It's so nice to know Fidel is still reading our work. Now if he could just get his propaganda rag to quit twisting our stories around.
This weekend, Granma finally responded to our piece about Gustavo Villoldo, the man who buried Che Guevara and won a $1 billion judgment against Fidel Castro in a Miami court earlier this summer.
Among the stories recounted in our feature, "He Buried Che," is the tale of a raid on a small Cuban fishing village called Boca de Sama in October 1971.
As we reported, Villoldo planned, financed, and launched the raid on his own after a former CIA contact suggested that the agency would look the other way. In other words, while Villoldo believed the CIA wouldn't interfere with his scheme, the agency played zero role in ordering, planning, financing, or carrying out the raid.
Granma reports the exact opposite in its story. "In a confession to the Miami New Times," the story says, Villoldo "confirm[s] publicly that the agency directly ordered the terrorist attack."
Does a former CIA contact telling Villoldo he wouldn't be harassed if he wanted to mount a raid on Cuba amount to the agency "directly ordering" the attack? That seems like a stretch.
You can read the full Granma story here if you're interested. (The article is in Spanish.)
On a side note, Riptide must admit a bit of confusion with the author of the piece, Jean Guy Allard. Just a few years ago, he wrote a story for Granma full of glowing praise for the New Times.
"Describing the meeting was a reporter from the Miami New Times (the most credible publication emanating from the city), whose research is making the local oligarchy tremble with fear," Allard wrote.So what's it going to be, Jean Guy? Are we taking confessions from "terrorists" or producing credible journalism?
Now if you'll excuse us, Riptide has some local oligarchs to terrify.
