{"article":{"id":11550,"heading":"Castro and Terrorism (the CANF viewpoint)","author":"Walter Lippmann","created":"2001-10-10 17:31:47","modified":"2005-08-15 00:40:31","last_modified":"Mon, 15 Aug 2005 07:40:31","article":"

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





















































































































<\/p>\n","contact":"walterlx@earthlink.net","link":"","address":"","phone":"","parent_id":0,"mime_type":"text\/plain","summary":"A critique of the Cuban American National Foundation's attempt to smear Cuba as being a \"terrorist state\".","numcomment":0,"fileurl":"\/uploads\/2001\/10\/castro_and.txt","filesize":"10.8 kibibytes","article_url":"\/news\/2001\/10\/11550.php"},"attachments":[],"comments":[]}