The United States citizen Alan Gross was sentenced to fifteen years in prison. The sentencing took place soon after his trial in Havana which proved without any doubt that he was working illegally and under false pretexts in Cuba with the U.S. State Department's USAID program. The latter finances the contract company Development Alternatives, Inc.  Gross worked for this company. His defense even admitted this in his trial. USAID has an explicit goal to destabilize Cuba from within to foment the overthrow of its constitutional order. Gross was found guilty of accusations including acting against the territorial integrity and independence of Cuba as part of this US program.

As soon as the sentence was announced on Saturday, March 12, the establishment media, and US officials both in Washington and at the US Interests Section in Havana, went on the offensive once again in a new disinformation campaign and media war against Cuba. For example, US officials in Havana claimed that Cuba “criminalized what most of the world deems normal, in this case access to information and technology.” (Associated Press, March 12, 2011) Who is Washington to determine Cuba’s policy with regards to information and technology? By making such a declaration, the US officials only confirm that the accusations against Gross are just: he was attempting to establish a parallel information and technological network on the island. This constitutes a flagrant violation of the inalienable right of all nations to self-determination and sovereignty. How would the US react if say China sent an operative into the US to distribute communications equipment to those who the foreign agent deemed favorable to organize an oppositional movement in the US against the American government and in support of China? Furthermore, most of the world including the United States have laws which prohibit this type of activity. And so why not Cuba? Why, in the eyes of the US, does Cuba not have these rights?

I would even say that Cuba, in a manner of speaking, has more right to fight for its self-determination and sovereignty than any other country in the world. This is so because no country on the planet has been the victim of a continuous blockade, of terrorist and subversive activities for more than fifty years. The US is the author of these criminal activities. This is the same US who today is attempting once again to undermine Cuba’s sovereign right to shield itself so that Washington can continue and even increase its activities to overthrow the constitutional order in the

Cuba has the right to defend itself. It is also important that people around the world support this right and oppose US pressures and disinformation against Cuba. Whether one fully supports Cuba’s path of updating its economic socialist model as I do, or if one has other opinions about Cuba, everyone should stand as one person in supporting Cuba’s right to determine its own economic, political and social path.  One should not underestimate the challenge being thrown at Cuba at this time. Any vacillation on this principle would only encourage the US in its offensive against Cuba.

The Cuban Five are unjustly imprisoned for more than twelve years in the US for defending Cuba against terrorist activities which violate in the most flagrant, violent and cruel manner Cuba’s sovereign right to be a nation on its own. This world-wide demand for the freedom of the Cuban Five is thus also part of Cuba’s right to self-determination and sovereignty.

- Arnold August

Canadian. Author/journalist/lecturer. Cuba specialist. Upcoming book- "Cuba: Participatory Democracy and Elections in the 21st Century". Member of the International Committee for the Freedom of the Cuban Five and the "Comité Fabio Di Celmo pour les Cinq of the Table de concertation de solidarité Québec-Cuba".