From: Randall Parker 

Aside: Armando Valladares wrote a book about his time in Castro's prisons
called Against All Hope. Gruesome reading.

http://www.washtimes.com/world/default-20005923247.htm
   Excerpt:
 Cuban critics of the Castro regime bristled, too. "If Elian is returned
to Cuba, he will be used for propaganda purposes the same way he was used
at the [Bagley] house to fund-raise for Democratic purposes," says
Armando Valladares, a Cuban poet who spent 22 years in a Cuban prison and
was later appointed by President Reagan to be U.S. ambassador to the United
Nations for human rights.
     The Bagleys have lobbied for years to end economic sanctions aginst
the Castro government. As heirs to the R.J. Reynolds tobacco fortune, the
couple also have been major contributors to Democratic Party candidates.
They have been frequent guests of Democratic presidents and Mrs. Bagley is
a former U.S. ambassador to Portugal.

 Founded in 1952 with R.J. Reynolds tobacco money as the Nancy Reynolds
Bagley Foundation, the Bagley lobbying organization was renamed the Arca
Foundation in 1968, with the objective of "improving human
conditions." In the 1980s, it funded lobbying efforts against U.S.
policy in Central America. Since 1987, Arca has been interested mostly in
Cuba.

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