Cuban American National Foundation
The Cuban American National Foundation ( CANF, the Cuban- American National Foundation ) is an organization of Cuban exiles in the United States with the aim of creating a liberal democracy in place of the built Fidel Castro's dictatorship in Cuba. She was especially true in the 1980s and 1990s, during the tenure of its chairman Jorge Mas Canosa, as an influential in the U.S. policy advocacy.
History
The Cuban-American National Foundation, based in Miami was founded in 1981 by 15 Cuban exile businessmen. The company was established in consultation with leading government officials of President Ronald Reagan, who shared the political positions of the group. A model for the organization was in Washington most influential American Israel Public Affairs Committee ( AIPAC ). The CANF financed by tax-exempt membership fees, which are staggered according to income. The number of members reached 250,000 in the 1990s. To implement certain projects, the CANF was also supported by State resources. Jose Sorzano - 1985-1987 President of the Foundation - and also closely associated with the Foundation Otto Reich were involved during the presidencies of Reagan and both under George HW Bush and George W. Bush in key positions at the Latin American policy of the government.
Although the influence of the foundation was stressed to the U.S. Cuba policy in the 1980s and 1990s both by commentators in the United States as well as by the Cuban government - for which especially the tightening of the embargo is pointed in 1992 and 1996 - there were also agreements between the U.S. and Cuba, which could not prevent himself fierce resistance of the CANF - about the conclusion of peace in Africa, bilateral migration agreements (1984 and 1995) and the return of any refugee child Elián González.
2001 there was a spin-off of important leadership members who founded as an alternative to CANF the "Cuban Liberty Council" ( Cuban Freedom Council, CLC), which occurs in contrast to the CANF for a more confrontational policy towards the Cuban government and a tightening of the embargo. While the CLC was the favorite of the George W. Bush administration organization for addressing the kubanoamerikanischen community, a larger government near the CANF is recorded under Barack Obama again. In many cases, the cleavage was also seen as an expression of different political positions of the original Cuban exiles and the US-born second generation. The changes included a shift of the main interest of the Foundation on the promotion of civil society in Cuba and their activists on the island instead of the priorities and opinions of the Cuban exile.
Current president of CANF is Francisco José "Pepe" Hernández, Jorge Mas Santos during Trustees Chairman ( "Chairman " ) functions.
Activities
Between 1983 and 1988, the Foundation received government funding through the National Endowment for Democracy in the amount of 390,000 U.S. dollars for the purpose of public information on human rights violations by the Cuban regime.
One element of political lobbying were campaign contributions, candidates of both major parties flowed in the wedding CANF, both within the State of Florida as at the federal level. The establishment of ad hoc "Free Cuba PAC" donated a total of 221,000 U.S. dollars in campaign 1994. As the fundraising organization in 2004 was active, it was only a tenth of the amount.
A special authorization of the Reagan administration of the Foundation in the ongoing 1989 project " Exodus" were given extensive powers for the settlement of family reunification. These related to the end of the project mid-1990s, approximately 10,000 living relatives abroad by Cubans who had come in 1980 as part of the Mariel boat crisis in the United States.
In 1991, the Foundation launched its ajar on the model of the Peace Corps project " Misión Martí ", which consisted of six-month courses in which young Kubanoamerikaner to a potential application to build a new community in Cuba after the expected end of communist one-party rule should be prepared. In addition, the CANF convened a special commission to the economic reconstruction of Cuba, which should also be available in the event of a fall of the Castro government.
The CANF is the Foundation for Human Rights in Cuba ( " Foundation for Human Rights in Cuba" ) attached, projecting the CANF board member Tony Costa and the donations and USAID funding in direct support of dissidents and representatives of civil society used in Cuba. For the period September 2011 to September 2014 the Foundation was founded in 1992 USAID funding in the amount of 3.4 million dollars was awarded. At ten universities in the U.S., the CANF is represented by the student organization University Council of the Cuban American National Foundation ( CANF UC ), which include organizing information sessions at universities as well as support for the opposition in Cuba.
Positions
One of the first political projects of the Foundation, the demand for establishment of a publicly funded radio station belonged to supply the Cuban population with non-filtered by their own government information. This was realized in 1985 with the launch of Radio Martí, the 1991 additionally followed TV Martí. Mas Canosa was appointed by Reagan in 1984 as Chairman of the " Advisory Board for Cuba Broadcasting ", the Advisory Board of the control authority of the sender, and retained this position under the following Presidents George Bush and Bill Clinton until his death in 1997.
After the end of the Cold War with the dissolution of the Soviet Union and its communist -dominated sphere of the CANF played a leading role on the reformulation of U.S. Cuba policy. The most important elements were the still relevant today in laws to tighten the embargo, the Cuban Democracy Act ( Torricelli Act ) of 1992 and the Cuban Liberty and Democratic Solidarity Act ( Helms- Burton Act ) of 1996.
Jorge Mas Santos, the eldest son of the founder, took over the management of the CANF after the death of his father. Under his leadership, the organization took a gradual change of direction towards more moderate positions in the policy towards the Cuban regime. A prominent Jointly this change of course is also born in the U.S. Kubanoamerikaner Joe Garcia, the CANF from 2000 to 2004 served as managing director after the organization had always been close to the Republican Party under Mas Canosa. Garcia left the CANF first to switch to the campaign team of U.S. Democratic presidential candidates, John Kerry, and was elected in November 2012 at the second attempt even to MPs in the House of Representatives.
Currently, the CANF is in Washington for maintaining a the loosened by President Obama and conditions for travel and remittances to Cuba for Cubans living in the USA. At the same time, the Foundation supports civil society actors of the opposition and their relatives in Cuba materially and politically. Thus accompanied, for example, Mas Santos in October 2013, the spokeswoman for the human rights organization Damas de Blanco, Berta Soler, during her visit to the White House for talks with Vice President Joe Biden.
Controversies
After the death of Mas' 1997, there was a critical discussion about the financial structures of the Foundation and the transparency of the use of membership fees and other revenues, which were triggered by investigations of the federal tax authority. As a result, there was an organizational restructuring of the Foundation and influenced by political positions disputes among leading members, of whom 22 2001 declared their resignations.
In 2008, the CANF published a study that pointed to negative developments in the use of for promoting democracy in Cuba provided and awarded by the U.S. foreign aid agency USAID to NGOs public funds. Of these funds remain a very high proportion in Florida, while very little money is actually used for actions in Cuba, making the programs were largely ineffective.
The temporary paid as an informant of the CIA Castro militant Luis Posada Carriles opponents claimed to have received from Mas Canosa approximately U.S. $ 200,000 ( interview with the New York Times ), which he later recanted, however. Jose Antonio Llama, a former board member, announced over the Miami Herald on, between 1994 and 1997 largely the preparation of ( failed ) terrorist attacks on Cuban targets financed to have.