Exiles’ Open Letter

I was ambivalent when it came to authoring a response to the Open Letter from Cuba exiles sent to our community in Sunday’s Miami Herald.

On the one hand, I am again grateful for living in a country that allows all of us, regardless of race, color or creed, to express our opinions without any fear of reprisal or persecution. These gentlemen lawfully exercised their right to an opinion and I am certain that they stand indebted to our Constitution and all that defended it.

I am in agreement with the basic premise that the policy of an embargo or “pseudo” embargo needs to be altered. What is criminal to me is that there is a segment of our population that is willing to give a free pass to the dictatorial regime responsible for implementing the most restrictive tyrannical command in our hemisphere.

I would love to believe that a financial benefit component is not the main driving force to this humanitarian movement on behalf of some of our business leaders within the Cuban community. If this indeed is an altruistic association, then I skeptically commend them for their initiative. We must repudiate, however, any faction that will dismiss the past and current barbaric behavior of our Island government as a pardonable offense. We cannot fail to remember all the loss of life, family and country which was unilaterally bestowed on us by this organized assassin alliance.

I venture to say that the only true embargo which exists is an embargo of access of human freedoms by the Cuban population.

This story was originally published December 23, 2015 at 7:33 PM with the headline "Exiles’ Open Letter."