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CHAPTER V: INTENSIFICATION OF THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION'S POLICY OF HOSTILITY TOWARDS CUBA. THE THREAT OF MILITARY AGGRESSION LOOMS CLOSER
A constant feature of the 45 years since Cuba's revolutionary triumph has been the threats, pronouncements and acts of aggression by successive US governments aimed at reversing the revolutionary process launched by the Cuban people.
The actions of the Bush administration over the last three years have served to confirm that US policy on Cuba is to seek the overthrow of the Cuban government. Use of the euphemism "promote a transition to democracy and respect for human rights" is associated, according to US spokespersons, with a certain urgency, being an objective that should be achieved rapidly.
The so-called rapid transition to "democracy" in Cuba has become the guiding principle for decision-making at the various levels of US government involved in formulating and applying the policy on Cuba. In a recent statement by Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs, Roger Noriega, he went so far as to say that the President was committed to seeing the end of the Castro regime, and that the administration was moving rapidly and inexorably in that direction.
The possibility of military aggression by the United States against Cuba is as real now as in the period preceding the mercenary invasion at Playa Girón (Bay of Pigs). This is reflected in the expansion and intensification of US aggression towards Cuba in a wide variety of spheres, and notably in threatening announcements made in both Washington and Miami against a background of sabre-rattling on an unprecedented, global scale by the ruling circles in Washington. The imperialist character of the perceptions and predictions revealed in the US National Security Strategy, officially submitted on 17th September 2002, leaves no room for doubt.
Such a strategy clearly states that the time has come to reaffirm the key role of America's military might, while emphasizing to an unprecedented degree the role of the use of force. The superpower's belief in its right to resort to unilateral pre-emptive attack has been apparent in the rhetoric of its most senior representatives and even more clearly in its decision-making, as dramatically shown by its predatory war on Iraq.
The US National Security Strategy unequivocally asserts that, while the United States will always do its utmost to secure the cooperation of the international community, it will not hesitate to act alone should this prove necessary for reasons of self defence, by means of pre-emptive action.
In other words, the United States will turn to the UN and other forums within the international system only when these are prepared to act in a way that supports its plans for hegemonic world domination, thus revealing its contempt for multilateralism.
The concept of "pre-emptive attack" is not new, but has never before been perilously elevated to the category of doctrine within the only superpower's national security strategy.
In a speech to cadets at the West Point military academy on 1st June 2002, president Bush publicly announced his resolve to subjugate all nations to the will of his government, proclaiming that every nation must decide whether it is with the United States or in favour of terrorism.
The unshakeable determination of the Cuban people to enjoy to the full its right to self-determination is clearly an obstacle to the imperialist plans of the US ruling circles, not because of Cuba's economic or military might but because of the political and moral challenge posed by the stance of a small nation in America's traditional 'backyard'. That is why so many US documents on national security of recent date have again included reference to Cuba as an alleged "threat".
The notion of Cuba as a threat to the security of the United States has been created on the strength of false pretexts repeatedly employed in their speeches by certain senior officials of the present US administration, including alleged links with terrorism and the narcotics trade, the existence of Cuban programmes for the "development of biological weapons of mass destruction", and the risk of a flood of migrants to Florida. Each of these false statements has been publicly refuted and thwarted by the Cuban government, with the aid of evidence whose validity the United Nations has been unable to deny.
The following is an account in chronological sequence of just some of events indicative of the American government's escalating hostility towards Cuba:
Year 2001
- Several senior officials of the Bush administration confirm there will be no turning back from the policies on Cuba of blockade and isolation.
- Washington announces as a high priority the submission of an anti-Cuba resolution to the 57th session of the Commission on Human Rights and reinstates Cuba on its list of nations allegedly supporting terrorism ("justifying" this action by reference to the residence in Cuba of US fugitives and former ETA militants, the presence in Cuba of representatives of the Colombian ELN and FARC as well as its links with other terrorist regimes —accusations that were completely refuted by Cuba).
