Bob Menéndez: Like the Naked Neck Rooster

It's about these days, almost 51 years ago, when my first mother-in-law gave me the task as a chicken killer, I didn’t know what I was getting into with a work apparently simple, but that it was as surprise as complicated.

Seven times I twisted the rooster’s neck, and seven times it landed on its legs, on to top of all, as if nothing happened, it just went on eating "what chicken eats." Frustrated, I watched as my mother-in-law took a knife and cut off the poor animal. A rooster those called naked neck, with an extremely long neck. It was the only way to end its existence.

This quite trivial anecdote, because it is, comes in handy to the work of one of the most conspicuous and veteran American legislators of unfortunate Cuban origin, Robert «Bob» Menéndez, now accused of dirty business.

It’s not the first time that the aforementioned is related to criminal activity, but only once formal charges were presented, which were dropped without any explanation.

He has always come through in all these troubles and maintaining hegemonic conditions in Congress, as a highlighted lobbyist, that is, extra money maker, all legalized in what they also call "great tent."

Even The Associated Press, which surprisingly, apparently, does not sympathize with Bob, informed that the legal defense of the Democratic Senator for New Jersey is exhausting their resources to defend him, his wife and his relatives of the charges of corruption at the federal level pending on him.

This Friday, September 22, he was accused of secretly contacting the government of Egypt to prevent one of his friends from being prosecuted; so that didn’t happen, he would offer gold bars and cash.

According to the US government, it would be the use of political influences abroad for a merely personal benefit. This accusation is the second that weighs against him in at least eight years, since they ensure that the powerful Democratic Senator of New Jersey is prioritizing his personal business and ambitions, over public interest.

The president of the US Senate Foreign Affairs Committee would be "cultivating" relations with some of the richest men in the world. Menéndez's wife and three men of his inner circle were accused of receiving money, gold and luxury cars in exchange for actions in his name.

Hours after the most recent case was announced, the governor of New Jersey, the Democrat Phil Murphy, demanded the immediate resignation of Menéndez, saying that the accusations "are so serious, that they put at risk" the capacity of the senator to do his job. The leader of the majority in the Senate, Chuck Schemel, said that Menéndez will leave his position as president of the Foreign Relations Commission "until the matter has been resolved," but did not ask for his resignation.

Menéndez is also accused of trying to derail the criminal case against one of the entrepreneurs by pressing in order that Philip R. Kerlinger was installed as a federal prosecutor for New Jersey, because he believed he could influence Kerlinger. Prosecutors say they also tried to take advantage of their position of power to end up a different criminal investigation carried out by the New Jersey Attorney General's Office.

Authorities found gold bars for more than $ 100,000 cash, most of them hidden in cabinets, clothing and a safe. The photographs included in the formal accusation show the cash in envelopes found in jackets that had the name of Menéndez. The researchers discovered a Google search Menéndez ran to know the price of "gold kilogram", and a man's DNA - which according to prosecutors bribed him - in an envelope full of thousands of dollars in the legislator's house.

His procedure includes having written a letter without indicating the author of it, and having directed it to his senators to encourage them to raise a retention to an assistance of 300 million dollars to Egypt, and also have transmitted information to Egyptian authorities on military matters that were not public, according to the formal accusation.

In a statement released by email, Menéndez accused prosecutors of misrepresenting "the normal functioning of an office of the Congress", and said he will not allow "unfounded accusations" to distract him from his work in the Senate.

"For years, forces behind the scenes have repeatedly tried to silence my voice and dig my political tomb," said the legislator, son of Cuban immigrants. "Since this investigation was leaked almost a year ago, there is an active discredit campaign with anonymous sources and insinuations to create an air of irregularities where there's none."

Taking Advantage

This white-collar criminal has taken advantage of the enmity with Cuba to ascend in the rotten North American political world, spreading his attacks to Venezuela, and more recently to Mexico alongside two other anti-Cuban legislators, Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio; who president  Andrés Manuel López Obrador described as blackmailers in the cases of Cuba, Mexico and the IX Summit of the Americas.

He thoroughly criticized those three legislators of Cuban origin for their blackmail and anti -immigrant attitude, and responded to accusations that by defending the attendance of Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua at the summit, he was supporting dictatorships, and described him, in addition, as a drug dealer.

He replied that these senators are not interested in the human rights they constantly violate, and that the three supported 40 billion dollars in arms for Ukraine and reject 4,000 to solve migration issues in Central America.

He explained that they blackmail the Biden government and threaten not to vote in favor of initiatives of the president, if he didn’t rigorously apply punishment policies to Cuba, and Mexico.

He demanded evidence to presented that his government is ally to drug trafficking, confusing him with that of Felipe Calderón, who was indeed trafficking, and they supported him.

He criticized that the government of a country like the United States will be guided by dogmas, confrontation, hatred, and allow to be hostage of personal interests or groups that mediate with the pain and suffering of peoples.

But nothing so far has shifted Menéndez’s proceeding, who has systematically rejected any proposal to raise sanctions to Cuba and Venezuela, because "it would betray our democratic values and even increase the empowering of criminal dictators."

Now, apparently - because there’s never anything sure when it comes to doing justice in the United States - is like the poor naked neck rooster in the anecdote, who could fall again on its legs, if they do not enforce the law.

Translated by Amilkal Labañino / CubaSí Translation Staff