Costa Rica to investigate US anti-Cuba program

Posted on Friday, 08.22.14

Costa Rica to investigate US anti-Cuba program
BY JAVIER CORDOBA
ASSOCIATED PRESS

SAN JOSE, Costa Rica -- The Costa Rican government will investigate
undercover U.S. programs operated from the Central American country and
using its citizens in a ploy to destabilize the government in Cuba, the
director of intelligence and security said Friday.

Mariano Figueres told The Associated Press that the new administration,
which took office May 8, has found no records or information from their
predecessors about the U.S. Agency for International Development
project, which starting in 2009 sent young Venezuelans, Costa Ricans and
Peruvians to Cuba in hopes of stirring opposition to the island's
communist government.

Figueres said Costa Rica's only information came from an Aug. 4
Associated Press article, which said USAID and a contractor, Creative
Associates International, used the cover of health and civic programs,
some operating out of Costa Rica, in hopes of provoking political change
in Cuba. The AP found the program continued even as U.S. officials
privately told contractors to consider suspending travel to Cuba after
the arrest there of contractor Alan Gross, who remains imprisoned after
smuggling in sensitive technology.

"If we can confirm all this, of course we're not going to agree that our
national territory be used to attack a friendly government, regardless
of what ideological side you're on," Figueres said. "It's a matter of
sovereignty and respect ... and we're very alarmed that they used Costa
Rican citizens and put them at risk."

He said that Costa Rica has yet to ask the U.S. about the program and
that any findings would be relayed through the Foreign Ministry.

The travelers worked undercover, often posing as tourists, and traveled
around Cuba 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 United States' push to improve health globally.

But the efforts in Cuba were fraught with incompetence and risk, the 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 participants if they were caught.

In all, nearly a dozen Latin Americans served in the program in Cuba,
for pay as low as $5.41 an hour.

The Obama administration has defended its use of an HIV-prevention
workshop for its Cuban democracy-promotion efforts, but disputed that
the project was a front for political purposes.

The White House is still facing questions about a 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 it.

ZunZuneo also was also devised inside Costa Rica, whose government
raised concerns and asked the U.S. for an explanation of that case as well.

Costa Rica's Frente Amplio leftist party has been the only opposition so
far to respond to the latest news of the travelers' project. It called
on the government of Costa Rica to take a stronger stand against the U.S.

"Given the fact that Costa Rica has declared itself a neutral state,
doing this work with Costa Ricans in Cuba undermines that," Congressman
Gerard Vargas said.

Source: SAN JOSE, Costa Rica: Costa Rica to investigate US anti-Cuba
program - Americas Wires - MiamiHerald.com -
http://www.miamiherald.com/2014/08/22/4304025/costa-rica-to-investigate-us-anti.html