- Otto Reich and other Cuban-born figures, including Mauricio Tamargo and Josefina Carbonell, declared enemies of revolutionary Cuba, are appointed to high executive office. Many had been involved in terrorist operations or plans for subversion or aggression against Cuba.
- There are repeated denials of visas to Cuban officials, citing an alleged potential threat to US national security.
- In July, Bush announces stricter application of the blockade as regards travel and remittances, while promising more aid for his mercenary groups in Cuba and other actions designed to incite subversion; also orders a search for ways to stop jamming of illegal radio and TV broadcasts to Cuba.
- In the wake of the events of 11th September, the Bush administration seizes the opportunity created by the climate of extreme anti-terrorist sentiment among the US public to intensify its strategy against Cuba. A propaganda campaign is launched with the aim of consolidating the fiction of Cuban complicity in the incitement of terrorism, backed up by the unfair and unacceptable inclusion of Cuba on the "list of terrorist countries" drawn up unilaterally by the superpower. The maneuvers to this end were as follows:
... Public statements by government officials distorting, concealing or negating Cuba's true position on terrorism. There was no acknowledgement of the condolences and offers of aid (use of Cuban airports, hospital services in Cuba, blood for the injured, antibiotics, anthrax detection kits) officially proffered by the Cuban government following the 11th September outrages. They even put about the lie the Cuba was the only country in the hemisphere that had not joined in the expressions of solidarity with and support for the United States.
... Stepping up of a campaign to link Cuba to terrorism, accusing us of opposing US anti-terrorism efforts.
... Reducing the area of free circulation of the diplomatic officials of the Cuban Interests Section in Washington by six-sevenths (from 5,000 square km to 706).
Year 2002
Plans to fabricate "arguments" on terrorism in order to lend "credibility" to the alleged Cuban threat are consolidated, involving misrepresentation of the advances made by Cuba's biotechnology industry. Cuba's potential involvement in bio-terrorism —the spreading of false allegations about alleged programmes for developing biological weapons in Cuba— becomes the principal and most serious anti-Cuba accusation deployed by the US government to justify its hostility, maintain and intensify the blockade and attempt to stem the tide of opinion at home in favour of a change in the policy on Cuba. Among the statements designed to advance these aims were those by John Bolton and Carl Ford to the effect that Cuba was undertaking a offensive research and development effort in the field of biological weapons. Cuba's inclusion on the "terrorist list" is confirmed, on the strength of the false claim that it had not joined the global war on terrorism led by the Bush administration.
The statements of several principal US government spokespersons to Congress and the press become more frequent and more serious in tone, ruling out any easing of the policy on Cuba, repeating the false accusations linking Cuba with terrorism and condemning Cuba's alleged violation of human rights.
Over 34 persons
either Cuban-born or with a high-profile role in US anti-Cuba policy (Melquiades
Martínez, Otto Reich, Dan Fisk) are appointed to important posts on
the executive .
Imposed appointment on 11th January of Otto Reich as Assistant Secretary of
State for Western Hemisphere Affairs. The climate of bilateral exchanges deteriorates
due to the aggressive stances adopted by the State Department and the US Interests
Section in Havana.
Political and diplomatic maneuvers proliferate aimed at getting another anti-Cuba resolution passed at the Commission on Human Rights in Geneva.
There is a rise in the number of denials of visas for Cuban senior officials and specialists in various sectors planning to visit the United States (some 200 applications were rejected, involving officials, artists, researchers and scientists).
The Bush administration takes systematic action to frustrate the efforts of American farmers seeking trade with Cuba and to hinder Cuba's food purchases under special arrangements by imposing unduly severe restrictions. It bans any form of US funding, public or private, for Cuba's purchases and publicly threatens to veto the Treasury spending bill if it includes any such provision.
Cuba's proposals for cooperation on the war on terrorism and combating the drugs trade are rejected, as are those for strengthening bilateral cooperation on migration.
There is an increase in the harassment and penalizing of US citizens who exercise their right to travel to Cuba (hundreds receive warning letters, fines increase for individuals and firms, permits are revoked).
