Cuban-American Terrorists:
Organized by Kennedy, Pardoned by Bush Sr.
* What: Bombings, assassinations, and other attacks by militant anti-Castro Cuban-Americans of airplanes, hotels, homes, cars, and ships. There was also a plot to kill President Ronald Reagan.
* The Body Count: An estimated 3,562 dead and wounded. The Cuban government reports 3,479 people killed in Cuba by Cuban-American terrorists based in the US, at times supported by the US government. There were also 73 deaths from an airplane bombing, and Cuban-American bombings elsewhere in Latin America, of critics of Cuban-American terrorists, and factions of Cuban-American terrorists attacking each other in power struggles for control of their own groups.
* Who Also Gets the Blame:
* Cuban-American terrorist groups deserve the greatest blame, namely the the Cuban-American National Foundation, Alpha 66, Brothers to the Rescue, Coordination of United Revolutionary Organizations or CORU, Cuban Power, and as many as 100 other groups. Some of these groups have documented histories of terrorism going back decades.
* The federal government and the CIA provided support to some of these terrorists going back to before the Bay of Pigs. In a real sense, these terrorists were CIA creations.
* Much of the Cuban-American community provided shelter and political and financial support for terrorism. This was far more true in the past than now. The majority of Cuban-Americans today, especially younger generations, place far less importance on being opposed to Castro, or are far less fanatic about it. But to a substantial though declining group, these terrorists are heroes.
* In recent years, the Venezuelan-American community has joined some Cuban-Americans in their fanatic opposition to anything perceived as too far to the left, or aiding the poor or nonwhites. Like the original Cuban-American exile community, Venezuelan-Americans tend to be white and far wealthier on average, elites who fled their nation out of fear or disagreement with a new government. Both groups are strongest in Miami, allied, and have an outsized influence on depictions of their home country's government.
* The Republican Party sought the support of Cuban-Americans as allies in the Cold War. The community often provided the swing vote in Florida. Republican congressmen Jesse Helms, Strom Thurmond, and Ileana Ros-Lehintin all publicly cheered these terrorists’ violence or supported their cause. Ros-Lehintin lobbied for the release and pardon of several of the worst terrorists. Florida Governor Jeb Bush obtained a full pardon for one terrorist through his father George Bush Sr.
* Bombings in Miami in the late 1960s and 1970s were at a higher rate than in Lebanon. Cuban-American exiles even plotted to kill Reagan. Many Americans were unaware of just how fanatic some Cuban-Americans were until the Elian Gonzalez case. This young boy came to the US, escaping Cuba on a boat with his mother. His mother died shortly after arrival. His father back in Cuba wanted the son returned. Distant relatives in the US held the boy, defended by angry Cuban crowds armed with guns. A Border Patrol team retrieved the boy. Cuban-American crowds rioted, battling police.
* The roots of this fanaticism go back to before Castro's rise. Cuban elites trace their roots back to slavery days. In Cuba, slavery survived in the Spanish colony much longer. A final slave revolt at last forced Spain to abolish slavery. Still, Afro-Cubans again revolted and drove out Spanish authorities from two thirds of the island. At that point that the US intervened with the Spanish-American War. (See Section Three.) But once Spain was driven out, US generals ordered Afro-Cuban generals to step down. The US Army, segregated, saw Black Cuban rebels as a bad example. US authorities not only invited Spanish plantation owners back, they returned their plantations and further encouraged Spanish immigration, hoping to “whiten” Cuba's population.
* When Afro-Cubans tried a revolt again in 1912, this time Cuban elites went even further in crushing it. In a bizarre bit of unreasoning much like some US racists today, the Cuban government passed a law stating that to protest or organize against racism was itself racist. A revolt by Cuban army sergeants in 1933 brought Fulgencio Batista to power. Batista originally was a reformer. But he came to an accommodation with Cuban elites. Though Batista was mixed Black and Chinese, the almost entirely white Cuban elites accepted him as a way to stave off more radical reforms.
* When Batista overturned the results of an election, a newly elected senator, Fidel Castro, led a revolt. His rebels were mostly Afro-Cubans, and the Cuban Revolution succeeded in ending job discrimination, with Blacks especially prominent in the military today. Cuba's former elites greeted his revolution with horror and anger. Cuban-American exiles were largely white and wealthy, somewhat changing with later waves. But almost immediately, they plotted to overthrow Castro. That, of course, led to the disastrous failed Bay of Pigs invasion. (See Section Eleven.)
* Kennedy, humiliated by the failed invasion, immediately plotted to overthrow or undermine Castro. The CIA repeatedly tried and failed to kill Castro, by one count 638 failed assassination attempts. US intelligence used biological warfare against Cuba. (See Section Five.) Kennedy ordered Operation Mongoose, designed to sabotage the Cuban economy. Mongoose involved extensive guerilla activities, burning sugarcane fields and blowing up industry.
* There also was Operation Northwood, never carried out, plans to stage a “false flag” attack on South Florida. US agents would pose as Cuban troops and launch an attack designed to provoke the US public into supporting a second invasion. There were also proposals to stage the shooting down of a US civilian jet or blow up a US Navy ship in Guantanamo and blame either incident on Cuba. Northwood planned the invasion for October 1962. The Cuban Missile Crisis prevented any of these staged attacks, or the second invasion. After the crisis, Kennedy backed off. Part of his deal with Khrushchev was to publicly pledge not to invade Cuba again.
