The infiltration and manipulation of United States intelligence and policy circles by Communist dictatorships has a long, tangled and often embarrassing history. Americans that apologize, collaborate, promote and even spy for Communist state security apparatus vary in their motives. While ideology and money have led some to treasonous acts, it seems that ethnic (specifically national origin) spite has taken hold of others. The latter motive may point to the intransigent attitudes of some of those who fight tooth and nail for warm relations with the Cuban regime despite the island’s increased levels of repression. After all, the enemy of my enemy is my friend.
Anti-Communist Cuban exiles in the United States defy all U.S. stereotypes of Hispanics. Cubans who fled the Castro revolution, in their majority ethnic Europeans and to a lesser degree Semites, did not migrate to the United States seeking economic opportunities but a temporary stay until Communism crumbled. After the Bay of Pigs fiasco exiles realized their pit stop was to be extended, indefinitely. Soon thereafter, academic, economic and political success followed. Throughout, regardless of political affiliation, Cuban-American politicians supported the U.S. embargo and blocked efforts to flood the regime coffers with dollars. This remains the case with the notable exception of recently elected leftist Joe Garcia (his opponent was far ahead in the polls but became embroiled in legal troubles). For business interests and others who are desperate for normalization without a single concession from the dictatorship, pro-democracy Cuban-Americans are a major thorn in their side.