Miami filmmaker Alfred Spellman catches Herald columnist Fabiola Santiago rewriting history

Filmmaker Alfred Spellman has caught the Miami Herald's most fraudulent columnist rewriting history.  

In a post on Facebook today, Spellman writes:

Why does the Miami Herald continue to allow Fabiola Santiago to pen barely literate columns that are littered with non sequiturs, poor grammar and invented facts?

This week, she clumsily rewrites the history of the Elian raid:

"The violent seizure was too much and carried out without exhausting other avenues — an affront to the freedom-loving, loyal Cuban-American community."

Of course, that's not what happened at all. Carl Hiaasen set the record straight two weeks after the raid:

On April 12, shortly after meeting face-to-face with Attorney General Janet Reno, Lazaro Gonzalez made the following declaration about his great-nephew Elian:

``Our position is we will not turn over the child - anywhere,'' he said. The government ``will have to take this child from me by force.''

Thus, Lazaro Gonzalez and his handlers set the scene for what happened in the pre-dawn hours last Saturday. By their own obstinance, they brought INS agents thundering into that house as surely as if they'd sent out engraved invitations.

By force. Lazaro's words, not Reno's. ``Force'' doesn't mean saying please, pretty please, open the door. It means large, impatient men with badges and guns - a harrowing three minutes for Elian and everyone inside that house.

And they're right: It didn't need to happen. Up until the final hours, Lazaro and his family could have avoided the whole ugly mess.