Cuba

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Cuba Thwarts Terrorist Plot Organized From the US
JULY 8, 2024


Building in Havana with Che Guevara and the Cuban flag on its façade. Photo: Pixabay/file photo.

The Cuban Ministry of the Interior (MININT) thwarted a terrorist plot against Cuba that had been organized and financed from the United States.

According to a report published in the Granma newspaper on Sunday, July 7, as a result of the investigation carried out by the specialized bodies of the Minint, Cuban citizen Ardenys García Álvarez was arrested on Friday. García Álvarez had illegally brought firearms and ammunition into Cuba by sea. He had emigrated to the United States illegally in 2014.

Other suspects residing in Cuba were also arrested.

The terror plot was part of a new plan to carry out violent actions in Cuba, said the MININT, adding that in December 2023 the Cuban government published in the Official Gazette of the Republic a list of people and entities that sponsor terrorism against Cuba.

Two days later, on Sunday, preliminary information was released about the neutralization of a new plot to carry out violent actions in Cuba.

The actions of the Cuban Interior Ministry forces dismantled the plans designed, directed and financed from the United States. The ministry had also launched an investigation into the details of the plot and the people involved.

During the primetime broadcast of the National Newscast on Monday, July 8, Cuban television will transmit a special program with evidence of the terrorist plots.

https://orinocotribune.com/cuba-thwarts ... om-the-us/

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Fighting crime, a political battle that cannot be postponed

The Communist Party of Cuba has strengthened the attention, control and permanent evaluation of the issue of crime at all levels, even including it as a priority in the evaluation of the performance of the organizations and their militants

Author: Granma | internet@granma.cu

july 4, 2024 10:07:01


Among the most urgent actions is the effective confrontation with abusive and speculative pricing of goods and services. Photo: Ricardo López Hevia

The 8th Plenary Session of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba, to be held on July 5 and 6, will have as one of the main topics on the agenda the critical analysis of the fulfillment of the actions aimed at preventing and combating corruption, crime, illegality and social indiscipline, an expression of the political will of the leadership of the Revolution to consider them as a strategic priority of the country.

Our Commander-in-Chief, Fidel Castro Ruz, described it in 1993 as "a political battle", the key to maintaining the revolutionary fighting morale, and Army General Raúl Castro Ruz has taught us that it cannot become "just another campaign, but a permanent movement, whose evolution will depend on the ability to mobilize the population and the different actors in each community, without excluding anyone, with rigor and political will".

Faithful to the legacy of our historic leaders, the 8th Party Congress, held in April 2021, ratified the need to strengthen the role of the organization and its militants, with their participation, support and control in all actions of prevention and confrontation of phenomena and manifestations that constitute a threat to national security. The Party event called to be standard bearers in the fight against corruption, dishonesty, abuse of power, favoritism and double standards.

The implementation and fulfillment of the political, governmental, preventive, confrontational, legal-operational, penal, penitentiary and communicative actions developed since then have allowed the current containment of some of the most serious criminal typologies and have avoided the generation of serious emergency situations.

The Ministry of the Interior has continued to strengthen its ministerial integration systems for the prevention and confrontation of delinquency, people with antisocial or risky behavior and their acts, having as a priority the municipality, the popular council and other areas of interest, in which operational potentialities, preventive-prophylactic actions, technological tools and maneuvers with the forces and means of the institution are combined.

This is articulated with the measures adopted by the Office of the Attorney General of the Republic and the Supreme People's Court to increase the rigor and severity in the legal, penal and penitentiary treatment of the accused, or punished, especially in criminal figures of greater damage to society.

The courts punished 96% of the persons tried for illegal acts against life, those related to corruption, drugs, gender violence, illegal slaughter of livestock and trafficking in their meat, against the authorities, property, among others.

The actions of the Public Prosecutor's Office in the control of legality and those of the Comptroller General of the Republic in the correct and transparent management of public funds and the superior control of administrative management have been directed to activities and sectors of greater importance for the country.

