Far left-wing aging luminary Robert Red-Ford in a recent CNN interview referred to the recent crisis–created by the Democrats in the Senate in conjunction with the White Spite House–as driven by conservative Republicans because of “racism.”
This character actually said, “There is a body of congressional people [conservative Republicans] that wants to paralyze the system. I think what sits underneath, unfortunately, is there’s probably some racism involved, which is really awful.” Obviously he has forgotten that Americans still have some constitutional freedom of speech left.
I thought (hoped) we had moved on from if-you-disagree-with-Obama-you-must-be-a-racist. Maybe Redford is the last one holding on to that tired axiom.
Since when has it been forbidden to critique a president or his policy? Has Redford forgotten the liberal news media’s and academia’s constant negative critiques on both Bush, Reagan, Ford and Nixon?
Let’s bring back some background tidbits of the far left-wing history of this regularly reclusive reddish Redford and his regard–oops disregard–for the “little people” inside Castro’s totalitarian communist regime.
Some years ago Redford was asked about the Cuban regime and he said something to the effect that he didn’t care about Castro’s politics. To his victims, that’s like saying that you don’t care about Hitler’s or Stalin’s crimes.
After his 1988 visit to Cuba, Redford was interrogated by U.S. Treasury Department agents. At that time it was said that he went to scuba dive with his friend, Fidel Castro.
In letters from a former admirer of Redford in Cuba dated 1987, 1990 and 1991, I see the rage progression against Redford for his friendliness toward Castro and insensitivity to the suffering of the Cuban people.
Many are baffled and disappointed that despite his longtime connections with Cuba, he has failed to acknowledge the obvious. He seems content to take from Cuba and his relations with Castro just what is beneficial to his personal enjoyment and career. Redford has yet to publicly recognize his error, apologize for offending Cubans, denounce or even express dissatisfaction with any aspect of Castro’s criminal regime.
I hope he never used that tired, old “art is separate from politics,” which Castro himself obliterated long ago with one of his mantras: “Within the Revolution, everything, against the Revolution, nothing!”
Redford has traveled to Cuba as Castro’s guest for many years. As a foreigner he has privileges denied to ordinary Cuban citizens. He has stayed in “elite only” Fifth Avenue in Miramar, in a luxury house next to the mansion Castro gave to Colombian writer Gabriel Garcia Marquez, an infamous-to-Cubans collaborator. For Garcia Marquez’s services, Castro lavishes him with maids, a black Mercedes-Benz 280 and young girls . . .. Garcia Marquez founded a film school near Havana where Redford has taught.
As in the regimes of Hitler and Stalin, all independent artists in Cuba who refuse to comply with Castro’s cultural policies are imprisoned or confined to psychiatric wards. Redford, billed as a “key supporter of independent filmmaking,” fails to see that there is no independent filmmaking in Cuba except that which protects Castro’s image and policies.
Take the flick Strawberry and Chocolate, which Redford distributed and promoted in the U.S. some years ago that gives the false impression that persecution of homosexuals in Cuba has been reduced.
For years, Redford’s flicks have been shown in Cuban theaters and on TV (most of the time raping the artistic creation by cutting off parts deemed dangerous to Castro’s regime) however, Castro doesn’t pay copyright fees and greedy left-wing Hollywood doesn’t complain about it. Why is it acceptable to Redford for Castro to cut his films? He is very touchy with other countries about it. A double standard?
Redford and his Sundance Institute have been an item in the annual Havana film festival for years.
In the 2004 Sundance Film Festival, Redford, who is the executive producer, exhibited Walter Salles’ flick The Motorcycle Diaries. It is based on the personal diary of another notorious criminal in the history of Castro’s revolution, Ernesto “Che” Guevara, when he was 23 years old and traveling through South America by motorcycle.
Let’s not overlook that it was Che, in the Sierra Maestra Mountains of Cuba, years before Castro took over the country in 1959, who revealed his fascination with cruelty by asking to be the executioner who kept the troops in line. He executed peasants in cold blood. Oops! Cuban peasants are unimportant to Redford.
At the onset of the revolution on January 1, 1959, Castro appointed Che in charge of La Cabana prison in Havana. There, execution squads flourished under Che’s command, assassinating en masse those perceived as enemies of the revolution, or just to make a point.
Che ordered that women and children visiting his prisoners be paraded in front of the execution wall, gruesomely stained with blood and brain matter. All of this was well publicized in Cuba in order to spread fear throughout the population. The surviving ex-prisoners of the infamous La Cabana fortress remember Che as a “mass murderer.” Inexplicably, he is now a hero and an icon in the eyes of the American left including Redford in his romantic misrepresentation.
Paradoxically, Castro, a darling of Hollywood and the American left, wanted to get rid of Che all along and in 1965 sent him to “liberate” Africa, but he failed and secretly returned to Cuba and was kept out of sight.
To prevent Che from becoming a distraction to Castro’s own popularity, Castro needed to get rid of him so he sent him to Bolivia where he finally was killed on October, 1967. Then Castro was free to rewrite history and create a fake iconic worldwide hero.
Redford, always loyal to Castro and the false icons of his revolution, ran to Havana with his The Motorcycle’s Diaries flaky flick about Che, the wonderful role model to show it to his widow, Aleida March, so she can “enjoy” his posthumous tribute to a criminal and give him approval.
Redford, called a “champion of environmental causes,” closes his eyes when dealing with Castro, who created the Che Guevara Brigade, which used military tanks, heavy chains and explosives to raze entire forests across Cuba, millions of trees. Species of animals dependent upon the shelter of the forest have become extinct, due to Castro’s whims. Caves have been transformed into army depots, filled with arms, explosives and chemical products, thereby altering their natural ecosystems to the detriment of their flora and fauna.
Dead livestock, agricultural and industrial waste and dangerous pollutants are routinely dumped into caves, sinkholes, rivers and the sea. Havana harbor was heavily polluted by oil, as were other beaches nearby and parts of the “foreigners only” Varadero beach resort. The constant, pungent stench of oil and sulfur permeated the entire area. Ordinary citizens suffer from all kinds of respiratory and cancerous diseases as a result of Castro’s environmental disregard. Castro, his elite and foreigners like Redford are kept in exclusive areas far removed from danger–elitism, you know, is part of the far left’s makeup. But, then, as an actor, he is used to makeup.
So as you see Redford has a history of collaborating with far-left regimes, befriending oppressive totalitarian tyrants, turning his back on the victims, “the little people,” the peons.
Actually, going out of his way to defend the Obama administration (when he is supposed to be pushing his new flick) and accusing conservative Republicans of being racists sounds like a radical, reactionary, intolerant, far-left wing fanatic–or maybe he is just too old to be credible.
ABIP 2013
Agustin Blazquez has produced and directed 10 independent documentaries. CONNECTING THE DOTS (2012), is an expose of the Obama administration’s lies, deception and fraud in order to take over the USA (see trailer below), .CHE: The Other Side of an Icon (2010) See previews at: youtube.com/jaums / Available at: CubaCollectibles.com.