- Subversive activities in Cuba get more financial and material aid, with open support from the official (USAID) cooperation agency and the US Interests Section in Havana (including supply of subversive printed material and videos, distribution of radios with special devices for use in subversion operations, etc).
Year 2003
The US policy of hostility towards Cuba was intensified on all fronts during 2003. The Bush administration launched an escalating series of aggressive, provocative measures.
Significant examples were the upturn in infractions of the Migration Accords and the encouragement, condoning and exoneration of illegal migration.
Departing from the practice of previous years, between 1st October 2002 and 28th February 2003 the United States granted only 505 visas to Cuban immigrants, or 2.5% of the total specified in the bilateral migration agreements. This declining trend in the issue of visas foreshadowed a failure to meet the quota stipulated in these agreements and evoked protests by the Cuban authorities.
Between 19th March and 10th April 2003, while the United States was allegedly waging war on terrorism, two passenger aircraft were hijacked and diverted to the United States with the same modus operandi used to seize the planes that were crashed into the Twin Towers in New York.
Both aircraft, having been seized by force, were arbitrarily confiscated by the US government authorities, who also refused to extradite the perpetrators.
By contrast, the Cuban hostages in these acts of terrorism who asked to return to Cuba were handcuffed, searched, detained for several days, told they would have remain in the United States and were even forced to wear prison uniforms, in violation of their most basic human rights.
The US policy of tolerance and impunity towards crimes of this nature has effectively encouraged recurrences. During the period mentioned, investigations by the Cuban authorities revealed 29 planned hijackings of vessels and aircraft involving the use of force. The would-be hijackers were low-lifes or individuals with a long history of criminal activity; many had had visa applications to visit relatives in America, or to settle there legally, refused by the US authorities.
By contrast, Cuba has complied strictly with its obligations in the combating of terrorism and aircraft hijackings. Between 1968 and 1984, a total of 71 planes were hijacked in the United States and diverted to Cuba. 69 of the perpetrators of these crimes were tried in Cuba, sentenced and, in most cases, left Cuba after serving their sentences. Cuba's consistent policy effectively stopped the hijacking and diversion of aircraft from the United States to Cuba. Having repeatedly announced that it would do so, on 18th September 1980 Cuba even sent back two hijackers of an American airplane, to face trial in the US. (See the statement by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Cuba dated 2nd May 2003).
On 11th December last year, the trial was concluded at the Key West, Florida federal court of the perpetrators of the hijacking in flight on 19th March 2003 of a Cuban DC-3 aircraft owned by Aerotaxi. The six defendants were found guilty of air piracy and other charges related to this serious crime; they are currently awaiting sentence. The Cuban government went on record as considering the sanctioning of the hijackers as a favourable sign, contributing to efforts to prevent acts of violence associated with attempts to emigrate. (See the statement by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Cuba dated 14th December 2003).
Illegal emigration to the United States has been encouraged by other measures adopted by the US authorities, including: a dramatic reduction in visas granted to Cuban citizens wishing to visit relatives there; failure to send back to Cuba illegal immigrants intercepted on the high seas (as stipulated in the bilateral migration accords); and the absence of decisive action against the people-smugglers.
The crowning event was on 5th January 2004, three days before the date proposed by Cuba for a new round of bilateral talks on migration. US officials told their Cuban counterparts that the talks could not be held until the Cuban authorities demonstrated a genuine interest in seriously addressing aspects 'very important' to an orderly, legal and safe migratory flow between the two countries. (See the statement by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Cuba dated 5th January 2004).
The aspects in question, while in truth secondary and quite irrelevant to the effectiveness of the migration accords, had been fully discussed in the earlier rounds of talks. The hawks of the war-mongering extreme right wing of Mr. Bush's administration and several representatives of the Cuban-American terrorist mob who have secured high office in this government, seek the failure of the migration accords and a resulting crisis that would facilitate recourse to an act of war against Cuba. The United States cannot expect Cuba to make unilateral concessions when America has so often shown her lack of will or commitment to the letter and spirit of the accords.