The Party has increased the attention, control and permanent evaluation of this issue at all levels and has even included it as a priority in the evaluation of the performance of the organizations and their militants. The Young Communist League, the student organizations, the youth movements, the trade unions, the social and mass organizations have taken concrete steps in order to join and to be more present.

The government, for its part, has been working on the implementation and fulfillment of the General Directives for the Prevention and Fight against Crime, Corruption, Illegality and Social Indiscipline by the agencies, national bodies, provincial governments and municipal administrative councils, making them consistent with the measures to correct the distortions and revive the economy.

However, it is necessary to continue the fight to achieve the reduction of crime and its complex features in certain cases, where acts of violence are seen, reflecting aggressiveness and recklessness, generally manipulated or magnified in subversive campaigns through digital social networks.

The Commander-in-Chief showed us the scope and strategic importance of sowing values to immunize the new generations against the challenges of neoliberal globalization, cultural colonization and economic, commercial, financial and media wars. He warned that to educate is to "sow values, ethics and revolutionary ideals", and "education is the most powerful weapon that man has to create responsibility, ethics, a sense of duty, discipline and solidarity", "without education there is no Revolution", he pointed out, and "the Revolution can only be the daughter of culture and ideas".

To be consistent with his legacy means betting on the integral formation of values in children, adolescents and young people, which requires special attention from educational institutions, community factors, society in general, and greater demands on the responsibility of families, as well as correcting the inadequacies and deviations of these processes.

Likewise, it is necessary to carry out in-depth, objective analyses and to propose concrete, integral, systematic and energetic solutions in the councils of the municipal administration, in order to prevent and combat crime, corruption, social indiscipline, illegalities, and to find solutions -without delay- for people who are disconnected from study and work.

Media, organizational and community communication actions should contribute more effectively to the preventive-prophylactic work, promoting a culture of respect for the law and social coexistence and the rejection of transgressive behavior, without sensationalism or superficiality.

As confirmed by the major analyses of the Political Bureau, the Secretariat of the Party Central Committee, the Council of Ministers, the National People's Power Assembly, the inspection visits to the regions and other leadership events, the work of prevention and confrontation of the administrative institutions must be deepened and made more effective, the cracks in the control environment must be eliminated, the risks and weaknesses in the control of resources must be identified in time and must not be combated with half-measures.

The times call for exemplary and ethical performance of managers, officials and other workers; demand, responsibility and rigor of the administrations in the control and protection of resources; act with a firm hand in the application of measures to those directly and collaterally responsible for the problems detected or known. Integrity and coordination of the actions of prevention and social attention in the communities are required; to increase the revolutionary vigilance and combativeness and the popular control.

The Party has considered that the improvement and strengthening of the mechanisms of state control and inspection cannot be postponed in the short term, in order to make them correspond to the profound changes resulting from the diversification of the economic actors and the complexity of the current situation of the country. It has called for an effective confrontation with abusive and speculative prices of goods and services. All this will undoubtedly contribute to the prevention and maintenance of a climate of order, legality and governability, complementing criminal actions.

The First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Party and President of the Republic, Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, has called on us to "develop a confrontation against illegals, scoundrels, lumpen, lazy and corrupt people, in favor of our people and for the tranquility and honest development of our society.”

The call is for unity, cohesion and revolutionary firmness in defense of the social welfare and the sacred conquests of the people, such as the security and tranquility of the citizens, which have been consolidated and maintained for 65 years despite the constant aggressions, the genocidal blockade and the wars of all kinds waged by the governments of the United States to destabilize, suffocate and overthrow the Revolution.

