CUBA

Against the odds

Interview with Cuban Ambassador Olga Chamero Trias.

Despite 38 years of economic blockade by big neighbour United States, socialist Cuba stands tall. There have been about a dozen attempts by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and other U.S. agencies to assassinate President Fidel Castro. Since the revolution 40 years ago, Cuba has been subjected to a mercenary invasion, attacks employing chemical and biological agents and a barrage of propaganda from the U.S. mainland, which is only 100 km away.

In the last few months the Clinton administration has raised the human rights bogey as part of its manoeuvres against Cuba. The selective disinformation campaign conducted by the U.S. focusses on the prosecution of persons whom it described as human rights activists and independent journalists in Cuba. The U.S. Congress earmarked $2 million in early 1999 to fund the activities of the so-called dissidents.

There has been a recent outpouring of anguish from the Clinton administration and the Western media on the sentencing of four Cuban citizens. These Cuban "dissidents" had received from the U.S. technical and financial assistance for subversive activities.

The Western media have also run a campaign against the trial of Ernesto Raul Cruz Leon, a mercenary from El Salvador who has confessed to several terrorist acts in Havana.

In an interview to John Cherian, Cuban Ambass-ador to India Olga Chamero Trias talks about Cuba's creditable record in the last 40 years and the challenges ahead. Excerpts:

Cuba is celebrating the 40th anniversary of its revolution. What are the achievements of the revolution?

The biggest achievement is that we have survived.The most important have been the political and ideological achievements. We have now gone so far that a retreat is impossible. The revolution has obliterated illiteracy and given equality to all citizens. No one is on the streets and everybody has access to medical care. Children and the aged are given special care. Cuba is a superpower in sports today. Despite the U.S. economic blockade, the Government has kept all its promises to the people. We are lucky to have a leader like Fidel Castro. Without his leadership, a small country like Cuba would not have been able to withstand the pressures. The U.S. has been trying to take over Cuba since the 19th century. A former U.S. President, John Quincy Adams, had said that Cuba should be part of the United States. The U.S. is afraid of Cuba as it presents a different political model. Fidel is among the tallest political leaders in the Third World.

What has been the U.S. role in Cuba?

Declassified material now available in the U.S. has proved the role played by the CIA to undermine the revolution. It started at the outset of the revolution itself when in 1959 we tried to implement land reforms. In 1961 there was the Bay of Pigs invasion. Then Cuba was subjected to bacteriological warfare. A mysterious strain of swine flu killed millions of pigs, ravaging the farm sector. U.S. intelligence agents had given a sealed flask containing the swine fever virus to a group of Cuban counter-revolutionaries in Panama. Between 1979 and 1981 there were destructive epidemics such as haemorrhagic conjunctivitis, dengue fever, sugarcane rust and tobacco mould, which seriously affected the populace and the economy. Among the most vulnerable were children. Haemorrhagic dengue killed 151 children.

The blockade was not only economic, it was also criminal and terroristic in nature. Because of the blockade Cuba has incurred a loss of $60 billion. Cuban diplomats have been targets of terrorism; two Cuban diplomats were kidnapped in Argentina in the 1970s and they remain untraced. A Cuban civilian airliner was blown up over Barbados in the mid-1970s. The CIA's hand in this incident is well-documented.

In spite of the problems that Cuba faced, it has been unwavering in its support for the decolonisation process in the 1970 and the 1980s.

S. SUBRAMANIUM

Cuba did play an important role in the achievement of independence by three African countries. We feel that we owe a duty to our African brothers. Cuba has a strong African heritage. Today Cuba has 2,000 doctors doing humanitarian work in Third World countries. There are 300 doctors in South Africa itself. Cuba has opened a Latin American university of medicine, the biggest of its kind in Latin America. Many of its students are from less developed Latin American countries. Cuban medical teams provided much needed emergency aid in the cyclone-ravaged Central American countries of Nicaragua and Honduras. The rest of the world woke up to the catastrophe only three months later.

Why is the Clinton administration focussing on alleged human rights violations in Cuba?

The U.S. has been ignoring international public opinion. In 1998, during the vote in the United Nations General Assembly, 157 countries voted in favour of lifting the U.S. economic embargo on Cuba. Only the U.S. and Israel voted against; 12 countries abstained. Only a mature and strong U.S. administration will understand the importance of opening a dialogue with Cuba without pre-conditions.

No country has done more for human rights than Cuba. Feeding one's people and taking care of them is indivisible from human rights. Recently the Cuban Government, in response to the Helms-Burton Law of 1996 which directly impinges on Cuban sovereignty, enacted its own Law of Defence and Sovereignty aimed at punishing those who violate the country's security. Every country has such laws. In the U.S. there is a Logan's law. Those arrested and sentenced in Cuba are not innocent dissidents. They were paid by the U.S. interest section in Havana. We should go into the origins of the campaign. After the U.S. was comprehensively defeated in the U.N. General Assembly, it has been trying to create a situation which it can exploit. The trial of the counter-revolutionaries has come in handy to the Clinton administration. A propaganda assault was launched by the U.S. on this issue. Congress has approved $2 million for this purpose and an additional $22 million for radio and television broadcasts to Cuba.

Washington is following an immoral policy of destabilisation and it is doing so openly. Cuba has been virtually in a state of siege. After the so-called Cold War ended, the blockade on Cuba has only intensified.

Last year 12 heads of state visited Cuba. Cuba was elected member of the Executive Council of the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) last September. It has been admitted as a member of the International Council of the Latin American Integration Association (ALADI) with the status of a "developing medium country", owing to its progress in important economic, scientific, technical and social areas. Cuba has been elected host country for the summit of South-South heads of state and government in the year 2000, during the ministerial meeting of G-77 plus China. And Cuba scored a great victory when it won overwhelming approval for its resolution, "Necessity of Ending the Economic, Commercial and Financial Embargo imposed by the U.S. against Cuba".

Cuba does not pass judgment about the political systems of other countries. Cubans expect the same stand from other countries to apply to their country.