Cuba maintains vigilance as U.S. expels diplomats
By Gloria La Riva
In its latest provocation against Cuba, the
Bush administration has suddenly expelled 14 Cuban diplomats
from the United States, falsely inferring that they were
engaged in espionage on the U.S. The Cubans were assigned to
the Cuban Mission to the United Nations in New York and the
Cuban Interests Section in Washington, D.C.
Since the U.S. broke diplomatic relations with Cuba in early
1961, just months before the CIA sponsored an invasion at the
Bay of Pigs in an attempt to turn back the Cuban Revolution,
the Interests Section has been Cuba's only official link in the
United States.
With the bogus charges and mass expulsions, the U.S.
government seems to be trying to further escalate tensions--and
perhaps provoke a reciprocal expulsion of U.S. diplomats by
Cuba--to justify more aggressive action by Washington.
Cuba's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in response, "The
expulsion of the Cuban diplomats is done with the objective of
provoking an escalation that could culminate in the closing of
the Interests Sections of both countries, as the anti-Cuba
terrorist mafia has demanded historically."
The timing of the expulsions was only two days before
President George W. Bush was to give an anti-Cuba address on
May 20, a speech that the New York Times of April 16 said could
contain "a series of steps to punish the Cuban government."
The newspaper said administration officials were "preparing
a variety of options for the president," including the ending
of direct flights to Cuba and eliminating cash remittances from
Cuban-Americans to their families in Cuba.
Bush 'speech' says nothing
However, when the time came, Bush, surrounded by Cuban
right-wingers at the White House, delivered a 66-word,
40-second, one-paragraph "speech" dripping phrases like
"freedoms and rights" but announcing no official policy changes
toward Cuba.
Bush played it very low-key, but that may be only
temporary.
It is possible that the development of other crises in the
world in recent days, including bombings in the Middle East,
growing resistance in Iraq, and the deployment of U.S. troops
to the Philip pines, might have forced this belligerent
president to pull back momentarily regarding Cuba.
Even the most powerful imperialist country has resource
limitations.
But it is most likely that the administration was unable to
draw Cuba into a confrontation that would work to its
advantage.
Washington has been hoping to unleash an emigration crisis.
Even though the U.S. made an agreement, codified in the Cuban
Adjustment Act of 1966, to allow in 20,000 Cubans a year
through normal immigration procedures, the State Department has
granted only a few hundred visas to Cubans so far this year. At
the same time, it has gone easy on those who hijack planes and
boats from Cuba to the U.S.
There were seven armed hijackings over a seven-month period.
Finally, when a Cuban ferry boat and its passengers were seized
by armed hijackers on April 11, the Cubans saw this as the
product of a serious escalation of Wash ington's campaign of
threats and subversion. The prosecution asked for the death
penalty for the three hijackers, a sentence that was carried
out after their appeal was rejected by a higher court. Since
this stern action, there have been no more hijacking
attempts.
After denunciations by some intellectuals abroad who had
been considered friends of Cuba, the Cuban government defended
the measure as necessary to insure its stability and security
at a time of extreme threat from outside. All this took place
while the U.S. was showing the world in the most brutal way in
Iraq what it means by "regime change."
Bush's latest actions toward Cuba are also generating debate
and contention within the U.S. political establishment. A sign
of that rift was the May 15 revelation by the FBI that the
decision to detain the Cuban diplomats came from the White
House and the State Department.
The 14 expelled diplomats received a warm welcome when they
returned to Cuba and spoke to the people via television, radio
and newspapers. They denounced the expulsions as politically
motivated.
The expulsions may also have been directed in part at
certain diplomats for the work they have conducted on behalf of
the five Cuban political prisoners who are unjustly
incarcerated in U.S. prisons. Two of the Cubans who had been
based in the D.C. consular office, Florentino Batista
González and José Anselmo, attended to the needs
of the Cuban Five, visiting them frequently in the prisons
where they are held across the U.S. and sharing news from their
loved ones back home.
On his arrival in Havana on May 19, Florentino Batista
talked to Cuba's Granma newspaper about the country's five
heroes: "The best memory and gift that I take with me from my
stay in the United States is to have known all of them. Any
sacrifice for them was worth it."
Reprinted from the May 29, 2003, issue of
Workers World newspaper
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
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