Venezuela Obstacle to US Plans for Regime Change in Cuba

[Jon8503]

In a report published May 6, 2004 by the US State Department’s Commission for Assistance to a Free Cuba, the stated mission of which is to identify additional means by which the United States can help the Cuban people bring about an expeditious end to the Castro dictatorship, access to Venezuelan oil is specifically listed as one of the four economic lifelines to the Castro Regime that must be severed in order to overthrow the government. <1>

The first chapter of this 500-page document, Hastening Cuba's Transition, lists six inter-related tasks considered central to hastening change:

Empower Cuban Civil Society with $36 million dedicated to promoting dissidence in Cuba. According to the document, the U.S. Interests Section will strengthen…opposition through material assistance and training and help to disseminate information …that will foster democratic change.

Break the information blockade by allocating $18 million for immediate deployment of the C-130 Commando Solo airborne platform …for the transmission of Radio and TV Martí into Cuba. In this way the notorious anti-Castro broadcast, which for years has been jammed by the Cuban government, will be impossible to block. As Jane Franklin explains in a Znet article, there are different types of C-130s. “The EC-130 (Commando SOLO) is electronically equipped. The AC-130 is armed with devastating firepower; it is one of the most terrifying weapons being used on Iraq. Cubans could never be sure that the EC-130 would not turn out to be an AC- 130. This serious provocation could lead to disaster.” <2>

Illuminate The Reality Of Castro’s Cuba by funding U.S. Embassy public diplomacy sections worldwide to disseminate information abroad about U.S. foreign policy….and the U.S. Government’s belief that Cuba has at least a limited, developmental offensive biological weapons research and development effort.

(follow link to complete article)

http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/articles.php?artno=1357

[AP]

1. It's interesting that US control of VZ oil is framed in relation to Castro

Who believes the US oil companies want Chavez out of power simply because VZ's oil is helping Castro -- a guy who has been in control of Cuba for half a century -- stay in power?

[murray hill farm]

3. If only Americans knew that the real info block is

keeping the truth about Cuba from reaching the usa..not the other way around. Who would know that in Cuba, CNN is broadcast daily to Cubans..and not the world CNN, but right out of Atlanta. Sure don't want folks in the USA to know that Cuba is so very advanced in medical research..way beyond the USA in that arena! In 2002, i think when there was such an outbreak of the mosquito born illness..i cannot remember its name..in lousianna..but it is called dengue fever in Cuba..that Castro offered the cure to the USA and it was refused by the USA..never hear that on the usa news. The first time i went to Cuba, my reaction was one of total shock in that everything..everything..that i had ever been told about Cuba was a total lie.

[Mika]

5. mexicoxpat, Americans don't know shit about Cuba

Maybe its because the American government bans "free" Americans from going there to see the place for themselves. If more Americans could go to Cuba they might learn that Cuba has been victimized by US state sponsored terrorism, as well as miamicuban "exile" organized terror ops (which includes funding of said terror ops by the Bacardi corp).


I have been to Cuba many times, including for the entire election season in 1997-98.

[Mika]

4. As per the neocon agenda, when in doubt, demonize a single person

Castro this Castro that Castro this Castro that Castro this Castro that Castro this Castro that Castro this Castro that Castro this Castro that Castro this Castro that Castro this Castro that Castro this Castro that Castro this Castro that Castro this Castro that Castro this Castro that Castro this Castro that Castro this Castro that Castro this Castro that Castro this Castro that Castro this Castro that Castro this Castro that Castro this Castro that Castro this Castro that Castro this Castro that Castro this Castro that Castro this Castro that Castro this Castro that Castro this Castro that Castro this Castro that Castro this Castro that Castro this Castro that Castro this Castro that Castro this Castro that Castro this Castro that Castro this Castro that Castro this Castro that Castro this Castro that Castro this Castro that Castro this Castro that Castro this Castro that Castro this Castro that Castro this Castro that Castro this Castro that Castro this Castro that Castro this Castro that Castro this Castro that Castro this Castro that Castro this Castro that Castro this Castro that Castro this Castro that Castro this Castro that Castro this Castro that Castro this Castro that Castro this Castro that Castro this Castro that Castro this Castro that Castro this Castro that Castro this Castro that Castro this Castro that Castro this Castro that Castro this Castro that Castro this Castro that Castro this Castro that Castro this Castro that Castro this Castro that Castro this Castro that Castro this Castro that Castro this Castro that Castro this Castro that Castro this Castro that Castro this Castro that Castro this Castro that Castro this Castro that Castro this Castro that Castro this Castro that Castro this Castro that Castro this Castro that Castro this Castro that Castro this Castro that Castro this Castro that Castro this Castro that Castro this Castro that Castro this Castro that Castro this Castro that

FYI, Mr Castro IS NOT the Cuban government.


http://www.poptel.org.uk/cuba-solidarity/democracy.htm

This system in Cuba is based upon universal adult suffrage for all those aged 16 and over. Nobody is excluded from voting, except convicted criminals or those who have left the country. Voter turnouts have usually been in the region of 95% of those eligible .

There are direct elections to municipal, provincial and national assemblies, the latter represent Cuba's parliament.

Electoral candidates are not chosen by small committees of political parties. No political party, including the Communist Party, is permitted to nominate or campaign for any given candidates.

--

Representative Fidel Castro was elected to the National Assembly as a representative of District #7 Santiago de Cuba.
He is one of the elected 607 representatives in the Cuban National Assembly. It is from that body that the Head of State is nominated and then elected. Raul Castro, Carlos Large, and Ricardo Alarcon and others were among the nominated in 2003. Mr Castro has been elected to that position since 1976.

http://www.bartleby.com/65/do/Dorticos.html

Dorticós Torrado, Osvaldo

1919–83, president of Cuba (1959–76). A prosperous lawyer, he participated in Fidel Castro’s revolutionary movement and was imprisoned (1958). He escaped and fled to Mexico, returning to Cuba after Castro’s triumph (1959). As minister of laws (1959) he helped to formulate Cuban policies. He was appointed president in 1959. Intelligent and competent, he wielded considerable influence. In 1976 the Cuban government was reorganized, and Castro assumed the title of president; Dorticós was named a member of the council of state.

The Cuban government was reorganized (approved by popular vote) into a variant parliamentary system in 1976.

You can read a short version of the Cuban system here,
http://members.allstream.net/~dchris/CubaFAQDemocracy.html

Or a long and detailed version here,
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0968508405/qid=1053879619/sr=1-2/ref=sr_1_2/102-8821757-1670550?v=glance&s=books

[bemildred]

2. Cuba seems to have some oil of it's own.

But then, this is all bullshit anyway. I'll bet the C-130 is in
Iraq right now, or it ought to be anyway. They need to worry about
Peru and Bolivia and Ecuador while they are obsessing about what
Latin Americans are up to, and our little buddy Uribe in Colombia
is going to need all the "help" he can get too.