Cuban American National Foundation The Cuban American National Foundation (CANF) is a Cuban exile organization. Established in Florida in 1981 by Jorge Mas Canosa and Raúl Masvidal, CANF is an organization with numerous members in the United States and other countries. Following the death of Jorge Mas Canosa in November 1997, CANF began to lose its ideological cohesion provided by Mas Canosa, which led a substantial segment of its membership to split and form the Cuban Liberty Council in 2001. Overview CANF used to be a strong advocate for isolation of Cuba by the USA but in April 2009 they published an article calling for lifting US restrictions on aid and travel to Cuba, and aiding civil society groups there. 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. Between 1990 and 1992, it received a quarter million dollars from the National Endowment for Democracy, an organization financed by the US government. CANF also operates the radio station La Voz de la Fundación which it attempts to transmit to Cuba and led the effort to establish the U.S. Information Agency's Radio Martí (1985) and TV Martí (1990). Radio Martí and TV Martí are official U.S. broadcasting operations directed to the Cuban people. Mission The Cuban American National Foundation (CANF) claims as its mission, the unwavering commitment to bring freedom, democracy, and respect for human rights to Cuba. Arguing that sustainable change must come from within, CANF's mission aims to identify independent civil society leaders as agents of change, and support their efforts to restore and rebuild Cuban society – a society that they argue has suffered for generations under the repression of dictatorship. Founder In 1981 Cuban exile Jorge Mas Canosa founded the Cuban American National Foundation. Jorge Mas Canosa was born and raised in the city of Santiago de Cuba on September 21, 1939. As a student leader, Mas Canosa fought against the dictatorial oppression of first Batista and eventually Castro. He was forced to seek exile in Miami where he pursued what he saw as a free Cuba. He took part in the CIA sponsored Bay of Pigs Invasion. In the states, he married his high school sweetheart Irma Santos and started a family of three sons: Jorge, Juan Carlos, and Jose Ramon. Controversy The foundation has been accused by the Cuban government of planning and funding terrorist attacks within Cuba, including a September 1997 bombing that killed an Italian tourist in Havana. Most notably, the Cuban-born anti-Castro terrorist Luis Posada Carriles claimed in 1998 that he received financial support from the Cuban American National Foundation for a bombing campaign carried out in 1997, although he has denied ties with the fatal attack. Posada has also been linked with the 1976 bombing of Cubana Airlines flight 455, which killed 73 passengers (all of whom were civilians). In August 1997 CANF released a statement unconditionally supporting terrorist attacks against Cuba; the CANF chairman at the time stated that "We do not think of these as terrorist actions". Several ranking members of the CANF have been the subject of major drug trafficking prosecutions, and a few even had to step down from leadership positions at the institution due to drug trafficking charges, including Gaspar Jiménez and Rolando Mendoza. Additionally, militants associated with the CANF, such as Luis Posada Carriles (who claims to have been funded by Jorge Mas Canosa) and his Coordination of United Revolutionary Organizations (CORU) group, and the Contras (Pepe Hernández having been a Contra combatant,