Barack Obama's Mojito Diplomacy Ignores Cuba's Ongoing Connection to Terrorist Organizations

Now that Barack Obama has summarily decided to let bygones be bygones with the Castros of Cuba, it's a good time to recall that for decades now, Cuba has given aid and shelter to the worst of the worst. They include such terrorist groups as

BPP - Black Panther Party - Founded in the United States in 1966 by Huey P.
Newton and Bobby Seale. It adopted Marxist-Leninist principles along with
urban guerrilla warfare, and a structure similar to the American Communist
party.

DGI - Directrio General de Inteligencia - The Cuban Department in charge of
collecting intelligence and carrying out covert operations outside Cuba.

DA - America Department - Centralized control over Cuban activities for
supporting national liberation movements, responsible for planning and
coordinating Cuba's secret guerrilla and terrorist camps, and propaganda
apparatus.

DLN - National Liberation Directorate - Organization created in Cuba to
support revolutionary groups throughout the world. Responsible for planning
and coordinating Cuba's terrorist training camps in the island, covert
movement of personnel and military supplies from Cuba, and propaganda
apparatus.

EGP - Ejercito Guerrillero de los Pobres - A political-military
Marxist-Leninist organization that followed Cuba and Vietnam as
revolutionary models. This Guatemalan insurgent organization was trained in
Cuba and was very active during the 1970s, seeking to depose the political
and military structure of the country.

ELF - Eritrean Liberation Front - The most influential Eritrean organization
fighting for secession from Ethiopia in the 1960s, actively supported by the
Cuban and Syrian regime since 1965. Various internal divisions developed
later on until the late 1970s, when a new front was built based on very
different domestic and external alliances and, eventually led the Eritreans
to victory. Cuba's support to Mengistu Haile Mariam's regime in 1978 meant
the cessation of previous Cuban backing to the Eritrean cause.

ELN - National Liberation Army - Organized by the Castro regime, this
Colombian Marxist insurgent group was founded in 1965. Its main terrorist
activities includes kidnapings and extortion targeting foreign employees of
large corporations.

ETA - Basque Separatist Movement - This organization was founded by
militants and leftist students from the University of Madrid in 1962. They
formed guerilla units that commit violent terrorist acts claiming that they
are fighting for freedom of the Basque Region, in Spain. This group has
close relations with the IRA. The two groups have offices in Havana and
their members have found safe haven in Cuba.

FALN - Fuerzas Armadas de Liberacion Nacional  - A Venezuelan guerrilla
organization trained by Cuba in violence and terrorism.

FARC - Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia - Established in 1964, the
FARC is the oldest and best-equipped Marxist insurgency in Colombia. It is a
well-organized terrorist group that controls several rural and urban areas.
It has received financial and military aid from Cuba and many of its members
were trained in Havana.

FATAH - Palestine National Liberation Movement - Founded in 1959 by younger
generations of Palestinians that had experienced the defeats of 1948 and
1956. The FATAH are strongly committed to a radical nationalist platform to
fight for Palestine and against Arab intervention and manipulations of the
Palestinian problem. Mostly an underground organization until the June War
in 1967 when it transformed itself into the most powerful and influential
party inside Palestinian and Arab politics.

FLN - Front de Liberation National - The political and military organization
that led the war of national liberation against French colonial rule between
1954 and 1962. Ruling political party until the 1980s in Algeria.

FMLN - Farabundo Mart  National Front - Formed in 1970, the FMLN is a
terrorist Marxist-Leninist organization intent on establishing a communist
revolutionary regime in El Salvador. The FMLN was extremely active in its
terrorist campaign, receiving assistance from Nicaragua and Cuba.

FSLN - Frente Sandinista de Liberacion Nacional - This organization was
founded in Havana in 1961 when Carlos Fonseca-Amador's Nicaraguan Patriotic
Youth organization merged with Tomas Borge's Cuban-supported insurgent
group. The group adopted Marxist-Leninist ideology and gained support from
the Castro government, employing low-level guerrilla warfare and urban
terrorism tactics to overthrow the Somoza dictatorship.

IRA - Irish Republican Army - The IRA is the most dangerous terrorist
organization of Northern Ireland dating back to the early 1920s. Although,
it wasn't until the 1970's when the IRA began terrorist actions and
resurrected the historical conflicts. The IRA targets political
transformation for United Ireland by eliminating Britain from Northern
Ireland and replacing the government of Northern Ireland with a socialist
government. Its Latin American headquarters are in Havana.

LASO - Latin American Solidarity Organization - A Cuban controlled
organization founded during the 1966 Tri-Continental Conference in Havana to
"coordinate and foment the fight against North American imperialism."

M-19 - Movimiento 19 de Abril - A Castro supported group formed in 1974 to
disrupt Colombia's government through acts of terrorism and violence. The
M-19 was very active throughout the 1980s receiving assistance and training
from the Montoneros and Tupamaros groups and the Cuban government, causing
Colombia to temporarily sever diplomatic relations with Cuba.

