CUBAN AMERICAN NATIONAL FOUNDATION RESPONDS TO CASTRO REGIME’S FALSE RUMORS

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                AUGUST 5, 2010

FOR MORE INFORMATION:                               DANIEL LAFUENTE (305)-592-7768

CUBAN AMERICAN NATIONAL FOUNDATION RESPONDS TO CASTRO REGIME’S FALSE RUMORS

In yet another effort to pressure President Obama’s Administration to free the five Cuban spies who were accomplices to the shoot down of the Brothers to the Rescue planes in February of 1996, the Castro regime finds itself pushing a disinformation campaign about a possible negotiation in which Cardinal Jaime Ortega of Cuba’s Catholic Church could be the mediator.

As has occurred in the past, the Castro regime’s deceptive ploys sometimes find fertile ground in the Cuban exile community, especially when elections are near. The reality is that there is no indication that President Obama is willing to concede a presidential pardon to the five Castro spies involved in the assassination of three American citizens and one U.S. resident, in exchange for the release of an American citizen unjustly jailed by the Castro regime. The Cuban American National Foundation (CANF), as well as other organizations and influential people in the exile community, have investigated these rumors at high levels of the Obama Administration, and these rumors have been denied across the board.

Beyond the insidious nature of these rumors, CANF hopes that in the next few weeks the U.S. government demonstrates more flexibility in the granting of licenses that permit more “people to people” exchange through cultural, academic, and religious visits to Cuba. As CANF has stated repeatedly in the past, we continue to oppose the lifting of the U.S. tourist travel ban to Cuba.

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