Elian’s terrorist ‘defender’

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We know it’s not just concern for a 6-year-old boy inspiring those expatriate Cubans in Miami to hurl epithets and threaten violence should young Elian Gonzalez be returned to his father in Cuba. But at least one of the kid’s supposed defenders is evidently motivated by the CIA and an especially raw hatred of Fidel Castro.

The CONSORTIUM reports that one of of Elian’s staunchest defenders is an admitted, albeit erstwhile, anti-Castro terrorist. Jose Basulto, who frequently speaks on behalf of the Miami-based Gonzalez family, has proudly claimed involvement in the Bay of Pigs, as well as terrorist attacks in Cuba in the 1960s. Basulto also admits to collaborating with the CIA and the Argentine government in the ’70s and early ’80s when thousands of civilians were tortured and “disappeared” by a military junta.

We’re sure Elian will be much better off in such a wholesome crowd than at home with his father.

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Mother Jones was founded to do journalism differently. We stand for justice and democracy. We reject false equivalence. We go after stories others don’t. We’re a nonprofit newsroom, because the kind of truth-telling investigations we do doesn’t happen under corporate ownership.

And the essential ingredient that makes all this possible? Readers like you.

It’s reader support that enables Mother Jones to devote the time and resources to report the facts that are too difficult, expensive, or inconvenient for other news outlets to uncover. Please help with a donation today if you can—even a few bucks will make a real difference. A monthly gift would be incredible.

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