The report that will be discussed at the 8th Plenary Session of the Central Committee of the Party concludes precisely with the strategic thought of the Commander-in-Chief when, on January 5, 1999, on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the National Revolutionary Police, he declared:

"Today, without abandoning the other tasks, without abandoning a single revolutionary task, including the defense of the homeland with weapons in hand if the time comes, there is the fundamental task, of enormous economic and political transcendence, of fighting and defeating crime. To defeat crime does not mean the dream that crime will disappear from the face of our society, but to reduce it to the minimum expression that is incapable of hitting the Revolution economically, in a serious way, and politically, also in a serious way".

https://en.granma.cu/cuba/2024-07-04/fi ... -postponed

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Cuba faces nation-wide blackout, activists renew calls for an end to the blockade

The inclusion of Cuba on the state sponsors of terrorism list has severely limited the island nation from accessing funds and the international market.

October 18, 2024 by Zoe Alexandra



The Ministry of Energy and Mines in Cuba announced on Friday, October 18, that the National Electrical Energy System had faced a total blackout after the Antonio Guiteras Thermoelectric Power Plant suffered an unexpected outage. The Ministry also stated that the Electrical Union and all competent authorities were working to restore total connection.

Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel responded to the news saying, “From the country’s leadership, we are dedicating absolute priority to the attention and solution of this highly sensitive energy contingency for the nation. There will be no rest until it is restored.”

By Friday evening, the Ministry of Energy and Mines (MINEM) reported that they had advanced with the gradual restoration of the country’s electrical system. According to their report, they had achieved partial generation at ENERGAS, the country’s gas company, to supply energy to the thermoelectric plants and that the micro electric systems in Villa Clara, Holguín Granma and Guantánamo were also able to operate.

The Director of Electricity of MINEM, Engineer Lázaro Guerra Hernández, gave an update on the process in a press conference. He said that, “from the moment that Guiteras went out, the restoration process began. There is already energy that will begin to be distributed to the Santa Cruz del Norte Thermoelectric Power Plant and an engine will be started from the Mariel floating power plant -to where the fuel is being directed at the moment- to provide energy to the CTE of this territory.” He clarified that the restoration process is a meticulous and careful one with no quick fix, but that they are working as fast as they can.

A day prior to the blackout, the general director of the National Electric Union (UNE), Alfredo López Valdés, had given a television broadcast to provide an update on the crisis facing the electrical sector in the country. López Valdés outlined that the primary challenge for the power grid is limitations in securing fuel and a long-standing fuel deficit. More than half of the issues with the electrical grid are due to this issue, he stated.

The general director also presented the country’s comprehensive plan to combat these issues, stating that it was necessary to both optimize the thermoelectric power plants and micro electric systems, as well as guarantee sufficient fuel for these to function.

The blockade is behind the blackout
The biggest obstacle to Cuba obtaining sufficient fuel to maintain its electrical grid is the web of sanctions and coercive measures imposed on the island by the United States. The blockade on Cuba does not only cause significant economic losses, to the tune of 13 million dollars a day, but it also restricts it from accessing markets and even making transactions.

In November 2019, the Trump administration directly sanctioned Cuban company Panamericana Corporation which had been purchasing liquefied natural gas for the consumption of the population, alleging that it was “owned or controlled by, or having acted for or on behalf of, Cubametales, an entity designated on July 3, 2019, for operating in the oil sector of the Venezuelan economy.” The Treasury Deputy Secretary Justin G. Muzinich stated: “Cuba has played a direct role in preventing the return of democracy to Venezuela.”

The Treasury Department statement adds that “Since its designation on July 3, 2019, Cubametales, the Cuban state-run oil import and export company, has faced significant pressure as businesses refuse to conduct business with them as a result of its designation. In response, Cubametales repeatedly offered Corporacion Panamericana S.A. as an intermediary to continue operations and circumvent sanctions.”

The Treasury Department was explicit: Cuba should not be able to purchase fuel to keep its country running because it did not alienate Venezuela at Washington’s behest.

Just over a month after the sanctions were announced on Panamericana, the Cubapetroleo Union said in a statement released in January 2020, that, “Throughout all of 2019, the US Government imposed new and successive sanctions on companies, shipowners, vessels and insurance companies, with the aim of preventing the arrival of fuels to our country.”

