People are outraged by a recently uncovered scandal implicating the U.S. in another ridiculous covert operation to overthrow the Cuban government. This is the third plot exposed in less than one year.
In this most recent scandal, USAID, the United States International Agency for Development, paid for Cuban rappers to create dissent against the Cuban government. The operation lasted over two years in secret within the hip hop movement but was reportedly a profound failure.
The operation was lead by Serbian contractor Rajko Bozic. He recruited Cubans in the hip hop scene to build a network that could be used by U.S. reactionaries against the Cuban government.
Bozic was himself recruited because of his involvement in a musical movement that was reportedly used against Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic during the U.S.-led breakup of the formerly united Yugoslavia.
Bozic recruited hip hop groups like Los Aldeanos. The duo had a following on the hip hop scene and had at times been critical of the Cuban government. Bozic and his counterrevolutionary funders hoped they could use the group as puppets to dupe Cuban youth into a pro-capitalist platform.
Bozic sent Los Aldeanos to Serbia for political training. He tried to build up their reputation, and organize a festival in a right-wing direction as a platform for the group to spout lies against the Cuban revolution.
According to documents uncovered by the news agency Associated Press, USAID contracted Washington, D.C.-based Creative Associates for the operation. Creative was “paid millions of dollars to undermine Cuba’s communist government,” said the AP. Creative Associates used Bozic and a complicated network of organizations including a front company in Panama and a Lichtenstein bank. The network is reminiscent of an espionage film’s plot, yet Creative Associates claims that the program was not covert.
This network didn’t stop Cuban security officials, used to underhanded U.S. schemes, from quickly learning of the plot and putting a stop to it.
The uncovered documents and Creative Associate’s previous sordid history show that the operation was in fact covert. The secrecy was used to conceal any ties from the hip hop groups to USAID, an organization which would have alerted the Cuban government immediately.
USAID is well known by Latin American and independent or left-wing governments as an organization acting on behalf of U.S. imperialism. It has already been ousted from countries like Bolivia for its operations.
USAID was instituted under the Kennedy administration. Along with the Alliance for Progress and the U.S. Peace Corp, all begun in 1961, these entities were part of the U.S. public strategy to counter the influence of the new Cuban Revolution and rising popular struggles throughout Latin America.
Although USAID has been touted for giving health, disaster and food assistance, the aid is always tied to U.S. political influence and demands.
This scandal is the third uncovered in just one year. In April and August, Liberation News published articles detailing other USAID-led operations. This included the creation of a social media site, “ZunZuneo,” and the hiring of young Latin Americans to enter Cuba posing as tourists and use the guise of HIV prevention seminars. Both operations were aimed at subversion.
The Atlantic commented on this history, writing, “The United States has infamously plotted to shower Cuba with gifts ranging from exploding cigars to conch shells, poisoned wetsuits to milkshakes, in an effort to undermine and end the regimes of Fidel and Raul Castro.”
The imperialist United States will use whatever means at its disposal to overthrow countries. Whether through outright warfare like in a Libya, fomenting civil war in Syria or covert operations, the aim is the same.
This scandal also shows that the recent Obama announcement of changing U.S.- Cuba relations represents the same imperialist agenda via different means. The changes are made by the liberal capitalists who want to destroy Cuban socialism through corporate “pro-democracy” programs.
The blockade against Cuba still stands, and new covert plots are exposed. Meanwhile Cuba provides a revolutionary example in contrast to U.S. capitalism. At these times it’s incumbent upon us here in the heart of imperialism to oppose all forms of U.S. imperialism and to stand with Cuba!
