By Raul Antonio Capote on December 29, 2023
image: Ares
At the beginning of 2023, the Chargé d’Affaires of the Washington Embassy in Havana, Benjamin Ziff, in an interview granted to The Associated Press, expressed that “it was difficult to go back” in relation to Cuba.
Such a statement expressed the current position of the White House, and closed any possibility of concrete action in favor of an improvement in the ties between the two countries, like the timid rapprochement that took place during the Obama administration.
In truth, during the course of the year, very little progress was made in this direction. On the contrary, the administration led by Joe Biden continues to hold the record of being the most efficient and dedicated in enforcing sanctions against Cuba.
Consistent with the policy established since February 3, 1962 by the Kennedy administration, the current president signed the extension, for another year, of the so-called Trading with the Enemy Act, the basis of the economic war against Cuba.
The blockade is behind every medicine that is missing, the thermoelectric plant that has stopped, the transportation that lacks spare parts, the social project that could not be executed.
Punishing the public sector, knowing that it provides essential services for the entire population, such as health, education, sports, culture, etc., without exclusions of any kind, continues to be an essential part of Washington’s policy.
On the other hand, lies, manipulation of the truth, political-ideological subversion, organization and financing of violent anti-Cuban groups within the U.S. increased during the year that is ending.
The list of Perfidy
Despite the growing demand of the international community for the U.S. Government to remove Cuba from the list of State Sponsors of Terrorism, the White House, in 2023, chose to persevere in iniquity and lies.
The action has a high cost; the main consequences derive from the increase in the greater risk associated with any type of business, investment and trade involving the Island; in addition, it seriously harms the international flow of Cuban finances.
Cuba was unjustly included, for the first time, on the State Department’s list of State Sponsors of Terrorism during the administration of President Ronald Reagan in 1982.
It was not until 2015 that the government led by former President Barack Obama removed Cuba from the list; however, in the twilight of Donald Trump’s presidency, on January 12, 2021, the Island of Liberty was again designated as a State sponsor of terrorism.
Despite the fact that the Greater Antilles exhibits an impeccable resume of international collaboration in the fight against this type of practice, and has always expressed its willingness to cooperate with U.S. authorities, as it does with other countries, Washington insists on using such designation as a tool of destabilization.
Quagmire of Lies and Disinformation
As the world faces an era of turbulence and crisis, Cuba, moreover, wages an unparalleled battle against slander and lies.
The toxic ecosystem of false media works as a thicket of disinformation, a kind of swamp in which some people get hopelessly lost.
Stereotypes associated with terrorism are frequently constructed and used against the island, appealing to emotions to give veracity to their manipulative discourse.
In June of this year, a report by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) tried, once again, to hold the Cuban State responsible for the death of Oswaldo Payá Sardiñas, despite the fact that there is ample evidence of the causes of his death, as ruled by Cuban and Spanish courts.
Another dangerous fallacy constructed by Washington was the statement made by the US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, about the presence of a Chinese espionage base in Cuba.
This was not a light accusation; behind this false news were hidden the intentions of stubborn and retrograde sectors seeking to escalate aggressive actions against the island.
Meanwhile, a campaign led by one of the main operators of the Cuban-American ultra-right, Orlando Gutiérrez Boronat, recently tried to involve Cuba in sending mercenaries to the war in Ukraine.
Another of the operations conceived and applied with all impudence was the attempt to associate Cuba with the alleged agitation or preparation of “acts of vandalism” in the Argentine Republic, something totally unfounded, crude and lacking in seriousness.
No less important, due to its direct impact on the people, was the manipulation of exchange rates through digital media outside the Island, as part of the strategy to asphyxiate the economy of the country.
Attacks against medical collaboration, incitement to mass migration, slander and attempts to stain the political leadership of the country, disinformation, attempts to promote anti-government demonstrations within the island, the contrived construction of situations of violence against people, to generate a climate of fear and insecurity, have been our daily bread in the digital ecosystem.
Let us remember that, in this war, the enemy acts through its think tanks, pressure groups, financial lobbies, with the support of an articulate network of media affiliated to the government and the big media conglomerates, to generate processes of destabilization and chaos.
Who Are the Real Terrorists
The plans of the State Department and the U.S. intelligence community to increase violent actions against Cuba, with the purpose of generating a social explosion before the end of 2023, were denounced in a timely manner by our media.
In relation to this information, a few days ago, forces of the Ministry of the Interior thwarted destabilizing plans being developed from the United States by terrorists of Cuban origin.
The Greater of the Antilles also made public a list of the promoters and executors of terrorist actions, and reiterated its policy of zero tolerance to any manifestation of such evil, which has caused so much pain and suffering, for years, to the people.
To generate chaos, hunger, diseases, to build idleness, confusion, apathy, fear, betrayal that opens the doors, with a minimum cost to the Yankee troops, was and is the great task that the servants of the empire yearn to accomplish.
Source: Granma