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Video Claims Bloggers Want To Overthrow Castro

MIAMI (CBS4) -- A new online video claims Cuban bloggers and exiles have launched a secret effort to overthrow the Castro regime.

The video was reportedly shot last summer but made its way to the Internet just days ago, in the same week that protesters in Egypt sparked changed by using social media.

In the secret Cuban video leaked and posted to the web site Vimeo, you can see Cuban government officials meeting with an Internet consultant who is seemingly paranoid that the end of the Castro regime will be launched from a virtual world.

The video claims the U.S. government is supporting popular anti-Castro bloggers such as Yoani Sanchez, who has found a way to distribute her message through her web site, Twitter, and even The Huffington Post.

But the video also says that a group of young Cuban exiles in the U.S. also are part of an American scheme to take down the Castro regime.

"I think it's pretty laughable," said Felice Gorordo, co-founder of Raices de Esperanza (Roots of Hope), which aims to empower Cuban youth in Cuba.

Raices de Esperanza is one of the organizations targeted in the video.

"We don't receive any sort of government support. We're private individuals and volunteers who believe in a passion of connecting with young people on the island," Gorordo said.

In the video the Internet consultant says the U.S. government was behind a plan to install ten WiFi devices throughout Cuba, connected wirelessly through satellites to allow Cubans to easily get online without government supervision.

He also calls the bloggers and independent journalists "enemies."

Nicolas Jimenez has met many of those bloggers. He is the chairman of Caiman Journalism Training, which helps independent journalists on the island.

Jimenez says this is the same rhetoric he's heard before from the Cuban government.

"It either means that they're very good at staying in character or that they leaked it themselves. It's probably not a coincidence that all of this stuff is happening in Egypt and that the meeting happened months ago," Jimenez said.

He says the video is proof that Cuban authorities are still learning about how Cubans communicate.

"The guy giving the presentation gets to explain to his audience what WiFi was. Meanwhile, the rest of the Cuban people are setting up their own networks," said Jimenez.

There is no word on who posted the video.

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