Cuban-American National Foundation

The Cuban American National Foundation (CANF) is a non-profit organization dedicated to overthrowing the Cuban government of Fidel Castro. Established in Florida in 1981 by Jorge Más Canosa, CANF is the largest Cuban organization in exile, with thousands of members in the United States and other countries. Following the death of its founder in 1997, CANF began to lose its ideological cohesion provided by Mas Canosa, which led its hard-liners to split and form the Cuban Liberty Council in 2001. CANF has since drifted a considerable amount from its traditional alliance with the Republican Party.

Related Topics:
Cuban - Fidel Castro - Jorge Más Canosa - Cuban Liberty Council

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CANF has offices in Miami, Washington D.C., and New Jersey and chapters in Los Angeles, the greater New York area, Chicago, several cities in Florida, Puerto Rico, New Orleans, and Texas.

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As the foremost Cuban exile organization in the United States, CANF has acted as the principal Cuban-American lobby in Washington, D.C. For two decades CANF has worked to create a bipartisan consensus on U.S. policy that is opposed the current Cuban government.

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It has been alleged that CANF is connected to terrorist acts against Cuban businesses, government and ordinary citizens. Luis Posada Carriles claimed in a 1998 New York Times interview that he received financial backing from CANF for a 1997 bombing campaign in Cuba. CANF has strongly denied Posada's statement. Posada has since recanted that particular statement, but describes long term relationships with CANF figures in his autobiography. However, declassified CIA and FBI documents allege that Posada was one of the "engineer" of the 1976 terrorist bombing of Cubana Airlines flight 455 that killed 73 passengers. http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB153/

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The Cuban Ministry of the Interior claimed http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/43b/074.html that the three September 4, 1997 bomb attacks against three hotels in Havana, which killed one person http://www.cnn.com/WORLD/9709/04/cuba.explosions/, were planned and controlled by CANF. CANF denied this http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/43b/073.html.

Related Topics:
September 4 - 1997 - Havana

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