Cuban-American National Foundation

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The Cuban American National Foundation (CANF) is a non-profit organization dedicated to overthrowing the Cuban government of Fidel Castro. Established in Florida in 1981 by Jorge Más Canosa, CANF is the largest Cuban organization in exile, with thousands of members in the United States and other countries. Following the death of its founder in 1997, CANF began to lose its ideological cohesion provided by Mas Canosa, which led its hard-liners to split and form the Cuban Liberty Council in 2001. CANF has since drifted a considerable amount from its traditional alliance with the Republican Party.

CANF has offices in Miami, Washington D.C., and New Jersey and chapters in Los Angeles, the greater New York area, Chicago, several cities in Florida, Puerto Rico, New Orleans, and Texas.

As the foremost Cuban exile organization in the United States, CANF has acted as the principal Cuban-American lobby in Washington, D.C. For two decades CANF has worked to create a bipartisan consensus on U.S. policy that is opposed to the current Cuban government. Between 1990 and 1992, it received a quarter million dollars from the National Endowment for Democracy, an organization financed by the US government.

Contents 1 Alleged terrorist actions by CANF operatives 2 See also 3 Endnotes 4 External links 5 Further reading

[edit] Alleged terrorist actions by CANF operatives

It has been alleged that CANF is connected to terrorist acts against Cuban businesses, government and ordinary citizens. Luis Posada Carriles admitted in a 1998 New York Times interview that he received financial backing from CANF for a 1997 bombing campaign in Cuba ^[1]. CANF has strongly denied Posada's statement. Posada, however, describes long term relationships with CANF figures in his autobiography. Declassified CIA and FBI documents allege that Posada was one of the "engineer[s]" of the 1976 terrorist bombing of Cubana Airlines flight 455 that killed 73 passengers. [2] The administration of President George W. Bush refused to extradite Posada to Venezuela, where he is wanted for this crime.

The Cuban Ministry of the Interior claimed [3] that the three September 4, 1997 bomb attacks against three hotels in Havana, which killed one person [4], were planned and controlled by CANF. CANF denied this [5]. However, a former board member of the group has stated that several of its leaders planned attacks in Cuba during the 1990s. [6]. In 1997, the CANF published a statement supporting un-conditionally all terrorist attacks against Cuba; the CANF chairman at the time stated that "We do not think of these as terrorist actions". [7]

The late founder of CANF, Jorge Más Canosa, trained with Luis Posada Carriles (Latin America's most famous terrorist) in the 1960s, and helped Posada escape from a Venezuelan jail in the 1980s. Mas Canosa's group has been linked to multiple terrorist actions against Cuba. Afrocubaweb documents some of these. See: http://www.afrocubaweb.com/canf.htm. See the links between Posada and Mas Canosa discussed at various sites, including: http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB153/ http://www.zmag.org/Sustainers/Content/2005-04/30franklin_.cfm http://www.voltairenet.org/article30425.html

[edit] See also

• Cuba-United States relations
• Opposition to Fidel Castro

[edit] Endnotes

1. ↑  "Key Cuba Foe Claims Exiles' Backing", The New York Times, July 12, 1998.

[edit] External links

• Fundacion Nacional Cubano Americano Spanish language website.
• CANF: Cuban American National Foundation English language website.
• About the Cuban American National Foundation (CANF)

Non-CANF websites

• Cuban Exile Community. Archived on Latino Studies Resources at Indiana University, Bloomington. Retrieved May 20, 2005.
• Posada Carriles, Luis. Los Caminos del Guerrero. Spanish-language autobiography. August 1994. Retrieved May 12, 2005
• The Cuban Connection: Cuban-American Money in U.S. Elections,1979-2000. Published online by Opensecrets.org: Money in politics data. Retrieved May 18, 2005.

• CANF and the Free Cuba PAC

Articles and reports

• Recent Miami Herald articles on CANF. Retrieved May 19, 2005.
• Executive director of CANF leaves to join Democrats. Associated Press, September 2, 2004. Archived on CANF website. Retrieved June 1, 2005.
• El Nuevo Diario. Posada Carriles operó aquí. Managua, Nicaragua. Marzo 26, 2001. Archived on Latino Studies Resources at Indiana University, Bloomington. Retrieved May 20, 2005.
• Cotayo, Charles and Pablo Alfonso. Un año sin Jorge Mas Canosa. El Nuevo Herald. 22 de noviembre de 1998. Archived on Latino Studies Resources at Indiana University, Bloomington. Retrieved May 20, 2005.
• Scahill, Jeremy. Cuban American National Foundation Sues the New York Times. Democracy Now!. Streaming real audio. Friday, July 17th, 1998. Retrieved May 18, 2005.
• Franklin, Jane . Connections of CANF’s treasurer to Bush and Posada. Special for Granma International. Reprinted on ZNet. Retrieved May 18, 2005.
• Franklin, Jane . The Cuba Obsession. The Progressive July 1993. Reprinted en Francais L'obsession Cubaine: Ou la Véritable Histoire de la CANF. Retrieved May 18, 2005.
• Gottleib, Sanford. Cuban American Relations. Interview with Jose Cardena, CANF, et al. America's Defense Monitor, Center for Defense Information. 1992. Retrieved May 18, 2005.
• National Security Archive GWU, Luis Posada Carriles: the Declassified Record, (CIA and FBI documents), May 10, 2005.
• National Security Archive GWU, The Posada File: Part II, (CIA documents), June 9, 2005.

[edit] Further reading

• Bardach, Ann Louise and Larry Rohter. A Bombers Tale: Taking Aim At Castro; Key Cuba Foe Claims Exiles' Backing. New York Times. Sunday, July 12, 1998. Late Edition - Final, Section 1 , Page 1 , Column 1. Abstract available online. Retrieved May 17, 2005.
• Bardach, Ann Louise and Larry Rohter. A Bomber's Tale; A Cuban Exile Details The "Horrendous Matter" Of A Bombing Campaign. New York Times. Sunday, July 12, 1998. Late Edition - Final, Section 1 , Page 10 , Column 1. Abstract available online. Retrieved May 17, 2005.
• The New York Times. Cuban Exiles Say Times Articles Are Baseless. Tuesday, July 14, 1998. Late Edition - Final, Section A , Page 7 , Column 1. Abstract available online. Retrieved May 17, 2005.
• The New York Times. Cuban Exile Says He Lied to Times About Financial Support. Tuesday, August 4, 1998. Final, Section A , Page 7 , Column 1. Abstract available online. Retrieved May 17, 2005.

Books

• Bardach, Ann Louise. Cuba Confidential: Love and Vengeance in Miami and Havana. 464 pages. Vintage, October 14, 2003. ISBN 0-385-72052-1. [Chapter 7 contains Posada interview]
• Bardach, Ann Louise. Cuba Confidencial. Spanish Edition. 544 pages. Plaza y Janes, September 28, 2004. ISBN 0-307-24289-7.