CASTRO AND TERRORISM
A few comments on the viewpoint of the
Cuban American National Foundation (CANF)
by Walter Lippmann, October 9, 2001
==================================
Following the criminal terrorist attacks against
the American people which took place 9-11,
right-wing Cuban exile groupings have once
again tried to label Cuba a terrorist state.
A "commentary" presenting "evidence" to push
that fraudulent view is on the website of the
Cuban American National Foundation (CANF)
The foreward is here for your reference.
The CANF'S goal is to reinforce Cuba's
placement, by Washington, on an official
governmental list of supposedly "terrorist-
harboring states". Here is the foreward to
the "chronology" on Cuba is at the at the
Cuban American National Foundation's
website www.canf.org The document is
an production of over 4600 pitiful words!
The CANF designates a series of revolutionary
groups or struggles or organizations which
have fought for national independence or for
socialism. While I haven't reviewed it with a
fine-tooth comb, the groups to which the
CANF "chronology" refers includes, for one
example, the African National Congress!
The African National Congress waged a
decades long armed struggle against the
system of institutionalized racism known as
"apartheid" in South Africa. The United States
government placed the ANC on a list of what
it then falsely called "terrorist" organizations.
(The CANF evidently still holds that view.)
The CANF is so desperate to find things to
accuse Cuba of, that they even accuse Cuba
of "seeking support for Cuba at the U.N." and
the CANF further accuses Cuba of advancing
its foreign policy goals "through a network of
Cuban embassies and agents, as well as at
the U.N. and other non-governmental political,
religious and cultural organizations." Horrors!
(What did they think? Cuba should be seeking
support for Washington at the U.N.? That's the
fantasy which holds sway at the CANF when
they dream about returning to the good old
days of the Batista regime.)
So far, little public attention has been paid to
the CANF's list, which doesn't define the term
"terrorism". (There was one op-ed recently
along these lines which was posted to the
Orlando Sentinel website. Otherwise, this
latest CANF effort has been ignored.)
By contrast, much better prepared and also
having received broader public discussion
following its release, was a statement put
out over the signatures of 16 people from a
diverse group of organizations. It's presented
in the language and framework (referring to
the United States it says "we") of the official
political discourse within the United States.
It advocates a change in the foreign policy
of the United States toward Cuba from the
hostility which has characterized the past
40 years, toward collaboration with Cuba
in the fight against international terrorism.
It should be seen as effort by the sixteen
signers to influence U.S. policy toward Cuba
in a more positive direction. For citizens of the
United States who want to influence the policy
of the present U.S. government toward Cuba,
it is written using the political language which
dominates in the United States.
Best known among the signatories is Wayne
Smith who headed the U.S. Interests Section
in Havana during the early years of the Carter
presidency. That statement has since gotten
broad publicity and has evoked much more
discussion, pro and con, within the dominant
mainstream media in the United States.
It has also been the subject of some e-mail
shared among some supporters of the Cuban
revolution. Some are troubled when a former
U.S. government official publicly speaks up
to defend Cuba against the false allegations
that it is a "terrorist state". Signers of that
document do so in their own terms, of course,
but they are, in fact, defending Cuba from the
false allegations made against it.
Discussion and dialogue among activists in
solidarity with Cuba can be good it leads to
clarification of issues and lays a basis for
advancing the defense of Cuba.
Time will tell if that is the result...
================================
CENTER FOR INTERNATIONAL POLICY
"Cuba Policy Should be Reviewed in New
International Context" statement and with it
the appended fifteen signatures:
http://www.ciponline.org/
CANF-POSTED CHRONOLOGY ON CUBA:
http://www.canfnet.org/
=============================
CASTRO AND TERRORISM
1959-2001
A CHRONOLOGY
by Eugene Pons, with a foreword by Jaime Suchlicki
Institute for Cuban & Cuban-American Studies
Occasional Paper Series September 2001
FOREWORD
Since 1948 when, as a young student, Fidel Castro participated
in the violence that rocked Colombian society and distributed
anti-U.S. propaganda, he has been guided by two objectives:
a commitment to violence and a virulent anti-Americanism. His
struggle since and his forty-two years rule in Cuba have been
characterized primarily by these goals.
In the 1960's Castro and his brother, Raul, believed that the
political and economic conditions that produced their
revolution existed in Latin America and that anti-American
revolutions would occur throughout the continent. Cuban
agents and diplomats established contact with revolutionary,
terrorist and guerrilla groups in the area and began
distributing propaganda, weapons and aid. Many Latin
Americans were brought to Cuba for training and then
returned to their countries.
