IWP.edu: An Act of Solidarity with the People of Cuba: The Struggle for Freedom Continues

By Tania Mastrapa

Posted: Tuesday, May 22, 2012

ARTICLES

Publication Date: May 22, 2012

The lecture below was given as part of an event organized by The Heritage Foundation and the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation on May 18, 2012.  Please click here for a video of the event.  

The latest installment in political warfare by the Communist regime in Cuba features an all out political offensive, including a suave propaganda campaign. Its primary aims are to: 1) disintegrate the Cuban exile community, particularly in the United States; 2) recruit assets for Cuban intelligence; and 3) secure economic assistance for Havana via the émigrés and sympathetic leftists. We should view the latest moves by the Havana Boys chiefly through this lens. Aside from fresh intelligence, which is still classified, and anecdotal evidence, we have also been able to deduce the regime’s intentions through analogies with the modus operandi of its erstwhile “fraternal” regimes in Central and Eastern Europe. In fact, the latest public relations campaign to promote “national reconciliation” and “economic reforms”, while discrediting genuine exiles and dissidents on the island is not unique to the Cuban experience. The availability of Communist-era state security archives in Europe provides us with valuable insight into the machinations of these regimes. If there was anyone who had ever doubted that Communists did not possess any capability for creativity, the archives put that question to rest for good. Their modus operandi has been, is, and always will be the same wherever they are present. Of particular interest in the files is the detailed collaboration of clergy, exiles, journalists and Western university professors who worked diligently to make anti-Communism seem unfashionable and ridiculous.

It was in early Soviet Russia the official policy of discrediting exiles and sowing discord among them was first launched. Not much has changed since. Over the past several decades certain pollsters and publications have desperately attempted to prove that Cuban Americans, particularly the younger generations, are softer on Communism. Unsurprisingly those who make these spurious claims rarely, if ever, address the disappearances, beatings, arrests and other repressive acts of the regime. The mention of dissidents is dismissed and often condemned as politicizing United States relations with Cuba while reconciling and engaging are marketed as sensible approaches. None of this is a coincidence. This is a highly managed operation…..Read More

Short URL: http://cubanology.com/home/?p=7982

Posted by Jose Reyes on May 22 2012. Filed under Cuba Related, Current News, OP/ED Articles. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.