Oppose US Provocations against Cuba

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Oppose US Provocations against Cuba

Cuba on Permanent Alert in Face of US Plans of Aggression

US President Orders Expansion of Policing of Ships Bound for Cuba

US Cancellation of Migration Meeting

The Five Cuban Patriots Jailed in the US Must be Freed

Miami Five Story Finally Appears in New York Times

New Infamy against Our Five Heroes

On February 26, US President George W Bush issued an Executive Order expanding the policing of ships bound for Cuba. Coupled with other actions by the US government, the issuance of this order underlines the very real dangers posed to Cuba by the US.

            The recent statements and actions of the Bush administration include among others the formation of a committee that must submit a report before May 1, 2004, on ways to expedite and hasten the end of the Cuban Revolution; the unilateral suspension of the migratory negotiations; the false charges that Cuba engages in and supports terrorism; the constant refrain that the island has biological weapons, despite the fact that this has been refuted time and time again; the assertion that Cuba is destabilising Latin America; the increasingly vociferous campaign about so-called human rights violations and the denial of Cuba's right to defend itself, besides the developments in Haiti – where the US backed thugs and former death squad members are given full rein to seize power – aimed not only at securing US domination but also at establishing Haiti as a US base to be used against Cuba, Venezuela and other Caribbean and Latin American nations.

            The working class and people must oppose these provocations by the US and the deluge of disinformation, lies and fabrications as the US seeks to create a pretext to justify aggression against Cuba.

Cuban President Fidel Castro affirmed on February 14 that Cuba is on permanent alert in the face of US plans of aggression against the island. He said that the option of surrender does not exist for the Cuban people and that the Cuban Revolution has taken all possible measures to resist and win in an eventual attack. His statements were a response to the Bush administration's decision to "speed up transition in Cuba", for which the administration created a commission presided over by Secretary of State Colin Powell, devoted to prepare "regime change" in Cuba. 

            President Castro denounced US State Undersecretary Roger Noriega for his calumnies against Cuba and Venezuela, and highlighted that destabilisation in Latin America is a consequence of neo-liberalism. He commented on statements by Bush's special envoy for the continent Otto Reich about a "violent change" in Cuba, which are related to expressions by Florida politicians in favour of military intervention in Cuba. He warned that such calls for aggression are particularly dangerous in the middle of the fierce electoral battle in which Bush intends to be re-elected.

            During a recent trip to Argentina, Cuban Foreign Affairs Minister Felipe Perez Roque told the newspaper Clarin, "There is a real danger that they [the US] invent pretexts for a military intervention against Cuba. We may recall Bush's administration has accused Cuba of having a research and production programme of biological weapons, publicly denied by former US President James Carter. The United States maintains Cuba on the list of countries sponsoring terrorism: false accusation. There is a real danger that they will attempt an aggression against Cuba."

US President George W Bush has ordered the US government to expand its policing of the waters between Florida and Cuba, tightening enforcement of Washington's economic blockade against the island.

            In a message to Congress on February 26, the US president said that his order clears the way for authorities to search and take over any vessel in its waters, and gives Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge the power to make rules and regulations for any ships travelling from US waters to Cuba. 

            Many observers see the new presidential order as yet another measure to tighten Washington's blockade. In October last year, Bush told the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control to step up its enforcement of the travel restrictions imposed against the island. And earlier this month, on February 9, the Treasury Department announced it would block US citizens' assets that are under control of 10 travel agencies that arrange trips for US citizens to Cuba.

            Political analysts note that it is no accident that presidential elections are scheduled for this coming November in the United States – pointing out that the president's intentions of securing votes in southern Florida is crystal clear.

(Radio Havana Cuba, February 27, 2004)

Statement of the Cuban Ministry of Foreign Affairs, January 5, 2004

On Monday, January 5, 2004, officials from the US Interests Section in Havana and the US State Department communicated to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Cuban Interests Section in Washington, respectively, that they did not regard as possible the holding of a new round of migration talks "until the Cuban authorities showed a real interest in seriously addressing 'very important' aspects for the attainment of an orderly, legal and safe migration flow between both countries". The round of migration talks should be held on January 8, in conformity with the proposal made by the Cuban authorities.

            Of course, these "very important" aspects are just some of the issues that have traditionally made up the American delegation's agenda to the rounds of migration talks – issues of a lesser significance to the progress of the Migration Accords and that, moreover, have been extensively debated on many occasions at the talks held in the last few years.