Against this background of tremendous challenges, Cuba is still making progress in facilitating its communications with Cuban residents abroad. On 27th September 2003, speaking at a meeting held in New York attended by some 300 Cubans resident in the United States, Minister of Foreign Affairs Felipe Pérez Roque announced the holding of the Third 'Conference on the Nation and Emigration' in Havana in May 2004, together with measures to simplify the entry procedures for Cubans resident abroad.
The latter decision, which was communicated to Cubans abroad via our embassies and consulates, will in practice abolish the entry visa, with effect from the second quarter of 2004, for all those who hold a current and otherwise valid Cuban passport.
The entry visa for Cuban residents abroad was introduced in view of an overriding need to protect the Cuban people from the terrorist attacks that have been occurring on the island for over 40 years, perpetrated by individuals and groups trained, funded and given logistical support in the United States, where they have enjoyed a climate of impunity.
Abolition of the entry visa is an important decision on the part of the Cuban government, and is designed to facilitate the contacts of Cubans living overseas with their homeland and relatives. It is consistent with Cuba's policy towards its émigrés, and was decided in spite of a resulting increase in US hostility towards Cuba and of the continuing hidden peril of acts of terrorism by the Miami-based extreme right wing.
The introduction of new measures designed to harass our people at the Cuban Interests Section in Washington and the Cuban Mission to the UN are further expressions of US policy on Cuba during this period.
During the 13 months up to January 2004, the United States arbitrarily expelled 19 Cuban diplomats from Washington and New York. (See the statement by Rafael Daussá, Director for North America at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Cuba, dated 7th January 2004).
On 12th and 13th May 2003, via the Cuban Mission to the UN and the Cuban Interests Section in Washington, the US administration announced its decision to declare 14 Cuban diplomats with both missions personas non grata. The list included several members of the Washington consular staff, who were falsely accused of undertaking activities, regarded as injurious to US interests, beyond their official duties. Despite an official request by Cuba, not a shred of evidence to support these allegations has been offered.
On 4th January, The Washington Post published an article by the journalist Robin Wright which quoted unidentified State Department officials as saying that the Cuban diplomat Roberto Socorro García of the Interests Section in Washington had been deported from the United States in December for activities related to the narcotics trade.
Cuba rejected and completely refuted these unfounded accusations, while Washington was unable to prove otherwise. The apparent "leaking" to the press of the allegation in question is quite consistent with the longstanding policy of manipulation for the purposes of anti-Cuba propaganda, whose function is to fabricate pretexts for pre-planned measures to step up hostilities against Cuba. It seems they now propose to revive an already-discredited campaign aimed at smearing Cuba with involvement in narcotics trafficking.
Provocative and subversive activities by the US Interests Section in Havana have also increased sharply, paving the way for a military strike against Cuba.
Even before his arrival, the present Head of the US Interests Section in Cuba had started to intensify the open provocations and all the other forms of interference used by the US to incite, orchestrate, finance and otherwise stimulate the subversive activities of the mercenary organizations that support the superpower in its quest for domination. The officials of this diplomatic mission, whose ranks include several agents of the US intelligence services, vastly increased the number of their monitoring visits to illegal immigrants sent back to Cuba, as a pretext for carrying out subversive operations throughout Cuba. The Interests Section offices, together with their Chief's official residence, quickly became subversion training and command centres.
Funding for subversion
in Cuba has been increased substantially.
The United States has substantially increased the overt and covert funding
of its mercenary organizations in Cuba, which it seeks to portray as defenders
of human rights and as a peaceful political opposition.
USAID has expanded its operations and increased its funding. Since 1997, this federal agency has allocated over 27 million dollars to applying Section 109 of the “Helms Burton Act” and has dispatched more than a million subversive leaflets, and over 7,000 radio receivers able to tune into subversive radio channels. Anti-Cuba congressmen plan to approve an annual budget for financing subversion of 15 million dollars this year in Congress. That would be an increase of 10 million dollars a year compared with budget approved for 1962.
Restrictions on travel to Cuba by US citizens have reached new levels of severity.
