The late 1960's and early 1970's saw the United States government gradually distancing itself from anti-Castro extremists. CIA-sponsored attacks on Cuba ended in 1972. The Carter administration alienated itself from the right wing elements of the Cuban exile community by having a "soft" policy on communism. *Other countries began to capture the interest of the U.S. government---places like Iran, Nicaragua, and Afghanistan.

During the early 1970's, the Cuban exiles once active in the U.S. government's attempt to overthrow Castro were now left in the cold. Some of the original Bay of Pigs players found themselves on their own. Men like Orlando Bosch spent the 1970's blowing up Cuban airliners, firing rockets on Polish ships, making threats to Kissinger and other world leaders, bombing art museums and other locations around Miami, and assassinating people. Other exiles like Felix Rodriguez joined the CIA and worked in special operations with the U.S. government, like the Iran-Contra affair and other assorted activities.

Not all Cuban exiles associated with the Bay of Pigs spent the 70's doing covert jobs for the CIA. Most of them became upstanding citizens, living happy, crime-free lives. In fact, after spending many years in the U.S., members of the Cuban-American communities were becoming increasingly wealthy. Anti-Castro passions among the exiles never diminished, even though American military support for their cause did. This inspired leaders of the Cuban-American communities to seek new avenues to keep national interest in freeing Cuba alive.

These leaders looked towards President Ronald Reagan's first National Security adviser, Richard Allen, for advice. Allen recognized these anti-Castro exiles as being important tools in Reagan's campaign against communism, and he was instrumental in helping this group of now-wealthy exiles form the Cuban American National Foundation (CANF). CANF is a tax-exempt organization, and a perfect place for Cuban American leaders to continue their battle with Castro.

One man emerged as the leader of CANF. Jorge Mas Canosa was born on September 21, 1939 in Santiago de Cuba. He was educated at Presbyterian Junior College in Maxton, North Carolina, where he earned a degree, but lived most of his young life in Cuba. Forced into exile several times, Mas Canosa finally left Cuba permanently after a warrant was issued for his arrest.

In 1961, Mas Canosa joined Brigade 2506 and was trained for the Bay of Pigs invasion. Mas Canosa never participated in the invasion---President Kennedy pulled back before Mas Canosa arrived on the beach. He was, however, a commentator for Radio Swan. This radio station, headed by E. Howard Hunt, was responsible for broadcasting anti-Castro propaganda into Cuba.

Aside from E. Howard Hunt, Mas Canosa made many other friends in Brigade 2506, like Bosch, Rodriguez and Posada Carriles. After Bay of Pigs, Mas Canosa returned to the United States and graduated as Second Lieutenant in the U.S. Army at Fort Benning, Georgia. In 1971, he bought Church & Tower of Florida, Inc. for $50,000, and made a small fortune digging ditches, laying cable and erecting telephone poles.

In 1974, Mas Canosa entered the political arena with campaign contributions to Democrat Richard Stone, who then won a U.S. Senate seat. This set an interesting precedent for Mas Canosa: Not only was he willing to give money to candidates, he was eager to contribute to parties other than his own. Mas Canosa was a staunch Republican since before he was a citizen, but often gave to the Democratic Party campaigns as well.

In June 1976, Commando of United Revolutionary Organizations (CORU) held its first summit in Santa Domingo. Orlando Bosch called the meeting to order, and many of the men in attendance were close associates of Mas Canosa. Some of the names on the roster include Posada Carriles, Ignacio and Guillermo Novo, and Jose Dionisio Suarez. During the ten months after the first summit, CORU claims responsibility for over 50 bombings in Miami, New York, Argentina, Mexico, Panama, and Venezuela. One of the more significant incidents was a car bombing in Washington, D.C., which killed Orlando Letelier, formerly foreign minister of Chile, and human rights pioneer Ronnie Moffitt. Guillermo Novo eventually confessed to this double homicide but his confession was thrown out and his conviction was overturned.

Suarez was a co-defendant in the Letelier-Moffitt murder trial and Mas Canosa paid for his defense. Suarez pleaded guilty to killing Letelier, then jumped bail. Suarez is later associated with a firebombing of Moscow's UN mission and blowing up a TWA airliner.

