But in reality the funds managed by that organization have been used for repression against countries, organizations, movements and people with ideas of the left, or simply progressive.

Against Cuba, USAID, together with the NED, have served as a front for the actions of the CIA, and as a channel for the funds that finance the counterrevolution.

The Cuba Money Project website, created by the American journalist Tracey Eaton, cited data obtained from USAID’s Foreign Aid Explorer, which indicated that the amount allocated for subversion programs against Cuba, since 1990, was $ 261,395,214.

Since Donald Trump came to the White House on January 20, 2017, USAID has invested almost 50 million dollars to “change the political system” in the our country.

Recently, John Barsa, USAID’s acting administrator of the USAID, joined the anti-Cuban campaign of the Madrid-based counterrevolutionary NGO, Observatorio Cubano de Derechos Humanos, which receives $ 250,000 annually from the NED and $ 127,000 from the USAID.

The CIA front organizations distribute $ 410,000 a year to media outlet DNA Cuba and $ 220,000 each to Diario de Cuba and Cubanet; a veritable dance of millions to try to defeat the Cuban Revolution. American taxpayer money is destined to fall, for the most part, into the deep pockets of the Miami Cuban-American mafia and their hired henchmen, who, as President Miguel Díaz- Canel said, will be left with only the desire to write the epitaph.

(Taken from Granma)

USAID operates in Sub-Saharan Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean, Europe, Eurasia and the far East. Since 2002, USAID efforts in Venezuela seek to promote and ensure the demise of the Bolivarian Revolution and for this purpose they have funded parties, political organizations and media, filling the pockets of opposition leaders with millions of dollars.

The institution is an intricate system of corruption that diverts millions of dollars through the misnamed “humanitarian aid” of the United States.

The report published on the USAID website explains that, following an agreement reached in October 2019, the organization has used 128 million dollars to “help” Guaidó and the National Assembly, in contempt, “to continue developing plans to recover the economy and implement social services during a transition to democracy” and “restore democratic governance” in the South American country.

In the document published in December, the US agency also acknowledged having allocated funds for “compensation, travel costs and other expenses for some technical advisors of the National Assembly and the interim administration of Guaidó, through assistance funds.”

September 4, 2019, Deputy Secretary of State John J. Sullivan and USAID administrator Mark Green announced financing of more than 120.2 million dollars to respond to the crisis in the region that, in their opinion, was caused by Venezuelan migration.

In addition to Colombia, the country that received the largest amount of funds as the main recipient of Venezuelans; Brazil, Ecuador and Peru joined the list of nations that received money to supposedly address the migration crisis in the region.

Subsequently, a PanAm Post investigation revealed that Guaidó’s administrators of USAID’s “humanitarian aid,” Rossana Barrera and Kevin Rojas, had used the funds in hotels, shops and restaurants.

On November 29, former Guaido-appointed ambassador to Colombia Humberto Calderón Berti accused him and his followers of stealing funds intended for their humanitarian purposes. “Colombian authorities gave me the alert and showed me documents in which prostitutes, liquor, mismanagement of resources, double billing and fictitious charges were mentioned,” he said.

Also in December, according to Russia Today, the website Armando.info denounced the alleged participation of 11 opposition parliamentarians in a “corruption plot to grant indulgences”” to businessmen related to food imports, including three from Guaidó’s party Voluntad Popular.

Most of the resources provided by the United States for “humanitarian aid,” according to the website Misión Verdad, have been allocated to the Norte de Santander department, which has been the base of operations for aggression against Venezuela, including the attempt to assassinate President Maduro with drones in 2018 and recently revealed terrorist plans.

The USAID continues to “reach into” the pockets of the U.S. people to enrich bandits and corrupt individuals. Millions have been spent against Cuba, against Venezuela and every progressive government in the region that attempts to follow a sovereign path of development. Most of this money has gone to thieves disguised as “democrats.”

(Granma)

The most sensitive item, according to official trip reports, was the last one: a specialized mobile phone chip that experts say is often used by the Pentagon and the CIA to make satellite signals virtually impossible to track.

The purpose, according to an Associated Press review of Gross’ reports, was to set up uncensored satellite Internet service for Cuba’s small Jewish community.

The operation was funded as democracy promotion for the U.S. Agency for International Development, established in 1961 to provide economic, development and humanitarian assistance around the world in support of U.S. foreign policy goals.

Gross, however, identified himself as a member of a Jewish humanitarian group, not a representative of the U.S. government.

Cuban President Raul Castro called him a spy, and Gross was sentenced last March to 15 years in prison for seeking to “undermine the integrity and independence” of Cuba. U.S. officials say he did nothing wrong and was just carrying out the normal mission of USAID.

Gross said at his trial in Cuba that he was a “trusting fool” who was duped. But his trip reports indicate that he knew his activities were illegal in Cuba and that he worried about the danger, including possible expulsion.

One report says a community leader “made it abundantly clear that we are all ‘playing with fire.’”

Another time Gross said: “This is very risky business in no uncertain terms.”

