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Cuba warns dissidents over
US aid
BBC,
UK, July 12, 2006.
A top Cuban official has warned dissidents
they will face consequences if they accept
funds from a new US plan to promote political
change in Cuba.
Cuba's National Assembly president, Ricardo
Alarcon, said the plan was a "politically
delirious provocation".
President George W Bush on Monday approved
the $80m (£43m) fund which he said
would help boost democracy in Cuba.
A US commission has been analysing policy
on Cuba after the eventual death of Fidel
Castro who is 80 next month.
Mr Alarcon told the Spanish news agency,
Efe, that any dissidents who "conspired
" with Washington and accepted its
funding would have to "face the consequences".
It would be a crime to accept such money
under Cuban law, as it would be in any country,
Mr Alarcon aid.
Ricardo Alarcon holding a draft of the
US report into policy on the island during
an interview with AP on Saturday
"Imagine that someone in the US were
to be supported, trained, equipped and advised
by a foreign government, that in itself
would be a crime. It would be a serious
crime in the US, punished with far more
years in prison than here in Cuba,"
Mr Alarcon said.
The plan drew a mixed reaction among dissidents
in Havana.
Several expressed concern that the new
funding could serve as a pretext for the
Cuban authorities to step up the pressure
on them.
"I really appreciate the solidarity
of the United States government and people,
but I think that this report is counterproductive,"
dissident journalist Oscar Espinosa Chepe
told foreign news agencies on Monday.
But Vladimiro Roca, a former political
prisoner, said he would accept any aid,
the Miami Herald newspaper reported.
"'It would be more than welcome,"'
he said in a telephone conversation, adding
that the Cuban government's aim was to dissuade
dissidents from accepting the money.
"We need materials, equipment, clothes,
everything."
The plan also provoked a strong reaction
in Cuba's close regional ally, Venezuela.
"They've launched what I consider
a new imperialist threat," Venezuelan
President Hugo Chavez said in a nationally
televised speech.
"They've publicised a plan of transition,
they think Fidel is going to die."
Successor
President Castro, in power since 1959,
is preparing to celebrate his birthday in
August.
The Cuban government has made recent moves
to give a higher profile to his designated
successor, his 75-year-old brother Raul
Castro.
The report, drawn up by the US Commission
for Assistance to a Free Cuba, includes
measures such as enforcing sanctions already
in place against the communist regime and
"providing uncensored information"
for Cubans who want change.
Since the fall of the US-backed dictatorship
of Fulgencio Batista in 1959, Cuba has been
a one-party state led by Mr Castro.
Since 1961, the US has maintained a strict
economic embargo against Cuba.
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