James Carlston Cason

Born in the United States. Began his foreign service work for the United States in the 1980s, where he worked closely with Otto Reich in the U.S. State Department’s Central American Affairs division—the support base for the "contras" in the dirty war against the Sandinista Revolution. He maintains strong relations with figures from the ultra-rightwing anti-Cuban organizations in Miami and South Florida. Cason came to Cuba in September, 2002 as Head of the U.S. Interests Section in Havana. His appointment was part of the George W. Bush administration’s policy of increasing hostilities against Cuba. Cason has maintained a policy of intervention in internal State matters since arriving in Cuba, working to promote and support internal counterrevolutionary groups. He has used the diplomatic immunity that his position affords him to organize meetings in his official residence with ringleaders of these illegal groups, as part of a program of hostility and provocation organized from the United States.