* By the mid 1960s, increasingly angry elements of the Cuban-American community turned to terrorism against Cuba. They also turned to terrorism against other Cuban-Americans or anyone who criticized their violent approach. In 1967 and 1968, over two dozen bombings rocked Miami each year, of cars, homes, businesses, a peace center, and a Cuban government office. Hijackings planes to Cuba became so frequent they became a running bit used by television stand up comedians. The Miami Herald actually kept running tallies of bombings entitled “Bombing Box Score.”
* The bombing campaign expanded to include any government or business which traded with Cuba. Diplomatic missions to Latin American, Asian, and European countries were bombed. Airlines were bombed. In the 1970s and early 80s, the campaign expanded to include media outlets, reporters, or commentators that were critical of anti-Castro terrorism, in a blatant attempt to silence or intimidate them. From 1975 to 1983, there were 119 bombings. The Miami Police stated at least half were Cuban-American terrorists. Some were done by organized crime, at times related to terrorism since Cuban-American paramilitaries were often using extortion to fund themselves.
* The worst act of terrorism by Cuban-American fanatics was in 1976. Orlando Bosch and Luis Posada Carriles, a former CIA agent, bombed a Cuban airliner, killing 73 people, many of them members of the Cuban national fencing team. Posada also bombed Cuban hotels, killing and wounding tourists. When questioned about the charges against him, Posada replied, “I sleep like a baby.”
* Cuban-American terrorist targets became increasingly ambitious. US intelligence discovered a plot to assassinate Secretary of State Kissinger in 1976 in Costa Rica, and the Foreign Minister of Costa Rica as well. Orlando Bosch, the head of Alpha 66, was stopped in connection with the plot. Cuban intelligence informed the Reagan administration of an exile plot to kill no less than Reagan himself. No doubt Castro hoped the warning would help build better relations. It obviously did not.
* The bombings in Miami started to taper off starting in the mid 1980s. In the late 1980s, there were “only” 25 bombings in four years in the city. In all of the 1990s, there were three Miami bombings. Increasingly, Cuban-American terrorists focused on bombings overseas, in both Cuba and elsewhere in Latin America. Alpha 66 sank Cuban fishing boats, killing and kidnapping the crews. Accion Cubana attacked Cuban property in five countries. FLNC claimed credit for blowing up the Cuban embassy and a Cuban airlines office in Mexico City.
* Cuban-American terrorists were declining in numbers and their influence in the Cuban community was fading. The Miami Police listed over 105 groups in the early 1970s, but admitted their number were always in flux. But clearly all the bombings and assassinations had little effect on trade with or recognition of Cuba by other countries.
* The next tactic was to try to keep the failing embargo going against Cuba. Brothers to the Rescue invaded Cuban airspace repeatedly, dropping propaganda leaflets over major cities. The group planned to attack Cuban military targets, according to one member. The Cuban government informed the US government of the intrusions, and federal agents were starting legal action against BR. BR sent three planes into Cuban airspace again. Two were shot down, the third escaping because Cuban pilots broke off pursuit. Their tactic of deliberate provocation, while likely miscalculating it would lead to the deaths of their own men, had the desired effect. The embargo was tightened.
* What role did US presidents play in Cuban-American terrorism? Kennedy created a clear case of what the CIA calls blowback, a Frankenstein monster that turns on its creator. When Kennedy quit working with the exiles publicly, only two years later the bombing campaigns began. There is no evidence of most other presidents working with Cuban-American terrorists. The Johnson, Nixon, Ford, Clinton, and even Reagan administrations all had extensive FBI investigations and prosecutions in an attempt to crack down on these terrorists. But much like racist terrorists during Reconstruction, often Miami juries failed to convict, from either fear of the terrorists or sharing their fanaticism.
* There were three presidents who did collude with Cuban-American terrorists. Luis Posada Carriles took part in Iran-Contra. Posada worked with Oliver North to carry out air drops of supplies to Contra terrorists. The FBI believed Posada carried out as many as 41 bombings in Honduras. Posada wrote that he received financial help with medical bills from Jorge Mas Canosa of the Cuban-American National Foundation, while recovering from a failed execution attempt. Whether Reagan was responsible for Posada's actions there depends on if you believe Reagan knew what was happening during the Iran-Contra scandal.
* What is highly suspicious is how two later US presidents and a possible candidate for president went to such lengths to protect Posada and Bosch. In 2000, Posada and three other Cuban-Americans tried to kill Castro when he visited Panama. Tried and found guilty, he was pardoned by Panama's President Moscoso. The Bush administration publicly refused to condemn the murder plot. Most observers believe Moscoso pardoned Posada at GW Bush's insistence. Posada remains in the US today after failed efforts by Venezuela to extradite him to face charges there.
* Posada's partner in the Cuban airline bombing, Orlando Bosch, was pardoned earlier by no less than Bush Sr. at the request of his son, Florida Governor Jeb Bush. Try to imagine the outcry were any president to pardon an Al Qaeda terrorist. Recall the huge outcry against Clinton for pardoning Puerto Rican terrorists, though none of them killed anyone. (See Section Eleven.) Keep in mind Bosch not only murdered 73 civilians in the airline bombing. He also fired on a Polish ship in Florida with anti-tank artillery, bombed two buildings in Venezuela, was involved in bombing four Cuban embassies, and tried to kill the Cuban ambassador to Argentina.
* Yet Bush Sr. suffered no political damage from pardoning perhaps the worst US serial terrorist in recent history. Moreover, Jeb Bush as Governor of Florida lobbied for this terrorist. We shall see if Jeb Bush's role in pardoning a horrific fanatic mass murderer becomes an issue should Jeb run for president. It definitely should. Bosch died in 2011, having never faced justice thanks to the Bushes.