At the Tricontinental Conference held in Havana in 1966 and
attended by revolutionary leaders from throughout the world,
Castro insisted that bullets not ballots was the way to
achieve power and provided the institutional means to promote
his anti-American, violent line. He insisted that "conditions
exist for an armed revolutionary struggle" and criticized
those who opposed armed struggle, including some
Communist leaders in Latin America, as "traitorous,
rightists, and deviationists."
Castro's attempts in the 1960's to bring revolutionary,
anti-American regimes to power failed. His support for
guerrillas and terrorist groups in Guatemala, Venezuela,
and Bolivia only produced violence and suffering to those
countries and their people, which repudiated violence as a
means to achieve power. Violence resulted in military regimes
coming to power in several Latin American countries
For the next two decades, the Cuban leadership, supported by
the Soviet Union, modified its tactics. In addition to agents
from the America Department, the subversive arm of Cuba's
Communist Party, Castro used his Armed Forces to help friendly
groups achieve power in Latin America and Africa. In Nicaragua
Cuban military personnel, weapons and intelligence supported
and helped bring to power the Sandinistas. In El Salvador, a
bloody civil war in part fomented and aided by Cuba, ended in
a stalemate and a negotiated peace. In Africa, Castro achieved
his most significant victories. The Soviet-Cuban backed
Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) faction was
installed in power in Angola and other Cuban supported regimes
came to power throughout the continent. The Cuban military
also trained and supplied the South-West African Peoples
Organization (SWAPO) and the African National Congress
(ANC), forces fighting the South African regime.
Castro also became involved with African-Americans in the
U.S. and with the Macheteros, a Puerto Rican terrorist group.
Cuba focused particular attention on the black struggle in the
U.S., providing aid and training to the Black Panthers and the
Black Liberation Army, as well as a safehaven on the island
for black leaders. Castro continuously promoted the
independence of Puerto Rico and supported the Macheteros
who committed terrorist acts and bank robberies in the United
States. Several still live in Cuba.
Cuban military and intelligence personnel aided Middle Eastern
groups and regimes in their struggle against Israel, and Cuban
troops fought on the side of Arab States, particularly Syria,
during the Yom Kippur war. Castro sent military instructors
and advisors into Palestinian bases; cooperated with Libya in
the founding of World Mathaba, a terrorist movement; and
established close military cooperation and exchanges with
Iraq, Libya, Southern Yemen, the Polisario Front for the
Liberation of Western Sahara, the PLO and others in the
Middle East.
Despite the collapse of the Soviet Union, Castro continues to
undermine U.S. policies in the Middle East in several ways: a)
by portraying U.S. actions and diplomacy in the region as
those of an aggressor, seeking to impose hegemony by force,
particularly in Iraq and the perpetration of unjustified
economic sanctions on Iraq and Iran; b) by portraying the
U.S. as the main obstacle to a peaceful settlement of the
Israel/Arab conflict; and c) by discrediting U.S. policies and
seeking support for Cuba at the U.N. These anti-American views
and policies are conveyed as a systematic message through a
network of Cuban embassies and agents, as well as at the U.N.
and other non-governmental political, religious and cultural
organizations.
While not abandoning his close relationships in the Middle
East, Castro has recently concentrated his support on several
groups: the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia
(FARC), where Castro, and his new ally Hugo Chavez of
Venezuela, see significant possibilities for success; ETA, the
Basque terrorist/separatist organization from Spain, which has
found refuge and support in Cuba, and the Irish Republican
Army (IRA), which established its Latin American headquarters
in Havana.
American policymakers should pay careful attention to the
intricate web of relationships which emerges so clearly from
this chronology. It carefully details Castro's involvement
with and support for terrorist regimes and organizations
during the past four decades. Cuba's geographical location,
Castro's continuous connections with these groups and states
and the harboring of terrorists in Havana creates a dynamic
that requires vigilance and alertness. It should be emphasized
that in addition to violence and terrorism, Castro and his
regime, have been for more than four decades, the most vocal
and active proponents of anti-Americanism. The often-repeated
view in many countries that the United States is an evil
power, guilty for much of the problems and sufferings of the
developing world, is owed in great part to the propaganda
efforts of Fidel Castro.
Jaime Suchlicki
Director Institute for Cuban and Cuban-American Studies
September 2001
