“Think outside the thinking.”

May 5, 2008 in Uncategorized with Leave a Comment
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You’re born with “The Moro Reflex.”  No kidding. (Google the Moro Reflex.) Everyone has it from birth. It’s a natural born instinct you have to live, survive, and express yourself.   The “Moro Reflex” blog is  for you to discover and master your inner “Moro Reflex”. You will find articles written by me, written by others and commented on. I believe we’re all artist, our life choices are merely an expression of our craft.  Explore your “Moro Reflex”.  “Think outside the thinking” and “Release your Reality”.

“Committed to your Success”

Luis Moro

Gustavo Villoldo, Man Who Tracked Che For The CIA, Awarded $1 Billion In Lawsuit

May 31, 2009 in Uncategorized with Leave a Comment


Wow! Simply unbelievable.
More on Cuba
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

With Cuba: America only needs to be responsible for America

April 30, 2009 in Cuba Politics, The Cuba Cuban News, The Moro Reflex Cuba, The Moro Reflex Politics with Leave a Comment
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CASTRO SAID…
READ ASSOCIATED PRESS ARTICLE BELOW.

Note from Luis Moro:

By now you have heard many updates on U.S. Cuba policy.
But the issues are not with Cuba. The only issue we need to concern ourselves with is American policy.

Hence the people who are pro-embargo will continue to use every excuse they can to keep the failed 50 years of U.S. policy on Cuba in place.

The point…

1) America must abolish the U.S. embargo on Cuba with no conditions or request or expectations from Cuba.

2) All Americans should have the right to travel unconditionally to Cuba

That’s it.

Let’s give the people living in Cuba an opportunity to self determine their lives with no restrictions from the U.S.

The world is waiting. The next step is up to us; you, me and the United States government.

Cuba has to do nothing for the U.S. to change it’s failed policies.

I trust you can read this with a commitment to being responsible for our own actions in America, not those of another country.

Reacting to Cuba “is so 60’s, 70’s, 80’s and 90’s”

The Obama generation lives in the future.

KEEP SCREAMING, BLOGGING AND GOING TO CUBA.

Luis and Bobbi Moro
www.EveryThingCUBA.com
www.MoroFilms.com

Your support is needed – see Cuba with your own eyes.
Visit Cuba every chance you get.

================
FROM THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Raul Castro: Onus not on Cuba for US relations

By WILL WEISSERT – 1 hour ago
HAVANA (AP) — Raul Castro dismissed Barack Obama’s policy changes toward Cuba as “achieving only the minimum,” and said Wednesday that it is up to the U.S. — not Cuba — to do more to improve relations.

The Cuban president suggested the communist government is not willing to appease Washington by embracing small political and social reforms on the island, saying in a speech before an international gathering of government ministers that “it is not Cuba who has to make gestures.”

The Obama administration has allowed unlimited travel and money transfers for Americans with family in this country and eased restrictions on telecommunications between the United States and Cuba. But top U.S. officials have also said they would like to see some Cuban reforms before truly exploring normalizing diplomatic relations that Washington broke off in January 1961.

Raul Castro has said previously he is willing to discuss such sticky subjects as human rights, freedom of the press and political prisoners in Cuba during possible negotiations with the United States. Obama reacted favorably to such sentiments, but Raul’s ailing brother Fidel appears less comfortable with them and even accused the U.S. president of “misinterpreting” his brother words.

Raul’s comments Wednesday appeared to take a harder line on unilateral concessions to meet U.S. expectations, and echoed the words of Fidel, who has written in public essays that Obama’s policy changes did not go far enough because Washington’s 47-year-old trade embargo is still in place.

The younger Castro said that the U.S. steps were, “fine, positive but only achieve the minimum. The embargo remains intact.”
“There is not political or moral pretext that justifies this policy,” he said of the embargo. “Cuba has not imposed any such sanction against the United States or its citizens.”
The 82-year-old Fidel has not been seen in public since July 2006 and ceded the presidency to Raul Castro more than a year ago — but still writes influential essays almost every day which are published in state-controlled newspapers and read on official radio and television.

On Wednesday, Raul Castro repeated that Cuba would be willing to sit down with U.S. negotiators, saying “we have reiterated that we are ready to talk about everything with the government of the U.S. under equal conditions.

“But not to negotiate our sovereignty nor our political and social system, and our right to self-determination and internal affairs.”
He made it clear that if Cuba is willing to broach thorny issues, the U.S. should be ready to do the same.

“If they want to discuss all, it should be … everything, everything, everything of ours but also of theirs,” Castro said at the ministerial meeting of the Nonaligned Movement.

JOIN “END THE US TRADE EMBARGO ON CUBA” GROUP ON FACEBOOK

http://www.facebook.com/inbox/readmessage.php?t=1006026207908&mbox_pos=0

Choosing a Better Future in the Americas
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April 16, 2009 in Cuba Politics, U.S. Politicians on Cuba with 1 Comment
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Choosing a Better Future in the Americas


By President Barack Obama



As we approach the Summit of the Americas, our hemisphere is faced with a clear choice. We can overcome our shared challenges with a sense of common purpose, or we can stay mired in the old debates of the past. For the sake of all our people, we must choose the future.


Too often, the United States has not pursued and sustained engagement with our neighbors. We have been too easily distracted by other priorities, and have failed to see that our own progress is tied directly to progress throughout the Americas. My Administration is committed to the promise of a new day. We will renew and sustain a broader partnership between the United States and the hemisphere on behalf of our common prosperity and our common security.

In advance of the Summit, we have begun to move in a new direction. This week, we amended a Cuba policy that has failed for decades to advance liberty or opportunity for the Cuban people. In particular, the refusal to allow Cuban Americans to visit or provide resources to their families on the island made no sense – particularly after years of economic hardship in Cuba, and the devastating hurricanes that took place last year. Now, that policy has changed.


