Correspondent: Holidays in the Axis of Evil ? Cuba Tx Date: 18th February 2003 This script was made from audio tape – any inaccuracies are due to voices being unclear or inaudible 00.00.00 George W Bush Axis of Evil! Axis of Evil! Axis of Evil! 00.00.04 Ben Anderson A year ago George W Bush branded six countries as the world’s most evil. 00.00.09 Music 00.00.11 Ben Anderson I wanted to explore the enemy territory. 00.00.14 Music 00.00.19 Ben Anderson So I took a holiday through the Axis of Evil. 00.00.22 Music 00.00.27 Title Page holidays in the AXIS OF EVIL 00.00.31 CUBA 00.00.34 Gunfire 00.00.38 Ben Anderson A Cuban guerrilla force prepares for an invasion. 00.00.43 Ben Anderson They’ve been doing this every Sunday morning for the past forty years. 00.00.47 Gunfire 00.00.57 Ben Anderson It’s a bit close! 00.00.58 Music 00.01.00 Ben Anderson Alpha 66 is a militia that aims to overthrow Cuban President Fidel Castro. 00.01.06 Ben Anderson Today is Thanksgiving, so only the elite force is training. Alpha 66 is based in Florida and uses weapons bought freely in America. 00.01.17 Ben Anderson And that could have been Castro? 00.01.19 Soldier Could have been. 00.01.22 Soldier That’s what you call a full-metal jacket. So this is a full metal jacket round. I’ve been questioned before and I still have the same answer – there’s no dialogue with that man, he lies too much to everybody, including his own people. So the only answer for that is just one bullet and that’ll be with his name on it. 00.01.44 Ben Anderson We take a break from the bullets for Thanksgiving lunch. 00.01.51 Ben Anderson I wasn’t sure what we were toasting. 00.01.52 Toast! 00.02.08 Gunfire 00.02.12 Ben Anderson Did I hit it? Just tell me I hit it even if I didn’t. 00.02.19 Ben Anderson Alpha 66 claims to be totally prepared for a full-scale invasion of Cuba. They’ve already launched at least seventy commando attacks, mostly hit and run, with small boats on Cuba’s coast. 00.02.30 Soldier There was three individuals that were wounded and there was I think two fatalities on the last mission we did. 00.02.40 Ben Anderson But doesn’t that allow Castro to call you terrorists instead of freedom fighters? 00.02.44 Soldier No. 00.02.44 Ben Anderson No. 00.02.46 Soldier We’re not terrorists, we’re liberators. 00.02.48 Ben Anderson No, but Castro, that’s not what Castro would say. 00.02.52 Soldier He probably would say it but we’re liberators. 00.02.55 Notice on fence BEWARE OF DOG 00.02.57 Ben Anderson I think that’s, that’s the last thing you should worry about in here. 00.03.01 Soldiers singing 00.03.10 Ben Anderson One of the main charges against Cuba that puts it on the Axis of Evil list is the fact that it harbours terrorists. We’ve just been to a group who are openly training for invasion of another country, of Cuba, with machine guns and pump-action shotguns and as they told us five or six there’s nothing illegal about what they’re doing whatsoever. 00.03.34 Music 00.03.40 Ben Anderson Castro has many different enemies here, his daughter is a well-known fixture of the Miami dissident scene and probably hurts Castro more than Alpha 66. 00.03.48 Music 00.03.55 Ben Anderson We went to see the group Alpha 66. Do you know them? 00.03.59 Alina Yeah. 00.04.00 Ben Anderson And they’re, they’re training for an invasion. I mean, whether or not they’re actually going to do it, I don’t know. 00.04.07 Alina They are like ninety years old. 00.04.12 Music 00.04.20 Ben Anderson Alina fled Cuba in 1996 disguised as a Spanish tourist. She then wrote a book about her bizarre childhood. 00.04.27 Music 00.04.34 Ben Anderson She’s the product of an affair between Castro and a beautiful Cuban model. 00.04.39 Alina I don’t know what’s on here, I know that I’ll get a great allergy from these. No doubt about it, I think it’s mostly my mother’s stuff. 00.04.49 Ben Anderson So if your mother and Fidel stayed loyal to the revolution, how come you left? 00.04.56 Alina I never liked the revolution, you know. You have your feelings, you feel uncomfortable and you don’t like what’s happening to you. 00.05.08 Ben Anderson But what was happening that you didn’t feel comfortable about? 00.05.11 Alina Well I, surely I didn’t like to be in a uniform, in a grey uniform all my life screaming anthems and marching like a soldier, like becoming a Chinese you know and you began to question your father, you begin to question your mother and you begin to become a pain in the arse actually. 