Scandals involving Cuba raise concerns

Scandals involving Cuba raise concerns
Posted: Wednesday, August 14, 2013 9:58 pm

A rusty North Korean ship hides 2 MiGs, munitions and radar systems —
240 tons of contraband weapons in all — under tons of sacks of Cuban
sugar then gets stopped going through the Panama Canal.
A former Cuban Interior Ministry colonel accused of abusing prisoners of
conscience retires in Miami, then flees to Cuba when former prisoners
spot him on South Florida streets only to return again, this time to New
Jersey, and, get this, apply for U.S. aid.
A growing number of Medicare fraudsters owing the U.S. government
millions of dollars for fake claims exit stage left and head to the
communist island, living the high life with impunity.
Meanwhile, Cuban officials keep decrying the U.S. "imperialist"
government for an embargo that has so many loopholes — allowing food,
medicine and even high-tech communications to reach Cubans — that it's
turned into a paper tiger without a Cold War roar.
What's going on? Are U.S. officials paying attention?
Then there's the case of Crescencio Marino Rivero, 71, and his wife
Juana Ferrer, as reported by El Nuevo Herald's Cuba reporter Juan Tamayo
on Sunday.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement may be investigating if the
couple lied on their entry papers, but ICE officials won't confirm it —
though former political prisoners have said ICE officials have
interviewed them about this case. The couple maintains they are innocent
and simply want to live in peace near their daughter in South Florida.
It wouldn't be the first time that former Cuban military or Interior
officials get a pass — virtually every U.S. administration has allowed
it in exchange for information that those former officials can provide
about Cuba.
The question begs: If Cuba is on the State Department's "terror" list,
why would the regime's former officials be able to obtain U.S. visas and
go back and forth to the island in their "retirement?"
Cuba is not a postcard of rum and dance. It should give U.S. officials
pause that the 54-year dictatorship run by the Castro brothers has been
securing friends in all the wrong places: from North Korea to Iran.
Nothing good can come of it.

— The Miami Herald

Source: "Scandals involving Cuba raise concerns - Your Houston News:
Opinion" -
http://www.yourhoustonnews.com/courier/opinion/scandals-involving-cuba-raise-concerns/article_99d136f9-2f7f-559d-b1bf-f5b37765fd7e.html