Orlando Bosch and Posada Carriles kept busy by blowing up a Cuban airliner in 1976. For $26,000, Mas Canosa later bought Carriles' escape from a Venezuelan prison for this killing of 73 passengers. Carriles then zipped off to El Salvador and found himself embroiled in the Iran-Contra affair. When this scandal broke out, Carriles split to Guatemala, where he was wounded by gunfire. In his autobiography, Posada Carriles claims CANF paid $22,000 for his medical expenses incurred from those gunfire wounds.

Over the years, Mas Canosa became a multi-millionaire. His wealth and power grew over the next decade, and his influence over Cuban-American policy increased as well. When Stone lost his seat in the Senate to Republican Paula Hawkins in 1980, Mas Canosa "parked himself" in her office, according to Raul Masvidal, a CANF founder. Hawkins later benefited greatly from this man parked in her office. She became the primary sponsor of what would become Public Law 98-111 (the Broadcasting to Cuba Act of 1983). Senator Hawkins received more than $126,000 in campaign contributions from the Cuban-American community (both individuals and PACs) during her term in office from 1980 to 1986, putting her among the top ten individual recipients of Cuban-American donations since 1979.

In 1981, CANF was born, with Mas Canosa serving as Chairman of the Board of Directors. In the very same year, Richard Allen and Assistant Secretary of State Thomas Enders announced plans for Radio Marti. With Mas Canosa at the helm, Radio Marti would broadcast radio transmissions into Cuba at U.S. taxpayer expense. Congress approved the plan, and Radio Marti hit the airwaves in 1985. In 1990, TV Marti emerged, and millions of taxpayer dollars were poured into trying to broadcast television propaganda into Cuba.

Mas Canosa's appetite for power did not stop with merely broadcasting his anti-Castro views into Cuba. His real talent for political effectiveness emerged with the founding of CANF. The power of CANF lies not only in its ability to offer Cuban Americans a political voice, but also gives them financial influence in the form of campaign contributions.

The lobbying arm of CANF is the Cuban American Foundation (CAF), and the Free Cuba PAC handles the direct political contributions. The CAF spent $120,000 on lobbying in both 1999 and 1998, and $100,000 in 1997. Cuban American PACs are the second highest contributors to political campaigns, second only to Israeli American PACs. The Free Cuba PAC accounts for 99% of all Cuban-related PAC money. (The only two other Cuban American PACs ever to have made contributions are the Cuban American PAC and the Cuban American Coalition Inc., which together account for the other 1 percent. Between the years of 1989 and 2000, Cuban American PACs donated $753,524.) Simply put, CANF is the second most powerful lobbying group in the United States.

Within CANF's ranks are some really big political players. For example, the Executive Director of CANF from 1988-1991 was Jacqueline Tillman. Tillman worked for eight years as Jean Kirkpatrick's executive assistant in the UN. CANF was not timid about using some of this political pull to help out friends. In 1989, congressperson Ros-Lehtinen met with former President Bush to negotiate Bosch's release. Her campaign manager, Jeb Bush, the present Governor of Florida, arranged the meeting. Bosch had several friends in politics willing to help him out in a pinch. Check this quote out:
"The Republican Party position in Dade is clear: We feel that Dr. Bosch should be let out of prison and allowed to live out his remaining years with his family," said Dade County Republican Party Chairman Carlos Salman.  "If it doesn't happen, we think it's an issue that could hurt George Bush in the fall." (St. Petersburg Times, June 29, 1988)

It always seems to come back to Orlando Bosch, doesn't it? In the next issue, we will all celebrate the end of my dark excursion into the strange world of why Cuba remains on the list of nations that sponsor terrorism. (Remember our original goal? Seems like a lifetime ago we began to answer that question!)
 

*In fact, in 1973, Henry Kissinger negotiated an anti-hijacking agreement with the Cuban government, and in 1974, Kissinger aides secretly held meetings with Castro. Progress towards restoration of diplomatic ties was halted in 1975, when Castro sent troops to Angola, angering the United States. President Carter tried again in 1977, and had successfully negotiated several agreements and pacts with Cuba. Again, Castro messed up relations by sending troops to Ethiopia. Things got even worse when the U.S. found out there was a Soviet combat brigade on Cuba, which screwed things up big time for SALT II negotiations.