Long story short, Varela held up the Herald offices for 3.5 hours, using a "very real looking" plastic version of a MAC 11 Uzi. Police charged Varela with three counts of aggravated assault, which should send the Cuban native -- who was angry at the Herald's editorial policies -- to jail for the long haul.

Varela has toy gun, will travel

For better or for worse -- almost definitely the latter -- Varela is now the face of the angry, right-wing Cuban exile community to those outside of it. This, of course, is wrong. The leaders of South Florida's Cuban exile community don't go around scaring people with toy guns. No, they secretly stockpile real ones. Just a few weeks ago, prominent Cuban exile Santiago Alvarez was sentenced to four years in prison for harboring a cache of weapons that included six machine guns and a freaking grenade launcher! Between the Herald's bungling of the Marti-blemished reporters, the Alvarez story, and now this, it's been an ugly month for the Cubans. The virulently anti-Castro Cuban crowd has come off looking dangerous, crazy and dumb.

It's easy to want to side with them -- just look at that wheezy bearded dictator they oppose -- but the combination of all the above mentioned factors should just about snap any remaining ties between the Herald and White Miami and the Brown Miami that already seems utterly foreign to it, a different planet in its midst.

Anti-Castro Cubans have always had a large presence out in the wilds of the blogosphere, and blogs like Babalu and 26th Parallel have already dismissed Varela as a man who went into a tailspin after a divorce. But that ignores both the realities of the situation -- Varela's statements while holed up at One Herald Plaza certainly must be acknowledged as those of a man deeply distressed about the paper's editorial content -- and the perceptions of this story outside the Cuban community, where Varela is already being seen as just another nutcase in a sea of nutcases stocking up on machine guns in Lauderhill and buddying up with terrorists like Luis Posada Carriles.

Over at Stuck on the Palmetto, you can already see the non-Cuban community looking at the Cubans ever-more-askance, and across the blogosphere, the folks at SotP and some of the aforementioned Cuban blogs have been engaging in a trolling war in various comment sections. It's been funny to watch. Anytime a "Rick" (SotP) pops up on The Daily Pulp or Critical Miami, there's guaranteed to be a "Val" (Babalu) or a "Robert" (26th Parallel) not far behind. These little digs provide a small window into the larger relationship of the Cuban exile community with the larger South Florida population. It is a relationship that sours by the day, with those outside the Cuban exile community seeing only Varela, Alvarez and Posada Carriles in the faces of conservative Cubans.

And, hey, guilty as charged. I am just as guilty of wallowing in prejudgement as the next man, especially since the community in question stands by a political philosophy -- modern conservatism -- that I consider morally bankrupt and based on ignorance and greed. The Bushes -- Jeb and George both -- are seen as deep, decisive statesmen. All I see are a couple of shallow money whores for corporate interests -- just a couple more rapacious greedheads screwing the life out of the American Dream. It's easy to believe the worst of a community that dependably backs such horrific bloodsuckers. It's easy to read Babalu and wonder how many guns he has buried in his backyard.

Now where's my six months of paid vacation?

Over at The Daily Pulp's entry on this, The Pulp man himself ends with "This damn town needs some therapy. And quick."

I disagree. I think it's gone far beyond the abilities of therapy to heal. There is no trust to build on. Liberal Democratic whites are angry at Cuban exiles, who they believe are dangerous lunatics, and Cuban exiles are angry at liberal Democratic whites, because they consider Cubans to be dangerous lunatics. Therapy will no longer do this city a lick of good. To quote the Joker from the Batman movie, this town needs an enema.