They clarified that since the sanctioning of Panamericana Corporation, “The Company’s suppliers refused to make the deliveries planned for the end of December and the beginning of January…it has been taking steps to obtain the supply of LNG from other markets, which has not been achieved. Actions continue to be taken to import LNG.”

Democratic President Joe Biden who was sworn in as president over a month after Trump sanctioned Panamericana did not make any significant changes to the US policy towards Cuba during his four years in office. He maintained the 243 additional sanctions, like the aforementioned one, that Trump imposed on Cuba during his term, and maintained the inclusion of Cuba on the state sponsors of terrorism list, which places an even tighter stranglehold on the nation’s economy and its ability to trade.

The nation-wide blackout that Cuba experienced today is evidence of the serious impacts that the blockade has on the entire population, and prompted many solidarity organizations to renew their calls for Biden to lift the deadly blockade.

The Party for Socialism and Liberation wrote in a statement on X, “End the US blockade NOW! The US blockade of Cuba has led to a nationwide blackout and a crisis in the country’s electrical grid. As part of the blockade, the US government uses its enormous financial and political weight to block fuel shipments and the purchase of highly specialized mechanical parts necessary to repair power plants. The aim of this cruel policy is to make life unlivable for the Cuban people, and engineer a situation that would lead to the overthrow of the Cuban Revolution and its socialist project.”

Manolo De Los Santos, the executive director of the People’s Forum which has coordinated several fundraisers to send humanitarian aid to the Cuban people, wrote on X, “Biden is perpetuating a genocidal war against Cuba, continuing decades of slow extermination through a brutal blockade & the designation of Cuba as a State Sponsor of Terrorism. Today’s total power outage in Cuba is the latest in US efforts to cripple all basic services.”

As the restoration process continues across Cuba, the question remains of why the US government wants to keep Cuba in the dark.

https://peoplesdispatch.org/2024/10/18/ ... -blockade/

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Photovoltaic solar parks in Cuba: a project based on science and innovation

Cuba needs every effort to strengthen its Electric System, and this knowledge is key to achieve such an important objective for the life of the country

