Introduction

The Commission for Assistance to a Free Cuba report, scheduled for publication this year, was postponed on 20 May, the date on which it was to be submitted to President Bush.

Finally, on 10 July, the report was officially announced through a brief written declaration by president Bush and presented at a press conference by the Commission’s co-chairs, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Secretary of Commerce Carlos Gutierrez, and the State Department’s soi-disant “coordinator for the transition in Cuba” Caleb McCarry. Two days later, on 12 July, McCarry gave the representatives of Miami’s Cuban-American mafia a full account, formally presenting this report to them.

The 2006 report does not replace or modify the 2004 plan. On the contrary, it uses it as groundwork and enriches it by adding measures aimed at stepping up the economic war against Cuba, incorporating new agents into the plan to overthrow Cuba’s revolutionary government and significantly increasing direct and indirect financing for internal subversive acts. All of the measures which were included in the 2004 report have been fully preserved.

The reference to recommendations that had to be included in a separate classified annex due to alleged national security reasons and in order to ensure their “effective implementation” is a new feature of the report. The most significant aspect of these recommendations is that they specifically pertain to Chapter 1 of the report, which is devoted to actions aimed at bringing about the collapse of the revolutionary government.

The plan strictly adheres to the provisions of the Helms-Burton Act, which states that the blockade will be maintained beyond the hypothetical triumph of the counterrevolution until a number of requisites are met, most importantly until tangible progress in the process of returning properties to the exploiters of old (Section 206) is seen. The Helms-Burton Act goes as far as stating that settling this issue is an indispensable condition for the reestablishment of economic and diplomatic relations between the two countries (Section 207).

The second report was elaborated on the basis of the recommendations contained in the 2004 report and is a mere 93 pages long, divided into the following 7 chapters:

•Chapter 1: “Hastening the end of the Castro dictatorship:  transition, not succession”
•Chapter 2: “Helping Cubans respond to critical humanitarian and social needs”
•Chapter 3: “Helping Cubans get to free and fair elections” 
•Chapter 4: “Helping Cubans create market-based economic opportunities”
•Chapter 5: “The role of the international community“
•Chapter 6: “The vital role of Cubans abroad”
•Chapter 7: “Preparing now to support the transition”

Over 100 officials and 17 federal agencies and departments were involved in the drafting of the Bush plan. 

As in the 2004 report, the first chapter of the report describes the strategy and specific measures that the Commission recommends be implemented immediately to bring about the collapse of our government.

Chapter 1: “Hastening the end of the Castro dictatorship:  transition, not succession”.

The need to publish this new report is justified with reference to changes that have occurred both on and off the island of Cuba. Within Cuba, they see a more active counter-revolutionary movement and a growing sense of frustration and disenchantment with the Revolution among Cubans.

With respect to external factors, Cuba is accused of using money provided by Venezuela to “subvert democratic governments” in the hemisphere and to ensure the perpetuation of the Revolution. The report highlights the urgency of working to thwart Cuba’s succession strategy by securing support from “like-minded governments, particularly Venezuela”, which can help it counter US actions.
 
The aim of the US government is to prevent the continuation of the Revolution. The measures described in this chapter, thus, ratify the 2004 plan in its entirety as regards:

•Strengthening internal counterrevolutionary movements and redoubling propaganda efforts against our country.

•Designing a strategy to secure the support of the international community for US government efforts to bring the Revolution to an end.

•Intensifying the blockade and the measures aimed at asphyxiating Cuba economically.

The chapter makes reference to anti-Cuban measures which will remain classified, invoking supposed “reasons of national security” and the need to guarantee “the effective implementation” of the measures.

The measures described in Chapter 1 can be grouped into eight categories, namely:

1) Increased financing for internal subversive groups and propaganda campaigns against Cuba. The “Cuba Fund for a Democratic Future” is created and allotted 80 million US dollars, to be distributed as follows over two years: 31 million to support internal counterrevolutionary groups and create an American-styled “civil society”; 10 million for scholarships and training courses offered in US and third country universities for individuals selected by counterrevolutionary actors in Cuba; 24 million to finance propaganda campaigns against our country, including internet-based efforts and 15 million to support international anti-Cuban efforts and plans for a transition to neo-colonial capitalism. In addition to this, the report recommends that no less than 20 million dollars be allotted each year to finance subversive efforts against our revolutionary government, while the latter exists. 

