Like the Cuban government’s constant fumigation inside
dwellings and buildings to combat the mosquitoes that attack its people with
the Dengue virus, it also continues to swat the U.S.’s discreet attempts to
convert its people.
The U.S. has again been criticized for clandestine
operations in Cuba. I have never
understood why our government thinks we are perfect and should try to fix the
world. Sometimes we are allegedly
protecting ourselves from some danger. But Cuba isn’t a danger to us in any
manner. And anyway, it seems our inept
attempts to fix it to what we believe is right (No, I don’t know who “we” is) has
again resulted in a comical, embarrassing failure that is making the Cuban
government angry and is not helping anything.
A few months ago, we learned that our government initiated a
fake social media communication scheme (known as “Cuban Twitter” or “ZunZuneo”)
to lure Cubans into joining, unknowingly setting themselves up to receive our
propaganda that was designed to incite them to take action against their
government. That action could easily
put those social media followers in danger, when they simply thought they were
finally able to follow social media. Their government could have believed they
were dissidents, whether or not they were. The ruse proved to Cuba that its
constant concern about open Internet use was a realistic worry.
That story was in the news for a while, causing us
embarrassment, and making us wonder whether Alan Gross, who is in a Cuban jail
for taking communication devices into the country, really was working for our
government. The articles quoted below
raise that same question. Our government has denied everything else about its
involvement other than facts that are so obvious they cannot be denied. But, as
is mentioned in some of these articles, some government officials admit the
infiltration, but deny any negative purpose.
Now, that the Cuban Twitter issue has somewhat disappeared
from the news, new allegations have arisen that may be even worse.
According to Associated Press reports this past week, the
United States “secretly dispatched young Latin Americans to Cuba using the
cover of health and civic programs to provoke political change, a clandestine
operation that put those foreigners in danger” The article even talks about
Alan Gross as an example of what could have happened to these young people .The
article states, “Beginning as early as October 2009, a project overseen by the
U.S. Agency for International Development sent Venezuelan, Costa Rican and
Peruvian young people to Cuba in hopes of ginning up rebellion. The travelers
worked undercover, often posing as tourists, and traveled around the island
scouting for people they could turn into political activists.”
The story continues, stating, “… their efforts were fraught
with incompetence and risk … Cuban authorities questioned who was bankrolling
the travelers. The young workers nearly blew their mission to ‘identify potential
social-change actors.’ One said he got a paltry, 30-minute seminar on how to
evade Cuban intelligence, and there appeared to be no safety net for the
inexperienced workers if they were caught. ‘Although there is never total
certainty, trust that the authorities will not try to harm you physically, only
frighten you,’ read a memo obtained by the AP. ‘Remember that the Cuban
government prefers to avoid negative media reports abroad, so a beaten
foreigner is not convenient for them.’”
Perhaps there hasn’t actually been an admission by U.S.
government agencies. The Havana Times this week reported, “The administration’s
clandestine programs in Cuba received the support of congressional Republicans
from Florida, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and Mario Diaz-Balart, who support actions to
‘promote democracy’ in Cuba.”
“That USAID is using measures to promote democracy in Cuba
is no secret,” said Ros-Lehtinen. This congresswoman believes in the need to ‘keep
the pressure on the Castro regime and continue to support the Cuban people, who
live under oppression every day.’”
Diaz-Balart said, “…the efforts of the Department of State
and USAID to bring information to the Cuban people and find creative ways for
Cubans to communicate among themselves and with the outside world, are
precisely the kind of activities that the United States should continue
conducting in closed societies.”
“America has a noble history of helping the oppressed
achieve freedom. We should continue to do so in Cuba and in any other corner of
the world where freedom is threatened,” said Diaz-Balart, who like Ros-Lehtinen
is Cuban origin.”
The AP article sure seems to have evidence that it was more
than just promoting democracy.
This week, an article with a AP Washington by-line was
posted, with the title of “Cuba rejects covert U.S. Youth Program.” The article
says a top Cuban diplomatic official stated that the U.S. government “has not desisted
in its hostile and interventionist plans against Cuba, which seek to create
destabilizing situations to provoke changes in our political order."
I have been in Cuba many times. I have seen poverty and
unhappiness. Yet, I have seen poverty and unhappiness throughout the world,
including the United States. I realize that Internet use and the ability to
communicate via social media is difficult in Cuba. But no wonder the government
continues to prevent such free communication.
I have never felt any danger, even when I am taking photos of areas that
travel groups are steered away from, and even when soldiers and police inquire
about what I am doing. Cuba has
initiated huge financial changes in in the past couple of years, some of which
we may not agree with. Some Cubans’
lives have improved as a result. Those who work for the government and its
hotels, restaurants, and other government-owned and operated enterprises, still
receive the paltry pay that definitely keeps them in the poverty level. But, again, probably no government is perfect
in how it addresses the needs of the masses.
If you recall, it was at the beginning of the Obama
administration that the U.S. opened Cuba travel to those visiting family and to
many types of groups. Many Cuban-Americans were delighted to be able to meet
family for the first time, or see family they had not seen since the 50s or
60s. But I begin to wonder whether the
opening up of travel and the ability to send items and money was the beginning
of a plan to do the kinds of things the U.S. government has apparently been
doing for years now.
Why does the U.S. government think it has to change the
world? Who decides which country to invade, which to bomb, and which to torment
and harass? Does anybody think about the ramifications of such silly,
poorly-planned activities as the U.S. government has apparently carried out in
Cuba?
AP Article: AP: U.S. Sent Latin American Youth Undercover In
Anti-Cuba Plot
AP Article: “Cuba
rejects covert U.S. Youth Program.”