Author: Yaima Puig Meneses | informacion@granmai.cu

october 15, 2024 08:10:42


Photo: Estudios Revolución

One of the greatest challenges facing the National Electric System (SEN) is to eliminate the effects on the electric service by increasing the country's generation capacity and, in turn, energy efficiency: the ways to achieve this goal are multiple and complex.
According to the explanation offered by engineer Lázaro Guerra Hernández, general director of Electricity of the Ministry of Energy and Mines (Minem), in conversation with the press team of the Presidency, the strategy followed for the generation of SEN is to prioritize national sources as a support for the energy independence that Cuba needs.
To this end, it is essential, he said, to have a "diversified generation matrix, which prioritizes its own sources, such as domestic crude oil, gas from Cuban oil extraction, and renewable energy sources."
Regarding the last of these three topics, Guerra Hernández said that it is an essentially scientific issue that has been strengthened more strongly in the national territory in the course of the last decade, since the approval, in 2014, of the Policy for the perspective development of renewable energy sources and energy efficiency.
As part of that strategy, the use of photovoltaic solar energy has been promoted in Cuba, for which - since the beginning of 2024 - a broad investment process consisting of two projects is being carried out. The first one will allow the installation of 1,000 megawatts, in a period of two years; the second project, with the same amount of generation, should be ready in 2031.
"There are 26 photovoltaic solar parks that are currently in different phases of construction in all the provinces, which means an enormous constructive effort for the country", stressed Alfredo López Valdés, general director of Electrical Union, when exchanging with the press team.
The engineering of each park, he said, is a science, and although the final result is very similar, the electrical conditions of each place are not exactly the same, which requires an exhaustive work, from the very moment the studies begin to select the place where each one of them will be located.
Precisely, all this effort that is being carried out in the nation was the subject of analysis in the most recent meeting of the National Innovation Council chaired by the First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party and President of the Republic, Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, in which the first results of this cardinal project were presented.
At that meeting, Doctor of Science Lídice Vaillant, head of the Photovoltaic Research Laboratory of the University of Havana, explained that nearly one million photovoltaic panels have already been installed, and another 3.6 million panels will be installed. This means, he stressed, that in two years the power installed in the last ten years will be multiplied by about five times.
"Reaching the proposed installed power by 2031 would place Cuba at an estimated 12% photovoltaic penetration in the country's energy generation," he explained at the CNI meeting.
The two referred projects, said the General Director of Electricity of the Minem, have been worked together with universities, to achieve a design that allows both to be properly integrated into the National Electric System.
T"he installation of the parks is a project based exclusively on science and innovation," he emphasized. "From its conception, it was necessary to think about how such an important generation as solar photovoltaic, which is also variable, could be adequately integrated into the National Electric System, taking into account, above all, the change of paradigm in generation that this means," he said.
According to his assessment, there were many challenges that had to be overcome from the technical point of view to integrate this generation into the electric system, taking into account how variable the photovoltaic solar matrix can be due to the behavior of the climate.
In addition to foreseeing the possible impact on the system, he reflected, it is necessary to train the operators of the farms, the builders and, in general, all those involved in the projects.
This, he reaffirmed, is a holistic project, from its conceptualization to its operation, since a significant number of the country's entities participate in it in an integrated manner.
Hence the importance given by Guerra Hernández to the presentation of the topic at the National Innovation Council, a space in which, from the rigor of science, experts from universities and other scientific institutions made important suggestions in order to contribute to its improvement.
That moment, he valued, became a closure for the research work carried out, which is of constant study and evaluation, and has allowed us to have a more comprehensive design.
Science, innovation, organization, foresight, research and leadership are essential and indispensable elements for the execution and finally implementation of the designed project. Cuba needs all the efforts to strengthen its Electric System, and this knowledge is key in order to achieve such an important objective for the life of the country.

https://en.granma.cu/cuba/2024-10-15/ph ... innovation

System for design: a road travelled and still to be travelled

Cubaindustria 2024, which is in session this week, hosts the Design Forum, with topics dedicated to the analysis of the policy approved for this sector, its relationship with the environment and the circular economy

Author: Yesey Pérez López | internet@granma.cu

june 20, 2024 08:06:38


Cuban designers were part of the multidisciplinary team that created the domestically manufactured pulmonary ventilators. Photo: Courtesy of the Neurosciences Center.

