Revelations by Agent Daniel on the Travelers Program

About the new findings published by the AP involving USAID and its contractor Creative Associates International on shipping secretly to Cuba, since 2009, Latin American youths using the coverage of civic and health programs to promote subversive activities, Juventud Rebelde talks with Raúl Capote, former agent Daniel, Pablo to the CIA; who was in contact with these groups in their early days.

Raúl Capote, writer and university professor, former agent "Daniel" of Cuban security and "Pablo" for the Central Intelligence Agency-the CIA- still keeps fresh in his mind the day–at the end of 2009- on which Rene Greenwald, the CIA official who he worked with, and Marc Wachtenheim, in Cuba for the Pan American Development Foundation, talking about the idea of a project like the one that is being reported now, and asking him to support a group of young people coming to the island to search for and identify political activists and leaders within the universities.

Capote's experience as a CIA agent in the Genesis project, which sought to train "activists" through scholarships abroad and upon return to become leaders within their schools, and even take responsibilities within the UJC and FEU- would serve the interests of these young 'travellers' of the United States Agency for International Development, USAID, with little experience in the subject of Cuba.

"They needed me to give them guidance on how to reach out to our youngsters, who could be recruited and trained with the aim of promoting among young Cubans a new kind of political opposition. This has much to do with Genesis, which was exactly what they wanted, creating a counter revolutionary leadership in Cuba in the intellectual field, which had social bases and support in an important sector of the population.

"But from 2008, when the most important phase of Project Genesis began, they were going to start the scholarship scheme to train" leaders" in European and North American universities - they began to shuffle the idea of "contractors" -actually mercenaries- coming to Cuba -now we know that they could be from Creative Associates International-able to "prepare" college students in the field."

Between 2009 and 2010 some of those people began to arrive in Cuba. "I remember in 2009 a Honduran and a Guatemalan, -you can even see me walking with them in the material Manufacturing a Leader in Reasons of Cuba- and we go to the University of Havana, do a tour, precisely on Student's Day, and see my participation in all the activities they had planned," he recalls.

"It was an ordinary day, as always, a big fiesta; but they wanted to see close up what was happening in the University environment. I made up a story and they fell for it with a set of three totally opposite historical moments, because we were talking about what Student Day meant in Cuba, but also the famous confrontation in Prague of the Czech students against Nazism and that day also marks the fall of socialism in Czechoslovakia, therefore, I put out the idea that many of these youngsters knew that this day was celebrating the fall of socialism in Czechoslovakia and some, influenced by the Genesis project, were celebrating at the same time as Student Day and it had to be done covertly," recalls Capote narrating his adventures.

"The thing that amazed me –and also in my contact with the CIA agents- is how little they know about Cuba, they have such a closed idea of what happens in the country that when they come and see students of the faculty of Philosophy are doing a culinary competition and when they appear in the dining room with a tray as part of the exhibition of dishes with a fried egg, a few peas, they see that as an act of dissidence, rebellious, a challenge to the " regime ", great stuff.

"At another time of that day, recalls Capote, they went to see Clytemnestra, a play prepared by the students, and when the energetic actress screams "Freedom!" that girl who was with me "her hair stood on end" thinking about the possibilities that exist with these students for their purposes. The culmination of that day was when they got to listen to the songs of a group of troubadours, very young, little known in the media and the songs were quite critical about everyday things that happen in their college or Cuban society and that they understood as the beginning of the end of the Cuban Revolution."

For former agent Daniel, that profound ignorance the enemies of Cuba have of our society is what makes them fail: "They confuse the dissent of revolutionaries, human beings by nature, with opposition to the system and that is the great mistake because they have never been able to find that person who might be leader of the change they seek."

Memory and the five CUC

According to documents and stories revealed by the AP, Latin American youths, recruited by USAID to subvert the order of the country from the universities, began arriving in Cuba In 2010,. Among the anecdotes of Raúl Capote is one about the Costa Ricans who wanted direct action at the University of Havana.

"The "ticos" came with a mission to gather information about what was happening in academia and identify who that they could come to and subvert, and even came with flash drives that brought in a manual prepared especially for young Cubans to overthrow the Revolution and the task of going to the University of Havana and distributing the flash memories and giving five CUC to each student, and there I came in to deter them."

The simple arguments of Capote put paid to the idea: "Look, if you arrive and you hand it to the youngsters on the steps they are going to use the money for a fiesta or spend it on the corner and they will delete the manual and eventually that will not get you anywhere. Also it seems very risky and not serious."

Then came a Colombian, who was much more professional and -he told us- linked to the work of USAID and the Pan American Development Foundation visiting the University with me, also with the aim of finding ways to prepare for the arrival of the 'travellers' in Cuba and setting up this type of element.

At that time, agent 'Pablo' of the CIA had precise instructions from his contact, Rene Greenwald, to prepare a group of these Latin American youngsters now known as the 'travellers' program.

"They asked me to keep a low profile, not to raise suspicion, help the "travellers" in everything that could to make their work succeed. They even trained them to know the names of teachers of the Latin American School of Medicine, ELAM, they were given a white coat, a stethoscope to carry in their bag, medical books; everything needed if someone asked them at some point, or anywhere in the country, simply respond that they were foreign students at ELAM and what they sought was with other students."

A different collar?

The clock is ticking against the American government plans to overthrow the Cuban Revolution with unconventional warfare strategies; if before it was with the application of extraterritorial laws and the economic, commercial and financial blockade against Cuba, for some years they have been doing it by means of subversion, but with the same purpose, to overthrow socialist Cuba.

USAID began promoting scholarships abroad, but it was cumbersome to achieve, then they endeavoured to teach online courses in the Interests Section in Havana, later came on site courses to train their opposition leaders in power. Now immigration policy has changed in Cuba and they are beginning to exploit the use of scholarships abroad to prepare their "leaders", but it doesn't change anything in the strategy?

For Raúl Capote "all those plans were hastily driven by the American government in order to have a trained favourable leadership that took power in the time of generational change in Cuba. But to date, they lack the necessary basis, with activists to act on what they call the "generational change" which they're told is very close."

The sum of plans against Cuba continues, but the goal is the same: "The Genesis project in leadership training, the program of 'travellers' reported by AP, ZunZuneo," the Cuban Twitter "; Piramideo, and others, is the same, attempts are part of a grand scheme to overthrow the Cuban Revolution through subversion," he stresses.

In Cuba, the CIA and USAID envoys have only found people looking to make money, and subversion has become a business to benefit personally and often counter-revolution activists are "fighters" for a visa to travel abroad. That's the kind of human material with which they have encountered."

Just before we parted, Raúl Capote, who cannot shake his trained vocation, sums up: "They need another type of person in order to fulfil their plans against Cuba, people with other human qualities, skilled people with a social base, with conviction, and that it is very difficult; precisely because each time you are a leader or a person with that ability that they are looking for, it is a revolutionary, trained in the best values of the nation; people with more qualities in our universities, and those who will never betray their country."