The Harrowing Escape from a Venezuelan Prison

Iván Simonovis, the oldest political prisoner of the Chavista regime, published a message in freedom after receiving a pardon from Juan Guaidó

Simonovis’ escape follows the surprise April 30 release of former mayor Leopoldo Lopez, who was under house arrest until agents of the Sebin intelligence service helped him escape amid a failed uprising against President Nicolas Maduro.

WASHINGTON (AP) — As the last rays of sunlight faded into the Caribbean Sea, political fugitive Iván Simonovis was speeding toward an island rendezvous with freedom.

Three weeks earlier he had fled house arrest in the Venezuelan capital, rappelling down a 75-foot (25-meter) wall in the dead of night, then took a bolt cutter to his ankle monitor. Since then he had been furtively moving between safe houses to stay one step ahead of Nicolas Maduro’s security forces.

It was a meticulous plan befitting his reputation as Venezuela’s most famous SWAT cop.

But then, with freedom almost in sight, Venezuela’s crisis dealt one final blow: The motor on his fishing boat conked out, choking on water and sediment clogging its gas tank, a growing problem in the once-wealthy OPEC nation as its crude supply dwindles and its refineries fall into disrepair.

“Nobody would’ve guessed that in Venezuela a motor would fail because of the gasoline,” the 59-year-old Simonovis told The Associated Press in his first comments since resurfacing Monday in Washington after five weeks on the run.

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That Simonovis can laugh about his ordeal is as much a testament to his jailers’ incompetence as his own bravery. To date, there’s been no official reaction to his escape last month after 15 years’ detention — a possible sign that Maduro is too embarrassed to acknowledge his lack of control over his own security forces, some of whom helped Simonovis gain freedom.

“They are active members of the Maduro government, but quietly they work for the government of Juan Guaidó,” Simonovis said, referring to the opposition leader recognized as Venezuela’s president by the U.S. and more than 50 other nations.

In 2004, the former Caracas public safety director was imprisoned on what he insists were bogus charges of ordering police to open deadly fire on pro-government demonstrators who rushed to Hugo Chávez’s defense during a short-lived coup. Nineteen people were killed in a gunfight that broke out on a downtown overpass.

Simonovis’ nearly decade-long confinement in a windowless 6-foot-by-6-foot (2-by-2-meter) prison cell after a trial marred by irregularities became a rallying cry for the opposition, which viewed him as a scapegoat. His arrest order was signed by Judge Maikel Moreno, who as a lawyer had defended one of the pro-Chávez gunmen involved in the 2004 gunfight and who now heads the Supreme Court.

Similarly, Simonovis became a trophy for Chávez, who accused him of crimes against humanity — for which he was never charged — and erected a memorial on the overpass to those who died “defending the Bolivarian constitution.”

Simonovis and the other police defendants — five of whom remain jailed — were given 30-year sentences, the maximum allowed by Venezuelan law, for complicity to murder.

Prosecutors were especially severe because of Simonovis’ ties to U.S. law enforcement and reputation for being incorruptible. He was catapulted to fame in 1998 by ending a seven-hour televised hostage standoff with a sniper’s bullet. Then as safety director, he brought former New York City Police Commissioner William Bratton to Caracas to help clean up the capital’s graft-ridden police force and tackle exploding crime.

In the decade that followed his imprisonment, Simonovis and the opposition tried myriad ways to win his freedom: a hunger strike, appealing for a presidential pardon and even attempting a run for congress so he could receive parliamentary immunity.

In 2014, he was granted house arrest so he could seek medical treatment for 19 chronic illnesses, some of them exacerbated by the fact that he was allowed only 10 minutes of sunlight a day.

In the wake of a failed April 30 military revolt called by Guaidó, Simonovis was tipped off that he could soon be put back behind bars. The security detail stationed permanently outside his home on a leafy street was increased from eight to 12 heavily armed agents after Maduro named a hard-line loyalist to head the SEBIN intelligence police after the former head fled the country during the uprising.

“The one thing I knew is that I was never going back to prison,” Simonovis said. “So, I took the decision to leave my home and my homeland.”

