from www.netforcuba.org THIS IS A FACSIMILE

 

copy:

NEWS

Miriam Arocena meets with Senator Joe Lieberman

Miriam Arocena is the wife of Eduardo Arocena, a political prisoner serving a life term in U.S. prisons.
 

MIAMI, FL. Sunday, July 20, 2008 (www.netforcuba.org).- This afternoon, at the headquarters of [the anti-Castro organization] Brigada 2506 in Miami’s Little Havana, Miriam Arocena, the wife of political prisoner Eduardo Arocena, who is serving time in U.S. prisons, had the chance to hold a closed-door meeting with Joe Lieberman, Senator from Connecticut, to make him sensitive to a Campaign now underway in Southern Florida to persuade President George W. Bush to pardon the convicted Cuban exile.
 

During the meeting, Mrs. Arocena gave Senator Lieberman letters addressed to President Bush and First Lady Laura Bush and also brought him up to date about the abovementioned Campaign and the ongoing efforts in our community to seek her husband’s release. At the end, she presented the Senator with the Campaign card, which says "Libertad para Eduardo Arocena, - Campaña por el Perdón Presidencial del Prisionero Político Cubano en cárceles de Estados Unidos” (Freedom for Eduardo Arocena – Campaign for Presidential Pardon of the Cuban Political Prisoner held in U.S. Prisons”.

(Video of the meeting)

Moments before the scheduled rally, Miriam thanked the Senator again for his attention and interest, to which he replied verbatim: ‘It’s my responsibility’.

Dionisio de la Torre, one of the Campaign activists, asked the Senator to help this family reunite. Lieberman answered right away: "I will care about it.... I will care about it..."

When at a later time, Miriam once again talked about her grief and her family’s, and the Senator said: "I feel it... I think of you like you were my family..."

Asked whether he would convey the message to the President and the Congress, he answered emphatically: “I’ll do my best".

A CubaNews translation. Edited by Walter Lippmann. original:
http://www.netforcuba.org/espanol/News-SP/2008/Jul/Noticia11121.htm
downloaded July 22, 2008.

 

 

 

FROM HISTORIAN JANE FRANKLIN
Please go to the index of my book, Cuba and The United States: A
Chronological History, or to my homepage, where you can search the book
online, and take a look at the entries for Eduardo Arocena. He is the only
Cuban-American terrorist who is serving time in a U.S. prison for the murder
and bombings that he carried out for years, including the assassination of
Felix Garcia, a Cuban diplomat who was shot while stopping for a red light
in Queens, New York City, on September 11 (note the date), 1980. He himself
testified that he carried "some germs" to Cuba in 1980. He also became a
drug dealer before he was finally arrested after the assassination of Felix
Garcia because Donald McHenry, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations at
the time, told the FBI that such attacks were having an effect on other UN
diplomats.
Jane Franklin
http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/jbfranklins


Miami Herald
Cuban Colada
July 06,2008

Exiles seek pardon for convicted Cuban exile militant

Several Cuban exile organizations are launching a campaign to persuade
President Bush to pardon convicted Cuban exile militant Eduardo Arocena,
reputed mastermind of Omega 7.

Arocena, 65, was sentenced to life in prison for gunning down a Cuban
diplomat and for several bombings in the New York City area. Also, a federal
jury in Miami convicted Arocena of planting nine bombs over a four-year
period in the Miami area.

The photo by El Nuevo Herald photographer Roberto Koltun shows a 2007
rally in support of Cuban exile militant Luis Posada Carriles in which some
people carried placards urging the U.S. government to release Arocena from
prison.

Arocena's wife, Miriam, is spearheading the campaign through a website--
www.libertadparaarocena.com -- in which she asks for signatures for a
petition to be sent to President Bush for a pardon before he leaves office.

"After 25 years in prison in the United States, I have again taken up the
cause seeking a presidential pardon for my husband, Eduardo Arocena,"
Miriam Arocena wrote in an open letter featured on the website.

"My husband was sentenced severely, perhaps to more time than his
actions warranted, for having violated some laws of the United States. But
it should be remembered that his actions were carried out on behalf of his
deep desire to return liberty and democracy to our fatherland, Cuba"

According to a YouTube video on the pardon campaign, the crusade has been
endorsed by the former Cuban political prisoner group Presidio Politico
Historico Cubano.