And finally: “Detection of satellite signals will be catastrophic.”

The case has heightened frictions in the decades-long political struggle between the United States and its communist neighbor to the south, and raises questions about how far democracy-building programs have gone – and whether cloak-and-dagger work is better left to intelligence operatives.

Gross’ company, JBDC Inc., which specializes in setting up Internet access in remote locations like Iraq and Afghanistan, had been hired by Development Alternatives Inc., or DAI, of Bethesda, Maryland, which had a multimillion-dollar contract with USAID to break Cuba’s information blockade by “technological outreach through phone banks, satellite Internet and cell phones.”

USAID officials reviewed Gross’ trip reports and received regular briefings on his progress, according to DAI spokesman Steven O’Connor. The reports were made available to the AP by a person familiar with the case who insisted on anonymity because of the documents’ sensitivity.

The reports cover four visits over a five-month period in 2009. Another report, written by a representative of Gross’ company, covered his fifth and final trip, the one that ended with his arrest on Dec. 3, 2009.

Together, the reports detail the lengths to which Gross went to escape Cuban authorities’ detection.

To avoid airport scrutiny, Gross enlisted the help of other American Jews to bring in electronic equipment a piece at a time. He instructed his helpers to pack items, some of them banned in Cuba, in carry-on luggage, not checked bags.

He once drove seven hours after clearing security and customs rather than risk airport searches.

On his final trip, he brought in a “discreet” SIM card – or subscriber identity module card – intended to keep satellite phone transmissions from being pinpointed within 250 miles (400 kilometers), if they were detected at all.

The type of SIM card used by Gross is not available on the open market and is distributed only to governments, according to an official at a satellite telephone company familiar with the technology and a former U.S. intelligence official who has used such a chip. The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the technology, said the chips are provided most frequently to the Defense Department and the CIA, but also can be obtained by the State Department, which oversees USAID.

Asked how Gross obtained the card, USAID spokesman Drew Bailey said only that the agency played no role in helping Gross acquire equipment. “We are a development agency, not an intelligence agency,” he said.

Cuba’s communist government considers all USAID democracy promotion activities to be illegal and a national security threat. USAID denies that any of its work is covert.

Gross’ American lawyer, Peter J. Kahn, declined comment but has said in the past that Gross’ actions were not aimed at subverting the Cuban government.

Cuban authorities consider Internet access to be a matter of national security and block some sites that are critical of the government, as well as pages with content that they deem as counterrevolutionary. Most Cubans have access only to a severely restricted island-wide Intranet service.

Proponents of providing Internet access say it can undermine authoritarian governments that control the flow of information to their people. Critics say the practice not only endangers contractors like Gross, but all American aid workers, even those not involved in secret activities.

“All too often, the outside perception is that these USAID people are intelligence officers,” said Philip Giraldi, an ex-CIA officer. “That makes it bad for USAID, it makes it bad for the CIA and for any other intelligence agency who like to fly underneath the radar.”

Even before he delivered the special SIM card, Gross noted in a trip report that use of Internet satellite phones would be “problematic if exposed.” He was aware that authorities were using sophisticated detection equipment and said he saw workers for the government-owned telecommunications service provider conduct a radio frequency “sniff” the day before he was to set up a community’s Wi-Fi operation.

U.S. diplomats say they believe Gross was arrested to pressure the Obama administration to roll back its democracy-promotion programs. The Cuban government has alleged without citing any evidence that the programs, funded under a 1996 law calling for regime change in Cuba, are run by the CIA as part of an intelligence plan to topple the government in Havana.

While the U.S. government broadly outlines the goals of its aid programs in publicly available documents, the work in Cuba could not exist without secrecy because it is illegal there. Citing security concerns, U.S. agencies have refused to provide operational details even to congressional committees overseeing the programs.

“The reason there is less disclosure on these programs in totalitarian countries is because the people are already risking their lives to exercise their fundamental rights,” said Mauricio Claver-Carone, who runs the Washington-based Cuba Democracy Advocates.

USAID rejected the notion that its contractors perform covert work.

“Nothing about USAID’s Cuba programs is covert or classified in any way,” says Mark Lopes, a deputy assistant administrator. “We simply carry out activities in a discreet manner to ensure the greatest possible safety of all those involved.”

The U.S. National Security Act defines “covert” as government activities aimed at influencing conditions abroad “where it is intended that the role of the United States Government will not be apparent or acknowledged publicly.”

USAID’s democracy promotion work in Cuba was spurred by a large boost in funding under the Bush administration and a new focus on providing communications technology to Cubans. U.S. funding for Cuban aid multiplied from $3.5 million in 2000 to $45 million in 2008. It’s now $20 million.

Gross was paid a half-million dollars as a USAID subcontractor, according to U.S. officials familiar with the contract. They spoke only on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to discuss the case.

USAID head Raj Shah said democracy promotion is “absolutely central” to his agency’s work. The Obama administration says its Cuba

programs aim to help politically repressed citizens enjoy fundamental rights by providing humanitarian support, encouraging democratic development and aiding the free flow of information.

