US steps up planning for a Cuba without Castro (plus destabilization plan)

[Mika]

US steps up planning for a Cuba without Castro
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9881666/

US planning for Cuba's "transition" after the demise of Fidel Castro has entered a new stage, with a special office for reconstruction inside the US State Department preparing for the "day after", when Washington will try to back a democratic government in Havana.

The inter-agency effort, which also involves the Defense Department, recognises that the Cuba transition may not go peacefully and that the US may have to launch a nation-building exercise.

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The US Institute of Peace, funded by Congress to work on conflict management, declined to lend its expertise to the Cuba project. "This was an exercise in destabilisation, not stabilisation," said one person involved.

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Officials say the US would not "accept" a handover of power from Mr Castro, who is 79, to his brother Raul, aged 74.

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Addressing the Association of the US Army last month, Mr Pascual indicated his co-operation with the military was at an early stage.

I'm sure that the US "reconstruction" of Cuba will go just fine.. like it is in Iraq.

[rocktivity]

1. But isn't it the CUBANS' job to be making those plans?

They may decide to become democracy without you. Or are you figuring you really CAN be in and out of there in three months like with Viet Nam?

:headbang:
rocknation

[babylonsister]

2. Why is it war war war with these shits?

I know intellectually-PNAC, globalization-but it fries me because I/we weren't brought up this way or taught to think like this. :-(

[Say_What]

38. This is the USSA's SOP. They've been doing this sh*t around the globe

since the end of the 19th century and prior to that it was genocide of Native Americans. It is NOT a new idea.

Forced Democracy--ala Chile in 1973, Central American countries in the 1980s, Iraq in 2005 are but a few examples. It's a simple cookie cutter plan: Destabilize and overthrow democratically elected governments, install a US-supported dictator and then run *free* (rigged) elections so the MSM can proclaim that the US *saved* the country and it is now *democratic*. Meanwhile there are thousands of dead in the country that was *freed* just as we're seeing now in Iraq.

Cuba is different. In 1960, after 50 years of US dictators Cuba determined they didn't want US style democracy and threw Tio Sam's ass out. It will be a bloodbath before Cuba bows to Tio Sam and the MiamiGusanos.

[rfranklin]

3. Codename: Corleone Family Plan

Lots of casinos and plenty of Cuban prostitutes. A vacation paradise for gringos.

[marbuc]

10. I'd love to vacation in Cuba,

with or without the casinos and Cuban prostitutes.

[Mika]

14. The Cuban government wants Americans to be able to vacation there

The Cuban government has been ripping the US government's ban on unfettered American travel to the island for 45+ years.

The Cubans want Americans to come to their island to see it for themselves.

Its the US government that doesn't want Americans to see what the rest of the world has been able to see there for four decades.

[marbuc]

16. Oh I know

I've been pushing for normalization for years. It's crazy that Cuba is the one country to which we restrict travel. It's even illegal to travel there from a third country, which is even more insane.

[Strawman]

41. they're cutting up the cake right now

[JuniperLea]

4. Yeah, we are tough shit

and we know what's best for Cuba, Iraq, Iran, Syria and anyone else who doesn't share our culture.

[sniffa]

5. useLess nation buiLding exercises

hey, does cuba have oiL reserves off it's coast?

hey, they might have WMD's too!

[Mika]

6. Cuba does have some oil off of its coast

Google links here

[sniffa]

8. i know

they've aLso been mentioned as "persuing WMD's" on a few occasions. :eyes:

[Julius Civitatus]

17. One of the best tourist destinations in the planet

with some of the best caribbean beaches and resorts. It is a gem, a prize for the tourism, travel and hotel industries. Havana will be turned into New Miami.

Wait and see.

:(

[sniffa]

21. casinos?

ka-ching!!!

[Julius Civitatus]

22. Las Vegas in the Caribbean! Ka-ching!!!

:puke:

[IndianaGreen]

24. And young Cuban girls can become whores for our glorious Navy

as it used to be before the Revolution.

