The Bush administration is itching to launch a regime change in Cuba, writes Faiza Rady "American President, George W Bush, is definitely isolated when it comes to imposing sanctions against Cuba," Cuban Ambassador to Cairo Luis E Marisy Figueredo said during a press conference last Wednesday. "Even the US Congress, which is controlled by the Bush administration's own Republican Party rejected the travel restrictions recently slapped on US nationals traveling to Cuba by a vote of 227 to 188." As if to confirm the ambassador's words the US Senate followed suit on Friday, voting 59 to 36 to bar the use of government funds to enforce the proposed travel restrictions. According to the new travel regulations published in the Federal Register in March, the US government believes that its citizens have improperly abused their study travel licences to Cuba to pursue "beaches and nightlife" rather than "learning". The senators were not impressed. "For 40 years we've said 'sanctions', and for 40 years it hasn't worked," Republican Senator Mike Enzi said in reference to the perrenial US embargo against Cuba, which has failed to overthrow the Cuban regime -- serving instead to pauperise the people of Cuba. However, American travellers to Cuba are not yet off the hook. Never one to be swayed easily, especially when it comes to courting the hard-line ultra- rightist Cuban voting block in Florida, Bush threatened to overrule the vexing Senate and House votes by using his presidential veto. "This extremist administration really wants to invade and then annex Cuba," explained the Cuban ambassador. "They are working on tightening the terms of the embargo, believing that this will cause the Cuban people to overthrow Fidel Castro and his government. But they will not be able to achieve what 10 administrations have failed to achieve over a period of 44 years." Besides having subjected the Caribbean island to the longest embargo in history, the US stands on record for having engineered countless terror acts over the years in Cuba. In the words of political writer and activist Noam Chomsky, "US terrorist actions and illegal economic warfare has been going on against Cuba since 1959." There is sufficient evidence around to show that the Bush administration has been scheming to create a situation where the invasion of Cuba becomes "legal" according to the substantial corpus of American anti-Cuba legislation. A case in point is the Cuban Adjustment Act which grants any Cuban, reaching the US shores illegally, immediate and uncontested alien residency status, a privilege denied to most other nationals. "In fact," commented Figueredo, "millions of citizens of other countries, who also land in the US in the same way, are hunted down, incarcerated and deported." Politically explosive by definition, the Cuban Adjustment Act incites Cubans to leave for the US by any and all means possible -- regardless of Cuban immigration requirements. No reflection on the Cuban Revolution, the pressure to emigrate to a rich so-called First World country exists throughout the Latin American continent and poor Southern nations. In an attempt to diffuse tensions and allow their citizens to freely go to the US, the Cuban government negotiated an agreement with the US in 1995 stipulating that the Americans would issue Cubans a minimum yearly quota of 20,000 visas. While the Clinton administration stood by its commitment, the Bush administration was quick to renege on the agreement. Since last year Cubans have been granted less than 1,000 immigration visas in total. Coupled with the terms of the Cuban Adjustment Act and the strong pressure to emigrate towards the considerably richer and greener pastures of Florida, the denial of visas has the potential of creating a mass exodus of Cuban "boat people" fleeing to the US. This in itself would create a pretext for the US to attack and invade -- no importune questions asked by Congress, or anybody else -- since the Helms-Burton Law allows the US to define an uncontrolled migratory flow from Cuba to US as an "act of aggression" to which it may respond in kind. Not one to beat much around the bush, the US president clearly articulated his plans for "effecting regime change in Cuba". In a 10 October address to the extreme right-wing leadership of the Cuban exile community in the idyllic setting of the Rose Garden of the White House, Bush explained that the Cuban regime "will not change by its own choice", thus requiring strong action from the US. He further stressed that although "the struggle for freedom in Cuba continues", in the meantime it is imperative to liberate as many people as possible by launching "an aggressive campaign to inform Cubans of safer routes to reach the US". This anti-Cuba campaign was prepared in advance. Since 9/11, Bush branded the tiny Caribbean island as a "rogue state" and a "threat to US national security". More post-9/11 hype was to follow. US Undersecretary of State John Bolton described Cuba -- like Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria -- as harbouring terrorists and seeking to acquire that ubiquitous commodity without which any "rogue state" is unworthy of it's name -- biological weapons. Thus the Bush administration set the stage for an invasion and possible annexation of the stubbornly independent socialist island. The recipe is elegantly simple, similar to the long list of US machinations against the Cuban Revolution. First create the right conditions for an "uncontrolled" mass flight from Cuba by denying visas, then flood the island with contra-type propaganda, and last -- but not least -- pour good money into vessels and other exodus paraphernalia. To this effect an often used conduit for undercover funds, the USAID, is channelling millions of American tax dollars to US-trained contras in Cuba, reported the British Guardian newspaper. While the Bush administration busily schemes to engineer a contra takeover of the island, the noose of the 42-year- old embargo is continuing to throttle the Cuban economy. According to the American Association for World Health and the American Public Health Association, the embargo has caused a significant deterioration in Cuba's food production and health care sectors. The Cuban government estimates that the direct economic damages caused to Cuba by the US embargo since its institution would exceed 70 billion dollars, a figure that translates into tremendous human suffering. In this context it is remarkable that Cuba's educational and health indicators remain the best in Latin America -- a testament to the accomplishments of the Cuban Revolution. "Cuba si", say the islanders.
