All against Cuba?

Frida Modak

08/04/2010

Opinión

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Amid the renewed siege against Cuba, former U.S. presidential candidate and current Democratic Senator John Kerry made an important contribution to a better understanding of the new offensive against the Cuban government, which Cuba detractors want to spread worldwide.

Of course, that wasn't Kerry's intention when, as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, he vetoed the funding of the so-called Cuban dissident movement.

At issue was a budget item of $40 million per year that, the Senator said, should be reviewed because there might be irregularities in the destination of the funds.

But the possible irregularities are not the most important part. What is clearly revealed is the fact that the U.S. government officially bankrolls activities intended to destabilize the government of a sovereign nation.

And although this is not new, it is an element that violates the international order. It shows another facet of the current offensive against the Cuban government, which deserves an in-depth investigation by Latin American personalities whose personal history is committed to the struggle for democracy. And Cuba is not the only target, as we shall see further on.

We should add that the veto raised by Kerry received favorable comments from some of the groups who receive that money, according to Agence France-Presse. Laura Pollán, who leads the so-called Ladies in White, declared that “the dissident movement needs some help, but I also believe that it is very important to do an audit.”

Manuel Cuesta Morúa, from a group that calls itself social-democratic, also said Kerry is right in reviewing the transparency of the real destination of those funds, questioning if they are managed in a transparent manner. Cuesta said: “Another consideration is whether it is proper for a government to allot resources for the democratization of another government with which it has no relations.”

Other than these statements validate what the Cuban government has said about how those resources are disposed of by their recipients, what is now clear is that some of those recipients understand that accepting funds places them in the category of mercenaries – and they don't like it.

The Pentagon, which rules U.S. foreign policy, is accustomed to using mercenaries, as it does in Iraq and other places. The question is, how far will it be allowed to subvert the nation's policies.

The news siege

As is usually the case, what happens to people is the least important factor. Until Orlando Zapata died as a consequence of the hunger strike he began, he was an unknown person who rose to the rank of political personality by the fact of his death. But, whatever the reason why he was in prison, he returned to anonymity and nothing more is said about him. It's as if he had fulfilled the mission that he was assigned.

Guillermo Fariñas, who, as this article was written, continued on a hunger strike and had refused Spain's offer to take him to that country, has a different background. According to his autobiography, he fought in Angola and performed other military tasks in his country; later, he studied psychology and dabbled in journalism.

In the media manipulation of his case, the objective is to find a way to attack Cuba and its revolution and, if possible, topple the system because it is an obstacle to the U.S. objectives. To Washington, the new political reality emerging in Latin America derives from the Cuban revolution, and U.S. officials think that by eliminating it they'll regain the influence they lost.

As a consequence, the news siege established in connection with these facts implies media manipulation. Some information is not given, other information is reprinted everywhere, Latin America is hounded so it will speak out against Cuba, and governments and political forces in the region are accused of being accomplices of Cuba if they don't.

Writer Mario Vargas Llosa said so, when he criticized democratic governments that, according to him, “look away” so they won't have any problems with their leftist sectors. The Christian-Democratic Organization of America (CDOA) issued a statement so its affiliates condemn Zapata's death and the alleged repression of the Ladies in White and take a position about Fariñas.

The CDOA is far from being an organization that encompasses all Latin American Christian-democratic parties, so the statement (which contradicts the thinking of its best-known leaders) should have said that it would be reprehensible for any foreign ruler to intervene directly in Cuba or to impose unilateral sanctions that attempt against human rights.

The above makes clear that the issue is to allow Latin America to settle its affairs in a sovereign manner, whether the U.S. agrees or not. That implies keeping the U.S.'s hands off Cuba. It's no mystery to anyone that, without the blockade and without the permanent harassment from the country up north, the Caribbean nation would enjoy an economic status much superior to the one it has attained despite all obstacles.

If that weren't so, we wouldn't witness that manipulation of information that lowers the profile of pronouncements contrary to intervention in Cuba, such as the defeat suffered by José María Aznar when he attempted to convince the Spanish Senate to approve a condemnation of Cuba and what resulted was the rejection of the condemnation of Cuba issued by the European Parliament.

Little has been published, too, about the accord by the 27 countries in the Latin American Economic System, which, at a meeting in Caracas, demanded a halt to the economic, commercial and financial blockade imposed by the United States to Cuba for the past 50 years.

The permanent secretary of the LAES said: “We need to talk about commercial links with the United States, but if some nations are excluded, we have a topic whose solution cannot be ignored.”

The new right

What may be considered as a new threat to the democratic achievements of Latin America since the fall of the dictatorships has emerged. It is the so-called “New Right,” which emerged after the fall of the dictators and is implementing measures that reverse all advancements.

Its clearest representatives are the presidents of Colombia, Panama and Chile. Peruvian president Alan García, with his temperamental tantrums, has not yet defined a position consistent with what his party, the APRA, has represented in his nation's history. That makes him waver between left and right.

The rightist alignment has led to the installation of new U.S. military bases in Colombia, the signing of a similar accord in Panama and, according to the U.S. ambassador in Colombia, an agreement is about to be signed with two other countries “whose governments have requested silence to avoid some of the reactions” produced in the case of Colombia. The U.S. diplomat boasted that the Pentagon has military relations with 120 nations.

While this aspect is already a danger to the democratic achievements of the region, Chile's new president seems intent on not only to join but also to lead the governments of the New Right, in whose name he entered the political field in the 1990s. Sebastián Piñera has already shown he's ready to intervene in Cuba's affairs and the measures he announced regarding domestic policy are worrisome.

In line with Piñera's approach to matters of security, the director of the civilian police (Investigations Police, or PDI) announced that a special brigade against crime is being prepared, with vehicles that will patrol all areas of the capital Santiago, 24 hours a day. Their work will be coordinated by the PDI's Geo-reference Information System.

And because March 30 was the “Day of the Young Combatant,” instituted in memory of two brothers, 20 and 18, murdered by the Pinochet dictatorship, the president gave precise instructions on how to deal with the protests that occur on that day, a reflection of the frustrations of young people from low-income areas.

The government would deal with that date with “all the force in the world” and “all the rigor of the law,” said Piñera during a visit to the headquarters of the Special Forces of the Carabineros, the paramilitary police. Assuring the policemen that they “can count on the full backing of the government I head,” Piñera encouraged them to confront delinquency with “a hard fist.”

Referring to the case of the murdered youngsters, he said: “The parents, relatives and friends of the Vergara brothers have all the right to remember their death but have no right to disturb the public order or endanger the lives and properties of other people.”

Except that “all the force in the world” usually turns into an advance provocation.

- Journalist Frida Modak was press secretary to the late President of Chile, Salvador Allende.

(Published in Spanish in Alai-amlatina. Translation: http://www.normangirvan.info/)

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