Pinking Posada

With expectations to shed pink light on the hypocrisy of the Bush Administration's War on Terror and to reexpose the fact that the U.S. government provides safe haven for terrorists, CODEPINK activists from as far away as Hawaii, California, Arizona and Texas flew into Miami, the home of Luis Posada Carriles, the CIA supported anti-Castro exile from Cuba who masterminded the downing of a Cuban civilian airliner that ended the lives of its 73 passengers.

"The FBI has determined that Luis Posada Carriles is a threat to our national security and the U.S. Justice Department's finding describe him as an unrepentant criminal who masterminded plots and attacks." a statement from congressional hearing dated November 15, 2007. Posada, himself, boasted about other terrorist acts committed on hotels in Havana.

Although it is widely known that the Cuban exile community of 'ore provides unwavering support for Posada Carriles, we hoped that the Versailles restaurant would offer us an opportunity to speak to Cuban-Americans about the danger this man presents and to enlist their help in exposing him for what he is.

The local media have been quite intrigued with the prospect of peace activists in pink arriving to their city to pressure the FBI into putting Posada Carriles on the Most Wanted Criminals digital billboards.

http://www.fbi.gov/page2/dec07/billboards122607.html

After being invited to a Spanish language tv talk show, believing it to be just an interview about this campaign,in fact it was Arrebatados,

http://www.americateve.com/programa.php?id=2

a right-wing shouting match in which the two of us were pitted opposite three Cuban exiles who came with sheets and sheets of information on Medea and CODEPINK while we had no clue who the people were verbally attacking us. One of these "guests"accused us of being provocateurs and terrorists. This same individual when questioned admitted to planning and participating in violent tactics if nonviolent ones do not bring about the desired end. Off air he told Medea that "you might well get your head bashed in like a coconut." After leaving this show we thought better of going into Versailles and instead decided on holding a press conference across the street.

In preparation for our press conference on Calle Ocho across from the Cuban exile haven Versailles Cafe, an iconic restaurant in the heart of Little Havana, Medea, Ann, Nancy, Liz, Tighe and myself woke early to the lapping of the warm waters against Ray's boat and the swishing of Caribbean breezes over palm fronds.

The day before, after much discussion with local friends and connections, we decided that the pink police outfits could create unneccessary hostility and thought it best to be rather gaudy than gruff and put the power of PINK to disarm the "patriotas".

So taking advice from Tighe's buddy, Ray, we went to the Red, White and Blue, a superb second-hand clothing store in search of pink dresses.

In no more than 15 minutes the CODEPINK magic did its trick and voila, we had a treasure trove of pink accoutrement, a soft pink felt Ranger hat in mint condition for our colonel Ann, a sleek satin spaghetti-strapped gown for Liz, a voluptuously beaded wine colored one for Nancy, a florescent hot pink skating leotard for Medea and a hibiscus flowered sundress for me.

Tighe, a veritable magician with a hammer and nails miraculously created our "float" by attaching a Wanted banner of Posada Carriles to an A-frame wooden apron. He lined it with a pink muslin banner of letters so huge they virtually shouted END TERRORISM! After hauling it into the bed of the fire-engine red Dodge pickup we "pinked" it up with plastic skirts, our hand painted "CODEPINK says NO to terrorism" banner, pink-painted messages of CODEPINK:women for peace and love and PAZ, adorned with childlike drawings of pink hearts, flowers and peace signs.

After primping and pinking ourselves we headed anxiously down to Calle Ocho. En route, Medea called Detective Jorge Gonzalez who had committed to being at Versailles and ensuring us police protection. He intimated that everything was under control and set up for our press conference across the street from the Versailles restaurant as we had been threatened by one of the guests on the Spanish language television show Arrebatados.

We didn't even make it to the intersection in front of Versailles before a mob of about 200 "mambistas" began yelling obscenities at us. As the truck approached the area, one older grey templed man took the six foot poles of the American and Cuban flags and came running towards us pointing their ends at the front passenger window as if he were a javelin thrower. If not for the younger wiser individual who held him back, Ann Wright or I would have had our heads speared. Another man attempted to jump onto the bed of the truck to rip out the frilly fringe to our sign. Yet another chased us about four blocks as we circumvented the mob.

Needless to say, the event was fraught with tension and violence albeit by little old men. The police, all two of them, caught up to us as we circled around wondering what to do. Should we try to have the conference anyway? Where the hell was the protection the FBI promised us? Should we give in to this intimidation or stand up for our freedom of speech and assembly? We chose the latter although we were specifically denied any protection at the scene. We came to the consensus that the only way to carry out our planned press conference was to go to the main police station since the police would not come to us. There Medea carried out several interviews with Telemundo, GenTV, channel 10, channel 4, the Miami Herald and the Sun Sentinel.

Although we were unable to dialogue with any Cubans that day, we did the following. See next blog: Mojitos and eggs over easy.