The U.S.-Cuba relationship is one example of a debate in the Americas that is too often dragged back to the 20th century. To confront our economic crisis, we don’t need a debate about whether to have a rigid, state-run economy or unbridled and unregulated capitalism – we need pragmatic and responsible action that advances our common prosperity. To combat lawlessness and violence, we don’t need a debate about whether to blame right-wing paramilitaries or left-wing insurgents – we need practical cooperation to expand our common security.


We must choose the future over the past, because we know that the future holds enormous opportunities if we work together. That is why leaders from Santiago to Brasilia to Mexico City are focused on a renewed partnership of the Americas that makes progress on fundamental issues like economic recovery, energy, and security.


There is no time to lose. The global economic crisis has hit the Americas hard, particularly our most vulnerable populations. Years of progress in combating poverty and inequality hangs in the balance. The United States is working to advance prosperity in the hemisphere by jumpstarting our own recovery. In doing so, we will help spur trade, investment, remittances, and tourism that provides a broader base for prosperity in the hemisphere.


We also need collective action. At the recent G-20 Summit, the United States pledged to seek nearly half a billion dollars in immediate assistance for vulnerable populations, while working with our G-20 partners to set aside substantial resources to help countries through difficult times. We have called upon the Inter-American Development Bank to maximize lending to restart the flow of credit, and stand ready to examine the needs and capacity of the IDB going forward. And we are working to put in place tough, clear 21st century rules of the road to prevent the abuses that caused the current crisis.

While we confront this crisis, we must build a new foundation for long-term prosperity. One area that holds out enormous promise is energy. Our hemisphere has bountiful natural resources that could make renewable energy plentiful and sustainable, while creating jobs for our people. In the process, we can confront climate change that threatens rising sea levels in the Caribbean, diminishing glaciers in the Andes, and powerful storms on the Gulf Coast of the United States.

Together, we have both the responsibility to act, and the opportunity to leave behind a legacy of greater prosperity and security. That is why I look forward to pursuing a new Energy and Climate Partnership of the Americas that will help us learn from one another, share technologies, leverage investment, and maximize our comparative advantage. 
Just as we advance our common prosperity, we must advance our common security. Too many in our hemisphere are forced to live in fear. That is why the United States will strongly support respect for the rule of law, better law enforcement, and stronger judicial institutions.

Security for our citizens must be advanced through our commitment to partner with those who are courageously battling drug cartels, gangs and other criminal networks throughout the Americas. Our efforts start at home. By reducing demand for drugs and curtailing the illegal flow of weapons and bulk cash south across our border, we can advance security in the United States and beyond. And going forward, we will sustain a lasting dialogue in the hemisphere to ensure that we are building on best practices, adapting to new threats, and coordinating our efforts.

Finally, the Summit gives every democratically-elected leader in the Americas the opportunity to reaffirm our shared values. Each of our countries has pursued its own democratic journey, but we must be joined together in our commitment to liberty, equality, and human rights. That is why I look forward to the day when every country in the hemisphere can take its seat at the table consistent with the Inter-American Democratic Charter. And just as the United States seeks that goal in reaching out to the Cuban people, we expect all of our friends in the hemisphere to join together in supporting liberty, equality, and human rights for all Cubans.

This Summit offers the opportunity of a new beginning. Advancing prosperity, security and liberty for the people of the Americas depends upon 21st century partnerships, freed from the posturing of the past. That is the leadership and partnership that the United States stands ready to provide.

It’s racism: America is discriminating against Americans.

April 15, 2009 in Cuba Politics, The Cuba Cuban News, The Moro Reflex Cuba, The Moro Reflex Politics, U.S. Politicians on Cuba, Uncategorized with 5 Comments

It’s racism: America is discriminating against Americans.

Yes it is true, and it’s happening by law.

Americans are prohibited to travel to Cuba because of U.S. laws.

Only a small ethnic minority of Cuban-Americans with family in Cuba can travel to the island.

American lawmakers are not giving all United States Citizens equal privileges.

This ethnic discrimination is racism.

“Demand your right to travel to Cuba.”

American’s must stand up for their equal rights now.

There is no time to wait.

Act now.

Stop American lawmakers from discriminating against you.

Call, write, YELL to your congressperson and senator.

Demand your local media covers this American racism against America.

POST YOUR COMMENTS AT www.TheMoroReflex.com

PLEASE SUPPORT us as we fight to abolish the embargo on Cuba,

and buy history making film on DVD Cuba’s Love & Suicide, the movie.

Available at www.EveryThingCUBA.com or www.MoroFilms.com

Luis and Bobbi Moro

White House Fact Sheet: Cuba Policy

April 13, 2009 in Cuba Politics with Leave a Comment
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White House Fact Sheet: Cuba Policy

The White House announced that it is abandoning longstanding restrictions on family travel, remittances and gifts to Cuba, and is also taking steps to open up telecommunications with the island, a significant shift in policy that fulfills a promise President Obama made during his election campaign. Following is a fact sheet provided by the White House:

FACT SHEET: REACHING OUT TO THE CUBAN PEOPLE

Today, the Obama administration announced a series of changes in U.S. policy to reach out to the Cuban people in support of their desire to freely determine their country’s future. In taking these steps to help bridge the gap among divided Cuban families and promote the freer flow of information and humanitarian items to the Cuban people, President Obama is working to fulfill the goals he identified both during his presidential campaign and since taking office.

All who embrace core democratic values long for a Cuba that respects basic human, political and economic rights of all its citizens. President Obama believes these measures will help make that goal a reality.

Cuban American connections to family in Cuba are not only a basic right in humanitarian terms, but also our best tool for helping to foster the beginnings of grassroots democracy on the island. There are no better ambassadors for freedom than Cuban Americans. Accordingly, President Obama will direct the Secretaries of State, Treasury, and Commerce to support the Cuban people’s desire for freedom and self-determination by lifting all restrictions on family visits and remittances as well as taking steps that will facilitate greater contact between separated family members in the United States and Cuba and increase the flow of information and humanitarian resources directly to the Cuban people. The President is also calling on the Cuban government to reduce the charges it levies on cash remittances sent to the island so family members can be assured they are receiving the support sent to them.

