CubaMinrex. Sitio del Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores de Cuba

Despite Budget Crisis, Obama Wants More Funds for Anti-Cuba Ops.       

CUBA, March 11, 2011.- The federal budget proposed by the administration of U.S. President Barack Obama for 2012 would increase funds for its U.S. Interests Section in Havana and the State Department’s Office of Cuban Affairs by more than four million USD, an increase of 34 percent, U.S. documents reveal.

  In fiscal year 2012, the USIS would receive for its operations 11.741 million USD, a 34.4 percent increase over its current budget of 8.735 million USD in fiscal year 2011, which ends in September, according to the documents linked to the website cubamoneyproject.org, run by U.S. journalist and professor Tracey Eaton.

The figures are included in the Congressional Budget Justification, submitted by the Obama administration to the U.S. Congress on Feb. 14.

The U.S. Interests Section is used as an organizing center for subversive activities against the Cuban government, including the financing and organizing of so-called "dissident" groups, according to the Cuban documentary, Los Peones del Imperio (The Empire’s Pawns). The film shows two Cuban State Security agents who infiltrated several of these so-called dissident groups, revealing their close ties to the U.S. Interests Section.

While the State Department funds for the U.S. Interests Section would be increased by more than 34 percent, the number of State Department employees in the Interests Section would remain the same, at 19, according to the document.

Similarly, the number of staffers in the State Department’s Office of Cuban Affairs would remain the same at eight, even though the office would receive additional funds of more than one million USD for 2012.

The Office of Cuban Affairs would receive 3.608 million USD, a 42.8 percent jump over the 2.526 million it received in 2011, according to the budget document.

Along the same lines of funding for subversive anti-Cuban programs, the proposed 2012 budget allocates 30.5 million USD for broadcasters Radio and TV Martí.

In addition, the Obama administration proposes spending 20 million USD in 2012 for so-called pro-democracy programs in Cuba, principally through the U.S. government agency USAID. Since 1996, that agency has spent at least 140 million on such programs, according to Eaton.

The cubamoney project report noted that the huge increases for State Department spending on Cuba come at the same time that the State Department is requesting an overall budget increase of just 1 percent, and making "drastic cuts elsewhere."

In all, the total funds formally requested by the Obama Administration from Congress to finance the U.S. government’s policies against Cuba during the 2012 fiscal year roughly amounts to 62.24 million USD, including for the USIS, USAID and Radio/TV Martí. (Cubaminrex-PL)