[Mika]

25. Don't count on it

Cubans won't accept it. There would be an uprising/insurgency that would make Iraq look docile. Unlike some Iraqis, Cubans know that the US has no good intentions for Cuba. Don't forget that Cuba has a very large civilian militia - well armed and well trained in the tactics needed to F with Uncle Sam's occupying mercenaries.

[IndianaGreen]

31. US Marines were used to put down the Negro Rebellion of 1912

Cuban grievances against the US date back to the end of the 19th century, it includes the US stealing Cuban land for our naval base at Guantanamo, and the use of US Marines to put down a rebellion of Cubans of color against the white puppet regime installed by the US (pretty much the same sort of puppet regime Bush intends to install in a post-Fidel Cuba).

1912 Cuban Pacification Campaign

US forces protected American interests on the Province of Oriente and in Havana from June 5 to August 5, 1912. In the spring of 1912, revolt again flared in Cuba, and Marines were once more called to the island. On 27 May, the 2d Provisional Regiment was formed at Philadelphia and Norfolk to reinforce the 1st Provisional Regiment already in Cuba. Under the command of Colonel James E. Mahoney, the regiment sailed in several vessels of the Navy for Cuba, where Companies B, D, and E helped quell the Negro Rebellion. Within two months, peace again prevailed in the island, and on 1 August, the 2d Provisional Regiment was disbanded, and its personnel were returned to the United States or detached to the newly reorganized 1st Provisional Regiment in Cuba.

The 2d Regiment, 2d Provisional Brigade was formed at Philadelphia on 19 February 1913. The regiment, under the command of Colonel Joseph H. Pendleton, was intended for duty in Mexico as part of the brigade. However, it was sent to Guantanamo Bay and held in readiness for emergency duties, meanwhile undergoing intensive training. On 1 May, the 2d Regiment was redesignated 2d Regiment, Expeditionary Force, USMC. It remained in Cuba until the latter part of the month, when it boarded the PRAIRIE for the United States, arriving at Philadelphia on 1 June, when it disbanded.

http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/ops/cuba12.htm

Armed Conflict of 1912

Armed rebellion against the Cuban government

Tulia Falleti, Article Author

On May 20, 1912 a black armed rebellion against the Cuban government started in the province of Oriente, in the Southeast of Cuba. The rebellion, which the Cuban government and white elites soon named "Race War," lasted for more than two months. At least 3,000 Afro-Cubans were killed.

Led by the leaders of the Partido Independiente de Color (Independent Color Party) Evaristo Estenoz and Pedro Ivonnet, the rebellion was designed to force Cuban president, José Miguel Gómez (1909-1913), to repeal the Morúa law which had been passed in 1910 and outlawed the formation of political parties on racial lines, therefore banning the Partido Independiente de Color. Morúa himself was a mulatto. Just six months before the presidential elections of November, 1912, Estenoz thought that an armed uprising was the last possible resource that the Partido Independiente de Color had to fight against the Morúa law. On May 17, Estenoz arrived in the province of Oriente from a trip to the United States, and with his arrival the rumors of a black uprising spread. On May 18, the Cuban newspaper 'La Lucha' attributed an uprising in the town of Sagua la Grande in the province of Santa Clara to the Partido Independiente de Color. Although some uprisings took place in the provinces of Santa Clara and Matanzas--in the center of Cuba--mass arrests of party leaders and suspected sympathizers aborted all prospects of a coordinated national rebellion, and the movement was confined to the Southeastern province of Oriente. While Afro-Cubans constituted 30% of the total population nationally, they comprised over 40% of the Oriente population. (Data from 1907 Census in Fermoselle, 1974, p. 89; and Velasco, 1913, p.77). Furthermore, the socio-economic situation of the Afro-Cuban population in Oriente had rapidly deteriorated as a consequence of the expansion of sugar plantations and mills that eliminated communal lands and small farms. Afro-Cubans also saw their socio-economic condition worsened due to the increase of population and the introduction of cheaper labor from Haiti and Jamaica (López, 1986). Consequently, black protesters in Oriente attacked what they saw as the sources of their oppression and impoverished state: foreign property, cane fields and sugar mills.

