‘US employs Trojan horse strategy with Cuba’

'US employs Trojan horse strategy with Cuba'
Published time: July 02, 2015 15:19

The US restoring diplomatic relations with Cuba is a Trojan horse
strategy which is set to mask Washington's intentions to re-colonize
Cuba, tap into its market and return it to neo-colony status, says
political analyst Daniel Shaw.

The US and Cuba could open embassies in each other's capitals as early
as July 20. The move might seem like the start of a new era for the two
countries, but there are still plenty of potential stumbling blocks.
Cuba is demanding that Washington returned the territory it leases for
the Guantanamo Bay military base and detention center. But the US has
said that will not happen.

RT: What kind of relationship does the US hope to develop with Cuba?

Daniel Shaw: If the US was truly sincere about respecting Cuban
sovereignty and human rights, they would first return Guantanamo Bay to
the Cuban people, to the Cuban government where it belongs. It's an
incredible double standard that we would expect any sovereign country to
allow US bases on their territory. We could imagine for a second that
Cuba would insist upon having any type of military base outside of Cuba
in Florida or anywhere in the US. So there are still a number of
stumbling blocks to have truly reciprocal, respectful relations between
the two countries.

RT: Could this decision affect the status of Guantanamo Bay which Cuba
still considers to be illegally occupied?

DS: The Cuban leadership has put that on the table front and center, and
President Obama has refused to even engage that question. The US has
always used this human right discourse and flipped it on its head, when
the US is continually violating the human rights of the Palestinian
people and the Iraqi people and in other countries that are occupied by
the US military. They continually use this against Cuba, Venezuela,
against any 'regime' that doesn't serve their interests.

Cuba, US to open embassies on/after July 20 at end of 50-year stalemate
RT: What are the prospects for lifting the more than 50-year US embargo
on Cuba?

DS: It sounds like the US Congress is not even considering this. The
blockade against the Cuban people has been incredibly severe and cruel.
It's cost the Cuban economy billions of dollars. We believe in the
Answer Coalition movement that the US owes the Cuban people reparations
for these damages. It's amounted to an economic war; it's created a lot
of scarcity which is its very intention. They feel like they can
blockade and suffocate the Cuban people, they create a lot of internal
political strive which will then have a backlash against the Cuban
government. This plan has backfired, so now they are employing their
latest strategy which comes in the form of open friendly diplomatic
relations when it's really just Trojan horse type of strategy trying to
mask their true intentions of re-colonizing Cuba, of tapping into the
Cuban market and returning Cuba to a status that it had before 1959 as a
neo-colony of the US.

RT: But is there at least some good news for the Cuban economy, after
years of isolation?

DS: Certainly there is some good news. It showed that the Cuban people
stood firm when the entire capitalist world is aggressively surrounding
Cuba and wanting to break them, the people went through incredible
sacrifices specifically in 1991 when a special period began. I think as
Americans we can't begin to comprehend what the Cuban people were faced
to endure solely because their government and their representatives
decided on a different political and economic system which the US didn't
approve of. But certainly there is a reason to be very happy but also to
realize that the struggle is not over.

The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely
those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of RT.

Source: 'US employs Trojan horse strategy with Cuba' — RT Op-Edge -
http://rt.com/op-edge/271267-us-cuba-embassies-embargo-guantanamo/