The national context, with progressive economic transformations, defines challenges and new opportunities for design. In order to create the national system of this sector, Decree 88 of the Council of Ministers on Industrial Design and Visual Communication was approved in 2023.
Reaching this milestone was possible thanks to the work developed over decades. "We were pioneers in having an office that is itself considered the first public policy. Thanks to Fidel's strategic thinking, in 1980 an organization was created with the mission to evaluate, develop, train and promote design. It was a truly daring exercise," says Gisela Herrero García, director of the National Design Office (ONDI). The creation of the Evaluation System and the constitution of the Registry of Designers were also steps prior to the current context, the fruits of almost 45 years of work.
The approval of the Policy and the System, specifically, responds to processes that, among other activities, demanded the participation of professionals from various disciplines. Because of its nature, it implies the need for permanent updating.
"The National System is under construction, and I would go so far as to say that it is constantly making itself. Disciplines change, new technologies influence and thinking is transformed. That's why we designers must be prepared to take the tools that allow us to transform a problem in its context."
Although this policy is one of the youngest in the Industry sector, it has a transversal presence in each of the others led by Mindus: Industrial Development, Automation, Industrial Maintenance, Recycling, as well as Packaging.
This relationship, in Gisela's opinion, is a strength for the national economy. "We have to be at its service. We have to be busy putting design in value, once society is able to assimilate it naturally, from its understanding by the industrial interweaving, entrepreneurship, and decision-makers. This also depends on the change of paradigm in its conception and implementation. It is important that it be seen as an investment, and to achieve this it must become a process that adds value. When it is not properly invested, with the strategic thinking that it implies and with the capacity to study how much impact that benefit has had, it is much more likely to be seen as a cost".
Transforming concepts and practices enables new benefits for society. "In an economy of resistance like ours we have to see things in context. The design that is needed in Cuba is the one that allows, more and more, citizens to have access to higher benefits, to a better quality of life, to a culture of detail... And to clear improvements in their daily lives, from objects and productions that are better and better solved", Gisela points out.
RESULTS AND CHALLENGES IN THE NEW PHASE
Almost a year after the approval of the policy, it is possible to speak of results, made possible by the road built and the current actions.
"There are new dialogues with entities and we have achieved more partnerships. The agencies have begun to understand how important the evaluation is as a strategic tool that places them in better conditions, especially commercial ones. The close relationship with Industries has given us the possibility to relate more with this sector from the courses to managers, heads of development, communicators... We also have excellent experiences with the new forms of management that have established dialogues with the Office for different purposes."
The results extend to other sectors. One example is the Cuban Apiculture Enterprise (Apicuba), where transformations were carried out in response to elements detected in the evaluation of the entity and its production. In this way, it was possible to transcend consultancy to place the entities in better conditions. "With a small twist, with small improvements, it is incredible how the result changes and the dimension it reaches is different. These interventions add value to the product and enhance the organization's strategic management capacity."
Other positive aspects are related to the greater understanding, in all sectors of the economy, that communication and branding strategies are essential. It also has an impact on the conception and execution of constructive spaces for production and services.
The priorities on the road ahead are as wide-ranging as the System itself. "It is a priority to continue and further develop activities ranging from the introduction of these notions in the early ages, to the creation of adequate solutions for the elderly. At the organizational level, we must ensure that both design and communication are seen as key areas in the development of companies".
In all scenarios, different forms of relationships are essential to provide superior solutions. "That is where the systemic look lies: in articulating ourselves, in knowing what each one of us can do, always with an eye on processes.
Beyond the challenges, there is a willingness to achieve new results. Gisela confirms: "Without political will we would not be where we are. This is a reality. There is a clear will, seen even in how the design policy itself has managed to see the light of day. It is a strategic tool for conducting training processes. With this view and systemic work, design will follow a less rugged path. Sometimes as a mediator and always as an enhancer of economies, in our case it is even more important that it is not seen as an option, nor that it happens by accident".

https://en.granma.cu/cuba/2024-06-20/sy ... -travelled

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Cuba: Urgent Measures Implemented to Restore Electrical Service Following Recent Electric System Disconnection


Measures are being implemented to restore the system through Energas, creating a link that will extend from Mayabeque to Artemisa, including Havana. Oct 20, 2024 Photo: @JuventudRebelde


October 20, 2024 Hour: 10:41 pm

Estrada detailed that “islands” of electricity are being established in various provinces, such as Matanzas-Cienfuegos-Villa Clara and Ciego de Ávila-Sancti Spíritus, as an estrategy to facilitate distributed generation and improve system stability.

The General Director of the National Cargo Office of SEN, Engineer Félix Estrada Rodríguez, announced that following the recent connection of the electrical system between Artemisa and Holguín, a failure in the 110kV line in the central region caused a service outage.

In response, measures are being implemented to restore the system through Energas, creating a link that will extend from Mayabeque to Artemisa, including Havana.

Estrada detailed that “islands” of electricity are being established in various provinces, such as Matanzas-Cienfuegos-Villa Clara and Ciego de Ávila-Sancti Spíritus, as an estrategy to facilitate distributed generation and improve system stability.

