[News] The Empire's fears lies and inanities

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THE EMPIRE’S FEARS, LIES AND INANITIES

January 8 2004

The Permanent Mission of the Republic Cuba to the United Nations



The behavior of some U. S. government officials makes one feel sorry for 
them. There is a swarm of liars running around in the top echelons of power 
who rarely say anything serious or come close to the truth.

              Barely  48 hour ago, according to various reports 
from  Washington-based press agencies, “The U.S. Under Secretary of State 
for Hemispheric affairs, Mr. Roger Noriega, criticized Cuba for supporting 
destabilizing elements in several democratic countries in the Americas”. 
“He said that his country and some of its neighbors are keeping a close eye 
on what  the Cuban leader, Fidel Castro is doing in ‘his latest ventures’”. 
”He indicated that the United States has its own information about, ‘for 
example, Cuba’s involvement in supporting elements in several countries 
that want to destabilize democratic governments’”.

             “It is clear that Fidel Castro’s actions have attracted the 
attention of Latin American leaders’ Noriega said, referring to these 
actions as “increasingly provocative” for the inter-American community and 
to which the United States has responded with explicit support to countries 
allegedly affected by these acts, such as Bolivia’”.

             One of the cables went on to say that according to Noriega, 
Castro ‘is trying to take advantage of the situation’ adding that ‘he is 
consciously and destructively fomenting discord and discontent’ and is 
making democratically elected governments vulnerable”.

This Mr. Noriega, a hypocritical and mediocre type was one of those chiefly 
responsible for drafting and promoting the anti Cuban Helms-Burton Acts. He 
is a bosom friend of the Miami Cuban American terrorist mob. He was given 
his current position as undersecretary when the Senate refused to allow the 
job  to be given to the bandit Otto Reich, whose terrorist past history in 
the dirty war in Nicaragua is common knowledge.

             Noriega’s declaration, made almost immediately after a State 
Department spokesperson announced that migration talks were being 
suspended, using as an excuse the fact that Cuba would not acquiesce to 
some absurd unacceptable demands, shows that this is a well thought out act 
of provocation with dubious motives connected with November’s elections; 
the supporters of this administration hope to ensure that they win these, 
even at the cost of provoking a conflict —any will do.

It can be shown that Noriega’s statements are barefaced lies, as usual.

             Where did he get the idea that Cuba has adopted a provocative 
stance aimed at destabilizing Latin America? With the exception of the 
contemptible cry baby who governs Uruguay, an abject United States lackey 
and “the breath of fresh air”—as Mr. Bush so poetically referred to the 
person who governs El Salvador where Posada Carriles, following orders from 
Miami, organized the terrorist actions against Cuban hotels and cooked up 
the attempt on the life of the president of the Cuban State Council— the 
government of our country maintains normal, respectful diplomatic relations 
with every other country in our region. None of them has complained or 
uttered a single word about plans supposedly hatched by Cuba to destabilize 
their governments.

Our relations with diverse Latin American and Caribbean political trends 
are absolutely legal, normal and public. Many events, sponsored by 
institutions and centers of a political, social, educational, cultural, 
scientific  and economic nature, are held every year in full view of the 
domestic and international press.

What does destabilize mean? Sending thousands of doctors to collaborate 
with governments in giving care to the poorest and most needy? Have we by 
any chance destabilized Guatemala, Honduras, Haiti, Belize, Paraguay and 
various other countries in the Caribbean, Central or South America? Could 
it be that destabilize means sending 15,000 Cuban doctors to 64 countries 
where millions of people are given medical care and tens of thousands of 
lives are saved? Since when has promoting literacy campaigns that use new 
modern and highly effective methods meant destabilizing democratic regimes 
anywhere in the world? How can anyone call giving scholarships to study in 
our universities to 12,000 Third World youths a subversive action? Isn’t it 
somewhat stupid to label as subversive the efforts of thousands of sports 
instructors who are promoting the most wholesome of activities which helps 
to reduce crime, drug use and make millions of young people healthier. 
Since when is to promote education and culture to destabilize nations?

