US steps up aggression towards Cuba

Statement by the National Assembly Republic of Cuba

The empire plans to crush the Cuban nation and proclaims its 
intentions with insulting arrogance.

It is intensifying the economic war, the internal subversion, the 
anti-Cuba propaganda and the pressures on the rest of the world 
designed to pave the way for a direct military intervention that 
would destroy the Revolution, end our independence and 
sovereignty and realise the old annexionist fantasy of seizing 
control of Cuba.

Yesterday, Washington enforced new, harsh measures against the 
Cuban people and against Cubans living in the United States. 
Their promoters refer to these steps as part of a plan to bring 
about "a rapid end" to the revolutionary government.

The new measures involve toughening the already unfair and 
discriminatory restrictions imposed on those Cubans, the only 
national group to which the US government dictates the kind of 
relations its members can have with their families and country of 
origin, in flagrant violation of that country's Constitution. 
They no longer even have the right to visit Cuba once a year. Now 
they cannot do so more than once every three years and must apply 
for a specific authorisation for the purpose, which will be for a 
maximum stay of 14 days.

The limit on how much they can spend here has been severely 
reduced, the same as the amounts they can send to their 
relatives. Such visits and remittances are now strictly 
restricted to what the Bush administration calls "immediate 
family", arbitrarily excluding aunts and uncles, cousins, nephews 
and nieces, among other relatives.

What legal precedent can the American authorities cite for such 
an intrusion into people's private lives? Where are the "family 
values" which the current president and his friends tout so much? 
Is Mr Bush still describing himself as a "compassionate 
conservative"?

The people who elaborated these measures and those tasked with 
enforcing them have warned that there will be no exceptions, that 
they will be applied retroactively and rigorously and that heavy 
fines and severe prison sentences await those who breach the 
blockade. A kind of apartheid has been created for Cubans living 
in the United States.

Yesterday also saw cancellation of almost every licence that, 
although subject to onerous restrictions, permitted some 
Americans to visit Cuba. They have even eliminated the issuing of 
licences in cases where the visitor would be spending no money 
here at all. The latter shows that the policy goes beyond 
tightening the blockade and damaging Cuba's economy. It also aims 
at preventing millions of Americans from having direct contact 
with Cuban reality, a right recognised for three consecutive 
years by a substantial majority in the US Congress. What are Mr 
Bush and the ultra-reactionary mafia that dictated this 
irrational policy afraid of?

There is one aspect of the US plan that is especially cynical. On 
the one hand, it places drastic restrictions on remittances from 
Cuban residents in the United States to their relatives in Cuba 
while, on the other, it allows and instigates anyone to provide 
money and material support to the traitorous grouplets operating 
here under Washington's orders. While depriving US citizens of 
their right to visit Cuba, the administration spends large 
amounts of federal funds on arranging journeys from third-party 
countries by people whose declared intent is to supply these 
mercenaries.

The budget for funding and directing other actions to undermine 
Cuban society over the next two years is US$59 million. This sum 
includes US$18 million for radio and television broadcasts from a 
C-130 military airplane, an irresponsible and illegal provocation 
that not only breaks the law but also infringes the international 
rules on aviation and telecommunications.

There is also the threat of increasingly arbitrary application of 
those sections of the Helms-Burton law specifically designed to 
penalise businessmen from third-party nations. In the celebrated 
"understanding" it signed with the European Union, Washington 
undertook to consider eliminating the relevant aspects of the 
Law, but never took any action. Adding insult to injury, Bush is 
now making these provisions even tougher.

Disingenuously camouflaged as "aid to a free Cuba", the infamous 
volume of 450-plus pages full of hatred, lies and tiresome 
rhetoric, goes into minute detail on the measures Washington 
would impose if it succeeded in getting possession of Cuba. The 
Cuban society would be entirely subjugated to the United States, 
which would dominate all its activities without exception. A 
complete account of this recipe for unbridled interventionism 
would be endless, but some aspects of the plan offer an idea of 
the degree of servitude and exploitation planned for Cubans:

* One of the first tasks of the so-called "transitional 
government" would be to restore their properties to the former 
exploiters, including houses and lands sought by the annexionist 
mafia that supported Batista in the past. The process would be 
quick and directed by Washington, which would set up a special 
mechanism to that end. This infamous document also specifically 
decrees the eviction of those living in reclaimed dwellings or 
unable to pay high rents, a return to the practice of arbitrarily 
evicting small farmers, as well as the dismantling of the farming 
cooperatives and restoration of the former latifundia. What was 
already foreseen in the Helms Burton act is now expressed in a 
more blatant form.

* All sectors of the economy would be privatised, while a 
permanent US government Committee for Economic Reconstruction, to 
be set up right away, would control the economy.

* The subsidies and price controls affecting goods and services 
supplied to the public would be abolished.

* The social security and welfare system would be dismantled and 
commitments to pay benefits and pensions would be repudiated.

* Healthcare and education services would be privatised.

This would be a return to capitalism in its most brutal form, 
under the yoke of a foreign power.

The consequences for the Cuban people would be so terrible that 
even the report itself warns that "it would not be easy" to bring 
about "the transition", which would meet considerable rejection 
on the part of Cuban society. For this reason it identifies as an 
"immediate priority" the assembling of repressive forces that 
would be organised, trained, equipped and advised by Washington.

As proof of their true intentions to intervene and subject Cuba 
to an annexionist regime, the US president would immediately 
appoint an official tasked with coordinating all the various 
aggressive measures aimed at overthrowing the Revolution. This 
person would subsequently lead the "government of intervention", 
like Valeriano Weyler and Leonard Wood rolled into one: a truly 
genocidal strategy.

They will certainly not be able to bring such evil plans to 
fruition.

They would first have to invade Cuba, occupy the country 
militarily and then crush our people's resistance: that will 
never happen. We are ready and willing to fight to the last man 
and woman to prevent it. If they attack us here, they will find a 
united, educated people, with a glorious history of heroism, 
struggle and sacrifice for freedom, that will never give up its 
independence or its ideals of justice and solidarity, that will 
never renounce the fine, noble and profoundly humane society it 
has succeeded in building despite the empire's acts of 
aggression. If they attack us, they will sustain here their 
greatest and most humiliating defeat.

We shall confront these measures and any others our enemies may 
devise. We shall stand our ground and fight. Firmly united behind 
Fidel, Razl and our Party and under its wise and consistent 
leadership, we shall advance ever onwards to victory.

* * *

National Assembly of People's Power of the Republic of Cuba. 
Havana, July 1, 2004 "Year of the 45th Anniversary of the Triumph 
of the Revolution"