Following the release of '14ymedio' the new online newspaper published by the infamous internationally funded blogger Yoani Sanchez, RATB reposts an opinion article from La Alborada 27 May
For more information on Yoani Sanchez see Salim Lamrani's excellent '40 questions for Yoani Sanchez'
Vice-president Joe Biden gave Yoani Sanchez an interview (exclusive!) in time for her new venture's debut. Or so it's said: she once published what she said was an on-line interview with President Barack Obama, but it turned out that both questions and answers were prepared at the US Interests Section in Havana and subsequently attributed to Obama, who never was interviewed by Sanchez. The Biden interview may have followed the same route. It's hard to believe the internet maven.
It's not fresh news, either, because, according to Sanchez, the interview took place in April, at least 28 days ago, while she was in Washington. She was saving the article for yesterday.
Media such as CNN, reporting on the alleged Biden interview, cited the prior Obama non-interview in line with the official story:
President Barack Obama also answered questions from Sánchez in 2009, which she posted to her blog.
In that interview, Obama responded to a question regarding allegations that his administration was attempting to undermine Cuban authority, throwing cold water on the notion that the United States had plans to invade the island.
"I can give you the simplest of answers, and that answer is no. Just as President Obama said," Biden said when asked about those concerns. "These accusations are a relic of the distant past. They are being used to strike fear into the hearts of decent Cubans who might otherwise focus on problems closer to home."
It seems that the same question was posed to Biden, who answered as above. This was a case of putting up a straw man in order to knock it down, or lobbing a softball at a batter who is waiting for it. The US is not planning at this time to invade the island, because the outraged blowback from Latin America/Caribbean and the world would be immense. It may have plans for later, if its agents such as Alan Gross, and its destabilization plots, ever achieve their goals, but for now it is proceeding with the mentioned plots. It's a time for soft power, not for all the options that perennially remain on the table. An occupation has not been a declared option since the Bush/Rice commission to overthrow the Cuban government, a relic of the not-too-distant past.
Sanchez did have hopes, and maybe still does, for an outcome in Cuba like what took place in Libya, as she confided in a post of some time ago. She might like to see the reconstruction of Old Havana turned into cinders.
The Biden exchange, real or not, served to repeat the official line of today:
"I cannot emphasize enough that Cuba’s continued detention of Alan Gross is a major impediment to improved relations between the United States and Cuba," Biden said, according to a translation provided by his office.
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"We can be as creative as we like with our policy, but Alan’s case remains at the top of our list for resolution. He deserves to come home, and should be released on humanitarian grounds," Biden said.
That means that the US expects Cuba to free a US agent who operated secretly pursuant to a plan to create off-the-radar communications in preparation for eventually calling out enough demonstrators that the US could argue that intervention was in order.
At least that was the first petulant demand made by the US: free Gross, or you can forget better relations. When that did not work, it based its demand on humanitarian grounds. In a different context, that would not be unreasonable. Gross is elderly and has health problems, and members of his family are also ill. But the real-world context includes these two factors: 1) A government that has been trying for more than half a century to overthrow another government is not in a position to ask for favors; and 2) The US is ignoring that it has three prisoners --out of the original Cuban Five-- in prison. One of them is serving two consecutive life sentences, plus additional years, for no reason other than to placate the contras in Miami, including a number of terrorists sheltered by the US.
The three Cubans have families, too, and Cuba has reasons to ask that they be returned on humanitarian grounds. The US has said so far that it will not negotiate an exchange, as Biden has now reiterated.
Sanchez is quite possibly the richest woman in Cuba. She makes a good living and travels, leaving Cuba and returning at will. She can expect that the US media will continue to support her without question, while the US remains wedded to wing-bat plans such as ZunZuneo.
She has her own views on the Cuban Five. This is what she sent directly to the Nuevo Herald:
“At no moment in Brazil did I ask for the five members of the Cuban Interior Ministry to be free. I was using irony to express my views that if they’re free right now, the government would save millions of dollars that it is now paying in this campaign that has lasted for 15 years."