After Hurricane Mitch devastated Central America, didn’t we offer to 
send  doctors who saved the same number of lives each year as were lost 
during the hurricane, and also all the scholarships they needed to train 
young men and women from those countries so that in the future they could 
do the job that our doctors were doing? Could anyone in his right mind say 
that this was an attempt to destabilize democracy in Central America, at a 
time when we didn’t even have diplomatic relations with some of the 
countries there? Why deny that Cuba has given emergency aid, with no 
exceptions, whenever there is a natural disaster, sometimes these were in 
Latin American countries, but also in other parts of the world? Why not 
remember that, in 1970, when there was a terrible earthquake in Peru that 
left more than 50,000 dead, the people of Cuba sent 100,000 blood 
donations, built hospitals and supplied medicines? Why not also acknowledge 
that when the Uruguayan people fell victim to a serious cerebrospinal 
meningitis epidemic, Cuba, the only country making a suitable vaccine, sent 
millions of doses to protect the lives of Uruguayan children, even when 
their government, apprised of the existence of this vaccine, did not want 
to purchase it precisely because it was Cuban?

And these are not the only examples. The Cuban authorities did not hesitate 
in sending human and material resources which were a decisive factor in 
eradicating the disease when El Salvador was in the grips of a serious 
dengue epidemic, even though its government was a bitter enemy of Cuba, a 
haven for terrorists and a center of operations from which gross crimes 
against our people were launched. A similar spirit of cooperation was to be 
seen there a short time afterwards when a devastating earthquake racked 
this sister nation.

So what’s all this meanness about now? It has a history  and it can be 
explained.

In his cynical January 6 denunciation, Mr. Noriega made special mention of 
Venezuela, pointing to it as one of Cuba’s partners in the destabilizing 
efforts because of our support for the health, education, cultural, 
athletic, social work and other programs that the Bolivarian process is 
undertaking for the benefit of the Venezuelan people; our country has 
accumulated some experience in these areas which it has placed at the 
service of the Third World nations. We have given thousands of scholarships 
to young Venezuelans to study medicine, sports, social work, technical 
training and have offered whatever forms of technical or social cooperation 
as we are asked for.

In the eyes of the Cuban people, president Chávez embodies  the ideas 
and  the Bolivarian spirit of independence, unity and patriotism of the 
Latin American peoples who share ethnic origins, culture, religion and 
language much more than any other group of countries in the world. They 
have the right and duty to unite, not only for economic reasons, but also 
for their very survival. Cuba supports this right with all its might.

Mr. Noriega’s insolent, threatening rant on January 6 has its roots in the 
statements which Mr. Otto Reich, ambassador extraordinary to Latin America 
had made two weeks earlier, on December 19 and which were published in a 
cable that read: “Otto Reich acknowledged today that the continent ‘is not 
in good shape’ and pointed to Venezuela as the country facing the ‘gravest 
crisis’”,  before going on to say: “’Unless the two parts calm down, there 
could be a problem’. He also said that the United States is “really worried 
by constant reports that there are Cuban agents in Venezuela’”.

             “He said —according to the wire service report— that 
’according to many people in Venezuela’, they had received reports that 
‘there are hundreds, if not thousands of Cubans of military age and aspect 
in Venezuela’”.

“’Chávez has the force of arms and he is also the constitutional president’ 
but ‘ all the polls we have seen indicate that two thirds of the population 
is against Chávez and they also have the force of the constitution and of 
the referendum’.

“He added that, according to his sources, ‘there are more than three and 
possibly up to four million valid signatures in favor of going ahead with 
the referendum against Hugo Chávez.

“’All the Inter-American community has the responsibility to accompany the 
Venezuelan people in this challenge for democracy and against a possible 
trick by whosoever tries to prevent Venezuelan law from being upheld’”, he 
added.

“Reich said that the United States ‘along with all its friends in the 
hemisphere, is keeping a close eye on what is happening in 
Venezuela’”.  The people of military age and aspect were the Cuban doctors, 
52.4 percent of whom are women.

It is very obvious that the most extremist group in the U. S. government 
realizes that the regime of exploitation and savage looting Latin American 
peoples have been subjected to can no longer be sustained nor put up with.

If the United States has it own information about Cuba’s involvement in 
supporting elements who are trying to destabilize democratic governments in 
several countries, why doesn’t he give specific details? Why doesn’t he say 
where, when and how these actions came about, in which countries? What did 
Cuba do in Bolivia that caused the social turmoil that took place there? 
Who is trying to take advantage of the situation? Who is to blame for the 
swollen rivers that most of the countries in this region have become as the 
result of a huge and insuperable foreign debt, constant pillaging, poverty, 
unemployment, hunger, the sorry state of health and education and the 
demands of the International Monetary Fund?

Why doesn’t that fool Noriega say a word about the FTAA, in other words, 
the annexation they are trying to force on Latin American and Caribbean 
nations? Who installed neoliberal globalization? Who shoved forced 
privatization of resources and assets down the throats of the helpless 
peoples of this continent? Who sells weapons instead of educational 
materials? Who sends young Latin Americans as cannon fodder to die on the 
sands of Iraq? What need does Cuba have to fish in troubled waters if 
the  very troubled rivers have swollen and are threatening to sweep away 
all the rottenness and the injustices they have suffered for centuries?

