"Dual-use" technology is the term the imperialists give to facilities that can be used to produce a range of products from vaccines to chemical and biological agents.

Cuban representative Luis Fernández told the press the accusations are a "big lie and a big slander" and noted the Bush administration had produced no evidence to back up its claim.

Bolton strung a series of unrelated facts together to try to bolster his assertion: Cuba has advanced biotechnology research and production facilities; Cuban president Fidel Castro visited countries Washington considers "rogue states" such as Syria and Iran; and Castro made political statements such as during a visit to Iran that the two countries could "bring America to its knees."

Even the New York Times found the claims hard to swallow and noted that "Cuba, in fact, is one of the few developing nations to play a significant role in drug and biotechnology activities." The paper said Cuba has made "new vaccines for its comprehensive immunization program, which is widely admired by scientists and physicians."

Washington, in fact, maintains the largest store of biological and chemical weapons of any country in the world, and unlike the Cuban government, has used them in its imperialist assaults against the peoples of Korea, Vietnam, and Cuba. The U.S. Army stores chemical weapons at eight locations in the United States and the Johnson Atoll in the Pacific Ocean. Munitions include M55 rockets, mines, bombs, and one ton containers of agents.

In 1998 the Clinton administration used similar claims against the government of the Sudan when it launched air strikes against the capital of that country. The government of the Sudan insisted the factory that was bombed produced medical drugs and had nothing to do with chemical weapons.

Since workers and peasants in Cuba toppled the U.S.-backed dictatorship in 1959 and opened up the first socialist revolution in the Americas, Washington has sought to isolate and overturn the conquests working people have achieved on the island. U.S. president John Kennedy decreed a blockade against Cuba in February of 1962, one year after the failed invasion of 1,500 mercenaries armed, trained, and backed by Washington. These actions were part of what has become a more than 40-year war against the Cuban Revolution that has continued through Bolton’s Heritage Foundation speech.  
 
 
Front page (for this issue) | Home | Text-version home