The Yanquis, the Rappers, and the Communist Regime

How not to overthrow a dictatorship, if you give a damn
about the people you’re supposedly helping:

In early 2009, a U.S.
government contractor sent a Serbian music promoter to Cuba with
these covert marching orders: Recruit one of Havana’s most
notorious rappers to spark a youth movement against the
government.

In communist Cuba, it was a project that could have landed Rajko
Bozic in jail. So when he made his pitch to team up with hip hop
artist Aldo Rodriguez, Bozic left out the part about his true
intentions—or that he was working for the U.S. Agency for
International Development….

Documents show USAID repeatedly put innocent Cubans and its own
operatives in jeopardy despite warning signs. Authorities detained
or interrogated musicians or USAID operatives at least six times,
often confiscating their computers and thumb drives, which in some
cases contained material linking them to USAID.

Instead of sparking a democratic revolution, it compromised an
authentic source of protest that had produced some of the
hardest-hitting grassroots criticism since Fidel Castro took power
in 1959, an AP investigation found.

That’s from the Associated Press’s
latest story about Washington’s efforts to spark a people-power
revolt in Cuba. Like the AP’s previous reports on the subject, it’s
an object lesson in how outside “help” can cripple rather than
strengthen a dissident cause.

For more on Washington’s poorly conceived activities in Cuba, go

here. For more on rebellious Cuban music, go
here. And just to show that these issues are not new, here‘s an
11-year-old AP dispatch about USAID’s activities on the island, in
which “some veteran activists say the money only gives Fidel
Castro’s government ammunition to persecute dissidents, such as the
75 sentenced in recent days for allegedly conspiring with the
United States.”