-- Alfonso Chardy

 

Granma International
Havana.  March 7, 2008

Mafioso Congress members
pressure Bush over terrorist’s release

BY JEAN-GUY ALLARD —Granma International staff writer—

CUBAN-American Congress members Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and Lincoln Díaz-Balart are putting pressure on the White House in order to secure the release of terrorist Eduardo Arocena - head of the terrorist group that has been described by the FBI as the "most dangerous in the United States" – before the end of George W. Bush’s mandate, according to well-informed sources.

Since its founding, the two members of the House of Representatives have been a part of the committee supporting a presidential pardon for the individual who created and directed Omega-7, the organization responsible for 55 acts of terrorism on U.S. territory, as well as six attacks in Puerto Rico, including several murders.

For Arocena’s sympathizers, the end of the administration of George W. Bush – who, with his father provided cover for and engaged with notorious terrorist elements from Miami – and the possibility of a Republican defeat at the November elections, makes it even more urgent to secure his release as soon as possible.

Ileana Ros and the Díaz-Balart brothers, the daughter and sons of individuals associated with the bloody dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista, have publicly expressed on multiple opportunities their support for the protagonists of anti-Cuba terrorism.

They supported the creation of the committee for the release of the Omega 7 boss and also organized, with George Bush Sr., the pardons for arch terrorist Orlando Bosch and, via the ex- Panamanian president Mireya Moscoso, for Luis Posada Carriles and his accomplices.

A petition addressed to Bush and signed by the Miami Congress members describes Arocena as "an exemplary Cuban and impeccable patriot who has been imprisoned since 1983 for desiring freedom in his homeland."

Last October, Ros-Lehtinen took part in a Mafioso meeting in Miami attended by Orlando Bosch, which tackled the issue of the terrorist’s release.

It is worth noting that Ros-Lehtinen is the very same Congress member and Bush’s spokeswoman on international relations who described Venezuela as a "pro-terrorist" country.

BOASTED OF HAVING INTRODUCED DENGUE INTO CUBA

Eduardo Arocena Pérez founded Omega 7 on September 11, 1974. Eulalio Negrín, a Cuban émigré resident in New Jersey, murdered on November 25, 1979 and Félix García Rodríguez, a diplomat with the Cuban Mission to the United Nations, executed in the middle of a New York street on September 11, 1980, are just two of the victims of his organization.

In 1984, Arocena boasted to a jury that he had introduced hemorrhagic dengue into Cuba, thus causing the death of 158 people, including 101 children.

After being arrested by the FBI on July 22, 1983, Arocena provided essential information about the criminal group that he led, as well as several of the murders they had carried out.

The terrorist leader revealed that Pedro Remón had executed Eulalio Negrín, machine-gunned down in front of his 12-year-old son, and Félix García, shot dead in the middle of a New York street, as well as several assassination attempts on Raúl Roa-Kourí, Cuban ambassador to the UN, and Ramón Sánchez Parodi, head of the Cuban Interests Section in Washington, among others.

After a long trial, Arocena was handed down a total sentence which his Mafioso support committee assessed at 335 years.

Omega 7 split at the beginning of 1981 when hired assassins Pedro Remón, Eduardo Ochoa, Ramón Sánchez Rizo, Alberto Pérez and José García Junior approached the capo Huber Matos. Arocena then attributed his arrest by the FBI to information received from Guillermo Novo Sampoll.

Remón, who was eventually arrested in 1986 and taken before a grand jury, refused to cooperated (a frequently-used strategy in similar cases) and, thanks to a complacent trial, was sentenced to just 10 years’ imprisonment.

The terrorist was arrested once again in November 2000, as part of the conspiracy hatched by Luis Posada Carriles to blow up the University of Panama amphitheater where the Cuban President Fidel Castro was due to speak. Posada, Remón, Sánchez Rizo and his accomplices are, once again, free today in Miami, thanks to the trio of Congress members and they continue to conspire, taking advantage of the scandalous tolerance of the judicial authorities.

TERRORIST AND "PAID GUNMAN"

In her underhand maneuvers to secure the release of the murderer, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, her colleagues in Congress and her Mafioso friends are refraining from mentioning that, on the fringes of his terrorist activities, Arocena also placed his organization in the service of drug-traffickers.

For some years, Miami drug trafficker Manuel Fernández contracted him for the dirty work of collecting money from recalcitrant "clients" in exchange for a percentage of the money recovered.

