THE COUNTERREVOLUTION BUSINESS

                   BY JEAN-GUY ALLARD-Special for Granma International-

                   ELIZARDO Sánchez Santacruz has insisted that it was not a medal that he
                   was awarded by Colonel Aristides Gómez in the course of a fraternal
                   encounter after he had successfully completed various missions as agent
                   Juana of Cuban State Security. It was a pen, he reiterated - in some
                   distress - to the foreign press visiting him in his not so humble residence.

                   The publication of the book El Camaján (The Chameleon) by Arleen Rodríguez
                   and Lázaro Barredo certainly caused a commotion in the small Havana colony of
                   foreign journalists, given that their principal “dissidence” spokesman had
                   been converted from “a leader of the internal opposition” to a counterintelligence
                   collaborator. A harsh blow to the image of the par excellence
                   “dissident” carefully fabricated over the years by the press, and whose
                   seriousness was unquestionable.

                   “Was it true that he had collaborated with Cuban State Security?” “And
                   those photos published in the book?” “Were they true or doctored?”
                   correspondents asked the “defender of human rights,” who tremulously,
                   according to one agency, affirmed that it was all a lie, that in the photos he
                   was receiving a pen, and that it was all part of a campaign by the regime
                   to discredit him.

                   Trusting in his prestige earned from mercenary tasks, Sánchez Santacruz
                   convinced himself by degrees that despite the scandalous nature of the
                   revelations, his position within the disinformation apparatus managed by
                   the State Department was safe.

                   But what he failed to take into account was the persistence of the authors
                   of the book, well known in Cuba on account of their regular presence on
                   the TV Roundtable on which they set about exposing, with evidence to
                   hand, the machinations of Otto Reich’s agents.

                   On September 11, in a tightly packed conference, Rodríguez and Baredo
                   presented the foreign press with material evidence that Sánchez
                   Santacruz was unaware of and which demonstrates that once again, he has
                   manipulated them.

                   The two journalists showed a video recording of a secret meeting in which
                   Sánchez Santacruz received, with all due protocol, his decoration from the
                   Ministry of the Interior.

                   Most people in the small auditorium at the International Press Center on
                   23rd Street had to repress a smile on seeing the best-known champion of
                   the “dissidence” movement making a proposal to the Security officer with
                   whom he was meeting… and who responded to him by stressing the
                   success of his past missions and announcing that he was to be awarded,
                   there and then, with a prestigious decoration.

                   Sánchez Santacruz, visibly pleased and honored, stood up, listened to the
                   national anthem and the reading of the document accompanying the
                   distinction; in other words Order 654 of the chief of the division dealing
                   with counterrevolutionary acts. Then the medal appears in its little box
                   and is pinned to his shirt.

                   WHERE IS THE PEN?

                   The pen? What pen? Of course - and the video reveals it with total clarity
                   - there never was any pen… but there was a medal, and a warm embrace
                   that the Chameleon received with pleasure.

                   The small ceremony, on October 28, 1998, was preceded by a
                   conversation in the course of which agent Juana proposed that he should
                   be advised when certain counterrevolutionaries were to be released in
                   order to extend his prestige among the counterrevolutionary groups, by
                   making them believe he influenced the decision.

                   The veteran “opposition leader” was clearly calculating the impact of that
                   invented “influence” on his sponsors in Washington, Miami and Madrid,
                   from whom he received several tens of thousands of dollars over the
                   years, a sum reflected in the high standard of living of a man who insisted
                   in being called the President, even by his own wife.

                   The video shows his concentration on the words of the counterintelligence
                   officer, who stressed the “veracity” of the reports handed over on other
                   currently detained “dissidents” and collaborators with the U.S. Interests
                   Section (USIS), and also on various USIS visitors later discovered to be
                   CIA agents.

                   Opening the press conference and before the screening of the video,
                   Lázaro Baredo spoke of certain declarations “roundly denying statements
                   we made in the book.”

                   The journalist recalled that in an EFE news agency cable, “Elizardo
                   described the whole thing as a fabrication and also stated that the book
                   was a total disgrace and part of a campaign to try and silence the
                   opposition.”

                   Sánchez assured EFE that the “photos reproduced in the book do not
                   correspond with the presentation of a medal but of a pen.”

                   The Chameleon also denied his collaboration in a tremulous voice to AP,
                   and insisted that Colonel Gómez gave him a pen. However, ”he failed to
                   explain the subsequent celebration.”

                   The British Reuters agency noted that the veteran dissident categorically
                   denied that he had been an agent, which he qualified as a “colossal lie.”
                   Nonetheless, he did admit that to having talks with intelligence officers,
                   but declared that he had never been decorated.

                   He said that “he didn’t remember very well: I think they were giving me a
                   pen and then there was an exchange of greetings,” and defied the Cuban
                   government to present evidence.”

                   Arleen Rodríguez pointed to the language used by certain news agencies
                   “that tried to discredit us by describing us as official journalists” and went
                   on to quote another favorite “dissident” of certain correspondents, who
                   described the book as a “disgrace”, while Vladimir Roca - another
                   “personal friend” of Sánchez Santacruz - said that accusations have to be
                   proved “with hard evidence and not with books.”

                   El Nuevo Herald, the tenor of the anti-Cuban choir, repeated that in its
                   August 19 edition.

                   Rodríguez also commented how Encuentro, a Spanish mafia publication,
                   asked: “why wasn’t what happened filmed?”

                   Richard Boucher, State Department spokesman, stated that the U.S.
                   government has no reason to doubt Sánchez Santacruz, whom Washington
                   views as an opposition leader, while The Miami Herald spoke of total
                   backing for the media star of the “dissidents” converted into a patented
                   liar.

                   The video presented by Rodríguez and Baredo evidently provoked
                   surprise among some foreign journalists present at the press conference
                   by offering the most “convincing” evidence demanded.

                   Each agency duly received its copy of the video. Rodríguez and Baredo
                   state that they have more “convincing” evidence… if it should be required.