U.S. and Cuba Theatrical Shouting Match Rages
HAVANA, Feb. 13, 2006 — -- A four-block area around the U.S. diplomatic mission in Havana has become ground zero for the two countries to vent pent-up hostility and grievances. The theatrical shouting match is pushing always contentious relations toward the breaking point.
A crimson ticker runs through 25 windows on the fifth floor of the six-story building. The 5-foot-high ticker streams news, political statements, and messages blaming everyday problems such as transportation shortages on the country's communist politics and socialist economy.
"Some go around in Mercedes, some in Ladas [a Russian car], but the system forces almost everyone to hitch rides," stated one message, playing on a common complaint that there are few buses and that Cubans need the government's permission to buy a new car.
''When people lose their fear totalitarian regimes lose power," another message stated.
The United States insists it is merely promoting democracy and human rights. Havana charges the diplomatic mission has been turned into "the headquarters of the counterrevolution."
Parliament President Ricardo Alarcon told ABC News the most radical Cuban-Americans had always sought to destroy the few links that existed between the two countries and apparently had the Bush administration's ear.
In 1977, counselor-level Interests Sections were established in Havana to handle visa and other administrative matters between the countries. An immigration agreement that put an end to the mass migration crisis was signed in 1994. The two countries also cooperate in fighting drug trafficking.
"The U.S. representatives here are behaving as if they were seeking to provoke a situation in which they can meet the demands of the most extreme, radical groups in Miami," Alarcon said. "Let's see if they succeed in going all the way to the elimination of diplomatic links. That would be very irresponsible and wrong."
Michael Parmly, the U.S. top diplomat in Havana, said only a government that censored information would be worried about the U.S. electronic messenger.
