USAID partners in programs against Cuba
By Norelys Morales Aguilera (Progreso Weekly)
HAVANA TIMES — The United States Agency for International Development was created – it is alleged – to deliver food to the hungry and medical supplies to the injured, or to take part in humanitarian causes promoted by the United States.
In the case of Cuba, however, the opposite is true. Between 1996 and 2004, through the USAID, the government of the United States assigned more than $34 million to 25 counterrevolutionary organizations.
The USAID has become an entity that engages in covert political work against governments that Washington considers to be hostile. Dozens of its agents move in the shadow of right-wing organizations invented ad hoc and sponsored by the International Republican Institute, the National Democratic Institute, Freedom House, and several other “front” institutions under the guidance of the Central Intelligence Agency, according to the Cuban online encyclopedia EcuRed.
Against Cuba, the USAID has been involved in the increase of financial and material aid and the funding of subversive activities in coordination with the U.S. Interests Office in Havana.
Between 1996 and 2004, through the USAID, the government of the United States assigned more than $34 million to 25 counterrevolutionary organizations. But the federal agency declares that its budget has been reserved for NGOs (nongovernment organizations) “that promote a democratic transition in Cuba,” as it describes counterrevolutionary groups bankrolled by Washington and openly supplied and supported by the U.S. diplomats in Havana.
One of the agency’s most publicized scandals in Cuba has been its participation as a “front” in a secret plan by the U.S. government and its special services called “Cuba Democracy and Contingency Planning Program,” which ended in the arrest of U.S. citizen Alan P. Gross (now serving a 15 year sentence in Havana).
More recently, it was learned that on July 10, 2013, the USAID launched a $6 million subversive program against Cuba and sent descriptive documents to U.S. diplomats in Havana. According to the documents, the USAID was activating its Initiative SOL-OAA-13-000110, and at least 20 NGOs applied for the money to train alleged “dissidents” on the island in the next three years.
(Read “$6 million raffle for oppositionists is exposed“, in Progreso Weekly of Nov. 18.)
The purported objective is to provide the opportunity to the so-called oppositionists to travel abroad, learn technical skills and gain experience in “a series of fields that are considered to be important for the development of democracy and civilian society,” in open subversion of the political order in Cuba.
These are the USAID’s main partners, listed in order of the money they receive:
1. New America Foundation – $4.3 million, from September 2012 till September 2015.
2. Pan-American Foundation for Development – $3.9 million, from September 2011 till September 2014.
3. International Relief and Development – $3.5 million, from September 2011 till September 2014.
4. Foundation for Human Rights in Cuba – $3.4 million, from September 2011 till September 2014. The FHRC describes itself as a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization established in 1992 “to promote a nonviolent transition to a free and democratic Cuba by empowering independent civil society within Cuba.”
5. Support Group for Democracy – $3 million, from September 2012 till September 2015. The SGD is headed by Frank Hernández Trujillo and operates from headquarters at 1000 Ponce de Leon Blvd., in Coral Gables, Fla.
6. International Republican Institute – $3 million, from September 2012 till September 2015.
7. National Democratic Institute – $2.3 million, from September 2011 till September 2014.
Your armchair legal work leaves much to be desired. Read the entire chapter again. The Foreign Relations and Registration Act of 1938 states that is lawful to engage in promoting views against the US government, provided you follow the rules like registration and recordkeeping. Once again, it is called free speech. Children learn that free speech does not mean you can yell “fire” in a crowded movie theater. You should know that there should be rules regarding lobbying against the US government. Still, it is a LEGAL activity. The same can’t be said in Cuba/
“We call it free speech”. Oh really ? Except maybe for the five years you could spend in jail for violating 22 USC 611. I guess in the case of justifying blatant interference in the affairs of other countries, ignorance of US laws is a great excuse for imperialist apologists.
The mobs whipped together for repudiations are comprised of state security agents, plus fanatical activists, local scum bribed into taking part with a bottle of rum & a kilo of beef, and neighbours pressed into joining by the local CDR for fear the mob will turn on them next if they don’t.
You consider yourself among the fanatical activists. That says all we need to know about your commitment to freedom and democracy. Scratch a Leftist and you will find a totalitarian thug. Every time.
Even if Soler returned to Cuba with funds for pro-democracy activities, so what? I am convinced that Al Qeda funds muslim groups here in the US. If they use the money in peaceful and lawful activities, so what? We call it free speech. If Sra. Soler uses the money to buy white clothes, phone cards and paint for the houses the rapid response brigades trash, where’s the harm? Is the revolution that fragile? BTW, I am always amazed when I see so-called “cultured” Cubans so quick to throw eggs and paint at houses of those who oppose the regime and stand outside of dissident homes for hours screaming obscenities. Are you sifted from that same scum that you really would do the same?
Moses, are you really that naive? You think Soler gets feted at the White House and CANF and all she gets is a pat on the back ? You also think that anyone in Havana who yells at them is paid to do so? I would pay to engage in a acto de repudio against those shills. It’s the least I could do for Cuba since I have to pay for the whole show.
What a laughable comment, that the Ladies in White would be in prison in the US for marching with flowers. There are thousands of protests every year in the USA for any number of causes, including more than a few clueless Leftists carrying pictures of Che. The police leave the alone, unless and until they start breaking things.
Yeah, that’s the reputation of these middle-aged women. A rabble-rousing group of lawbreakers. Produce one video of a Ladies in White member beating up on a Cuban cop or hired Cuban thug, I want to see it. Of course it doesn’t count if there are six of them pushing her face in the ground and she is simply defending herself. And no, if they did the same thing in the US, they would not be in jail. Take a look on YouTube at the videos of a group of peace protestors known as Code Pink. They didn’t go to jail and are not harassed. God Bless America!
Ladys in white, Damas de blanco whatever they want to call them, they don’t respect the Cuban law.
If they did in the U.S. what they do in Cuba they will be in prison forever. They push Cuban police officers there. It is time to speak up and tell the truth. The empire is not going to do anything.
If you can prove otherwise, please do so. On several occasions, I have seen the Damas de Blanco marching from Sunday mass. There is always a group of female PNR (Cuban cops) walking alongside screaming at them and a larger group of hired rabble rousers pushing and shoving and threatening these women. Lots of YouTube videos confirm this. I have never seen these women do anything other than pray, chant Viva Cuba Libre and carry gladiolas. If they are funded by USAID, it must be to pay for the white clothes, the bibles and, of course, those regime-threatening gladiolas. I would not be surprised if CIA funds were also used to pay for a stack of CubaCell cell phone cards and probably buys some computer time. Both of these spycraft expenditures flow directly into Castros pockets so why is this a problem? The truth is that dictatorships are notoriously paranoid and thin-skinned.
As Moses said, “what does the Cuban government have to fear from the Ladies in White ? They’re armed with gladiolas,fer chrissake!” Yeah, right.
So USAID provides funds to groups who work, ““to promote a nonviolent transition to a free and democratic Cuba by empowering independent civil society within Cuba.” …?
How dastardly!
DOWN WITH USA! NO TO FREEDOM & DEMOCRACY FOR CUBA!