Specifically, the President has directed the Secretaries of State, Treasury, and Commerce to take the needed steps to:

· Lift all restrictions on transactions related to the travel of family members to Cuba.

· Remove restrictions on remittances to family members in Cuba.

· Authorize U.S. telecommunications network providers to enter into agreements to establish fiber-optic cable and satellite telecommunications facilities linking the United States and Cuba.

· License U.S. telecommunications service providers to enter into roaming service agreements with Cuba’s telecommunications service providers.

· License U.S. satellite radio and satellite television service providers to engage in transactions necessary to provide services to customers in Cuba.

· License persons subject to U.S. jurisdiction to activate and pay U.S. and third-country service providers for telecommunications, satellite radio and satellite television services provided to individuals in Cuba.

· Authorize the donation of certain consumer telecommunication devices without a license.

· Add certain humanitarian items to the list of items eligible for export through licensing exceptions.

REACHING OUT TO THE CUBAN PEOPLE

Supporting the Cuban people’s desire to freely determine their future and that of their country is in the national interest of the United States. The Obama administration is taking steps to promote greater contact between separated family members in the United States and Cuba and increase the flow of remittances and information to the Cuban people.

Lift All Restrictions on Family Visits to Cuba

We will lift all restrictions on family visits to Cuba by authorizing such transactions by a general license, which will strengthen contacts and promote American good will. We will ensure the positive reach of this effort by:

· Defining family members who may be visited to be persons within three degrees of family relationship (e.g., second cousins) and to allow individuals who share a common dwelling as a family with an authorized traveler to accompany them;

· Removing limitations on the frequency of visits;

· Removing limitations on the duration of a visit;

· Authorizing expenditure amounts that are the same as non-family travel; and

· Removing the 44-pound limitation on accompanied baggage.

Remove Restrictions on Remittances

We will remove restrictions on remittances to a person’s family member in Cuba to increase Cubans’ access to resources to help create opportunities for them by:

· Authorizing remittances to individuals within three degrees of family relationship (e.g., second cousins) provided that no remittances shall be authorized to currently prohibited members of the Government of Cuba or currently prohibited members of the Cuban Communist Party;

· Removing limits on frequency of remittances;

· Removing limits on the amount of remittances;

· Authorizing travelers to carry up to $3,000 in remittances; and

· Establishing general license for banks and other depository institutions to forward remittances.

Authorize Greater Telecommunications Links with Cuba

We will authorize greater telecommunications links with Cuba to advance people-to-people interaction at no cost to the U.S. government. This will increase the means through which Cubans on the island can communicate with each other and with persons outside of Cuba.

· Authorize U.S. telecommunications network providers to enter into agreements to establish fiber-optic cable and satellite telecommunications facilities linking the United States and Cuba.

· License U.S. telecommunications service providers to enter into and operate under roaming service agreements with Cuba’s telecommunications service providers.

· License U.S. satellite radio and satellite television service providers to engage in transactions necessary to provide services to customers in Cuba.

· License persons subject to U.S. jurisdiction to activate and pay U.S. and third-country service providers for telecommunications, satellite radio and satellite television services provided to individuals in Cuba, except certain senior Communist Party and Cuban government officials.

· Authorize, consistent with national security concerns, the export or re-export to Cuba of donated personal communications devices such as mobile phone systems, computers and software, and satellite receivers through a license exception.

Revise Gift Parcel Regulations

We will expand the scope of humanitarian donations eligible for export through license exceptions by:

· Restoring clothing, personal hygiene items, seeds, veterinary medicines and supplies, fishing equipment and supplies, and soap-making equipment to the list of items eligible to be included in gift parcel donations;

· Restoring items normally exchanged as gifts by individuals in “usual and reasonable” quantities to the list of items eligible to be included in gift parcel donations;

· Expanding the scope of eligible gift parcel donors to include any individual;

· Expanding the scope of eligible gift parcel donees to include individuals other than Cuban Communist Party officials or Cuban government officials already prohibited from receiving gift parcels, or charitable, educational or religious organizations not administered or controlled by the Cuban government; and

· Increasing the value limit on non-food items to $800.

Missoulian: Native trust lawsuit likely headed back to court – Thursday, March 26

April 8, 2009 in Native Americans, Whispers Like Thunder with Leave a Comment
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The Barack Obama administration has the challenge of transforming many of the wasteful, out right lying and stealing ways by decades of politicians before him.  Our policies with Cuba are one example. Another major abuse has been the treatment and stealing from Native American Tribes.  Only God and the Spirits that Be – can apply the wrath of self moral judgement  on the people, the humans who hide behind the name “the government” to steal, and destroy from thier fellow men, women and children.  ”The government” has not given Native Americans one accounting report in over 100 years for the land treaties we made with them as a new nation on their preexisting home.  

The drive to restore human integrity on a mass level is what drives me to make a film like Whispers Like Thunder. The story of three Native American sisters who fought “the government” when it tried to sell their ancestors cemetry to a real estate developor. The sisters fought with guns, axes and the law for 67 years.  Learn more at www.WhispersLikeThunder.com

Read the story below to learn more about the current legal case (Elouise Cobell vs. U.S.A.) to restore integrity with our U.S. treatees with Native Americans.

Express Yourself. Use your voice. Release your Moro Reflex.

Luis Moro

Native trust lawsuit likely headed back to court – Thursday, March 26
By JODI RAVE of the Missoulian

Native advocates who believed President Barack Obama would settle a long-standing lawsuit between the Interior Department and Native landholders say they’re disappointed with the new administration.

Instead, Obama and Interior Secretary Ken Salazar have expressed a need to settle the Cobell v. Salazar case in court rather than sit down and talk to Native landowners and negotiate a settlement.

“Salazar’s out there talking, saying he wants to settle this case and putting false hopes into Indian people,” said Elouise Cobell, the lead plaintiff in the case.

“It’s really a slam in the face,” she said. “Why is this administration taking this avenue? They have to live up to their trust responsibility and they need to talk to Indian people.”

Dennis Gingold, lead attorney in the 12-year-old case, pointed out Wednesday that Salazar is a trustee. “And he can’t sit down and talk to the trust beneficiaries?” Gingold asked.