U.S. officials say Gross’ work was not subversion because he was setting up connections for Cuba’s Jewish community, not for dissidents. Jewish leaders have said that they were unaware of Gross’ connections to the U.S. government and that they already were provided limited Internet access. USAID has not said why it thought the community needed such sensitive technology.

Asked if such programs are meant to challenge existing leaders, Lopes said, “For USAID, our democracy programs in Cuba are not about changing a particular regime. That’s for the Cuban people to decide, and we believe they should be afforded that choice.”

Others disagree.

“Of course, this is covert work,” said Robert Pastor, President Jimmy Carter’s national security adviser for Latin America and now director of the Center for Democracy and Election Management at American University in Washington. “It’s about regime change.”

Gross, of Potomac, Maryland, was a gregarious man, about 6 feet (1.8 meters) and 250 pounds (113 kilograms). He was hard to miss. He had bought a Rosetta Stone language course to improve his rudimentary Spanish and had scant knowledge of Cuba. But he knew technology. His company specialized in installing communications gear in remote parts of the world.

Gross’ first trip for DAI, which ended in early April 2009, focused on getting equipment in and setting up the first of three facilities with Wi-Fi hotspots that would give unrestricted Internet access to hundreds of Cubans, especially the island’s small Jewish community of 1,500.

To get the materials in, Gross relied on American Jewish humanitarian groups doing missions on the island. He traveled with the groups, relying on individuals to help bring in the equipment, according to the trip reports.

Three people briefed on Gross’ work say he told contacts in Cuba he represented a Jewish organization, not the U.S. government. USAID says it now expects people carrying out its programs to disclose their U.S. government funding to the people they are helping – if asked.

One of Gross’ reports suggests he represented himself as a member of one of the groups and that he traveled with them so he could intercede with Cuban authorities if questions arose.

The helpers were supposed to pack single pieces of equipment in their carry-on luggage. That way, Gross wrote, any questions could best be handled during the X-ray process at security, rather than at a customs check. The material was delivered to Gross later at a Havana hotel, according to the trip reports.

USAID has long relied on visitors willing to carry in prohibited material, such as books and shortwave radios, U.S. officials briefed on the programs say. And USAID officials have acknowledged in congressional briefings that they have used contractors to bring in software to send encrypted messages over the Internet, according to participants in the briefings.

An alarm sounded on one of Gross’ trips when one of his associates tried to leave the airport terminal; the courier had placed his cargo – a device that can extend the range of a wireless network – into his checked bag.

Gross intervened, saying the device was for personal use and was not a computer hard drive or a radio.

According to the trip reports,

customs officials wanted to charge a 100 percent tax on the value of the item, but Gross bargained them down and was allowed to leave with it.

“On that day, it was better to be lucky than smart,” Gross wrote.

Much of the equipment Gross helped bring in is legal in Cuba, but the volume of the goods could have given Cuban authorities a good idea of what he was up to.

“Total equipment” listed on his fourth trip included 12 iPods, 11 BlackBerry Curve smartphones, three MacBooks, six 500-gigabyte external drives, three Internet satellite phones known as BGANs, three routers, three controllers, 18 wireless access points, 13 memory sticks, three phones to make calls over the Internet, and networking switches. Some pieces, such as the networking and satellite equipment, are explicitly forbidden in Cuba.

Gross wrote that he smuggled the BGANs in a backpack. He had hoped to fool authorities by taping over the identifying words on the equipment: “Hughes,” the manufacturer, and “Inmarsat,” the company providing the satellite Internet service.

The BGANs were crucial because they provide not only satellite telephone capacity but an Internet signal that can establish a Wi-Fi hotspot for multiple users. The appeal of using satellite Internet connections is that data goes straight up, never passing through government-controlled servers.

There was always the chance of being discovered.

Last year, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee asked about clandestine

methods used to hide the programs and reports that some of them had been penetrated.

“Possible counterintelligence penetration is a known risk in Cuba,” the State Department said in a written response to AP. “Those who carry out our assistance are aware of such risks.”

Gross’ first trip to Cuba ended in early April 2009 with establishment of a communications site in Havana.

He went back later that month and stayed about 10 days while a site was set up in Santiago, Cuba’s second-largest city.

On his third trip, for two weeks in June 2009, Gross traveled to a city in the middle of the island identified by a U.S. official as Camaguey. He rented a car in Havana and drove seven hours rather than risk another encounter with airport authorities.

Gross wrote that BGANs should not be used outside Havana, where there were enough radio frequency devices to hide the emissions.

The report for Gross’s fourth trip, which ended early that August, was marked final and summarized his successes: wireless networks established in three communities; about 325 users; “communications to and from the U.S. have improved and used on a regular basis.” He again concluded the operation was “very risky business.”

Gross would have been fine if he had stopped there.

In late November 2009, however, he went back to Cuba for a fifth time. This time he didn’t return. He was arrested 11 days later.

An additional report was written afterward on the letterhead of Gross’ company. It was prepared with assistance from DAI to fulfill a contract requirement for a summary of his work, and so everyone could get paid, according to officials familiar with the document.

