RAUL CASTRO'S LONG HISTORY OF CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY
February 24, 2008.
Summit, New Jersey. The Cuban National Assembly has named longtime
Minister
of Defense, Raúl Castro, President of Cuba. As second-in-command of a
49-year old dictator****p, he is directly responsible for crimes against
humanity on countless thousands in Cuba and worldwide.
Raúl Castro, as longtime member of Cuba's Council of State, has been
signing
execution orders for years. But, his killing career began early on. In
1956,
while in exile in Mexico, he murdered a former comrade. During the
revolutionary struggle in the mountains, he executed deserters and
informants. In the early days of the Revolution, while in charge of the
Oriente province, he had hundreds of men killed. In one day alone, he
ordered at least 72 men executed without trial in the city of Santiago.
All
throughout the night of January 12, 1959 and into the following day,
successive groups of men were lined up in front of ditches at San Juan
Hill
and shot by firing squads. Raúl is re****ted to have gleefully delivered
the
coup d'grace on a few. Afterwards, a bulldozer was brought in to cover the
mass graves. Among the victims was policeman Benito Cortés, an American
citizen born in Puerto Rico and father of five. In 1966, Raúl had the
bodies
exhumed, encased in concrete, and dumped into deep waters off the coast of
Cuba.
Cuba Archive has do***ented dozens of people, including many children,
killed attempting to escape Cuba with Raúl in a leading role. His Air
Force
carried out the Canimar River Massacre of July 6, 1980, when dozens were
murdered. Many more unarmed civilians are believed to have suffered
similar
fate at the hand of special Air Force units dedicated to spotting and
sinking rafts. Like countless others, on January 19, 1994, two young
men -Iskander Maleras and Luis Angel Valverde- were killed by Cuban border
guards stationed around the U.S. Naval Base at Guantánamo operating under
Raúl's direct orders to shoot. He rewarded their deed with medals and
promotions.
As Defense Minister, Raúl Castro is responsible for war crimes in and out
of
Cuba. During the rural uprising of the sixties, his armed forces set fire
and executed hundreds of prisoners on the spot. During the Bay of Pigs
invasion of 1961, five prisoners were executed shortly after their
capture;
nine were deliberately asphyxiated in a trailer truck. The toll of victims
multiplies over the course of decades with Cuba's international military
incursions in Latin America, Africa, and the Middle East. Intentional
attacks on civilian populations in Angola are part of his legacy.
That Raúl's promotion happens on the anniversary of one of his noteworthy
crimes is not without significance. On February 24, 1996, as dozens of
members of Cuba's peaceful opposition were rounded up, Cuban MIGs shot
down
two unarmed civilian airplanes in international airspace while flying a
humanitarian search and rescue mission for the non-profit group "Brothers
to
the Rescue." Three U.S. citizens, including a Vietnam War veteran, and a
young man formerly rescued by the group perished. The incident was
condemned
by the International Civil Aviation Organization in Montreal and the Cuban
government was found by a U.S. Superior Court to have committed
premeditated
murder.
For more information on victims of the Cuban Revolution, see
www.CubaArchive.org.
Contact:
Maria C. Werlau
Tel. 973.701-0520
Info@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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