            Obviously, in the imperial language of the US officials, "seriously addressing" means that Cuba should be willing to make all necessary unilateral concessions and accept all demands and whims from the US authorities.

            It is just about new pretexts, totally unsustainable, aimed at aggravating the tensions between both countries and hindering the main review mechanism of compliance with the Migration Accords.

            The Ministry specially emphasises the fact that the United States decides to cancel its migration talks with Cuba precisely at a moment in which the former makes huge political and financial efforts to control its borders and eliminate the illegal migration towards the United States.

            Both in Washington and in Havana, the US officials were capable of cynically adding that "notwithstanding, the US Government would continue to comply with the Migration Accords".

            The Ministry of Foreign Affairs considers it necessary to inform our people and the international public opinion of this new scheme by the US Government, aimed at torpedoing the progress of the Migration Accords signed between Cuba and the United States and the realisation of a normal migration relation between the two countries.

            This action is undoubtedly a tribute paid by the Bush administration in light of the pressures exerted by the Miami-based terrorist mafia – which, displeased with what has been done so far by the current US Government against Cuba, seizes the US electoral context to revert all the means, including the grossest political blackmail, its strategic defeat and its political and moral disrepute.

            This decision is compounded by the long list of aggressions, plans and statements made in the last few months against our country by the US Government.

            The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has expressed, through the relevant diplomatic channels, its rejection of this reckless action that does not serve the real national interests of the United States and only attempts to sate the yearnings for revenge and hatred by a handful of ultrareactionary elements interested in fostering the policy of aggressions and hostility of the United States towards Cuba and thwarting the Migration Accords.

            The pretexts brandished to hold off the round of migration talks cannot be more unreal and absurd – and show that the true sense of this action has more to do with Miami politicking than with the true US national, security and migration interests.

            Cuba, besides raising at each round of migration talks the key problems affecting the enforcement of these Accords, has never refused to debate and examine any of the issues mentioned by the American officials. All, without exception, have been part of the traditional US delegations' agenda to the rounds of migration talks – and an extensive, in-depth debate has always been undertaken on each and every one of the issues brought to the table. Cuba has expressed its arguments in a serious and responsible fashion, in the spirit of explaining to the barest details each of the aspects addressed by the US officials.

            Cuba reaffirms that it has been and is willing to seriously debate, with the required depth and time, all the issues mentioned by the US authorities.

            The United States attempts to manipulate reality and conceal what Cuba has denounced on countless occasions: that the murderous Cuban Adjustment Act and the irrational wet foot-dry foot policy are the real obstacles to the normalisation of the migration flow between both countries, the real encouragement to illegal migration and the greatest violation of the Migration Accords.

            With this decision, the US Government attempts to divert attention from important aspects within the migration relation between both countries and from matters that are violations of the Migration Accords – issues such as the dramatic reduction of visas for Cuban citizens wishing to visit relatives in the United States; the non-return to Cuba of a portion of the illegal immigrants interdicted at sea; the encouragement to illegal migration and to the commission of violent acts to migrate from the radio stations based in the United States; as well as the lack of decisive action against alien smugglers, inter alia.

            The US delegation to the round of migration talks has always been reluctant to assume responsibility for such non-compliance, which is indeed significant and of vital importance to the normalisation of migration relations between the two countries – and not because of the foregoing has Cuba conditioned or rejected its participation in these rounds.

            The falsehood and absurdity of this decision are more notorious when recalling that the US authorities have turned down, without the slightest explanation or even the interest in discussing, the proposal of a new bilateral migration agreement put forth by Cuba since September 2000 and reiterated on five occasions. The Cuban proposals to establish drug enforcement and anti-terrorist agreements have met with similar scorn.

            We demand that the United States Government put aside the absurd and empty pretexts that only seek the satisfaction of narrow-minded anti-Cuban interests and act in conformity with the true interests of the American people.

            The US Government is the only entity responsible for the cancellation of this round of migration talks.

            The Ministry of Foreign Affairs reaffirms the unmistakable will of the Government of Cuba to continue honouring, as it has done so far, the spirit and the text of the Migration Accords signed between Cuba and the United States – urging the United States Government to assume a similar attitude.

On the occasion of the March 10 appeal hearing in Miami of the five Cuban political prisoners being held in US jails, solidarity actions are being held around the world. The actions are being organised to demand justice for the Cuban Five and to express opposition to the repeated attacks of US imperialism against the Cuban nation.