To such a point that, during his later trial, the Omega 7 boss was described to the jury by District Attorney Michael Tabak as a "paid gunman", who was working with drug traffickers while planning terrorist attacks.

Years later, his lawyer was accused by the government of assisting a network of drug smugglers to import cocaine and launder money. Humberto Aguilar helped Julio Ruiz’ band of drug traffickers to launder millions of dollars worth of profits.

On June 11, 1976 in Bonao, the Dominican Republic, Arocena took part in the creation of the CORU terrorist network with Frank Castro, Orlando Bosch, brothers Guillermo and Ignacio Novo Sampoll, Dionisio "Bloodbath" Suárez Esquivel, Virgilio Paz,  Alvin Ross and U.S. CIA-DINA agent, Michael Townley. Scores of attacks then took place, including the mid-flight explosion of a Cuban airliner in 1976, that caused the death of its 73 occupants.

According to the U.S. prison authorities, prisoner number 12573-004, Eduardo Arocena, has no chance of being released before 2050.

He is currently a prisoner at the Terre Haute medium security penitentiary, 70 miles west of Indianapolis, where he is regularly visited by emissaries of the terrorists circles that he used to support.

The complacency and complicity of the Bush family towards anti-Cuba terrorism has been expressed in various forms on multiple opportunities, the height of which was, without doubt, the letter dated June 2, 2005, which President "W" sent to the anti-Cuban terrorist organization Alpha 66, thanking members for their support.

SOURCE:
http://www.granma.cu/ingles/2008/marzo/vier7/10Arocena.html

 

 

FACSIMILE  Sitio oficial de la Campaña por el Perdón Presidencial para Eduardo Arocena  ::: www.libertadparaarocena.com

 

NOTICIAS Se reúne Miriam Arocena con el Senador Joe Lieberman Miriam Arocena es esposa del preso político en cárceles de Estados Unidos Eduardo Arocena Miriam Arocena y Joe Lieberman durante el encuentro MIAMI, FL. Domingo, julio 20 del 2008 (www.netforcuba.org) En la tarde de hoy, en la sede de la Brigada 2506 en la Pequeña Habana, en Miami, Florida; Miriam Arocena, esposa del preso político en cárceles de Estados Unidos Eduardo Arocena, tuvo la oportunidad de reunirse a puertas cerradas con el Senador por el Estado de Connecticut Joe Lieberman y sencibilizarlo con la situación actual de su esposo, así como informarle sobre la Campaña que se está siguiendo en el Sur de la Florida, para recabar del Presidente George W. Bush, su Perdón Presidencial. En un momento de la entrevista, la señora Arocena entregó al Senador Lieberman, dos cartas, una para el Presidente Bush y la otra para su esposa, la Primera Dama Laura Bush. Asimismo le explicó en detalles, sobre el desarrollo de la Campaña que en estos momentos se está desarrollando en nuestra comunidad y los esfuerzos que está librando esta para el logro de dichos objetivos. Al finalizar la entrevista privada, Miriam Arocena entregó al Senador la tarjeta de la campaña, cuyo título es el siguiente: "LIBERTAD PARA EDUARDO AROCENA, Campaña por el Perdón Presidencial, Prisionero Político Cubano en cárceles de Estados Unidos". Video del encuentro Momentos antes de comenzar el acto programado, Miriam volvió a reiterarle las gracias por la atención e interés demostrados por el Senador, a lo que él (el Senador Lieberman) le respondió textualmente: is my responsability.... (es mi responsabilidad). Dionisio de la Torre, uno de los activistas de la campaña, le solicitó al Senador que ayudara a la reunificación de esta familia, a lo que él respondió de inmediato: "I will care about it.... I will care about it..." (Yo me ocuparé de eso) Por otra parte, Miriam volvió a reiterarle su dolor y el de toda su familia, a lo que el Senador expresó: "I feel it... I think of you like you were my family..." (Yo lo siento... Pienso en usted como si fuera mi familia...) A la pregunta de si le iba a transmitir el mensaje al Presidente y al Congreso, su respuesta fue categórica: "I'll do my best" (Haré lo mejor que pueda). Esta información fue a NetforCuba para su re-distribución por directivos de la Campaña por el Perdón Presidencial para Eduardo Arocena, Prisionero Político Cubano en cárceles de Estados Unidos.