Posted on Thu, May. 22, 2008
By LAURA WIDES-MUNOZ
Associated Press Writer
MIAMI --
The Cuban American National Foundation, once the foremost voice
representing the Cuban exile cause in Washington, is hosting a speech
Friday by Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama in a bold move
to recapture the group's prominence.
Its founder, Jorge Mas Canosa, long served as a symbol of stalwart
anti-Castro sentiment. But since his 1997 death, the group has receded
into the cacophony of Cuban-American voices.
The decision to host Obama is a daring move in a community generally
more supportive of Republican candidate John McCain and even Obama's
Democratic rival Hillary Rodham Clinton.
"Right now, it's a very important chapter in the history of Cuba. We are
also at a turning point in our own community," said Francisco Hernandez,
the foundation's president and co-founder.
Hernandez said the next president will have a unique opportunity - now
that Raul Castro has replaced his brother Fidel as Cuban president - to
promote change on the communist nation and is calling on the government
to allow private organizations to send money directly to dissidents on
the island.
The U.S. economic embargo, which the foundation still generally
supports, prohibits such transactions with the Caribbean nation.
Obama's speech comes more than a quarter century after Hernandez and Mas
Canosa founded the group with encouragement from the Reagan administration.
Since then, the foundation has backed both Democratic and Republican
candidates. Its former president Joe Garcia is now running for Congress
as a Democrat. Hernandez and other foundation leaders attended a McCain
event Tuesday.
Today it is more difficult for one organization to represent the entire
Cuban-American community than it was in the group's heyday. Exiles are
far more diverse in terms of race and class, and immigrants often flee
Cuba as much because of economic desperation as political oppression.
The foundation has also incurred the wrath of many in the exile
community. It supports dialogue with members of the Cuban government -
Fidel and Raul Castro excluded.
And it recently released a scathing report on the Bush administration's
funding to promote democracy in Cuba. The report comes as the federal
government is set to announce the recipients of $45 million in aid to
Cuba - about five times the amount allocated in 2007.
The foundation alleges the Miami-based organizations that take federal
funds spend too much on overhead with only about 20 percent of the money
going to direct on-island assistance.
Organizations receiving the aid say they do the best they can, given
U.S. and Cuban government restrictions on sending money directly to Cuba.
Others say the foundation's report distorts reality. Orlando Gutierrez
of the Cuban Democratic Directorate, one the groups criticized in the
report, said the allegations were false. His Miami-based organization
was charged with building international solidarity for Cuban dissidents,
so it is natural that much of its money would go to off-island
activities around the globe, he said.
Gutierrez and others dismissed the foundation's latest efforts as merely
a bid to garner media attention.
"They've become very marginal in this community. The one thing they have
is Obama. That doesn't make them more relevant," Gutierrez said.
Hernandez is undeterred.
"Even those of us viewed as the historic hard-liners, 'the troglodytes,'
realize we have not been able to communicate our true message," he said.
"Our interest is not revenge. It is to help our brethren."
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