In a somberly written response to the Herald’s ombudsman’s article a few days back, accused Castro spy Marifeli Perez-Stable laments the fact that elements within the Cuban exile community continue to judge her for her actions. She claims that she has seen the light and is no longer a shill for the murderous dictatorship in Cuba and therefore, the actions of her past and the decisions she made to aid, abet, and support a vile despot that has killed tens of thousands of her fellow Cubans should all be forgotten.
She has changed, she tells us. And the decisions she has made in her life and the actions she has taken should have absolutely no consequences. We should all forget her past and her present–as if it does not exist–and look only to the future. All Cubans, she implores us, should honor the innocent patriots who gave their lives for the freedom of Cuba as well as the despotic opportunists that lost their lives torturing and executing their fellow countrymen. Then, and only then, she explains, can there be true reconciliation.
No matter how heartfelt her plea for reconciliation among those in the Cuban exile community may seem to some, Ms. Perez-Stable cannot hide the fact that she is asking that the same honor be bestowed upon the killer as it is upon the victim. In her mind, the killers were acting in good conscience. They were following a “just cause,” as she describes the violent enslavement of a nation and the execution of thousands of innocent men, women, and children. And because of this, these killers are not only worthy of our forgiveness, they are worthy of our honor also.
In reality, one cannot blame Ms. Perez-Stable for believing this is the right thing to do. If I was a Cuban that had betrayed my countrymen and directly or indirectly helped a vile dictator kill tens of thousands of my fellow Cubans, as she has admittedly done in the past and possibly continues to do so even now, I would want everyone to forget about it, too. Throw some honor into the deal and how can any guilty person refuse?
I won’t even begin to consider buying what Perez-Stable is trying to sell. It reeks. I reject her utterly as a Cuba analyst, and I have no respect for anyone who would officially employ her as such. The fact the Miami Herald chose to do so is not only disreputable and suspect but highly insulting. That alone would make me reject the Herald, though there have been numerous other reasons, and I pulled the plug on it long ago. In my eyes, this woman is at best disgraceful.
If you believe her story, call me — got some condos out in the Everglades you might be interested in.
Not only is she slimy, she’s also insulting to our collective intelligence. This is typical leftist, condescending PR, & snow-job type strategy designed to keep her activities under wraps but intact, now that so much of her cover has been blown.
This “we-did-it-in-good-conscience” excuse is SO, SO retro. It didn’t work at Nuremberg, and it’s not gonna work here either.
i have many of the same qualms about honoring both sides. I understand that this is what they did in South Africa and it kind of worked there but in other places where reconciliation committees have been tried they have been nowhere as successful. I just don’t see it working with Cubans, we arent exactly a live and let live type people.
Perez-Stable appears to be making a tenuous assumption that those who fought on the side of the regime were good people who sincerely believed in their ideology and were just following orders. That may be true in some cases, but it’s not a good enough reason to blanket the whole cause with it. She also trumpets the classic leftist line that only through dialogue and meeting in the middle can we resolve the Cuba issue. If we’re talking about two sides genuinely interested in doing the RIGHT thing, absolutely. But she and everyone else knows that’s not the case here. Never has been, so why appease them now?
It’s amazing how those who have their hands seriously dirty, if not bloody, are so pro-forgiveness and pro-reconciliation NOW, after the damage is done, much of which can never be undone or “fixed.” It’s essentially wanting to have your cake and eat it, too–wanting to have it both ways. Sorry, but I DON’T think so. And please, if you want to forgive whomever for whatever, fine, that’s your affair, but don’t even think of telling anybody else what they need to do or how they should feel, because that’s NOT your business or decision. The decision to forgive or not rests ONLY with the person wronged, nobody else, especially not anybody implicated in the wrongdoing. It is beyond shameless, beyond disgusting for anyone as tainted as Perez-Stable to dare play Dalai Lama or Ghandi and presume to tell anybody to “forgive and forget.” It’s essentially obscene. It’s incredible that, although covered in shit, she still found eminently “respectable” enablers like FIU and the Herald–both of which I hold in contempt as a result.
Dittos. It occurs to me that this pseudo-repentant little piece is another attempt to nail the embargo’s coffin. “Look at me, I was a commie, but I’ve seen the light; now that I’ve got credibility, can we talk now and lift this thing?”
FTA: “Longing for Cuba has been a constant in my life… I got to know Middle America first-hand. Well before I understood the full gamut of its ignominy, segregation shocked me.” Oh, pluheeeze — what condescending BS: she can’t help but take a swipe at the US. It’s ironic she underlines her “shock” in the same paragraph she mentions her black nanny [Tata] back in Cuba.
NOT that there’s anything wrong with a black nanny, or a white/purple/blue or yellow nanny, but let’s get real: who in the world really believes that in the privileged world of the PStable household Tata was anything other than a second class citizen?
I’m SO sick of the leftist drivel and the double standard and the cheap shots; good spies can talk out of both sides of their mouths, I imagine. Nice try, PStable, but you’ve been wearing your leopard spots all your life, and you don’t persuade me. Not ever.
There isn’t a family of Cubans that didn’t have at least one member that was for Fidel at one point or another. And for all of us to claim that every single one of our parents, brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles, cousins knew the truth from the get go is either delusional or lying. I know I had an uncle that believed and while he never fought or killed he stayed behind and died shortly thereafter. He literally thought that the idea of communism was bringing the kingdom of God to earth. I have no problem recognizing my deluded uncle and brave one who fought at Bay of Pigs.
Did your deluded uncle rat on the rest of the family and get them in “trouble?” Where is your deluded uncle now?
“The kingdom of God on Earth.” Sounds like it’s right out of an Obama rally…