Cuban President Raul Castro dashed hopes on Sunday for warmer ties with the US, angrily accusing the administration of US President Barack Obama of trying to help dissidents undermine the region’s sole one-party communist state.
“The enemy is as active as ever,” Castro charged in his annual address to the National Assembly.
“In recent weeks, we have witnessed an increasing number of efforts by the new [US] administration with that objective,” the 77-year-old president added. “The fostering of open and covert subversion against Cuba is on the rise.”
A US man arrested in Cuba on Dec. 5 “was involved in illegally supplying sophisticated means of communications to ‘civil society’ groups hoping to coalesce against our people,” Castro said, claiming Washington earmarked US$55 million to support Cuban dissidents.
“The fact is that the instruments of aggressive policy against Cuba remain intact; the US government has not given up on destroying the revolution and on producing a change in our social and economic regime,” he said.
Castro also said Obama’s administration has been waging a months-long diplomatic campaign to convince the international community that repression is on the rise in Cuba, even organizing and instigating opposition street protests.
CONTRACT WORKER
The New York Times has reported that the detainee, who has not been publicly identified, was a US government contract worker employed by Development Alternatives, Inc. (DAI) of Bethesda, Maryland just outside Washington.
The newspaper said he was arrested while distributing cellphones, laptops and communications equipment in Cuba.
DAI, which is regularly contracted by the US Agency for International Development (USAID), has confirmed one of its employees was arrested, but provided no additional details, citing privacy concerns.
The US is waiting for Cuba to make good on its offer to grant consular access to the detained US citizen, US State Department spokesman Philip Crowley said yesterday.
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