Roots of Hope: the roots of indiscretion

Roots of Hope: the roots of indiscretion
By Alberto de la Cruz, on April 13, 2011, at 11:45 am

Over the past few years, we have met many Cuban American college and
university students who are part of the Roots of Hope (Raíces de
Esperanza) organization. The vast majority of them have been kids with
an admirable yearning to make a difference, and a heartfelt desire to
see Cuba liberated and the Cuban people released from the shackles of
tyrannical oppression. Nevertheless, we still have serious reservations
regarding the organization Roots of Hope, and those doubts center around
its leadership and its main benefactor and supporter, Carlos Saladrigas.

Roots of Hope was founded in 2003 by Felice Gorordo with a generous
donation from Carlos Saladrigas. Since then, its agenda—as dictated by
the organization's leadership—has for the most part mirrored the agenda
of another Saladrigas funded organization, The Cuba Study Group. As most
of our readers already know, the Cuba Study Group is a staunch and
active supporter of lifting all sanctions against the Castro
dictatorship, and it fervently advocates and lobbies for the
normalization of relations with the criminal and murderous Cuban regime.
Although Roots of Hope claims to be a "non-partisan group," that is a
bit difficult to believe when Felice Gorordo, the executive director of
the organization, also sits on the board of Saladrigas' very partisan
and agenda driven Cuba Study Group.

Since its inception, the seemingly worthwhile projects and initiatives
undertaken by Roots of Hope have been mired and handicapped by the
politically driven agenda of the organization's leadership and its
partisan benefactors. They have used the labors and efforts of the
organization's members to promote their own views, which have little to
do with freedom and democracy in Cuba and are focused on business
opportunities with the Castro dictatorship. By burdening these projects
and initiatives with partisan politics, the leadership and benefactors
of Roots of Hope have rendered them useless.

With all of this in mind, it did not come as a surprise when last
weekend Roots of Hope co-sponsored a partisan conference at Boston
College with the stated purpose of discussing "the most pressing issues
to Cubans and Cuban Americans in the world today." The conference only
featured speakers and presenters who shared Cuba Study Group's view of
engagement with the Castro dictatorship, and naturally, Carlos
Saladrigas was one of their featured speakers. Saladrigas was also
joined by Orlando Marquez, a spokesman for the infamous Cuban Catholic
Church, who was flown in from Cuba along with Father Jose Conrado
expressly to address the conference. However, the conference speaker who
may have been arguably the most disturbing and questionable was the
founder of Havana Journal, Rob Sequin.
Rob Sequin: first person seated on the extreme left (no pun intended)

Rob Sequin: first person seated on the extreme left (no pun intended)

Rob Sequin is the epitome of an opportunistic and immoral businessman.
When he looks at Cuba, he does not see an island of 11-million people
lacking basic freedoms and enslaved by a tyrannical dictatorship. He
sees an opportunity to prey on a repressed population with sexual tourism.
But you do not have to take my word for it; his website, sexincuba.com,
speaks for itself. This site is one of the websites in Sequin's Havana
Network, which is owned by his company, Havana Journal, Inc. It is here
is where you can see what Rob Sequin really thinks about Cubans and
travel to Cuba.

Cuban Girls, Sex in Cuba and Jineteras

This site is designed to provide information on Jineteras (Cuban
prostitutes and female hustlers), sex laws, escorts, gay hangouts and
clubs where you are most likely to find (temporary) love. We will be
posting some entertaining stories and eye candy photos but this site
will not be X rated.

Check back for Cuban sex stories, Cuban marriages gone bad (and
some that have gone right) along with traveler precautions, sex laws,
sex customs and places to score whether you are straight, gay or some
where in between (for you transvestite lovers) and there is an active
transvestite culture in Havana Cuba.

Seriously, Cuba is the place to get laid... man, woman, straight or
gay! There may not be freedom of speech but there certainly is freedom
of sex. However, if you are looking for strip clubs or any adult video
stores, forget it. You're not going to find those in Cuba.

When we found out about Sequin's appearance at this Roots of Hope
conference, Val called Felice Gorordo and asked him why he would have
such a contemptible character addressing the conference attendees.
Gorordo pleaded ignorance, and told Val he had no idea of Sequin's
deplorable Cuba sex website. He disavowed any knowledge and said that
Sequin had been invited to speak by one of the other conference
co-sponsors and not by Roots of Hope. To his credit, Gorordo published a
statement condemning Rob Sequin on the Roots of Hope blog. Nonetheless,
the damage was already done.

Unfortunately, it was brought to our attention after the conference
that one of the panelists, Rob Sequin of the "Havana Journal," owns a
web site related to sex in Cuba. Conference organizers were not aware of
this site nor of its ties to the panelist. This site is absolutely not
in line with Roots of Hope's values, and we strongly condemn it.

Had the organizers been aware of the circumstances, Mr. Sequin
would not have been invited to participate in the event. After being
informed of the existence of this site, the organization strongly urged
Mr. Sequin to take it down. At the time of this post, the site was disabled.

Ed.: The site may have been down at the time Gorordo wrote his
post, but it was back up later in the day.

This incident perfectly illustrates the concerns and doubts we have had
about the Roots of Hope organization. Although they claim to be
non-partisan and non-political, as they have done in the past, there was
no effort whatsoever to provide opposing points of view at this
conference. The speakers and guests were all anti-embargo, and they all
advocate engagement with the Castro dictatorship. In their fervor to
stack the deck in favor of a specific partisan political view, Roots of
Hope ended up associating and allying themselves with one of the most
detestable and reprehensible figures in this debate.

Note: In case Rob Sequin decides to take his sexincuba.com site offline,
below the fold there are screenshots of all the pages on the site saved
forever in cyberspace for posterity.
Links available at source page:

sexincuba.com Home Page:

sexincuba - home
sexincuba.com Cuban Girls page:

sexincuba - cuban girls
sexincuba.com Sex In Cuba page:

sexincuba - sex in cuba
sexincuba.com Jineteras page:

sexincuba - jineteras
sexincuba.com Gay In Cuba page:

sexincuba - gay friendly cuba
sexincuba.com affiliation with Havana Journal closeup:

sexincuba.com 2011-4-12 20-9-36"

http://babalublog.com/2011/04/roots-of-hope-the-roots-of-indiscretion/