00.05.30 Elizabeth So did Fidel ever have anything to say to you about not supporting the revolution? 00.05.35 Ben Anderson Could you discuss it openly with him? 00.05.37 Alina Yes I could but then you know that there is no way to discuss anything openly with him. I mean you receive an answer and that’s it. 00.05.46 Ben Anderson How does it feel for you because most of the world has a romantic idea of Castro and Che Guevara and the revolution. 00.05.51 Alina Yeah but you know it’s been fifteen years. You have to look through what’s after that legend you know, there are people sick and exhausted already and being a legend doesn’t feed you. I think that one of the secrets is that he deeply despise the Cuban people because he had done nothing but ruin the country and use them. 00.06.12 Music 00.06.18 Alina So what surprised us, for instance, is that Bush was going as far as Iraq to fight, to fight terrorism and he has somebody ninety miles away. 00.06.31 Ben Anderson I was quite surprised to see Cuba on the list. 00.06.33 Alina No, no, they been, as I told you, they’ve been exporting the revolution. They’ve been training every guerrilla in the world. 00.06.45 Alina Terrorists, they are all, they have, they are networked. It’s like a mafia. 00.06.56 Ben Anderson Do you get bored talking about it Fidel? 00.06.58 Alina Yeah. I have to convince people about things that I’m convinced and I won’t convince anybody. 00.07.06 Ben Anderson I don’t think you’ll have job convincing people here. 00.07.08 Ben Anderson I’m not convincing you for instance. 00.07.12 Ben Anderson Alina hosts a late night talk show in Miami. Tonight, especially for us, she’s decided to talk about whether or not Castro deserves to be on the Axis of Evil list. 00.07.29 Alina Subtitles Why is Cuba amongst the six countries… that the State Department consider to be terrorist? WQBA, good evening, you’re on the air. 00.07.39 Caller Subtitles About Cuba – it’s a patron of terrorism based on drug trafficking… guerrilla weapons and biological weapons, etc… which they subsidise all over the world. That tyrant Castro deserves to get a Nobel Prize for terrorism… him and his gang of communists. 00.07.57 Alina Subtitles WQBA, good evening, you’re on the air. 00.08.00 Caller 2 Subtitles America is fighting against terrorist action. So to me, Cuba does present a terrorist threat… because terrorists can stay in Cuba and plan and prepare attacks… on the United States and other allied countries. 00.08.14 Alina Subtitles There is also the issue of biological weapons. 00.08.17 Caller 2 Subtitles There were closed areas which you weren’t allowed into… and you couldn’t even ask what was in them. I’ve no doubt from that that they could be making… chemical products that could be biologically harmful. 00.08.30 Ben Anderson What was the result of the phone poll? How many people thought he was a terrorist? Everybody. 00.08.36 Music 00.08.38 Ben Anderson But outside of Miami, I’ve never heard much evidence to suggest that Cuba is one of the six most threatening countries on earth. 00.08.44 Music 00.08.48 Ben Anderson It seemed to have more to do with the long and testy relationship between Cuba and America. 00.08.53 Music 00.09.08 Ben Anderson Well unfortunately because of strained US Cuba relations, I can’t travel directly from the States to Cuba. I can’t get the visa. So I’ve had to come via the Bahamas. But I’ve only got three hours here and I am using my time productively, continuing to read like a maniac. 00.09.31 Music 00.09.39 Ben Anderson I arrived in Cuba with a head full of romantic stories about Fidel and Che’s incredible adventures. 00.09.45 Music 00.09.49 Ben Anderson But they happened over forty years ago and I had mixed expectations about what I would find there now. 00.09.55 Music 00.09.59 Ben Anderson In a square full of bookstalls, the ideas of revolution and socialism were still everywhere. 00.10.06 Ben Anderson Das Kapital in Spanish. 00.10.16 Ben Anderson I wondered how much excitement Cubans could still feel, if they’d had nothing else to read for forty years. 00.10.24 Bookstall keeper Only five dollars. 00.10.25 Ben Anderson Want to get that, it’s five dollars. 00.10.26 Elizabeth What is it? 00.10.27 Ben Anderson His first ever speech in Cuba, 1953. This is famous. 00.10.34 Bookstall keeper Very famous. 