Source: La Verdad Publications.
Members of the Southern California Immigration Coalition (SCIC) held a small and peaceful counter-demonstration on Sunday afternoon [28 March 2010] in response to the anti-Cuban government rally that was taking place in Echo Park at the Jose Marti Statue [Los Angeles, California], organized by actor Andy Garcia and supported by the Mexican comedian George Lopez. The peaceful counter-demonstration soon ended when participants of the “Damas de blanco” ['Ladies in White'] rally rushed towards the activists and assaulted them with rocks and even with physical violence.
One of the aggressors was a cameraman of the Spanish language news network Univision. The cameraman was captured in video footage taken by an amateur photographer who witnessed the incident. The cameraman, who could be seen with an Univision microphone dangling from his pocket, held his video camera with one arm and repeatedly struck Ron Gochez, a Los Angeles-based school teacher and member of Unión del Barrio, with his other arm (see minute 5:29 and 5:37 on the YouTube video). Gochez, who nearly fell down the hill because of the attack, was shocked that a news cameraman assaulted him; "I thought that we might be attacked because of our support for the Cuban Revolution but I never expected to be attacked by a Univision cameraman." Gochez also reported that the assault took place in front of a Los Angeles Police Department Sergeant who was listed as one of several witnesses on the police report that he filed.
Other participants of the anti-Cuban government rally were also filmed throwing stones at the counter-demonstrators and even tearing apart Mexican and Cuban flags that they snatched from a female counter-demonstrator. At the park an Afro-Cuban man who remains unidentified, was viciously attacked by dozens of White Cubans for apparently trying to stop them from tearing apart a Cuban flag with the image of Che Guevara. No one was seriously injured and because of a heavy police presence in riot gear, there was no further incident to report.
"Although these people say that they defend liberty and freedom of expression, they showed their true colors when they immediately and violently attacked us simply because we were expressing our support for the Cuban government and its people," stated a counter-demonstrator. The LAPD is currently investigating the incident.
On a similar note, the defamation campaign against the Cuban government has had support from known terrorists who walk the streets of Miami. Luis Posada Carriles, known for blowing up commercial airliner Cubana de Aviación flight 455 where 73 people perished, has marched in this grotesquely hypocritical display of imperialist propaganda against Cuba. This false display of “concern for Human Rights” by the anti-Cuba demonstrators who repress the very free speech they supposedly are defending exposes their lies and hypocrisy. Only the agents of capitalism could defend the attacks against Socialist Cuba and their supporters.
¡Que Viva Cuba Socialista!
¡Siempre con Fidel!
