The 500 memos from USINT
By Varela
As we Cubans say, in baseball lingo, the Wikileaks ball bounces and rolls – and it has rolled to Cuba.
No surprise.
In Miami, the Hispanic channels are in limbo, always talking about “Castro dies tomorrow” or presenting programs sponsored by lawyers who specialize in mortgage fraud.
But if you turn on the TV and tune to the English-language channels, they’re full of programs with debate and opinion about the Wikileaks, that Internet site (currently the most famous) that is making such startling revelations about the United States Government.
If the Internet has sites that publish secrets about U.S. entertainers, the most natural thing was a site that reveals the secrets of the government. I think that’s fine.
For example, we now know that the number of dead in Iraq is 10 times greater than announced, and the USG is concealing it. We know that the opposition “pitiyanquis” are clamoring for Chávez’s head. That the American ambassador in Honduras admits that the coup against Zelaya was organized by legislators and magistrates who were suborned in Key Biscayne.
That the gringos are not as good friends of the Saudis as they pretend to be, because they place that country on a level with Cuba. That Obama wore green contact lenses. And so on … a thousand tittle-tattles from the government.
Some say that Wikileaks’ daily revelations damage the security of the United States, while others defend freedom of expression and transparency in government affairs. They even maintain that Wikileaks should exist as a form of restraint against the barbarity of institutions like the Pentagon and the CIA, with their phantom invasions and medieval tortures.
After exposing a lot of dirty deeds by the U.S., throughout the world and especially in the Arab world, Wikileaks reveals that it holds 507 or 509 cables sent by the U.S. Interests Section in Havana (USINT).
At least 150 of those cables or messages were sent between 2009 and 2010. So, the importance they assume for the current relations between Cuba and the United States is phenomenal.
I think that, once the contents of those memos are revealed, the Hispanic TV channels in Miami will pay attention to the Wikileaks scandal. Note that I said they’ll “pay attention.” I don’t mean that they will echo Wikileaks.
This is why.
Certain sources told me about the contents of some of those cables or memos. And even though I have no proof of veracity (and until Wikileaks releases them nobody will know for sure) I am going to share with you the information I have.
The USINT classified its reports and memos in coded abbreviations for national politics, education, medical biology, internal affairs, agriculture, mining, contacts with Congress, carnivals, possible defections, travel, Los Van Van, propaganda, Edmundo, Aruca, Álvaro Fernández – and so on, many key people or social, political and economic topics.
Let me concentrate on the memos that have been decoded about “dissidents” and “opposition bloggers.”
For example, there’s one that deals with the cell phones and laptop computers that “contractor” Alan P. Gross was giving away on Havana street corners in December 2009. It said:
“Make sure he doesn’t give away more than one unit per person, because if he gives out two, the Cuban will sell the extra one.”
Another memo was about Fariñas, the hunger striker who has carried out 24 Events of Fasting in Cuba. It says:
“He should ingest the protein drink sent by NASA, which is designed for astronauts surviving in a hostile environment.”
(Now I understand how Fariñas had the energy to give five press conferences per day, while fasting.)
One of the cables, dated August 2010, refers to me (I admit, modestly), saying:
“Tell Yoani and her husband not to talk to Varela, because he’ll trick them into proving that we pay for their cell phones and they don’t have to worry about running out of minutes.”
Some messages are complicated and open to interpretation, such as this one:
“If Juan Juan goes on strike, he should lose many pounds.”
It’s not clear if the dissident son of the late Comandante Juan Almeida should lose body weight or cash. But – oh, well – a better decipherment will come.
Of course, among those memos you’ll find several that are funny or stupid (you decide), such as the following:
“After Fidel’s ever-more-frequent public appearances, Raúl Castro might defect, out of jealousy. Warn Channel 41 to welcome him in Miami.”
About those who march down the streets, protesting, we read:
“Laura Pollán should be satisfied with only one big straw hat for now. She’s giving the other women a bad image.”
Apropos the Ladies in White, I am told that the coded messages from the USINT reveal where they get their gladioli and white clothes, as well as the Nike shoes, the parasols and other supplies that are so hard to get in ordinary Cuban stores.
I also predict that Wikileaks will be banned in Miami once the 500-some USINT memos are published. The Cuban ultra-rightists like to expose each other’s dirty laundry but are not used to being skewered with the topic of Cuba or finding out how things really are.