New, vulgar lies:

“
’some sources’ are aware of ‘a group of disturbances with Cuban 
involvement’
’it is very clear that (Castro) is increasingly active in the 
region.’”

Of course, Mr. Noriega, things are changing. Fewer and fewer people believe 
in your traditional fictions, the peoples are less willing to put up with 
it all. The Cuban president is invited when new governments take office and 
to other functions. He was able to go when new governments were inaugurated 
in Brazil, Ecuador, Argentina and Paraguay. With a heavy heart he had to 
decline invitations to other government inaugurations and important events 
because we in Cuba need to work hard and travel is expensive and 
complicated because of the plans that you, your government and its 
terrorist mob cook up to kill him. We understand that so many failed 
attempts must be very frustrating for all of you.

“It is very clear that (Castro) is increasingly active in the region”, you 
said, and that ”this caused great concern among Latin American leaders”.

Why don’t you say who these leaders are, why do you take it upon yourself 
to speak for them, why do you try to make them seem envious and 
cowardly?  There have never been hostile looks nor disgruntled faces from 
most of those whom our president meets when he attends the ceremonies 
mentioned above, apart from the exceptions we talked of, to whom he is 
indifferent. He is always treated with respect, in spite of the fact that, 
in some cases, which grow increasingly less common, there are profound 
ideological differences. It is common knowledge that the people in the 
countries he visits enthusiastically show their affection and admiration 
for the President of the Cuban State Council. It is not in vain that the 
Cuban people and their leaders have gone through very difficult trials and 
have never yielded to the unjust actions, aggressions and threats of the 
most powerful nation that has ever existed.

The anger and hatred that drips from Mr. Noriega’s  deliberately untrue 
words is understandable, because he knows that, dead or alive, Castro’s 
memory will follow him like a ghost, following his insulting and amazingly 
mediocre lies and the usual bully threats that he spewed forth at him:

“’It must be quite obvious to Fidel Castro that his acts have attracted the 
attention of Latin American leaders and that his efforts to destabilize 
Latin America are increasingly provoking to the Inter-American community, 
including the United States’”. “’Those who continue to destabilize 
democratically elected governments by intervening in the internal affairs 
of other governments are playing with fire’”. What does playing with fire mean?

You don’t have the what it takes to intimidate any Cuban patriot. You speak 
the way you do without committing a drop of your own blood but only that of 
young officers and soldiers of the U.S. armed forces.

You said that both ”your country and other neighbors are closely following 
what the Cuban leader does in his latest ventures” that he is “ on his last 
legs and feels a little nostalgic for the days when he had an important 
role to play in the Americas”. You lie. If you really believed that you 
would not be so alarmed by the alleged destabilization plan.

We should also ask you: Has Mr. Bush already given the order to eliminate 
the Cuban president extrajudicially?

When Mr. Noriega made these pronouncements he not only attacked and 
threatened Cuba but he also tried to tell off Argentinean president, Néstor 
Kirchner —a man who indisputably drips dignity from every pore— and wanted 
to order him to immediately pay $21 billion of his foreign debt: furious 
with foreign minister Bielsa he declared himself to be dismayed that  the 
minister had not met with the United States’ paid agents when he visited 
Havana.  What an imperial arrogance!

He didn’t refrain from intervening in Venezuela’s internal affairs, either. 
He accused President Chávez of being Cuba’s accomplice in its destabilizing 
efforts in Latin America. He urged him to respect the rules in place for a 
possible referendum revoking his mandate. He not only took over the role of 
the Venezuelan National Electoral Council, but he also certified the number 
of signatures collected against Chávez and gave strong support to those 
behind the April 11, 2002 military coup and the oil coup of the following 
December and January.

We are quite familiar with Mr. Noriega’s ideas, and those of others of his 
ilk, which are all for murdering Cuban doctors in Venezuela, with the help 
of Colombian paramilitary soldiers, to teach them a lesson and make them 
withdraw their cooperation from the wonderful health plans which the 
Bolivarian government is implementing in its Into the neighborhoods! 
(Barrio adentro) program, under which more than 12.5 million poor 
Venezuelans are receiving medical care.

We have made it known that for every doctor, teaching or athletic cooperant 
who falls, there are many ready and willing to take their place. All 
responsibility will lie with the government of the United States.

Those who think the Cuban people could ever be intimidated are defeated 
before they even begin!






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