US federal agents have tightened up the measures against travel to Cuba: over 1,226 US citizens have received a letter from the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), twice as many as in the last four years of the Clinton administration. These notices represent the first stage in a legal process against US citizens for infringing Treasury Department regulations on travel to Cuba, an offence that can carry a fine of thousands of dollars and even lead to imprisonment. On instructions from the White House, the Department of Homeland Security has committed its intelligence resources to detection of illegal trips to Cuba.
The so-called "people to people" contacts have been banned.
On March 24, 2003, the US government intensified its blockade of Cuba, doing away with the permit that authorized educational people – to – people contacts between our peoples and thus grossly limiting the scarce number of permits that had traditionally been issued for academic and cultural exchanges between both nations.
Additionally, a growing number of Cuban artists, intellectuals, academics and scientists invited to participate in conferences held in the United States were denied visas to travel.
Radio and television broadcasts of a subversive nature have grown in number.
On May 20, 2003, the radio broadcast station created by the United States of America to promote subversive activities within Cuba went on the air with four new frequencies, causing interference and disturbances in Cuban radio transmissions.
That same day, a C-130 plane belonging to the American Air Force broadcasted a subversive anti-Cuba television signal prepared by the US government, from 18.00 to 20.00 hours, utilizing channels and systems legally assigned to Cuban television stations and that are duly registered with the ITU.
These acts constitute genuine and gross violations of international law and the norms and regulations established by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), and in particular of its Radio-communication Regulations, which prohibit the broadcasting of television signals beyond national borders and the production of interference which is detrimental to broadcast services in other States.
As of September, the use of satellites in anti-Cuba radio and television broadcasts has begun. As part of this radio-electronic bombardment, some 2 220 weekly hours of Cuba-bound television and radio signals are broadcast from the United States. False information and deceiving messages designed to foster subversive practices in Cuba, encourage illegal emigration and artificially bring about a crisis that can provide the pretext for an act of military aggression against Cuba are transmitted from governmental and privately-owned broadcast stations.
Cuba has been included in every single report drafted by the US State Department, on such diverse matters as drug trafficking, terrorism, biological weapons, human rights, trafficking in persons, religious freedom, and others.
On April 30, 2003, the US government presented its annual “Patterns of Global Terrorism” report. In said document, Cuba was once again included in the list of countries that supposedly sponsor terrorism at an international level. Currently, the list includes seven countries: Iraq, Iran, Syria, Sudan, Libya, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea and Cuba. The contents of this list “just happen” to include countries that represent an important obstacle to US plans of hegemonic domination.
Never has the Government of the United States been able, nor will it be able, to prove Cuba’s participation in an act of terrorism. With the course of time, its false arguments have been systematically wasted away, a fact which has even led a number of US government officials to recognize that the inclusion of Cuba in this list is merely a political instrument being used against our country.
Paradoxically, it is the United States that has, through vacuous, irrational and utterly baseless arguments, rejected Cuba’s proposal to officially adopt a Bilateral Program aimed at combating terrorism, submitted to the US government on November 29, 2001 and re-submitted on December 3, 2001, March 12, 2002 and December 17, 2002, on the occasion of the 19th Round of Migratory Talks held by both countries.
Revolutionary Cuba’s policy with respect to terrorism leaves no room for questioning of any sort, and much less when such questioning originates in Washington. Cuba condemns all terrorist acts, methods and practices, whatever their form, expression or motivation may be, wherever or by whoever they may be carried out, and against whoever they may be committed. In the same fashion, it condemns all acts that seek to encourage, support, finance or conceal any terrorist act, method or practice.
Perhaps as no other nation in the world, Cuba has known the repercussions of terrorist actions. Since the first days of the Revolution, Cuban men, women and children have been victims of the cruelest and most merciless of terrorisms, many a time sponsored, protected, financed and organized by the very Government of the United States and by its protégés in anti-Cuba organizations stationed in Miami.
We have seen the continued and intensified harassment, torture and inhumane treatment of the five, anti-terrorist Cuban fighters unjustly convicted in the United States and their relatives.
