P-74 Cuba vows to defy U.S. efforts at change

Cuba vows to defy U.S. efforts at change
HAVANA - Cuba vowed to defy U.S. efforts for economic and political change on the island in a front-page editorial Thursday in the Communist Party's newspaper that also referred to dissidents as "mercenaries" and "counterrevolutionary puppies."

Members of the U.S. government "should not fool themselves," the editorial said. "The Cuban government and people will take charge, as they've done until now, of guaranteeing the complete failure of these plans ... to encourage the subversion and internal counterrevolution in our country."

Washington maintains a decades-old trade and travel embargo against Cuba. The Bush administration has adopted even stricter policies aimed at squeezing the island's economy and pushing out the communist leadership.