Cubans are reacting to a report of a U.S. Agency for International Development program that secretly sent Latin Americans to Cuba in an effort to spark rebellion under the guise of using health and civic programs to inspire political progress.

The project began in October 2009 at the earliest, as the Obama administration touted a "new beginning" with Cuba, The Associated Press reported yesterday. It sent people with Costa Rican, Peruvian and Venezuelan roots to Cuba. The young people went to the country undercover, many times as tourists, and searched the communist island for people who could become political activists.

The news has reached state TV, The Associated Press reports today. On Monday afternoon, the report lead the news but "without commentary."

Elio Morales, a 19-year-old refinery worker, was not surprised to hear the story.

"It's one of so many imperialist aggressions, so many years that they have been trying to bring down the revolution," Morales said. "They've been trying all kinds of things for 50 years to bring down the revolution, and it hasn't fallen."

Some Cubans stand behind the efforts of USAID and Creative Associates International, the department's contractor.

"The script of @AP is so boring: U.S. is evil, Castro is victim. All of the interviews are staged by Castro State Security to attack USAID," Orlando Luis Pardo, a Cuban writer and photographer, said via Twitter.

Pardo also retweeted a post by Jose Cardenas, a former USAID member living in Washington, D.C.

"Good for USAID! The world must foster the rights of the Cuban people, abolished by the Castro regime and their allies," the post said.

Still, other Cubans worry about what the report will do to the relationship between the Cuban government and "local partners," according to AP, which various groups have worked to strengthen.

"It doesn't bode very well for programs that are funded from external sources because I think there's going to be a higher level of scrutiny: Who's the donor? Where are the funds coming from? What does the program propose to do?" an anonymous head of an international and non-government affiliated Cuban organization said. "If it means that we're going to be more scrutinized and that Cuban approval processes are going to be even slower than they already are, then that's going to affect our work."

The Cuban government has yet to comment on the report.

Cuban-American Congressman Mario Diaz-Balart has positive opinions about the program.

"Efforts ... to find creative ways for the Cuban people to communicate with each other and with the outside world, are precisely the types of activities that the United States must vigorously pursue in closed societies," he said in a statement.

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Follow Scharon Harding on Twitter: @ScharHar.

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