2) Intensified anti-Cuban campaigns through radio and other electronic means. The report recommends funding the transmission of TV Marti via Satellite TV into Cuba, supplying internal counterrevolutionary actors with equipment to enable them to receive international transmissions, expanding the use of third-country counterrevolutionary broadcasting into Cuba, designing special programs for Cuba’s youth and holding quarterly meetings between US government agencies to coordinate broadcasting strategies. Though the report makes no mention of Radio Marti, these broadcasts are in line with the war the government of the United States wages against Cuba through radio and other electronic means.

3) An offensive to secure support from the governments and NGOs of third countries, and certain international organizations, for US policy towards Cuba. This second report emphasizes that the US government must broaden the international consensus with respect to its policy against Cuba, by means of a propaganda campaign of disinformation.

To achieve this, it recommends the creation of a coalition of countries that support a “regime change” in our country and the establishment of bilateral commitments with countries in Europe and Latin America, to secure their support for this policy.

The report establishes a distinction between friends of Cuba who support the continued existence of the Revolution, such as Venezuela and Iran, and US allies, which support a return to capitalism on the island. The report encourages the presentation of cases denouncing our government in the OAS, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and the International Labor Organization (ILO).
 
4) Intensification of the blockade through measures aimed at bringing more economic and financial pressures to bear on Cuba. Among the measures described, the most significant are:

-Establishing new inter-agency mechanisms among US government agencies to more effectively implement blockade regulations and apply sanctions against violators, including legal proceedings.

-Prohibiting the direct sending of remittances through third-country institutions.

-Prohibiting the sale of medical equipment destined to programs for foreigners, aimed at hindering the Revolution’s programs which offer medical services to other peoples of the world, in Cuba and abroad, such as the Henry Reeve Brigade and Operation Miracle.

-Establishing an inter-agency Cuban Nickel Targeting Task Force, to be made up of different US government agencies, to tighten control over the import of products that could contain Cuban nickel and to discourage international trade in Cuban nickel and cobalt (thus recognizing the potential and importance of this economic sector in our country).

-Prohibiting the export of humanitarian items to “controlled organizations, such as the Cuban Council of Churches”.

-Stepping up the targeting of Cuban commercial operations effected through other companies and Cuban financial transactions, securing the support of other countries and international organizations for this effort.

5) Application of Titles III and IV of the Helms-Burton Act. The report recommends the application of Title III of the Helms-Burton Act, which allows US authorities to file law suits against foreign investors from countries that support the continued existence of the Revolution. With respect to Title IV, which denies visas to travel to the United States to the executives of such companies and their relatives, the report insists on the title’s more rigorous application in the case of businesspeople who invest in sectors of strategic importance to our country, such oil prospecting and extraction, tourism, nickel, rum and tobacco.

6) Measures against Cuban government officials, including:

-Drawing up a “Lista de Esbirros” (“List of Henchmen”) which will facilitate vendettas following the overthrow of the revolutionary government, to include those who they believe have participated in actions to neutralize internal counterrevolutionary actors. The widespread repression of revolutionaries is thus provided for. Those included on the “list”, which, as stated, could be long, would not be eligible for visas to enter the United States and would be denied the permanent residence “benefits” guaranteed by the Cuban Adjustment Act.

-Sending the names of the Cuban officials linked to the bringing down, in 1996, of the light planes deployed by the counterrevolutionary organization Brothers to the Rescue, to Interpol.

7) Actions aimed at preventing the continuation of the revolutionary government in Cuba. Through public opinion and disinformation campaigns, the aim is to project the image that the time for “change” has arrived in Cuba and, as such, efforts to overthrow the revolutionary government must be stepped up.

8) Migratory issues. The report manipulates the issue of Cuban emigration and presents it as a factor that must be prioritized by the US government to restore capitalism in the country. It hypocritically accuses Cuba of violating its Migratory Accord commitments and recommends diplomatic efforts to “notify” the Cuban government of its alleged “violations” of these agreements and its “interference” in US migratory policy.

In chapters 2, 3 and 4, the report takes up many of the issues addressed in the 2004 plan, related to the steps the US government must take to intervene directly in the revolutionary process in Cuba, dismantle our economic, political and social system and create the conditions needed to subjugate and annex our country.

Chapter 2: “Helping Cubans respond to critical humanitarian and social needs”.

