New post to help Castro ‘demise’
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has announced the creation of a new post to help “accelerate the demise” of the Castro regime in Cuba.
Caleb McCarry, a veteran Republican Party activist, was appointed as the Cuba transition co-ordinator.
Ms Rice said for 50 years Fidel Castro had condemned Cubans to a “tragic fate of repression and poverty”.
Mr Castro accuses the US of funding unrest and vowed that dissidents would never bring down his government.
Full: bbc.co.uk
After Role Is Cut, State Dept. Official Quits
WASHINGTON, July 29 – Roger F. Noriega, an outspoken critic of Cuba and Venezuela who has been assistant secretary of state for Latin American affairs for the past two years, announced his resignation on Friday, saying he had served in government long enough.
“I’ve been in government for over 20 years, and this seemed like a good time to make a change,” he said.
He resigned a day after the administration named Caleb McCarry, a Republican Congressional staff member, to a new position: “transition coordinator” for Cuba, with the mission of hastening a transition to democracy there. That took primary responsibility for Cuba, one of Mr. Noriega’s favored issues, away from him.
…Senior State Department officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, have said that they have been upset by Mr. Noriega’s outspoken attacks on Mr. Chávez even while others in the department have been trying to reduce tensions between the United States and Venezuela.
We’ll have to wait and see what wicked mischief is going on here. Time will tell.