Will The Real Terrorist Please Stand Up

Cinema Libre

R1 DVD

This fascinating documentary tries to explain the apparent hatred for Cuba in the U.S. today. It gives a detailed history of Cuba’s progress from dictatorship to some sort of freedom under Castro. It covers successive U.S. governments’ paranoia about Cuba, far more than can be explained by the usual “Communists on our doorstep” rationale. It lists the overt and covert actions against the new Cuba under Castro. They are not the actions of a friendly neighbour, but those of a terrorist host nation. The U.S. actions have understandably raised a lot of hostility against them, hostility now being repeated worldwide. Similar situations have been caused by the U.S. in Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan and soon, possibly, Venezuela. It is not possible to summarise in a couple of pages the wealth of information, interviews and archival footage in this documentary so a brief rundown of its content follows.

American investment was high in Cuba under the dictator Batista. The Mafia moved in to prosper from the hotels, casinos and brothels. Cuban people seemed to be going backwards under Batista. After Castro won the Revolution many American crime-syndicate-run businesses were nationalised and the American and Cuban managers expelled. This gave the first wave of emigrants to Florida.

As Castro settled in there was much nationalisation of business and harassing of businessmen and professionals. This gave a second wave. Most of these voluntary exiles settled in Florida.

At this point Castro was more of a dictator than a Communist, but he appeared to be becoming a threat to the U.S. Eisenhower turned a blind eye to the Cuban exiles who bought WW2 bombers and bombed Havana. He authorised the CIA to invade Cuba and try to start another revolution, this time against Castro. The CIA equipped and trained dissatisfied Cuban exiles for the Bay of Pigs invasion. Cuban Intelligence was well aware of the coming conflict. The landing was a fiasco and Cuba finally broke off ties with America. The U.S put an embargo on Cuba, so Castro turned to Russia for supplies of oil. In this way he found himself classified as a Communist and therefore an enemy of the U.S.

The new U.S. president, Kennedy, denied responsibility or American involvement in the Bay of Pigs invasion but the truth quickly came out. The CIA was then instructed to kill Castro by any means possible. Diplomatic moves to reduce the rising tension failed. It again came to a head when the CIA learned that the Russians were installing missiles in Cuba. It was seen as an aggressive move – the idea that it may be for Cuba’s defence from another U.S.-sponsored invasion wasn’t aired by the non-critical media. U.S. warships started interdicting and searching Russian freighters on their way to Cuba. Another crisis, this time a nuclear war between the U.S and Russia, was averted when the two world powers reached agreement about removal of missiles from Cuba and Turkey. The CIA returned to its plans to assassinate Castro using exiled Cubans.

As the CIA withdrew much official support and as the Cuban exiles became increasingly marginalised they simply turned to crime instead, using their weapons, training and explosives so generously supplied by the CIA for the revolution. The remaining militant Cubans increasingly comprised the radicals and the peace advocates, and the militants started attacking the moderates with bombs. Some bombings were successful. Many exiles had lost touch with their original goal to assassinate Castro. Instead they turned to the current trendy action, hijacking or blowing up Cuban airliners. After the first aircraft was bombed it came out that the CIA knew of the bombing preparations but did not inform Cuban authorities. Action by the terrorists continued against current Cuban diplomats and businessmen in the U.S.

In Cuba, meanwhile, Castro was gradually improving the lot of his people. He was training teachers, doctors and all the other professionals needed in a modern society. Much of this training had to be done in Russia. He broke up many of the big landholdings into smaller farms for the poor rural workers.

Following Ronald Reagan’s election to President the militants tried a new tack. They got their own representatives elected to the government. This gave them a certain legitimacy and official contact with organisations within the government..

Meanwhile in Cuba the economic situation was going bad. With the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 the Cuban economy collapsed completely. A new wave of exiles arrived in the U.S.. Many were economic refugees, but five of them were Cuban Intelligence agents tasked to penetrate the violent exile groups in the U.S. The U.S. finally refused entry to these would-be immigrants and started returning them to Cuba. The humanitarian groups like Brothers To The Rescue who had been helping the refugees was confined to overflying Cuba and dropping leaflets, finally prompting a complaint to the U.S. from Cuba. The U.S. promised it would take the licences of the pilots concerned, but the flights continued. Finally the Cubans shot down two of the aircraft.

This incensed President Clinton, who now found he only had two options left – invade Cuba again or tighten the embargo. He had to opt for the latter. In a carefully-planned media campaign he attempted to cut one of Cuba’s main sources of income, tourism, by announcing that Cuba was now dangerous and everything in Cuba should be regarded as a target. A number of bomb explosions in Havana hotels seemed to support this danger, whether by violent exiles or by exiles employed by the CIA..

Posada Carriles, an exile, admitted responsibility for one bomb and a bomber captured in Cuba identified Carriles as the man who enlisted him to plant another bomb. The U.S. did nothing, but imprisoned the five Cuban Intelligence agents for espionage. They were also blamed for passing intelligence that led to the shooting down of the Brothers To The Rescue planes although the time of the flights was public knowledge. There are accusations that the jury was intimidated into finding them guilty on flimsy evidence. Yet, realistically, all the Cubans were doing was trying to prevent the U.S. from carrying out further terrorist actions against their country. It wasn’t until 2011 that Carriles was finally charged.

Now the U.S has to live with its support of terrorism against Cuba, just as it suffers from its support of the Taliban in Afghanistan. Most Cuban immigrants just want to get on with their lives but there are still people who publicly urge Castro’s assassination. As well as the remaining exiles the “cause” is supported by ethnic radio presenters who spread their poison into younger minds. The brainwashing of the U.S. public has been so thorough it will take generations to die out. So just who are the terrorists? The Cubans, who have never invaded the U.S. and want to stay independent of it? The U.S. government which makes a habit of invading other countries? The Cuban exiles still longing for an out of date lifestyle and willing to use violence to get it? The CIA who pays others to do its dirty work?

There are so many parallels in the world today that it is obvious that the U.S. has not learned a thing from Cuba. It makes a joke of “the war on terror”.

The documentary has no discernable bias and many verifiable facts so I tend to accept its story.

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