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THE
COUNTERREVOLUTION BUSINESS
The Chameleon
has lost his pen
BY
JEAN-GUY ALLARD-Special for Granma International-
ELIZARDO
Sánchez Santacruz has insisted that it was not a
medal that he was awarded by Colonel Aristides
Gómez in the course of a fraternal encounter after
he had successfully completed various missions as
agent Juana of Cuban State Security. It was a pen,
he reiterated - in some distress - to the foreign
press visiting him in his not so humble residence.
The
publication of the book El Camaján (The
Chameleon) by Arleen Rodríguez and Lázaro Barredo
certainly caused a commotion in the small Havana
colony of foreign journalists, given that their
principal “dissidence” spokesman had been
converted from “a leader of the internal
opposition” to a counterintelligence collaborator.
A harsh blow to the image of the par excellence “dissident”
carefully fabricated over the years by the press,
and whose seriousness was unquestionable.
“Was
it true that he had collaborated with Cuban State
Security?” “And those photos published in the
book?” “Were they true or doctored?”
correspondents asked the “defender of human
rights,” who tremulously, according to one agency,
affirmed that it was all a lie, that in the photos
he was receiving a pen, and that it was all part of
a campaign by the regime to discredit him.
Trusting
in his prestige earned from mercenary tasks,
Sánchez Santacruz convinced himself by degrees that
despite the scandalous nature of the revelations,
his position within the disinformation apparatus
managed by the State Department was safe.
But
what he failed to take into account was the
persistence of the authors of the book, well known
in Cuba on account of their regular presence on the
TV Roundtable on which they set about exposing, with
evidence to hand, the machinations of Otto Reich’s
agents.
On
September 11, in a tightly packed conference,
Rodríguez and Baredo presented the foreign press
with material evidence that Sánchez Santacruz was
unaware of and which demonstrates that once again,
he has manipulated them.
The
two journalists showed a video recording of a secret
meeting in which Sánchez Santacruz received, with
all due protocol, his decoration from the Ministry
of the Interior.
Most
people in the small auditorium at the International
Press Center on 23rd Street had to repress a smile
on seeing the best-known champion of the “dissidence”
movement making a proposal to the Security officer
with whom he was meeting… and who responded to him
by stressing the success of his past missions and
announcing that he was to be awarded, there and
then, with a prestigious decoration.
Sánchez
Santacruz, visibly pleased and honored, stood up,
listened to the national anthem and the reading of
the document accompanying the distinction; in other
words Order 654 of the chief of the division dealing
with counterrevolutionary acts. Then the medal
appears in its little box and is pinned to his
shirt.
WHERE
IS THE PEN?
The
pen? What pen? Of course - and the video reveals it
with total clarity - there never was any pen… but
there was a medal, and a warm embrace that the
Chameleon received with pleasure.
The
small ceremony, on October 28, 1998, was preceded by
a conversation in the course of which agent Juana
proposed that he should be advised when certain
counterrevolutionaries were to be released in order
to extend his prestige among the
counterrevolutionary groups, by making them believe
he influenced the decision.
The
veteran “opposition leader” was clearly
calculating the impact of that invented “influence”
on his sponsors in Washington, Miami and Madrid,
from whom he received several tens of thousands of
dollars over the years, a sum reflected in the high
standard of living of a man who insisted in being
called the President, even by his own wife.
The
video shows his concentration on the words of the
counterintelligence officer, who stressed the “veracity”
of the reports handed over on other currently
detained “dissidents” and collaborators with the
U.S. Interests Section (USIS), and also on various
USIS visitors later discovered to be CIA agents.
Opening
the press conference and before the screening of the
video, Lázaro Baredo spoke of certain declarations
“roundly denying statements we made in the book.”
The
journalist recalled that in an EFE news agency
cable, “Elizardo described the whole thing as a
fabrication and also stated that the book was a
total disgrace and part of a campaign to try and
silence the opposition.”
Sánchez
assured EFE that the “photos reproduced in the
book do not correspond with the presentation of a
medal but of a pen.”
The
Chameleon also denied his collaboration in a
tremulous voice to AP, and insisted that Colonel
Gómez gave him a pen. However, ”he failed to
explain the subsequent celebration.”
The
British Reuters agency noted that the veteran
dissident categorically denied that he had been an
agent, which he qualified as a “colossal lie.”
Nonetheless, he did admit that to having talks with
intelligence officers, but declared that he had
never been decorated.
He
said that “he didn’t remember very well: I think
they were giving me a pen and then there was an
exchange of greetings,” and defied the Cuban
government to present evidence.”
Arleen
Rodríguez pointed to the language used by certain
news agencies “that tried to discredit us by
describing us as official journalists” and went on
to quote another favorite “dissident” of certain
correspondents, who described the book as a “disgrace”,
while Vladimir Roca - another “personal friend”
of Sánchez Santacruz - said that accusations have
to be proved “with hard evidence and not with
books.”
El
Nuevo Herald,
the tenor of the anti-Cuban choir, repeated that in
its August 19 edition.
Rodríguez
also commented how Encuentro, a Spanish mafia
publication, asked: “why wasn’t what happened
filmed?”
Richard
Boucher, State Department spokesman, stated that the
U.S. government has no reason to doubt Sánchez
Santacruz, whom Washington views as an opposition
leader, while The Miami Herald spoke of total
backing for the media star of the “dissidents”
converted into a patented liar.
The
video presented by Rodríguez and Baredo evidently
provoked surprise among some foreign journalists
present at the press conference by offering the most
“convincing” evidence demanded.
Each
agency duly received its copy of the video.
Rodríguez and Baredo state that they have more “convincing”
evidence… if it should be required.
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