00.10.35 Ben Anderson History will absolve me. 00.10.40 Ben Anderson The Museum of the Revolution. Formerly the Palace of Fulgencio Batista, the American backed dictator who was ousted by Fidel’s revolutionary forces. 00.11.01 Guide So this building, it was decorated by Tiffany’s students of New York, Tiffany’s, in the twenties. Right? 00.11.13 Ben Anderson We’re led through the grandeur and into a secret room behind a mirror. 00.11.20 Guide This is the presidential offices. We have the original furniture of 1940 when Batista was President for the first time. Right, but Fidel also used it ’59, ’65. 00.11.34 Ben Anderson It looks a little bourgeois for Fidel. 00.11.38 Guide No, no, Batista furniture. 00.11.41 Ben Anderson Oh, it was stolen so that’s ok. 00.11.44 Guide This is Batista, in here, in this office. He was in a legal position as a President but in 1952 Batista led a coup d’etat, a military coup. So he became a dictator, right and he was in power until 1959. Why? Because in 1953 Fidel start the National Liberation War that you will see upstairs. 00.12.21 Guide And in here we have some of the instruments that they did torture. 00.12.30 Guide So in the summer of 1958 Fidel controlled the centre part of Cuba and all the east. 00.12.37 Ben Anderson And he’s getting more and more men because he has such popular support? 00.12.440 Guide Yes. Batista had forty five thousand men. Fidel finished 1959 with just three thousand men. 00.12.49 Ben Anderson But most of the population of Cuba supported Fidel? 00.12.52 Guide Everybody. Everybody supports Fidel. 00.12.59 Ben Anderson People still seem very proud of this, the revolution. 00.13.04 Guide That’s history. That’s the past. We are in present day, no. 00.13.08 Ben Anderson Today is a new battle, a different battle? 00.13.13 Ben Anderson Persistent rumours of his death mean that Castro has to make regular public appearances. He’s outlasted nine US Presidents and pissed most of them off, maybe that’s why he’s on the Evil list. 00.13.25 Ben Anderson There’s a joke that’s been going round among exiled Cubans in particular that someone presented Fidel with a, a Galapagos turtle as a present. And he said; ‘ah yes, it’s gorgeous, how long does it live?’ And they said four hundred years. And he said; ‘ah, that’s the trouble with pets, you fall in love with them and then they die on you’. 00.13.46 Fidel Castro Subtitle We are discovering the unending. 00.13.54 Ben Anderson We toured the Sixteenth Century Spanish fort that sits on Havana’s waterfront, where in 1960 Che Guevara had fifty-five senior collaborators of Batista’s government executed. The bullet holes are still here. But no one would show us. 00.14.10 Ben Anderson We were distracted from our search by the local lighthouse keeper. 00.14.21 Ben Anderson Do you talk to Americans on the radio? 00.14.23 Lighthouse Keeper Yeah, it’s very near, only ninety miles. But only if there is an emergency, some problem only because no relations, no trade, nothing. 00.14.35 Ben Anderson But many Americans are here as tourists. Many, many. 00.14.37 Lighthouse Keeper Yeah, yeah a lot have come and sometimes they come to Cuba in their sailing boats. You can hear for example, this is Miami, US, the weather station. 00.14.51 Ben Anderson It’s the enemy? 00.14.52 Lighthouse Keeper No, the enemy sometimes but we can talk. We use the national flags of the different countries. This is the Union Jack. So, when a British vessel come we hoist the flag outside on the mast in order to welcome. This one, we never used it. 00.15.17 Ben Anderson Never used it? 00.15.18 Lighthouse Keeper No American vessels because of the embargo. But maybe soon. 00.15.23 Ben Anderson Yeah. 00.15.25 Lighthouse Keeper Maybe. Here, look my friend. 00.15.32 Ben Anderson Oh you watch the beautiful girls. 00.15.34 Lighthouse Keeper This is the hot corner. 00.15.36 Ben Anderson The hot corner. 00.15.36 Lighthouse Keeper Only for you. 00.15.41 Ben Anderson Oh I’ve seen better than that. 00.15.46 Elizabeth I won’t look! 00.15.49 Ben Anderson You get paid for this all day long? 00.15.51 Lighthouse Keeper Sure. We work here twenty-four hours. Twelve hours to watch everything and twelve to the other side. 00.16.02 Music 00.16.06 Ben Anderson Some streets in Havana have been beautifully restored. Especially those close to Hemingway’s old haunts. 00.16.18 Ben Anderson But it’s difficult to have a genuine Cuban experience when a Cuban is genuinely begging for dollars just outside. 