The Militant (logo) 
   Vol.66/No.22            June 3, 2002 
 
 
Bush affirms U.S. bipartisan
embargo against Cuba
(front page)
 
BY MAURICE WILLIAMS  
U.S. president George Bush reaffirmed Washington's decades-long embargo against the Cuban Revolution in May 20 speeches in Washington and Miami. According to the Wall Street Journal, his remarks marked the end of a "five month administration review of U.S. Cuba policy" and issued a definitive answer to sections of both parties who call the trade sanctions a failure and who urge that more "effective" methods be pursued to undermine the revolution.

In his speeches Bush used the familiar language of 10 successive U.S. administrations which have sought, through military threats, invasions, embargoes, and other means, to reverse the gains of the 1959 workers and farmers revolution in the Caribbean island. "Full normalization of relations with Cuba, diplomatic recognition, open trade and a robust aid program will only be possible when Cuba has a new government that is fully democratic," he said, meaning a pro-capitalist regime.

Although U.S. officials usually don't publicly admit to the fact that elections are regularly held in Cuba, Bush called on Havana to allow "independent observers" to monitor nationwide voting next year for members of the country's National Assembly. He added that Washington would ease restrictions on "humanitarian" assistance by U.S. religious and other organizations to non-governmental groups in Cuba. Bush said the U.S. government will provide groups with "direct assistance" for such programs.

Press reports leading up to Bush's speech indicated that the president would announce new anti-Cuba measures. But the Wall Street Journal noted that the remarks were "in direct contrast to what many hard-line supporters of the embargo had expected."

Bush's remarks were made two weeks after Richard Bolton, U.S. undersecretary of state for arms control, accused the Cuban government of pursuing "at least a limited offensive biological warfare research and development effort" and providing "dual-use biotechnology to other rogue states."

A front-page article in the London Financial Times several days later extensively quoted an unnamed senior White House official who said that the Bush administration is "examining ways to force the Cuban government to open its research pharmaceutical facilities to weapons inspectors."  
 
'Not surprised by such lies'
Cuban president Fidel Castro refuted Bolton's slanderous accusations point by point in a May 10 televised speech. Referring to the U.S. government's propaganda preparations for an invasion of Cuba in the early 1960s, Castro said, "Anyone who remembers the 15 incredible pretexts, known today through declassified official documents, that were elaborated at the end of 1961 by the high U.S. authorities to undertake a direct military attack against Cuba would not be surprised by such a sinister lie" as that told by Bolton. "We demand proof," Castro said. "Let them produce even the tiniest bit of evidence! They do not have any, and they cannot have them because they simply do not exist."

Bolton's speech came during the buildup to the visit to Cuba by former U.S. president James Carter, undertaken at the invitation of the Cuban government. Castro told Carter that he could visit any of the country's biotechnology research facilities in addition to the genetic engineering center already on the itinerary.

"If you are interested and if you wish, you may have free and complete access, together with any specialists of your choosing," he told Carter, "to that or any of our most prestigious scientific research centers, some of which have been recently accused...of producing biological weapons."

During a visit to Cuba's Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology Carter told Castro and top Cuban scientists that he specifically asked U.S. State Department officials on more than one occasion, "Is there any evidence that Cuba has been involved in sharing any information to any other country on Earth that could be used for terrorist purposes? And the answer from our experts on intelligence was no."

Washington's slanderous attack on Cuba coincides with its moves to enforce its existing restrictions on travel to and from the island. The U.S. State Department recently refused to grant visas to Adriana Carr Pérez and Tania Crombet Ramos, researchers at Cuba's Molecular Immunology Center, who were planning to travel to Orlando, Florida, to participate in the May 18-21 annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology. The two women are specialists in the development of new vaccines and antibodies for treatment of cancer.

"The U.S. government is trying to impede frank, open and constructive debate among specialists from various parts of the world desirous of sharing their experiences, scientific research results and other aspects of the fight against this disease, which kills more than half a million people in the United States every year," said a statement by Cuba's Ministry of Foreign Affairs in response to the exclusion.

