Wednesday, August 1, 2012

Truth and reason

Since last July 22, more than 900 news items have been published and 12,000 messages posted on internet news websites concerning the regrettable road traffic accident which took place in the afternoon of that day, in which two Cuban citizens died and a Spaniard and a Swede were injured. Only the most vociferous members of the pro-annexation Miami mafia accused Cuba of having planned a political murder. The Republican candidate in the United States, the U.S. State Department and, curiously, the spokesperson for the Chilean Presidency, were among the fistful of defamers calling for "a transparent investigation." The Ministry of the Interior informative note, published on July 27, refuted the infamous insinuation, with incontestable statements from police experts and witnesses of the accident, including the two foreigners involved in the tragic incident. The impeccable history of a Revolution which triumphed and has been defended for half a century without a single extra-judicial execution, without any disappeared, tortured or kidnapped persons, or a single act of terrorism, is well known. It is not Cuba, but the United States which holds a shameful record in terms of political killings and extra-judicial executions, including those by drone aircraft; kidnappings; torture in concentration camps such as the illegal Guantánamo Naval Base; and the arbitrary and racist implementation of the death penalty in prisons; plus crimes against innocent civilians in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and other nations. Everyone is aware of the participation of certain NATO European allies in these acts, in particular the kidnapping of citizens of other states, CIA secret flights, secret prisons in Europe and the intervention of NATO personnel in acts of torture. For their part, the corporate media monopolies which traditionally defame Cuba focused on extolling the alleged "freedom fighters," with no respect for ethical limits or the death of human beings, regrettable in any circumstances. The truth will prevail: despite censure and manipulation, it is well known that in Cuba, members of the counterrevolution have always been mercenaries. They are common agents paid, supplied and instructed by the government of the United States and its allies, betraying their country for money. Some of them, without the least notion of decorum, created a macabre spectacle for the foreign press by halting the funeral cortege of one of the victims of the accident. The rapid and energetic response of the people obliged the Revolutionary National Police to remove them. However, they were not charged and returned to their homes a few hours later. But the most interesting aspect of the excessive international press coverage of the accident is that few have investigated what the two injured foreign politicians were doing in Cuba. The driver of the vehicle was Ángel Carromero Barrios, not exactly one of the many Spanish tourists who enjoy the warm hospitality of our country. He is deputy general secretary of Nuevas Generaciones, the youth wing of Spain’s Partido Popular (PP) and close to notorious anti-Cubans ex-President José María Aznar and Esperanza Aguirre, president of the Madrid Community. The other passenger was Jens Aron Modig, leader of the Swedish Christian Democrat Party, which emulates the ultra-conservative U.S. Tea Party, and president of its Youth League, which has links with the International Republican Institute (IRI) among other anti-Cuban organizations, including right-wing Nordic groups. They entered Cuba on July 19 with tourist visas and, violating this status, surreptitiously involved themselves in political activities against the constitutional order. They were not acting on their own initiative, but as part of an operation organized by Anikka Rigo, head of the Foreign Relations Section of the Swedish Christian Democrat Party, to bring financing to the miniscule counterrevolutionary Christian Liberation Movement headed by Oswaldo Payá, one of the two Cubans who died in the accident, and to offer advice on the constitution of an associated youth organization. With this objective in mind, PP Deputy Pablo Casado Blanco, president of Nuevas Generaciones, member of the PP Regional Executive Committee and a former adviser to Aznar, had instructed Carromero to contact Spaniard Cayetana Muriel Aguado, resident in Sweden and also a member of the Swedish Christian Democrat Party, from whom he received instructions, the money to be handed over and a cellular phone programmed with the necessary numbers. Subsequently, Carromero contacted Modig through Facebook and they met in a Madrid restaurant. Modig had already visited Cuba in 2009 for similar reasons, under instructions from Víctor Olmedo Capdepon, a Swedish Christian Democrat Party leader and editor in chief of the counterrevolutionary La Primavera de Cuba (Cuba’s Spring), financed by the Swedish Christian Democrat International Center. Having handed over the money and assessed the creation of a youth group, they were driving to Santiago de Cuba on a similar mission when the accident occurred. The two foreign citizens received consular aid. Spaniard Ángel Carromero Barrios has been charged with homicide while driving a vehicle on the public highway. Swede Jens Aron Modig has been allowed to return to his country, in spite of his illegal activities and violation of his visa status. The operation described is one among many organized from Miami, fundamentally, and from Madrid and Stockholm. In March of this year, a few days prior to the visit of Pope Benedict XVI, eight Mexican youth entered Cuba as tourists with the objective of inciting street protests and church occupations, the distribution of flyers and promoting disorder during the Pope’s activities. Four of them were detained and acknowledged that they had been paid, trained and instructed in this operation by Orlando Gutiérrez Boronat of the Directorio Democrático Cubano in Miami, and that the operational chief in Mexico was René Bolio Hollarán, former Senator of the Mexican Partido de Acción Nacional (PAN), with close links to Florida mafia leaders. Prior to this, a Facebook website "For a Popular Uprising in Cuba," had been opened, with 13 projects for promoting "civil disobedience." One of the plans of the openly counterrevolutionary Raíces de Esperanza organization is to send more than 10,000 cellular phones to promote actions against the Cuban political system. This year the WoS website access service for events in the Middle East, incited "popular uprisings" in Cuba of a similar nature. Other programs are directed at creating possible "opposition" leaders, by providing them with access to Internet and social networks, computers and other technical aids for manifest political ends, in contrast with the extension of the blockade to telecommunications systems. For overtly subversive objectives, the U.S. Interests Section in Havana facilitates thousands of hours of illicit International connections and gives hundreds of hours’ worth of courses in conspiracy, openly violating Cuban legislation and that of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations. There is a large body of evidence that the U.S. government is continuing its policy of regime change in Cuba, through the economic, political, and media blockade and incitement to subversion. From 2009 to 2012, the Department of State and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) have received a public budget of $75 million for subversive programs against Cuba. Other U.S. and European agencies and institutions channel funds for the same purpose: the National Democratic Institute (NDI), the International Republican Institute (IRI), the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), the Cuban-American National Foundation (CANF), Española con Cuba, the Prisa group, the Spanish Federation of Cuban Associations, the European Democratic Institute (EDI), People in Need, the Center for the Opening and Development of Latin America (CADAL) and the Pan American Development Foundation (PADF), among many others, without counting the millions of dollars in secret funds which intelligence services like the CIA use for anti-Cuba subversion. With every reason, closing the 9th Ordinary Session of the National Assembly of People's Power on July 23, President of the Councils of State and Ministers Raúl Castro Ruz stated, "The United States is not giving up its efforts to form a fifth column on our native soil and in utilizing new technologies for subversive ends." The most reactionary and violent groups in Miami are not giving up their attempts to incite the people to rebellion against the government which they freely and independently elected. They are dreaming of destabilizing the country, creating the conditions for a repeat of what happened in Libya and is happening in Syria, thus providing a pretext for U.S. military intervention. In his report to the 6th Party Congress, Raúl warned, "…we will never deny our people the right to defend their Revolution. The defense of our independence, of the conquests of Socialism and of our streets and plazas will still be the first duty of every Cuban patriot." As José Martí affirmed, "Reason is our shield."