00.16.24 Music 00.16.41 Ben Anderson At night, it’s worse. 00.16.42 Music 00.16.46 Ben Anderson Cubans don’t have the dollars to spend in the bars, sometimes they are not even allowed in. 00.16.50 Music 00.16.54 Ben Anderson They wait around outside looking for a chance to hustle or beg. 00.16.58 Music 00.17.01 Ben Anderson Cuba has one of the lowest crime rates in Latin America but the police are everywhere. Crimes against Cuba’s precious tourists cannot be risked. 00.17.09 Ben Anderson I’ve just run the gauntlet that is the long road outside our hotel. And you get stopped literally every ten feet. People ask you for anything and offer you anything. Offer you cigars and then more. Some people, once you’ve told them you don’t want to buy whatever they’re offering and once you’ve told them that you’ve run out of dollars, some people even ask for trousers or a t-shirt. 00.17.37 Ben Anderson Two old men even asked if they could have the soap and toothpaste from my hotel bathroom. 00.17.42 Music 00.17.47 Ben Anderson I was finding Havana depressing, with Cubans prostituting themselves on almost every corner of the tourist districts. 00.17.55 Ben Anderson It felt like a softer, tackier version of the Mafia’s Havana from the forties and fifties when Cuba was a playground for America’s rich and corrupt. 00.18.02 Music 00.18.17 Ben Anderson And they left early to the sound of Che Guevara turning in his grave. 00.18.30 Ben Anderson I could just be tired. Last night was only two or three hours sleep. So hopefully tomorrow we’ll get out of this tourist area and see, see something more, hopefully there’s more to Cuba than this. But first impressions are that there’s no battle over Cuba, there’s no fight between capitalism and socialism or America and Cuba. The dollar’s won. 00.18.54 Music 00.18.56 Ben Anderson I wanted to get away from the tourists and see if there was still a ‘real’ Cuba to see. 00.19.00 Music 00.19.16 Ben Anderson America has accused Cuba of supporting and harbouring terrorists. But America’s terrorists are heroes in most of the Axis of Evil countries. None more so than Che Guevara. 00.19.26 Music 00.19.34 Ben Anderson This is Santa Clara, which is the scene of the last battle before Batista fled and Castro entered Havana. These are four of the train carriages that Batista sent to Santiago de Cuba to defeat Fidel. But Che and just seventeen men, eighteen men in total, were waiting for them, they ambushed them and defeated them even though there were four hundred and eight heavily armed soldiers in here. 00.19.56 Ben Anderson The only other tourists here are a bus load of retired Cuban lawyers. 00.20.01 Ben Anderson It makes you feel proud? It makes you feel proud? 00.20.03 Old man Yes. 00.20.04 Ben Anderson Yes. 00.20.07 Ben Anderson For most people of their generation the revolution gave them access to education, healthcare and a salary. 00.20.13 Ben Anderson America acknowledges the fact that Cuba leads the world in the production of vaccines and pharmaceuticals. The problem is Cuba sells these products to rogue states like Iran who could turn them into biological weapons. 00.20.27 Music 00.20.33 Ben Anderson Next the Bay of Pigs, the scene of the first defeat of Yankee imperialism in Latin America. 00.20.39 Music 00.20.43 Ben Anderson This embarrassing fiasco failed because it was rushed. It was rushed because the US knew that in the early sixties Castro’s huge popularity was growing by the day. That they were prepared to overthrow such a popular leader was not questioned. 00.20.56 Music 00.21.03 Ben Anderson That night we stay with a Cuban family close to the beach. 00.21.06 Music 00.21.09 Ben Anderson When Castro legalised use of the dollar in 1994, Cubans across the country opened their homes to tourists. For about twenty-five dollars a night you get a bed, a meal and all the political debate you could want. 00.21.25 Man Voice over America has a very unfair attitude. It’s unfair against Cuba, all the other central American countries, against Iraq, against Afghanistan, against all other countries because America believes that it is the strongest country in the world. But it is not. The fact is that on the seventeenth to the eighteenth of April 1961, they attacked us here. They landed here at the Bay of Pigs and they were beaten back. 00.21.58 Man Voice over Then they went to Vietnam. They attacked the Vietnamese people. They were beaten. Bush talks about Cuba and he doesn’t even know why he’s talking about Cuba. I really hope that one day there will be a president of the United States who can read and write. It’s really unfortunate that Bush is such an idiot. 