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CUBAN LIBRARIES
SOLIDARITY GROUP
January 8, 2001 To: Pat Wand From: Ann C. Sparanese Subject: Hearing on Charges by "Friends of Cuban Libraries" Thank you for inviting
me to speak before your Subcommittee.These notes have been prepared for
your consideration. 1. Who Are the "Friends of Cuban Libraries?" This is how Robert Kent and Jorge Sanguinetty described themselves at the outset of their campaign for Cuban "independent libraries." "Before going to the debate, however, the Friends of Cuban Libraries would like to answer some inquiries from the public regarding the goals and origin of our organization. The Friends of Cuban Libraries, founded on June 1, 1999, is an independent, nonpartisan, nonprofit organization which supports Cuba's independent libraries. We oppose censorship and all other violations of intellectual freedom, as defined by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, regardless of the ideology or leadership of whatever Cuban government is in office. The founders of the organization are Jorge Sanguinetty and Robert Kent. Jorge Sanguinetty resides in Miami. He was the head of Cuba's Department of National Investment Planning before he left the country in 1967. He was later associated with the Brookings Institution and the UN Development Programme. He is the founder and president of Devtech, Inc. He is also a newspaper columnist and a commentator on Radio Marti. Robert Kent is a librarian who lives in New York City. He has visited Cuba many times and has Cuban friends whose viewpoints cover the political spectrum. During his visits to Cuba Robert Kent has assisted Cuban, American, and internationally-based human rights organizations with deliveries of medicines, small sums of money, and other forms of humanitarian aid. On four occasions he has taken books and pamphlets to Cuba for Freedom House and the Center for a Free Cuba, human rights organizations which have received publication grants from the U.S. Agency for International Development; on three occasions his travel expenses were paid wholly or in part by Freedom House or the Center for a Free Cuba. On his last trip to Cuba in February, 1999, Robert Kent was arrested and deported from the country." Many references to
Mr. Sanguinetty appear on the WWW. He speaks widely on the subject of
returning free market enterprise to Cuba. As a commentator on Radio Marti,
Mr. Sanguinetty is or was an employee of the United States government.
Cubans on the island have always listened to Miami radio and even some
TV stations. But Radio Marti is a propaganda station directly controlled
by the most right-wing elements of the Cuban-American exile community,
the Cuban American National Foundation (CANF). It is not a neutral voice
or a bastion of "free expression." It has never aired the voices
of liberal elements of the Cuban-American community who favor the normalization
of relations with Cuba. Mr. Sanguinetty is simply a professional propagandist.
2. What Are the "Independent Libraries"? The "independent libraries" are private book collections in peoples' homes. Mr. Kent and the right-wing Cuban-American propaganda outlets, call them "independent libraries" and even "public libraries." These "independent libraries" are one of a number of "projects" initiated and supported by a virtual entity calling itself "Cubanet"(www.cubanet.org) and an expatriate anti-Castro political entity calling itself the Directorio Revolucionario Democratico Cubano. The Cubanet website describes what the "independent libraries" are, how they got started and who funds and solicits for them. The index page says that the organization exists to "assist [Cuba's] independent sector develop [sic] a civil society…" This is the wording used in both the Torricelli and the Helms Burton Acts, both of which require that the US government finance efforts to subvert the Cuban society in the name of strengthening "civil society." You will see on the "Who We Are" page that Cubanet, located in Hialeah, Florida, is financially supported by the National Endowment for Democracy, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and "private" "anonymous" donors. The "exterior" representative of the "independent libraries" is the Directorio Revoucionario Democratico Cubano, also located in Hialeah. 3. Who are the Independent Librarians? You will read on the pages of Cubanet about the individual "libraries" and their personnel. Not one of the people listed is actually a librarian. Not one has ever been a librarian. Most, however, are leaders or officers of various dissident political parties, such as the Partido Cubano de Renovacion Ortodoxa and the Partido Solidaridad Democratica. This is documented on Cubanet, although Mr. Kent never mentions these party affiliations in his FCL press releases. We know absolutely nothing about the principles, programs or activities of these parties, or why they have been allegedly targeted. We don't know whether their activities are lawful or unlawful under Cuban law. Kent maintains that their activities are solely related to their books - but in reality we have no idea whether this is true and in fact, one of these "librarians" told one of our ALA colleagues that this was not true! By using the terms "beleaguered," "librarians" and the buzzwords "freedom of expression" and "colleagues" Mr. Kent hopes to get the a priori support of librarians who might not look beneath this veneer. After all, isn't this the reason that the subcommittee will be considering their case in the first place? But I wonder if ALA is willing to establish the precedent that all politicians with private book collections who decide to call themselves "librarians," are therefore our "colleagues"? 4. Who funds Cubanet, the Directorio, and the "independent libraries" - and why is this important? A recent book entitled
Psy War Against Cuba by Jon Elliston (Ocean Press, 1999), reveals, using
declassified US government documents, the history of a small piece of
the 40-year-old propaganda war waged by our country against the government
of Cuba. The US has spent hundreds of millions of taxpayers' dollars over
these years to subvert and overthrow the current Cuban government - US
activities have included complete economic embargo, assassinations and
assassination attempts, sabotage, bombings, invasions, and "psyops."
