Swedish political activist Jens Aron Modig, who was reportedly dozing
in the passenger seat of the car in which dissidents Oswaldo Paya and Harold Cepero
died in the accident near Bayamo July 22, announced and then canceled a press
conference that was to be held last Friday in Stockholm.
In a segment presented last Friday on the Mesa Redonda program on Cuban
television, there are more statements from Modig, recorded in Cuba, and a few
from Carromero. Modig, speaking clear
English, discusses their political activities, not the accident.
The narration comes very close to asserting that the mission of Modig
and Carromero was financed by the United States government, claiming that Washington
is now undertaking new strategies “involving emissaries from other countries to
diversify the sources of support for subversion and to offer the image that it
is not Washington that pays directly.”
There is no relationship between the origin of a courier and who is paying for his trip.
ReplyDeleteThe advantage of using non cuban americans for this purpose is that Cuban American opposition figures are well watched by Cuban government agents and Cuban consular agents in US territory and denied permission to travel to Cuba.
Moreover, Cuban Americans visiting Cuba who are not opponents of the government are also reluctant to do such work because they are aware that they are well watched by the repressive network while on the island and that the penalty for being caught doing such activities is to be denied future access to the island.
This makes most (some obviously do) non opposition Cuban Americans very reluctant to participate in such activities, since they do not want to compromise themselves by doing courier services for the opposition because this might affect the future possibilities they have to travel to the island to visit their families and friends.
Foreigners, on the other hand, are less well watched abroad and on the island and have less fear of the consequences of being deported.
Spanish speakers of course are preferred because they blend in better with the population and are more aware of the environment and the threats around them and are thus less likely to get caught and to bring back more information when they return.
Cantaclaro
However, all that said, it is a gigantic boner to use well known political figures from European countries such as Modig and Carromero as couriers.
ReplyDeleteThey were probably detected as couriers or foreign oppositon envoys in the Cuban consulates where they applied for their visas and watched from that moment on all throughout their whole visit to the island by the Cuban security services.
The Cuban security services once they identify such easily recognized foreign political opponents as would be tourists obviously let them travel around the island under constant surveillance to see who they contact and what they are up to.
This would be doubly true if they contacted Osvaldo Payá who is at the center of the Ministry of Interiors attention.
There should be no doubt in our minds that during this whole rented automobile trip from Havana to Oriente they were under constant vigilance in the hope of detecting some illegal opposition activities, making mass arrests of numerous Cuban dissidents and submitting them to long prison sentences and deporting the foreign couriers.
Whoever chose Carromero and Modig for this activity ought to have his head examined and to be given another line of work to perform since either he is excesivelly naive or capable of severely underestimating the professional expertise and organization of the Cuban repressive apparatus.
I venture to speculate that the highest officials of the Cuban repressive apparatus were very sorry that the traffic accident occurred and that Carromero, Modig and Paya did not continue their activities since they were probably under constant observation throughout their whole trip and their minders had plans to abort their activities at moment that best suited the Cuban G2.
The whole raucus and public posturing and stupid accusations that surrounds this unfortunate accident only serve to confuse the issue and probably totally miss the point about what was really going on.
I am absolutely certain that there were police cars following the car that had the accident but not with the purpose of creating an accident and murdering any of its occupants but simply to shadow them and to coordinate their arrest with local police officials when their shadowers saw fit to do so.
In the aftermath of the incident, there might be some perverse intention to hold Carromero hostage for a while to embarrass the Spanish conservative Partido Popular to which he belongs (for which the Castro brothers have no lost love) and to discourage the presence of future European opposition couriers.
But this is at best and attempt to make the best possible use of what remains of a much better opportunity that was lost because of a random traffic accident.
The whole enchilada is a great example of the random workings of serendipitous incidents.
I did not go to bed for an hour last night thinking what could have happened if the accident had not occurred.
What possible plans did the G2 have that they allowed this car trip to continue for so long?
If the accident had not happened and the trip had continued what was the G2 planning to do?
Maybe the death of Paya and his Cuban colleague stopped a massive arrest of Cuban opposition figures from taking place.
Who knows what plans the Cuban G2 high command had for the conclusion of the political safari they must have had under close constant observation?
The death of Paya was a huge blow for the Cuban democratic opposition but it might have forestalled a massive arrest and long jail sentences of Cuban opposition figures!
This probably was his unintended last postumal service to the cause he served during his whole life.
Cantaclaro