A US proposal aimed at ensuring a transition to US-style democracy on the communist-run island after President Fidel Castro is gone is a sinister plan for regime change, Cuban officials said on Wednesday.
"This is a true threat of aggression," Cuban parliament speaker Ricardo Alarcon said, holding up the new proposal by the US Commission for Assistance to a Free Cuba during a state television appearance outlining the plan's "sinister pretenses."
Appearing with other officials and state-media journalists on the evening Round Table program, Alarcon said the proposal mentions other recommendations that are contained in a separate, classified report.
"We have the right to think the worst," he said of the classified section. "We have the right to think about an attempt to assassinate Fidel, or a war."
The US government has not officially rolled out the proposal, which initially was expected to be released as early as May.
But a document said to be an early version of the plan presented to US President George W. Bush has been circulating in Washington, Miami and Havana since last week.
Alarcon expressed frustration that Bush had not made an announcement about the plan, which reportedly still awaited his approval.
Rogelio Polanco, editor of the communist youth daily Juventud Rebelde, noted the plan calls for US$80 million to empower civil society, which he said translated into "empowering the internal subversion in Cuba."
Bush appointed the Commission for Assistance to a Free Cuba in late 2003.
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