Send lawyers, guns and cell phones

Mark Lacey in the 11 December 2009 New York Times:

HAVANA — A United States government contract worker, who was distributing cellphones, laptops and other communications equipment in Cuba on behalf of the Obama administration, has been detained by the authorities here, American officials said Friday.

The officials said the contractor, who works for a company based in the Washington suburbs, was detained Dec. 5. They said the United States Interests Section in Havana was awaiting Cuba’s response to a request for consular access to the man, who was not identified.

The detention and the mysterious circumstances surrounding it threaten to reignite tensions between the countries at a time when both had promised to open new channels of engagement.

There’s no particularly “mysterious circumstances” to speak of. According to Venezuelan researcher and writer, Eva Gollinger, “Development Alternatives, Inc. (DAI), one of the largest US government contractors providing services to the State Department, the Pentagon and the US Agency for International Development (USAID).”  As later confirmed by Cuban sources (and both the New York Times and the Dallas Morning News Havana correspondent, Tracy Eaton), the DAI employee

… was detained while distributing cellular telephones, computers and other communications equipment to Cuban dissident and counterrevolutionary groups that work to promote US agenda on the Caribbean island.

Eaton speculates that DAI (which received the bulk of a 40 million dollar contract from the United States congress last year to “promote transition to democracy”) was distributing satellite telephones, which he says are more an annoyance to the Cuban government than a threat, but Gollinger — having more access to Cuban, Venezuelan and U.S. sources and who has been tracking the money trail of “contractors” like DAI for years, notes that

The pretext of “promoting democracy” is a modern form of CIA subversion tactics, seeking to infiltrate and penetrate civil society groups and provide funding to encourage “regime change” in strategically important nations, such as Venezuela, with governments unwilling to subcomb to US dominance.

Gollinger, of course, is more focused on Venezuela (and DAI activity in that country) but she manages to tie this previously obscure “private contracting agency” to other well-known United States government agencies — the Agency for International Development, the National Endowment for Democracy and, naturally, the Central Intelligence Agency:

Ex CIA officer Phillip Agee affirmed that DAI, USAID and NED “are instruments of the US Embassy and behind these three organizations is the CIA.” The contract between USAID and DAI in Venezuela confirms this fact, “The field representative will maintain close collaboration with other embassy offices in identifying opportunities, selecting partners and ensuring the program remains consistent with US foreign policy.” There is no doubt that “selecting partners” is another term for “recruiting agents” and “consistent with US foreign policy” means “promoting Washington’s interests,” despite issues of sovereignty.

Clearly, all DAI activities are directly coordinated by the US Embassy, a fact which negates the “private” nature of the organization.

The detention of a DAI employee is a very important step to impede destabilization and subversion inside Cuba. This episode also confirms that there has been no change of policy with the Obama Administration towards Cuba — the same tactics of espionage, infiltration and subversion are still being actively employed against one of Washington’s oldest adversaries.

A few thoughts:

There was a strange incident 20 November, when Huffington Post darling and Barack Obama’s on-line correspondent, Yoanni Sanchez and her husband Reinaldo Escobar were roughed up during a twitter and blog organized protest in Havana. The reporting on the incident was spotty (AP, with rather dubious sourcing claims Escobar was beaten by state security agents) and there are several unanswered questions about the protest in general.  Like, whether it really was a spontaneous event, or carefully orchestrated.  The protesters apparently all had computer equipment and cell phones that opponents to the present government in Cuba claim are not available in that country.

Which leads to a second thought.  At the very least, the DAI employee was undercutting the burgeoning capitalist market in electronics within Cuba. Even here in quasi-capitalist Mexico, illegally importing foreign electronics for distribution is likely to get you detained and deported. Is this a case of destroying capitalism in order to save it, as well as espionage and subversion of a sovereign foreign country?

Third:  attention in the United States has been on revelations that Xe — the scumbags formerly known as “Blackwater” — were “contract employees” for the CIA.   Given the Obama Administration’s enthusiasm for such financial arrangements, and the recent rape of Honduran democracy, there is no reason to believe that the United States has changed its foreign policy towards the Americas in any substantial way, and — maybe — is even more bent on subversion than normal.  An unintended consequence is likely to be even greater skepticism towards U.S. government supported “assistance” than already exists.

Fourth:  given that subversion seems to be the United States goverment’s idea of supporting democracy, is it any wonder that Latinobarametro’s annual survey of Latin American political attitudes show such low support for the concept.   The highest support comes from those countries, like Uruguay, where the “subversives” are able to come to power through the ballot box, or those that have thrown USAID and similar programs out (Venezuela and Bolivia).

And with regard to Mexico:

In Mexico,  satisfaction with the way “democracy” functions  is below 40 percent (only Peruvians are less satisfied with democracy) .  At least, officially, the Agency for International Development — precisely because it has historically been a front for CIA subversion — has been kept out of Mexico, but the National Endowment for Democracy has actively supported political organizations here — several of the small ostensibly left-wing parties that backed Vicente Fox in the 2000 election, allowing him to argue he was centerist and not a candidate simply of a right-wing party. Fox’s administration was the only Mexican administration ever to break relations with Cuba, damage now being repaired, and which may lead to better intelligence cooperation between the two countries, both under threat of U.S. subversion.

DAI already has a presence in Mexico.  According to the corporate website, they are involved in export promotion in Bolivia, Ecuador, El Salvador, Haiti, and Mexico.  “Export promotion” sounds innocuous enough, unless it involves (and there’s no reason not to make the assumption) it means forcing countries like Bolivia and Mexico to sell their natural resources to United States interests at less than a fair price.  Or, given the CIA’s history in Central America during the Reagan Administration, maybe those “exports” are of the illegal agricultural variety.  What else they’re up to down this way (besides importing unlicensed electronics) is probably a state secret.