M-6-14 - Agrupacion Politica Catorce de Junio - Dominican guerrilla
organization trained in Cuba.

MACHETEROS - This terrorist organization is composed of four Puerto Rican
groups: 1) the Macheteros, 2) the Ejercito Popular Boracua (EPB), 3) the
Movimiento Popular Revolucionario, and 4) the Partido Revolucionario de
Trabajadores Puertorrique±os.  Most of the Macheteros have been trained in
Cuba, were they have established relations with other terrorist groups. They
are responsible for several terrorist acts within the United States and
throughout Puerto Rico.

MIR - Movimiento de la Izquierda Revolucionaria - A Chilean insurgent
organization founded in 1965 and supported by Castro. The MIR was very
active in the mid-1970s when they promoted violence and occupied several
rural areas in Chile. The group encountered several set backs during the
1980s that essentially ended their activity.

MONTONEROS - An Argentinean guerilla organization that was formed in 1968 as
a Peronist urban anti-government group. It adopted a Marxist ideology in the
mid-1970s after it united with the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de
Argentina. In 1977, many of its members were exiled and its numbers reduced
to less than 300.

MRTA - Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement - Marxist-Leninist revolutionary
organization formed in 1983 and supported by the Castro regime. The MRTA's
intent was to establish a Marxist regime in Peru through terrorism, although
Peru's counter terrorism program diminished the groups' ability to
effectively carry out terrorist attacks.

NLF - National Front for the Liberation of South Yemen - Created in 1962 in
the course of the revolution in North Yemen against the monarchy and
supported by Nasser, the NLF is another important and successful branch of
the Arab Nationalist Movement. Since 1965 it has had very close relations
with Cuba. In 1966-1967, it broke with Nasser and finally forced the British
to negotiate and evacuate Aden.

OSPAAL [OSPAAAL] - Organization for the Solidarity of the Peoples of Africa, Asia and
Latin America - Founded in 1966 in Cuba at the Tri-Continental Conference,
this organization aims to support the struggle of the people of Africa, Asia
and Latin America against imperialism, colonialism and neo-colonialism.

PLO - Palestine Liberation Organization - This organization was founded in
Cairo in 1964 under the auspices of Egypt (then known as the United Arab
Republic) to serve Nasser's manipulations of the Palestinian cause. The
group was composed mostly of conservative Palestinian intellectuals and
bureaucrats serving Arab governments. The PLO was an instrument of Nasser's
foreign policy until the June War of 1967, when the old PLO leadership
collapsed to be replaced by FATEH's leadership headed by Arafat.

POLISARIO - People's Front for the Liberation of Western Sahara and Rio del
Oro  - The Frente POLISARIO was inspired by the ANM tradition and the
Algerian FLN and was created to fight against the
Spanish-Morrocan-Mauritinian arrangements to split the former colony of
Sagu a el Hamra/Rio del Oro (known as Western Sahara) between the two
African states. This group enjoyed active support from Algeria and Libya and
Cuba.

POPULAR FRONT FOR THE LIBERATION OF PALESTINES - The most important branch
of the Arab Nationalist Movement (ANM), created in the 1950s as radical
followers of Nasser. After the June War of 1967, the group disassociated
itself from Nasser and focused on building a more radical alternative within
the Palestinians under the name of Popular Front. The group has strong
alliances within Lebanon, Jordan, Yemen, and the Gulf, and was heavily
engaged in terrorist activities during the 1970s.

TRICONTINENTAL - Cuban publication disseminated by the Organization for the
Solidarity of the Peoples of Africa, Asia and Latin America (OSPAAL) [OSPAAAL] in four
languages: Spanish, English, French, and Italian / promoting the Castro line
of armed struggle.

TUPAMAROS or MNL - Movimiento Nacional de Liberacion Tupamaros -  This
Uruguay insurgent group was organized in the early 1960s by law student Raul
Sendic. The Tupamaros were one of the first terrorist groups to use
guerrilla warfare in urban areas and established independent terrorist cells
throughout the country.

WORLD MATHABA - A Libyan project from the late 1970s to promote political,
financial, and military support for revolutionary movements throughout the
world. Ghaddafi called on other "revolutionary governments" to support this
project, which Cuba did.  MATHABA was essentially a tool in the hands of the
Libyans to project their individual goals and agenda. Financial and military
assistance was never a collective decision, but responded for the most part
to bilateral arrangements between Ghaddafi's regime and individual
organizations, some of which resorted, at different stages, to terrorist
methods like the IRA and ETA. Insurgencies in Central America, like the
Sandinistas and others, were privileged beneficiaries along with the African
National Congress, Frente POLISARIO, and others.

So has Cuba suddenly turned over a new leaf? Doubtful. But why would that stop Barack Obama, friend of ex-Weatherman Bill Ayers and someone who's sympathetic to the Palestinian cause, from establishing a relationship with these terrorism-abettors?