Meanwhile, the newspapers repudiated the action of those men that, as one editorial would say, "had chosen to stop being Cubans, to be only blacks" ('La Lucha,' La Habana, May 27, 1912, p. 1) and stimulated the panic of a 'Negro uprising' among the white population. Whites in the countryside fled towards more secure places in towns and cities. President José Miguel Gómez suspended constitutional guarantees in the province of Oriente and organized his aides to form volunteer civilian militias against the black movement, supplying arms and ammunition. His goal was to exterminate the black movement, and prevent military intervention by the United States (due to the Platt Amendment of 1901 the U.S. had the right to intervene militarily in Cuba to protect U.S. citizens and their property in the island).

In sum, although almost no armed protest occurred outside of Oriente, the whole island was overcome with fear of a black takeover. "Government forces suspected the entire Afro-Cuban population of collaborating with the rebels. Blacks and mulattoes found in the fields were considered rebels, unarmed peasants were believed to have hidden their guns, and all were treated without mercy. Black men and women living in towns and villages were assumed to serve as spies for the independientes." (Helg 1995, 221) The army and militias persecuted, arrested, and killed Afro-Cubans all over the island. They were killed and left unburied on the sides of the roads or hanging in trees as symbols of the official forces' strength to repel the rebellion.

http://diaspora.northwestern.edu/mbin/WebObjects/DiasporaX.woa/wa/displayArticle?atomid=242

[DoYouEverWonder]

7. Just one more country that the PNAC

is targeting in their efforts to destabilize the world.

[jmowreader]

9. What if the Cubans LIKE being Communists?

Y'know, this is going to sound like a totally novel concept, but what if the Cubans actually like being commies? What if they held an internationally-monitored election using paper ballots counted by neutral observers four months after Castro died to decide whether to remain communist or embrace democracy and communism won?

Well...actually, I'll tell you exactly what would happen: Bush would manage to destroy the current tobacco and sugar crops, the curing leaf, the rolled cigars that were laid down to age, the entire rum industry and all of the cigar production facilities just because the Cubans like being communists.

[Mika]

11. Even the CIA says that Cubans support their current system

CIA: Most Cubans loyal to homeland
http://members.allstream.net/~dchris/CubaFAQ019.html

[TankLV]

27. Communism and democracy are not mutually exclusive.

A country can be comunist and democratic at the same time.

Just thought you'd like to know.

One deals with ownership means and methods of the society - fiscal matters, and the other deals with the way a society elects a leader - political matters.

A country can be dictatorial or democratic - and either capatalistic or communist - that is the proper choices.

[Darranar]

37. A country cannot be communist without being democratic. n/t

[elfin]

12. Hello American Chain stores - goodbye

culture and untouched nature - unless Chavez gets there first of course. If he does - WWIII - or IV depending how you count.

In my waning years, I would really like to see Cuba before our commercial onslaught.

[manic expression]

20. Hopefully the will be able to resist

the Cuban government is far more than Castro. The Cuban people are very well represented:
http://members.allstream.net/~dchris/CubaFAQDemocracy.html

They have great representation, civil liberties and that is ignoring the unbelievable quality of life, and that is ignoring the half-a-century of US embargoes (unjustified embargoes).

The Cuban people, who make up the Cuban government, can resist. I can only hope they succeed.

[RC]

13. When is the United States going to back

Democracy here in the U.S.? You know, go with the will of the people, put the safety nets back, living wages, Reinstate the Constitution as the supreme law of the land...

[Say_What]

40. By the people, for the people has been dead for decades. n/t

[Julius Civitatus]

15. BFEE typical plan: shock, awe, destruction, chaos, then Halliburton cashes

in.

