On X, the FM rejected the resurfacing of such imputations, which, he said, are a “total fallacy” on the part of a government that usually meddles in the political affairs of many countries. “US slander against #Cuba surfaces again. This time with accusation, without foundation or pieces of evidence, that we interfere in that country’s electoral processes,” Rodriguez stressed on X.
“The US government persists in defamations. It tries to justify its criminal policy of economic aggression. We reject the illegal U.S. practice of meddling in the internal affairs of others,” Deputy Foreign Minister Carlos Fernandez de Cossio posted on X.
However, contrary to what they try to attribute to Cuba, there is a long and documented history of U.S. interference in electoral processes in other countries, particularly when candidates and governments fall outside the standards demanded by Washington.
Just in Latin America and the Caribbean, the list would be endless: the overthrow of Jacobo Arbenz in Guatemala (1954), the organization of the mercenary invasion against Cuba (1961), the fascist military coup in Chile (1973) and the invasion of Grenada (1983), are some examples that have preceded the coups given to Manuel Zelaya in Honduras; Fernando Lugo in Paraguay and Dilma Rousseff in Brazil.
The United States further sowed and sustained several dictators in pre-revolutionary Cuba; in the Dominican Republic, Rafael Leonidas Trujillo (1930-1961), and Francois Duvalier (1957-1971), in Haiti.
It is interesting -and already outside the region- that in 1947, the United States forced the Italian government to exclude all communists and socialists from the first post-war cabinet in exchange for economic aid to rebuild Europe that was destroyed by World War II.
But quite naturally, on May 8, 2018, James Robert Clapper Jr, former head of the National Security Agency admitted and justified Washington’s electoral interference in at least 80 countries, a figure mentioned by some scholars.
“When we have tried to manipulate or influence the elections of other nations, or even when we have wanted to overthrow their governments, we have done so with the best interests of the people of those countries in mind,” Clapper Jr. told a judiciary committee.
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