Interior spokeswoman Kendra Barkoff said the department could not comment because the case is in litigation. Salazar, Barkoff said, “is sincere in trying to find a resolution to this case.”

Lawyers for the Interior Department as well as lawyers for Native landholders both filed successful appeals to the U.S. Court of Appeals immediately after a federal judge in August awarded a $455 million settlement regarding the department’s mismanagement of the tribal trust fund system.

Cobell, who is from the Blackfeet Reservation, expressed disappointment with Salazar’s decision to talk of settlement only after the case is heard in the Court of Appeals. Oral arguments are scheduled for May 11 in Washington, D.C.

“People in Indian Country are expecting a settlement,” Cobell said. “For him to say he can’t work on a settlement until the Court of Appeals rules, well, the opportunity is now. Now is the time he needs to pull the forces and powers together.”

The Interior Department oversees the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the Office of Special Trustee, two agencies with significant oversight of Native issues. The department has been responsible for collecting and distributing money earned from natural resources on 11 million acres of land owned by Native individuals. The department’s trust responsibility to Native landowners dates back to 1887.

Salazar initially provided hope about settling the lawsuit at a National Congress of American Indians gathering, said Cobell.

She said the Interior Department, as well as the Office of Management Budget and the Justice Department, all need to work to settle the case. “Certainly the Obama administration can call Justice and say, ‘Lay off. Pull off the dogs. We’re going to stop this litigation.’ ”

Cobell said she and her lawyers had better luck negotiating with the Bush administration than with Obama.

Interior Department lawyers argue that the government does not owe Native landowners any money for mismanagement of Indian land held in trust by the department. Cobell lawyers once argued that upward of $170 billion was missing or misplaced from the Individual Indian Money accounts.

Gingold criticized Salazar’s lack of experience in land management, noting the failure of his other Colorado predecessors, James Watt and Gale Norton. Both saw their tenure as Interior secretary marked by controversy.

“It seems every time there’s an appointment from Colorado, it’s a lifetime of oxygen deprivation,” Gingold said. “Let me be fair. It’s not reasonable to expect something from someone who has no substantive knowledge on any of the issues. Remember he was a United States senator and prior to that an attorney general.

“In neither one of those jobs did he have any substantive responsibilities. He was a very effective politician who was elected. And his career has been running for office.”

Reporter Jodi Rave can be reached at 1-800-366-7186 or at jodi.rave@lee.net. Or read her blog at www.buffalopost.net.

http://www.missoulian.com/articles/2009/04/08/jodirave/rave60.txt

All in the Family, Brothers Wage War on Uncle Fidel – New York Times

April 3, 2009 in Cuba Politics, U.S. Politicians on Cuba with 1 Comment
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All in the Family, Brothers Wage War on Uncle Fidel – New York Times.

All in the Family, Brothers Wage War on Uncle on Uncle Fidel - But in a twist that is not widely known outside Miami, Mr. Diaz-Balart is also Mr. Castro’s nephew.

By ABBY GOODNOUGH - March 8, 2006

MIAMI, March 6 — If Representative Lincoln Diaz-Balart had his way, Cuba’s baseball team would be barred from the first World Baseball Classic this month.

Mr. Diaz-Balart, the Florida Republican who is vice chairman of the House Rules Committee, even asked Major League Baseball to let a makeshift team of Cuban exiles and defectors play instead, a proposal that was spurned.

“It is difficult to believe,” Mr. Diaz-Balart wrote the organization, “that M.L.B. would have invited a team from apartheid-era South Africa to participate in a tournament. Yet you have invited a totalitarian dictatorship which has murdered thousands and imprisoned hundreds of thousands for the ‘crime’ of supporting freedom and democracy.”

Mr. Diaz-Balart, 51, is Mr. Castro’s denouncer in chief in South Florida and Washington, treating anything that could benefit his government like a toxic threat. He sets the tone of exile politics in Miami, signs off on changes in the Bush administration’s Cuba policy and keeps heat on Congress to reject any weakening of the trade embargo.

But in a twist that is not widely known outside Miami, Mr. Diaz-Balart is also Mr. Castro’s nephew. His father, once Mr. Castro’s close friend, became his “foremost and most consistent opponent” leading up to the revolution, Mr. Diaz-Balart said — even though Mr. Castro had married his sister.

The half-century battle between Miami and Havana has driven countless families apart, with some pledging loyalty to Mr. Castro and others fleeing Cuba. Even the custody tug-of-war over Elián González, a Cuban boy, was at its core a nasty family feud. But few such rifts have had the prominence and intensity of Castro versus Diaz-Balart.

Like his father, who warned the Cuban Congress in 1955 that freeing Mr. Castro from prison would bring “many days of mourning, of pain, of bloodshed and of misery,” Mr. Diaz-Balart, elected in 1992, has poured his soul into fighting for a democratic Cuba. His younger brother, Representative Mario Diaz-Balart, a fellow Republican who was elected to Congress in 2002, is also devoted to the cause.

Mr. Castro once called the Diaz-Balarts his “most repulsive enemies,” reports Ann Louise Bardach, whose book “Cuba Confidential: Love and Vengeance in Miami and Havana,” explored the family divisions that the revolution spawned.

For many Cuban-Americans in Miami, especially older ones who lost wealth and power after the revolution, the Diaz-Balarts symbolize the lost potential and the commitment of Mr. Castro’s enemies to retrieving it, no matter how long it takes.

“They are the embodiment of what this community thinks and feels,” said Ninoska Perez Castellon, a popular host on Radio Mambí.

Mr. Diaz-Balart’s father, Rafael, was a classmate of Mr. Castro, and Rafael’s younger sister, Mirta, married Mr. Castro in 1948. But the friendship died after Fulgencio Batista took over Cuba in 1952, Rafael Diaz-Balart joined his government and Mr. Castro tried to overthrow it, landing in prison.

Mirta Diaz-Balart filed for divorce soon afterward, and Mr. Castro seized custody of their son, Fidelito, after taking control of Cuba in 1959.