The Government of the United States applies arbitrary punitive measures against five young Cubans who were unjustly convicted for seeking out information that would allow Cuba to protect itself against terrorist activities conducted by organizations stationed in Florida. Federal agencies continue to sabotage the process of appeal, to add more obstacles in the way of consular visits and all contact with their relatives, to unjustifiably delay the granting of visas to relatives of these five anti-terrorist fighters and to deny the wives of Gerardo and René access to the United States so that they may visit their spouses, as they do with René’s small daughter.
Campaigns aiming to have Cuba condemned within multi-lateral organizations and to internationalize a policy of hostility toward Cuba have grown in number.
The Government of the United States did everything in its power and used every sort of pressure and influence to have Cuba condemned at the UN’s Commission on Human Rights and the Organization of American States; they failed in both cases.
In the same fashion, leaning primarily on the services of their unconditional allies in the European Union, Aznar and Berlusconi, the United States managed to completely subordinate the European Union in the design of its policies toward Cuba, drawing it into complicity with its imperialist and hostile policies against the Cuban people.
Anti-Cuba propaganda campaigns have escalated significantly in the United States.
Administration spokespersons have voiced numerous declarations of a dangerously aggressive tone, invoking pretexts such as the just conviction of over 70 paid mercenaries who were at the service of the policies of hostility directed against Cuba by the United States.
The Department of State’s website was used to publicize stories about Cuban counter-revolutionary currents and publish five pamphlets of the crudest anti-Cuba propaganda imaginable, in issues relating to the economy, foreign debt, the situation of inaptly-called political prisoners, US policies toward Cuba and espionage.
The holding of a new US Food and Agribusiness Exhibition has been prohibited in the United States.
Following the two successful Food and Agribusiness Exhibition held by private US companies in Havana in 2002 and 2003, the US government prohibited the holding of a new business exhibition in Cuba.
A presidential commission known as the “Commission for Assistance to a Free Cuba”, co-chaired by Secretary of State Collin Powell and Secretary of Housing Melquiades Martínez, has been created.
On the past 10th of October, the US president delivered a speech loaded with threats directed at Cuba, announcing new punitive measures to be taken against the island, the creation of a “Commission for Assistance to a Free Cuba” to be included among them. The Commission is co-chaired by the American Secretary of State, Colin Powell, and by Melquíades Martínez, a faithful representative of Miami’s terrorist mob in Bush administration; its fundamental task would be the counsel and submit proposals to the president, in order to materialize his intention of intensifying the blockade and stepping up subversive activities and the existing policy of aggression against Cuba, with the ultimate aim of overthrowing Cuba’s revolutionary government. (See: Declaration of the Ministry of Foreign Relations of the Republic of Cuba of October 13, 2003).
In a seminar organized by USAID’s Cuba Transition Project, held on January 16 of the present year, the Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs, Roger Noriega, declared that the Commission for Assistance to a Free Cuba plans on submitting an initial report by May 1st of 2004.
An active executive opposition against any attempt at modifying current policies toward Cuba in Congress has intensified.
High-ranking officials in the US government linked to anti-Cuba policies repeatedly announced the intention of the Executive Branch to veto any bill designed to moderate, even if only partially, existing blockade policies toward Cuba.
Faced with this permanent threat and in order to avoid a situation in which the President saw himself forced to veto a bill enjoying bi-partisan support in an electoral year, on November 12, 2003 the US Congress’ bicameral Conference Committee examining the bill on Budget Allocations for the Treasury and Transportation Departments decided to eliminate, in a wholly undemocratic fashion and in violation of Congress norms and regulations, the bill’s amendment that called for more flexibility in restrictions falling on US citizens traveling to Cuba. This took place despite the fact that this amendment had been approved by a substantial majority, in the US Senate and Chamber alike. (See: Declaration of the Ministry of Foreign Relations of the Republic of Cuba of November 13, 2003).
