Reply #7: MINREX Statment on the Ladies in White Incident

[magbana]

Below is the Cuban gov't. statement on the incident.

Before that, let's get straight on the Ladies in White and their loved ones. The loved ones took money from the US to destabilize Cuba and given enough time,circumstances, and more money they would have participated in the overthrow of the gov't. The Ladies in White have been demonstrating on Sundays for a long time. They provoked the Cuban gov't. and got just what they were looking for -- highly dramatized pics and entry into papers around the world. And then they got a free ride home. Ladies in White are not repressed by anyone or anything other than the poor judgment of their loved ones. And those in jail -- when you take money from a foreign country, especially if that country has tried to murder your President numerous times, and committed every criminal act conceivable to destabilize your country, you should feel lucky to be in prison for anything less than a life sentence. .

FROM WALTER LIPPMANN'S CUBA NEWS LIST

STATEMENT ISSUED BY
THE MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS OF THE REPUBLIC OF CUBA

On April 22 last, the Government of the United States issued a press
release which was distributed by its Interest Section in Havana in
which it “deplores” the immediate and spontaneous reaction by our
people against the gross and shameless provocation that a handful of
counterrevolutionary individuals attempted to orchestrate the day
before at the Revolution Square.

In that press release, an irrefutable evidence of the complicity of
the US government, which encourages subversion in our country, the
Government of Cuba is accused of "forcefully removing" a group of
women known as the “Ladies in White”. It further reiterates the US
government solidarity towards the mercenaries who are in the payroll
of the imperial superpower.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs accuses the US government of
fabricating and promoting these and other counterrevolutionary
provocations as well as the subsequent media campaigns launched
against Cuba.

The empire, rendered helpless by the unstoppable advance of our
Revolution, has decided to strengthen its subversive plans, by virtue
of which only from 1996 to 2006 it was able to supply the local
counterrevolutionaries with 385 000 pounds of medicines, foodstuffs
and clothing; more than 23 000 short-wave radio sets, as well as
millions of books, booklets, and other information material, as was
recognized in the report published by the US government’s General
Accounting Office (GAO). Only in the course of the present year,
2008, the US government has allocated 45.7 million dollars to pay to
its mercenary groups in Cuba and put up provocations like the one
orchestrated yesterday. This amount of money is part of a total
invoice of 116 millions earmarked during the Bush administration to
support an industry of domestic subversion and counterrevolution in
Cuba at the expenses of American taxpayers.

The US Interest Section in Havana (SINA) has become a pillar of the
US government subversive policy, and has strengthened its role as the
General Headquarters of the domestic counterrevolution. According to
the aforementioned report issued by GAO, between the years 2000 and
2005 the imports by the US Interest Section increased almost by 200
per cent. Fifty to seventy per cent of this big total was material
that the US Interest Section delivered among its mercenary groups in
Cuba.

From January to March, 2008 the SINA has facilitated access to
Internet services for this groups; it has taught “courses on
computing” and on “independent journalism” to its sepoys in Cuba; it
has never ceased to supply them with all sorts of goods, including
electronic equipment, stickers, pullovers, and subversive literature.
It has organized for them several video-conferences with top
officials of the Bush administration, anti-Cuban Congress members and
representatives of the Cuban-American mob based in the United States.

The US Interest Section is constantly guiding those
counterrevolutionaries, whom it systematically contact and give
instructions to. Only in the course of the present year, it has
organized tens such meetings with its mercenaries in Cuba.

The US Interest Section has enhanced the profile of its provocations.
As was seen in the images aired by the Cuban television, the US
Interest Section offers its official sites and the residences of some
of its officials to hold receptions, videoconferences, and exhibition
of subversive material. It even offers its diplomatic means of
transport to carry the counterrevolutionaries to these activities.
Just one example: the house of the US Interest Section official
Gregory Adams, located at Calle 42 No. 521, Miramar, has become a
true “conference center” for the mercenary groups financed and
controlled by the US government.

Our government has every proof that shows the direct involvement of
the US Interest Section in the subversive actions against Cuba as
well as in the most recent provocation orchestrated at the Revolution
Square.

One of the groupings that have been particularly sponsored, backed,
and financed by the US Interest Section has been precisely the so
called “Ladies in White”, which has currently been chosen by
president George W. Bush and his special services as a spearhead
against Cuba.

Its members are customary visitors of the Internet centers of
the US Interest Section, and receive logistic support for their
counterrevolutionary work. They frequently meet with the officials of
that Interest Section, and their most notorious ringleaders have
earned the “privilege” of receiving direct attention from Michael
Parmly, the chief of that office.

One of them has even received a letter of recognition from President
George W. Bush himself, as well as financing and support to publish a
book about the counterrevolutionary experience of her husband, one of
the mercenaries who were sanctioned for serving the interests of the
government that is attacking us. The “launching” of this book was
attended by the Yankee Interest Section official in Havana Thomas
Hamn.

On January 24 last, Bush himself welcomed a member of this group,
the wife of another notorious mercenary who was also convicted.
The US president not only offered his support; he asked the world to
“support” the cause for counterrevolution in Cuba.

Likewise, in its most recent diatribe against our people on March 7,
Bush openly recognized, once again, the role of this grouping as the
favorite instrument of its policy against Cuba.

It wasn’t by mere chance that, days before its provocation, the so
called “Ladies in White” received the encouraging words and the
instructions given by the anti-Cuban Congress member Ileana Ross
Lehtinen, who became notorious for supporting the worst actions
against our country, including the kidnapping of the child Elián.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs denounces the all-out responsibility
of the US government in these incidents. Cuba reaffirms its right to
prevent, neutralize, and respond to these provocative actions
conceived, financed, and promoted by the US government and its
Interest Section in Havana.

The Cuban Revolution will never give up its right to defend itself;
it will never cease in its struggle.

Now that we are coming near to celebrate the first half a century of
our victorious Revolution, not even the most powerful empire ever
known to humankind should have any doubt about our people’s capacity
to thwart any attempt to deprive us from the future that we have
conquered with so much effort, dignity and sacrifice.

Havana, April 23, 2008.