Cason still not through with Landau-Valdes
Ex-diplomat rejects allegations of illegality and responsibility for arrest of 75 Cubans
An article in the Miami e-zine Progreso Weekly, accusing James Cason of undiplomatic and perhaps illegal behavior while chief of the U.S. Interests Section in Havana seems to have touched a raw nerve.
In the article, published Sept. 16 (“Muscular diplomacy or law breaking?”) authors Saul Landau and Nelson Valdés alleged that
Cason and Roger Noriega, a former Assistant Secretary of State, had “sought to promote chaos in the island” and “undertook their own initiative to foster instability.”
The aim was “to force the Cuban government to break its limited diplomatic relations with the United States,” the authors wrote. “The effort led to the imprisonment of 75 Cuban citizens who followed the chaos-promotion instructions.”
The article was mentioned in Tracey Eaton’s blog “Along the Malecón,” earning a long response from Cason on Tuesday.
“I am proud of what I did in Havana,” Cason writes to Eaton. “I am no friend of dictatorship of any kind.”
“The real ‘Cuba issue’ is not and never has been U.S. policy but rather the behavior of the murderous, anti-American dictatorship Fidel Castro has imposed on the Cuban people for more than 50 years.”
Cason goes on to deride Landau, Valdés and former U.S. diplomat Wayne Smith while lambasting “the tyrannical nature of the Castro regime” since its inception.
In answer to Landau-Valdés’ argument that conspiracy “to change policy without a constitutional basis [may] constitute a violation of U.S. law,” Cason writes:
“Attempting to criminalize policy differences is neither useful nor effective diplomacy and most certainly is not ‘the American way.'”
To read Landau-Valdés in Progreso Weekly, click here. To read Cason in Along the Malecón, click here.
