[NYTr] US "Quietly" Aiding Cuban Opposition

[nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com]

sent by Walter Lippmann (cubanews) - Feb 20, 2005

["Quietly aiding?" How quiet is it when they publish a nearly 500-page book
and the president of the US announces its intention to overthrow the
government of Cuba in a news conference? Then remember all the news reports
saying Cubans live on $10.00 per month.

If that's correct, how many Cubans could be bought by the US if if were ONLY
spending $200,000.00!

But the actually budgeted figure for 2004 was more. Much, much, much more.
How about $34 MILLION. And while not all of the $34 million get to Cuba, as
most of it is used to provide jobs for anti-Castro militants in Miami and
Washington, there really are big bucks, big US taxpayers bucks, going into
these subversive activities.

Check out some of the publicly-acknowledged facts:
http://www.walterlippmann.com/docs051.html - WL]

South Florida Sun-Sentinel - Feb 21, 2005
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/cuba/sfl-acuba21feb21,0,1306225.story?coll=sfla-news-cuba

U.S. aiding Cuba opposition

Reports say cash assists dissident cause

By Gary Marx
Chicago Tribune

HAVANA . As part of a broad strategy to spur political change in Cuba, the
U.S. government has been quietly sending hundreds of thousands of dollars to
activists seeking to undermine President Fidel Castro's one-party state,
according to documents and interviews.

The cash assistance is being channeled through the U.S.-financed National
Endowment for Democracy and pays the salaries of more than two dozen
freelance writers for a Miami-based Web site that posts articles critical of
the Cuban government.

The cash also supports opposition figures, human-rights activists and
political prisoners and their families, including prisoners jailed in 2003
during the government's crackdown on dissidents.

Supporters argue the cash payments, totaling about $200,000 a year, help
keep opposition alive in a country where most dissidents are fired from
their jobs and ostracized.

The cash payments comprise only a small part of President Bush's intensified
campaign to squeeze the Castro regime through tightened trade sanctions and
increased material support for opposition. Yet even some supporters of
Bush's approach say that providing cash to dissidents gives ammunition to
Cuban officials who denounce the opposition as "mercenaries" of an
aggressive U.S. government.

Critics say they think the payments also endanger the dissidents, who face
up to 20 years in prison if they participate in any U.S. government-funded
program.

"Providing funding to dissidents at a time when the U.S. government says
that its objective is to bring down the Cuban government is to turn the
dissidents into subversive agents," said Wayne Smith, a former U.S. diplomat
in Cuba. "It's a colossal mistake."

Christopher Sabatini, the endowment's director for Latin America and the
Caribbean, argued the payouts to Cubans reflect the organization's support
for democracy movements in many nations.

He said the group's efforts are aimed at promoting "a peaceful, eventual
transition in Cuba."

"This is not about regime change," Sabatini said. "It's about helping
independent, courageous individuals organize, have a voice, create political
space and ensure that, when there is a transition, democratic institutions
and actors are prepared."

Elizardo Sanchez, an activist who leads the Cuban Commission of Human Rights
and National Reconciliation in Havana, said his organization would not
accept funds from the U.S. government because it could compromise the
commission's independence and open it to further attacks by Cuban officials.

But Sanchez said he saw nothing wrong with U.S. funds paying freelancers for
their work or supporting activists, political prisoners and their families.

"It's normal that the NED helps," he said. "The function of the NED is to
promote democracy in the world."

Some of the 75 dissidents imprisoned in 2003 were specifically charged with
accepting cash and other support from the U.S. government.

The Chicago Tribune is a Tribune Co. newspaper.

Copyright C 2005, South Florida Sun-Sentinel