The report said Gross had planned to improve security of the Havana site by installing an “alternative sim card” on the satellite equipment.

The card would mask the signal of the BGAN as it transmitted to a satellite, making it difficult to track where the device was located.

The document concluded that the site’s security had been increased.

It is unclear how DAI confirmed Gross’ work for the report on the final trip, though a document, also on Gross’ company letterhead, states that a representative for Gross contacted the Jewish community in Cuba five times after his arrest.

In a statement at his trial, Gross professed his innocence and apologized.

“I have never, would never and will never purposefully or knowingly do anything personally or professionally to subvert a government,” he said. “I am deeply sorry for being a trusting fool. I was duped. I was used.”

In an interview with AP, his wife, Judy, blamed DAI, the company that sent him to Cuba, for misleading him on the risks. DAI spokesman O’Connor said in a statement that Gross “designed, proposed, and implemented this work” for the company.

Meanwhile, the 62-year-old Gross sits in a military prison hospital. His family says he has lost about 100 pounds (45 kilograms) and they express concern about his health. All the U.S. diplomatic attempts to win his freedom have come up empty and there is no sign that Cuba is prepared to act on appeals for a humanitarian release.

by AP

(Traducido por Granma Internacional)

The Department of State and its destabilizing agency USAID project interventionist operations attempting to use the Internet as an instrument of infiltration and intelligence within Cuban national territory

This has been confirmed on the Cuba Money Project website by U.S. journalist and investigator Tracey Eaton, who published a document identified with these U.S. special service agencies, dated January 11, 2011, which reveals how “ideas” are being solicited from non-governmental organizations and specialized businesses interested in carrying out projects related to the use of the Internet “in Cuba and in other nations.”

The document was published shortly before the trial in Havana of U.S. citizen Alan Philip Gross, working under contract for USAID, for his illegal activities.

Proposals could be submitted through February 7. “The Department of State has not specified – and surely, it won’t – what organizations will implement these projects,” writes Eaton, a former correspondent in Havana for the Dallas Morning News.

Budgets that range from $500,000 to eight million are available for these projects, for a total which could reach $30 million, according to her study.

Moreover, the money comes from the 2010 federal budget and not the next year’s.

The Department of State, in a clarification which appears to refer directly to the Alan Gross case or previous intelligence operations, details that the eligible organizations must “have experience of working in hostile environments.”

The focus of these operations, called web-based circumvention technology, is precisely to avoid and disrupt the usual systems of detection (firewalls and filters) used to protect computers from multiple forms of illicit activity on the web, established by legislation in all countries.

The strategy includes a “training program” to develop a “network of instructors” who would undertake operations with “threatened organizations.” Read: organizations operating illegally.

The organizations and businesses invited to submit proposals must be able to “train bloggers, citizen-journalists and civic organizations” and promote the use of new communication person-to-person technologies and “social networks.”

The program even suggests a “defense fund” for activists with legal problems related to hacking and “cyber-intrusion.”

In addition to Cuba, the request for proposals refers to China, Mayanmar, Iran, Russia and Venezuela, all countries which have refused to submit to U.S. domination, utilizing the usual rhetoric about “helping digital activists” – a well-known strategy for recruiting agents and informants practiced by U.S. intelligence services.

“This document contains exactly what Secretary of State Hillary Clinton recently said in a specialized magazine,” according to the U.S. journalist and professor in her revealing investigation.

p>Raúl Capote, the agent “Daniel” of Cuban State Security, revealed his identity in the chapter “The Invention of a Leader” of the series “The Reasons of Cuba”, today transmitted by national television.

For six years Capote, professor in the University of Pedagogical Sciences in Havana, recruited by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) of the United States in 2006, served his country by fulfilling missions for the Cuban state security.

Capote was agent Daniel for the Cuban counterintelligence and Pablo for the CIA.

The CIA instructed him with collecting several types of information and with promoting, encouraging and inciting groups of right-wing intellectuals through different subversive projects, among them the creation of a literary agency and a virtual library.

According to the testimonial program, the seventh in this series of revelations, this ordinary Cuban, a writer and professor, was studied and contacted by diplomatic personnel of the United States Interests Section (USIS) in Havana.

Personnel from that office began to establish contacts with him beginning in 2004, using as an intermediary the counter-revolutionary Dagoberto Valdés.

The initial links, according to Capotes testimony, had much to do with invitations to cocktails, dinners and lunches.

That procedure, the documentary notes, has been used by the CIA as a way to study persons and establish links with officials who have diplomatic status in the USIS.

In a short time, Capote, who was also a leader in the Hermanos Saíz Association in the province of Cienfuegos, was able to establish relations with the majority of the American diplomats that passed through Havana.

But as the tasks became ever more complex, he received instructions not to make contacts through the Interests Section.

It was then that he began to be attended directly by two U.S. nationals living abroad: Rene Greenwald, a CIA officer who in the 1960s organized terrorist plans against the Cuban revolution and Marc Wachtenheim, a CIA collaborator.

