People's Democracy

   Bush’s Brutal Measures Against Cuba

Following is a list of some of the brutal measures announced by the Bush administration against Cuba. This list was carried in the Communist Party of Cuba's official organ Granma newspaper:

1)    To make available $59 million in the next two years for financing actions directed at destroying the Revolution. This money would be used, among other purposes

1. To create an international fund for the development of the “civil society” in Cuba, which would attract “voluntary” personnel from third countries to travel to our country and offer aid to the mercenaries in its service in Cuba. In practice, it is the organisation of a messenger corps to supply financial and logistical help to the counterrevolution.

2. To establish, together with the Organisation of American States (OAS), a “scholarship plan” to enable counterrevolutionary elements selected by them to study in US and Latin American universities. It is, in essence, their plan to form cadres for the counterrevolution in Cuba.

3. To finance programs to support what they call “pro-democracy efforts among Cuban youth, women and men of African origin.” An unusual objective, coming from the country of all kinds of discrimination and the Ku Klux Klan.

4. To dedicate $18 million to transmissions from the ill-named TV and Radio Martí via a C-130 airplane devoted exclusively to that purpose.

5. To maintain and increase public campaigns against Cuba in other countries in the context of the alleged violation of human rights in Cuba, “espionage committed against other countries,” the “subversion of democratically elected governments in Latin America,” and other acts defined as a threat to US interests; likewise, the promotion of national or international conferences in third countries to “disseminate information” on US policies for promoting a “transition” in Cuba. It is the announcement of further $5 million for financing the international campaign of discredit and lies against Cuba.

 2  To limit those who receive remittances of money and packages to immediate family members of Cuban resident in the United States, defined exclusively as grandparents, grandchildren, parents, siblings, spouses and children. This means that from now on, Cubans residing in the United States are the only immigrants to be prohibited from sending economic aid to an elderly aunt or another close family member.

3  To prohibit Cubans resident in the United States from sending remittances of money and packages to family members if the latter are “government officials or members of the Communist Party.” A 70-year-old mother, for example, would have to renounce her political rights in order to receive a remittance.

4  To reduce visits to our country by Cubans resident in the United States from the current one per year to one every three years. The additional restriction is established by the obligation, from now on, to seek specific permission for each trip, instead of the general license that currently exists. It limits the granting of permission to travel to Cuba only for visiting immediate family members. To this effect, the US government has decreed that from this moment on, the definition of family is: “grandparents, grandchildren, parents, siblings, spouses and children.” That is, from now on, a cousin, aunt or other close family member is not – according to President Bush – a family member. It also establishes, as well, that Cubans who have recently arrived in the United States will only be able to travel to Cuba three years after having emigrated. While the Cuban government is continually making visits to the country by emigrants more flexible, the US government is increasing the obstacles. What is it afraid of?

5  Reducing the quantity of money that Cubans resident in the United States can spend to cover their costs during visits to Cuba from $164 to $50 per day. A new and arbitrary discrimination against the Cuban community in the United States.

6  Ordering the US authorities to mount “covert operations” on any person bringing money from Cubans resident in the United States to relatives on the island, including recompensing individuals who inform on illegal transfers of family remittances.

7  To continue restricting the granting of licenses for educational visits and academic exchanges to US citizens and institutions by means of tighter regulations than those currently existing. It should be recalled that licenses for so-called people-to-people exchange have already been eliminated by the Bush administration.

8  To undertake a rigorous study to evaluate whether the application of Title III of the Helms-Burton Act is contrary to US interests or whether its application could accelerate the fall of the Cuban Revolution. In practice, this evokes the possibility of authorising trials in US courts against businesspersons from third countries engaged in business with Cuba, which has not been applied to date.

9  To firmly apply the sanctions contained in Title IV of the same act, which prohibits the granting of entry visas to the United States of foreign investors in Cuba, and to supply more resources and personnel to apply the Helms-Burton Act.

10  To “neutralise” Cuban companies dedicated to economic activity linked to the external sector, and to create an Assets Evaluation Group to investigate Cuban companies and those of other nations trading with Cuba.

11  To increase efforts to involve the governments of third countries in campaigns against the Cuban Revolution.

12  To support actions in third countries to discourage tourism to Cuba.

13  To continue refusing visas to Cuban officials who have to travel to the United States.

14  To create the post of a Coordinator for the Transition in Cuba at State Department level, who will be responsible for checking the application of all these measures.