Rafael Diaz-Balart was visiting Paris with his wife and sons when Mr. Castro took power, and they never went home. Rafael did not enter American politics, but he was the most trusted adviser of Lincoln and Mario until he died last year at 79. Two other sons also live in Miami: Rafael, an investment banker, and Jose, a news anchor for Telemundo, the Spanish-language network.

Ms. Bardach said Rafael Diaz-Balart had groomed two of his children to be political leaders in hope that they would return to Cuba and fulfill his own destiny there.

But Lincoln Diaz-Balart said his family resented the assumption that theirs was a personal vendetta, which he said had dogged them ever since his father warned the Cuban Congress not to free Mr. Castro.

“It’s a way in which they systematically tried to discredit us,” he said, “by saying, ‘It’s personal.’ “

So, too, he said, is the popular rumor here that Mr. Diaz-Balart wants to succeed Mr. Castro as Cuba’s ruler. “All attacks like that are ways to impugn my motives and to not focus on our ideas and our ideals,” he said.

His real goal, he said, is to teach Cuban history on the island once his political goals for it — democratic elections, release of political prisoners, and creation of political parties, unions and a free press — are met.

Mr. Diaz-Balart, whose suburban district is more than 70 percent Hispanic, wrote the legislation codifying the embargo against Cuba. But he does not want to be seen as solely focused on Cuba. His district has growing numbers of Nicaraguan, Colombian and other Hispanic immigrants, and he has supported legislation that benefits them. He recently fought a plan to end a temporary work program for Central Americans, which the Department of Homeland Security ultimately decided to extend.

“If you don’t focus on my immigration work and my fight for Central Americans, Latin Americans and Hispanics generally,” he said, “then it’s a very incomplete story.”

With Mr. Castro still in power decades after the embargo began, some call the strategy a failure. Yet President Bush remains firmly in the Diaz-Balart camp. In January, his Justice Department charged two professors here with spying for Mr. Castro and stepped up its crackdown on travel to Cuba, suspending the license of a South Florida travel agency that had booked trips to the island.

“We are batting 1.000,” Mr. Diaz-Balart said in an interview, sitting in his office amid photographs of jailed Cuban dissidents. “There were times in the past where I was batting .100, but we’re not there anymore.”

But that brings us back to baseball, and Mr. Diaz-Balart’s failure to persuade the Bush administration to bar the Cuban team from the tournament. The Cubans will play Panama on Wednesday in San Juan, P.R.

Mr. Bush reversed an earlier decision and granted the Cuban team a license after Major League Baseball guaranteed that Cuba would not receive American money from the contest. Denying the license might have quashed the entire tournament, because other countries had threatened to withdraw and the International Baseball Federation had said it might not sanction the event if Cuba was left out.

If Mr. Diaz-Balart felt betrayed, he did not show it, using tame words like “lamentable” to describe Mr. Bush’s decision. He hopes some Cuban team members will defect, he said, embarrassing Mr. Castro.

“Perseverance and perspective until victory,” Mr. Diaz-Balart said. “I haven’t been given many things, but I’ve been given ample, limitless patience.”

Terry Aguayo contributed reporting for this article.

Senator Barbara Boxer on Cuba to Luis Moro

April 1, 2009 in U.S. Politicians on Cuba with 1 Comment
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Dear Mr. Moro:

Thank you for contacting me regarding United States policy toward Cuba.  I appreciate the opportunity to respond to your comments.

Since the United States first imposed economic sanctions on Cuba in 1960, our policy has vacillated between loosening and tightening sanctions.  While Cuba remains a communist state with a tight control over the political system, Raul Castro’s official assumption of the Cuban presidency in February 2008 has resulted in some limited economic reforms.  This is a positive sign, and I believe that the best way to help bring further political and economic changes to Cuba in the long term is to allow more contact between the American people and the Cuban people.

I feel that Congress must act to rescind travel barriers between the United States and Cuba and ease U.S. sanctions that close off potential markets to American farmers and manufacturers while doing little to promote democracy in Cuba.

That is why I am proud to co-sponsor S. 428, the Freedom to Travel to Cuba Act.  Introduced by Senator Byron Dorgan on February 12, 2009, this bill would allow U.S. citizens and legal residents to freely travel to and from Cuba.  S.428 is now pending in the Senate


Committee on Foreign Relations.  Please be assured that as a member of this committee, I will work to pass this legislation in the 111thCongress.

Thank you again for writing to me about this important issue.

Barbara Boxer

United States Senator

Letter to President Barack Obama on Cuba Policy

March 30, 2009 in Cuba Politics, The Moro Reflex Politics with 5 Comments
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The Honorable Barack Obama March 30th, 2009

President of the United States of America

The White House

Washington, DC 20500

Dear Mr. President:

Given our commitment to transform America for the 21st Century. I’m writing you in direct response to a letter sent to you by the Congressional Cuba Democracy Caucus. The timing of Vice President Joe Biden declaring the U.S. will not lift the embargo on Cuba seems suspect of old boy backroom politics U.S. citizens want elected to eradicated.

First and foremost, you must know the signers of the letter do not represent the overwhelming majority of Cuban Americans in the United State as they claim. They also do not represent the majority of Americans.

I’m a proud US citizen whose immigrant story is similar to millions of people. I was born in Cuba, my single mother raised me, I graduated from Rutgers University and I’m self-employed working to fulfill the American dream providing for my wife and children.

My Cuban exiled mother, Rufina, died in my hands of ovarian Cancer at the age of 54. After 38 years in America, my mother never saw her brothers, aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews, and friends in Cuba because of US. Cuba policies.

My grandmother, Lazara, is 88 years old. She had to sneak illegally into Cuba three times in one year during the Bush presidency to see her dying son, Ruperto. She saw my uncle a few days before he died. Two of my grandmother’s children died never seeing each other for 38 years. My remaining family is literally separated and destroyed physically due to failed U.S. Policies with Cuba.