Wachtenheim held, among other posts, that of director of the Cuban Development Initiative of the Pan American Foundation (PADF), based in Washington.

That organization issues the substantial funds made available by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) to carry out its plans of subversion against Cuba.

It was Greenwald himself who recruited Capote in a visit he made to his Havana home, where he asked him directly whether he would agree to work for the United States. From that moment he was asked to sign his reports as “Pablo”.

In almost 40 minutes, the documentary sets out irrefutable facts concerning the priority that U.S. intelligence services accord to the invention of “social leaders” who would respond to the objectives of Washington.

Historically, the CIA has sought to recruit Cuban citizens on and off the island for its work of espionage and subversion.

The documentary emphasizes that as part of this policy, which has greatly intensified during the past few years, intellectuals have become a special target of the interests of the White House.

In the following two Mondays, Cubavision channel will show the last two testimonial programs of the most awaited “Reasons of Cuba” series.

(Cubaminrex – Prensa Latina)

Fidel Castro.- “There was never another people with such sacred things to defend and such deep convictions to fight for …We are deeply convinced that ideas are more powerful than weapons, no matter how sophisticated and powerful these are.”

Voice of man.- In 1987, the CIA war on Cuba was publicly denounced.

Voice of woman.-  The CIA continues its operations with new mechanisms, including the USAID.

Jean-Guy Allard, journalist.- It’s the visible face of the CIA.  It’s a sort of marketing of subversive activities.

Voice of man.-  statement in English

Voice of woman.- Now, a new story comes to light.

Frank Carlos, Robin agent.-  The Interests Section officials invited me to the United States. Maybe they thought that I could become an instrument of change from within the socialist system in my country.

Voice of woman.-  Women, youths, workers and elders have their space in the largest island of the Antilles. However, some try to show the world a different reality of Cuba. They resort to lies and use the new technologies in subversive actions against the people to overthrow the Revolution.

Whoever walks the streets of the historical center of Havana City, close to the Old Square, can see buildings renovated with the efforts of workers in the area.

Voice of man.- Still, there are those who want to offer a different image of the same scenario. Who’s behind the deceit?

Concerning Cuba, the US Agency for International Development (USAID) based in Washington DC, works to create, organize and finance counterrevolution; to fragment society and offer the world a distorted image of the country’s reality. That institution was established in 1961 by Kennedy.

Jean-Guy Allard, journalist.-  Kennedy established the USAID by decree, as a sort of Marshall Plan, the way it had been done in Europe after World War II, to lure Latin America and prevent Latin Americans from succumbing to the temptation of becoming independent from the American empire and cease being the US backyard.

Voice of woman.-  A simple look at the USAID Cuba project allows even skeptics to realize that it is an open interference in a sovereign nation.

(…)

Various US administrations have kept in place mechanisms for sending money and means to some in Cuba to try to destabilize the country. Many plans materialize through officials of the US Interests Section in Havana.

Frank Carlos, Robin agent.- A group of young artists and I decided to create a cultural project to promote their visual art.

We were visited by diplomats from the US Interests Section. They felt this was a very interesting project since it was an independent alternative project not subordinated to the cultural institutions of Cuba. This marked the beginning of a series of meetings and contacts almost on a daily basis.

The result of all these meetings with Mr. Larry Colwin was my recruitment, the main purpose being for me to pull around the Centro Cultural Independiente a group of young Cuban artists who were in need of promotion to try to influence their work and thoughts.  Thus, based on Larry Colwin’s ideas, the center would become a bibliographic benchmark.  I remember that the US Interest Section donated to our center tens of boxes filled with books, magazines and American publications so that the artists could have access to that valuable information which was then published by the American society and contemporary art.  Likewise, Mr. Douglas Barnes came across a very important idea, which was to turn our center into an Internet access center.

Voice of man.- Douglas Matt Barnes had worked in some socialist countries before being assigned to Cuba as a diplomat.  He exerted a negative influence on Cuban nationals who worked in the field of culture and associated himself with counterrevolutionary elements.  He stated that the main goal pursued by his office was the implementation of Track 2 of the Torricelli Act, a strategy that was conceived to subvert the Cuban society.

Frank Carlos, Robin agent.- That was very important and advanced at that moment, because the Internet was hardly known by Cuban artists.  It meant that young people would have direct and first-hand access to the information that was being published by the American journals of the time.  After concluding that work which was quite interesting and profound, the executives of the US Interest Section were convinced that they had to advance one more step with me, so they conveyed to me an invitation to visit the Chicago Cultural Center.  This Center is one of the most important in the United States, and given the relevance of that invitation, they organized a very tight agenda for me. I was supposed to have some meetings and working sessions with different cultural and political personalities and members of the civil society of the United States.

I could mention some examples.  I had very important meetings and working sessions with the Mayor of Chicago, Mr. Richard Daley.  I also met with different Afro-American and Latin-origin Congress people, with whom I had some exchanges.  Through them I learned the way in which politics work inside the United States.  I also met with different Latin organizations for the defense of the race, women, which showed me the way they worked inside the system.