In 2003, declarations by US representatives directing threats toward Cuba became more frequent and more aggressive. Among them, we may mention the following:
.. On April 10, the US ambassador to the Dominican Republic, Hans Hertell, close friend of president Bush, declared that: “...what's happening in Iraq is going to send a very positive signal, and it's a very good example for Cuba”, adding that “war against Iraq is the beginning of a liberating crusade to “democratize” all of the world’s nations”.
.. The following day, Florida governor Jeb Bush, brother of US president Bush, stated that: “after the ‘success’ in the war in Iraq, the United States should turn its look to the ‘neighborhood’ and pressure the international community so that the Cuban regime can not continue”.
.. On April 13, asked if an act of military aggression against Cuba would at one point be considered by the administration, the Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld declared: “We hope they have the opportunity to say what they want, and practice freedom of religion and freedom of speech, freedom of assembly”, without totally closing the door to the possibility of a US military action in Cuba.
.. In April, representatives of the US government made threatening and hypocritical declarations, stating their country would not tolerate a massive exodus of US-bound Cuban migrants.
.. On April 25, the Head of US Department of State’s Office of Cuban Affairs informed the Head of the Cuban Interests Section in Washington that the Office of Homeland Security attached to the National Security Council considered that the continuing hijackings taking place in Cuba constituted “a serious threat to US national security”, as though the United States has not encouraged and tolerated the criminal activities of traffickers and terrorist hijackers.
.. On May 4, asked about the possibility of the US “liberating” Cuba, Secretary of State Colin Powell replied he did not think it appropriate to consider it at the time, if the question referred to the use of military force for that particular objective. Note how the phrase utilized by Powell leaves the door open to a military action in Cuba in an unspecified future.
.. In a letter dated May 27, Cuban-American Republican congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen expressed to President Bush: “Mr. President, under your leadership the United States has witnessed the liberation of the people of Afghanistan and Iraq (…) I want to offer you proposals and recommendations that will allow your administration to plot a course of action that will help hasten a change of regime a mere 90 miles away from American coastlines”, clearly alluding to Cuba.
.. On June 4, 2003 in a speech delivered before the House of Representative’s Committee of International Relations, Under Secretary for Arms Control and International Security John Bolton expressed: “although Cuba has ratified the Biological Weapons Convention, we believe it has at least a limited offensive biological warfare research and development effort. Cuba has provided dual-use biotechnology to other rogue states. We are concerned that such technology could support bioweapons programs in those states. Furthermore, Cuba’s biotechnology industry is a top national priority and is characterized by its dual use, sophisticated equipment, modern facilities, generous funding and highly qualified personnel”.
.. On June 18, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Dan Fisk declared that “the United States has adopted a number of actions since the last wave of arrests and convictions [referring to the 75 mercenaries who were convicted for lending their services to the US’ anti-Cuba policies of hostility], but it won’t be making any information available to citizens, future actions are being analyzed, some of which you’ll see and others not”, tacitly declaring that a significant part of these actions will be conducted in covert operations.
.. On October 2, 2003, before an audience in the US Senate’s Committee of Foreign Relations, Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs Roger Noriega ratified the Bush administration’s policy of growing hostility and aggression toward Cuba, announcing a new plan of subversive actions to be carried out against our country and reiterating the cynical claims that Cuba is developing a limited bioweapons program. (See: Declaration of the Ministry of Foreign Relations of the Republic of Cuba, October 5, 2003)
.. On October 10, 2003, President Bush affirmed that: “Cuba will not change by itself, but Cuba has to change”. On this occasion, Bush made a new, infamous anti-Cuba remark in declaring that Cuba’s government encourages illicit sex trade.
.. On December 19, White House Special Envoy Otto Reich stated that “the United States is exceedingly concerned at the constant reports of the presence of Cuban agents in Venezuela”, crudely distorting the fraternal presence of over 10 thousand Cuban doctors and teachers in Venezuela who support its literacy campaign.