#Cuba Se trabaja para recuperar el #SEN tras la desconexión total. Se crean islas de generación y reorganiza la producción para garantizar el servicio en varias provincias, informó Félix Estrada Rodríguez, director. del Despacho Nacional de Cargas de la @OSDE_UNE
#Cuba pic.twitter.com/7Wusc3ZUjL

— JuventudRebelde (@JuventudRebelde) October 21, 2024
“Work is underway to recover #SEN after the total disconnection. Generation islands are created and production is reorganized to guarantee service in several provinces, reported Felix Estrada Rodriguez, director of the National Load Dispatch of the @OSDE_UNE“

Currently, isolated systems are operating in Granma, Santiago de Cuba, and Guantánamo, while work is underway on an additional microsystem in the central part of the country.

The engineer warned about the need to regulate the frequencies of the electrical system to minimize future disruptions.

Despite the challenges, essential services are being guaranteed through distributed generation, and efforts are being made to ensure that the restoration of the system progresses with the support of trained specialists across the territory.

The situation remains complex, but significant efforts are underway to restore electrical service as soon as possible.

https://www.telesurenglish.net/cuba-urg ... onnection/

Cuba Now Has Fuel for Gradual Restoration of Electrical Service


Energy workers, 2024. X/ @dmarin324


October 21, 2024 Hour: 9:15 am

Minister Vicente de la O Levy expects the country’s electricity supply to be fully restored by Tuesday.

On Monday, the the state-owned company Union Electrica (UNE) confirmed that around 50 percent of Havana’s residents now have power, nearly 72 hours after the total blackout that affected the entire island.

The UNE also emphasized that its “people are not resting” as they work to restore the National Electric System (SEN) following the “national zero power coverage” event that occurred on Friday, which has only been gradually addressed amid repeated setbacks in recent days.

On Sunday, authorities announced that the current strategy to address this crisis is to reorganize the SEN into three regions to facilitate the startup of different generation units. The goal is to reconnect the SEN as quickly as possible to gradually restore service to the nearly ten million inhabitants of the island.

Energy Minister Vicente de la O Levy expects the country’s electricity supply to be fully restored by Tuesday. The first total blackout was recorded last Friday morning, following an unexpected shutdown of the Guiteras thermoelectric plant, one of the largest in the country and considered key to SEN’s stability.

#Cuba | With this rainbow Havana city is gradually restoring electricity power pic.twitter.com/W1QfJOjyo2

— teleSUR English (@telesurenglish) October 21, 2024

On Saturday, efforts to re-energize and restore the SEN failed again, leading to a second total disconnection. In the final hours of that day, the subsystem created in the western half of the island collapsed, requiring restoration efforts to start over.

The SEN is in a very precarious state due to fuel shortages—stemming from a lack of foreign currency to import it—and frequent breakdowns in the outdated thermoelectric plants, which have been in operation for four decades and suffer from chronic underinvestment.

Blackouts have been common for years, but the situation has worsened in recent weeks. In recent days, maximum disruption rates have exceeded 50 percent, meaning that at times, half of the country was simultaneously without power.

The frequent blackouts are damaging Cuba’s economy, which contracted by 1.9 percent in 2023. A similar zero production situation occurred was in September 2022, after Hurricane Ian passed through the island’s western tip. This caused significant disruptions, and the recovery took several days.

https://www.telesurenglish.net/cuba-now ... l-service/

Oscar’s Strong Winds and Rains Hit Cuba and the Southeastern Bahamas


Hurricane Oscar, Oct. 21, 2024. X/ @TsarKastik


October 21, 2024 Hour: 9:41 am

It made landfall in Cuba on Sunday afternoon as a Category 1 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson scale.

On Monday, Tropical Storm Oscar continued to batter the northeastern tip of Cuba with strong winds and heavy rains, having already impacted the Turks and Caicos Islands and the southeast of the Bahamas.