Washington is also stepping up its prosecution of people who travel to Cuba from the United States. Last year the Treasury Department issued 766 civil penalties to U.S. citizens, more than four times the number imposed the previous year. Criminal penalties for violating the sanctions range up to 10 years in prison, $1 million in corporate fines, and $250,000 in individual fines. Civil penalties of up to $55,000 per violation could also be imposed.

At a Congressional hearing last February, Sen. Byron Dorgan presented the cases of two travelers who were fined $7,500 each. Marilyn Meister, a 75-year-old retired schoolteacher, went on a bike trip to Cuba, and Cevin Allen scattered his missionary parents' ashes at the Cuban church they helped found.

U.S. residents are barred by the Trading with the Enemy Act from spending money in Cuba, which in effect imposes a travel ban. Under U.S. law today, residents can visit Cuba only by obtaining a license from the Treasury Department. There are three categories of exceptions to the travel ban: general licenses, specific licenses, and "fully hosted" travel. Those authorized to travel with a general license include government officials, "regularly employed" journalists, full-time professionals involved in academic research, and those visiting relatives in Cuba, as determined by U.S. officials.

The specific license, which requires written permission from the Treasury Department, covers licensed humanitarian donations, professional research or participation in meetings that do not meet the criteria for a general license, and religious activities.  
 
Carter's tour of Cuba
While in Cuba, Carter called for easing travel restrictions between the two countries. At the same time he rehashed Washington's propaganda claims about the alleged lack of "democracy" in Cuba. "Almost every country in the Americas is a democracy," he declared. Carter pointed to the recent vote in the United Nations Human Rights Commission that passed a U.S.-organized resolution slandering Cuba as a violator of human rights, saying that its government "must meet universally accepted standards in civil liberties."

In a nationally televised speech at the University of Havana, Carter encouraged internal opposition to Cuba's revolutionary government. "People are not permitted to organize any opposition movements," he arrogantly stated. Carter praised the so-called Varela Project--a petition drive that has collected 11,020 signatures backing a national referendum on the country's elections, amnesty for prisoners jailed for committing criminal acts against the revolution, and the right to own private businesses. Supporters of the petition used the opportunity of Carter's visit to win international coverage of their turning-in of the signatures.

Talking out of both sides of his mouth, Carter assured the Cuban people that he "did not come...to interfere in Cuba's internal affairs," but then urged them to allow the International Committee of Red Cross to visit the nation's prisons and to permit the UN Human Rights Commissioner to address "such issues as prisoners of conscience and the treatment of inmates."

Several university students in the audience responded to the attack on their revolution. Chemistry student Daniel García asked Carter if his conception of democracy includes the social conditions faced by masses of people in Latin America that have "killed millions of children from hunger and disease," and the governments that "have embezzled their peoples' money."

Another student mentioned the five Cuban revolutionaries imprisoned in U.S. jails who were framed up by Washington on charges of conspiracy to commit espionage.

Referring to the Varela petition, a law professor in the audience asked the former president if Washington would allow such a small group of people to change its founding principles.

Carter proposed setting up a "blue ribbon commission" to resolve "the 40-year-old property disputes with some creativity," an oblique reference to the measures taken by Cuba's revolutionary government expropriating property owned by U.S. corporations and wealthy counterrevolutionary Cubans. U.S. companies at the time possessed 90 percent of Cuba's mineral wealth, 80 percent of public utilities, and virtually all the cattle ranches and industrial enterprises.

"Most U.S. companies have already absorbed the losses, but some others want to be paid," he declared.

In 1977 after taking the presidential oath of office Carter undertook small steps toward easing frictions between Washington and Havana. A fishing rights agreement was signed, the U.S. government agreed to suspend its spy flights over Cuba, travel visas to Cuba for U.S. citizens were issued, and charter flights were reestablished. At Washington's request an interests section was set up in both countries to handle diplomatic affairs. Most of these agreements, however, collapsed following Cuba's refusal to buckle to Washington's demands that it withdraw internationalist volunteers from Africa. In his 1980 State of the Union speech in which he announced the reintroduction of draft registration, Carter launched a new militarization campaign on behalf of the U.S. rulers. Over the previous decade Washington had been dealt body blows by working people around the world, from its military defeat in Vietnam to the 1979 anticapitalist revolutions in Grenada and Nicaragua, and the Iranian revolution.  
 
 
Front page (for this issue) | Home | Text-version home