Plotting the escape took weeks, with one clear finish line — the U.S.

Leopoldo Lopez — Venezuela’s most-prominent political prisoner until he bolted house arrest himself during the short-lived military uprising and sought haven inside the Spanish ambassador’s residence— worked his extensive political contacts to secure the support of the U.S. and two other foreign governments.

Among the tasks was getting permission to enter the U.S. since Simonovis’ only identity document had expired a decade earlier.

He disappeared from his home in the dead of night on May 16. Inside a small bag he carried a flashlight, a pocketknife, a copy of his judicial sentence and a biography of American astronaut Neil Armstrong.

“You can’t sleep when you know the government is looking for you,” he said.

Descending into a dark alley, he miscalculated and crashed loudly into an adjacent wall. But he quickly recovered and within 90 seconds was in the first of three cars that would drive him to an abandoned house.

“I approached this like a police raid, where every second is vital,” said Simonovis, who spent the nights prior to his escape unscrewing the fence behind his house and practicing his descent on a staircase, anchoring knots he hadn’t used since special forces training. “The speed with which you move is what guarantees your success, so you need to move quickly.”

Once free, Simonovis called his wife, Bony Pertnez, who he had kept in the dark about his plans. She was visiting their children in Germany, which in the days that followed gave rise to rumors that he had fled there too — speculation he sought to foment.

As he was hunkered inside the abandoned home and then a foreign embassy — at one point watching the movie “Argo,” a political thriller mirroring his own escape — he instructed his wife to post family photos and videos on social media to mislead the security forces hunting for him into believing he had already fled the country.

Guaidó, who issued a pardon that Simonovis used to justify his flight, added to the intrigue. “He should have been freed many years ago, a long time ago. But today he is free,” the opposition leader said on the day of his escape.

During the tense drive to the fishing boat launch point, several national guard checkpoints had to be negotiated, so Simonovis traveled in a beat-up Toyota wedged between two other cars in case he had to make a run for it.

In the end, they arrived at a remote area of Venezuela’s coastline with few hiccups. Then what was supposed to be a short sea crossing to a nearby island turned into a 14-hour ordeal when the boat’s motor failed.

For fear of exposing the more than 30 people who helped him escape and who remain at risk, Simonovis declined to identify the island or say how, or exactly when, he got there after the boat started to drift. Earlier this month, one of his lawyers was arrested after speaking to journalists outside Simonovis’ home and remains jailed in the same Caracas prison where Simonovis was held alongside dozens of opposition activists.

The next day, a chartered jet picked him up. Flying over the Bahamas into U.S. airspace, the pilot handed over the controls to Simonovis, an accomplished pilot himself.

“I landed my own freedom” he said, recalling how he had also been carried away on a plane 15 years earlier, following his arrest. “But this time I was in control of my own destiny.”

Now, as he reclaims his life, he wants to strike back, using his law enforcement background to assist U.S. authorities investigating corruption, drug trafficking and alleged links to terrorist groups by Venezuelan officials. He’s also looking to help Guaidó develop a blueprint for improving urban security should he take power. In Washington, he plans to meet with several U.S. lawmakers to push for more action against Maduro.

He recalls the time lost with a mix of sadness and gratitude whenever he steps out to buy a coffee — a simple task long denied him.

“When you’re a prisoner… you depend on someone else for everything — for eating, getting dressed, for medicine” he said. “I was paying for something the other day and I couldn’t understand the person who was talking to me, not because of the English but because I was so concentrated on what was happening.”

“Right now, I’m overwhelmed by my freedom. But it feels good. It’s the natural condition of man.”

Meanwhile, he hopes his journey will inspire other Venezuelans to persevere and rise up against Maduro.

“There comes a moment when you have to risk it all,” Simonovis said, soaking up the summer breeze under the shadow of the Washington monument.

“When I left my home, there were two possible outcomes: Either I lose everything or I win my freedom,” he said. “But if I had stayed put, I would’ve simply sunk every day deeper into a sea of despair.”

Odebrecht Files for Bankruptcy Protection

When a huge global construction conglomerate like Odebrecht ends up in a John Podesta email released by Wikileaks, one should take some notice, right?