This was a very profound and powerful experience.  The official leaders and executives of the US Interest Section thought this would be a training that at some point might serve as a tool for a change, in case the moment came to make use of it.  In other words, they were fabricating a leader for a possible ideological subversion inside Cuba.

Voice of man.- The work traditionally done by the CIA  is today in the hands of the State Department and other public agencies like the NED (the National Endowment for Democracy), a supposedly independent institution, and the federal USAID.

Voice of man.- Under the USAID umbrella, more than 10,000 short wave radios and over 2 million books, multimedia and information material have been brought to Cuba; all of them conveying a message aimed at changing the political order in the country.

Voice of woman.-  The USAID action against Cuba became more evident in 1995, when, based on the Torricelli Act, President William Clinton made a financial concession to promote aid through acquiescent Non Governmental Organizations (NGOs) to assist individuals and organizations in promoting a non-violent democratic change in Cuba. Its implementation responds to Article 1705, subsection (g) of the abovementioned Torricelli Act.

Voice of man.-  According to its website, the USAID Cuba Program advocates a transition in the country.

Jean-Guy Allard, journalist.- After examining a certain situation, reference is made to a study of the Cuban situation, which literally reads: “The CIA has concluded that its mission is to create the illusion of a popular movement that wins foreign support.” Think of it in today’s terms, helping to create a climate that would permit provocations in support of change toward an open action; an open action can be very serious stuff.

Voice of woman.-  The United States has donated millions to 28 NGOs to distribute books, letters, recorded videos, office equipment and other material. The list would be endless.

The most sophisticated telecommunication technologies are given to those who have joined the contract for subversion; these send all kinds of information and are systematically paid for it.

Mario Eduardo Pérez, communications specialist.- In 1987, the material that the US Special Services gave their agents in our country were especially produced in the CIA labs to facilitate communication between the agents and the center; they used the best technology of those days. Currently, these are commercial equipment, Inmarsat Satellite System equipment.

Voice of woman.- The US presidents change but the US Cuba policy remains the same and today the use of new technologies opens the way to a cyber aggression.

Eva Golinger, journalist.- Now they are revisiting the issue of demonization and isolation, and the efforts to criminalize the Cuban government, the Cuban Revolution, to justify a direct aggression. The media campaign includes saying that people are killed in Cuba or persecuted, that this and that are happening, that there are violations here and there. These are simply tactics and mechanisms aimed at justifying US aggressive actions against Cuba.

Voice of woman.- The current images are irrefutable proof of the way the US implements and constantly supervises its plan to disturb constitutional order in Cuba.

Voices of man.-  Tens of NGOs provide the cover up for actions against Cuba. Many of their plans are made public through their websites in the Internet, although they have many other interests that are not known because they fall under secret chapters devoted to clandestine operations to be carried out inside the country.

Voice of woman.-  One of these organizations is the International Republican Institute, IRI.

Voice of man.-  The International Republican Institute was established in 1983. It is a weapon of the most recalcitrant US rightwing bent on achieving their objectives through hefty campaigns of deceit and manipulation. Its president is John Sydney McCain who has played an outstanding role in the Iraq War and has asked the Pentagon to send more troops. He also has links with Lincoln Diaz-Balart and Ileana Ross Lethinen, both notorious figures of the Miami counterrevolution.

Voice of woman.-  What is the role of the IRI in the USAID Cuba Program?

Current and confidential documents we have acceded show details of the destabilizing project designed by the USAID and implemented by the IRI.

Captain Marian.- The IRI Cuba program has two main objectives: one, to increase what they describe as the free flow of information to and from Cuba; and two, to create alleged NGOs.

Behind this subtle and sugared language, this program hides its true intentions to organize in the country wireless communication networks with possibilities to transmit data through satellites. The establishment of these networks contemplates the introduction in Cuba of several dozens of means, including advanced communication equipment as the B-GAN. According to the program, these networks would be operated by women, youths, black people, and intellectuals who would be trained to use the equipment for obtaining information and transmitting it abroad. This information would be of interest not only for the US government but also for media campaigns against Cuba.

The IRI does not operate directly in Cuba but through other organizations like Solidaridad  Española con Cuba and the Pontis Slovak Foundation.

“Solidaridad  Española con Cuba” has received $618,000 to work against the Island while Pontis has received a little over $100,000. These organizations recruit people who would be traveling to Cuba to introduce those means that the IRI wants to deploy in the Island and also to train those people who the IRI program is interested in recruiting.

Voice of man.-  The US has many interests beyond the Democrats’ or Republicans’ programs. Although many thought that the winds of war and hostile policies would change under Obama, the fact is that in his tenure the delivery of funds has remained constant and unchanged for various campaigns, including subversive actions inside Cuba through the USAID.

Jean-Guy Allard, journalist.- The USAID is involved in dirty work; it deals with infiltration and is aimed at destroying the Cuban society.

Voice of woman.- The IRI has received $11 million from the USAID, NED and the State Department.

