Cuba Says US Diplomats in the Island are Provocateurs

Castro's Government restricted US diplomats' movements within the country and announced the arrest of conspirators.

Cuban authorities launched a diplomatic offensive against the US interest Section office in Havana. In a TV statement, local authorities accused the head of the US diplomatic mission in the island, James Carson, on "repeated fomentation of internal counterrevolution". Therefore, ordered to limit Carson and other diplomats' activities to the same measures taken against the Cuban mission in Washington.

An official note read on national television indicated that the "shameful attitude and repeated fomentation of internal counterrevolution by the head of Washington's diplomatic mission in Havana are regarded as part of his government's hostility toward the Island." Cuban authorities are concerned about the contacts between Carson and groups of dissidents operating in the island.

"Power does not give a country the right to organize, finance and serve as a general headquarters to subvert the constitutional order and violate the law in order to conspire, threaten the security and destroy the independence of another country", reads the statement. The decision is also linked to the mistreatment received by five Cuban former diplomats imprisoned in the U.S. that, according to the Cuban authorities and press, were unjustly sentenced to long terms.

But Castro's regime doe not want to provoke a large-scale diplomatic conflict with its northern neighbor. Sanctions will be restricted to the international normative available for these cases. According to the local press, the Office of U.S. interests in Cuba was planning to create a force similar to that which invaded the country in 1961, via the Bay of Pigs, during Kennedy's administration.

The document also reads about the local "conspirators" behind this supposed plot. About a dozen of Cuban citizens will be arrested, facing charges ranging from cooperation with the enemy to conspiratorial activities.

The internal Cuban opposition expressed its concern on the ruling. The President of the Cuban Human Rights and National Reconciliation Committee, Elizardo Sanchez Santa Cruz, said that his group could confirm the arrest of tens of activists and independent journalists. "It looks like we are now at the gates of huge wave of repression against the pacific dissidents", said Sanchez to the Spanish Agency EFE.

As per the head of the US diplomatic mission, James Carson, local authorities have seriously criticized him since his arrival in September last year. Carson, usually visits Cuban dissidents and makes declarations to the foreign press about the internal political situation of the island. Cuba says he is a provocateur and tries to limit his movements.

Hernan Etchaleco
PRAVDA.Ru

Picture: A piece of Cuban propaganda on the leader of the Cuban Revolution