8/5/2014
WASHINGTON – The U.S. government used an HIV-prevention program in Cuba to offer Cuban citizens tools to effect political change on the island, the State Department acknowledged Monday.
The initiative “enabled support for Cuban civil society, while providing a secondary benefit of addressing the desires Cubans express for information and training about HIV prevention,” department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said.
She rejected the idea that the initiative, operated by a private contractor on behalf of the U.S. Agency for International Development, was a “secret” program.
This past weekend, U.S. media reported that the government had undertaken the program with young people from Peru, Costa Rica and Venezuela with the aim of promoting political change in Havana.
Although the precise dates involved are not known, young Latin Americans continued to travel to Cuba despite the December 2009 arrest in Havana of USAID subcontractor Alan Gross, who was on the island under a separate initiative.
Gross, now 65, remains behind bars in Cuba.
Several months ago, it was also discovered that USAID had promoted in Cuba a social network via mobile telephones similar to Twitter called ZunZuneo, which was intended to promote dissident ideas and activities among young people on the island.
WASHINGTON – The U.S. government used an HIV-prevention program in Cuba to offer Cuban citizens tools to effect political change on the island, the State Department acknowledged Monday.The initiative “enabled support for Cuban civil society, while providing a secondary benefit of addressing the desires Cubans express for information and training about HIV prevention,” department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said.
She rejected the idea that the initiative, operated by a private contractor on behalf of the U.S. Agency for International Development, was a “secret” program.
This past weekend, U.S. media reported that the government had undertaken the program with young people from Peru, Costa Rica and Venezuela with the aim of promoting political change in Havana.
Although the precise dates involved are not known, young Latin Americans continued to travel to Cuba despite the December 2009 arrest in Havana of USAID subcontractor Alan Gross, who was on the island under a separate initiative.
Gross, now 65, remains behind bars in Cuba.
Several months ago, it was also discovered that USAID had promoted in Cuba a social network via mobile telephones similar to Twitter called ZunZuneo, which was intended to promote dissident ideas and activities among young people on the island.
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