[Via... http://www.egroups.com/group/Communist-Internet ] . . ----- Original Message ----- From: Walter Lippmann <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: CubaNews <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Saturday, May 26, 2001 7:40 PM Subject: [CubaNews] Cuba is not Poland GRANMA May 22, 2001 NEW BILL FOR FUNDING SUBVERSION IN CUBA Cuba is not Poland BY GABRIEL MOLINA ON May 16, Republican Senator Jesse Helms presented a new bill, anticipated for three months by Jorge Mas Santos, president of the Cuban-American National Foundation (CANF), to distribute $100 million USD among groups considered as potential instruments against the Cuban government. According to Helms, by means of this bill, the U.S. president would be authorized to send money, particularly to self-employed workers on the island. According to Reuters, approval of the initiative would lead to Washington providing direct funding for the first time in 40 years for dissident groups in Cuba. In fact, for some years now, it has been no secret that Washington has been financing subversive activities against the Cuban government since 1959. On February 7, Mas Santos outlined CANF's plan for President George Bush II, to be presented by Helms, head of the Foreign Relations Committee, and other congress members, to the Inter-American Foundation. This group enjoys a fat income, officially supplied by the Cuban-American lobby created 15 years ago by Ronald Reagan, president at the time. In his presentation, the son of Mas Canosa revealed that the plan had been drawn up to counteract those people (in diverse sectors of the United States), who are really more interested in preserving what they call stability on the island. He added that to those ends, they would cultivate an emerging civil society, with financial and other means of support. The CANF president also revealed that his intention is to act like the Reagan and Bush Sr. administrations, which financed and utilized other methods to back "democratic opposition" in Poland. Presenting the bill, Helms disclosed (in line with Mas Santos' scenario) that he wants to instigate an act similar to the one passed in the 1980's by the United States to help the anti-Communist 'Solidarity' movement in Poland, the news agencies reported. Senator Helms drew up the 1996 legislation that, among other regulations described as extraterritorial, prohibits Washington from normalizing relations with Cuba without the U.S. Congress certifying that a 'democratic government' exists in Havana. That bill was drafted by lawyers working for the Cuban-American Bacard, Fanjui, and Mas Canosa families, as on this occasion. In his diatribe, Mas Santos stated that programs should be devised that would provide direct funding and material resources to the democraticopposition and independence groups and individuals in Cuba such as computers, printers, telephones, cellular phones, fax machines, Internet devices and the latest communications equipment, as well as cordless technology, satellites and more. Helms' bill, following that line, and upping the stakes, would authorize the channeling of $100 million USD over a four-year period, in cash, foodstuffs, medicines, computers, telephones, fax and other office supplies and education materials for opposition groups and non-governmental organizations on the island, EFE, AFP and Reuters reported. Supporting Helms' bill, called Act of Solidarity with Cuba, are Senator Joseph Lieberman, Democrat Al Gore's vice presidential running mate in the recent elections; and other senators like Robert Torricelli, Bob Graham, George Allen and John Ensign. Congress members Lincoln Daz Balart and Iliana Ros Lehtinen will take up the task in the House of Representatives. In February, Mas Santos also revealed other aspects of the plan, which he now prefers to manage with more discretion, according to generally well- informed sources. He stated that the new policy should promote free enterprise in Cuba, by fortifying and expanding the combative and heavily repressed self-employed sector and private property owners of family restaurants and lodgings, independent campesinos, private day care centers, refugees taken in by the Church and other independently financed enterprises. He also declared that these sectors should be exempt from the blockade and that a U.S. fund, directed by recognized non-governmental organizations, with the purpose of granting loans for establishing private businesses, should be established. Another fund would be utilized to offer scholarships for study grants and business administration training. It was acknowledged that those sources are central to their subversive intentions. According to The New York Times, Cubans eligible to receive such funding would extend from self-employed workers to "political" prisoners, dissidents, independent economists, journalists and members of religious groups, as well as agricultural groups that in this way could buy and sell on the U.S. market. Critics of the bill in the United States stated that aid would make those sectors assisted look like Washington's paid agents, given that U.S. treats Cuba as its enemy. Those people would come to be enemy agents and face the consequences as such. The bill contains provisions to invest in counteracting the blocking of Radio Mart and TV Mart, (U.S. government broadcasting stations) by the Cuban government, as well as trade unions on the island. The program advanced by Mas Santos also anticipates the purchasing of more powerful transmitters for those two stations and to help groups of Cubans to organize trade unions in cooperation with the AFL-CIO, a trade union organization seen as having been neutralized years ago by the U.S. system. Aspects perhaps forgotten at one point but now incorporated, would oblige President George W. Bush's government to seek UN approval of a resolution calling on Cuba to respect human rights, free political prisoners, and to hold free elections. The new proposal by Helms and the other Congress members benefiting from customary monetary contributions, is considered as a new effort to distance political debate on the blockade, which has come under intense pressure from companies interested in trading with Cuba, especially in the pharmaceutical, agricultural and food sectors, Reuters recognized. It is expected that critics of the real economic warfare imposed by Washington for 40 years and of this recent initiative, like Senator Christopher Dodd, the highest-ranking Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee, will vigorously oppose the bill which, according to its authors, has the support of George W. Bush. Dodd stated that the important thing is to help the Cuban people by ending the economic blockade and the prohibition on travel to Cuba. Helms commented that his new proposal does not intensify or relax the so-called embargo imposed on Cuba, although it would allow the Bush administration to grant licenses for donations from U.S. citizens with the objective of securing them. Forestalling the opposition, he didn't hesitate to observe that this is an investment which would reap benefits for the U.S. economy, in the same way as investments made in Eastern Europe, which have resulted in immeasurable benefits. Fellow Senator