A program of US President Barack Obama’s administration secretly dispatched young Latin Americans to Cuba using the cover of health and civic programs to provoke political change, a clandestine operation that put those foreigners in danger even after a US contractor was hauled away to a Cuban jail.
Beginning as early as October 2009, a project overseen by the US Agency for International Development (USAID) sent Venezuelan, Costa Rican and Peruvian young people to Cuba in hopes of inciting rebellion. The travelers worked undercover, often posing as tourists, and traveled around the island scouting for people they could turn into political activists.
In one case, the workers formed an HIV-prevention workshop that memos called “the perfect excuse” for the program’s political goals — a gambit that could undermine the US’ efforts to improve health globally.
Illustration: Mountain People
However, their efforts were fraught with incompetence and risk, an Associated Press (AP) investigation found: Cuban authorities questioned who was bankrolling the travelers.
The young workers nearly blew their mission to “identify potential social-change actors.” One said he got a paltry, 30-minute seminar on how to evade Cuban intelligence, and there appeared to be no safety net for the inexperienced workers if they were caught.
“Although there is never total certainty, trust that the authorities will not try to harm you physically, only frighten you,” a memo obtained by the AP read. “Remember that the Cuban government prefers to avoid negative media reports abroad, so a beaten foreigner is not convenient for them.”
In all, nearly a dozen Latin Americans served in the program in Cuba, for pay as low as US$5.41 an hour.
The AP found USAID and its contractor, Creative Associates International, continued the program even as US officials privately told their government contractors to consider suspending travel to Cuba after the arrest of contractor Alan Gross, who remains imprisoned after smuggling in sensitive technology.
“We value your safety,” one senior USAID official said in an e-mail.
“The guidance applies to ALL travelers to the island, not just American citizens,” another official said.
The revelations of the USAID program come as the White House faces questions about the once-secret “Cuban Twitter” project, known as ZunZuneo. That program, launched by USAID in 2009 and uncovered by the AP in April, established a primitive social media network under the noses of Cuban officials. USAID’s inspector general is investigating that program, which ended in September 2012.
Officials said USAID launched “discreet” programs like ZunZuneo to increase the flow of information in a country that heavily restricts it. However, the AP’s earlier investigation found ZunZuneo was political in nature and drew in subscribers unaware that the service was paid for by the US government.
“USAID and the Obama administration are committed to supporting the Cuban people’s desire to freely determine their own future,” the agency said in response to written questions from the AP. “USAID works with independent youth groups in Cuba on community service projects, public health, the arts and other opportunities to engage publicly, consistent with democracy programs worldwide.”
In a statement late on Sunday, USAID said the HIV workshop had a dual purpose: It “enabled support for Cuban civil society, while providing a secondary benefit of addressing the desire Cubans expressed for information and training about HIV prevention.”
Creative Associates declined to comment, referring questions to USAID.
Both ZunZuneo and the travelers program were part of a larger, multimillion-dollar effort by USAID to effect change in politically volatile countries, government data show. However, the programs reviewed by the AP did not appear to achieve their goals and operated under an agency known more for its international-aid work than stealthy operations.
The CIA recently pledged to stop using vaccine programs to gather intelligence, such as one in Pakistan that targeted former al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.
The travelers program was launched when newly inaugurated Obama’s administration was talking about a “new beginning” with Cuba after decades of mistrust, raising questions about whether the White House had a coherent policy toward the island nation.
Drawing on documents and interviews worldwide, the AP found the travelers program went to extensive lengths to hide the workers’ activities. They were to communicate in code: “I have a headache” meant they suspected they were being monitored by Cuban authorities; “Your sister is ill” was an order to cut their trip short.
“We worked it so that the government here didn’t know we were traveling to Cuba and helping these groups,” said Yajaira Andrade, a former administrator with a Venezuelan organization. “Because that was when [former Venezuelan president Hugo] Chavez was in power, and if he had known about us — that some Venezuelans were working to stir rebellion — we would have been thrown in jail.”
To evade Cuban authorities, travelers installed innocent-looking content on their laptops to mask sensitive information they were carrying. They also used encrypted memory sticks to hide their files and sent obviously encrypted e-mails using a system that might have drawn suspicion.
It is illegal in Cuba to work with foreign democracy-building programs. Nevertheless, one contract was signed days after Gross’ detention.
“They arrested a contractor from another agency. That could be dangerous,” one Skype message between two project workers would later read. “Thank God he’s not one of ours.”
Documents show Creative Associates approved the use of the travelers’ relatives to carry cash to the Cuban contacts. However, the family members were not to be told that the funds were from the US government.
Hector Baranda, who was a college student in Cuba when he was befriended by a group of traveling Venezuelans, said he was surprised to hear from the AP that they were working for the US government and had profiled him.
“How would you feel if you offered your sincere friendship and received this kind of news?” Baranda asked.
The travelers’ project was paid for under the same pot of federal money that paid for the ZunZuneo program. However, USAID has yet to provide the AP with a complete copy of the Cuban contracts under a Freedom of Information Act request filed more than three months ago.
Former US secretary of state Hillary Rodham Clinton, who was in office during the program, said in her new book Hard Choices that she was pleased “to see change slowly creeping into the country.”
Additional reporting by Hannah Dreier, Peter Orsi, Frank Bajak, Raphael Satter and Monika Mathur
Two sets of economic data released last week by the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) have drawn mixed reactions from the public: One on the nation’s economic performance in the first quarter of the year and the other on Taiwan’s household wealth distribution in 2021. GDP growth for the first quarter was faster than expected, at 6.51 percent year-on-year, an acceleration from the previous quarter’s 4.93 percent and higher than the agency’s February estimate of 5.92 percent. It was also the highest growth since the second quarter of 2021, when the economy expanded 8.07 percent, DGBAS data showed. The growth
In the intricate ballet of geopolitics, names signify more than mere identification: They embody history, culture and sovereignty. The recent decision by China to refer to Arunachal Pradesh as “Tsang Nan” or South Tibet, and to rename Tibet as “Xizang,” is a strategic move that extends beyond cartography into the realm of diplomatic signaling. This op-ed explores the implications of these actions and India’s potential response. Names are potent symbols in international relations, encapsulating the essence of a nation’s stance on territorial disputes. China’s choice to rename regions within Indian territory is not merely a linguistic exercise, but a symbolic assertion
More than seven months into the armed conflict in Gaza, the International Court of Justice ordered Israel to take “immediate and effective measures” to protect Palestinians in Gaza from the risk of genocide following a case brought by South Africa regarding Israel’s breaches of the 1948 Genocide Convention. The international community, including Amnesty International, called for an immediate ceasefire by all parties to prevent further loss of civilian lives and to ensure access to life-saving aid. Several protests have been organized around the world, including at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) and many other universities in the US.
Every day since Oct. 7 last year, the world has watched an unprecedented wave of violence rain down on Israel and the occupied Palestinian Territories — more than 200 days of constant suffering and death in Gaza with just a seven-day pause. Many of us in the American expatriate community in Taiwan have been watching this tragedy unfold in horror. We know we are implicated with every US-made “dumb” bomb dropped on a civilian target and by the diplomatic cover our government gives to the Israeli government, which has only gotten more extreme with such impunity. Meantime, multicultural coalitions of US