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RICARDO ALARCON ON THE NEW LEGISLATION

We won't let ourselves be destroyed

BY ALDO MADRUGA (Granma International staff writer)

WHEN the United States establishes laws with the express and public purpose of imposing its will on the Cuban people and, on top of that, imprisons and imposes hefty fines on its citizens who fail to comply with them, how could this little Caribbean nation give up the right to combat and legally sanction those persons who, within their own borders, become the accomplices of the aggressor and facilitate and contribute to the asphyxiation of their own country?

This was one of the great truths expressed by Ricardo Alarcón, president of the National Assembly of People's Power, at a Havana press conference convened to discuss the Act for the Protection of National Independence and the Economy, recently approved by that highest legislative body.

Alarcón pointed out that, from the spring of 1959 onward, right after the triumph of the Revolution, the island has been subjected to increasing aggression on the part of the United States. This commenced with covert actions that became steadily more overt, to the point of merging into an intricate web of laws and tracks which unabashedly proclaim before international law a cruel and obsessive intention to change an independent and sovereign nation's social system.

To reach this point, he explained, various U.S. governments have utilized methods and actions that ranged from sabotage, armed bands, threats of warfare and generalized terrorism in all its many forms, to economic sanctions, diplomatic pressure and the outright blackmail of other countries to prevent them from trading with Cuba.

U.S.-MANUFACTURED OPPOSITION

As one aspect of that aggressive arsenal, from 1959 onwards, the United States has been manufacturing and feeding within Cuba what it pompously calls the internal opposition, an indispensable complement to the many counterrevolutionary organizations operating aboard, a process recorded in detail in recently declassified CIA reports.

Speaking to deputies in the National Assembly a few hours prior to the press conference, Alarcón referred to the contents of one of those documents, titled Project Cuba, which details how the U.S. government decided to create an opposition within Cuba and to organize an exiles' movement against the Cuban Revolution. "And the information is there on what they paid out in wages to the so-called heads of that counterrevolution; what they spent on publications, like the magazine Bohemia that they were putting out over there for a period of time; what they spent on radio broadcasts in the early days, in 1959, as has been an increasing practice since then," he added.

Alarcón noted that all those activities have been extended to the legislative level, pointing to the Helms-Burton Act as the latest contribution to that aggressive framework. By means of this legislation, the United States afforded itself the right to sanction and fine enterprises in third countries that fail to comply with its stipulations, as well as to imprison foreign citizens violating it in any part of the world.

The extraterritorial nature of the Helms-Burton Act, which has been roundly condemned by the international community, has forced nations such as Canada, Mexico, other Latin American countries and those in the European Community to adopt different kinds of legal measures to counteract the violation of their respective sovereignties, the National Assembly president added.

Cuba, Alarcón affirmed, has demonstrated great calm and equanimity at the hour of implementing legislation to sanction those persons who, within the country, collaborate with the implantation and objectives of the Helms-Burton Act. The intention to create such legislation was announced over two years ago, when the island's parliament approved the Reaffirmation of National Dignity and Sovereignty Act.

"The real opposition to the Cuban Revolution is the U.S. government. Long years of experience have taught us that the CIA is responsible for manufacturing the opposition in Cuba. We have never known any opposition other than opposition made in the United States."

DEFENDING SOVEREIGNTY

Alarcón confirmed that the new legislation is very clear in its objectives, being directed at those who cooperate in the application of the aforementioned U.S. legislation so as to further its objectives of subverting internal order and handing over the country to the neighboring giant.

The articles embodied in the Act for the Protection of National Independence and the Economy define and penalize actions directed at supporting, furthering or collaborating with the Helms-Burton Act, the blockade and the economic war against Cuba; as well as other actions intended to discredit, harm or endanger the independence, sovereignty and integrity of the Cuban state.

Criminal activities in that context include supplying, seeking or obtaining information which would aid the U.S. government in its plans to asphyxiate and destroy the island.

In response to persistent questions on the so-called relaxation of the blockade, starting with the measures announced by Washington on January 5, Ricardo Alarcón commented that these were pure propaganda, intended to confuse and deceive people while maintaining the same hostile policy, putting into practice other tracks of the monstrous Helms-Burton Act, and making the U.S. people accomplices in the application of this policy.

He added that far from loosening the blockade, five months prior to this maneuver, it was intensified, one example of that being freezing the assets of the non-governmental organization Global Exchange, which had been promoting and facilitating tours to Cuba by U.S. citizens. That agency received an ultimatum from the government to suspend its activities.

"You have to be crazy to believe there's any relaxation," he emphasized, commenting that all these laws and measures taken against are moreover the harshest to have been applied to U.S. citizens themselves in this context.

The leader of the Cuban National Assembly had previously dealt at length in that institution with the extensive body of U.S. legislation that harshly represses any link between a U.S. citizen and a foreign power, or a government, political party, international movement or any persons or foreigners that the state considers its enemies.

GLASS HOUSES

By means of example, Alarcón referred to the 1940 Voorhis Act; the Registration of Foreign Agents Act; and the 1950 Internal Security Act, which "left many workers unemployed, sent a large number of Communists to prison and led to the disappearance of an independent, class-conscious trade union movement in the United States.