See how it works? They don't just start wars or destabilize countries. No, that's so lazy and unenterprising! There's no war if they can't make a huge killing from it! (pun intended) What they do follows these neat steps:

1. Pick a country with huge natural or strategic resources, and make up a reason for immediate invasion.
   
   
2. Once in, don't just take over and change their government. It's important to completely destroy their infrastructure, send the nation into chaos, and spiral it into hell.
   
   
3. Appoint cronies and strongmen to do your bidding. Make sure the natural resources are secure. Nothing else really matter.
   
   
4. Send in Halliburton, Bechtel, Carlyle Group to rebuild the infrastructures you just destroy. Make sure they are no-bid contracts given to corporations that are either (still) managed or formerly managed by top members of your administration.
   
   
5. Laugh out loud while you count your cash all the way to Aruba.

I guess Cuba is next. How convenient, with Guantanamo so damn close and all!!!

:eyes:

[Matilda]

18. You summed it all up so well.

And it helps enormously when the country is very small and not much
in the way of an army to fight.

[Julius Civitatus]

19. Yes. It's important said country can't fight back

Of course, of course.

[IndianaGreen]

23. These motherfuckers never give up!

Why can't Bush fly into the Bermuda Triangle and become another of those missing flights?

[Zhade]

26. K/R

Kick

[bluestateguy]

28. None of our business

Typical. We don't have to take sides in everything on this planet, do we?

Anyway, I think the Cubans know what needs to be done when Castro leaves. Whatever that decision is should be just fine with us.

There are plenty of other Carribean vacation spots for rich playboys and sorority girls to partake in already.

[cantstandbush]

29. Isn't the world in enough turmoil without our stirring up the pot in Cuba?

We are shameless.

[Darranar]

30. "Democracy," Haiti-style, is likely the plan.

Marginalize and slaughter the poor, let the elite hold an "election" to appoint the most wealth-serving dictator.

[cyr330]

32. I can already see it

The WalMartization of Cuba. . . Why the fuck does our government thing it has the right to "make plans" for Cuba? Even though it's done the same thing with Iraq doesn't make it right. . .

[MarsThe Cat]

33. if we don't. the evil leftist from venezuela might try something...

I'm willing to bet that fidel and hugo have already had long discussions about the post-castro era...

Raul castro, that is.

fidel is pretty much 'retired', isn't he..?

[Judi Lynn]

34. Very, very sad, Mika.

_Bush administration is getting rougher and rougher. According to the article:

The inter-agency effort, which also involves the Defense Department, recognises that the Cuba transition may not go peacefully and that the US may have to launch a nation-building exercise.
(snip)

They do not recognize common respect for others. As much as many Americans would dearly love to see the U.S. drop the travel ban to Cuba, and for all the reactionary Cuban right-wing "exiles" to go to Cuba, Cuba has the right to live WITHOUT the human scum they overthrew in 1959.

Why would they want back the garbage which made Cuba so vile it triggered the Revolution? In their absense, the poor have finally received adequate housing, nutrition, health care, and education, whereas they were kicked to the curb before 1959, while the wealthy elite, the big fish in the small bowl, ran a corrupt, violent government.

They aren't wanted, nor are occupation forces wanted. Republicans are diseased to think they have a right to rape and violate other cultures.

[ikri]

35. Why would any transition not go peacefully?

There generally aren't mass riots on the streets when leadership of a nation passes from one person to another unless the cause of the transition is revolutionary.

The only reason that there would be any problems with a transition of government in Cuba would be if a third party, say a local unfriendly government, was interfering.

[guajira]

36. Transition?? You Mean Invasion??

Would you like to have another country invade here and try to set up their own government, language, etc.?

Cubans laugh when you tell them they're not free. They think Miami "exiles" are crazy to worry about Castro all day every day. In Cuba they actually work, love and have lives!!

Oh, and they make great music.

[Say_What]

39. Exactly!! FORCED DEMOCRACY ala Chile, Guatemala, El Salvador, Iraq in the

ME, and dozens of other countries around the globe.