuba). I have to disagree with the previous assertion that there is any effort to “stack the deck.” Having attended many conferences, I can say first hand that there has been great care to include all points of view, including the conservative ones that many Raices members hold.

  5. Sorry I’m not informed about the Raices bunch nor of Rob Sequin and his activities, bit is sure seems to me a PIMP GOT BUSTED!! 🙂

  8. Dave, it seems to me that when it comes to Cuba one of the reasons the castro’s are still in power is because of American civility. Yes fidel is a brutal dictator on the one side, but then you know there’s the free healthcare and education, and, and… I think after 52 years the only debate should be about how to get rid of them, not provide a forum for his enablers. I don’t hear anyone talking about all the good Khadaffi, or Mubarak has done, or how people to people conttacts is the way to free their victims.

  10. Dave,

    No where did I say, or even imply that Raices is stacking all panel discussions with lift-the-embargo, engage-castro types, I was referring specifically to this panel discussion. As Val points out, one only has to look at the panelists that were involved in said discussion to see what I mean.

    That said, all panels should be balanced. I don’t care how many times Marco Rubio is invited to speak at a Raices presentation, there is no excuse for having ANY unbalanced panel discussion.

  12. Rob:

    About the only libelous behavior I see here is your continued classification of sexincuba.com, which shamelessly peddles sexual tourism in Cuba, as an “educational site.” You are giving real educational websites — and real sex sites for that matter — a bad name.

    The licentiousness of your defense is only surpassed by the fact that sexincuba.com in its “new” form is still peddling sexual tourism in Cuba.

  13. Babalu Blog is on notice to remove wording in the introduction to this article since they are libelous claims. I will seek legal counsel to remedy the situation and to seek punitive damages for these actions.

    You make two libelous claims:

    1. That I am a “Cuba sex peddler”
    2. That I have “obvious involvement in the Cuba sex trade”

    I do not have a license from the Treasury department to travel to Cuba.

  15. Rob:

    In the interest of avoiding offense to anyone (including you), I have modified this post. That is more than I can say, however, for your sexincuba.com, which continues to offend Cubans on and off the island.

  17. For the record, we are of the opinion that the original comments were not libelous nor defamatory as both truth and pure opinion are guaranteed and protected under the First Amendment.

  18. Now, I’m not an attorney but I’ve heard the standard to prove libel is pretty high as I’ve been accused of it by a Cuban intelligence agent of influence (Marifeli Perez-Stable) who didn’t like the label I gave her which was “Cuban intelligence agent of influence.”

    First of all the statement has to be false. Now, question is does Mr. Sequin want to go to court to determine what the meaning of “is” is? I mean, all those screen caps from his web sites promoting sex tourism to Cuba would seem to be peddling sex. I guess a jury would decide.

    Then if Mr. Sequin proves that he in fact was not peddling sex, he’d have to prove that the author of this post knew it was a false statement when he made it. And given the above discretionary nature of the word “peddler” and the absolute proof that exists that Mr. Sequin was profiting from the discussion about sexual tourism (advertising on the site) I think a jury might reasonably agree that Babalu’s interpretation of Mr. Sequin as a peddler of sex was not intentionally false.

    And lastly Mr. Sequin would have to prove that he was somehow damaged by the supposedly false allegation. He’d have to demonstrate loss of revenue or professional opportunities. But judging by his lowlife nature (strictly my opinion) it’s hard to believe that he’s lost any revenue except maybe that which he was making by (allegedly) peddling sex. Can we get a ruling?

  19. In my opinion, I do not see how Mr. Sequin can deny peddling (just my opinion) sex in Cuba when he runs a website titled Sex in Cuba, which has tabs for Cuban Girls, Sex in Cuba, Jinteras, Gay in Cuba, videos with “Hot” girls dancing suggestively, and the site has advertising which I’m sure is there to make money for Mr. Sequin. The site states, “This site is designed to provide information on Jineteras (Cuban prostitutes and female hustlers), sex laws, escorts, gay hangouts and clubs.” “We will be posting some entertaining stories and eye candy photos but this site will not be X rated. Check back for Cuban sex stories, Cuban marriages gone bad (and some that have gone right) along with traveler precautions and sex customs.” Note that the Sex in Cuba site is part of Mr. Sequin’s Havana Network. As part of his marketing (my opinion) he lists the search engine ranking for his various sites. Read and decide for yourselves if he’s in the business of selling sex in Cuba: http://havanajournal.com/forums/viewthread/1565/

    Updated January 2, 2011

    SEARCH ENGINE RANKING FOR NUMEROUS HAVANA NETWORK SITES

    HavanaJournal.com enjoys tens of thousands of visitors each month from search engines and repeat visitors.

