Meet the Friends of Joe Garcia (Joe Garcia 2010)

As a public service, the following is the eleventh installment of an ongoing series that will continue through election day, November 2nd. The data provided comes courtesy of The Shark Tank, a Florida politics blog.

The campaign of Joe Garcia, the Democratic candidate for Florida’s 25th congressional district, has a lot of friends. And since nothing says friendship better than a fat check, they have donated tens of thousands of dollars to Joe Garcia’s campaign. It is important that South Florida voters learn just who are these friends since few things rings truer than the old adage, “tell me who your friends are and I’ll tell you who you are.”

So let’s meet some more of Joe Garcia friends:

Francisco x. Gonzalez de Aruca– Founded Marazul Tours(1979)
Donated-$5200

Marazul Tours is the largest travel agency that provides travel service from the United States to Cuba. He is also a radio host on Miami’s “Radio Progreso”, WOCN (AM) (1450).

At the beginning of the Cuban Revolution, Aruca became involved with the Movimiento Revolucionario del Pueblo (MRP), an organization led by Manuel Ray, an architect who had served as Fidel Castro‘s minister of public works. Aruca was the propaganda director of the student wing, and distributed anti-revolutionary leaflets and to organize strikes. He was arrested on January 5, 1961, and charged with counterrevolutionary activities, tried ten days later, found guilty, and sentenced to 30 years. Aruca was sent to Havana’s La Cabana prison. Since he was small and looked younger than 20 he was able to sneak out one day from prison pretending to be a visitor. He made his way to the Brazilian embassy and asked for asylum. He spent eighteen months there, until he was able to obtain a safe-conduct pass from the Cuban government. He went first to Ecuador, then to Colombia, and then to Miami.

You can see and read all the installments of this series HERE.

As a public service, the following is the tenth installment of an ongoing series that will continue through election day, November 2nd. The data provided comes courtesy of The Shark Tank, a Florida politics blog.

The campaign of Joe Garcia, the Democratic candidate for Florida’s 25th congressional district, has a lot of friends. And since nothing says friendship better than a fat check, they have donated tens of thousands of dollars to Joe Garcia’s campaign. It is important that South Florida voters learn just who are these friends since few things rings truer than the old adage, “tell me who your friends are and I’ll tell you who you are.”

So let’s meet some more of Joe Garcia friends:

Thomas Cooper– Founder, Gulfstream International Airlines(1988)

Donated-$500

Gulfstream operates initially as an “on-demand” charter airline serving South Florida, Cuba, and the Bahamas.  Is a regional carrier for Continental Connect.

(“Gulfstream”) is a U.S. air carrier that holds a Part 121 Certificate from the Federal Aviation Administration. Gulfstream contracts with charter operators, under which Gulfstream will provide passenger charter air transportation services between Miami International Airport and various authorized points in Cuba (Havana, Camaguey, Cienfuegos, Holguin, and Santiago de Cuba). Charter operators must hold Carrier Service Provider (“CSP”) licenses from the Office of Foreign Assets Control (“OFAC”) of the U.S. Department of the Treasury. The CSP licenses authorize charter operators to market and sell the charter flights to Cuba. All passengers on the charter flights must be generally or specifically licensed (by OFAC) to travel to, from, and within Cuba.  Gulfstream also offers all-cargo charter air transportation services between Miami and authorized points in Cuba.

You can see and read all the installments of this series HERE.

As a public service, the following is the ninth installment of an ongoing series that will continue through election day, November 2nd. The data provided comes courtesy of The Shark Tank, a Florida politics blog.

The campaign of Joe Garcia, the Democratic candidate for Florida’s 25th congressional district, has a lot of friends. And since nothing says friendship better than a fat check, they have donated tens of thousands of dollars to Joe Garcia’s campaign. It is important that South Florida voters learn just who are these friends since few things rings truer than the old adage, “tell me who your friends are and I’ll tell you who you are.”

So let’s meet some more of Joe Garcia friends:

Armando Marcia– President, Marazul Tours

Donated-$500

Marazul, which marks its 30th anniversary this year, has been in business the longest of the seven air-charter companies licensed by the U.S. Treasury Department to fly passengers between Miami and Havana.

New York Daily News: “No one is afraid anymore; many who never traveled before want to do it now,” Armando García said. “Things are so different that even the Cuban American National Foundation [CANF] is in favor of traveling.”

You can see and read all the installments of this series HERE.

As a public service, the following is the seventh installment of an ongoing series that will continue through election day, November 2nd. The data provided comes courtesy of The Shark Tank, a Florida politics blog.

The campaign of Joe Garcia, the Democratic candidate for Florida’s 25th congressional district, has a lot of friends. And since nothing says friendship better than a fat check, they have donated tens of thousands of dollars to Joe Garcia’s campaign. It is important that South Florida voters learn just who are these friends since few things rings truer than the old adage, “tell me who your friends are and I’ll tell you who you are.”