In August 2008, the IRI signed with the USAID the current destabilization program against Cuba and received $5 million for its implementation. This funding will cover until August 21, 2010.

Voice of man.- The USAID Cuba Program is more than the use of new technologies for subversion. Among other things, it deals with the preparation and training, even at the US Interests Section, of more than 100 people in informatics and journalism. Additionally, what they describe as ‘international experts’ have traveled to Cuba to train and establish independent NGOs.

The full scholarships for university students are especially significant as they pursue the ideological transformation of the new generations into agents of change capable of implementing the destruction of the socialist program of the Revolution.

Frank Carlos, Robin agent.- The US diplomats noticed the experience I had acquired in those trips and asked me to bring together young artists.

Captain Marian.- At the USAID meeting in Washington DC on May 2008, they emphasized the importance of finding and recruiting organizations and people in third countries capable of introducing in Cuba such means as counterrevolutionary literature, and of training the people they intended to recruit inside the country.

A second important element at that meeting was the USAID’s open guarantee to its collaborators that the content of their activities would remain undisclosed. This is a violation of the US Access to Information Act.

A third significant element is how shamelessly the officials of the American executive raised the possibility of using the travel licenses issued by their government, particularly the humanitarian ones, as a cover-up for these people who would travel to the country to introduce such means and implement their projects in our national territory.

Voice of man.- The USAID, through its Office of Initiatives for Transition ascribed to the Democracy, Conflict and Humanitarian Assistance Bureau, hired the services of the company Creative Associates to set up that program.

The USAID has a longstanding relation with contractors, although it was in 2008 when the US government first used that mechanism in its war on Cuba.

The contractual relation between the USAID and Creative Associates addresses specific aspects to develop a subversive program against Cuba. The most important political aspects include supporting those activities that in various scenarios may help create the conditions for change before, during and immediately after the transition.

The Office of Initiatives for Transition has decided to resort to a contractor, Creative Associates, to help in the development of independent NGOs. The sources of funds will be the USAID and the State Department.

Voice of man.- It’s no accident that similar procedures were applied by the United States in Poland in the 1980s during Reagan’s administration. According to a statement by Republican Congressman Henry Hay published by TIME magazine, they did there everything that needs to be done when you want to destabilize a communist government and strengthen its oppositionists; to put it bluntly, the counterrevolution.

Voice of woman.- It’s clear that it refers to the provision of technical means to the media: Radio Free Europe broadcasts, clandestine propaganda and funding. Organizational methods and advisory to trade unions, cultural associations and other similar activities were implemented in countries of Europe. Currently, the USAID resorts to similar methods and publishes in its website that these relations enable the Cuban partners to learn the lessons of Eastern Europe that led to the dismantling of those governments in the 1990s.

Frank Carlos, Robin agent.- It was quite a notorious exhibition; it conveyed some ideas extrapolated from as far as Poland and exposed there to the intelligentsia of Pinar del Rio. I must say the exhibition was organized with the collaboration of Polish and Czech diplomats and was arranged by Mr. Dagoberto Valdés.

Voice of man.- He is editor of the digital magazine Convivencia that promotes counterrevolutionary ideas. He has close relations with diplomats from Spain, the UK, Germany, Sweden, Poland, the Czech Republic, officials from the US Interests Section and members of the Pan American Development Foundation (PADF), the USAID and the CIA.

Frank Carlos, Robin agent.-  I was asked to organize a meeting between Interests Section officials and Mr. Dagoberto Valdés. This was arranged in a discreet place in Pinar del Rio.

That document published by Granma disclosed and denounced that his real interest was the destruction of our Revolution.

Frank Carlos, Robin agent.- It was right here this place where I had a very peculiar encounter with Mr. Larry Colwin.  One afternoon as the sun went down he turned up here at my house wearing a baseball cap, a T-shirt and shorts.  He was sweating all over and I realized he had come riding a bicycle.  This called my attention, so I asked him why he had come that way and he told me he was being followed by the State Security people who hardly allowed him to move anywhere.

Voice of man.- Larry Colwin worked intensively to influence the cultural environment and the so called independent press in Cuba.  His work was commended by the then Head of the US Interest Section, Vicky Huddleston.  He was linked to covert officers of the CIA local station in Havana.  He reappeared in the year 2004 in Kosovo as a State Department Public Affairs Official assigned to that territory which had been occupied by the NATO troops and worked as a spokesman for his government to the press during the secessionist conflict in Yugoslavia.

Frank Carlos, Robin agent.- After asking me for some water and freshening up he asked me to participate and support him in a very important mission.  This mission was about working as a liaison between the Biennial executives and myself, because the USIS people had virtually no access to the Biennial executives and could not relay to them the information they wanted.

Voice of man.- In their contacts with Frank Carlos, the US Interest Section officials attempted, to no avail, to manipulate a transcendental event of international renown such as the Havana’s Biennial, which was being held for the seventh time in Cuba, an event of great cultural values that has made it possible for broad sectors of our population to enjoy high quality experimental artistic expressions.