Odebrecht, the Brazilian company that is synonymous with corruption, decided to file for bankruptcy protection on Monday after years of graft scandals and trials involving top Latin American businessmen and politicians. Founded in 1944 as a construction company, Odebrecht expanded into the chemical and energy industries to become one of Brazil’s largest conglomerates. It counts among its building achievements the Miami International Airport, the Lisbon metro, and Brazil’s Transnordestina railway. At one point, its global success was seen to have symbolized Brazil’s economic boom.

In part published in 2017:

Odebrecht has confessed to paying $98 million in bribes to the governments of Venezuela’s Hugo Chávez and of his successor Nicolás Maduro over the last decade. If the allegations are true, Venezuela has received the most bribes from the construction group outside of Brazil. Next on the list is Panama with $59 million for which 17 executives and former officials have been charged while President Juan Carlos Varela has been accused. Varela, who had been advocating for proposed charges to be filed, became implicated in February by one of the partners of Mossack Fonseca —the law firm at the center of last year’s Panama Papers scandal —who said Varela admitted to him he accepted bribes from Odebrecht, accusations Varela has denied. Peruvian authorities, similarly to Varela, had been taking aggressive measures to fight Odebrecht-related corruption involving $30.4 million in bribes until their own names became implicated. Toledo, as well as former President Alan García, are being investigated by Operation Car Wash while a third former president, Ollanta Humala, has been implicated by Marcelo Odebrecht himself, but he has not been named in the investigations.

Notable projects in the U.S. include:

The first Brazilian company to complete a public project in the country, Odebrecht celebrates 20 years of operations in the United States in 2010. The construction company has completed 55 projects throughout its history and is currently present in Florida and Louisiana. In the country, Odebrecht has also been in California, North Carolina and South Carolina.
Odebrecht arrived to U.S. soil after it won the public bid to build a stretch of the Metromover, Miami’s above-ground subway. Soon after, in 1992, Odebrecht was responsible for building Route 56, a highway in the region of San Diego, California.
After these projects, the rhythm of the work continued to be intense. The following year, after winning the bid to work on the Santa Ana River chute, the company earned an important contract: The Seven Oaks Dam project in California, in the amount of US$ 168 million, with a construction period of 52 months. During this same year, 1993, the Company was responsible for the construction work on the Merrill Barber Bridge and the Golden Glades viaduct, which extends 2,464 meters to serve those who use the I-95 system, the federal highway that goes from Southern Florida to Canada. As a result of these experiences, Odebrecht was chosen to erect Garcon Point Bridge in Santa Rosa Bay, at the border between Florida and Alabama.
In the building construction area, Odebrecht was responsible for the American Airlines Arena, a sports and cultural complex in Miami, where it competed for the contract with major U.S. companies. It also built the Fortune House building, an apart hotel with 29 floors, the Ocean Steps building, with 15 residential floors, and the Ritz Carlton Key Biscayne Resort & Spa, a residential hotel project.
One of the company’s main clients is Miami-Dade County – with projects in the sector of aviation and mass transportation. The partnership has existed since 1993, when the construction company was responsible for building the American Airlines cargo building. Currently, Odebrecht is responsible for expanding the North Terminals of the Miami International Airport, building the lightweight vehicle that will run on the tracks (Mia Mover) and extending the subway (Airport Link).
The North Terminal Development Program, which involves investments of US$ 2.85 billion, is the center of a bigger venture, worth US$ 6.2 billion, called the “Capital Improvement Program.” Undertaken by Miami-Dade County, it was developed with aims of expanding and improving the aviation system. The complete project includes 52 new gates, four train stations, new installations for the United States Immigration and Citizenship Services, 123 counters, 119 self-service kiosks, 72 federal inspection service posts and a new luggage system. In September, the Sky Train operation began running, connecting the ends of the four main areas of the North Terminal in under five minutes. It is estimated that the program will be completed in 2011, while the construction work for the South Terminal began in 2001 and was completed in 2007. The project included Concourse J, a lobby with 15 departure gates for national and international flights, Concourse H, which already existed and was modernized, as well as a patio that surrounds the area of these buildings.
Also at the Miami International Airport, Odebrecht is heading the construction of the MIA Mover, an automatic vehicle that runs on tracks and will connect the Miami International Airport (MIA) to the Miami Intermodal Center (MIC), a terminal that connects different transportation services. The development, the result of a US$ 256 million investment, will be completed in September 2011.
Another project underway is the construction of the Airport Link, which will connect MIC at the airport to the Earlington Heights subway station. With an investment of US$ 360 million, the project extends nearly four kilometers, with the construction of three subway substations, a bus stop and highway access points.
Odebrecht was also at the Orlando Airport, working on the North Transversal taxi strip and South Terminal Complex. The project also involved the construction of access ramps and new viaducts.
In New Orleans since 2006, Odebrecht won two new contracts in 2010 in the city. In August, it signed a contract with the US Army Corps of Engineers to undertake preventive construction work for floods. In May, the company began constructing four water pumping stations, with aims of preventing floods caused by hurricanes. Recently, the company also delivered projects at Cataouatche Lake and in the region of Chalmette, work designed to reconstruct and fortify containment dikes. The construction works are part of the Hurricane Storm Damage Risk Reduction System (HSDRRS), which consists of 250 different projects and involves total investments of US$ 15 billion.