We know that millions of people have had their families and friendship broken by Cuban and U.S. politicians alike. People on both sides of the policy have endured the heavy and brutal hand of politics from both countries. With all that, as a country, America can only be responsible and transform our own policies and actions.

Much of the content in The Congressional Cuba Democracy Caucus letter provides misrepresentations, misleading statements and in some cases lies crafted to influence you towards continuing another US presidential term of failed policies with Cuba.

The letter signers represent 50 years of failed practices toward Cuba. It is publicly known some of the signers and their colleagues are viewed in the halls of congress for being notorious political wolves, trading and swapping votes to maintain and enforce their agendas against Cuba. It is also well known to the public, the letter signers use lobbyist monies for campaign donations, favors and whatever influence necessary to obtain “outsourced” congressional and senatorial anti-Cuba votes from many representatives. Simply said, the list of politicians who seemly vote against Cuba for a campaign donation is historically long and spreads from coast to coast, north and south.

The bottom-line is the signors have historically high-jacked U.S. Policy towards Cuba, in no way representing the overwhelming anti-embargo on Cuba will of U.S. citizens.

Their deceptive letter demonstrates they do not represent the best interest of the United States, they do not symbolize the best interest of Cuban-Americans and they certainly do not stand for the best interest of the people in Cuba.

The historical and current facts and realities of the U.S. embargo on Cuba demonstrate the many failures. Decade after decade The United Nations votes overwhelming to abolish the embargo against Cuba. We all know your presidential election victory in Florida, especially in Miami proved that local communities also desire an end to the embargo on Cuba.

I ask you to publicly bring your transparency mandate to U.S. Cuba policies and avoid being another presidential administration who is lied to, coerced and high-jacked into supporting and enforcing 50 years of failed US policies toward Cuba.

We the people want the United States to abolish the embargo on Cuba. We ask and trust, that you and your staff, as well as Congress and the Senate will continue toward a new 21st Century integrity for America. Please continue your path to break and transforms a proven 50-year history of failure with Cuba, respect the will of the American citizen and create unity with the world.

Please support others and me in giving our grandparents open access to our families and friends in Cuba during their remaining golden years, our life time and our children’s future.

I look forward to your response. Until them I remain…

“Committed to your Success”

Luis Moro

EveryThingCUBA.com

LuisMoroProductions.com

Attached: Line item response on Congressional Cuba Democracy Caucus letter.

Line item response to Congressional Cuba Democracy Caucus letter to Obama March 24th.

March 30, 2009 in The Moro Reflex Comedy, The Moro Reflex Cuba with 3 Comments
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March 30th, 2009.

To U.S. Citizens.

On March 24th, 2009 the Congressional Cuba Democracy Caucus sent President Barack Obama a public letter. Below is my line item response.

What gives me a voice on this issue?

I’m a U.S. Citizen. I was born in Cuba, immigrated to the United States via Mexico, raised by my mother, graduated Rutgers University, lettered three years of football. I’m an award winning filmmaker, acknowledged Hollywood writer. I’m the first and only American to make a full-length feature film in Cuba in the last fifty years.

I’m also married, raising five kids and working to fulfill the American dream. My mother died never seeing her family in 38 years because of the embargo on Cuba. My 88 year old grandmother has had to sneak into Cuba three time to see her dying son. He’s also now dead.

I have campaigned and raised monies for both Senator Bob Menendez and Congressman Albio Sires. We grew up in the same community. We have thousands of mutual friends and associates. I support most of their work, but I am 100% in disagreement with their allegiance and representations regarding U.S. Cuba policies.

The bottom-line is, the claims by the Cuba Democracy Caucus members sent to the President of The United states border perjury. They present false claims and assumptions in order to continue their failed 50 years of in effective policies towards Cuba.

As a Cuban-American citizen of The United States, I’m asking our government, media and fellow citizens to stand-up with no retreat to abolish the U.S. embargo on Cuba.

Much more could be said, and will be supported by relentless actions toward transforming our failed U.S. history of policies toward Cuba.

I look forward to your actions towards abolishing the U.S. embargo on Cuba.

Luis Moro

U.S. Citizen


CONGRESSIONAL CUBA DEMOCRACY CAUCUS LETTER

The following are the signers representing the Congressional Cuba Democracy Caucus.

Lincoln Díaz-Balart (R-FL)

Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL)

Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL)

Kendrick Meek (D-FL)

Mario Díaz-Balart (R-FL)

Albio Sires (D-NJ)

Robert Andrews (D-NJ)

Frank Pallone Jr. (D-NJ),

My responses are in bold following the congress member’s claims.

March 24, 2009

The Honorable Barack Obama

President of the United States of America

The White House

Washington, DC 20500

Dear Mr. President:

1) As Members of the Congressional Cuba Democracy Caucus, who represent the overwhelming majority of Cuban Americans in the United States, we would like to briefly share with you some thoughts concerning U.S. Cuba policy.

LUIS MORO REPSONSE: On what factual basis do they make this claim?

The signers of this letter do not represent the overwhelming majority of Cuban Americans in the United States. They do not represent any of the Cubans outside the United States and they certainly do not represent the interest or overwhelming desire of the Cubans in Cuba.

America’s mandate for change was clearly demonstrated in Obama’s democratic victory in the Florida Republican districts of Ros-Lehtinen of 58% for Obama, Mario Diaz-Balart 52% for Obama, and Lincoln Diaz-Balart 67% for Obama. These incumbent Florida signers barely won their reelection against under funded, lesser known candidates.

Overall the Florida Cuban-American community voted for Obama’s promise of change with Broward delivering 67% of voters, Miami-Date delivering 58% of voters, Monroe delivering 52% and Palm Beach delivering 62%.

The state of Florida delivered 27 uncontested electoral votes to Obama’s promise of change, with McCain’s continued enforcement of the Embargo on Cuba policies obtaining zero electoral votes.

New Jersey’s Bob Menendez and Albio Sires districts, in particular Hudson County delivered 73% voter turnout for Obama. NJ provided 15 uncontested electoral votes for Obama.

On what factual basis does the Congressional Cuba Democracy Caucus claim to represent the overwhelming majority of Cuban Americans?

