Vicky Huddleston on Art in Embassies - Havana, Cuba.

Vicki Huddleston, Chief of the U.S. Interests Section in Havana from 1999-2002.

Full Transcript

0:00 FOREIGN MINISTER: (Speaking Spanish)
0:02 VOICEOVER: At this mass rally in Havana 5 weeks ago, Cuban foreign minister accused
0:07 US diplomats here of engaging in conspiratorial, subversive and illegal activities.
0:13 FOREIGN MINSITER: (Speaking Spanish)
0:14 TRANSLATOR: We warned the US diplomats, wherever they may be, that we know what they’re up
0:19 to.
0:19 VOICEOVER: Unbeknownst to the foreign minister, among the 300,000 strong crowd, was Washington’s
0:25 top diplomat in Cuba.
0:27 HUDDLESTON: In my country, and I think in most countries, if you’re accused, you should
0:31 be there to defend yourself.
0:33 VOICEOVER: Even her staunchest political foes say Vicky Huddleston has cajones.
0:37 CROWD: (Chanting in Spanish)
0:39 VOICEOVER: During countless government-organized protests, where hundreds of thousands of Cubans
0:45 file past the US mission, yelling “Down with imperialism!”, Vicky Huddleston appears
0:50 amused. The outspoken career diplomat may be Washington’s woman in Havana, but for
0:56 the Cuban government, she’s the embodiment of the Ugly American. Her latest sin: giving
1:02 away thousands of these little shortwave radios to Cuban citizens.
1:06 HUDDLESTON: You can move the dial around and find Radio Libre, Havana Cubra, and the Tribune
1:13 Abierta denouncing the United States or you can move it around some more and find Radio
1:19 Marti talking about the need for democracy in Cuba.
1:22 INTERVIEWER: Certainly the Cuban government would argue that is an undiplomatic and unfriendly
1:26 gesture on your part.
1:27 HUDDLESTON: To listen to radio is—
1:29 INTERVIEWER: To listen to Radio Marti.
1:30 HUDDLESTON: To have a choice, to decide whether to listen to Radio Marti.
1:35 TALADRID: (Speaking Spanish)
1:36 VOICEOVER: Commentator Rinaldo Taladrid, who spent hours blasting Ambassador Huddleston
1:42 on state television, insists she’s being cynical.
1:45 TALADRID: They are giving radios here with a subversive purpose of overthrow or to help
1:51 to overthrow the Cuban government because I don’t know if any US embassy around the
1:56 world is giving free shortwave radios.
1:59 VOICEOVER: Ambassador Huddleston makes no apologies for criticizing the Cuban government
2:04 at every opportunity.
2:05 HUDDLESTON: Over here, we have this wonderful wonderful painting—
2:08 VOICEOVER: The paintings exhibited at her residence, as part of the Art in Embassies
2:13 program, are deliberately those of Cuban exiles or Cuban-American artists who can’t exhibit
2:19 their works in Cuba.
2:21 HUDDLESTON: A really, really powerful statement.
2:23 VOICEOVER: A petite but tough woman who, like the president she represents, doesn’t want
2:28 to give even an inch to her communist hosts.