Main Completed Projects
South Terminal of the Miami International Airport – Miami, Florida
Containment Dike at Lake Cataouatche – New Orleans, Louisiana
Containment Dike at Chalmette Loop – New Orleans, Louisiana
American Airlines Arena – Miami, Florida
Expansion of the FIU Football Stadium
Expansion of the Northeast Terminal of the Orlando International Airport – Miami, Florida
Seven Oaks Dam – San Bernardino, California
Carnival Center for the Performing Arts – Miami, Florida
Miami International Airport Dolphin Garage Building – Miami, Florida
M-DWASD Head Office – Coral Gables, Florida
South Road System Extension – Miami International Airport – Miami, Florida
Miami International Airport North Terminal Extension – Miami, Florida
Fine Air Hangar at the Miami International Airport – Miami, Florida
Metromover – Miami, Florida
Western “U” Apron at the Miami International Airport – Miami, Florida
Fort Lauderdale International Airport Yard – Fort Lauderdale, Florida
Merrill Barber Bridge – Vero Beach, Florida
Santa Rosa Bridge – Santa Rosa County, Florida
Ritz-Carlton Key Biscayne Resort & Spa – Miami, Florida
Route 56 – San Diego, California
Miami International Airport Lobby “A” – Miami, Florida
American Airlines Terminal – Miami, Florida
Federal Express Terminal – Miami, Florida
Challenge Air Cargo Terminal – Miami, Florida
Miami International Airport Western “U” Cargo Terminal – Miami, Florida
Miami International Airport Control Tower – Miami, Florida
Golden Glades Viaduct – Miami, Florida

Odebrecht Organization
Founded in Bahia in 1944, Odebrecht Engenharia & Construção is currently the largest company in the sector in Latin America. With earnings of over R$ 18.7 billion in 2009, 70% of its revenues originate from projects abroad. It is present on the three Americas, Africa, Europe and the Middle East, and employs some 87,000 people.
The company, which has already completed nearly 2,000 projects in 35 different countries, provides integrated services in the areas of engineering, supply, construction, assembly and management of projects in the civil construction, industrial and special technology areas. Odebrecht Engineering & Construction includes six companies, consolidated in 2010, based on the business or geographic area of operations: Odebrecht Energia, Odebrecht Industrial, Odebrecht Infraestrutura, Odebrecht Latin America and Angola, Odebrecht Venezuela and Odebrecht International.
In 2009, Odebrecht finished building the Doraleh container terminal in Djibuti, and started the construction work to rebuild over 240 km of railroad for Arcelor Mittal in Liberia. Among its current projects, worthy of note are the Tripoli Airport (Libya) and the construction of an ethanol plant in Ghana.