Frank Carlos, Robin agent.- The Havana’s Biennial was one of the events where the deep work of the US Interests Section in our country was manifested. The first Secretary of the USIS, Mrs. Vicky Huddleston, organized a project which brought to Havana the best and greatest American gallery owners as guests to the Biennial. But political interests were behind all that. They intended to buy-out our artists and intellectuals offering them exhibitions and promotions in various American galleries, and in return, these artists had to reflect a dissonant or distorted reality. The purpose was to create a significant body of opinion about a fictitious cultural phenomenon, a fabricated phenomenon, intended to tell the world that Cuban intellectuals were against the Revolution and in favor of the imperialists’ ideas.

Captain Marian.- The USAID Cuba Program receives federal funds and provides cover for CIA activities against Cuba through various mechanisms. One of these is the use of organizations like the International Republican Institute, although there are other more direct mechanisms. Such is the case of Frank Carlos who was personally contacted by officials from the USIS in Havana. In the specific case of Frank Carlos, he was given a scholarship as part of his training, to influence him, as they look for leaders in our society. It was a scholarship intended to shape his leadership capabilities, his potential, among other things that the enemy looks for in those people they intend to recruit.

At the end of the day, what this program is seeking is to give a counterrevolutionary orientation to the phenomena inherent to our society, or to fabricate events or leaders to advance the US government interests with regards to Cuba.

Voice of man.- The subversive actions have continued until the year 2011.  The US Interest Section in Havana has been devoted not only to supporting and promoting internal counterrevolution.  It has also tried to expand its influence among artistic and literary circles.  Its objective is no other than undermining the unity of our cultural people around the Revolution.

Voice of woman.- When in his childhood Frank Carlos slid down the green and solitary hills of Las Terrazas, in the Sierra del Rosario, he had never thought of a skyscraper. Neither had he thought that this place of about 5,000 hectares would become, after some decades, a major biosphere reserve and a part of a comprehensive development plan established in the 1960s. He would later realize that smells and friends will stay with him forever.

Dialog between Frank Carlos, Robin agent for Cuban State Security and Margarito Barbosa, founder of the community Las Terrazas, in Pinar del Río

Frank Carlos, Robin agent.- So you know my mother?.

Margarito Barbosa.- Yes, of course.

Frank Carlos, Robin agent.- Good!

Margarito Barbosa.- Where we lived we had nothing, nothing; neither a car nor a doctor.  We had nothing.

Frank Carlos, Robin agent.- It was a very difficult situation.

Margarito Barbosa.- Now we have a polyclinic here, two family doctors, a drugstore, three or four people caring for the patients who go there, and a school, which is something special.

Voice of woman.-  The community of  Las Terrazas is known in Cuba and the world for treasuring mountains and tocororos but also the songs of the ‘natural peasant’ Polo Montañez, and the rural experience of sustainable development.

Frank Carlos, Robin agent.- I wish that the youths are not confused by the media, the Americans and imperialism.  Whether in Europe or the United States, their sole intention is to destroy the Cuban Revolution because the Cuban Revolution shows the world that it’s possible to have a social system that cares for human beings and places them at the centre of the Universe.

Frank Carlos (Robin agent), along with officials from the SINA

Frank Carlos (Robin agent), met Colwin

Frank Carlos (Robin agent) looking at books in "Las Terrazas"

Frank Carlos (Robin agent)

“Well paid lies”, in Las Razones de Cuba, Part 1-2

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“Well paid lies”, in Las Razones de Cuba, Part 2-2

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(En español)

The Maryland company that hired American development worker Alan Gross won more than $2.7 billion in USAID contracts from 2000 to the third quarter of 2009, statistics show.

Development Alternatives Inc., or DAI, sent Gross to Cuba as part of a USAID-financed democracy program. Cuban authorities accused Gross of setting up an illegal satellite communications network and sentenced him on Friday to a 15-year prison term.

DAI, based in Bethesda, raked in $2,720,391,038 in U.S. Agency for International Development contracts from 2000 to 2009, according to FedSpending, which tracks government spending.

The nine companies that followed were:

• CHEMONICS INTERNATIONAL INCORPORATED – $1,647,101,126
• BEARINGPOINT, INC - $994,453,511
• RESEARCH TRIANGLE INSTITUTE - $781,069,203
• BERGER LOUIS GROUP INC - $680,280,412
• COFFEY INTERNATIONAL LTD – $445,549,179
• JOHN SNOW INC (JSI) – $424,500,839
• MACRO INTERNATIONAL INC – $396,961,113
• TETRA TECH, INC. – $340,521,186
• L-3 COMMUNICATIONS HOLDINGS – $278,752,145

Top 10 USAID contractors from 2000 to 2009. Source: FedSpending.org

FederalAssistance.gov says American aid to Cuba focuses on “providing humanitarian assistance to prisoners of conscience and their families, strengthening civil society, supporting issue-based civic action movements and coalitions, and promoting fundamental freedoms, especially the freedom of expression and freedom of the press.”

Chart by ForeignAssistance.gov