            Gerardo Hernández, Ramón Labañino, Antonio Guerrero, Fernando González and René González, know as the Cuban Five, gathered information on US-based terrorism against Cuba after years of inaction by the pertinent US authorities. The information showed, among other things, that the terrorists were grossly violating US law. This information was provided to the FBI by the Cuban government. Instead of acting against the terrorists, US authorities arrested the five Cuban patriots on September 12, 1998, and in a gross travesty of justice convicted them of conspiracy to commit espionage against the US and similar charges. The five have been sentenced to long prison terms and a cloak of silence has been thrown over the situation by the monopoly media and the US authorities. While the US is engaged in its so-called “war on terrorism”, terrorists in the US, sanctioned by the US government, have cost the lives of 3,000 Cubans. They function with complete freedom and impunity in the United States and, with its support, abroad as well.

            The Cuban Five have done nothing to damage the US but rather uncovered terrorist activity being conducted from US soil. The Cuban patriots must be freed.

Despite Bush administration attempts to stop it, groups of friendship with Cuba finally managed to have their full page advertisement on the plight of the five Cuban patriots imprisoned in the US published in the New York Times on March 3.

            The Cuba Solidarity Campaign in Britain donated £3,000 towards the cost of placing the ad, whose aim is to raise the awareness about the situation of the five Cubans unjustly imprisoned in US jails and break the silence about their case in the US media. Among the donations from friendship organisations around the world were groups in Miami opposed to the US government’s hostile policy towards Cuba.

            The US government was forced to release funds to the National Committee to Free the Cuban Five. In a telephone press conference on February 25, the Committee said that "the ad will highlight the string of injustices perpetrated against the five Cubans imprisoned for defending their country against terrorism and seek to bring their case to the attention of the people of the USA given that the mass media has largely ignored their case".

            Ian Thompson, a lawyer with International Peace for Cuba (IPCA), explained that the US Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) claimed that it had blocked the funds coming into his organisation because the name "Cuba" appeared in the bank draft. The US Treasury Department sequestered funds sent to the Committee from solidarity groups in Spain and France but was eventually forced to release the funds after protests from groups all around the world.

            The ad-story appeared in all printed editions of the New York Times newspaper throughout the United States.

            The Free the Five Committee praised all friends of the Cuban Five who worked on this effort, calling on them continue to educate, agitate and organise until the Cuban Five are freed.

Cuban Ministry of Foreign Affairs – March 4, 2004

On the afternoon of February 27, the head of the US Department of State Cuba Bureau delivered Diplomatic Note 058/2 to the Cuban Interests Section in Washington. The note states that, with immediate effect, the Department of State only will approve consular visits once every three months to "Cuban nationals" imprisoned in US jails.

            In practice, this measure means that the US government has reduced the consular visits to the five Cuban patriots imprisoned in US jails by Cuban diplomatic officials based in Washington from monthly to three monthly.

            The Ministry of Foreign Relations denounces this new attack on our five heroes, compounding a long list of aggressions, psychological torture and violations of their most elemental human rights by the US government since the moment they were arrested in 1998. This action once again reveals the cruelty and irrationality of the US government in its vain attempt to break the indomitable spirit of our comrades.

            This decision is in flagrant violation of international law; specifically, the 1963 Vienna Convention on Consular Relations, which clearly establishes in various of its articles facilities that should be granted by governments for unhindered access by diplomatic missions to nationals imprisoned in the country in question.

            Among other consequences, this unjust action against our five political prisoners of the empire rules out a visit to our comrades prior to the appeal hearing scheduled for March 10, given that State Department officials have stated that visits for the first trimester of the year have been used up, and thus subsequent visits must be scheduled starting April 1. In this way, the right of our diplomatic officials – likewise acknowledged by the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations – to support our comrades has been impeded and, of course, their right to support from our diplomatic mission.

            This new aggression comes in addition to the recent refusal by the Department of State to allow Cuban diplomatic officials to accompany our heroes’ relatives when they are in the United States, the repeated denial of visas for Olga Salanueva and Adriana Pérez – the wives of René González and Gerardo Hernández, respectively – and the general delay in granting visas to family members, including several of our comrades’ heroic mothers, who have been waiting for a response from the US Department of State since August and September 2003.

            Cuba reiterates that neither these aggressions nor any other infamy will overcome the stoicism, morale and noble spirit of our five heroes, their families and our people.