Cuban-American National Foundation

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

You have new messages (last change).

The Cuban American National Foundation (CANF) is a non-profit organization dedicated to overthrowing the Cuban government of Fidel Castro. Established in Florida in 1981 by Jorge Mas Canosa and Raul Masvidal, CANF is the largest Cuban organization in exile, with thousands of members in the United States and other countries. Following the death of its founder in 1997, CANF began to lose its ideological cohesion provided by Mas Canosa, which led its hard-liners to split and form the Cuban Liberty Council in 2001. CANF has since drifted a considerable amount from its traditional alliance with the Republican Party.

CANF has offices in Miami, Washington, D.C. and New Jersey and chapters in Los Angeles, the greater New York area, Chicago, several cities in Florida, Puerto Rico, New Orleans, and Texas.

As the foremost Cuban exile organization in the United States, CANF has acted as the principal Cuban-American lobby in Washington, D.C. For two decades CANF has worked to create a bipartisan consensus on U.S. policy that is opposed to the current Cuban government. Between 1990 and 1992, it received a quarter million dollars from the National Endowment for Democracy, an organization financed by the US government.

Contents

[edit] Alleged terrorist actions by CANF operatives

It has been alleged that CANF is connected to terrorist acts against Cuban businesses, government and ordinary citizens. Luis Posada Carriles admitted in a 1998 New York Times interview that he received financial backing from CANF for a 1997 bombing campaign in Cuba.[1] CANF has strongly denied Posada's statement. Posada, however, describes long term relationships with CANF figures in his autobiography. Declassified CIA and FBI documents allege that Posada was one of the "engineer[s]" of the 1976 terrorist bombing of Cubana Airlines flight 455 that killed 73 passengers. [2] The administration of President George W. Bush refused to extradite Posada to Venezuela, where he is wanted for this crime.

The Cuban Ministry of the Interior claimed [3] that the three September 4, 1997 bomb attacks against three hotels in Havana, which killed one person [4], were planned and controlled by CANF. CANF denied this [5]. However, a former board member of the group has stated that several of its leaders planned attacks in Cuba during the 1990s. [6]. In 1997, the CANF published a statement supporting un-conditionally all terrorist attacks against Cuba; the CANF chairman at the time stated that "We do not think of these as terrorist actions". [7]

The founder of CANF, Jorge Mas Canosa, trained with Luis Posada Carriles in the 1960s, and helped Posada escape from a Venezuelan jail in the 1980s. Mas Canosa's group has been linked to multiple terrorist actions against Cuba. Afrocubaweb documents some of these. See: http://www.afrocubaweb.com/canf.htm. See the links between Posada and Mas Canosa discussed at various sites, including:

http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB153/
http://www.zmag.org/Sustainers/Content/2005-04/30franklin_.cfm
http://www.voltairenet.org/article30425.html

[edit] See also

Portal:Cuba
 Cuba Portal

[edit] Endnotes

  1. ↑  "Key Cuba Foe Claims Exiles' Backing", The New York Times, July 12, 1998.

[edit] External links

Non-CANF websites

Articles and reports

[edit] Further reading

  • Bardach, Ann Louise and Larry Rohter. A Bombers Tale: Taking Aim At Castro; Key Cuba Foe Claims Exiles' Backing. New York Times. Sunday, July 12, 1998. Late Edition - Final, Section 1 , Page 1 , Column 1. Abstract available online. Retrieved May 17, 2005.
  • Bardach, Ann Louise and Larry Rohter. A Bomber's Tale; A Cuban Exile Details The "Horrendous Matter" Of A Bombing Campaign. New York Times. Sunday, July 12, 1998. Late Edition - Final, Section 1 , Page 10 , Column 1. Abstract available online. Retrieved May 17, 2005.
  • The New York Times. Cuban Exiles Say Times Articles Are Baseless. Tuesday, July 14, 1998. Late Edition - Final, Section A , Page 7 , Column 1. Abstract available online. Retrieved May 17, 2005.
  • The New York Times. Cuban Exile Says He Lied to Times About Financial Support. Tuesday, August 4, 1998. Final, Section A , Page 7 , Column 1. Abstract available online. Retrieved May 17, 2005.

Books

  • Bardach, Ann Louise. Cuba Confidential: Love and Vengeance in Miami and Havana. 464 pages. Vintage, October 14, 2003. ISBN 0-385-72052-1. [Chapter 7 contains Posada interview]
  • Bardach, Ann Louise. Cuba Confidencial. Spanish Edition. 544 pages. Plaza y Janes, September 28, 2004. ISBN 0-307-24289-7.
v • d • e
Cuba-United States relations

Bay of Pigs Invasion • Brothers to the Rescue • Cuban American • Cuban-American lobby • Cuban Five • Cuban Missile Crisis • Elián González • Guantanamo Bay Naval Base • Helms-Burton Act • List of Cuba-US aircraft hijackings • Luis Posada Carriles • Mariel boatlift • Opposition to Fidel Castro • Platt Amendment • Spanish-American War • United States embargo against Cuba • United States Interests Section in Havana • United States Ambassadors to Cuba •

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org../../../c/u/b/Cuban-American_National_Foundation_9b62.html"
In other languages