The Bribery Schemes

According to its admissions, Odebrecht engaged in a massive and unparalleled bribery and bid-rigging scheme for more than a decade, beginning as early as 2001. During that time, Odebrecht paid approximately $788 million in bribes to government officials, their representatives and political parties in a number of countries in order to win business in those countries. The criminal conduct was directed by the highest levels of the company, with the bribes paid through a complex network of shell companies, off-book transactions and off-shore bank accounts.

As part of the scheme, Odebrecht and its co-conspirators created and funded an elaborate, secret financial structure within the company that operated to account for and disburse bribe payments to foreign government officials and political parties. By 2006, the development and operation of this secret financial structure had evolved such that Odebrecht established the “Division of Structured Operations,” which effectively functioned as a stand-alone bribe department within Odebrecht and its related entities. Until approximately 2009, the head of the Division of Structured Operations reported to the highest levels within Odebrecht, including to obtain authorization to approve bribe payments. After 2009, this responsibility was delegated to certain company business leaders in Brazil and the other jurisdictions. To conceal its activities, the Division of Structured Operations utilized an entirely separate and off-book communications system, which allowed members of the Division of Structured Operations to communicate with one another and with outside financial operators and other co-conspirators about the bribes via secure emails and instant messages, using codenames and passwords.

The Division of Structured Operations managed the “shadow” budget for the Odebrecht bribery operation via a separate computer system that was used to request and process bribe payments as well as to generate and populate spreadsheets that tracked and internally accounted for the shadow budget. These funds for the company’s sophisticated bribery operation were generated by the Odebrecht Finance Department through a variety of methods, as well as by certain Odebrecht subsidiaries, including Braskem. The funds were then funneled by the Division of Structured Operations to a series of off-shore entities that were not included on Odebrecht’s balance sheet as related entities. The Division of Structured Operations then directed the disbursement of the funds from the off-shore entities to the bribe recipient, through the use of wire transfers through one or more of the off-shore entities, as well as through cash payments both inside and outside Brazil, which were sometimes delivered using packages or suitcases left at predetermined locations.

Odebrecht, its employees and agents took a number of steps while in the United States to further the scheme. For instance, in 2014 and 2015, while located in Miami, two Odebrecht employees engaged in conduct related to certain projects in furtherance of the scheme, including meetings with other co-conspirators to plan actions to be taken in connection with the Division of Structured Operations, the movement of criminal proceeds and other criminal conduct. In addition, some of the off-shore entities used by the Division of Structured Operations to hold and disburse unrecorded funds were established, owned and/or operated by individuals located in the United States. In all, this conduct resulted in corrupt payments and/or profits totaling approximately $3.336 billion.

Braskem also admitted to engaging in a wide-ranging bribery scheme and acknowledged the pervasiveness of its conduct. Between 2006 and 2014, Braskem paid approximately $250 million into Odebrecht’s secret, off-book bribe payment system. Using the Odebrecht system, Braskem authorized the payment of bribes to politicians and political parties in Brazil, as well as to an official at Petróleo Brasileiro S.A. – Petrobras (Petrobras), the state-controlled oil company of Brazil. In exchange, Braskem received various benefits, including: preferential rates from Petrobras for the purchase of raw materials used by the company; contracts with Petrobras; and favorable legislation and government programs that reduced the company’s tax liabilities in Brazil. This conduct resulted in corrupt payments and/or profits totaling approximately $465 million.

$37 Million for Migrant Detention Facilities is NOT Enough

Click this link to see the video of the new detention facilities.

Now after watching that video we see how the Border Patrol cant do their real job and the need for the military supplementing surveillance and security.

The Trump administration wants to open two new tent facilities to temporarily detain up to 1,000 parents and children near the southern border, as advocates sharply criticize the conditions inside the tents already used to hold migrants.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection said in a notice to potential contractors that it wants to house 500 people in each camp in El Paso, Texas, and in the South Texas city of Donna, which has a border crossing with Mexico.

Each facility would consist of one large tent that could be divided into sections by gender and between families and children traveling alone, according to the notice. Detainees would sleep on mats. There would also be laundry facilities, showers, and an “additional fenced-in area” for “outside exercise/recreation.”

