US-Cuba Billboard War By Foreign News Desk, Istanbul Published: Wednesday, January 18, 2006 zaman.com

A new dimension has emerged as part of the 45 year ideological war between the American administration and Fidel Castro, Cuba's communist leader.

The American mission in Havana has begun broadcasting articles taken from the International Declaration of Human Rights, as well as parts of the famous 1963 Washington speech made by Martin Luther King, famous freedom fighter and American political leader of African Americans, on electronic billboards fixed on the outer walls of the mission. One of the most famous statements made by Luther, "I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up," has been translated into Spanish and broadcast on the billboard. These statements are being interpreted as a call from the Bush administration to the Cuba people "to rebel against Castro."

The United States Havana mission defended that what appears on the electronic billboards was actually meant to emphasize the ongoing "human rights abuses across the country."

Broadcasting King's statements on the billboard, coinciding with King's birthday, provoked widespread reaction from the Cubans. Miguel Angel Fernandez, a neighbor of the US mission, said he saw the red inscriptions flashed up on the electronic panel in the evening hours, and demanded that the US was trying to provoke the Cubans, although, he said Cubans are not interested in any attempt to provoke the Americans.

The façade of the US mission broadcasts two statements, both from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights: "All individuals have the right to live, to freedom and security" and "Nobody may be arbitrarily arrested, imprisoned or exiled." Although the diplomatic relations between Havana and Washington have been frozen since 1961, it has been nearly two years since the two countries began arguing over the use of these electronic billboards.

Michael Parmly, the new US chief of mission appointed to Havana, called Castro a "small time gangster," and James Cason, one time chief of the mission, had erected a large "75" sculpture outside the mission on Christmas Eve 2004, in reference to the 75 opponents of the Cuban regime who had been sentenced to heavy penalties in April 2003.

Castro was quick to respond to the American administration over the panel dispute and erected billboards outside the US mission building that showed images of US soldiers torturing the Abu Ghraib prisoners, brandishing the phrase "Done by America," enclosed in a huge swastika. Along with the arguments over the use of the panels, Washington has increased the level of sanctions over trade and travel against the communist regime in Cuba. Visa and other consulate services are being carried out in the American mission housed in an office run by the Swedish ambassador to Cuba.