The so-called Cuban Solidarity Act was introduced May 16 by senators Jesse Helms, Republican of North Carolina, and Joseph Lieberman, Democrat from Connecticut and former running mate of Democratic presidential candidate Albert Gore. It was co-sponsored by an additional four Democrats and five Republicans in the Senate.

Parallel legislation has been introduced in the House of Representatives by Rep. Lincoln Diaz-Balart of Florida, with the backing of 95 other Congressmen.

In the name of promoting "democracy and human rights," the Senate bill would authorize the U.S. president to send cash, telephones, fax machines, and other material to "nongovernmental organizations" and individuals selected by Washington in order to funnel these resources to individuals who oppose the Cuban Revolution.

U.S. president George Bush endorsed the measure. "The policy of our government is not merely to isolate Castro," said Bush May 18, referring to Washington’s four-decade-long economic war against Cuba, "but to actively support those working to bring about democratic change in Cuba." Bush was accompanied by Secretary of State Colin Powell, national security adviser Condoleeza Rice, and leaders of right-wing Cuban-American groups at a White House ceremony.

The $100 million legislation is the biggest effort so far to provide open U.S. government financing to the collection of tiny groupings on the island that oppose the Cuban Revolution. Washington already openly offers such funding through various means. For example, "the U.S. Agency for International Development has been providing support to U.S. groups promoting democracy and human rights," noted Helms in announcing the bill. From the beginning, of course, the U.S. government has funded counterrevolutionary activities inside and outside Cuba.

The measure is intended to complement U.S. measures to tighten the economic squeeze on Cuba, including the Cuban Liberty and Democratic Solidarity Act of 1996 and the Cuban Democracy Act of 1992, also known as the Helms-Burton and Torricelli acts, respectively.  
 
So-called independent librarians
The new legislation lists a series of "independent" entities that would be eligible for U.S. government funding--"independent libraries, independent workers’ rights activists, independent agricultural cooperatives," self-employed individuals, journalists, environmentalists, and others.

The U.S. big-business media has recently highlighted the self-proclaimed "independent libraries" in Cuba as a supposed alternative for Cubans seeking cultural freedom. The literature and websites promoting these entities, however, describe virtually all the so-called librarians as leaders of the "Democratic Solidarity Party," the "Cuban Party of Orthodox Renewal," and other tiny political groups opposed to the revolutionary government, most of whom owe their existence to the U.S. government. The "libraries" are the homes of these pro-U.S. political activists.

Some opponents of the Cuban government, noted Wayne Smith, a former U.S. diplomat who today favors easing Washington’s embargo on Cuba, are nervous that the measure would only discredit further the opposition groups in Cuba as paid agents of the U.S. government.

In a press conference after the new U.S. bill was announced, Cuban foreign minister Felipe Pérez Roque condemned Washington’s four-decade-long effort to weaken and overturn the sovereign government of Cuba. He called the Congressional measure "an effort to turn into law and recognize publicly what has been done until now as interference in the internal affairs of our country."  
 
 
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