A chara, - I note with interest, but not surprise, that Lawrence E. Butler of the Embassy of the United States denies categorically his country's involvement in the discharge over Cuba of the Thrips palmi insect (August 12th), which has led to the destruction of 9,000 hectares of 17 different agricultural crops. How could the US do such a dastardly deed, he asks, when this would have violated international law? He goes on to say that the plane, which was actually a US aircraft in the service of the US State Department and was flying along the Giron international air corridor, was using smoke signals to communicate its position, and that this explained what looked like the spraying of substances! This is a route used daily by hundreds of aircraft from various countries, and which are guided by air traffic controllers through radio communication. Are we really to believe that aircraft use smoke signals at the end of the 20th century?
The next thing he will expect us to believe is that the US has had nothing to do with the devastating economic blockade of Cuba that has been in place for over 30 years, and which has led to severe hardship, in particular food shortages. Surely this could not have happened given that it clearly violates international law, as evidenced by the United Nations, which annually opposes the blockade by an overwhelming majority. Last year only Israel and Uzbekistan supported the US blockade.
Readers should not be fooled. The Thrips palmi blight is merely the latest attempt by the US to destroy Cuba through biological and economic warfare. - Yours, etc.,
Douglas Hamilton,
Cuba Support Group - Ireland, Rockmount Street, Belfast 12.