Congressional letter continued…

2) Just 90 miles from our shores, extraordinary men and women are struggling daily against a brutal 50 year-old dictatorship and look to this great nation for solidarity.

LUIS MORO REPSONSE: As it’s known, the signers of this letter do not have any immediate family in Cuba as I do or the people effected by their actions. The majority of Cubans in America and Cuba have not received any meaningful solidarity results in 50 years from U.S. Politicians.

Within our own U.S. borders extraordinary men and women are struggling daily against a brutal 50 year-old U.S. policy toward Cuba that has separated and destroyed families and friends who expected Cuban-American politicians to provide solidarity with Cuba.

U.S. politicians have failed and continue to fail with our U.S. policies toward Cuba.

Congressional letter continued…

3) Your presidency comes at a decisive moment for Cuba. You will have an extraordinary opportunity to assist the Cuban people in finally achieving their freedom.

LUIS MORO RESPONSE: Yes President Barack Obama has this extraordinary opportunity as did every past president for the last 50 years.

It has been the leadership and guidance of the signers of this letter and their counter parts who have equally failed over 50 years. Ultimately the only people responsible for their own freedom are the people living in Cuba.

The U.S. needs to simply get out of the way of Cubans in Cuba governing themselves.

Congressional letter continued…

Cuba Measures in the FY 2009 Omnibus Appropriation Act

4) We agree with the interpretation of the general license for agricultural travel and the definition of cash-in-advance requiring payment before shipment from U.S. ports, as outlined in Secretary Timothy Geithner’s March 9, 2009 letters to U.S. Senators Bill Nelson and Bob Menendez.

LUIS MORO RESPONSE: Any “agreement of interpretation” from congressional leaders who continue to support 50 years worth of failed policies against Cuba need to be questioned and reviewed with due diligence, especially given their proven history of failed policies, actions and intent toward Cuba.

Congressional letter continued…

5) However, in regard to Cuban American travel, we are troubled by the explanation in the “Guidance on Implementation of Cuba Travel and Trade-Related Provisions of the Omnibus Appropriations Act of 2009” that the general license grants “unlimited” lengths of stay in Cuba.

LUIS MORO RESPONSE: As American citizens, we have the right to travel around the world as long as we follow existing citizenship/visa travel laws that apply to all Americans. Excluding Cuba from existing U.S. laws is simply continuing the failed policies of the last 50 years.

Congressional letter continued…

6) We believe that this will serve to channel U.S. taxpayer dollars directly to the regime because retirees and Supplemental Security Income recipients could remain on the island indefinitely while collecting U.S. taxpayer-provided benefits.

LUIS MORO RESPONSE: America has existing Social Security Laws as well as laws related to retirees and how they decide to spend their lives and earning. We as a country do not need any more politically motivated laws on U.S. citizens, especially with the intent of preventing new U.S.-Cuba travel policy changes.

Congressional letter continued…

U.S. Sanctions

7) The goal of freedom for the Cuban people has long been a U.S. policy of state, supported by Administrations and Congresses of both political parties.

LUIS MORO RESPONSE: This statement is an outright lie and it’s appalling that the signers of this letter would present this to President Barack Obama as truth.

U.S.-Cuba policy has been high-jacked by self interest politicians and anti Cuba lobbyist alike. It is no secret to the American people and politicians that U.S.-Cuba policies are dictated by vote swapping, vote trading and cash campaign donations.

The will and desire of the American people has been sold off to Cuban lobbyist. The world knows the leaders of U.S. political abuse towards Cuba are Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, Lincoln Diaz-Balart, Mario Diaz-Balart and Robert Menendez.

Congressional letter continued…

8) This U.S. policy of state becomes more important each day with the serious illness of Fidel Castro, the ultimate power in the very personalized totalitarian Cuban dyarchy.

LUIS MORO RESPONSE: The U.S. Policy of state with Cuba has always been of most importance for Cuba-Americans who where born in Cuba, have family in Cuba and have lost half a century of life with friends and families due to failed U.S. policies and practices toward Cuba.

Congressional letter continued…

9) In a bipartisan fashion Administrations and Congresses have insisted that before the U.S. makes any concessions to the Cuban regime, all political prisoners must be freed, all political parties, the free press and labor unions legalized, and internationally supervised elections scheduled.

LUIS MORO RESPONSE: It is false to claim this is a bipartisan demand. It is a wish many people want. But the facts remain, it’s a demand that has not been honored in Cuban history by Castro and previous dictators or Cuban presidents alike. Ironically some of the dictators and associates in power prior to Castro are direct relatives to some of the members of the Congressional Cuba Democracy Caucus.

It must be noted that when Cuban-American Journalist Max Lesnik was able to get a bus load of Cuban political prisoners freed to the United States, the anti Cuban lobbyist (some who continue to be supporters of the signors of this letter), proceeded by bombing Mr. Lesnik’s Miami business, bombing Miami Police offices and delivering and fulfilling on death threats to many more.

Congressional letter continued…

10) Any easing of sanctions, without demanding any concessions lessening the oppression of the people by the regime, will serve to strengthen the dictatorship and demoralize the Cuban people.

LUIS MORO RESPONSE: Another false statement with baseless assumptions. One thing that is certain, the Cuban people on the island have not been demoralized by Fidel Castro or the Cuban-American politicians who continue to claim they speak for the Cuban people everywhere.

The fact is American, Cuban and global citizens are not demoralized by the acts of U.S. politicians who continue failed paths. We in fact only have compassion for their own demoralizing behavior which include selling themselves for cash contributions, plus vote swapping and vote trading pretending to embody the people of the United States.

Congressional letter continued…

Aid to the Pro-Democracy Movement

11) As you will recall, Congress, by strong bi-partisan majorities, recently appropriated a significant increase in U.S. aid to the pro-democracy movement in Cuba.

LUIS MORO RESPONSE: As a Cuban-American citizen, I would like to know and see how any of the funds ever budgeted for aid to the pro-democracy movement in Cuba actually made a difference in Cuba or The United States.