00.22.26 Woman Subtitle Dinner’s ready. 00.22.29 Television 00.22.41 Ben Anderson Castro also stands accused of denouncing America’s war on terror, despite the fact that he’s signed every UN resolution against terrorism since September the eleventh. And offered to return any escapee’s from Guantanamo Bay. 00.23.04 Ben Anderson The following morning our host agrees to accompany us to the Bay of Pigs, to the place where he and his friends fought fifteen hundred American backed invaders. Sebastien was twenty-six at the time. 00.23.21 Sebastien Voice over This line, this line here was the line of fire. This is where they took us by surprise around midnight. This is where they took us by surprise. They came through over here and over there they killed two of my mates. 00.23.55 Sebastien Voice over We were in this position and we were shooting in the direction of the sea. Every time someone came towards the shore, we would shoot. 00.24.31 Ben Anderson Sebastien believes American imperialism is ultimately doomed. 00.24.37 Sebastien Voice over Imperialism is losing ground, if not just now. I may not see it happen because I am too old but you young people will see it in your time. Imperialism is losing ground. American imperialism is losing ground. 00.24.52 Music 00.24.52 Ben Anderson But nearby, in a small town called Australia, there are signs that the old revolutionary Cuba is doomed too. 00.24.59 Music 00.25.01 Ben Anderson Australia was built around a sugar mill, which has just closed. Before the revolution over half of Cuba’s sugar industry was owned and run by Americans. 00.25.18 Ben Anderson This would have been one of the ones that Castro nationalised after the revolution. He nationalised a billion dollars worth of American companies. 00.25.27 Ben Anderson The nationalisation of Cuban industry was one of Castro’s first moves after the revolution. It caused fury in the US State Department. 00.25.38 Ben Anderson So actually, I think this is one of Fidel’s great crimes is that he dared to suggest that if using Cuban natural resources and Cuban labour then the Cuban people should get the benefits. It was called the rotten apple theory and the fear was that that idea, that bad example, would spread throughout Latin America. 00.25.59 Ben Anderson The US refused to trade with Castro’s Cuba. So the Russians stepped in. This relationship formed the backbone of the Cuban economy for nearly three decades. 00.26.10 Ben Anderson The Russians used to buy their sugar at the same price every year no matter what. So what happened when the Soviet Union collapsed? 00.26.17 Woman Voice over The sugar was often sold at a very low price because of external conditions on the market. We had to lower our price. 00.26.28 Ben Anderson Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, the first half of the 1990s was very tough for Cuba. Things have greatly improved since then but not enough and not without compromise. 00.26.42 Ben Anderson Which do you prefer; the tourism or the sugar as the main industry? 00.26.48 Woman Voice over It is difficult after a tradition of a hundred years in the sugar industry where the majority of the locals dedicated themselves to working in the sugar mills to dedicate themselves to tourism. Even though the sugar industry’s not doing as well because of factors in the world market, our men prefer to work in the sugar industry, which is really nice. They’re very prepared to take on any task. Come and look at the locals here, they’re studying to better themselves. 00.27.23 Ben Anderson In a building on the premises, the state is providing former sugar mill workers with further education so they can learn a new trade. 00.27.30 Music 00.27.34 Ben Anderson Castro has said that the goal of the revolution is no longer to spread socialism but to save its conquests. 00.27.39 Music 00.27.44 Ben Anderson I wondered how much compromise the revolution could take. 00.27.47 Ben Anderson There’s a farm of crocodiles, which is an idea of the revolution. 00.27.52 Elizabeth What does that mean? 00.27.54 Ben Anderson An idea of the revolution. 00.27.56 Ben Anderson We had stumbled across a revolutionary tourist attraction. 