FLASH
Shkruar nga Patrick Oppmann
The CIA director's visit to Havana and discussions of new US measures have added to uncertainty in Cuba, as the country faces deep economic shortages and power outages.
A few days ago, the manager of the building where CNN's Havana office is located knocked on our door with an urgent message: she needed to know if we would be coming to work during the "imminent" US invasion.
Washington's intense pressure campaign against Cuba was already making itself felt in everyday life. Due to the ongoing US oil embargo, the electricity in our offices is cut off several times a day. The worsening economic crisis means there is no fuel for the building's generator, not even toilet paper for the toilets. Every day I pass a giant artificial Christmas tree in the lobby, which no one has bothered to remove.
But now the building manager told me that she had received “orders from above,” like all office buildings in the city, this one too being state-owned, to draw up a plan in the event of an imperialist attack. That is, an American attack. (The Trump administration has not stated that it is planning military operations in Cuba.)
Cubans have lived with the threat of American military intervention for so long that it has become a dark joke. “Cuando vienen los americanos” (when the Americans come) is the expression that Cubans use with their characteristic black humor to say that a long-standing, unsolved problem, and there is no end to it, will one day come to an end.
Now it seems that, one way or another, the Americans are really coming.
The CIA goes to Cuba
The visit to Havana this week by CIA Director John Ratcliffe, on a not-so-secret plane emblazoned with the words "United States of America," shocked many Cubans and was seen as the clearest sign yet that tensions are reaching a critical point.
If for the Cuban government the US is the "Evil Empire", then the head of the CIA, the agency that in the 1960s drew up fantastic plans to kill Fidel Castro with exploding cigars and poisoned diving suits, is Lucifer himself.
In Cuba, there are entire museums dedicated to actions considered CIA interventions against the revolution.
In the photos released by the CIA, the grim heads of Cuban intelligence agencies await their American counterparts in a protocol residence with blackout curtains on the windows and a long table strangely laden with floral decorations. Except for Ratcliffe, the faces of the American intelligence officials have been blurred to conceal their identities.
“Është kulmi i ironisë historike,” tha për CNN Peter Kornbluh, bashkautor i librit Back Channel to Cuba: The Hidden History of Negotiations Between Washington and Havana, lidhur me shfaqjen e papritur të shefit të spiunazhit amerikan në ishullin komunist.
“Misioni i Ratcliffe ishte t’i paraqiste Kubës një ofertë ‘ose pranoje ose vdis’, të cilën teorikisht nuk mund ta refuzojë. Shkencëtarët politikë këtë e quajnë ‘diplomaci e nënshtrimit’,” tha Kornbluh për CNN.
Zyrtarët kubanë deklaruan se gjatë vizitës argumentuan pse ishulli nuk përbën kërcënim për SHBA-në, duke kundërshtuar justifikimin ligjor të administratës Trump për bllokadën e naftës që e ka zhytur vendin në krizë ekonomike, sipas një deklarate të qeverisë kubane.
Por këto argumente duket se ranë në vesh të shurdhër. Ratcliffe akuzoi autoritetet kubane se strehojnë poste dëgjimi ruse dhe kineze në ishull dhe se pengojnë interesat amerikane në rajon, sipas zyrtarëve amerikanë.
Nëse SHBA-ja ka përdorur muajt e fundit një qasje “karrotë dhe shkop” ndaj Kubës, ndihmë ose presion ekonomik, duket se karrota nuk është më në menu.
Vetëm pak orë pasi Ratcliffe u largua nga Havana, dolën informacione se prokurorët federalë amerikanë po kërkonin ngritjen e një aktakuze ndaj ish-presidentit kuban Raul Castro, zyrtarisht në pension, por ende i quajtur në ishull “udhëheqësi i revolucionit” dhe që besohet gjerësisht se vazhdon të ndikojë nga prapaskena.
Shumë emigrantë kubanë në Miami do ta mirëprisnin një aktakuzë ndaj Castros për rolin e tij të dyshuar në rrëzimin në vitin 1996 të dy avionëve të organizatës kubano-amerikane “Brothers to the Rescue”. Një aktakuzë do të hapte rrugën për kapjen dhe gjykimin e mundshëm të Castros, siç ndodhi në Venezuelë në janar me aleatin e Kubës, Nicolas Maduro.
Por çdo veprim kundër Castros, i cili mbush 95 vjeç në qershor dhe tashmë ka vështirësi të ecë pa ndihmën e shoqëruesve dhe nipit të tij truprojë, do të ishte përshkallëzimi përfundimtar i tensioneve tashmë të ndezura, duke çuar me gjasë në ndërprerje të diplomacies, në mos konflikt të hapur.
Kubanezët përgatiten për betejë
Disa zyrtarë kubanë më kanë thënë javët e fundit, mes zërave për një aktakuzë ndaj Castros, se një zhvillim i tillë do të përfundonte negociatat dhe do të hapte rrugën për një ndërhyrje ushtarake, ndaj së cilës ata do të sakrifikonin jetën nëse do të ishte e nevojshme.
“Ne jemi gati,” deklaroi presidenti kuban Miguel Díaz-Canel më 1 Maj, “dhe e them me bindjen më të thellë, të cilën e kam ndarë edhe me familjen time: të japim jetën për revolucionin.”
Mediat shtetërore kubane kanë publikuar pamje të civilëve që marrin trajnim ushtarak si pjesë e asaj që Fidel Castro e quante “lufta e gjithë popullit”, ku qytetarët e armatosur nga qeveria do të zhvillonin një luftë guerile kundër pushtuesve të huaj.
Plani mbështetet më shumë te lufta guerile në stilin e Vietnamit sesa te një përballje klasike mes ushtrive.
Some of the videos show soldiers performing maneuvers with Soviet weapons older than themselves. In one video, an anti-aircraft gun is pulled by an ox.
Although the Cuban armed forces lack modern weapons, military historian Hal Klepak told CNN that the Cuban military could still offer strong resistance to a US ground attack.
“They have repeatedly shown, as we have seen during natural disasters, that they are capable of mobilizing the population and organizing people,” Klepak said.
A population in agony
As conditions on the island worsen and power outages last all day, some Cubans say at least one conflict would end their long suffering.
State hospitals already suffer shortages of many basic medicines. Cubans complain that food spoils in refrigerators during long power outages, and untreated garbage piles up in almost every neighborhood on the island.
The energy minister announced this week that the US blockade of oil has depleted the country's last reserves. New sanctions on companies doing business with Cuba are stopping most maritime shipments to the island, guaranteeing even higher food prices and hunger.
“If half of us die, let them die,” a woman told me during a protest in Havana against power outages, where demonstrators banged pots and pans until the metal buckled under the blows. “At least the other half will live in peace ,” she said.
A successful American attack that would overthrow the Cuban government could bring a wave of political retaliation, said Ada Ferrer, a Cuban-American historian and author of the book Keeper of My Kin: Memoir of an Immigrant Daughter.
"If I think about the periods in Cuban history when there has been political change, when unpopular governments have been overthrown or removed, there has always been violence," she told CNN.
The island's government is advising citizens to prepare for possible unrest.
The Cuban Civil Defense Agency this week distributed "a family guide on how to act during a hypothetical military aggression against Cuba," which recommended, among other things, preparing a bag of non-perishable products.
A neighbor of mine in Havana was skeptical of these war plans.
“They tell us to prepare as if a hurricane is coming,” he told me, adding, “but we are already left with nothing.” /Adapted from CNN /
Lini një Përgjigje