The chapter focuses on six main issues which, in theory, the counterrevolutionary government would address to destroy the Revolution and restore capitalism in Cuba: water and sanitation; health systems and nutrition; food security;housing; protection of vulnerable population sectors and education services.

The chapter denies the social achievements of the Revolution that have benefited Cubans and accuses our government of failing to meet the most important humanitarian needs of the population, stating this situation will not change as long as the revolutionary government is in power.

It recognizes that a “transition” to capitalism would create poverty, internal migration and, as such, food, sanitation and health problems. The plan attributes a great part of the responsibilities of the socialist state in guaranteeing basic services for the population to Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) and churches.

In addition to this, conscious of the humanitarian crisis that an occupation would bring about, the chapter expresses that the US government “stands ready to help” in these areas, something it is not even capable of doing for the benefit of a significant part of its own population, as the thousands of victims of the hurricane Katrina abandoned to their fate demonstrate.

Showing absolute disdain towards the progress Cuba has achieved in the area of health, the report reiterates that the United States will aid the puppet government “conduct immunization campaigns (…) and continue the routine immunizations of all children and those under five not already immunized”.

In the area of food security, foreseeing the chaos that would prevail during the occupation, Chapter 2 states that the United States would aid “school systems (…) provide nutritional supplements to children to maintain an adequate diet until the new counterrevolutionary Government can stabilize its own public-health and medical system”.

With respect to education, again conscious of the anarchy that would prevail in the country, the report assures us that the United States would assist the government they would impose on Cuba to keep schools open and help students “remain in school”, as well as “ensure educational facilities and services are available to as many of the Cuban people as possible”.

Lastly, betraying the level of control that the United States hopes to exercise over Cuba, the report states that the US government commits to “organizing groups of volunteer teachers, from abroad and overseas Cuban teacher associations”, and to replacing existing textbooks with the support of donors and foreign publishing houses, particularly of OAS member countries. These measures express the intention of eliminating Cuba’s current state-run educational system and all of the country’s impressive achievements in this sphere.

Chapter 3: “Helping Cubans get to free and fair elections”.

This section does not conceal the fact that the first objective the United States will pursue during the occupation will be the dismantling of the socialist political system and, importantly, of the Cuban Communist Party. This is considered an indispensable pre-requisite for the subsequent subjugation of the country in all spheres.

In this connection, it openly affirms that the new government will have to concentrate its efforts, as a chief priority, on the organization of “multi-party elections” and must not overburden itself with “tasks that are important to the medium and long term growth of Cuban society”.

A series of pre-requisites for any type of US aid are established, including the release of counterrevolutionaries who have been sanctioned and the elimination of the Communist Party of Cuba as the guiding force of society and State, a status conferred upon it by the Constitution.

The report reiterates that the United States will “help” modify laws, regulations and policies and identify those it considers should be revoked or rectified.

Lastly, the chapter makes mention of the technical and material assistance the United States will provide to re-establish a capitalist press on the island that represents and defends its interests.

Chapter 4: “Helping Cubans create market-based economic opportunities”.

This chapter focuses specifically on the measures the neo-colonial government would need to adopt, with the aid of the United States, to achieve capitalist “macroeconomic stability”, Cuba’s “Integration with the International Trade and Financial System”, subordinated to the economic needs of the United States, the restoration of capitalism in Cuba and the supposed role of the new government in supporting labour, property, agriculture and infrastructure-related rights.

The chapter discredits Cuba’s socialist economy in its entirety and creates naïve expectations with respect to the supposed “benefits” that Washington’s economic and financial domination would entail.

It recognizes that economic “changes” would be “hard” and cause “anxiety” while attempting to make a case for the supposed aptitude of Cubans to adapt to a capitalist economy, promising that the transformations proposed will guarantee employment and economic growth and attract foreign investment and tourism revenue.

The report also reminds the reader that it has neo-liberal recipes in store for Cuba by making the normalization of credit relations with other nations conditional on the acceptance of an IMF program and by stating that any serious tackling of Cuba’s foreign debt would require approval from the US Congress. Similarly, it states that the United States would work with its allies to establish free trade agreements with Cuba.

In brief, the United States plans to destroy the structural foundations of our economy which sustain and guarantee the development of our nation to introduce privatizations, chaos and an economy controlled by the US government through the Commission for Economic Reconstruction, which it would preside.