00.27.58 Music 00.28.01 Ben Anderson Politics is everywhere in Cuba, especially when it’s good for ‘revolutionary fortitude’. 00.28.07 Ben Anderson Our guide explains the difference between American and Cuban crocodiles. 00.28.11 Music 00.28.16 Guide Voice over This is the Cuban crocodile. These are animals that die fighting each other. 00.28.21 Elizabeth So which is the better crocodile? 00.28.23 Guide Voice over The Cuban. This one has tougher skin, that is to say, more resistant. In its natural way of life it’s stronger. And not just because it’s Cuban, not just because I’m Cuban. 00.28.43 Guide Voice over It’s an idea of the revolution. 00.28.50 Man Voice over Of Fidel Castro. Fidel. Fidel paid a visit here in 1960. 00.29.00 Ben Anderson We drove past here last night and we couldn’t work out how you get the word revolution in a sign for a crocodile farm. But Fidel was very worried that the crocodile was becoming an endangered species. So, it was his idea to start this farm. 00.29.12 Elizabeth I have to say that one looks pretty endangered. 00.29.19 Ben Anderson Young people in Cuba aren’t so excited about what the revolution has delivered for them. American music, cars and clothes mean much more to them than socialism. 00.29.35 Ben Anderson The Axis of Evil doesn’t come up in conversation here. And neither does the revolution. 00.29.45 Ben Anderson Jesus, my guide for the night, worked at the sugar mill until it closed. Now he’s retraining so he can drive the trains for the tourists. 00.29.53 Music 00.29.59 Ben Anderson Whatever Castro can be said to have achieved for Cuba, he won’t have the dedication of the young, while they are expected to struggle by on a meagre monthly salary. 00.30.12 Ben Anderson Fidel has proudly said that even during Cuba’s toughest period following the collapse of the Soviet Union, not a single school shut down and thirty thousand new doctors were put out into the world. But that means nothing to young Cubans who have got a pretty bleak set of options when you think about it. They can go to the fantastic education system and become doctors and work in the fantastic health system but they’re going to be really struggling to survive on thirty or forty dollars a month. 00.30.43 Ben Anderson If they want a lifestyle where buying a new pair of shoes or a bottle of cooking oil or shampoo isn’t a problem then they’ve got to go and work as hotel porters or barmen or taxi drivers, anywhere where they’ve got access to tourists and their dollars. 00.31.00 Music 00.31.07 Ben Anderson Jesus, who we met in the town of Australia, accompanies us to the northern shores of Cuba. It’s the home of Elian Gonzalez, the little boy who created havoc with US Cuban relations three years ago when he floated onto American shores in a rubber tyre. His mother was drowned in their attempted escape. 00.31.25 Music 00.31.34 Ben Anderson So this is the town of Cardenas, where Elian Gonzalez and his father live. We think there’s a pink building, yeah we think this is Elian’s school 00.31.48 Music 00.31.54 Jesus Subtitle Is this Elian’s school? 00.31.57 Boy Subtitle Yes. 00.32.00 Ben Anderson Fidel has built a museum about four buildings down the road for Elian. It must be a bit strange going to school when you’re nine years old and having a museum dedicated to you next door but three. 00.32.14 Music 00.32.15 Ben Anderson As tourists we couldn’t request an interview with Elian so we went to his museum instead. After a long fight between Cuba, America and the Cubans in Miami, Elian was allowed to return to his home here in Cardenas, where his father still lives. 00.32.29 Ben Anderson Got a picture of his name with a ball and chain around the ankle of the N. And the ball is the Mickey Mouse. That’s a good one. 00.32.38 Music 00.32.43 Ben Anderson Apart from the exploitation of differences between first and third world economies, there was no mention of what drives Cubans to risk their lives by trying to cross the ninety miles to America anyway they can. 00.33.00 Ben Anderson Cubans believe that just off the coast, north of Cardenas, there is a current that will pick them up and take them all the way to America. 00.33.09 Ben Anderson Does he ever hear anything about what life is like for Cubans once they reach America? 00.33.15 Jesus Voice over They say over there you work, you have to work a lot but the pay is plenty. I have a friend who went a year and a bit ago, he left for Miami. After six months of being in Miami he came back here to Cuba to see the family, to see his mother and his child. And he came with plenty of money and plenty of things. What we earn in a month they earn in a day in Miami. 