FloridaTreeHugger

This was originally published in the Island Sand Paper, Issue 381, May 30, 2008. Reprinted here with permission. A real eye-opener!

(FYI: Rupert Heine is a nationally-awarded photographer, twice nominated for The Pulitzer Prize. His Op-Ed pieces and editorials have been published in the Miami Herald, Minneapolis Tribune, and the Madison Capital Times. He has done extensive writing for newspapers and magazines, and worked as a journalist in Miami for over six years.”)

“…sugar was the knife in the hand of the assassin.” Fidel CastroSomeone in Washington owes Fidel Castro a huge apology. In fact there are a number of senior political leaders in the halls of Congress, and the White House, who know - as their predecessors have known - that they owe this nation, and Fidel Castro, a full explanation and apology for distorting the truth about Fidel Castro in order to advance hidden agendas.
By demonizing Castro to excess, they have countenanced major problems that plague this nation, including:

Foul and corrupt campaign finance laws.
Unnecessary military expenditures.
Inappropriate agricultural price supports.

Even the ongoing pollution of the Everglades National Park

…. most all of these problems exist for one simple reason — the price of sugar.

Since the early 1950s our foreign policies concerning Fidel Castro have been dictated by power brokers within our government who had strong ties to the sugar industry.

When Fidel Castro began his revolution against Batista and his Mafia cronies - who allowed prostitution, drug trafficking, gambling, torture, and more - the Director of the CIA, Allen Dulles, had already ordered that Castro be assassinated. (3) Not because Castro was a communist. He was not. He was an idealistic lawyer, brought up in the Catholic faith, with the utopian notion that the land and businesses in Cuba should be returned to the people. CIA Director Dulles knew that Castro was going to nationalize all the sugar plantations, mills, and refineries and Dulle was looking out for his sugar baron cronies.

According to noted Cuba historian Jane Franklin, Dulles had once been the President of United Fruit, a major sugar company with massive sugar holdings in Cuba.

And his brother John Foster Dulles, then Secretary of State under Eisenhower, also had strong ties to United Fruit.

Walter Bedell Smith, head of the CIA before Dulles, had been president of United Fruit at one time.

And Henry Cabot Lodge (then UN Ambassador) had been on the Board of Directors.

This not the first time these “friends” of United Fruit used their powerful offices to try and assassinate a political leader who threatened United Fruit. According to de-classified CIA documents, released in 1997 on “dirty tricks”, the CIA had plans to assassinate Guatemalan President Jacobo Arbenz in 1953. Arbenz had promised reform measures to his people, which included nationalizing the sugar holdings. The Dulles brothers came up with a plan to kill him, which Eisenhower approved. President Eisenhower’s secretary was married to United Fruit’s Public Relation’s Director.

These documents were the only ones released by the CIA concerning dirty tricks. The CIA claims that all other documents were accidentally destroyed. (5)

WHAT WAS OVERLOOKED THEN, AND EASILY FORGOTTEN NOW, IS THE FACT THAT MOST OF THE TENS OF THOUSANDS OF CUBANS WHO FLED CUBA, AND LANDED IN MIAMI, WERE THOSE WHO HAD RAPED AND PROSTITUTED AND ROBBED CUBA.

AMONGST THEM WAS CUBA’S “GENERAL” FULGENCIO BATISTA WHO TOOK OVER THE COUNTRY BY COUP, TORTURED AND KILLED HIS OPPOSITION, DEPLETED THE NATIONAL TREASURY AND BANKRUPTED CUBA BEFORE LEAVING. HE, AND HIS FAMILY, PIMPS, MAFIOSO, DRUG TRAFFICKERS, MURDERERS, CORRUPT JUDGES, POLICE, SOLDIERS, LAWYERS, DOCTORS, AND BUSINESSMAN — ALL OF WHOM HAD WORKED HAND-IN-GLOVE WITH BATISTA TO STRIP CUBA BARE OF EVERYTHING IT HAD — FLED TO AMERICA.

