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<a class="gmail-domain gmail-reader-domain" href="https://peoplesdispatch.org/2023/06/09/us-tells-another-bedtime-story-to-scare-away-normal-relations-with-china-and-cuba/">peoplesdispatch.org</a>
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<h1 class="gmail-reader-title">US tells another bedtime story to scare away normal relations with China and Cuba</h1>
<div class="gmail-credits gmail-reader-credits">Manolo De Los Santos, Kate Gonzales - June 9, 2023<br></div>
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<img src="cid:ii_lip9pmh40" alt="image.png" width="392" height="221"><br><p>This is just one new addition to the long legacy of lies that the
United States has been spinning in an attempt to further alienate the
Cuban people.
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<p>On June 8, the US media added to its long storybook of tales to scare
people away from normal relations with Cuba. The Wall Street Journal <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/cuba-to-host-secret-chinese-spy-base-focusing-on-u-s-b2fed0e0?mod=article_inline">published</a>
an article on that day claiming that China has plans to set up a “spy
base” in Cuba, to “eavesdrop” on the United States and “identify
potential strike targets.” WSJ has already <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/cuba-spy-station-brings-china-rivalry-to-americas-doorstep-21c86073?mod=hp_lead_pos1">published</a>
two more pieces since rapidly ramping up its narrative against the
Cuban state and fermenting more paranoia as the news spreads across
mainstream news outlets in the United States.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, Cuban officials held a press conference on June 8 to
completely deny the allegations. Cuba’s Vice Foreign Minister Carlos de
Cossío <a href="https://peoplesdispatch.org/2023/06/08/cuban-official-condemns-wall-street-journals-claim-about-chinese-base-as-unfounded/">stated</a>
that “All these are fallacies promoted with the deceitful intention of
justifying the unprecedented tightening of the blockade,
destabilization, and aggression against Cuba and of deceiving public
opinion in the United States and the world.” Even John Kirby, National
Security Council spokesman who was the former press secretary for the
Pentagon, has <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/cuba-china-listening-post-kirby-b2354225.html">denied</a> the WSJ report, calling it “inaccurate.”</p>
<p>This is just one new addition to the long legacy of lies that the
United States has been spinning in an attempt to further alienate the
Cuban people. One just has to remember the “Havana syndrome” that
mysteriously affected diplomats in Cuba; it was first blamed on foreign
powers as an attack but was later <a href="https://www.npr.org/2022/01/20/1074338995/cia-report-no-evidence-linking-havana-syndrome-cases-to-a-foreign-country">revealed</a> to have no basis. Or maybe the claims about 20,000 Cuban soldiers <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-venezuela-cuba/cuba-denies-military-in-venezuela-charges-u-s-readies-intervention-idUSKCN1Q82T4">supposedly</a>
based in Venezuela to maintain the government there, when in reality,
the vast majority of Cubans present in Venezuela were medical workers.
Or perhaps the idea that Cuban doctors sent across the world are <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-cuba-trafficking/u-s-says-cuban-medical-missions-are-trafficking-doctors-idUSKBN1WC00X">enslaved</a>,
when it is simply their understanding that their duty to humanity is to
provide health care to those who need it. All of these lies have been
told just in the past few years alone.</p>
<p>These falsified stories all swirl into fomenting the atmosphere of
paranoia and suspicion that prevents normal US-Cuba relations. In the
wake of the Havana syndrome myth, Trump was able to interrupt the path
Obama set toward normalization, <a href="https://peoplesdispatch.org/2021/07/20/if-you-grew-up-with-the-us-blockade-as-a-cuban-you-might-understand-the-recent-protests-differently/">setting</a>
243 additional and comprehensive sanctions, and further preventing the
island from meeting its basic needs. The United States continues to live
out its Cold War fantasies through these lies, at the cost of the Cuban
people’s lives and well-being.</p>
<p>And yet, it maintains its hypocrisy. Cossío was careful to <a href="https://peoplesdispatch.org/2023/06/08/cuban-official-condemns-wall-street-journals-claim-about-chinese-base-as-unfounded/">point</a>
out that Cuba would never allow a foreign military base on their
island, as it is a signatory of the Declaration of Latin America and the
Caribbean as a Zone of Peace. Cuba is also <a href="https://peoplesdispatch.org/2023/04/27/colombian-government-and-eln-to-hold-third-round-of-peace-talks-in-cuba/">currently</a> sponsoring and hosting peace talks between Colombia and the National Liberation Army (ELN). As of today, they have <a href="https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Colombia-ELNs-3rd-Cycle-of-Peace-Negotiations-Continue-20230608-0014.html">agreed</a>
to a cease-fire, ending decades of violence in the country. Cuba
already suffers from the illegal US occupation of Guantanamo, to further
rub salt in the wound. The United States has its infamous military base
there, which is known for the inhumane treatment and torture it deals
out to its prisoners. While it accuses China of military expansion, the
United States has hundreds of military bases all over the globe.</p>
<p>Cuba has demonstrated that it desires nothing but peace in the
region, and normal relations with its neighbor, the United States. But
the United States refuses to accept this proposal. Instead, it maintains
the most comprehensive sanctions in history against the small island.
Instead, it falsely <a href="https://peoplesdispatch.org/2023/02/12/chomsky-and-prashad-cuba-is-not-a-state-sponsor-of-terrorism/">places</a>
Cuba on the state sponsors of terrorism list, even though it is in fact
a sponsor of peace. Instead, the US government and its media
apparatuses choose to fabricate myths and legends, painting Cuba as the
evil monster under the bed. It chooses to scare the US people away from
the possibility that normal relations and ending the blockade against
Cuba could be good for people from both countries.</p>
<p><em><b>Manolo De Los Santos</b> is the co-executive director of the <a href="https://peoplesforum.org/">People’s Forum</a> and is a researcher at <a href="https://thetricontinental.org/">Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research</a>. He co-edited, most recently, Viviremos: Venezuela vs. Hybrid War (<a href="https://mayday.leftword.com/catalog/product/view/id/22050">LeftWord Books</a>/<a href="https://1804books.com/products/viviremos-venezuela-vs-hybrid-war">1804 Books</a>, 2020) and Comrade of the Revolution: Selected Speeches of Fidel Castro (<a href="https://mayday.leftword.com/catalog/product/view/id/22524">LeftWord Books</a>/<a href="https://1804books.com/products/comrade-of-the-revolution-selected-speeches-of-fidel-castro">1804 Books</a>, 2021). He is a co-coordinator of the <a href="https://peoplessummit2022.org/">People’s Summit for Democracy</a>.</em></p>
<p><em><b>Kate Gonzales</b> is the editorial coordinator at <a href="https://1804books.com/">1804 Books</a>.
Born and raised in New York City, she has worked in development and
education for arts and political organizations, and organized with
grassroots movements in Hungary and New Jersey. Kate studied
anthropology at Bard College, where she wrote her thesis on Filipino
migrant nationalism.</em></p>
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