US sees repression ‘worsening in Cuba’

by Guy Dinmore on FT 27 Febrary 2007

The Bush administration official whose job is to hasten the end of communism in Cuba on Tuesday claimed the Castro government was stepping up its internal repression in response to an increasingly active opposition movement.

Caleb McCarry, the US State Department’s Cuba transition co-ordinator, cited “independent Cuban journalists” as saying civil society had become more active, especially in the provinces, since Fidel Castro temporarily passed power to his brother Raúl last July.

US steps up planning for a Cuba without Castro

By Guy Dinmore in Washington

Published: October 31 2005

US planning for Cuba’s “transition” after the demise of Fidel Castro has entered a new stage, with a special office for reconstruction inside the US State Department preparing for the “day after”, when Washington will try to back a democratic government in Havana.

The inter-agency effort, which also involves the Defense Department, recognises that the Cuba transition may not go peacefully and that the US may have to launch a nation-building exercise.

One rogue state down, six still to go

By Guy Dinmore in Washington
June 19 2003
Financial Times

Iraq has been promoted out of the league, but six other countries are still listed. How the US deals with these “rogue” states has become a battlefield of its own within the Bush administration, although there are signs diplomacy may prevail over military might in one or two cases. Advertisement

Iran, Libya, North Korea, Cuba, Sudan and Syria are still officially designated as “state sponsors of terrorism”, and thus subject to varying degrees of US sanctions.