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OFFICIAL
STATEMENT
No
country has the right to turn
its diplomatic representation into a general
quarters for subverting constitutional order
•
Cuban government obliged to curtail the movements of
the
head of the U.S. Interests Section within national
territory
• Number of people linked to James Cason’s
conspiratorial activities detained and to be
arraigned
OUR
people have heard with profound indignation, the
public denunciation of repeated provocations by the
head of the U.S. Interests Section in Cuba, clearly
conceived and enacted as part of the current
administration’s hostile and aggressive policy
toward our country, with the close cooperation and
support of the Miami terrorist mafia and the extreme
right in the United States.
Popular
indignation has increased with the cowardly and
cruel vengeful measures taken against our five
compatriots who have been arbitrarily sanctioned
with lengthy and unjust prison terms — in certain
cases to life — far from their country and
families.
Although
the Cuban government goes to great lengths to comply
with the norms and principles regulating diplomatic
relations between states, attempts and will continue
attempting to act with all serenity, offers and will
continue to offer a total guarantee of security for
U.S. diplomatic personnel working in our country —
as it does with the diplomatic corps in general —
it now finds itself obliged to curtail the former’s
movements within our national territory in response
to measures adopted recently by them against our
diplomatic personnel in Washington.
No
matter how powerful, no country has the right to
turn its diplomatic representation into a
organizing, funding general quarters in order to
destabilize and subvert constitutional order,
violate laws, conspire against social development,
sabotage economic relations, threaten security and
destroy the independence of our nation.
Utilizing
diplomatic immunity, franchises and headquarters in
order to openly carry out such activities
constitutes an unwonted and cynical practice. The
norms established within international law for
dealing with those practices will be applied.
The
intentions of the enemies of the Revolution are
evidently to deliver a blow to and affect friendly
relations and ties which, as the truth about our
country and its unmatched work of justice and
humanism has been revealed have been patiently and
progressively created between the people of Cuba and
the United States, in spite of the flood of lies and
slander that have been presented to U.S. and world
public opinion in the midst of an unjust and
despicable merciless, has been presented to U.S. and
world public opinion. We appreciate those relations
with the people of the United States and will
continue to fight for them, no matter what
difficulties might arise.
It is
their shamelessly stated proposition to organize a
mercenary force from within, like the one that
invaded us at the Bay of Pigs on the orders of a
foreign government, or formed armed bands, or killed
teachers and literacy campaigners, attacked vessels,
kidnapped fishermen, engaged in thousands of acts of
sabotage and sowed terror and grief in our country.
This time they have entered disguised as apparently
inoffensive lambs in order to assist that same
government’s criminal policy on our homeland by
means of calumny, justifying the blockade, economic
strangulation and the isolation of our people. In
the face of that proposition, there is not the
slightest doubt that the Revolution will apply, with
all necessary rigor and as the circumstances
warrant, the laws created to defend ourselves from
new and old tactics and strategies against Cuba.
For
these reasons, a few dozen persons directly linked
to the conspiratorial activities headed by James
Cason have been arrested by the relevant authorities
and will be brought to trial.
On
many occasions, the Revolution has been generous and
tolerant in virtue of its immense political strength
and capacity to resist any type of aggression on any
terrain. This has been demonstrated for the last 44
years. From a humanitarian point of view, it was
demonstrated in the case of the Bay of Pigs
mercenaries who only received a few months
imprisonment, the hundreds of counterrevolutionaries
implicated in plans to assassinate the Revolution’s
leaders, and the thousands of individuals who
carried out acts of sabotage and other crimes, all
in the service of the U.S. government. These were
released before completing their sentences and
permitted to travel to and reside in the United
States. Suitably severe laws against serious acts in
complicity with the enemy that wants to destroy us
have not been applied, although they are fully in
force.
But
this should not deceive anyone into thinking that
acts of treason in the service of a foreign power,
endangering our security and the interests of our
heroic homeland will have guaranteed impunity. The
Revolution’s generosity and tolerance should not
be expected when we are witnesses to brutal and
repugnant acts like the cruel and merciless
treatment being meted out to our five heroic
compatriots who risked their lives defending their
people and the U.S. people against terrorism and
death, whilst mercenaries without scruples or
conscience — the vast majority of whom are
hardened slackers — are living by selling off the
portions of the homeland for the empire’s gold
anticipating impunity.
Those
who know the Cuban Revolution know full well that it
has never resorted to bluff, nor is there any force
in the world capable of intimidating it.
March
18, 2003
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