Old dirt that’s new news to me: Castro, Clinton, Cabrera, Mannerud

About two weeks ago, I stumbled upon this article from The New York Times. Though the article is dated April 4, 1997, its content is fairly relevant given our upcoming elections in November. I was 10 years when all of this happened, so this is my first and only knowledge of the situation.

Apparently, back in 1995 a Cuban-American Democratic fund-raiser named Vivian Mannerud solicited a campaign donation from Jorge Cabrera, a convicted felon. This solicitation reportedly took place at the Copacabana Hotel in Havana. Cabrera wrote a check for $20,000 several days after that meeting. Within two weeks of the contribution, Cabrera met Gore at a fund-raising dinner in Miami. Ten days later, he attended a Christmas reception at the White House hosted by none other than Hillary Rodham Clinton. At the events, Gore and Mrs. Clinton posed for photographs with Cabrera. In January, Cabrera received an invitation to Clinton’s inauguration.

The first question that may come to mind is, what were these two doing in Cuba?

Cabrera never said what he was doing there, but common sense tells you that he was most likely negotiating his latest drug smuggling operation with the regime. When he was arrested in January 1996 on drug smuggling charges, agents found a picture of Cabrera with Castro. Cabrera and several accomplices were charged with having smuggled 3,000 pounds of cocaine into the US. He tried to obtain a lighter sentence by contending that the Cuban Government was involved in his drug trafficking. Attorney General Janet Reno denied the case a special prosecutor to investigate Cabrera’s accusation. For more info on Cuba and drug trafficking, visit Prof. De La Cova’s site: http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/drug-trafficking.htm

Mannerud was likely also negotiating with the regime. The Times article states that she owns Airline Brokers Co., an airline charter service that operates among Havana, the Bahamas and Mexico. The article fails to provide some pertinent information and this is where Prof. De La Cova provided me with some great insight.

According to Prof. De La Cova, ABC Charters was formerly American Airways Charters, founded by Fernando Fuentes Cobas, the father of Vivian Mannerud. Fuentes Cobas was denounced by Rev. Manuel Espinosa as the double agent who betrayed Rafael del Pino in July 1959. Del Pino died in castro’s prisons. Fuentes Coba was convicted in the US of flying illegal cargo to Cuba on ABC Charters’ planes. He fled to Havana where he died and now lies in the pantheon of revolutionary heroes in Colon Cemetery.

Sketchy, huh? The next question is even sketchier: Why the hell would the DNC accept a $20,000 donation from a convicted felon? Don’t they do background checks?

The Times article states that Cabrera was arrested twice on serious drug chargers in the 1980s. Both times he pleaded guilty to nondrug felony charges. In 1983, he pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice for conspiring to bribe a grand jury witness and served 42 months in prison. In 1988, he pleaded guilty to filing a false income-tax return and served one year in prison. The DNC didn’t deem this an improper donation until October 1996, nearly a year after the donation was made and 9 months after Cabrera was arrested.

But to me, the most troubling question is, how can left-leaners be so hypocritical when they accuse Cuban-Americans of acting like a Mafia? I’ve constantly heard such accusations and criticisms thrown our way -- for funding and being the primary influencers of US policy toward Cuba.

Ms. Mannerud told Cabrera that she needed to raise a certain amount of money to “elevate her level of influence in the Democratic party,” because she was hoping the United States would normalize relations with Cuba, Bronis [Cabera’s lawyer] said.

What happened during this specific Clinton administration? Brothers to the Rescue. Elian Gonzalez.

Speaking of Elian: “Air travel expenses froM Cuba for Juan Miguel and Elian’s grandmothers as well as the boy’s return trip Wednesday aboard a chartered executive jet were covered by the Cuban government and Vivian Mannerud, owner of ABC Charters in Miami.” - Miami Herald, June 30, 2000

My head is practically spinning right now. What else do you all know about this situation?

Posted by Monica at February 17, 2008 07:10 PM

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Posted by: delacova at February 17, 2008 08:06 PM

Posted by: Henry "Conductor" Gomez at February 17, 2008 10:20 PM

Posted by: Ms. Calabaza at February 18, 2008 12:26 AM

Posted by: delacova at February 18, 2008 02:08 AM

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