"Italy was a very important laboratory for terrorism"

ITALIAN economist Luciano Vasapollo, director of the Communist Network of Italy, has affirmed that "Italy was a very important laboratory for terrorism."

Attending the anti-terrorist forum currently underway at the International Conference Center in Havana, Vasapollo recalled that "when the Italian left was very strong, the US and Italian Secret Services totally directed terrorism in Italy."

"It was terrorism against the conquests of the working class," he stated, specifying that "if you read the history of Italy," you notice that it was when the workers’ movement was moving towards a transformation of society, that there were manifestations of terrorism.

"A terrorism that used fascists and the Mafia but which was completely controlled by the Italian and Yankee Secret Services.

"This fascist terrorism was not just confined to the Italian peninsula," explained the Italian professor of economy. "The Italian and US Secret Services also used fascists from my country in Latin America: in the 1960s and 1970s, Italian terrorists became armed supporters against grassroots organizations and the Argentine class movement.

"Today, military terrorism is part of the imperialist war in Iraq, Afghanistan, and against Cuba," said Vasapollo.

"Cuba represents a new point of view for the progressive movement in Latin America. Today, there exists a revolutionary front with Fidel Castro and Hugo Chávez and there is a progressive front in Latin America – not revolutionary but progressive – in Uruguay, Argentina, and Brazil, and one can see how the situation is developing in Bolivia, Ecuador and Mexico."

The United States is afraid that "its backyard is once again becoming completely uncontrollable."

"In Italy they say that when you have to kill a snake, you have to cut the head off. Cuba represents the head of the whole progressive movement of Latin America," he added.

"The U.S. talks of rogue states: the only rogue state is the United States itself that is making war on humanity.