Charles Schumer made a wise comment on that, by stating that Cuba is not Poland. BY GABRIEL MOLINA ON May 16, Republican Senator Jesse Helms presented a new bill, anticipated for three months by Jorge Mas Santos, president of the Cuban-American National Foundation (CANF), to distribute $100 million USD among groups considered as potential instruments against the Cuban government. According to Helms, by means of this bill, the U.S. president would be authorized to send money, particularly to self-employed workers on the island. According to Reuters, approval of the initiative would lead to Washington providing direct funding for the first time in 40 years for dissident groups in Cuba. In fact, for some years now, it has been no secret that Washington has been financing subversive activities against the Cuban government since 1959. On February 7, Mas Santos outlined CANF's plan for President George Bush II, to be presented by Helms, head of the Foreign Relations Committee, and other congress members, to the Inter-American Foundation. This group enjoys a fat income, officially supplied by the Cuban-American lobby created 15 years ago by Ronald Reagan, president at the time. In his presentation, the son of Mas Canosa revealed that the plan had been drawn up to counteract those people (in diverse sectors of the United States), who are really more interested in preserving what they call stability on the island. He added that to those ends, they would cultivate an emerging civil society, with financial and other means of support. The CANF president also revealed that his intention is to act like the Reagan and Bush Sr. administrations, which financed and utilized other methods to back "democratic opposition" in Poland. Presenting the bill, Helms disclosed (in line with Mas Santos' scenario) that he wants to instigate an act similar to the one passed in the 1980's by the United States to help the anti-Communist 'Solidarity' movement in Poland, the news agencies reported. Senator Helms drew up the 1996 legislation that, among other regulations described as extraterritorial, prohibits Washington from normalizing relations with Cuba without the U.S. Congress certifying that a 'democratic government' exists in Havana. That bill was drafted by lawyers working for the Cuban-American Bacard, Fanjui, and Mas Canosa families, as on this occasion. In his diatribe, Mas Santos stated that programs should be devised that would provide direct funding and material resources to the democraticopposition and independence groups and individuals in Cuba such as computers, printers, telephones, cellular phones, fax machines, Internet devices and the latest communications equipment, as well as cordless technology, satellites and more. Helms' bill, following that line, and upping the stakes, would authorize the channeling of $100 million USD over a four-year period, in cash, foodstuffs, medicines, computers, telephones, fax and other office supplies and education materials for opposition groups and non-governmental organizations on the island, EFE, AFP and Reuters reported. Supporting Helms' bill, called Act of Solidarity with Cuba, are Senator Joseph Lieberman, Democrat Al Gore's vice presidential running mate in the recent elections; and other senators like Robert Torricelli, Bob Graham, George Allen and John Ensign. Congress members Lincoln Daz Balart and Iliana Ros Lehtinen will take up the task in the House of Representatives. In February, Mas Santos also revealed other aspects of the plan, which he now prefers to manage with more discretion, according to generally well- informed sources. He stated that the new policy should promote free enterprise in Cuba, by fortifying and expanding the combative and heavily repressed self-employed sector and private property owners of family restaurants and lodgings, independent campesinos, private day care centers, refugees taken in by the Church and other independently financed enterprises. He also declared that these sectors should be exempt from the blockade and that a U.S. fund, directed by recognized non-governmental organizations, with the purpose of granting loans for establishing private businesses, should be established. Another fund would be utilized to offer scholarships for study grants and business administration training. It was acknowledged that those sources are central to their subversive intentions. According to The New York Times, Cubans eligible to receive such funding would extend from self-employed workers to "political" prisoners, dissidents, independent economists, journalists and members of religious groups, as well as agricultural groups that in this way could buy and sell on the U.S. market. Critics of the bill in the United States stated that aid would make those sectors assisted look like Washington's paid agents, given that U.S. treats Cuba as its enemy. Those people would come to be enemy agents and face the consequences as such. The bill contains provisions to invest in counteracting the blocking of Radio Mart and TV Mart, (U.S. government broadcasting stations) by the Cuban government, as well as trade unions on the island. The program advanced by Mas Santos also anticipates the purchasing of more powerful transmitters for those two stations and to help groups of Cubans to organize trade unions in cooperation with the AFL-CIO, a trade union organization seen as having been neutralized years ago by the U.S. system. Aspects perhaps forgotten at one point but now incorporated, would oblige President George W. Bush's government to seek UN approval of a resolution calling on Cuba to respect human rights, free political prisoners, and to hold free elections. The new proposal by Helms and the other Congress members benefiting from customary monetary contributions, is considered as a new effort to distance political debate on the blockade, which has come under intense pressure from companies interested in trading with Cuba, especially in the pharmaceutical, agricultural and food sectors, Reuters recognized. It is expected that critics of the real economic warfare imposed by Washington for 40 years and of this recent initiative, like Senator Christopher Dodd, the highest-ranking Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee, will vigorously oppose the bill which, according to its authors, has the support of George W. Bush. Dodd stated that the important thing is to help the Cuban people by ending the economic blockade and the prohibition on travel to Cuba. Helms commented that his new proposal does not intensify or relax the so-called embargo imposed on Cuba, although it would allow the Bush administration to grant licenses for donations from U.S. citizens with the objective of securing them. Forestalling the opposition, he didn't hesitate to observe that this is an investment which would reap benefits for the U.S. economy, in the same way as investments made in Eastern Europe, which have resulted in immeasurable benefits. Fellow Senator Charles Schumer made a wise comment on that, by stating that Cuba is not Poland. Post comments to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Send an email to subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe from this CubaNews group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
