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Otero-Autobiography Otero\Enemy 607 CHAPTER 14 POVERTY IS THE GREATEST VIOLENCE Mahatma Gandhi The Riot in the Miami Ghettos. The killing of Arthur McDuffy in Miami by local cops created tension in the ghettos of the Black community. To pacify the Black community, the State Attorney's office filed criminal charges against the police officers for the assassination of McDuffy. Circuit County Judge Leonord Nesbitt presided over the trial, and Hank Adorno and George Yoss were the acting prosecutors, hungry for publicity. They were a team of judicial clowns. The trial was granted a change of venue to Tampa, where Judge Nesbitt provided devious instructions to the state jury to acquit the police officers of the violation of excessive use of force. The acquittal caused another riot in Liberty City. Under heavy political pressure from the now well-organized Black communities in the United States and feeling embarrassed by the incident, the Federal Government filed charges against all the police officers for violation of civil rights. During the preliminary proceedings the court received telephone calls, made apparently by police officers, issuing a warning that a bomb would detonate inside the courthouse. Of course, the legal proceedings were canceled because of the potential violence that the local trial might generate in the Black community as well as the police officers who were discontented with the criminal charges against their co-workers. Eventually, the circuit judge granted the petition filed by the defense for a change of venue to Atlanta, Georgia. Subsequently, the case continued to seek jurisdiction in Texas, where the police officers were acquitted. Texas was noted as the most lenient state in the union in dealing with criminal cases against White police officers. For her accomplishment, President Otero\Enemy 608 Reagan, appointed her as U.S. Judge of the Southern District of Florida. In the past, the Latin community had a traditional alliance with the Black community, which was considered a minority suffering perennial racial and social discrimination by a White elite running local government. During local elections the Latin community supported the Black community. A female Jew, born in Germany, and now living in Dade County, succeeded in obtaining enough signatures to introduce in the local elections a petition to ban Dade County's bilingual policy. This policy consisted of a small budget for printing and posting information of local law in English and Spanish in public buildings, hospitals and the Miami International Airport for visiting Latin- American tourists. This bilingual project also paid for a micro-staff of Spanish interpreters working around the clock in the emergency facility at the Jackson Memorial Hospital. This time the Black community, who had been discriminated against for centuries, joined the White community in voting in favor of banning bilingual law. When Miami's Mayor Ferre in a political dispute fired a Black administrator, the Black community showed their displeasure against Ferre by electing Xavier Suarez, a flamboyant Cuban attorney, as the mayor. Ferre was the first Miami mayor providing the Black American with opportunity of employment. During Ferre's administration it was the first time that Blacks and Latins had a voice in City Hall. The Mariel Exodus. In 1980, a large exodus took place when the Cuban Government removed police protection around the Peruvian Embassy. A crowd of 10,000 persons seeking political asylum invaded the Peruvian Embassy. Napoleon Villaboa, a Bay of Pigs veteran, advised Fidel Castro to allow a massive immigration through the Mariel port, similar to a previous exodus through the Camarioca port, where Cuban exiles living in the United States went out in small boats and picked up their relatives in Cuba. Without the support of the Cuban exile community, the Carter administration had no option but to allow the massive number of immigrants to come in hundreds of small boats Otero\Enemy 609 to Key West. Months later some of the boats were confiscated by the U.S. Government; fishermen living in South Florida were the most affected because they made a living with their boats. Consequently, over 120,000 persons arrived in the United States. Less than ten percent of the new refugees were criminal elements. The majority of the newcomers adjusted to the lifestyle in the United States. In the past most economic immigrants and political dissidents consisted of workers, intellectuals, professionals, businessmen and students; this time it was different. The Mariel exodus consisted mostly of lower class people. Therefore, Fidel Castro took the opportunity to send lumpes, common criminals and mental patients. When Federal and State authorities noticed the arrival of criminal and mental patients, they kept over 