Letter to Bambi*

We don’t know who wrote the unusual document below — probably a Cuban American who for decades knew and supported Luis Posada Carriles’ activities. A Mexican janitor discovered it while sweeping under the chair in the courtroom where Posada sits during his trial in the El Paso Federal Court. The cleaning lady’s daughter, studying journalism in nearby Juarez, sent it to us.

The letter’s author (the signature was indecipherable) apparently shares Posada Carriles’ stated assumptions printed in a 1994 book, but feels his former compatriot’s subsequent behavior has betrayed the counterrevolutionary cause. [Our comments in brackets].

[The letter starts with words from the introduction to Posada’s 1994 book, “Los Caminos del Guerrero. [The Warrior’s Paths]:

“There exists an almost extinct breed. Their character is shaped by honor, devotion, courage, and love of their homeland, their very reason to live. These rare specimens survive in a hostile environment. Lies, hypocrisy, cowardice and betrayal by the world around them cannot crush their unbreakable will to fight for their ideals. These men don’t fear prison or death; nor do they surrender or compromise their principals. No one and nothing can separate them from their goals. Luis Posada Carriles belongs to this nearly extinct strain.”

That picture described you some time ago, Bambi [Posada Carriles’ nickname]. But not anymore! Your recent behavior has caused some of your former backers to reconsider. We once shared common patriotic ethics: balls and rules with which to wage our struggle. Coño, I remember the underground work in Cuba through the Bay of Pigs landing – you avoided that one – and the decades of raids and infiltrations of the island. Come to think of it, you never joined us in the actual landings.

As I follow your trial I can’t help comparing you with your — also mine — adversary.  Say what you want about Fidel Castro, but in 1953 he personally attacked Moncada Barracks [Batista’s second largest military base]. He didn’t hire others to do the dangerous work. At his 1953 trial, he proudly accepted responsibility and used his defense to explain his vision of a different Cuba and to denounce the regime. He even ended his speech by proclaiming that even the judges’ harshest sentences didn’t matter to him.

You, on the other hand, sent Venezuelans to blow up a passenger plane carrying 73 people. [We assume he refers to Cubana 455 blown up over Barbados in 1976]. You then hired Salvadorans to bomb hotels and restaurants in Cuba [An Italian tourist died in one 1997 bombing]. Now, on trial, instead of telling the world what you and we stand for, you refuse to testify. You or your rich friends hired a mouthpiece to dissemble and appear charming.

“Call me Art,” he told the jury instead of Arturo, the name his parents gave him.

Can’t you defend yourself? Fidel did. The Americans turned your trial into a minor immigration case, and you let them. You didn’t insist on a political trial that emphasizes the future of Cuba! From the documents released, you resemble a modern Captain Araña,[**] hiring foreigners to fight your war against Cuba. While they rot in Cuban prisons, you cavort with rich Miami exiles, sell your paintings for profit and attend fundraisers in your honor. And then lie about how you entered the U.S.! Who cares about such trivia?

Honor? You conceived the plot that killed those people on the airliner and the Italian tourist at the hotel, but lack the cojones to admit it. If you didn’t do those terrorist acts why do people honor you? For having a big mouth?

You pose as our representative, willing to use “sangre y fuego” but all Washington had to do was charge you with a minor offense and you hide under a legal charade. Your lawyer even claims Fidel ordered the hotel bombings. But you told two New York Times reporters [referring to Larry Rohter and Ann Louise Bardach — July 1998] you did it because you, and us, wanted publicity for the bombings to frighten potential tourists who might have planned vacations in Cuba.

A month ago, the El Paso jury heard a tape of you telling an immigration judge in 2005 you had no involvement in the 1997 Havana bombings; nor had you paid Central Americans to take explosives to Cuba. So, why lie to the Times? Would a man of convictions behave this way? Miedo, para qué? [Why the fear?]

In Miami, you quoted our independence fighter Antonio Maceo, about fighting for freedom: “One does not beg for liberty but fights for it with machete in hand.”

Maceo confronted Spanish troops for 30 years and died in Cuba – FIGHTING for national independence, as did José Martí. Fidel, that dirty red-Jesuit, did not target Batista for assassination because removing one corrupt figurehead would not change the system or Cuba’s dependency. Some Cuban revolutionaries in the student movement tried unsuccessfully to kill Batista. They put their lives on the line. Not you. Your fight against one man somehow required you to bomb other Cubans, but you’re never around when they explode and don’t participate in assassination attempts against Fidel unless you’re assured an escape route [referring, we think, to the 1971 CIA plot to shoot Castro in Ecuador].

This is not how men fight; nor do women (with one congressional exception) behave this way.

You seem to have caught the American disease: betrayal. Maybe you worked for them for too many years and caught this pernicious virus that led them to eviscerate our exile cause. They screw our movement, but permit you to plot reckless and bloody acts, and never demanded you articulate a viable alternative. Hmm!

In court you stooped to the pettiness of your accusers. Instead of standing tall and declaring what we long-suffering exiles expect of you, you hire a legal mountebank to confuse the issues. At age 82 you disgrace our cause. You’ve sold out. Fidel, our mortal enemy, at least has character.

Compare your behavior with what noble enemies of the communists should represent. We don’t need Washington’s permission or money to fight against the communist dictatorship. U.S. leaders talk about government of law, but practice torture, make war, violate rights and do anything else they want, and invent words – “national security” — to justify their acts. Why should we respect such miserable hypocrites or any of the other mealy-mouthed charlatans at the UN? We answer to no one, especially not to the U.S. government that has screwed us for five decades.

* Nelson P. Valdés and Saul Landau received and “translated” the document.

** Capitan Araña organized conspiracies but recruited others to take the risks and the fall.