The notice says the facilities could open in the next two weeks and operate through year end, with a cost that could reach $37 million.

But the agency has said its resources are strained by the sharp rise in the numbers of parents and children crossing the border and requesting asylum. It made 53,000 apprehensions in March of parents and children traveling together, most of whom say they are fleeing violence and poverty in Central America. Many ultimately request asylum under U.S. and international law.

FILE - Immigrant children are led by staff in single file between tents at a detention facility next to the Mexican border in Tornillo, Texas, June 18, 2018. Immigrant children are led by staff in single file between tents at a detention facility next to the Mexican border in Tornillo, Texas, June 18, 2018.

In a statement Tuesday, CBP said it urgently needed additional space for detention and processing.

“CBP is committed to finding solutions that address the current border security and humanitarian crisis at the southwest border in a way that safeguards those in our custody in a humane and dignified manner,” the statement said.

The Border Patrol has started directly releasing parents and children instead of referring them to immigration authorities for potential long-term detention, but families still sometimes wait several days to be processed by the agency and released.

Land near the bridge in Donna was used last year as a camp by active-duty soldiers when they were ordered to South Texas’ Rio Grande Valley.

The Border Patrol also established a tent facility at Donna to hold migrants in December 2016, in the last weeks of the administration of former President Barack Obama, in response to a previous surge of migrants from Central America.

Sister Norma Pimentel, executive director of Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley, said she had been allowed to visit the tent facility in 2016. She said that facility had been “open and clean,” but noted she visited before it began detaining people.

“Detention is never a good idea for any family,” Pimentel said. “I believe families are victims of a lot of abuse, and we just add to that abuse by the way we respond to handle and process them.”

#Occupy Venezuelan Embassy in Washington DC

Enter Madea Benjamin, only to refuse to leave. #OccupyVenezuela or something like that. And…the ANSWER Coalition is there too.

The Embassy building, located in Georgetown, is owned by the Venezuelan government and is a protected international compound by the Vienna Conventions. Progressive activists have been working and living inside the Embassy as invited guests for weeks.

The Embassy Protection Collective was initiated by CODEPINK and Popular Resistance, and the ANSWER Coalition has been mobilizing support for this effort in Washington and around the country. Many ANSWER volunteers and organizers are inside the Embassy.

Image result for answer coalition venezuela

“The people inside this Embassy are here at the invitation of its lawful owner, the Government of Venezuela,” said ANSWER’s National Director Brian Becker. “The Trump administration is acting as the world’s number one international pirate as it seizes Venezuelan assets, properties and diplomatic compounds. In pure colonial fashion, U.S. and European entities have grabbed hold of Venezuela’s oil revenue, gold reserves and bank accounts — while openly championing the Monroe Doctrine. We are joining with the people of the world to declare that the days of the Monroe Doctrine are over.”

Becker continued, “Any action to evict the Embassy’s current tenant guests by the MPD, Secret Service or other police agencies would be an illegal and unlawful arrest under both D.C. and international law. What we are doing here in this Embassy is not an act of civil disobedience. International law and D.C. law are on our side. The violator of these laws — the criminal in this case — is none other than the Trump White House and the U.S. State Department.”

A letter was sent last night from the Embassy Protection Collective, with the assistance of lawyer Mara Verheyden-Hilliard of the Partnership for Civil Justice Fund, to the U.S. State Department:

Members of the Embassy Protection Collective are writing to make it expressly clear and ensure all personnel are put on notice that any arrest of persons inside the embassy would constitute an unlawful arrest. We understand from our communications with your office that you are threatening to arrest persons inside the Venezuelan embassy.

Not only are we here at the invitation of persons lawfully in charge of the premises but we are also here as people with lawful rights under Washington, DC tenancy law.

It is our intention to hold responsible any person who orders or effectuates any unlawful actions against us.

We have received no eviction notice and due process opportunity to challenge any attempted eviction as is required by law.

No water or electricity.

Pepco, with protection from the Secret Service, cut electricity and water to the building,” says Ariel Gold, the national co-director of the antiwar activist organization Code Pink. “All of the utility bills have always been paid in full by the government of Venezuela.”

