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Highlands Today

Fidel Castro's Cancer ... Freedom With A Price

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Rob Mixon

Published: October 4, 2007

The engine sound was especially comforting as we watched the lights of Havana, Cuba. First they appeared out of the darkness that made up sea and sky as tiny specks of light in the distance. From those flickering distant lights we were soon flying over the bright lights below of a tourist mecca belonging to Fidel Castro.

The route was from Miami to Panama, to refuel, and then on to Lima, Peru. The cargo was telephone equipment. The aircraft was an old military C-46 cargo plane. The tail of that plane had patches on it covering bullet holes. The bullet holes were from that very airplane having taken part in the Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba.

The captain was one of the pilots who took part in that invasion. He was a Cuban national before becoming a U.S. citizen. The procedure was to obtain clearance for an over flight from Havana's Tower. After calling Havana Tower, the captain turned to me and said, "Even if our engines quit, we will continue to fly." Some of you may remember that during the Bay of Pigs invasion, America was suppose to show up and back those brave Cubans who launched their attack from American soil. We never did.

An old man who spent 20 years in a Cuban jail does business with South Florida Lift Stations in Miami. After the finish of business he has been known to walk out after his customers. He has tapped on the window and when the window is rolled down he says, "God bless America."

So it is that America has become a safe haven for Cubans, who have fought for freedom. But there is another side to this coin. Like Russia during the Cold War, there appears to be a belief that a democracy, and the United States of America, can be conquered from within without firing a shot. This is especially true if that democracy is not vigilant about protecting her interests instead of the interests of other countries.

Two Florida International University professors in Miami were caught sending information back to Castro's government. These spies were well received in the community and accomplished their mission for years before they were discovered. The exodus from Cuba, when overcrowded Cuban boats mingled Cuban nationals, with prisoners and mental patients released from Cuba's institutions, flooded the shores of Miami and the Florida Keys, our naive position was to welcome these Cubans into America and establish monetary and political gains for them to achieve their status here in the United States.

Every week, more Go-Fast boats arrive on South Florida shores at plush places like Ocean Reef Club and the Florida Keys with their well dressed cargo of illegal immigrants. Some have paid amounts ranging from $8,000 upward to be smuggled into America. They have purchased their freedom and feel entitled to the privilege of being in our country.

Others have left the island of Cuba and are found by our Coast Guard, drifting near death on makeshift rafts. Perhaps these near-death travelers are, instead of those who have paid to be smuggled, the type of people that America's strength has always come from.

With each and every Cuban coming to America by a Go-Fast boat, or makeshift raft, once they arrive here and send dollars back to their families in Cuba, dictator Castro will take all but 7 cents of each American dollar for himself. It seems that Castro has learned something about tier marketing. The more Cubans sent to America, the more money for Castro.

So the Miami cancer of a different language, American customs fading away, government officials taking money under the table, and the Latin Builders Association networking to supply work for other Latinos, have changed all of Miami into "Little Havana."

Eighth Street is now Calla Ocho and is only one of the names changed to welcome Cubans to Miami. The Cuban flag now flies where the Stars and Stripes once proudly flew. Castro often has made reference to Miami as the home of the "Cuban Mafia." Sometimes it is difficult to distinguish the good guys from the bad guys.

In dealing with Castro's cancer, freedom has a price. This price is seen in illegal smuggling, illegal business practices, and the cancer that makes English a language to be looked down upon. Yes, indeed, dictator Fidel Castro's brand of cancer has a price. He has purchased a piece of America's freedom without firing a shot, and that cancer continues to grow.

The Cuban embargo is not working — well, maybe it is working for Castro as he sits with his best friend, the dictator-president of Venezuela, laughing and sipping Cuba Libre "free Cuba" drinks in Havana. Americans have paid a dear price for Fidel's benefit and embargo that has not worked any more than the importation of illegal immigrants with the Cuban-American Dry Foot policy.

Rob Mixon, formerly of the Miami area, now lives in Lake Placid.

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