With respect to property rights, the report seeks to minimize people’s fears by suggesting there will be no “arbitrary evictions”, though it reminds us that, as regards “decisions about confiscated properties”, the interests of those who have been expropriated and of counterrevolutionaries living abroad will be considered. In this manner, all properties will be returned to their former owners, and the needed evictions will be carried out, under the supervision and control of the United States and through the Commission that it presides to see the return of properties through.

In the sphere of agriculture, the proposal is to return lands to their former owners and eliminate “state interference” to pave the road towards the re-emergence of large agricultural estates.

With respect to infrastructure, the report denies the enormous progress made by our country towards improving existing systems and cynically states that the government of the United States would work to ensure “electricity generation …[can be] …stabilized as soon as possible”, as an early sign to the Cuban people that “hope is in store for a better life”.

The so-called “improvements” to infrastructure proposed would be subordinated to the interests of the US government and its counterrevolutionary allies. One of the “solutions” advanced is the creation of a Friends of a Free Cuba Group and a Havana – Florida ferry to “alleviate” problems in this sphere.

Among the problems that will have to be addressed, in the long term, by the counterrevolutionary government, the report includes:

-The role of the military in the economy.

-The reconciliation of Cubans inside and outside Cuba with respect to “property rights”

-The convenience for Cubans living abroad to return to and invest in a “new” Cuba

The report recognizes how complex overcoming these obstacles to US plans of domination would prove for the counterrevolutionary government.

Chapter 5: “The role of the international community“.

The report devotes an entire chapter to this issue. In this version, it assigns a more active role to the international community with respect to backing US plans to dismantle Cuba’s socialist system.

This chapter confirms the intention of pressurizing the governments of third countries and non-governmental and international organizations into backing the “regime change” policy and working with the government of the United States.

To address the “humanitarian and social needs” which they recognize would arise following the longed-for imposition of a counterrevolutionary government in Cuba, the following international organizations and institutions are included in the report:  

-Water and Sanitation (The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) and UNICEF).

-Health and Nutrition (UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, UNICEF, the World Food Program, PAHO, International Red Cross and independent Cuban organizations).

-Food Security (FAO and the abovementioned bodies).

-Shelter (UN High Commissioner for Refugees, the International Organization for Migration, UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs,  International Committee for the Red Cross, UN Habitat, and UNDP, PAHO and the Caribbean Development Bank).

-Education (United Nations Development Program, UNESCO, the European Union, the OAS).

To get to the “elections”, manipulated by the US government, that would allow the United States to legitimate the counterrevolutionary government before the international community, the report proposes US-coordinated “international technical assistance”.

Reference is also made to the “reform of military and security services” and to the “struggle against narcotics and terrorism”. In this connection, the report promotes the return of Cuba to the Ministry of Colonies, that is, the OAS.

The development pace of the market economy would be imposed by the United States through the direct intervention of international financial institutions under its control (the IMF, World Bank, Inter-American Development Bank and OAS).

To “guarantee” property rights and the “reestablishment of property titles”, international aid would also be sought.

“An international donors conference” would be established to “generate short-term assistance so that the most critical infrastructure needs are addressed during the transition”.

Chapter 6: “The vital role of Cubans abroad”.

Though this is a new chapter, some of the issues tackled in it were mentioned in the 2004 report.

The Bush Plan designs a series of measures that must be implemented so that, when a neo-colonial regime is restored in Cuba, counterrevolutionary actors abroad can “help” the government imposed on Cuba in areas such as:

-Information Technology, infrastructure, research and know-how, as well as loans and investment capital.

-Health and Nutrition, through services offered by qualified doctors and nurses, and personnel experienced in disaster relief.

-Food security, water, and sanitation.

-Education, by inviting Cuban teachers and school administrators from abroad to volunteer to work “in support” of Cuban teachers as the Cuban Transition Government staffs and manages its primary and secondary school systems during the transition, proof of the report’s absolute disdain of the impressive results obtained by our educational system.

-Organizing “elections” imposed by the government of the United States.

-Support for the counterrevolutionary campaign against supposed “human rights violations” committed in Cuba.

-Maintaining and increasing the number of family remittances sent to Cuba as an important source of revenue for the counterrevolutionary government.

-Establishing new financial institutions or offering assistance to institutions in the United States for them to create branches in Cuba, to channel funds to the counterrevolutionary government. 

