Analysts debate proper role of U.S. democracy programs in Cuba

Posted on Monday, 08.04.14

Analysts debate proper role of U.S. democracy programs in Cuba
An Associated Press report that the U.S. secretly sent young Latin
Americans to Cuba to provoke political change fans debate.
BY JUAN O. TAMAYO
JTAMAYO@ELNUEVOHERALD.COM

The U.S. government has a right to finance pro-democracy programs in
Cuba but must ensure they are not so aggressive that they wind up
hurting dissidents and strengthening the hand of Havana hardliners,
analysts and political figures said Monday.

"U.S. policy has long been to bring about or hasten a democratic
transition in Cuba," said Carl Meacham, former senior staffer on Latin
America for the Republican side of the Senate Foreign Relations
Committee. "This is consistent with that policy."

Meacham was reacting to a Monday report by the Associated Press that a
U.S. Agency for International Development program sent young people from
Venezuela, Costa Rica and Peru to recruit young Cubans to
anti-government activism … under the guise of civic programs from 2009
to 2011.

USAID said the program, which was run by Washington-based Creative
Associates International working under a grant from the agency, was
designed to "empower (Cuban) citizens to tackle a community or social
problem, win a 'small victory' and ultimately realize that they could be
the masters of their own destiny."

But the AP report poured fresh fuel on the long-running debate over the
U.S. government's Cuba programs. USAID says they are designed to promote
democracy on the island but the Cuban government views them as attempts
to topple its communist system.

Phil Peters, president of the Cuba Research Center in suburban
Washington D.C. and a proponent of easing U.S. sanctions on Havana, said
USAID efforts like the Creative Associates program can increase Cuban
government suspicions.

"This kind of activity can hurt people who are trying to do good work in
Cuba, put them under suspicion that they are working on a political
program — to say nothing of the possible damage to USAID itself around
the world," Peters said.

But Mauricio Claver-Carone, an anti-Castro activist in Washington D.C.,
defended such programs. "The United States should never apologize for
helping the victims of brutal dictatorships throughout the world. To the
contrary, it's emblematic of our nation's finest moments," he wrote.

"All countries do this," Meacham said of the Creative Associates
International program.

Cuban dissident Jose Daniel Ferrer said the U.S. government is right to
help opposition and civil society activists because the Cuban government
controls every aspect of their lives, denies them the right to speak
freely and even fires them from their jobs.

Opposing the government "would be impossible without the help of
friendly democratic nations and Cubans abroad" who pay for items such as
printers, cell phones and taxis to meetings, said Ferrer, head of the
Cuban Patriotic Union.

Said Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, a Miami Republican: "The fact that USAID
is using measures to promote democracy in Cuba is no secret. We must
continue to pressure the Castro regime and support the Cuban people, who
are oppressed on a daily basis."

In a statement Monday, USAID said that the U.S. Congress "funds
democracy programming in Cuba to empower Cubans to access more
information and strengthen civil society … The work is not secret; it is
not covert, nor is it undercover."

The AP reported that the young travelers to Cuba worked undercover and
often posed as tourists.

In its statement, USAID said the Associated Press included a paragraph
in its report that correctly described the program but "then goes on to
make sensational claims against aid workers for supporting civil society
programs … This is wrong."

But some analysts cautioned that Cuba democracy programs run the risk of
becoming too aggressive, counterproductive and might even further
complicate the already fractious debate on how to improve U.S.-Cuba
relations.

The latest report could strengthen hardliners in Havana who oppose
economic reforms, and others in the U.S. who support sanctions on Cuba,
said Meacham, now Americas program director at the Center for Strategic
and International Studies.

Teo Babun, executive director of EchoCuba, a Miami non-profit that has
received U.S., government dollars in the past to assist churches in
Cuba, said the USAID program, as described, was too "aggressive" for his
taste.

"It is clear that USAID supports democracy building programs," he said.
"But it is wrong to engage with or to try to introduce programs that are
so aggressive against the (Cuban) government. We cannot be supportive of
that."

Babun added, however, that he hadn't ever encountered a USAID Cuba
program that was as aggressive as that described in the AP report. "Not
in one instance did we see this type of program," he said.

In April, the AP sparked another aid controversy with a report on a
previously unknown USAID program — a Twitter-like social media platform
for Cubans known as ZunZuneo.

Source: Analysts debate proper role of U.S. democracy programs in Cuba -
Cuba - MiamiHerald.com -
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