5 things to know about USAID's Cuban hip-hop plan

[Judi Lynn]

5 things to know about USAID's Cuban hip-hop plan
Dec 11, 12:02 AM EST

In April, The Associated Press revealed that the U.S. Agency for International Development had overseen the creation of a secret "Cuban Twitter" program to stir political dissent on the island and bypass Cuba's stranglehold on the Internet. But that was part of a larger operation. A second AP investigation in August found the agency dispatched young Latin Americans to provoke political change in Cuba, using health and civic programs as cover.

Now the AP has found the agency secretly cultivated Cuba's underground hip-hop scene, recruiting unwitting rappers to spark a youth movement against the government.

Here are five things to know:

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THE PRECEDENT

The USAID hip-hop program was inspired by Serbian student protest concerts that helped oust former President Slobodan Milosevic in 2000. Serbians involved in that effort guided the Cuban hip-hop program.

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RAP IS WAR

The Serbians recruited musicians for the project, including rappers Los Aldeanos, whose critical lyrics had provoked the government to restrict their performances. Los Aldeanos helped produce an underground TV project on youth culture and received political training while performing in Serbia, but U.S. government connections of the program were hidden from them.

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More:
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/L/LT_SECRET_CUBAN_HIP_HOP_5_FINDINGS?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2014-12-11-00-02-56

[bemildred]

1. US tried to undermine Cuba by infiltrating its underground hip-hop scene

Guffaw.

A US government agency spent more than two years trying to fuel political change in Cuba by covertly manipulating the country's underground hip-hop scene, according to an investigative report from the Associated Press. Documents obtained by the AP show that contractors hired by the US Agency for International Development (USAID) tried to promote certain Cuban hip-hop artists within the country in the hopes of bolstering a youth movement against the communist government of Raúl Castro. But the program backfired, putting targets at greater risk, forcing some musicians to flee the country, and threatening Cuba's thriving underground rap community.

At the center of the program is a Washington, DC-based company called Creative Associates International, which was paid millions to help subvert the Cuban government. Part of the contract work involved creating a fake Twitter-like social network in Cuba, which the AP reported on earlier this year. USAID later refuted the AP's report on the service, saying it contained "significant inaccuracies and false conclusions." On Wednesday, the agency repeated its claims that it does not engage in covert operations.

"Any assertions that our work is secret or covert are simply false," USAID said in a statement to the AP yesterday, adding that its mandate is to strengthen society "often in places where civic engagement is suppressed and where people are harassed, arrested, subjected to physical harm or worse."

The program was initially helmed by a Serbian contractor named Rajko Bozic, who, beginning in 2009, focused on a widely respected hip-hop group called Los Aldeanos. Creative spent thousands of dollars to promote the group with its own TV program and distributed it on DVD to avoid government censorship, funneling its funds through a company in Panama and a bank in Lichtenstein. Contractors also urged other artists to perform alongside Los Aldeanos, and later put the group through covert training "to focus them a little more on their role as agents of social mobilization," documents show.

http://www.theverge.com/2014/12/11/7375821/usaid-cuba-hip-hop-covert-operation-castro-youth-movement

[Judi Lynn]

3. " "Any assertions that our work is secret or covert are simply false," USAID said .....

to the AP yesterday."

So true! If USAID's work were so secret, so covert, how is it all the UDAID employees and contacts in countries they want to overthrow know all about it?

Holy smokes!

Thank you.

[Judi Lynn]

2. US Tried to Infiltrate Cuban Hip Hop to Overthrow Regime - with Predictable Results

US Tried to Infiltrate Cuban Hip Hop to Overthrow Regime - with Predictable Results
ByDESMOND BUTLER and MICHAEL WEISSENSTEIN
Published December 11, 2014, 11:16 AM EST


HAVANA (AP) — In early 2009, a U.S. government contractor sent a Serbian music promoter to Cuba with these covert marching orders: Recruit one of Havana's most notorious rappers to spark a youth movement against the government.

In communist Cuba, it was a project that could have landed Rajko Bozic in jail. So when he made his pitch to team up with hip-hop artist Aldo Rodriguez, Bozic left out the part about his true intentions — or that he was working for the U.S. Agency for International Development.

Dreadlocked, muscled and tattooed, Aldo, as he was known, was a hero in the hip-hop underground for lyrics protesting the Castro government's grip on everyday life in songs like "El Rap Es Guerra," or "Rap Is War," words he tattooed on his forearm.


He and his group, Los Aldeanos, were about to unknowingly get sucked into a tug-of-war between Havana and Washington, as thousands of pages of documents obtained by The Associated Press and dozens of interviews show.

More:
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/us-tried-to-infiltrate-cuban-hip-hop-to-overthrow-regime