When even the fall of the Soviet Union and the devastation of the Cuban
economy in the early 1990's did not produce the desired effect, the US
embarked on additional, subtler, campaigns to overthrow the Cuban government
from within. One element of this approach is the funneling of monetary
support to dissident groups wherever they can be found, or created. This
includes bringing cash into the country through couriers such as Mr. Kent,
and increasing support to expatriate groups operating inside the US, such
as the Directorio, Cubanet and especially, the Cuban American National
Foundation (CANF) 5. What is CANF? What is its record on free expression, intellectual freedom, and democratic rights here in the USA? The Cuban American
National Foundation (CANF) was founded by Jorge Mas Canosa, a veteran
of the Bay of Pigs invasion and CIA operative, at the behest of the Reagan
administration in 1982. It has become the most wealthy and powerful voice
of the right-wing Cuban community in South Florida and has wielded extraordinary
political power for the last twenty years. It has been connected to violence
and terrorism both in Cuba and in Miami. Its newest tactic, as described
above, is to "support" dissidents in Cuba, including buying
books for "independent" libraries, presumably to support "freedom
of expression" in Cuba. 6. What about free expression and democratic rights in Cuba? There is no doubt
that political dissidence has its consequences in Cuba. Those who want
to overthrow the current socialist government are considered political
problems. Because of the declared and well-funded US policy of seeking
to destabilize Cuba by creating and/or instigating social unrest, the
Cuban people consider these people to be agents of US policy and enemies
of the nation. This view is shared by the former head of the US Interests
Section in Cuba, former Ambassador Wayne Smith who says: "Since 1985,
we have stated publicly that we will encourage and openly finance dissident
and human rights groups in Cuba; this too is in our interest. The United
States isn't financing all those groups - only the ones that are best
know internationally. Those dissidents and human rights groups in Cuba
- that are nothing but a few people - are only important to the extent
that they serve us in a single cause: that of destabilizing Fidel Castro's
regime." 7. How does US policy towards Cuba affect free expression and intellectual freedom for US citizens? For close to forty years, in various permutations, the US has maintained a travel ban, which specifically denies the right of US citizens to visit Cuba outside a small set of "legal" and "licensed" exceptions. This means that if any US citizen (any US librarian, for instance) wants to travel to Cuba, simply to see for her/himself what is going on there (not for any specifically academic or professional purpose), this is against US law and punishable by fines and/or imprisonment. If members of this subcommittee want to visit Cuban libraries, simply to chat with your counterparts and even seek out the "independent librarians" - it is not the Cuban government that is preventing you, it is the US government! This is clearly an issue of intellectual freedom - but not to Mssrs. Kent and Sanguinetty. They are purists. They are only concerned about freedom of expression and intellectual freedom in Cuba - not in the US- and only for Cubans in Cuba, not in Miami! This is utter hypocrisy. Because of this forty-year war against Cuba by the United States, it is not just Cuban citizens who have seen their democratic rights limited, it is US citizens as well. To deliberately ignore this reality reveals the claims and motives of Mr. Kent and Mr. Sanguinetty as deeply suspect. 8. What About the IFLA Report? Why has the FCL been
able to go forward with their accusations? The answer is a report by the
recently formed IFLA -FAIFE (Free Access to Information and Freedom of
Expression) Committee. The sole basis for this action - the first such
action taken by committee - was the Friends of Cuban Libraries allegations,
and several phone conversations with the alleged librarians involved.
No member of FAIFE ever visited these "libraries" or attempted
to. No "investigation" whatsoever was undertaken beyond these
phone contacts. Parts of the report were taken verbatim from the papers
of Mr. Kent and Mr. Sanguinetty. Even the FAIFE report acknowledges the
role of financing by "foreign interests," but it does not seem
to find this point very important. It does not address the issue of who
these "librarians" really are, but accepts FCL's allegations
that they are librarians. The IFLA investigation meets no standards. Nevertheless,
it has bestowed on Mr. Kent's cause a certain legitimacy and has allowed
Kent to go the Canadian Library Association, and other groups, which also
reacted to the IFLA report and did no independent investigation. In an
especially crass but clever move, Kent even managed to get a recently
imprisoned Chinese American librarian to make statements about a situation
about which he has no knowledge. 9. What about our real colleagues - the librarians of Cuba? The charges that have
been spread by Kent and his FCL have deeply offended our real colleagues,
the librarians of Cuba, and our sister library association, ASCUBI. Our
real colleagues are beleaguered by shortages of things as simple as paper,
professional literature, computers and printers - and much of this has
to do with their inability, because of the US blockade, to purchase any
items from US companies (or foreign companies doing business with the
US). Computers cannot be brought to Cuba from the US legally, even as
a donation by licensed travelers. True "friends of Cuban libraries"
would be concerned about these matters. Ann C. Sparanese,MLS
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