Miami's exile community calls policy shift a betrayal

MIAMI – The political ground shook in South Florida on Wednesday when the Obama administration indicated it plans to restore full diplomatic relations with Communist Cuba.

Miami, the heart of the Cuban exile community, reacted with a collective shock. Hard-line opponents of the Castro regime lambasted the president for what they called a betrayal.

Miami-Dade County Commissioner Esteban "Steve" Bovo, a Republican whose father was a pilot in the 1996 Brothers to the Rescue mission, called Democratic President Obama a sellout.

"Today will be a sad day for all those who have dedicated their lives for a free Cuba. Our President has sold out freedom," Bovo posted to his Twitter account, CommBovo.

He followed up with two more posts, directed at the dissident Ladies in White and at the Brothers to the Rescue families, whose relatives were shot down by the Cuban Air Force. He told the groups, "Barack Obama and his accomplices sold you out."

Maggie Khuly, the sister of Armando Alejandre Jr., one of the four Brothers to the Rescue members shot down, said the families of the failed mission's victims were outraged. "I was expecting this, but I can't believe it," Khuly said. "No one [in the federal government] had the decency of telling us anything."

Wednesday began with the news that Cuba had freed American political prisoner Alan Gross on humanitarian grounds — and that the U.S. would swap three imprisoned Cuban spies in exchange for a U.S. intelligence officer detained on the island.

"We're giving them a lot of stuff in payment for the exchange of a hostage," Khuly told the Miami Herald.

Yet there was widespread relief over Gross' release after five years.

The Greater Miami Jewish Federation and Jewish Community Relations Council issued a statement welcoming Gross, a Washington resident, back to the country. "We wish Alan Gross a full recovery from the ill health that resulted from his unjust and inhumane incarceration and we send our warmest wishes to his family who has suffered such great distress during this terrible ordeal," the statement said.