    Mostly for our own research, we searched a number of Cuba related keywords in Google in order to see how the HavanaJournal.com and other Havana Network sites ranked.

    As you can see by the keywords and ranking placement numbers below, HavanaJournal.com and sister sites are well positioned to capture new visitors from Google. We did not search at other search engines.

    More than one number below indicates either multiple positions for HavanaJournal.com and/or one or more Network sites in the same search engine results. Of course search engine results vary over time but these number are accurate as of today.

    Key = position 9 means the 9th placement of one of our sites in the search results.

    Search engine placement results for HavanaJournal.com and sister sites in our Havana Network

    Cayo Levisa – position 9

    Cohiba Esplendidos – position 1

    Cohibas – positions 6,7

    Cuba advertising – positions 1,2

    Cuba business – positions 1,2,3,5

    Cuba calendar – positions 1,2

    Cuba chamber of commerce – position 4

    Cuba conference – positions 5,7,8

    Cuba consulting – positions 1,2,3,4,5

    Cuba culture – position 2

    Cuba directory – positions 3,4

    Cuba diving – position 8

    Cuba forum – positions 2,3

    Cuba information – position 2

    Cuba legal services – positions 3,4,5,7,10

    Cuban American – position 6

    Cuban Americans – position 7

    Cuban birth certificates – positions 1,2,3,4

    Cuban cigars – position 11

    Cuban events – positions 1,2

    Cuban girls – position 1

    Cuban rum – positions 3,4,5,6

    Cuban vacations – position 8

    Cuba news – position 4

    Cuba politics – positions 1,2

    Cuba radio – position 6

    Cuba real estate – positions 3,5

    Cuba realty – position 1

    Cuba sex – positions 1,2

    Cuba stocks – 1,2,4

    Escozul – positions 1,2

    Habana del Este – position 5

    Habana Vieja – position 6

    Havana – position 3

    Havana business – positions 1,2,3,4

    Havana Cuba – position 2

    Havana news – positions 1,2

    Havana travel – position 1

    Havana vacations – positions 6,7

    Isla de la Juventud – position 10

    Jardines del Rey – position 3

    Playas del este – position 2

    Port of Havana – positions 1,4,5

    Sex in Cuba – positions 1,2

    Travel service providers – positions 2,3

    For more information about advertising here and across our Havana Network

    Also, HavanaJournal.com placed #2 in the world just below the Cuban government owned and operated CubaWeb.cu according to the Cuba Select ranking of the largest and most popular Cuba websites.

    Signature
    Cuba consulting services

  20. A brilliant observation, Henry.

    I should say that the point of my post was not to offend or libel anyone, but to expose the truth and the despicable sex site run by Rob Sequin. By alleging libel, Sequin was simply attempting to divert attention away from his offensive and detestable sex site. If he were truly worried about his reputation, he would have taken the site down years ago.

    Nevertheless, we can now return to the crux of the matter: Rob Sequin’s sex site. A site that in my opinion, and in the opinion of many others (apparently including Roots of Hope), promotes sexual tourism in the enslaved and oppressed nation of Cuba.

  22. Ziva,

    Rob Sequin is a sympathizer of Castro’s tyranny that masquerades himself as a Roots of Hope supporter.

    The type of statements he has made all along attacking Babalu, Val, and Capitol Hill Cubans expose who he really is; the rest is nonsense and a masquerade game.

    If it smell and looks like crap, it is certainly crap…

    Why Mr. Sequin plays this duplicitous game bewilders me. I can only speculate that individuals like him want to make money out of the Cuban people’s misery without being exposed for whom they really are.

    The fact that he was exposed by Babalu (and others) pisses the hell out of him because now everyone knows what he’s up to.

    Mr. Rob Sequin could care less about freedom and democracy for the people of Cuba. For him and many others today (because he’s not the only one) it is about the income that can be generated by exploiting the current situation in Cuba.

    This is a perfect example of money being the root of all Evil…

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