Cuba, in focus

The Bush administration has unveiled a series of measures to undermine Cuban sovereignty, apparently with an eye on the forthcoming presidential elections.

FACED with a military and political fiasco in Iraq, the George Bush administration is now redoubling its efforts to undermine the government in Cuba. By announcing a series of draconian measures against the island republic on May 6, the "neoconservatives" running the United States hope to achieve what governments over the past 40 years could not do. The sudden shift in focus to Cuba is also related to the upcoming U.S. presidential elections. It was the fraudulent vote count in the State of Florida that helped Bush step into the White House. Right-wing Cuban migrs close to the President's younger brother, Jeb Bush, had played a key role in subverting democracy in the State during the elections. Miami, the capital of the State, is also the city where "terrorist" plots are constantly hatched against the socialist republic.

Talking to select members of the media while campaigning in Florida on May 6, President Bush announced that his administration would bring into force new interventionist measures against Cuba. The main aim of these measures, Bush announced grandiosely, was "to hasten the day that Cuba is a free country". The same day, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Roger Noriega spelt out the government's plans. Incidentally, Noriega, who is of Cuban descent, is a veteran anti-Fidel Castro activist having close links with the ultra-Right Cuban American National Foundation (CANF), which has a stranglehold on politics in Miami. Noriega said that the U.S. government was acting on the basis of a State Department report. However, according to Cuban officials, the report is a litany of lies and reflects the bitterness and frustration of the anti-Cuba elements in the U.S. Cuban officials say that even among the Cuban exile community, those harbouring anti-Castro and anti-socialist views are in a minority. The majority of American Congressmen, Democrats and Republicans, are in favour of lifting the sanctions against Cuba.

The significant recommendations of the report include the creation of an international fund to develop "civil society" in Cuba, which will involve the hiring of volunteers from third countries to travel to Cuba ostensibly to spread the message of democracy. The Cuban government views this as a blatant interference in its internal affairs and an undisguised attempt to provide financial and logistical support to the counter-revolution and the mercenaries working inside Cuba. The Bush administration proposes to make available $59 million over the next two years to implement the recommendations of the report. An extra $18 million will be earmarked for the U.S.-run television and "Radio Marti". To beam its counter-revolutionary propaganda, the Bush administration proposes to use a C-130 Commando Solo platform. The Bush administration hopes that the Cuban government will not find ways to jam signals emanating from an airborne plane.

The other recommendations of the report include the further limiting of remittances sent by Cuban residents in the U.S. They will be allowed to send money only to blood relatives. Remittances of any kind will be prohibited if the recipient is a "government official or member of the Communist Party". The number of visits by Cuban-Americans to their homeland will now be limited to one every three years; until recently, they could visit their country once every year. The Cuban government has pointed out that the Bush administration is taking these measures at a time when food prices and transportation costs have doubled in most developing countries, including Cuba.

The Bush administration wants to stop people from coming to the island just when tourism - an important source of hard currency for Cuba - is picking up once again. Owing to the American blockade and machinations, Cuba has very little access to international financial aid or loans. The American media have reported that the Bush administration had assigned five times as many agents to investigate violations of the embargo on Cuba as it had assigned to track Osama bin Laden and Al Qaeda. Reflecting the mainstream opinion in the U.S. Congress, Democratic Senator Byron Dorgan expressed the hope that "somebody in the administration will come to his or her senses and start directing our resources where they are needed. Politics is clearly diverting precious time, money and manpower away from the war on terrorism here".

On the diplomatic front, the Bush administration is now targeting Cuba in third countries. Recently, Mexican President Vincente Fox, who has on previous occasions caved under American pressure, accused two Cuban Communist Party officials who were on a visit to the country at the invitation of fraternal parties there of espionage. Every year there is an exchange of visits by Cuban and Mexican Communist party officials. A senior Cuban diplomat was declared "persona non-grata". Cuba has since recalled its Ambassador to Mexico. Interestingly, the majority of members of the Mexican Parliament has expressed its solidarity with Cuba. For the first time, Mexico along with Peru voted against Cuba in the United Nations Human Rights Commission meet in Geneva. Before Fox took over, Mexico and Cuba had the best of relations.

During his traditional May Day speech, Fidel Castro described Mexico under Fox as a pawn of the U.S., its "prestige and influence gained in Latin America and the world turned to ashes". Another reason why the Mexican President is upset with the Cuban government is the revelations of "dirty tricks" against one of Fox's political rivals, the popular Mayor of Mexico City, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador. A businessman who has close links with the President's party confessed to Cuban authorities that he had secretly videotaped an associate of the Mayor allegedly accepting kickbacks. The plan was hatched to discredit the Mayor, who many Mexicans think will be the next President. The businessman was arrested by Cuban authorities after Interpol alerted them of his presence on the island. Details of his shenanigans came out when he was interrogated by Cuban authorities before being sent back to Mexico.

Cuba has also been successful in exposing the duplicity of the U.S. on the issue of human rights when the U.N. Commission met in Geneva. Despite the intense pressure that Washington put on poor developing countries to vote against Cuba, an overwhelming majority of countries voted with Cuba or abstained. The U.S. Ambassador in India is reported to have visited the Bhutanese King to convince him to vote against Cuba. While 22 countries voted in favour of the American resolution on Cuba, 21 voted against it and 10 abstained. "It is almost suicidal to vote in Geneva against a resolution drafted and imposed by the United States, especially if it is against Cuba, the country which for almost 50 years has defied its arrogance and imperiousness. Even the strongest and most independent states find themselves obliged to take into consideration the political and economic consequences of their decisions," Castro said in his May Day address.

Cuba wanted a resolution passed against the U.S. for the illegal and arbitrary detention of over 600 people, including minors, at the Guantanamo naval base, which has been occupied illegally by the U.S. on Cuban territory. Tremendous pressure was brought to bear on the countries represented on the U.N. Commission by Washington. "The new U.S. administration and the states in the European Union made the mistake of forgetting that at the extreme eastern end of Cuba one of the most horrendous examples of human rights violations ever to take place in this world was under way," Castro had said in a speech recently. Even Cuba's suggestion of sending a representative from the U.N. Commission to Guantanamo was not accepted. American diplomats had to work overtime to convince countries like India not to support the Cuban resolution. For diplomatic reasons, Cuba did not force a vote on the Guantanamo issue. "Cuba reserves the right to go back on this issue at the forthcoming session and in any other forum that it deems appropriate," Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque told the 60th session of the Commission on Human Rights.