Thursday, July 18, 2013

Miami: Witch-hunt against Antonio Castro

A trio from Miami and New Jersey, led by Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, have sent a letter to Secretary of State, John Kerry, asking him to deny a visa to Cuban sports doctor Antonio Castro Soto del Valle. Dr Castro was part of the Cuban baseball team, and months ago he was re-elected as a vice president of the International Baseball Federation, headed by Italian Ricardo Fraccari. Now, he ought to take part in an international university series that will start next week in Des Moines, Iowa, a new friendly series between Cuba and the United States. According to the letter of Ileana and her men to John Kerry, they are "deeply concerned" if they grant a visa for the doctor to enter the country. Pretext? Being the son of Fidel Castro and nephew of President Raul Castro, they venture to say that Dr Castro often accompanies baseball players who travel abroad "to intimidate them" and "prevent their defection." Clearly, the obsession of Ros-Lehtinen and her men against Cuba has reduced their common sense and has fused with the most rancid ineptitude. Even the primary school children in the U.S. could understand that two political figures like Fidel and Raul Castro would not need to stoop to such grotesque methods. Those three from congress had previously questioned the granting of visas for the U.S. director of the Cuban Foreign Ministry, Josefina Vidal, sexologist Mariela Castro, and historian of Havana, Eusebio Leal. According to Ileana and her duet of followers, to authorize the entry of Antonio Castro, "would undermine our efforts to promote democracy and freedom" within the island, and "isolate the oppressors." Does that excuse impose a rigorous selection beyond political and ideological to provide a green light for entry into the country? Many cases tend to indicate that. Suffice five of them. In August 1995, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen sent a letter demanding the State Department not grant a visa to Fidel Castro if in Ocotber he decided to attend the 50th anniversary of the UN in New York. Her request failed. Five years ago she made strenuous efforts trying to avoid the presence of South African leader Nelson Mandela in various regions of the United States who were waiting for him. One of her arguments: that Cuba supported him in his fight against apartheid. In mid-October, 2011, she sent a letter to then Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, to demand explanations for authorizing visas to Cuban children's theater group La Colmenita, composed of children aged from six years old and said that it damaged the national security interests. Eleven months later Ileana criticized the stay of the Cuban singer Vicente Feliu, who performed in Washington, New York and San Francisco, California. This road has transited through years of visa applications, among them for artists, scholars, scientists and athletes, and even relatives of the Cuban Five unjustly held in jails of that country. Now they hinder entry to U.S. soil of a known doctor who specializes in baseball and vice president of the International Federation of that discipline, Antonio Castro. No wonder! Those political witches from Miami are daughters or granddaughters of those murderers and torturers that came out of Cuba in January 1959 and were kindly received in the North, even without a visa.

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