Cuba prepared for renewed US aggression

Juan Pozo is presently touring our region as a representative 
of the Cuban Institute for Friendship with the Peoples (ICAP). He 
addressed meetings organised by the Australia Cuba Friendship 
Society in several Australian capitals before flying out for a 
visit to New Zealand. While he was in Adelaide he took time out 
of his schedule to speak with Bob Briton from The Guardian 
about some of the challenges facing the Cuban revolution 
today.

Bob: There are currently many reports circulating of the 
destabilisation of progressive governments taking place in the 
Latin America and the Caribbean — in Haiti and Venezuela, for 
example. This activity appears to be directed from outside, by 
the US and others. Do the people of Cuba worry that the US 
Administration might increase its attacks on their country and 
revolution?

Juan: From my point of view, the situation now taking 
place in Latin American countries is a result of the neo-liberal 
policies that have been applied in those countries for many 
years. They have been directed against the social possibilities 
and the social development of the population in those countries. 
This is a moment of great importance in Latin American countries 
because they can't stand any more this difficult and confronting 
situation.

We know at the same time that the US Administration is very 
concerned about developments. First it was the revolution in 
Venezuela that has been achieving very good results. At the same 
time, they are receiving great support from the people who can 
see that there is a government that has the capacity and will to 
take care of their social problems.

The same has also taken place in Brazil with the election of 
Lula. There Lula has also taken some measures, made some radical, 
social changes in Brazil. Brazil has the largest population in 
Latin America and many, many Brazilians live in poverty.

Unexpectedly, the situation in Argentina has also produced one of 
the striking moments in Latin America. This is because the 
Argentinean people could not stand any more the neo-liberal 
policies being applied in that country. Today there have been 
great changes made with great acceptance on the part of the 
population. Of course, the US Government does not accept the 
changes because they dislike what is taking place in Venezuela, 
in Brazil and in Argentina.

Quite different is the scene in Haiti. I think the situation in 
Haiti is a step back to the difficult situation that the country 
had been facing for so many years. Haiti is one of the poorest 
countries in the world. We don't know what is going to happen. 
The population is very confused. Aristide was trying to do his 
best, though wasn't able to put into practice all his ideas due 
to the pressure coming from the US Government.

Finally, the events [the coup] took place that require us to pay 
particular attention. It was something that we didn't expect to 
happen — it didn't correspond to the situation in Haiti. It did 
not correspond with the social movement that is taking place in 
this hemisphere.

With regard to your question, we Cubans are really not worried, 
we are relaxed in the face of this situation. Why? Because we 
have been preparing ourselves from the psychological point of 
view for any type of military aggression. It doesn't mean that we 
are looking for this eventuality to take place.

Our preparation goes, as I said, to avoid any kind of possibility 
that US could one day commit the mistake of invading Cuba. In 
case this does take place, we Cubans are prepared to demonstrate 
to the world that it would be the last aggression the US 
Government is going to carry out against any third world nation.

US elections

Bob: The US is due for Presidential elections in November. 
Do you think the situation for Cuba would improve under a 
President Kerry rather than a re-elected President Bush? Do you 
think a change could affect issues like the economic blockade of 
Cuba?

Juan: If you look at the history of Cuba concerning the 
blockade during these ten administrations that the Cuban people 
have had to face over the past 45 years, you can see that nothing 
has changed. When you view the whole history and you go into the 
details, you find that the blockade has been strengthened from 
one administration to another.

Once there was some flexibility in the situation between Cuba and 
the US — when Jimmy Carter took over the presidency of the US. 
There were some changes but they did not last long. Moneyed 
people started to see that Carter was carrying on a different 
kind of policy towards the Cuban Government. Finally, he was not 
re-elected.

So things were restored to their prior position. The blockade has 
kept on tightening. Terrorist actions against Cuba — sabotage of 
all kind including biological war — have continued. To give you 
some idea of the scale: from 1963 to 2003, direct damages to the 
Cuban economy have totalled US$72,000 million.

At this moment, with the ultra-right administration of President 
Bush, the situation with regards to Cuba is even worse. So we 
cannot say that because another President is going to take up his 
position in the US Government that the situation for Cuba is 
going to change. There are too many pressures.

There is a great counter-revolutionary movement in the US that 
plays a very important role in the decisions and the votes of the 
presidential campaign in the US. I would say they are the ones 
who are going to decide what is going to take place.

At the same time, as I was telling you, we are prepared. We are 
going to continue with our social progress. We don't have any 
hope that the blockade is going to be lifted any day soon.

Miami 5

Bob: What is the latest with the situation of the Miami 5 
political prisoners in the US? Could you give our readers some 
background on this situation and could you tell us what we can do 
to help from here in Australia?

Juan: This situation of the Miami 5 has been one of the 
greatest violations of human rights ever committed in the US. 
These are five young Cuban men that have been in prison for five 
years. They have been accused of acts they did not commit.

What really happened? These five Cuban men had infiltrated the 
counter-revolutionary organisations in Miami, organisations that 
are responsible for taking terrorist actions against Cuba, 
carrying out sabotage against Cuba, and making biological war.

These Cuban men infiltrated these organisations with only one 
purpose: to give information to the Cuban Government so as to 
find the most effective possibility to diminish the effects of 
these terrorist actions, prepared and financed on US territory.

As soon as these five young men were discovered, the mafia in 
Miami began to exert its influence so as to create a political 
threat — and that's really what happened. There were 150 
candidates to participate in the trial in Miami and, in order to 
be considered, they were asked only one question. They were asked 
whether they were in favour or against the Cuban revolution. 
Those that said that they were in favour were automatically sent 
away and not taken into consideration to be part of that trial.

You can understand that this is enough argument to see that this 
was a political trial. This was the first violation in this trial 
and from that time a great campaign began to ensure that these 
five men would end up in prison. They were sentenced for 
different crimes — which they really didn't commit — for 
conspiracy to murder, conspiracy to carry out espionage. None of 
these crimes were proved during the trial that was carried out in 
Miami.

The defendants gave enough arguments and enough proof to 
establish their innocence but, given that this was a political 
trial, these were not taken into consideration and they were sent 
to jail. During this time, they have been put several times into 
isolation.

Those that are put into isolation are normally there because they 
have shown some sort of indiscipline in the prison. These five 
young Cuban men have never committed any kind of indiscipline 
during their stay in prison. But, because they are Cuban and they 
have been trying to create pressure, the authorities have been 
trying to blackmail these Cubans to go back on their principles 
and their ideas. However, the Cubans have been maintaining their 
pressure.

Their relatives have been suffering, too, because they have not 
been allowed to visit the prisoners. They are held in different 
prisons, in different places in the United States. Furthermore, 
the Cuban diplomatic mission in Washington has not been able to 
make contact with the prisoners. Many obstacles have been put in 
the way by the political process being directed against these 
five Cuban men.

We Cubans decided, because of the great risk they were taking and 
because of the importance of the information they gave to Cuba, 
to award them the medal of Hero of the Cuban Republic.

What we are asking now from the solidarity movement is to let 
people know and make them understand all the arguments to do with 
the reality of this case. We're looking for a campaign to free 
the Miami 5 because we have to break the silence. This situation 
is not well known. The US Government does not want people 
overseas to know what's taking place in the case of these five 
Cuban men.