From June 16 to June 23, the National Committee to Free the Cuban Five and the ANSWER Coalition hosted a five-city speaking tour featuring Andres Gómez across California. Gómez is a leader of the progressive Cuban community in Miami, a city where right-wing terrorist organizations openly plot against Cuba and its allies.
Gómez was born in Cuba in 1947 to wealthy parents. He and his family were among 130,000 Cubans to leave the island for the United States by 1962. Ninety percent of those, he said, were from the ruling class. They expected the United States to invade the island, crush the revolution, and restore the privileges of the old class. When they tried this in 1961, however, forces led by Fidel Castro defeated them. Ever since, the U.S government has imposed a severe blockade against the island and sponsored terrorism through CIA operations and right-wing paramilitary groups based in Miami.
Although raised in a right-wing community, Gómez became involved in leftist struggles in his early 20s. He began to question the anti-Castro rhetoric on which he had been raised, and over time embraced the revolution’s ideals. In the 1970s, paramilitary Cuban organizations targeted not only Cuba, but progressive Cubans in Miami. Dozens of bombings took place in the mid-1970s against progressive organizations, travel agencies, diplomatic offices and media outlets.
Fighting in the belly of the beast
Despite the terror in Miami, Gómez helped found the Antonio Maceo Brigade (BAM) in 1977. They became the first members of the Cuban diaspora to return to Cuba. The right-wing media in Miami, Gómez said, knows and understands nothing about Cuba, and translates its ignorance to the world. The Brigade attempts to educate people on the real nature of the island’s socialist achievement.
For more than 11 years, the Antonio Maceo Brigade has been involved in the struggle to free the Cuban Five, who were arrested for infiltrating counterrevolutionary terrorist groups in Miami. For instance, on April 28, Airline Brokers, a travel agency that books charter flights to Cuba, was fire-bombed. The company had been booking flights for Catholics to visit Cuba during the visit of the Pope. Gómez ridiculed the idea that the FBI was ignorant of the identity of the bombers, pointing out that they were far more serious about capturing those who try to stop terrorism in Miami than those who perpetrate it.
But Gómez also expressed optimism that the culture of South Florida is changing. While many Cubans still immigrate to Florida, it is no longer primarily for political reasons. This new generation of immigrants want normal relations with the Cuban government, opposing the travel restrictions and the U.S. blockade. Gómez noted that it was progressive Cubans in the United States who had contributed the most money to the effort to free the Cuban Five.
