The+sinister+intent+and+new+measures+of+the+Bush+Plan+against+Cuba

Around the Round Table, Progreso Weekly
=The sinister intent and new measures of the Bush Plan against Cuba=


 * By Eduardo Dimas**

The by-now traditional Round Table program, on Cuban television and radio, devoted one of its spaces last Thursday, July 6, to analyzing the new report by the so-called Commission for Assistance to a Free Cuba delivered to President W. Bush. This document was posted June 20 on the Web site of the U.S. Department of State but was withdrawn stealthily three days later. During the days that I prepared this article I tried again to access that particular page but found a notice that said the report was "not available."

The report in question is signed by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and the Commission's co-chairman, Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutiérrez, who is of Cuban origin.

Because of the importance to the Cuban people of a document that reflects an aggressive and intrusive policy against the island, the panel was composed of the president of the National Assembly of the People's Power, Ricardo Alarcón; the first Vice Minister of Foreign Relations, Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla, and journalists Rogelio Polanco, Lázaro Barredo and Reynaldo Taladrid. Randy Alonso was the moderator.

According to the panelists, the Report in question is a continuation of the document presented in May 2004 by the then-Under Secretary of State for Hemispheric Affairs, Roger Noriega. We should recall that, on that occasion Noriega said, waving the document, that, to solve the problem, there was a need "to get rid of Fidel Castro" and to "create a Rapid Deployment Force." These statements have the unpleasant stench of an assassination attempt and military intervention, which is the only way the Bush administration could attempt to impose an abomination that would turn Cubans into individuals without any rights, dependent on the government of the United States.

The new Report is about 90 pages long, the panelists said, but follows the same interventionist and aggressive line against the Cuban Revolution as the 2004 version. It is divided into seven chapters and makes specific proposals aimed at preventing the Cuban people from satisfying their basic needs and the country to continue its economic and social development. At the same time, it sets down the strategic guidelines to be followed to prevent the succession of power after the death of President Fidel Castro.

The document contains a "Secret Annex" and, given the historical characteristics of U.S. policy toward Cuba in the past 47 years, no one needs to be a psychic to divine its content. Most likely it is the invasion plan, as well as assassination plans against important figures in the Cuban government, particularly Fidel Castro, new terrorist or economic acts, and plans to eliminate anyone who has supported the Cuban Revolution in one way or another. Perhaps "a three-month license to kill," instead of the three days suggested by a Miami journalist. A kind of Iraq on a grand scale, because the resistance in Cuba would be infinitely greater and the U.S. territory would be within reach of that resistance. The aggression would be answered with all the means at the disposal of the Cuban people.

The panelists analyzed the seven chapters of the new Report, which (it's easy to see) are the application of the four sections of the Helms-Burton Law, along with the by-now proverbial lack of scruples and humanity of the current administration in the White House. A noticeable fact is that the document proposes the application of Section III of the Helms-Burton Law. In other words, the section that allows Washington to sue in U.S. courts those companies or business people from third countries who do business in Cuba with ("traffic with") the nationalized property of U.S. citizens or Cubans who have become U.S. citizens. Until now, not even President W. Bush has dared to enforce it. Every six months, he postpones it.

Chapter One could not have a more suggestive title: "Hastening the end of the Castro dictatorship: Transition, not succession." This chapter talks about "helping" the people of Cuba (meaning the miniscule groups it identifies as dissidents) to free themselves from the "Castro dictatorship"; breaking the regime's information blockade (a boost in the budget for Radio-TV Martí, the so-called sinecure factory for the counter-revolutionaries in Miami); undermining the regime's strategy for succession, and impeding the flow of hard currency to the Castro regime. In other words, impeding foreign trade, tourism, etc.

To this end, the U.S. will set aside an additional $80 million in the next two years. A fact that drew the panelists' attention was that $15 million is being allocated to support international efforts to terminate the Cuban Revolution. In other words, to pay the Poles, Czechs and people of other nationalities who come to Cuba to contact the mercenaries on the payroll of the U.S. Interests Section. Those Cubans who receive dollars from a foreign government that, on top of that, publicizes those payments can hardly avoid being called mercenaries.

And how can the U.S. government prevent a succession that has already been set into motion by the Cuban Constitution? By means of an invasion, by means of a surgical strike, by means of a surprise commando operation to kill all the leaders of the Revolution? Most likely, that's part of the content of the notorious Secret Annex.

