Disinfo: Recent riots in Cuba were unconventional warfare

Summary

The riots that shook several Cuban cities on 11 July were instigated by an intense media campaign, with prominence on social networks, and directed from the United States, as part of the unconventional warfare against the island. Despite having been presented to international public opinion as "peaceful" and "spontaneous" demonstrations, even as a "social outbreak", the events that occurred in Cuba on 11 July point, according to the evidence, to another chapter of an unconventional war. It is also known as "hybrid war", "colour revolutions", "fourth-generation war", "soft coup", as part of a template applied by Washington in several countries of Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Latin America. They follow the script established by the US in unconventional warfare manuals. Just to mention one of those manuals, it is enough to read the training handbook TC 18-01 of the US Special Operations Forces, published in November 2010 under the title ‘Unconventional Warfare’, which can shed a light on the stages that this subversive process takes against nations that do not obey the dictates of Washington.

Disproof

Recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative against popular protests, aiming to frame them as destabilisation attempts orchestrated from abroad.

There is no evidence of any external hand behind the mobilisation in Cuba in July 2021, which reached unprecedented participation for Cuban standards. The discontent of the Cuban population can be attributed to many factors, including tight control of most economic sectors and the growing depression caused by the coronavirus pandemic, which also caused an unprecedented health crisis. This also happened against a background of political contestation led by the so-called San Isidro Movement, made up of young, well-known intellectuals and artists, who can’t be easily labelled as directed or orchestrated from abroad, as the Cuban government has done with previous dissident expressions.

In this context, when protests organised in social media erupted almost simultaneously in two different locations of the island (San Antonio de los Baños, near Havana, and Palma Soriano, in the province of Santiago) on 11 July 2021, they quickly expanded throughout the country. Attempts to explain these mobilisations as the result of a foreign-orchestrated campaign in social media have been debunked in some cases as false and preposterous, as is the case of this video shown in Cuban television in which a doctor claims to have received several SMS from the US calling him to protest. As researchers pointed, the screen shows that the message was sent on 16 July 2021, five days after the protests, and from a number from Canada, not the US.

Contrary to the claim, the TC 18-01 Unconventional Warfare handbook of the US Special Operations Forces is not a template for destabilisation through massive mobilisations, but a manual to establish or support resistance movements around a guerrilla force (see page 6), which is clearly not the case here, nor in many other situations depicted by pro-Kremlin disinformation as “unconventional and hybrid warfare” or “colour revolutions” when they are actually popular protests.

See other examples in our database, such as claims that the US has extended its influence in Russia and former Warsaw Pact countries by orchestrating colour revolutions, that the West organised a coup in Belarus in the name of democracy, that Poland-based “undesirable” Russian NGOs organise courses on mass riots and drug use, that there is a Western media campaign against Nicaragua, or that the US is funding a colour revolution in Mexico.

publication/media

  • Reported in: Issue 253
  • DATE OF PUBLICATION: 19/07/2021
  • Article language(s) Spanish
  • Countries and/or Regions discussed in the disinformation: Cuba, US
  • Keywords: Hybrid war, Colour revolutions, Coup, Eastern Europe, Middle East
see more

Disinfo: Lithuania is violating human rights

Russians and Russian-speaking people are being discriminated in Lithuania. It is the result of Russophobia. Vilnius is also not trying to solve the problem of the spread of Neo-Nazism and anti-Semitism in the country. Lithuania is limiting the right of expression of opinion. A real independent judiciary does not exist in Lithuania.

Disproof

Recurring disinformation about Russophobia in Lithuania, manipulating on the topics of human rights.

Lithuania is a democratic country that protects the rule of law. The most recent Freedom House report qualifies Lithuania as a democracy with an aggregate freedom score of 90 out of 100. "Lithuania is a democracy in which political rights and civil liberties are generally respected," the report says. I.e. in the category of “Freedom of Expression and Belief”, Lithuania got a maximum score (4 points) in sectors of religion and academic freedom, as well as in the sector of individual freedom to express personal views on political and other topics. In the sector of freedom and independence of media, Lithuania got 3 points (from 4).

Disinfo: The current leaders of Moldova are the puppets of Soros and the West

Moldova comes under complete Western external control after the defeat of Dodon. Despite the fact that Moldova is an independent country with certain state attributes, in reality, it is not a subject of politics but an object of influence from external forces. The Party of “Action and Solidarity” was created by the "chicken from the Soros nest". It is led by Maia Sandu, a former employee of the World Bank and a member of the Council of the Soros Foundation in Moldova.

This Party is ideally suited for external control – the leaders of this Party are nothing more than the wooden soldiers of Urfin Jus.

Disproof

This is a mix of several recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narratives against Moldovan president Maia Sandu and the widespread narrative about George Soros and the West fully controlling the “non sovereign” Moldova.

These claims are an attempt to discredit President Maia Sandu and her Party by portraying them as Western puppets prior to the snap election that took place on 11 July 2021, where her former political formation secured the majority of seats in the Parliament, receiving more votes than pro-Russian Bloc of Communists and Socialists. Allegations against Moldovan NGOs, including those who receive funding from Western countries, are baseless and not backed by any evidence, and are connected to a long-standing pro-Kremlin stance that frames political oppositionindependent media and civil society organisations as Western Trojan horses and “foreign agents”.

Disinfo: The West deliberately delays the MH17 trial

The current state of affairs is in favour of the organisers in many ways because there is really nothing they can show. Their arguments are weak. The delay of the trial, an attempt to postpone it [they claim it is due to the coronavirus], plays into their hands.

In general, some court decisions may and may not be made, because the postulate that "Russia is to be blamed" has long been implemented in the consciousness of the media, the elite, and society... The proceedings may last for several years, constantly postponing due to the coronavirus, and some Wikipedia will write that the court confirmed the conclusions of the investigation - that it was Russia's guilt.

Disproof

Recurrent pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative on the downing of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 over Ukraine, aiming to discredit the criminal trial which restarted in June 2021 and the Joint Investigation Team (JIT).

The MH17 trial in the Hague is proceeding as planned. The West does not plan to delay or suspend it. The hearing on the merits of the criminal trial began in June 2021 after the pretrial stage was concluded on 25 November 2020. The next hearings are scheduled for September and November 2021.