FIDEL HAD DRIVEN THE WORST OF CUBA OUT AND ONTO AMERICAN SHORES. THE WORST OF CUBA QUICKLY FOUND AN ALLY IN THE DULLES BROTHERS, WHO WANTED TO HELP UNITED FRUIT, AND OTHER SUGAR BARONS, REGAIN THEIR INDUSTRY.   

Soon after Fidel took over Cuba the assassination attempts increased. Another Cuban sugar baron, Luis Lobo, openly bragged in Havana that Fidel would be killed soon. Lobo had to flee Cuba, moved to Miami where he became a banker. He helped finance Alpha 66, a militant “anti-Castro” group.

Fidel immediately tried to begin negotiations with the U.S., with one major stipulation - the sugar holdings would be nationalized so that the Cuban people could reap the rewards. Fidel promised to repay the former owners for those holdings, but not return them.

The Eisenhower administration, heavily influenced by the Dulles brothers, decided to lay siege on Cuba. Not only place a total embargo on the country, but also increase raids and assassination attempts on Fidel. Castro was convinced that those who were trying to kill him and regain Cuba were the very same corrupt groups he had driven from Cuba. Fearing for his life and the freedom of his country Fidel reluctantly sought the aid of Russia. Only after the Russians came to the aid of Cuba did Fidel Castro turn communist.

The Bay of Pigs raid on Cuba took place in 1961. Amongst the 1,200 members of the invasionary force were men who had previously owned over 900,000 acres of land, 9,666 houses, 10 sugar mills, and 70 factories.

JFK failed to allow military support - troops and aircraft - for that ill-fated invasion and the anti-Castro folks in Miami have always hated him for not providing the vital air support that might have guaranteed success.

Recent documents reveal what actually happened. Allen Dulles - still head of the CIA - had briefed JFK on the plans and promised over thirty thousand Cubans, in Cuba, would rise up and come to the aid of the invading forces. That convinced JFK to allow the plan to be implemented. (1)

It is now known that Dulles knew that to be false. He had no intelligence data to suggest that native Cubans would rise up and support the invasion. It was his hope that once convinced, JFK would feel forced to provide U.S. Military forces and planes. When the invasion began it became obvious that no local Cubans would come to the support of the CIA-backed invaders, and JFK called off military support.

Kennedy realized how severely he had been misled and he fired Dulles.

He was secretly negotiating with Castro to normalize relations between the U.S. and Cuba. Even after the Bay of Pigs invasion Castro was understanding and willing to make a deal with JFK.

JFK was quite interested in normalizing relations with Cuba (2) but the anti-Castro groups, based in Miami, were doing everything they could to compromise JFK’s policies concerning Fidel, so JFK ordered all support for those groups be discontinued and that their supplies and weapons be confiscated.

The Miami-based anti-Castro groups were furious with JFK.

Meanwhile, Fidel Castro, once again offered to re-pay the exiled sugar barons for all the sugar holdings he had nationalized and they seemed willing to accept that re-payment. But the very same ill-conceived American trade laws that prevented Cuba from doing business with this country - laws heavily promoted by the sugar barons in South Florida - prevented those sugar barons from receiving their money.

The manner in which JFK resolved the Cuban missile crisis was to bring about total hatred from the anti-Castro forces.

They had hoped the presence of Russian missiles on Cuban soil would force JFK to invade the island and remove Castro ad the missiles. Instead of confronting Fidel, JFK negotiated with Premier Khrushchev directly, and forced an agreement. The Russians would withdraw the missiles from Cuba and, in return, JFK promised he would not invade Cuba.
 

This shattered the last hopes of the sugar barons of regaining their sugar holdings in Cuba. And the militant anti-Castro groups based in Miami now considered JFK to be soft on communism, therefore a traitor.

After JFK was murdered in Dallas, things changed.

Lyndon Baines Johnson assumed the Presidency and immediately turned his attention to the Vietnam War and new civil rights legislation.

