CUBA: Dissidents Berate U.S. Policy Towards Havana

By Patricia Grogg Reprint | | Print |

Patricia Grogg

HAVANA, Jul 27 2005 (IPS) - Moderate sectors of Cuba’s fractured dissident community complained Wednesday that the "unfortunate" policy adopted by the United States against Cuba provides grounds to discredit all government opponents, who are invariably portrayed as working on Washington’s payroll.

"This is a disastrous policy for Cuba and the opposition. They’re not really doing us any favours," said Manuel Cuesta Morúa, spokesman for Arco Progresista, a coalition of social democratic-oriented dissident groups.

In an interview with IPS, Cuesta Morúa maintained that the George W. Bush administration is guided primarily by its own geopolitical interests when it comes to relations with Cuba.

Moreover, he added, its policies give the Cuban government an excuse to repress dissident activity, and make it more difficult for the opposition to reach out to the Cuban public.

On Tuesday night, in a speech marking the 52nd anniversary of the start of the Cuban revolution, President Fidel Castro accused the Bush administration of spending millions of dollars on "promoting subversion and destabilisation in Cuba."

"The heads of the U.S. Interests Section (the United States’ diplomatic headquarters in Havana) have directly assumed the leadership of these mercenary groups, and provide their members will large personal incomes in hard currency through various channels and pretexts," he charged.

Castro also linked the Interests Section to a highly publicised dissident gathering held May 20 in a private residence by the Assembly to Promote Civil Society (APSC), the opposition group that also organised two street demonstrations this month, which were broken up by government supporters.

James Cason, the current head of the Interests Section in Havana, has repeatedly denied that the diplomatic mission provides money to government opponents in Cuba.

At the same time, however, he openly admits to supporting the opposition in various ways, such as holding videoconferences in his home to help prepare for the "transition to democracy."

"Are there individuals outside the country, especially members of the Cuban exile community, who provide financial support to Cubans, including dissidents? Yes there are, and we applaud their generosity," Cason stated on Jul. 4, at a reception celebrating the U.S. national holiday.

Washington’s involvement in the internal politics of Cuba is very much welcomed by the more radical sectors of the dissident community, including the APSC. Its meeting in May was closely followed by Cason, and even merited a videotaped greeting from the U.S. president, which prompted shouts of "Viva Bush!" from the participants.

Nevertheless, the policy has been criticised by leading U.S. experts on Cuba. Wayne Smith, who headed up the U.S. Interests Section in Havana from 1979 to 1982, says that while the majority of Cubans would like to see changes and reforms that would offer them a better life, they are not interested in a U.S.-led transition.

In an article published in the latest issue of the Spanish magazine Contrapunto, Smith said it would be difficult to imagine a more mistaken and harmful policy than the one followed by Bush with regard to Cuba, which he considers a perfect failure from beginning to end.

In March 2003, 75 Cuban dissidents were sentenced to lengthy jail terms on charges of conspiring with a foreign power – namely the U.S. government – to destabilise the country. The sentences were based on such Cuban legislation as Decree Law 88 For the Protection of National Independence and the Economy, enacted in 1998.

Elizardo Sánchez, president of the Cuban Commission for Human Rights and National Conciliation – another dissident group -believes that this legislation could be newly enforced against a number of government opponents arrested in recent weeks.

Sánchez said he had talked to relatives of René Gómez Manzano, Julio César López and Oscar Mario González, who were arrested last Friday while reportedly preparing to take part in a demonstration outside the French embassy in Havana, organised by the APSC.

He also predicted further arrests after hearing the statements made by Castro on Tuesday at a ceremony commemorating the Jul. 26, 1953 attack on the Moncada garrison in eastern Cuba, the action that launched the revolutionary struggle that culminated in victory on Jan. 1, 1959.

"The much publicised dissidence or supposed opposition exists only in the fevered minds of the Cuban-American mafia and White House and State Department bureaucrats," Castro declared, warning that "provocations" like the demonstrations quashed by government supporters this month would meet with the same fate.

Castro stressed that the Cuban economy has grown 7.3 percent this year and could finish the year with total growth of nine percent, thereby refuting claims that the country is facing a severe crisis that could trigger social unrest.

He refuted recent reports of growing discontent on the socialist island by stating that "no revolutionary process has ever been backed by the consensus and the overwhelming support and trust enjoyed by the Cuban revolution."

At the same time, however, Castro recognised that the Cuban population has been facing difficult conditions over recent months. A series of breakdowns in the electrical power grid have led to almost daily power cuts stretching for hours on end, while eastern Cuba continues to face one of the worst droughts in the country’s history.

The passage of Hurricane Dennis earlier this month further aggravated an already challenging situation, causing 16 deaths and an estimated 1.4 billion dollars in damages.

Castro said that some have "tried to use these facts to triumphantly proclaim that Cuba is facing a profound economic crisis," but added that the government is undertaking significant investments in the country’s power plants that will double the current electrical output by the second half of 2006.

"There’s nothing that upsets people more than not having electricity precisely during the summer months, when it’s hotter than ever and everyone is on vacation," remarked a neighbourhood committee leader who preferred to remain anonymous.

He admitted to IPS that tempers flare more easily when the temperature rises and blackouts mean sleeping without a fan, interrupted water service, and food spoiled by hours without refrigeration.

"On my block there are people who yell out in frustration when the power goes off, but that doesn’t mean they’re against the revolution," he added.