Chapter Two, "Helping Cubans respond to critical social and humanitarian needs," could not be more representative of the mentality behind this document. This chapter states that, after the fall of the Cuban regime, the U.S. government must coordinate international aid to deal with the needs of the people. In other words, the people guilty of plunging the Cuban people into great difficulty and hardship wash their hands of the problem they themselves have created and leave the solution to "international aid," just as they did in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The three final points in that chapter ("Shelter," "Protection of the most vulnerable populations," and "Educational systems") deserve special mention. If the first condition to lift the blockade, expressed in the Helms-Burton Law and the Bush Plan for Cuba of May 2004, is to return all properties in a period of no more than one year, the shelters will be made available to the people who are evicted by the previous owners or whose homes were destroyed during the aggression. The protection for the most vulnerable people is sheer hypocrisy, because the Bush Plan states that it will be impossible for the new government, installed by the U.S., to cover the cost of social security. In other words, the pensions and other social aid that ease the lives of elderly and disabled Cubans would be abolished. The part about restructuring the system of education is abhorrent, because Cuba has -- according to UNESCO -- one of the world's best educational systems and its literacy program is applied with much success in many nations.

Chapter Three, "Helping Cubans get to free and fair elections," does not specify if those elections will be like the fraudulent elections held in the United States in November 2000, or like the elections held in Iraq and Afghanistan under the control of American troops. This chapter also specifies the release of what the authors call political prisoners (paid minions of the U.S. government and perpetrators of acts against Cuba), the elimination of the Constitution, the laying of a foundation for a multiparty system, the creation of free news media (meaning private media), etc.

Most importantly, the chapter supports the creation of a military and police force to repress the population, just as it's done in Iraq or how it has happened in many Latin American countries. The document does not specify if Posada Carriles, Orlando Bosch, the Novo Sampol family and their gang, terrorists of renown at the service of the Central Intelligence Agency, will be at the head of those repressive groups.

Chapter Four, "Helping Cubans create market-based economic opportunities," begins, of course, with the return of all properties to their former owners, the linking of Cuba to international organizations such as the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank and, most interesting, "ensuring labor rights are respected." The United States is one of the developed countries where the rights of workers are respected the least and the site of a systematic campaign by the big companies and the government to wipe out labor unions. Is that the "respect" the document is talking about?

Chapter Five is devoted to "The role of the international community" in the "reconstruction" of Cuba after the fall of the Revolution. One would have to add: the destruction caused by a war that would have no end. The U.S. government also requests the assistance of the "international community" to hold "free and fair" elections, perhaps like the ones just held in Mexico, and to establish a market economy. In other words, to apply the neoliberal model in the island, with all its consequences.

Chapter Six, "The vital role of Cubans abroad," wastes no verbiage. By "Cubans abroad," read "in the United States" or those who participate from other countries in the actions against Cuba. The chapter deals with the return of the Batista followers who are still alive or their descendants, the return of the owners of the large estates or palatial homes, of factories and mills, in sum, of all those exploiters who were swept away by a Revolution of social justice and who formed the core of the empire's domination of the island.

Chapter Seven, "Preparing now to support the transition," is also very significant. All those plans must be put into action __now__ -- and in fact they are being carried out at this very moment, violating the most basic principles of international law. So far, these are the most important elements discussed at the Round Table.

The document was presented during a meeting of the National Security Council devoted to Cuba, attended by President W. Bush, Vice President Richard Cheney, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, intelligence czar John Negroponte, and others. It should be noted that no information about this meeting was given out. White House spokesman Tony Snow, during his daily press briefing, said only that "the U.S. government is not trying to overthrow Castro but to bring democracy to Cuba." Truly, imperial hypocrisy knows no boundaries. Yet, no journalist asked any questions, which is by now usual when dealing with topics like this.

Likewise, the first press conference announced by the pro-consul appointed to oversee the transition in Cuba, Caleb McCarry, was postponed without explanation. Maybe because it's very difficult to explain on what grounds a country can decide the fate of another.

In his final statement at the Round Table, Ricardo Alarcón said that President Fidel Castro, after reading the Report, had said that it was "not a very serious document that had to be taken very seriously" and added that it came from "not a very serious government that has to be taken very seriously." Alarcón said that, as usual, "the drunkard opines one thing and the bartender another," but, as far as he knew, "W. Bush is no bartender."

In his closing statements, moderator Randy Alonso stressed the failure of the U.S. policy against Cuba, which is reflected in the country's economic growth, the plans for health care and education, and the fact that Cuba was elected, by a wide majority (135 votes) to the United Nations Council on Human Rights and to preside the Movement of Nonaligned Countries beginning next September. Finally, he underscored the profoundly intrusive nature of this new document and the Cuban people's decision to defend to the end their independence and the country's sovereignty.


 * Taken from: //[|Progreso Weekly]//**

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