“As Cubans reflect on the legacy of Fidel Castro, Americans may be surprised that Cubans, even opponents, will be expressing pride in the accomplishments of the Cuban revolution, (italics mine),” reads the official eulogy by the Center for Democracy in Americas for the Stalinist terrorist who converted a developed nation swamped with immigrants into a prison/slum/sewer which drove 20 times as many people to die horribly trying to flee it as died trying to flee Stalinist East Germany—and whose lifelong obsession was the destruction of the U.S.
“President Obama showed courage and foresight by restoring diplomatic relations with Cuba knowing that this day would come,” continues the eulogy.
“The U.S.-initiated migration talks mark the first break in administration refusal to meet with the Cubans,” reported the Washington Post last month. “Engaging in these talks underscores our commitment to pursuing constructive discussions…the State Department said in a statement issued after the one-day meeting in Washington between teams led by Emily Mendrala, (italics mine) the U.S. deputy secretary for Western Hemisphere affairs, and Carlos Fernández de Cossio, Cuba’s deputy foreign minister.”
“Emily Mendrala is the executive director of the Center for Democracy in the Americas, a group whose stated mission is to “change hearts and minds about U.S. relations with Cuba,” reports Foreign Lobby Report. “She previously served on President Obama’s National Security Council and worked on Cuba and Central America policy at the State Department and as a Latin America adviser to John Kerry on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.”
As usual for Democrats, Biden’s “diplomats” regarded “negotiations” with Cuba’s KGB-trained apparatchiks about like how the genie regards Aladdin, except he was granted only three wishes.
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Given the affection of Cuba’s Stalinist rulers for this U.S.-based propaganda auxiliary, Center for Democracy in the Americas is often tasked with arranging Potemkin visits to totalitarian Cuba by U.S. officials, business people, celebrities, etc. Among these visits were some by Rep. Karen Bass, a California Democrat who you might recall was also a “short-list” contender for Biden’s VP during the campaign.
Potemkin, however, may not be the precisely right term for some of these visits, especially some by Bass. “Business trip” might be more proper. To wit:
“In the mid-1970s, California Congresswoman Karen Bass…was an organizer for the Venceremos Brigade…An event blurb in an October 1975 issue of the communist Daily World newspaper describes Bass, then 22, as 'leader of the Venceremos Brigade in southern California….As a ‘brigadista’ and then organizer for the Venceremos Brigades, Karen visited Cuba every 6 months.'” (Tablet magazine, 7/28)
In that heady Age of Aquarius, hundreds of starry-eyed college kids were volunteering to “help build Cuban Socialism” and “fight U.S. Imperialism,” mostly by joyfully cutting Cuban sugar cane and raptly imbibing communist propaganda lectures while seated in front of large pictures of Che Guevara and “Uncle” Ho Chi Minh.
In fact, the terrorist offshoot from the SDS (Students for a Democratic Society), known as The Weathermen and staffed most famously by Barack Obama’s future “neighbors” Bill Ayers and Bernadine Dohrn, served as the Cuban Intelligence Directorate's (DGI) U.S. recruitment officers at the time, which proved easy. Castro’s DGI and their KGB masters had other goals in mind. To wit:
“The ultimate objective of the DGI (Cuban Intelligence’s) in setting up the Venceremos Brigades...was the recruitment of individuals who are politically oriented and who someday may obtain a position, elective or appointive, somewhere in the U.S. Government, which would provide the Cuban Government with access to political, economic and military intelligence,” revealed a declassified FBI report (from well before the bureau was run by people like Mueller, Comey and Wray.)
Congressional hearings titled: "The Role of Cuba in International Terrorism and Subversion, Intelligence Activities of the DGI," Feb. 26, 1982, U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Security and Terrorism, Feb. 26, 1982, revealed even more alarming details during their questioning of a high-ranking Cuban intelligence defector named Gerardo Peraza:
“Senator DENTON. Are you personally aware, Señor Peraza, that there were any successful placings of high-ranking DGI or KGB agents within the U.S. intelligence service or any defense or security-oriented agencies?"
Mr. PERAZA. “Yes, definitely. We can use as an example the (U.S.) Senate."
Senator DENTON. “I imagine we better have a closed session on that."
“Mr. PERAZA. “Yes, yes."
“As many as half of the Americans who flocked illegally to Cuba in the '60s and '70s as volunteers were eventually recruited by Cuban intelligence. And some of these political pilgrims were converted into reliable, long-term undercover assets,” later revealed Cuban intelligence defector Roberto Hernandez del Llano to CIA analyst Brian Latell.
In fact, according to yet another high-ranking Cuban DGI defector, Jesus Perez Mendes, the DGI didn’t just control the Venceremos Brigades of starry-eyed American students of the time, they actually helped pick them!
Unlike many of the starry-eyed useful idiots from the '60s and early '70s, Karen Bass has continued visiting totalitarian Cuba (which carefully vets all political visitors) and has been traveling there quite often. Plus, while there, she seems to be hob-knobbing with some pretty shady people, intelligence–wise.
For instance, in one of her (apparent) publicity photos, we find Bass in the company of a KGB-trained Cuban spy, Josefina Vidal, who was expelled from the U.S. in 2003, pursuant to the arrest of top Cuban spy Ana Belen Montes, responsible for the most damaging penetration of the U.S. Department of Defense in recent history. Montes was convicted of the same crimes as Ethel and Julius Rosenberg.
While accompanied by Vidal, the seemingly enchanted Karen Bass also poses in front of pictures of Raul Castro, Fidel Castro and Che Guevara, whose lifelong obsession was the destruction of the U.S. (Please see here if you think I’m exaggerating.)
Now let’s go back to those congressional hearings for more tidbits regarding Bass’ Cuban companions:
“Sen. Denton: (Julian Torres) Rizo was at the DGI (Cuba’s KGB-controlled intelligence service) Station chief in New York for 3 years, as I understand it."
“Mr. PERAZA. Yes."
"Sen. DENTON. He was an active DGI agent in the Venceremos Brigade camps?"
“Mr. PERAZA. Yes. This was his first intelligence job. His first intelligence job was to recruit members of the Venceremos Brigade. He had also connections with many North Americans, preparing himself to come to the United States. And he continued directing the work of these agents in the United States.”
Fascinatingly enough, in another apparent publicity pic from one of her Democracy In Americas-sponsored trips to Cuba, we find an (apparently) enchanted Karen Bass accompanied by an old Venceremos Brigadista comrade named Gail Reed, who is married to Julian Torres Rizo!
That Venceremos Brigadista and Center for Democracy in Americas friend Gail Reed married her DGI Venceremos Brigade handler Julian Torres Rizo is thoroughly documented by America’s top Cuba spycatcher (retired) Lt Col. Christopher Simmons of the Defense Intelligence Agency.
That whooping and cheering you hear drifting up from the south is the terror-sponsoring, drug-running Castro regime upon learning that U.S. policy for Cuba is essentially in the hands of the Center for Democracy in Americas.
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