"But don't believe that the U.S. restrictions or prohibitions concerning overseas contacts appeared in the framework of the cold war, as a consequence of ideological confrontation, etc.

"George Washington was the first to propose repressive legislation of this nature in the United States, and the Logan Act came into existence in January 200 years ago."

Alarcón added that this isn't a law that has been filed away, a museum piece, explaining how it has evolved over time, while maintaining its essence to date in different versions, as is the norm and tradition within U.S. jurisprudence.

The Cuban leader informed National Assembly delegates that the Logan Act is to be found in the 45th chapter of Title 18: Crimes and Criminal Procedures, which states that any U.S. citizen, wherever he or she may be, who, without authorization from the United States, directly or indirectly establishes or enters into correspondence or any form of contact with a foreign government or official, or an agent of a foreign government, can be fined up to 5000 dollars or serve a prison term of three years.

"From January 1799 to January 1999, the crime of entering into correspondence or any kind of communication with a foreign government or a foreign agent has not gone lightly punished," he argued.

"And why did it occur to George Washington that this law was required?" he asked. "Because there was a gentleman called Logan who dared to write a number of articles in a certain U.S. newspaper expressing the view that it wasn't essential for France and the United States to go to war, which was a problem under discussion at the time.

"So, with the allegation that Mr. Logan had those ideas because of his French friends," he continued, "they invented the crime of entering into correspondence or some kind of contact with persons in foreign countries, which is still standing, because what I read out to you is the text after some minor changes were made to it in 1994."

The essence of that act is also alive, for example, in current Treasury Department regulations concerning the so-called relaxation of the blockade, Alarcón noted.

He read out one section stating that any person subject to U.S. jurisdiction to have traveled to Cuba without the authorization of the Foreign Assets Office of the Treasury Department will automatically be considered as involved in prohibited transactions in relation to such trips. This is also valid in the case of persons invited with all expenses paid, who must demonstrate their innocence in a sworn statement and confirmatory documents.

"According to U.S. newspaper reports," he commented, "approximately 379 citizens in that country have been sanctioned under legislation which restricts any contact with Cuban authorities or Cuban citizens. This is part of the policy of that great nation to the North, the alleged champion of human rights and freedom.

"Cuba has an obligation to confront the blockade's application, in juridical and penal terms, in defense not only of its own sovereignty but also that of other nations that are under threat and, moreover, to support the rights of the American people, which are also being trampled on due to its government's arbitrary laws," the parliamentary leader affirmed.

CUBA KNOWS HOW TO DEFEND ITSELF

Replying to an accredited foreign correspondent as to whether the new legislation is directed against the work of persons in his profession, Alarcón stated that this was not the case, as was abundantly clear from the text, while warning that anyone traveling to any country should be fully aware of the necessity of complying with laws and regulations existing in each place.

He confirmed that the new legal measures are not in contradiction with the articles of the nation's Constitution, which guarantees citizens freedom of speech, assembly and association and other rights, adding that Cubans will continue to have full enjoyment of their constitutional rights, in many cases superior to those in other countries which are only words on paper.

However, the Cuban leader emphasized that the country intends to respond severely, scrupulously and intelligently to those persons who attempt to act as instruments of the aggressive policy of U.S. imperialism, in counter to national independence and the economy.

On the day preceding his meeting with the international press, Ricardo Alarcón made a detailed analysis of how the U.S. authorities perceive reducing Cuban society to chaos - with crime as the centerpiece - as an important aspect of their strategy for destabilizing the country.

In that context, he read out a statement by U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, claiming that, in the case of Cuba, her country was utilizing smart bombs aimed at a desired target, and that her country wishes to create an independent market economy which will expand to the point of a total separation from the state.

The Cuban parliamentarian noted that similar intentions are clearly visible in the so-called relaxation of the blockade, which perceives social indiscipline, civil disobedience and non-recognition of the social order as an excellent breeding ground for curtailing and corroding the state's role within society.

In the same order of things, the enemy is starting to create an image of Cuba as a growing center for drug trafficking, a crime which, Alarcón stated, is light years away from its manifestations in Miami or any other U.S. city.

They are trying to increase the degree of aggression and hostility against Cuba, he explained, and utilize such manifestations as part of its campaign abroad.

Alarcón subsequently gave a detailed and extensive account of how drug trafficking has always been linked to the counterrevolution and the CIA, with a long history that spills out of that U.S. intelligence agency's reports whenever they are declassified and made public, in spite of attempts to conceal identities and situations.

He referred to a current investigation of the U.S. government, on charges of being responsible for the introduction and distribution of narcotics among the poorest and most exploited sectors of national society.

"Yes, it's true that the United States is the highest consumer of drugs, but it's also one of the most significant producers, if not the primary one in some cases, and the only one to have been accused in the media - and accused by a group of people's representatives - of having official responsibility, along with the CIA and, moreover, the Department of Justice," he affirmed.

"It is no exaggeration to say that the fight against crime, against common crime, is an essential aspect of the political battle that we are waging.... We will not allow ourselves to be destroyed, our people have the right to defend themselves," the president of the National Assembly concluded.