So let’s meet some more of Joe Garcia friends:

Maria ‘Tessie” Aral– President of  ABC Charters

Donated- $5295

ABC Charters flew 10,500 passengers to Cuba this summer, up from 6,000 last year.

”I think all of that will be wonderful when all travel restrictions are lifted,” Ms. Aral said. “But we’re not there yet.”

You can see and read all the installments of this series HERE.

As a public service, the following is the fifth installment of an ongoing series that will continue through election day, November 2nd. The data provided comes courtesy of The Shark Tank, a Florida politics blog.

The campaign of Joe Garcia, the Democratic candidate for Florida’s 25th congressional district, has a lot of friends. And since nothing says friendship better than a fat check, they have donated tens of thousands of dollars to Joe Garcia’s campaign. It is important that South Florida voters learn just who are these friends since few things rings truer than the old adage, “tell me who your friends are and I’ll tell you who you are.”

So let’s meet some more of Joe Garcia friends:

Augusto Maxwell– Attorney, Akerman/Senterfitt

Donated-$1000

At Akerman Senterfitt in Miami, lawyers such as Maxwell and his colleague Pedro Freyre say they have a “significant number” of clients they assist by providing information on embargo regulations. That includes European companies that don’t want to run afoul of Helms-Burton.

The lawyers also work on matters related to exceptions to the embargo such as U.S. exports of food, agricultural products and pharmaceuticals to the island for humanitarian reasons. Spending in Cuba by certain groups, including academics, clerics, journalists, some on cultural exchanges and Cuban-Americans visiting relatives, also is permitted as an embargo exemption.

The U.S. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, commonly called OFAC, enforces more than 20 economic and trade sanction programs for countries around the world but its main focus has been Cuba.

”I would say the bulk [of the firm’s Cuba work] is OFAC-related,” Maxwell said. “What we’re beginning to grow now is two things: American businesses who are interested in understanding what the law is, and exile Cubans who are interested in understanding what rights they might have for properties in Cuba.” Read more

You can see and read all the installments of this series HERE.

As a public service, the following is the fourth installment of an ongoing series that will continue through election day, November 2nd. The data provided comes courtesy of The Shark Tank, a Florida politics blog.

The campaign of Joe Garcia, the Democratic candidate for Florida’s 25th congressional district, has a lot of friends. And since nothing says friendship better than a fat check, they have donated tens of thousands of dollars to Joe Garcia’s campaign. It is important that South Florida voters learn just who are these friends since few things rings truer than the old adage, “tell me who your friends are and I’ll tell you who you are.”

So let’s meet some more of Joe Garcia friends:

Charlie Rangel- U.S. Congressman (D-NY)

Donated-$4000

Rangel, a frequent critic of the U.S. embargo against Cuba, met with Fidel Castro on a trip to the island in 2002, but only acknowledged that the Cuban government picked up part of the tab when a watchdog group began making recent inquiries.

Read more here- Rep. Charles Rangel’s Cuba Trip Subsidized by Castro

You can see and read all the installments of this series HERE.

As a public service, the following is the third installment of an ongoing series that will continue through election day, November 2nd. The data provided comes courtesy of The Shark Tank, a Florida politics blog.

The campaign of Joe Garcia, the Democratic candidate for Florida’s 25th congressional district, has a lot of friends. And since nothing says friendship better than a fat check, they have donated tens of thousands of dollars to Joe Garcia’s campaign. It is important that South Florida voters learn just who are these friends since few things rings truer than the old adage, “tell me who your friends are and I’ll tell you who you are.”

So let’s meet some more of Joe Garcia friends:

Ramon Cernuda– Art Dealer

Donated-$5500

In the Nineties, Cernuda embarrassed a number of private collectors who had spent tens of thousands of dollars on paintings that he very publicly deemed fakes. Simultaneously he angered the Coral Gables gallery owners who sold the alleged fakes — he even picketed outside their doors — prompting some of them to file defamation lawsuits claiming he had ruined their reputations and forced them out of business.

In the spring of 1988, he and a small group of fellow collectors organized a fundraising auction at the nonprofit Cuban Museum of Arts and Culture in Little Havana, featuring paintings by deceased masters Wifredo Lam, Rene Porto carrero, and Amelia Pelaez, plus contemporary artists living in Cuba who had not repudiated the Castro regime. Protesters disrupted the event; one anti-Castro activist bought a painting, took it outside, and burned it. Days later a bomb exploded outside the museum’s front door. Cernuda received so many death threats, he says, he stopped reporting them to the FBI. In June 1990 a much more powerful bomb caused significant damage, and the museum was forced to close for six months.

Then in 1989 U.S. Attorney Dexter Lehtinen ordered a raid on Cernuda’s private collection and charged him with violating the federal embargo on Cuba, formally known as the 1963 Trading with the Enemy Act. In a landmark decision, a federal judge sided with Cernuda, ruling that art is protected under the First Amendment and thus exempt from the embargo.

You can see and read all the installments of this series HERE.