The chapter also suggests that during this period, owing to the complexity of the property issue, it is necessary to wait for the new government to consolidate itself in order to proceed as established in the Helms-Burton Act and return properties to Batista supporters and the bourgeoisie expropriated by the Revolution.

Chapter 7: “Preparing now to support the transition”.

This chapter deals with actions, covert and not, that the government of the United States currently develops to destroy the Revolution.

It explains that the current report extends the previous and that its publication does not conclude US government efforts to overthrow Cuba’s revolutionary government; these efforts, rather, are to continue. The Bush Plan proposes immediately involving the international community more in the “planning” phase of actions that pursue this aim.

The report considers that the first 6 months of the new government to be installed in Cuba and the measures adopted over that period are decisive. This reveals the US government’s intention to undertake emergency actions that will guarantee the subsequent consolidation of its plans to control Cuba.

The recommendations put forth in this chapter include extending the role of Cuba’s governor (“Transition Coordinator”) Caleb McCarry, who would be responsible for securing financing and support for the Plan involving Cuban-American counterrevolutionary actors and international donors, in his capacity as interventionist bureaucrat appointed by the US government, a figure similar to that which has been imposed upon occupied Iraq.

The Bush administration’s offensive to strengthen counterrevolutionary movements will involve, from this moment on, regular senior-level briefings of the U.S. Congress, so that the legislative apparatus is fully aware of efforts which are underway.

The report also recommends coordination between US government agencies and international organizations to offer so-called “humanitarian aid” during the transition process.

Lastly, it establishes immediate steps that must be taken by the counterrevolutionary government during the restoration period to the neo-colonial government to “revise” the situation regarding prisoners, electoral law, penal judicial system, police force and the training of judges and prosecutors. The aim, clearly, is to immediately dismantle Cuba’s revolutionary justice system and release those imprisoned counterrevolutionaries during the first phase of transition, which, they admit, could be “potentially chaotic”.

Considerations

The Bush Plan is conceived within a climate of frustration in the Bush administration, whose previous efforts to destroy the Revolution, do away with all of the country's socio-economic achievements, deprive us of independence and sovereignty, restore capitalism and perpetuate US control over Cuba, have met with failure.

The newly-published document does not distance itself from the Bush plan one millimetre. On the contrary, it begins by underscoring its support for the latter, celebrates the supposed successes met in its implementation and announces that, working on its "solid foundation", it will advance "additional measures" to "hasten" the end of the Cuban Revolution.

The measures contained in the secret annex are highly dangerous and constitute a less than subtle announcement of further terrorist attacks, new attempts to assassinate government leaders and even a military invasion.

The measures to hasten the end of the Revolution proposed by the Bush Plan entail the further intensification of the blockade, a significant increase in financing for subversive actors, an extension of the propaganda campaign of disinformation and more attempts to internationalize anti-Cuban policies, with the clear aim of fostering internal destabilization and securing international support for a direct military action.

The measures to step up the blockade proposed by this new report are aimed at striking Cuba in economic spheres where it has experienced progress and neutralizing Cuba's influence in Latin America, through the medical assistance programs it offers in the region.

The funds destined to subversive actors approved by this report are substantially greater than those approved in the 2004 report. Suffice it to recall that these figures do not include funds which are sent to Cuba via covert channels, as made possible by Section 115 of the Helms-Burton Act, which are probably mentioned in the secret annex.

Chapters 2 and 4 resort to a more cautious, sophisticated and sugar-coated language so as to confuse readers and in response to reactions to the crude way in which the first report ignored Cuba's reality, which prompted criticisms from all parts of the world, including from those who do not sympathize with the Revolution.

Echoing the 2006 US National Security Strategy, the Bush Plan makes reference to the supposed regional threat that Cuba represents by undermining US interests in the hemisphere.

The report’s repeated allusions to the destabilizing factor which the political alliance between Cuba and Venezuela represent for the region and to the danger that the Cuban government poses to US citizens are arguments which, once adopted by President Bush, would become the political justification for any aggression against Cuba and Venezuela.

The Bush Plan for the annexation of Cuba sets down the policy which the administration will pursue until the end of its term, that is, until January 2009, ratifying its determination to force a "regime change", disguised with the deceitful concept of promoting a democratic transition in the country, a euphemism for its decade-old objective of destroying the Revolution and re-establishing control over Cuba.

(Cubavsbloqueo)