Presidents Nixon, Carter, Reagan, and Bush focused on the Cold War, mid-East crises, the drug war, and the economy leaving the Cuban issue on the back burner.

But the Cuban exiles in Miami kept busy. The militant anti-Castro groups - Alpha 66, PUND, Assault Brigade 2506, and others — kept on making raids into Cuba with the vain hope of assassinating Castro. The impact and power of these militant groups paled in comparison to the efforts of one Cuban exile — Jorge Mas Canosa.

Mas had been once of the “participants” in the Bay of Pigs invasion. Upon release from the Cuban prison Mas was given a commission by JFK, despite the fact that the launch Mas was on never reached Cuban shores. He resumed his covert activities against Castro but also found time to acquire ownership of an engineering firm, Church & Tower. Thanks to contracts with companies like Southern Bell Mas soon became a multi-millionaire. Combining his wealth with his strong influence in the Miami Cuban society Mas soon became a major political force, influencing statewide and national elections as the leader of hundreds of thousands of South Florida Cubans.

When Reagan took office he quickly invited Mas to become his “voice against communism” in the Caribbean and, eventually congress provided funding — in the millions — for Radio Marti, putting Mas in charge.

At the same time CANF (Cuban American National Foundation) was formed and Mas quickly took over. Charging $5,000 to $10,000 to hundreds of businessmen and professional leaders CANF soon became the largest and best organized Cuban exile organization in America.

Encouraged by Reagan, Mas began to increase his power. When he became dissatisfied with the CIA’s weak support for anti-Castro activities, Mas created the National Endowment for Democracy and congress made it law and provided it with a budget of tens of millions. NED’s stated purpose was to help encourage democracy all over the world but Mas made sure most of the funds were directed to Mas’s CANF for covert operations against Castro.

TV Marti was created by congress and millions were allocated to it. Mas used monies from Radio and TV Marti, and NED to build up the campaign coffers of the very politicians who voted for these entities. He also had access to millions of dollars of CANF contributions to further “contribute” to his favorite politicians

Thus Mas was able to keep the flames of anti-Castro hatred burning and use the smoke to cover his moves to amass even more political power in Washington. Any citizen who attempted to object to his activities was simply labeled “pro-Castro’ and ostracized from the Cuban community. Any politician that tried to seek political office without Mas’s approval was doomed to failure, and any presidential candidate who tried to ignore Mas ran the risk of losing well over a half a million votes.

Mas’s activities accommodated his sugar baron neighbor’s needs perfectly. While he led the charge to get rid of Fidel and regain Cuba, the sugar barons could concentrate on protecting and expanding their powers.

They expanded their acreage on the northern edge of the Everglades National Park and, with that expansion, came huge runoffs of pollutants. The environmentalists started “raising cane” and demanding that the sugar folks pay huge amounts to clean up the mess, but the owners had their own plan.

The various sugar merchants– including Cargill, Archer Daniel Midland, U.S. Sugar, and the Fanjul brothers - formed dozens of PACs (Political Action Committees) in order to funnel millions of dollars into key politician’s campaign coffers.

When environmental cleanup laws came up for a vote the sugar barons managed to “contribute” enough money to sway key votes and prevent the passage of those laws.

When attempts where made to soften the embargo on Cuba - potentially allowing Cuba to import their enormous sugar products into this country - the barons “contributed” to the defeat of such bills.

When President Carter ran for re-election he revealed that he was willing to negotiate with Fidel Castro, thereby losing hundreds of thousands of key Miami/Cubano votes.

However the biggest concern of the sugar barons, especially the “first family of sugar” - the Fanjuls (brothers Jose and Alfonso, citizens of Spain) — was keeping the price supports in tact. The program, started in 1981, kept the price of sugar artificially high. Over twice the price worldwide. Which added over $65 million dollars to the Fanjul’s yearly profits.

This price support legislation means that Americans must spend nearly two billion dollars more than necessary for sugar-related products.