3,000 of them in an Atlanta penitentiary, releasing only a few of them to the custody of family and friends. The City of Miami, unprepared to deal with this massive exodus, created a temporary shelter with large military tents under the I- 95 expressway, near Miami's downtown area to house them. The shelter became known as “Tent City.” A new wave of crime struck South Florida as well as other cities around the nation housing the new immigrants known as “Marielitos.” The arrival of the Marielitos didn't help the already overcrowded prison system and its courts in South Florida. The Marielitos, became known for their outrageous and senseless crimes. In Miami a Marielito killed a young girl at a Burger King when the girl refused to give him away her purse containing $20. Another killed an old lady in Arkansas who provided him room and board. The Marielitos became notorious for rip- offs in social drug dealing. Loyalty and honesty were not ingredients of their quality. Routinely they shot their best friends from behind. Their reputation caused the courts to become overcrowded and tougher in sentencing. Meanwhile, the Cuban-Americans immediately retaliated, and every week the police found several Marielito bodies floating in the Calle Ocho's canal, or dumped in Homestead crop fields. Otero\Enemy 610 I organized a summer festival for Project Freedom 78 and about 100 persons came to the event, paying $5. We had a Cuban buffet of roast pork with soda and beer. Maurice Ferre came and was a very sociable person, enjoying his role as Mayor of Miami. Local TV cameramen came. This was the last official function of Project Freedom 78. The project was a challenge and during that time, I was able to assist some prisoners and families with their legal cases. One of my CETA secretaries was a charming blond girl named Gladys. She was Cuban-born and had lived in Spain for several years with her family, till they were able to get a visa to travel to the United States. Gladys spoke Spanish, dragging the “z” in her funny pronunciation. After a few months, I began to date Gladys. We played tennis and went to the movies. My office became a training center for secretaries. Gladys was a hard working girl, and months later she found a job at the Victoria Hospital. Unable to obtain a government grant to finance the prison project and with the decreasing private donations by friends, I began to look in another direction for a job. For almost two years, I did my best to keep Project Freedom alive. Most people came only when in a crisis to ask for help, such as facing criminal charges with the court and a potential conviction and incarceration. I was able to help a few of them in different ways, including their release on parole. My problem was that I had very limited resources. I had exhausted all avenues to finance the project with the federal and local government. Facing economic problems, I got a job at the Talisman Sugar Mill, located 60 miles northwest of Miami. It was a nightmare: a two-hour drive every day, working 12 hour shifts, seven days a week, with no days off. The Talisman Sugar Mill employed hundreds of Haitians and other immigrant workers from the Caribbean islands. The immigrants went on strike, requesting more money and better work conditions. The Talisman administration, led by Cuban-Americans replaced the immigrant workers with machines, using Australian cane cutters. Later these Otero\Enemy 611 machines were modified and upgraded, collecting the cane from the ground, throwing it in on a conveyor to the trailers pulling two large wagons that carried 40 tons of cane to the mill to be processed into brown sugar. The cane sugar mill industry was subsidized by the federal government who bought raw sugar at cheaper price from Santo Domingo and other nations. Cuba was formerly the major exporter of raw sugar, but after Castro came to power, Washington declared a total embargo. A few months later I was able to get a minimum-wage job in Neighbor's Restaurant Warehouse in a Black neighborhood of Liberty City. As a regular policy the restaurants provided the police patrolling the neighborhood with free dinner and coffee to get better protection. I was informed that my state appeal had been denied and Judge Wells issued an order revoking my bond and a few weeks later ordered my arrest. In my mind, returning to prison, was returning to human corruption. The state conviction had been achieved by the Feds and State Attorney's Office in circumstances that violated the fundamental principles of justice and equity. I was facing a super-Mafia, the mighty United States of America, and the inferior and perennially corrupt State of Florida. As a fugitive, I stayed a few months in Boca Raton with new acquaintances, Harry Marsh, his charming wife Barbara, and their five-year-old daughter.
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