.. On January 6, 2004, among other stated lies and threats directed at our country, US Undersecretary of State for Interamerican Affairs Roger Noriega criticized Cuba for “supporting destabilizing elements within several democratic countries in America”. He pointed out that “it must be made very clear to Fidel Castro that his efforts to destabilize Latin America are increasingly provoking to the Inter-American community, including the United States”, adding that “those who continue to destabilize democratically elected governments by intervening in the internal affairs of other governments are playing with fire”. In addition to this, he stated that “his country and other neighbors are closely following what the Cuban leader does in his latest ventures”, claiming that the Cuban Head of State was “in his last days”. (See: Editorial in Granma, Official Newspaper of the Communist Party of Cuba, January 8, 2004).
.. On January 16 of the present year, at a seminar for USAID’s Cuba Transition Project, Roger Noriega conveyed his government’s decision to continue “cooperating with international organizations and keeping the multilateral community focused on Castro's continued human rights abuses”, confirming the will to continue manipulating the work of such organizations as the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) to serve US policies of hostility toward Cuba.
The threat of a military action in Cuba is today a reality. Thousands of figures of world renown, even some who are American, believe this.
In the “Call to the world’s conscience”, first pronounced in Mexico in April of 2003 and read by Mexican analyst and sociologist Pablo González Casanova before more than a million Cubans, over five thousand renowned personalities, artists, intellectuals, academics and political analysts from all latitudes at Cuba´s José Martí Plaza de la Revolución on May 1st, it was denounced that “a harsh campaign against a Latin American nation exists today. The harassment to which Cuba is subjected could be the pretext for an invasion. Against this threat, we hold up the universal principles of national sovereignty, respect for territorial integrity and the right to self-determination, indispensable to the just co-existence of nations”.
Adding their voices to this call, among others, were Nobel Prize winners Rigoberta Menchú, Nadine Gordimer, Adolfo Pérez Esquivel and Gabriel García Márquez, as well as innumerable figures, such as Mario Benedetti, Ernesto Cardenal, Oscar Niemeyer, Harry Bellafonte and Danny Glover.
In May of 2003, the A.N.S.W.E.R. coalition (Act Now to Stop the War and End Racism) stationed in the United States also issued an urgent appeal for solidarity with Cuba, aimed at the US’ and all of the world’s anti-war and pro-peace movements.
In its appeal,
A.N.S.W.E.R emphasized that, in recent weeks, a series of events had taken
place in US-Cuba relations, that the Bush administration had taken its hostilities
toward Cuba to a new level, and that there were growing signs that Bush was
attempting to provoke a new crisis and possibly a war against Cuba.
(See: http://www.internationalanswer.org)
The information presented and the aggressive actions and declarations of the US government against Cuba evidence a willingness, on behalf of the Bush administration, to fabricate any pretext, no matter how insane, in its attempt to justify before American and international public opinion its hostile policy against the people of Cuba, its criminal economic, commercial and financial blockade and even a direct act of military aggression.
This far from exhaustive catalogue of the most significant, aggressive anti-Cuba actions and declarations by the United States confirms, as our government has repeatedly denounced, that Cuba has been targeted by a plan designed to artificially bring about a crisis and set the conditions for a confrontation between both countries, to unleash a direct military action and, with this, an attempt at re-instating a regime of neocolonial domination in Cuba.
When asked directly, not one US government leader or spokesperson has excluded the possibility of employing military force against Cuba. On the contrary, the circumstantial or opportunity factor is repeatedly invoked (“not at this time, not now”).
The situation is getting worse in 2004, this being an electoral year. We cannot discard the notion that President Bush will resort to a military action in Cuba if it proves necessary for his re-election plans and, in particular, in order to secure the support of the political machinery of the Cuban-American terrorist mob in Miami.
Furthermore, all of these actions are clear indications of the growing desperation experienced by Washington’s and Miami’s extreme right, faced with the survival and renewed spirits of the Cuban revolution and with the urgent need to efface the example it offers, within a context of changes which do not automatically subordinate themselves to US interests in Latina America and the complete discredit brought to its neo-liberal recipes.
The escalation in acts of US aggression against and provocation of Cuba contrasts dramatically with the behavior of Cuba’s government and people, who have demonstrated on numerous occasions their readiness and willingness to work toward improving bilateral relations between both countries and to promote relations and friendship between both peoples.
