Making free speech history on Calle Ocho in Miami

MIAMI – Antiwar group CodePink and its allies made history here Feb. 9 when they took their ‘Most Wanted Campaign’ back to Calle Ocho, S.W. 8th Street to highlight the case of notorious terrorist Luis Posada Carriles.

The CodePink ‘Most Wanted Campaign’ plays off the FBI’s new campaign to publicize their most wanted list and terrorist suspects via billboards in 20 major cities. Notorious terrorist Luis Posada Carriles is not on the FBI list and resides freely in Miami.

CodePink thinks this oversight on the part of the FBI should be remedied, so they and their local allies are taking it to the streets. According to Medea Benjamin, co-founder of CodePink, ‘This campaign is not about one person. It is about all those terrorists with CIA ties now living in the USA. We want them to be held accountable.’

Posada masterminded the bombing of a Cuban airliner that killed all 73 passengers and crew in 1976. Posada has also been linked with the bombing of hotels in Havana, which killed an Italian tourist, not to mention his history of overseeing repression and torture in pre-Chavez Venezuela.

CodePink argues that committing billions of our tax dollars and the lives of thousands of our young men and women to fight the threat of terrorism should include doing something about the terrorists here at home.

Miami’s ‘Cuban Mafia’ is unhappy. S.W. 8th Street, in the heart of Little Havana, is known for its total intolerance of anything other than the most reactionary, anti-Communist rhetoric. CodePink first attempted to launch this national campaign on Jan. 12 in front of the Versailles Restaurant where the ultra-right Cuban exiles hold court.

The CodePink demonstrators were met by a mob of roughly 100 people who allegedly struggle to bring freedom to Cuba, but appear not to grasp the concept of First Amendment rights in the USA. Despite promises of police protection, the demonstrators were attacked so violently that they could not get out of their truck. Their planned press conference had to be moved to police headquarters.

In launching the new effort, Benjamin said, ‘It was important to come back, to not allow this small group of violent people to prevent us from having a peaceful protest.’

During the Feb. 9 protest, the police did their job. CodePink and local activists returned to the Versailles Restaurant with police protection. Police had to intervene, however, when counter-protesters assaulted freelance journalist Carlos Miller while attempting to photograph the protests from different angles.

For the most part, the once powerful Cuban right was kept behind police barricades and prevented from attacking protesters exercising their First Amendment rights. Despite having pulled a permit for 500 to 800 counter protesters, their organizers were only able to muster 100. The image of members of Alpha 66 behind a barricade, red in the face, shaking their fists, screaming themselves hoarse and unable to prevent 20 peaceful protesters from getting their message out was a real sign of how things are changing.

Another unexpected source of encouragement was the number of positive responses from passing motorists. It’s a new day in Miami!

For more information on CodePink and the Most Wanted Campaign, go to www.codepinkalert.org.