US Strangling of Cuba Normalized by News Media
Millions of people targeted by an illegal blockade... how is this acceptable?
The US has now officially charged former Cuban president Raúl Castro with murder and destruction of an airplane, referring to a 1996 incident. That year, two small planes from the Cuban-exile group "Brothers to the Rescue" were downed after multiple violations of Cuban airspace. The group was founded by José Basulto, who had a history of violence deployed against Cuba. Basulto was a veteran of the infamous Bay of Pigs invasion who was involved in a 1961 plot to bomb a missile base in Havana and an attack on the Hornedo de Rosita hotel in 1962.
This context for the 1996 incident for which Castro, who was defence minister of Cuba at the time, is indicted has not been reported by any legacy news outlet in Canada.
Scott Martin
Rather, the charges against Castro are presented with some purported validity. The live thread from CBC News on the indictment compares the charges to those against Venezuela's former president Nicolás Maduro before his illegal kidnapping. It also points out Trump and the US have pressured regime change on "the country's communist government." In a proper article on the indictment, the experts quoted are Peter Kornbluh, "Cuba specialist with the U.S. National Security Archive at George Washington University" and the former US attorney for the Southern District of Florida during the 1996 incident.
Despite the fact that Kornbluh is co-author of the book "Back Channel to Cuba," where information from Brothers to the Rescue was sourced from in the introductory paragraph, none of this context is mentioned in CBC News.
Most coverage in Canadian news media includes wire stories, with little original reporting.
In CTV News, the message mainly obscures the US role unless mentioned by Cuban figures. While running two separate wire service articles on Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel where the headline describes a warning of a "bloodbath," other coverage includes a wire service article of Díaz-Canel pointing out lifting the blockade is an easier way to help than aid. Power-outages are backed with descriptions of protests and the ever-present labelling of "the island's communist government." Trump's claims that "there won't be escalation" are also put in the headlines without qualification. Almost certainly planted stories about a "drone threat" from Cuba, which are only to be deployed in response to a US military attack, are put in headlines as though it is a one-way threat from the island.
Meanwhile the Toronto Star ran an Associated Press article explaining why Cuba's independence on May 20, 1902 isn't celebrated. Due to the Platt Agreement, which gave the US an official right to intervene in Cuban affairs, it was not actually independent on that day. Naturally, anticommunist Cubans do celebrate May 20.
Scott Martin
Since fuel and oil supplies have nearly entirely depleted due to the US blockade, blackouts of up to 20 hours a day have been reported, with hospitals being drained of most of their utility. In articles by CBC News that compares the treatment of Cuba and the indictment of Castro to that of Venezuela and Maduro, the kidnapping of a foreign head of state is not accurately described as illegal.
Conversely, in an article describing the head of the CIA sent to Cuba on diplomatic missions, there is an entire section with the subhead "Not necessarily unusual." No mention is made in the article of the Bay of Pigs or the subsequent Operation Mongoose, that terrorized Cuba with clandestine terror campaigns. The US' chief of clandestine activities abroad is visiting Cuba while the country is being strangled, and CBC News highlights a section of the article with an attitude of dismissal.
Despite the fact that Canada and Canadians have enjoyed a fruitful relationship with Cuba, Prime Minister Mark Carney has mostly stayed silent on the attacks levied against the island nation. As I have written before, Cuba is a complex country with a deep, impactful humanity. Instead of this, behind every article describing the people as ruled by a tyrannical "communist" government, is an alignment with imperialist ambitions. The blockades and targeting by the US that is causing this misery is either omitted or downplayed. Historical interventions in Cuba's affairs by the US are barely mentioned at all.
Canadian politicians have largely ignored the Cuban plight. Though the NDP have revealed statements in support of Cuba, there is a cultivated ignorance by the political class as whole. Our news media reflects that. In their language, they describe warfare on their economics, energy grid and citizens in neutral terms that omit their true impact. In every way but open military aggression, the US is attempting to destroy the country. Reporting these actions in a way that downplays their severity should be called what it is: complicity.
