Latino Advocacy Group Demands U.S. Probe Of Foreign Subversive Organization

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
CONTACT: Darren Spinck 202-213-7747
Tuesday, September 12, 2006

WASHINGTON, DC—In a major attempt to block subversive activities in the Hispanic community by the Castro regime, Consejo de Latinos Unidos, a national non-profit organization that educates and assists Hispanics, called on the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the U.S. Department of Treasury to probe activities in the United States by the Yoruba Cultural Association of Cuba. The Consejo also asked that individuals and groups tied to the “foreign subversive organization” be investigated.

“The Yoruba Cultural Association of Cuba appears to be nothing more than a state-sponsored, intelligence gathering organization whose sole objective is to suppress the legitimate religious teachings and practices of Cuban Santeria, an Afro-Caribbean religion, and to subvert U.S. law,” said K.B. Forbes, Executive Director of the Consejo. “Individuals and organizations in the United States associated with, affiliated with or sponsored by the Yoruba Cultural Association appear to be catalysts to weaken or subvert U.S. laws against the Castro regime.”

The Consejo released a 21-page report today documenting how the Yoruba Cultural Association acting as the “official, government-sanctioned” voice of Cuban Santeria appears to have intentionally masked pleasure travel to Cuba from the U.S. as religious travel, manipulated Cuban Santeria teachings and pronouncements for the benefit of the Castro regime—including alluding Fidel Castro to the “divinity that guides destiny;” and, during Fidel Castro’s illness, sympathetically called the brutal dictator the “maximum leader” and the “commandante” to media sources.

“The religious teachings and holy writings of Cuban Santeria as used by the Yoruba Cultural Association is blasphemy. To allude to Castro as ‘divinity that guides destiny’ is blasphemy to followers of the faith,” said Ernesto Pichardo, a Board Member of the Consejo and a High Priest of Cuban Santeria in the United States “The Yoruba Cultural Association is a ragged collection of counterfeit followers of Cuban Santeria and serves as a mouthpiece for the repressive regime.”

In May of 2005, the Consejo took on bogus religious entities and organizations that were violating U.S. laws and offering tourism packages to Cuba under the guise of “religious” travel. The U.S. has strict travel policies to Cuba governed by the U.S. Department of Treasury. In the past year, working with officials of the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) of the U.S. Department of Treasury, the Consejo has successfully had licenses of illegitimate “religious” entities either revoked or not renewed.