[R-G] Bush’s new threats against Cuba

[Anthony Fenton]

Bush’s new threats against Cuba
by Salim Lamrani
December 19, 2007

http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=60&ItemID=14537

October 24, 2007 at the headquarters of the State Department in  
Washington, President George W. Bush gave a long and extremely  
virulent speech against the Havana government. While a large part of  
California is burning and Iraq sinks in a bloody and endless war, the  
White House returns to the matter that has obsessed it  since 1959— 
and which it uses to justify almost five decades of terrorist  
aggressions, cruel and inhumane punishment  and political and  
diplomatic war: Cuba. (1)

  “Few issues have challenged this department -- and our nation --  
longer than the situation in Cuba,” Bush stated, emphasizing the  
unacceptable nature of such a reality. Since Fidel Castro’s coming to  
power, Washington has not abandoned its intention of overthrowing the  
revolutionary government at whatever price. But the revolution thanks  
to the majority support of the population has been able to resist the  
state of siege that ten successive U.S. presidents have tried to  
impose. (2)

Bush began his speech giving proof of his profound knowledge about  
Cuban reality: “In Cuba it is illegal to change jobs, to change  
houses, to travel abroad, and to read books or magazines without the  
express approval of the state.” Additionally, according to the U.S.  
president, “it is against the law for more than three Cubans to meet  
without permission” and “Neighborhood Watch programs do not look out  
for criminals. Instead, they monitor their fellow citizens -- keeping  
track of neighbors' comings and goings, who visits them, and what  
radio stations they listen to”. In a word, “the sense of community  
and the simple trust between human beings is gone.” (3)


The White House resident doesn’t stop at anything.  Since he doesn’t  
fear the ridiculous, he doesn’t hesitate to cite the example about  
the press: “One Cuban journalist asked foreigners who visited him for  
one thing: a pen. Another uses shoe polish as ink as a typewriter  
ribbon,” stated the U.S. leader with all seriousness. He took  
advantage of the occasion to declare that “the dissidents of today  
will be the nation's leaders tomorrow,” reminding us that these  
dissidents – isolated and, above all, are motivated by the desire of  
gain,— are generously, and illegally  financed by the United States:  
“The United States Congress has recently voted for additional funding  
[45.7 million dollars] to support Cuban democracy efforts.”(4)


  “Cuba's regime uses the U.S. embargo as a scapegoat for Cuba's  
miseries,” assured Bush. This way, the inhumane sanctions that  
seriously affect daily life for all kinds of people, would be only an  
excuse. But, in this case, the president did not explain why he “urge 
[d] our Congress to show [its] support and solidarity for fundamental  
change in Cuba by maintaining [the] embargo.” (5)


Bush urged the international community to join its irrational and  
ineffective policy and apply sanctions against Cuba. He cited the  
European nations as an example that docilely follow Washington’s  
directives, namely the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland who did not  
hesitate to interfere in Cuban internal matters and promote  
subversion. (6)


The president, always very up-to-date with Cuban reality, proposed  
scholarships for Cuban students, “to help them have greater  
educational opportunities,” when all international institutions—from  
the United Nations to the World Bank—are unanimous in praising Cuban  
excellence in the area of education. In this respect, 157 countries  
out of 175 just chose Cuba for UNESCO’s Executive Council.  On the  
other hand, history’s ironies, currently 500 poor U.S. students,  
excluded from the university system of the world’s first democracy,  
are in a completely free medial program in Cuba. But this point  
apparently escaped the president’s astuteness. (7)


The White House resident also announced the creation of a multi- 
billion dollar “Freedom Fund for Cuba,” under the direction of  
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Secretary of Commerce Carlos  
Gutiérrez, meant to overthrow the Havana government and bring Cuba  
again under the United States’ sphere of influence. Bush clearly  
said, “the operative word in our future dealings with Cuba is not  
‘stability’ [but] freedom’.” Maybe he was alluding to what currently  
prevails in Iraq and Afghanistan. (8)


  By way of concluding, Bush launched a call to the military for  
insurrection: “When Cubans rise up to demand their liberty […] you've  
got to make a choice. Will you defend a disgraced and dying order by  
using force against your own people? Or will you embrace your  
people's desire for change?” Finally, he took the occasion to address  
the “Cubans who [were] listening—perhaps at great risks”- through  
Radio or TV Martí, two U.S. media outlets who illegally distribute  
subversive programs to Cuba. “We want nothing from you except to  
welcome you to the hope and joy of freedom,” Bush said. (9)
But, contrary to Bush’s statements, Cubans do not run “great risks”  
listening to his speech. It was distributed in Cuba on radio,  
television and the press, for example in Gramna, the official organ  
of the Cuban Communist Party. El Nuevo Herald, a newspaper of the  
extreme right in Miami controlled by the former Cuban oligarchy,  
expressed its surprise emphasizing that Bush’s words were  
distributed  ”without interruptions.”(10)


The island’s inhabitants, who hate any attack on their sovereignty  
and national independence, realized to what extreme measures  
Washington was proposing to take to intervene in Cuba’s internal  
affairs, measures that are unacceptable and contrary to international  
law. They could also see how completely disconnected the U.S.  
president is from Cuban reality. In his speech, with a nasty whiff of  
colonialism, Bush smashed to smithereens the principle of the  
people’s self determination.  Far from offering them “the hope and  
joy of freedom,” the U.S. president promised to increase the economic  
sanctions against them even more and increase their daily suffering  
and difficulties.


Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Pérez Roque , vehemently condemned “the  
unprecedented increase in the United States government’s policy  
against Cuba.”  According to him, it is a “confirmation that the  
policy in force […] is regime change in Cuba, even by force.” The  
speech from Washington is “an irresponsible act that gives an idea of  
the level of frustration, desperation, and personal hate of President  
Bush for Cuba; an invocation to violence, a call, even, the use of  
force in order to overthrow the Cuban Revolution and impose his plan  
on Cuba.”(11)
But Cuba, since 1959, has been unfazed by the language of threat and  
blackmail.  The only thing it has achieved is to radicalize the Cuban  
revolutionary process throughout the decades. In 1962, Cubans were  
prepared to undergo a nuclear holocaust before renouncing their  
sovereignty. Fundamentally, nothing has changed. Pérez Roque  
insisted.  “If the objective of the United States’ president’s words  
is to intimidate the people, to scare its leaders, I must tell you  
starting now that it is a complete failure,” said Perez Roque (12)  
For Ricardo Alarcón, president of the Cuban National Assembly, it is  
nothing but proof of [Bush’s] delirium. “He never will have Cuba.”(13)
The current government of the United States, which just destroyed two  
countries and  is responsible for the crimes of Guantánamo and Abu- 
Ghraib, the massacre of close to a million people in Iraq and  
Afghanistan, secret prisons, clandestine flights and legalized  
torture, does not have any moral authority to expound about freedom  
and human rights.


Bush’s statement caused various reactions, among them presidential  
Democratic candidate Barack Obama, who criticized the words of the  
White House resident. “The cause of freedom is not going to advance  
with counterproductive threats or conventional speeches. Cuban  
Americans have to be allowed to visit their families on the island  
and send them money. It’s time to break from George Bush’s status  
quo,” said Obama. (14)


Wayne S. Smith, former U.S. ambassador in Cuba, described the  
“absurd” measures. “This supposed freedom fund of several million is  
simply the result of the president’s imagination” he emphasized. Cuba  
“already has several billion dollars at their disposal from Venezuela  
and China. The Cuban economy is going well,” he concluded. (15)
For its part, the Associated Press recognized that the policy of  
fabricating and financing domestic opposition was not new, writing,  
“For several years, the United States government has spent million of  
dollars to support the Cuban opposition.” (16) No nation of the world  
would accept that agents at the service of a foreign power act with  
impunity in its territory.


The European Union once again, provided proof of its cowardly policy  
with its complicit silence. It didn’t deign to condemn President  
Bush’s words, inadmissible for the international right. Would it have  
been so discrete if China, Russia or Iran had called for overthrowing  
the government of another sovereign nation?


Any respectable analyst certainly knows that Bush’s objectives for  
Cuba are not feasible. Washington persists in the same policy that  
has failed terribly for almost half a century. The revolutionary  
government has at its disposal the massive support of the population  
and is far from being isolated on the international stage. In  
addition, even the dissatisfied sectors of Cuban society form a  
united front together with the leaders of the country when it comes  
to preserving sovereignty and national identity. External  
destabilization only reinforces the cohesion of the people around the  
government.  With regards to an eventual armed intervention, the  
popular reaction would be like the Vietnam War and the current Iraqi  
conflict would be like a stroll in the country in comparison with  
what U.S. troops can expect if they committed the insane act of  
invading Cuba. In no way is this an exaggeration. The Cuban people  
are politically and ideologically ready for any sacrifice to defend  
the integrity of their country. They will not negotiate their  
independence and the United States has to accept this reality.


Notes
(1) George W. Bush, «Remarks by the President on Cuba Policy», Office  
of the Press Secretary, The Miami Herald, 24 October, 2007.
(2) Ibid.
(3) Ibid.
(4) Ibid.; Wilfredo Cancio Isla, «La Cámara da sólido apoyo a la  
democracia en Cuba», El Nuevo Herald, 22 June, 2007.
(5) George W. Bush, «Remarks by the President on Cuba Policy», op. cit.
(6) Ibid.
(7) Ibid.
(8) Ibid.
(9) Ibid.
(10) Wilfredo Cancio Isla, «Transmiten en la isla el discurso  
presidencial», El Nuevo Herald, 25 October, 2007.
(11) Felipe Pérez Roque, «Nosotros estamos claros de qué significa la  
‘libertad’», Cuba Debate, 25 October, 2007.
(12) Ibid.
(13) Alexandra Valencia, «Cuba’s Alarcon Uncertain on Castro’s re- 
election», The Miami Herald, 25 October, 2007.
(14) El Nuevo Herald, «Opiniones sobre el discurso», 25 October, 2007.
(15) Antonio Rodriguez, «Bush Call for Cuba Democracy Fund Likely to  
Fall on Deaf Ears», Agence France-Presse, 26 October, 2007.
(16) Ben Feller, «Bush Touts Cuban Life After Castro», Associated  
Press, 24 October, 2007.


Salim Lamrani is a French professor, writer and journalist  
specializing in U.S. –Cuba relations. He has published the following  
books : Washington contre Cuba (Pantin: Le Temps des Cerises, 2005),  
Cuba face à l’Empire (Genève: Timeli, 2006) y Fidel Castro, Cuba et  
les Etats-Unis (Pantin: Le Temps des Cerises, 2006).
lamranisalim at yahoo.fr
Translated by: Dana Lubow