Mercenary consternation

By Manuel E. Yepe

A CubaNews translation by Mercedes Rosa Diaz.

Edited by Walter Lippmann.

There must be consternation among Cuban dissidents on the payroll of the U.S. Interests Section in Havana after news circulated that a distinguished counterrevolutionary had been denied a visa to the United States. The man in question has a long record of committing violent acts against his country, something that he thought would earn him honor and glory from the empire.

According to information released by the London-based BBC World, via a report filed on July 27, 2009, from their correspondent Fernando Ravsberg in Havana, U.S. “diplomatic officials did not respond to queries made by BBC with respect to the denial of a visa to Ramos in this case. Normally, violent political activists in Cuba have always received a visa to the U.S., even in cases of murder.”

The “anti-Castro activist” Tomás Ramos, known by counterrevolutionaries as “Dumbo” told the BBC reporter that his visa to the United States had been denied because he had committed violent acts against the Cuban government.

Ramos told the reporter he began his “commendable” activities during the 1960s when he lived in Florida, and that he was sent by anti-Castro groups in Miami to enter Cuba covertly and commit terrorist acts like destroying communication towers and organizing an armed uprising against the Cuban government. He was captured several times and was condemned to long prison terms. Last year, he was released after serving 18 years inside, and immediately began the process to return to the U.S., where his mother lives in a nursing home.

Tomás Ramos told the BBC that he feels betrayed because “the U.S. government always knew what we were doing. We trained in the Everglades (in Florida), we moved around armed in Miami and I even took a course on explosives.”  He said the last time he entered Cuba covertly in 1989, he did so with help from the Miami-based National Democratic Unity Party (PUND). His command objective was to destroy the communications antenna on Cuban hotels; but he also was ordered to contact high officials from the Ministry of the Interior and the Armed Forces to organize a coup.

According to the BBC report, the task was assigned to him by CIA colonel Frank Sturgis with whom he had a “long relationship” in Miami, and who paid him $500 a month.  “When I was about to return to Cuba, he gave me a plastic capsule with the names of Cuban officials that I should contact to organize the coup,” Ramos told the reporter.

Tomás Ramos complained to the reporter that his visa had been denied due to his violent past, because that policy had never been applied to Cubans. “As such, the streets of Miami are filled with militants like Ramos freely going about their business. The most notorious of these is Luis Posada Carriles, who has confessed to numerous acts, including the downing of a civilian airplane carrying dozens of passengers.”

The BBC correspondent affirmed that Ramos does not understand how he was denied a visa and “not all those people…Then they should not be in the United States either,” he said. “Those freedom fighters that deserve all my respect are now being called terrorists as well.”

“The government knew very well what we were doing. I don’t understand how they could deny me a visa when the U.S. government promoted all those violent organizations I was part of…all the organizations I belonged to were legal there,” the hit man told the reporter.

“This new policy will affect many men who fought for freedom, who were sent to Cuba by them (Washington), and who are still in prison today. How could they deny the right of asylum to a person who worked for them? I went on missions for various organizations and for the CIA, and today they denied my visa to return to the United States. I feel hurt, I feel frustrated and I feel deceived. They don’t understand that we worked with the U.S. government,” the henchman angrily declared.

The change of attitude in the U.S. immigration officials for their denial of a visa to such a renowned terrorist — even if he was one operating under orders from Washington — could be praised if it were not for the coup in Honduras. That event seems to indicate that the U.S. government still vigorously practices those repugnant methods for which “Dumbo” is now so hypocritically condemned.

Manuel E. Yepe Menéndez is a lawyer, economist and journalist. He works as a professor at the Higher Institute of International Relations in Havana.