Carlos Vecchio, the Venezuelan ambassador to the U.S. appointed by the opposition government, took responsibility on Twitter for the power outage. Activists have prevented him from entering the embassy.

For the last month Code Pink activists have been occupying the Venezuelan embassy in Washington D.C. Not in protest but in support of the government led by socialist dictator Maduro.

With no electricity, activists who have been living inside the building are adjusting to the latest obstacle in their month-long occupation of the embassy.

Getting food inside has been one of the biggest challenges for the past 10 days, with anti-Maduro protesters and Secret Service barricades blocking most of the doors. Then Thursday, activists announced they would be cutting back on their primary source of communication with the outside world: social media. With no power to charge their devices, there will be less tweeting and fewer video streams…

About two weeks into Code Pink’s residency, Venezuelan and Venezuelan American protesters began to gather outside. They have not left since.

Note, the ones occupying the embassy are (liberal, duh) Americans from groups like Code Pink, Answer Coalition, Popular Resistance and Black Alliance for Peace, while most of the pro-opposition protesters are actual, real-life Venezuelans. Who are the nasty American imperialists now, Code Pink?

And of course Max Blumenthal is in the mix too –>

Title lll vs. Cuba for Cuban Exiles, About Time

There is a provision of the Cuban trade embargo that no U.S. president has ever used. President Trump has decided to be the first, according to White House officials. But it’s far from clear if it will do much to dislodge the island’s communist government.

It’s called Title III. It allows Americans – in this case mostly Cuban-Americans – to use U.S. federal courts to sue foreign companies that do business in Cuba on property taken from them by the Castro revolution.

Conservative Cuban exiles insist President Trump’s activation of Title III (part of the 1996 Helms-Burton Act that tightened the U.S. trade embargo against Cuba) will have a chilling effect on foreign investment in Cuba – particularly for European and Canadian companies. That, they insist, will undermine the island’s economically failing regime.

“I do think it will be a turning point,” says Cuban-American attorney Marcell Felipe, who heads the Inspire America Foundation, a pro-democracy NGO in Miami. “For too long the Spanish and Canadian governments and their business interests have promoted respect for human rights everywhere in the world while they support a regime that imprisons anyone who dissents.”

But critics of Trump’s Title III move says it’s primarily another political bone tossed to his Cuban exile supporters – who he believes won Florida for him in the 2016 election.

Cuban-American attorney Pedro Freyre, who heads international practice at the Akerman law firm in Miami and represents firms that may face Title III lawsuits, warns it will be hard to collect money from those suits. Countries like Spain and Canada already have laws in place to block Cuban embargo-related litigation, and he points out that no U.S. president ever triggered the provision before for fear it could lead to retaliation against U.S. business interests around the world.

Freyre also believes it will probably take much more to topple Cuba’s repressive government.

“After watching the Cuban regime navigate 60 years of sanctions and having a rotten economy and a bad political system,” says Freyre, “it’s clear it’s particularly adept at survival. So I am skeptical that this will accomplish that.”

National Security Advisor John Bolton is expected to formally announce the Title III decision when he visits Miami on Wednesday. Sources close to the Trump administration tell WLRN the Title III decree may also include tightening U.S. government officials’ interaction with Cuban officials on the island – and possibly a dramatic scaling back of the amount of remittances Cuban-Americans can send to Cuba and the trips they can take there each year.

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US National Security Adviser John Bolton is set to outline President Donald Trump’s plan to fully implement Title III of the Helms-Burton Act, a previously suspended section of the US trade embargo on the Communist-run country during a speech in Miami, the official said.
It is a move that is widely considered to be part of the administration’s efforts to ramp up pressure on Havana over its support for Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro — who Trump criticized as a “Cuban puppet” in February. Cuban officials have decried the increased sanctions on the communist-run island and offered to enter into negotiations to repay US companies for seized property.
During a speech in Miami last year, Bolton promised the crowd a tough US approach to the “troika of tyranny,” his term for Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua, saying they represented “the perils of poisonous ideologies left unchecked.”