Home | Business News | Browse by Publication | N | NotiCen: Central American & Caribbean Affairs

U.S. LAUNCHES NEW BARRAGE OF ACCUSATIONS AGAINST CUBA.

Article Excerpt
The administration of US President George W. Bush has begun accusing Cuba of forging an anti-US alliance with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. This is a somewhat altered version of claims persistently put out by Chavez's opposition in Venezuela, which alleges he is plotting to drag the country into communism under the tutelage of President Fidel Castro (see NotiSur, 2003-10-17).

Administration charges go well beyond Cuba to suggest that an axis is forming among Argentina, Brazil, Cuba, and Venezuela to interfere in the internal affairs of Bolivia and Ecuador and to otherwise destabilize the entire region. In support of this new Latin American "axis of evil" charge, recent press reports, citing unnamed "administration advisors," suggest that Venezuelan oil money might have been used to depose Bolivian President Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada in October 2003 (see NotiSur, 2003-10-24) and to influence politics in Ecuador. No hard evidence to support these claims was cited in these reports.

Now another of those mystery news cycles has begun, in which sensational claims are made such as the certainty of Castro's imminent death or a Castro plan to unleash a mass exodus of Cuban boat people to Florida with the resulting US naval blockade of the island (see NotiCen, 2003-06-05).

Since early January, the current news cycle has focused on...

View this article FREE - Now for a Limited Time, try Goliath Business News
Free for 3 Days!