Published Wednesday, April 25, 2001 in the
Miami Herald
Castro slams Latin nations that voted for censure of island by U.N.
rights watchdog
By Anita Snow. Associated Press Writer
HAVANA -- (AP) -- President Fidel Castro lashed out Wednesday night at Costa
Rica and other nations that joined a U.N. vote last week condemning Cuba for its
human rights record, accusing them of buckling under U.S. pressure.
In a live discussion on state television, Castro criticized Costa Rica in
particular for its support of the April 18 resolution that was passed 22-20 by
the U.N. Human Rights Commission in Geneva. "There are a determined number
of Costa Ricans who are more Yankee than the Yankees,'' the Cuban president
said.
Uruguay, Argentina and Guatemala were the other Latin American countries
that voted to censure Cuba. Mexico, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru were
among the 10 nations that abstained on the vote. Of the nations represented on
the commission, Venezuela was the only in the Western Hemisphere that joined
Cuba in voting against the resolution.
Cuba maintains that it respects human rights more than most nations by
ensuring its citizens are cared for through free health and other social
services. It insists that it is free of rights violations that plague many other
Latin countries, including torture, disappearances and extrajudicial killings.
Havana's detractors charge that the commnunist government fails to respect
personal and political liberties such as freedom of expression -- including the
press -- as well as assembly, association and movement.
Earlier on Wednesday, Costa Rica withdrew the diplomatic credentials of the
Cuban consul in San Jose, Juan Carlos Hernandez, after Cuban Foreign Minister
Felipe Perez Roque similarly criticized the Central American nation for joining
the condemnation vote. Costa Rica has also called back its consul in Havana,
Melvin Saenz, for the same reason.
Hernandez left Costa Rica, the Central American country's foreign minister,
Roberto Rojas, said Wednesday.
"This government is a hypocrite of the devil,'' Castro said of Costa
Rica.
During the same U.N. session last week, China blocked a U.S. resolution to
condemn its human rights record.
Book details '62 anti-Cuba terror plan
By Scott Shane And Tom Bowman. The Baltimore Sun .
WASHINGTON -- U.S. military leaders proposed in 1962 a secret plan to commit
terrorist acts against Americans and blame Cuba to create a pretext for invasion
and the ouster of Communist leader Fidel Castro, according to a new book about
the National Security Agency.
"We could develop a Communist Cuban terror campaign in the Miami area,
in other Florida cities and even in Washington,'' said one document reportedly
prepared by the Joint Chiefs of Staff. "We could blow up a U.S. ship in
Guantanamo Bay and blame Cuba,'' the document said. "Casualty lists in U.S.
newspapers would cause a helpful wave of indignation.''
The plan is laid out in documents signed by the five Joint Chiefs but never
carried out, according to writer James Bamford in Body of Secrets. The new
history of the eavesdropping agency is being released today by Doubleday.
The anti-Cuba terror plan was code-named Operation Northwoods, Bamford
writes.
The Northwoods plan also proposed that if the 1962 launch of John Glenn into
orbit were to fail, resulting in the astronaut's death, the U.S. government
would publicize fabricated evidence that Cuba had used electronic interference
to sabotage the flight, the book says.
A previously secret document obtained by Bamford offers further suggestions
for mayhem to be blamed on Cuba.
"We could sink a boatload of Cubans en route to Florida (real or
simulated). We could foster attempts on lives of Cubans in the United States,
even to the extent of wounding in instances to be widely publicized,'' the
document says.
"Tragically, their mentality is often one of 'the end justifies the
means,' '' José Basulto, head of the exile group Brothers to the Rescue,
said Tuesday.
Two former top Kennedy administration officials said Tuesday that they were
unaware of Operation Northwoods and questioned whether such a plan was ever
drafted.
"I've never heard of Operation Northwoods. Never heard of it and don't
believe it,'' said Theodore Sorenson, John F. Kennedy's White House special
counsel. "Obviously, it would be totally illegal as well as totally
unwise.''
Robert McNamara, Kennedy's defense secretary, said: "I never heard of
it. I can't believe the chiefs were talking about or engaged in what I would
call CIA-type operations.''
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