Posada Carriles Demonstrator Defends His Stance

Jan 22, 2007 7:15 pm US/Eastern

Posada Carriles Demonstrator Defends His Stance

Beatriz Canals
Reporting

(CBS4) MIAMI The organizer of a protest that ended in a fight in Little Havana last week spoke to CBS4 News, telling us he is real victim.

Miguel Saavedra was one of the dozens of demonstrators who showed up to the Bay of Pigs Invasion Memorial Friday in support of Cuban militant Luis Posada Carriles. Saavedra and his followers were accused by members of the Bolivarian Students group of attacking, spitting and hitting them while they held up signs against Posada Carriles across the street.

“They were making fun of our pain in front of a memorial that is very important to the Cuban people,” said Saavedra. “We cannot allow them to provoke us that way.”

Saavedra also addressed the question of him throwing a megaphone at one of the counter-protesters as he chased them down the street. He says he threw it as a means of scaring the group and to get them to leave.
(snip/...)

http://cbs4.com/topstories/local_story_022183855.html

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Jan 21, 2007 8:36 pm US/Eastern

Pro And Anti Posada Supporters Speak Out On Brawl
Art Barron
Reporting

(CBS4) HOLLYWOOD Both groups involved in a scuffle over Cuban Militant Luis Posada spoke out Saturday, blaming one another for the outburst of violence.

Both sides attended a rally supporting anti-Castro militant Luis Posada Carilles on Friday, as he faces a federal trial and possible deportation. As cameras captured the scene, the Posada supporters crossed the street and started attacking the Posada opponents.

“It was a direct attack on us,” says Michael Martinez, who was one of the Posada protestors. “We did not respond to any of the violence. The other side was kicking, spitting, and throwing objects.”

Approximately 80 people had gathered at the Bay of Pigs Memorial on SW 8th Street in Miami to show their support for Posada about Noon Friday, playing music and showing flags and banners. The protesters urged people driving by to show their support for Posada, a former CIA operative who is suspected of plotting the bombing of a Cuban jetliner 30 years ago.

While the first group demonstrated, a smaller group of about 30 people gathered across the street and started yelling, calling Posada a terrorist. The situation quickly turned to violence, and as television camera captured the scene the Posada demonstrators ran across the street and began attacking the anti-Posada protesters.
(snip/...)

http://cbs4.com/topstories/local_story_021203928.html

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For anyone who may care, the leader of this group of half-wits, Miguel Saavedra, with Vigilia Mambisa, brought his group to raise hell at the Miami-Dade Presidential election recount in 2000.

participants in stopping the 2000 recount? paid mini CIA operatives?

<snip>

"Demonstrators who clashed with others in Little Havana over Cuban exile militant Luis Posada Carriles said Sunday they intend to press charges against people they said attacked them during the rally.

Friday's fracas unfolded when about 100 people gathered at the Bay of Pigs memorial at Southwest Eighth Street and 13th Avenue to show support for Posada, charged in El Paso with lying about how he sneaked into the United States in 2005.

Michael Martinez, 24, of the Bolívarian Youth group, said he and three other friends showed up with a four-foot-long banner that read, ''Terrorists to Jail,'' referring to Posada.

Martinez said Miguel Saavedra, leader of the Cuban exile group Vigilia Mambisa, and other pro-Posada demonstrators attacked anti-Posada protesters.

Martinez said he was struck in the head with a megaphone, while several protesters kicked, punched and tossed beer cans at him, his three friends and their car."

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/16515425.htm

most all of our Democrats support the pro-Posada brown shirts...along with AIPAC.

When a bunch of brownshirts attack counterdemonstrators, it's a "fracas"? And if they form death squads to kill counterdemonstrators, what will it be to the Herald? A "disagreement"?

<snip>

"Two members of the Bolivarian Youth -- saying they were spit on, slapped and chased as they peacefully protested in Little Havana last week -- filed a police report today, claiming they were assaulted by a group of Cuban exiles.

''They attacked us without any provocation,'' Bolivarian Youth member Michael Martinez, 24, said as he filed charges at the Miami Police Department. ``We didn't respond in any way to the violence; we just ran from them.''

Martinez, a local graphic artist, and three others staged a counter-protest Friday across the street from a rally at Southwest Eighth Street and 13th Avenue supporting anti-Castro militant Luis Posada Carriles, who is being held on immigration violations at a Texas federal detention center.

The CIA-trained Posada has been implicated in several bombings at tourist sites in Cuba in the 1990s and is considered a hero by some Cuban exiles. Posada is also wanted by the Venezuelan government in connection with the 1976 bombing of a Cubana de Aviación flight that killed 73 people.

At Friday's rally, a group of pro-Posada protesters charged the Bolivarian youth members, ripping a large poster that said ''Terrorists to Jail'' from their hands. Miguel Saavedra, the leader of the pro-Posada group Vigilia Mambisa, threw a megaphone at Martinez as Saavedra and other Posada supporters chased the students to their car.

''If Miami is part of the United States, and the Constitution applies here, the government needs to take action against these thugs,'' said Jack Lieberman of South Florida Peace and Justice, which is helping the Bolivarian Youth to file charges. ``If these people get away with this, it is a green light for other attacks in this community. Incidents like this have a chilling affect on civil liberties.''

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/16527646.htm

.. and defending terrorist assaults on Cuba, as well as organizing fundraisers for Posada's defense.


From today's Miami Herald..

Members of a leftist youth organization filed a complaint against a group of Cuban exiles, claiming they were assaulted.
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/16530591.htm

Saavedra blamed the Bolivarian Youth members.

''They provoked the Cuban people in exile,'' he said. ``We have respected freedom of expression, and we continue to respect freedom of expression, but in this incident we were provoked.''

Martinez dismissed Saavedra's version of events.

''How can you be captured on video, rallying a mob of people to assault a group of university students that are demonstrating . . . and then say that you are a victim?'' Martinez asked. ``You've got to be kidding me.''

The Bolivarian Youth members also criticized Miami police for not launching an investigation.

''They were violently assaulted, and there was no police action taken against the hooligans who attacked them,'' Lieberman said. ``Everyone saw what happened on TV, so how could nothing have been done?''

a radio personality from Oregon or Washington arrived, wearing a shirt with a statement claiming the child should be with his father, was assaulted on the spot, and cops had to come to rescue him.

It also reminds me of times when Cuban performers have attempted to perform in Miami, like the group Los Van Van, and a wildly enraged crowd of reactionaries formed in front of the auditorium, and threw baggies filled with human waste at the people going in to the concert, as well as rocks, glass bottles, D-cell batteries, etc. A city official was quoted once saying, "It's not a First Amendment thing, it's a Cuban thing."

How about a city wide temper tantrum when Elián Gonzalez was finally extricated, well after the court ordered his return to his father, the drunken great-uncle and his clan refused to cooperate, and insinuated that any government officials who attempted to come to rescue him was in physical danger.



After observing the years of bombings and shootings among the "exiles" in "internecine" wars, the FBI labelled Miami as the "terror capital of the United States." At the same time, Luis Posada Carriles, or one of the other terrorists bragged to newspaper reporters that when he and others have gone from Miami loaded with weapons to conduct raids on Cubans, the FBI had actually turned its head, implying they have a blank check to make their own rules and disregard the actual rules of our country regarding violence against political enemies.