The sugar barons are equal-opportunity “contributors” when it comes to buying protection for their industry. Alfonso Fanjul invests heavily in the Democratic Party, while his brother Jose sends his money to the Republicans. They compensate in staggering proportions but their totals are continuously under-reported because they “contribute” through numerous family members, companies, executives, and PACs.

When legislation that would allow a few Caribbean nations to export sugar to America, the Fanjuls made sure the Dominican Republic would be one of those chosen. They own over 240,000 acres of sugar fields in that nation.

When Florida Congressman Dan Miller (R) introduced legislation to repeal the price supports in 1996, the bill lost by the narrowest of margins — 217 - 208. Five of the six congressmen who switched their vote - Bobby Rush (D, Ill), Jose Serrano (D, N.Y.) Albert Wynn (D, Md) Sue Myrick (R, N.C.) and Steve Stockman (R, Texas)- subsequently received campaign “contributions” from the sugar industry.

It was during that time that President Clinton was having his illicit affair with Monica Lewinsky. Her testimony reveals that on President’s Day, 1996, in the Oval Office their activities were interrupted by a call from someone named “Fanjuli”. Clinton returned the call and spoke with Alfie Fanjul for over twenty minutes. Fanjul was quite upset because Vice-President Gore had just announced a plan to levy a penny-a-pound tax on Florida sugar growers. The money would be part of a $1.5 billion dollar clean-up effort for the Everglades, which was polluted primarily by sugarcane runoff.

The plan was eventually shelved by the White House. The Clinton campaign received another $50,000 from a Fanjul family company — Flo-Sun — out of gratitude.

But the plan was re-introduced as a Florida initiative. It was soundly defeated after a $25 million dollar advertising campaign against it, partially funded by the Fanjuls who reportedly kicked in $3.6 million dollars for the ads.

Despite the millions of dollars spent to bribe and influence our nation’s political leaders there is no evidence that the sugar barons have violated any laws. They do not have to. By skillful use of the PAC laws they have managed buy key votes on a number of issues thereby increasing their profits - then spending some of those profits to buy more favorable legislation.

It is no concern of theirs that polluting the Everglades means poisoning the fresh water supply of over four million South Floridians. They are just doing business.

It is no concern of theirs that Americans are spending an extra two billion dollars for sugar-related products because of unnecessary sugar subsidies. They are just sticking to business.

It is no concern of theirs that their campaign contributions have prevented honorable people from winning elections, and helped easily corrupted politicians to continue to stay in office and increase their wealth and power. That’s business as usual.

Those payments would be called bribes anywhere else in the free world, but are considered in this country - by law - as “legal contributions”.

And now, with the advent of the “527″ groups it appears that anyone can bribe and corrupt with total anonymity and impunity. Under current interpretation of the law anyone can form a “527 group” - anyone including corporations, individuals, foreign nations, terrorist groups, etc. They can pour millions into that “527″ without having to reveal who they are. And the money can be spent in any way they wish without the Federal Election Commission or the IRS knowing about it.

This means that anyone with the money, from anywhere in the world, can form a “527″ and bribe American public officials with any amount of money - even create secret retirement accounts - slush funds - in order to buy congressmen, Senators, and even Presidents. And no one would know.

No one would know who contributed the money, who received the money, or how the money was used because all that information is being declared protected by freedom of speech.

So far the FEC has failed to rule that these “campaign funds” must be part of the public record even though the commissioners were appointed to make that kind of decision. Instead, they have passed the buck. Or been bought off by the very “527s” they are duty bound to regulate.

They have left it up to the very congress that is about to receive, or already is receiving, massive, unreported monies from secret contributors. Predictably, congress has yet to amend the “527″ laws.

Which means that fair campaign practices and freedom of information - two of the safeguards that have made this country great and powerful - are now being denied.

90 miles away Fidel must be chuckling at the irony. He fought the revolution to rid his country of corrupt politics, created a first class educational and medical care system for his people, worked hard to help the United States combat its drug problems, and repeatedly made honest offers to normalize relations with America…. yet finds himself despised and under attack by a government steeped in the worst political decay and corruption imaginable.