Cuba calls US political work on island shameful

Aug 5, 5:27 PM EDT

Cuba calls US political work on island shameful

By DESMOND BUTLER, JACK GILLUM and PETER ORSI
Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Cuban government on Tuesday called on Washington to halt hostile "covert" operations against it in the wake of the recent disclosure that an Obama administration program secretly sent young Latin Americans to Cuba on politically motivated missions.

A top Cuban diplomatic official, Josefina Vidal, said an Associated Press investigation this week reveals that the U.S. government "has not desisted in its hostile and interventionist plans against Cuba, which seek to create destabilizing situations to provoke changes in our political order."

Vidal demanded the U.S. "cease, once and for all, all its subversive, illegal and covert actions against Cuba" in a statement emailed to The Associated Press. She noted the U.S. government has "shamelessly acknowledged" running the program.

The project, funded and overseen by the U.S. Agency for International Development, deployed nearly a dozen young people from Latin America to Cuba to recruit political activists under the guise of health and civic projects. AP's investigation found the operation put the foreigners in danger not long after an American contractor was arrested in the communist island nation for doing secretive work.

More:
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_CUBA_SECRET_INFILTRATION?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2014-08-05-17-27-31