WASHINGTON, August 5 (RIA Novosti) – Washington denied accusations of launching a “cover up program” in Cuba, saying its main objective was to promote democracy and access to information among the population, US State Department spokesperson Jen Psaki told journalists at a briefing.
“Congress as you know funds democracy programs in Cuba to empower Cubans to access more information and straightening civil society. The workshop you referring to abled support to support for Cuban civil society to providing benefits of addressing the desires Cubans expressed for information and training about HIV prevention,” Psaki said, commenting on the recent media reports, which claimed that starting October 2009 the United States has been sending Latin American teenagers to Cuba to fuel anti-government sentiment among local residents.
According to the reports, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) hired a company Creative Associates International to send teenagers to Cuban colleges and seminars on HIV prevention. The main goal of the initiative was allegedly recruiting young Cubans in order to turn them into political activists.
Psaki claimed, however, that the program in question “was promoting civil society engagement and was allowing people to have access to information which they can not otherwise have”. The spokesperson assured journalists that “there was not a cover up program. Straingtening the civil society, impowering civil society to be more cpable that was the focus of this program,” she concluded.