00.33.53 Jesus Voice over That comrade there he can’t explain things very well because he’s in his workplace and he could cause a problem. It could get him into trouble. 00.34.11 Woman Subtitle But not you? 00.34.12 Jesus Voice over No, because I don’t work here. I don’t work for the State. 00.34.18 Ben Anderson It’s a state run restaurant. So this guy can’t say anything and I would have thought a bunch of foreigners with a camera asking questions is probably not too clever. Yeah, I think we should turn off. 00.34.32 Music 00.34.34 Ben Anderson Out of all the Axis of Evil countries I enjoyed the most freedom in Cuba. The same cannot be said for Cubans themselves. 00.34.41 Music 00.34.48 Ben Anderson It must go against revolutionary ideals but Cubans aren’t allowed across the police-controlled bridge that separates the town of Cardenas from the tourist haven of Varedero. 00.34.56 Music 00.34.58 Ben Anderson So Jesus couldn’t come with us. 00.34.59 Music 00.35.08 Ben Anderson Inside we see police pulling over vehicles with Cuban drivers. 00.35.13 Ben Anderson Is he going to check his papers? 00.35.14 Elizabeth Yes. 00.35.17 Ben Anderson So this is Varedero where there are about fifteen five star hotel resorts where I think the idea is you never leave and the only Cubans allowed in these resorts are the ones who work there. So when you come on these holidays the only Cubans you’re likely to meet are the ones serving you drinks and changing your bed sheets. 00.35.37 Music 00.35.40 Ben Anderson Elian’s father works here and we pass workers looking for a lift home. 00.35.45 Ben Anderson There are vague glimpses of a Cuba gone by and the Cuba that is to come. 00.35.50 Music 00.35.53 Ben Anderson We think that one says; ‘The revolution is construction’. Varedero. Which hasn’t quite got the same ring to it as socialism or death. 00.36.12 Ben Anderson The Cuban government aspires to increase the number of tourists from two million a year to six million. It is already the country’s biggest source of income. 00.36.20 Music 00.36.33 Ben Anderson The US accuses Castro of continuing to view terror as a legitimate tactic to further revolutionary objectives. Nostalgia aside, I found it hard to believe Castro still had any revolutionary objectives. 00.36.46 Hotel guest The food is not so nice but all the sport opportunities are so very, very, very, very nice. 00.36.55 Elizabeth And what about the Cubans, do you like the Cubans? 00.36.58 Man I don’t know; I didn’t meet anyone. 00.37.04 Music 00.37.08 Ben Anderson We head back to Havana ready to fly home. 00.37.10 Music 00.37.19 Ben Anderson On the way we finally see evidence of Cuba’s military threat towards America. 00.37.26 Woman Subtitle What’s this here? 00.37.27 Man Subtitles It’s a missile. For shooting down planes. 00.37.32 Woman Subtitle Who used it? When? 00.37.33 Man Subtitles No one’s ever used it. They’ve just left it here. 00.37.37 Woman Subtitle So no one’s ever used it? 00.37.38 Man Subtitle No. Woman Subtitle Never? 00.37.42 Woman Subtitle But can you still use it? 00.37.44 Man Subtitle No, no, not anymore. 00.37.46 Woman Subtitle Is it Russian? Man Subtitle Russian, yes. 00.37.49 Ben Anderson That probably sums up Cuba’s threat to America actually. 00.37.54 Ben Anderson A rusty old missile dumped in a cow-field because it no longer worked. 00.37.58 Music 00.38.01 Ben Anderson In truth, as a tourist, I had no way of knowing what threat Cuba or any of the Axis of Evil countries posed to anyone. 00.38.08 Ben Anderson They are all ruled by unelected and violent regimes but they don’t need George W Bush to tell them that. Especially when so many other unelected and violent regimes escape Scott-free. 00.38.18 End music www.bbc.co.uk/bbcfour 00.38.36 Presenter BEN ANDERSON Dubbing Mixer PHITZ HEARNE VT Editor JASPAL BANGA Titles WHY NOT ASSOCIATES Production Team SARAH EVA MARTHA O’SULLIVAN Production Manager JANE WILLEY Unit Manager SUSAN CRIGHTON Film Research NICK DODD Web Producer ANDREW JEFFREY Research BARBARA ARVANITIDIS Picture Editor ROBERT MOORE Director ELIZABETH C. JONES Executive Producers LUCY HETHERINGTON KAREN O’CONNOR 00.38.59 Series Producer WILL DAWS BBC ©BBC MMIII 00.39.01 End BBC Holidays in the Axis of Evil 1 1