Congressional letter continued…

12) Congress has also consistently supported funding for Radio and T.V. Marti, which provide the Cuban people with uncensored information that the regime attempts to block, and which also provide pro-democracy activists a vehicle to share their messages throughout the island.

LUIS MORO RESPONSE: Again, this document is based on false assumptions that have produced no results. I’ve been to Cuba; Cuban’s are currently watching American programming not self-serving programming from Radio and T.V. Marti.

One would find an audit of the hundreds of millions spent on Radio and T.V. Marti to be a mere profit center for anti-Cuba lobbyist. Radio and T.V. Marti has made no difference in shifting the Cuban government.

Congressional letter continued…

13) Congress was very clear in its intent that the United States should increase aid to the pro-democracy movement inside Cuba. We also look forward to working with you to make certain that U.S. assistance reaches the pro-democracy movement in an efficient and expeditious manner.

LUIS MORO RESPONSE: After 50 years of implementing various versions “U.S. assistance to the pro-democracy movement” in Cuba no results have been produced. The money given, the money recipients and the beneficial results are never publicly presented to the people of the United States.

Congressional letter continued…

14) We also look forward to working with you to make certain that Radio and T.V. Marti continue to be funded and improved to better serve the U.S. national interest in a democratic transition for the people of Cuba.

LUIS MORO RESPONSE: It is ironic that Radio and T.V. Marti represent capitalism yet get require government funding. It is time to simply cut their funding and let them succeed in an open capitalist market like the majority of Americans do.

Americans who are against the 50 years of failed U.S. Cuba policies are self funded. U.S. national interest will be best served – by U.S. national interest eliminating 50 years of failed policies towards Cuba.

Congressional letter continued…

The International Community

15) Too many in the international community are seeking to assist the Cuban dyarchy in its goal of obtaining unilateral concessions from the United States and succeed in its attempt at absolutist succession once Fidel Castro dies.

LUIS MORO RESPONSE: The reality is, the majority of The United States citizens are for a transformation of U.S. Cuba policies. The assumptions made on the international communities intent is more of the same by anti-Cuba politicians.

Their claims are not based on facts, but only geared for anti-Cuba lobbyist to control Cuba. The anti-Cuba lobby simply wants to revert back to a Cuba that they and their ancestors controlled. America and the international community want a Cuba that is self determined by it’s own citizens living in Cuba.

Congressional letter continued…

16) It is critically important for the international community to receive a clear message that the Obama Administration stands firmly and clearly on behalf of a genuine democratic transition in Cuba, and will not grant the Cuban dictatorship any unilateral concessions.

LUIS MORO RESPONSE: Vice-president Joe Biden’s recent comments committing America to a continued failed embargo on Cuba is extremely suspect of continued high-jacking of the will of the American people by back-room politics.

No one is asking for unilateral concessions. The citizens of America and the international community are requesting for a transformation in U.S. Cuba policies.

To do this, we must allow unrestricted travel and commerce with Cuba. We the American people will decide and determine our participation with Cuba. The Cuban people will decide how they will self-determine their own future. We must simply get out of the way – and promote human-to-human contact and commerce between Cuba and the United States.

Congressional letter continued…

17) All our friends in the international community should be urged by your Administration to join the U.S. in demanding free, multi-party elections for Cuba.

LUIS MORO RESPONSE: For decades, all our friends in the international community have voted overwhelming in the United Nations to abolish the U.S. Embargo on Cuba. It is the minority Cuban-American politicians and lobbyist that must adapt to the 21st Century. The people of Cuba will determine their electoral destiny.

Congressional letter continued…

Cuba’s Political Prisoners

18) The Cuban dictatorship will attempt to use political prisoners as a bargaining tool with your Administration. Please recall how the regime has used political prisoners in the past in this manner, only to detain hundreds more once its immediate goals were reached.

LUIS MORO RESPONSE: One can say much about the U.S. and Cuba’s history and recent past when it comes to political prisoners. Please recall how our policies with Cuba dictated by the signors of this letter have failed for 50-years.

We are living in the 21st Century and America, as the greater more developed country must take the first mature step towards reconciliation and transformation with our global relationships. Living, governing and acting based on failed U.S. policies and their negative effects will keep America out of being and providing 21st Century leadership.

The irony of these letter signers “bargaining tool” statement is the degree to which our own U.S. politicians will barter American citizens lives, defer Americas health and well being and devastate the financial security of our nation as a “bargaining tool” against the President of The United States. They will do this in order to maintain 50 years of failed U.S. policies against Cuba.

Congressional letter continued…

19) We will continue to do all we can to bring to light the inhuman conditions suffered by Cuba’s political prisoners and to call for their unconditional release.

LUIS MORO RESPONSE: We all want this, but should not have it be the reason why millions of people’s families and friendships are destroyed by continuing failed U.S. Cuba policies. The proven road to freedom is uniting, providing and human-to-human contact. Not war, separation or the financial strangling of a nations people.

Congressional letter continued…

20) Your solidarity and advocacy on their behalf is critical, and it can serve as inspiration, not only for the hundreds of thousands of patriots who have been incarcerated for their beliefs, but for the entire Cuban nation.

LUIS MORO REPONSE: We all welcome inspiration for all people, especially warranted patriots of all nations.

It is important to know the signers of this letter consider “Luis Posada Carriles” a patriot even though he confesses to committing terrorist acts in The United States, international terrorism and has bombed a Cuban civilian airline, hotels and murdered hundreds.

To inspire America and Cuba, the U.S. must simply eliminate all the U.S. restrictions that have been instrumental in destroying the Cuban economy, devastating U.S. Cuba relationships between family and friends, and has been the number one platform used to keep the Cuban government in place by it’s own admission.

Congressional letter continued…

21) We would look forward to joining you in a strong demonstration of support for Cuba’s freedom.

LUIS MORO RESPONSE: The American people look forward to the signers of this letter joining American citizens and the rest of the world in the 21st Century by abolishing the U.S. embargo on Cuba.

With Best Regards,

Luis Moro

U.S. Citizen

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