http://www.counterpunch.com/landau02262005.htmlAn Interview with Cuban VP Ricardo Alarcon (Part 3)
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LANDAU: The "dissidents?"
ALARCON: We waited five years. We couldn't afford to be patient anymore, if the US planned to attack, and their threats were real. In late February 2003, millions demonstrated around the world against the impending war. The biggest demonstrations ever in Spanish history occurred in Madrid and European and US cities. In Miami, Florida, however, a pro-war demonstration occurred with a four word, big banner: "Iraq now, Cuba later!"
Cuban American Congresspeople and state officials held that banner. A committee headed by well-known terrorist Orlando Bosch called the demonstration. Bosch promoted it on local radio and published an ad in a Miami paper. So that's the context. Noriega saying hijacking would be tantamount to Cuba attacking the US, others referring to Cuba as being like Saddam Hussein with WMD's.
Landau: So you're connecting the Iraq situation with the "dissidents?"
Alarcon: A paid agent of another government trying to overthrow your government receives a severe sentence in many countries. But only in Cuba does the US have an open policy of promoting that behavior, -- paying, organizing, supporting groups inside our country for the interest of the most powerful country -- also our neighbor.
Cuba faced a national security threat from the US, as it has since the 19th century. The US' Cuba program
, includes secret ops of the CIA, going on for years, and the new policy of promoting and fabricating an opposition inside Cuba working openly through AID. Do you expect to have all that without a legal reaction from Cuba?
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Ricardo Alarcon is Vice President of Cuba and President of its National Assembly.
Saul Landau has made several films in Cuba, FIDEL and THE UNCOMPROMISING REVOLUTION are available through The Cinema Guild in New York City.