USA Hindered AP Probe into Subversive Plans against Cuba

An investigation into US subversive actions against Cuba was seriously hindered due to US Government slowness in implementing the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), AP news agency revealed today.

A probe carried out by AP in 2014 showed that the US Agency for International Development (Usaid) spent millions of USD of the taxpayers to create a program similar to Twitter, called Zunzuneo, aimed at sobverting internal order in Cuba, but it was a failed attempt.

The plan consisted in creating a communication network to win popularity among Cuban young people and then lead them to carry out anti-government actions, supported by secret shell companies and funded from foreign banks.

After two years of intensive efforts, last week AP got a series of partly censored e-mails about such programs aimed at encouraging changes in Cuba in line with Washington's interests.

The US Government did not have copies of the documents that served as a basis for the investigation, but its officials feared that if they asked the contractors to deliver the copies, even more details about those actions, described by some legislators as rash, silly and irresponsible, would be made public.

According to AP, when the US authorities were forced to face the repercusions of the Cuban secret Twitter, they had a factor to their favor: the slowness in implementing the FOIA regulations.

AP had previously won access to thousands of leaked documents about the program against Cuba, conducted by Creative Associates International, a Washington-based private contractor.

After the revelations were known, the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations ordered Usaid on April 10, 2014 to deliver all the documents about Zunzuneo, and started a thorough revision.

Meanwhile, the Cuban Foreign Ministry declared then that the intentions to create this program for destabilizing purposes showed Washington's persistence in its subversive programs against the Island.