According to the latest data from the U.S.-based National Hurricane Center (NHC), Oscar’s heavy rains are expected to cause flooding through midweek, especially in the Sierra Maestra region of Cuba.

Oscar weakened early Monday morning to a tropical storm over Cuban territory but continues to affect the northeastern part of the island with strong winds and intense rainfall, according to the latest report from the national Meteorological Institute (Insmet).

The eye of Oscar, which made landfall in Cuba on Sunday afternoon as a Category 1 hurricane (on a scale of 5) on the Saffir-Simpson scale, has weakened over the last few hours and now has winds of 85 kilometers per hour (about 53 mph).

The rains, at times accompanied by thunderstorms, have produced accumulations exceeding 300 millimeters (or liters per square meter) in some areas, such as Punta Maisí, which recorded 362.2 millimeters of rainfall in 24 hours.


Between 3 a.m. and 6 a.m., the highest rainfall accumulations were reported at the Caujerí Valley meteorological station (278.0 millimeters) and the Moa Dam (131.0 millimeters). No personal or material damages have been reported so far, although it is expected that there will be impacts on the region’s basic infrastructure, housing stock, and agricultural sector.

Oscar has slowed even further and is now moving at about 4 kilometers per hour (about 2.5 mph), leading experts to estimate that its passage through Cuba will last over 24 hours. Cuban experts expect that Oscar will change direction significantly in the coming hours, tracing nearly a “U” turn, from a west-southwest to a north-northeast direction, and will exit Cuban territory toward the Atlantic.

Insmet forecasts that the rains will continue in the coming hours, becoming heavy and intense in some areas and mountainous regions, with accumulations of up to 200 millimeters. Winds are expected to reach up to 90 kilometers per hour (about 56 mph).

Strong waves will also persist along the northern coast of the easternmost provinces, and moderate to strong coastal flooding is expected in low-lying areas of that coastline, including the Baracoa Malecón. Authorities have declared a cyclone warning phase for the provinces of Guantánamo, Santiago, Holguín, Granma, and Las Tunas, while Camagüey remains under alert phase.

Oscar’s arrival comes just over two days after Cuba experienced a total blackout, from which recovery has been slow and unstable. Due to the blackout and Hurricane Oscar, the Cuban government has suspended all non-essential administrative and educational activities nationwide until Wednesday. Authorities have also urged the population to stay informed about the storm’s progress.

Oscar became a Category 1 hurricane on Saturday after rapidly intensifying and has already affected the Turks and Caicos Islands and the southeast of the Bahamas. It is the fifteenth tropical storm of the current Atlantic hurricane season, though the U.S. National Hurricane Center has described it as “small.”

The meteorological services of the U.S. and Cuba had already warned months ago that this Atlantic hurricane season, which runs from June 1 to November 30, would be especially active.

https://www.telesurenglish.net/oscars-s ... n-bahamas/

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Cuba: Havana’s electricity system fully restored
October 23, 2024 Laura Mor


Havana’s main water pumping and purifying facility. Photo: Bill Hackwell

Empresa Eléctrica UNE reported through its usual Telegram channel the reestablishment of the electric system in the Cuban capital, after a new total nationwide disconnection suffered yesterday.

Yesterday at 4:01 pm (local time), Havana’s electricity service was fully restored, according to the report issued by the company, although some breakdowns and minor damages persist in some neighborhoods.

Work is still being carried out to solve these problems as soon as possible to guarantee a stable supply to the population.

However, the impossibility of maintaining constant flows in the acquisition of fuel necessary for the operation and maintenance of the country’s thermoelectric power plants continues to be an aggravating factor in the current situation regarding the sustainability of the electric service, beyond the announced reestablishment. Until the blockade is ended once and for all and Cuba is allowed to trade normally with the world this types of crisis will re occur.

We must always remember that Cuba is going through an energy crisis, caused by this lack of raw material acquisition in the international market; directly caused by the existence of the economic, commercial and financial blockade imposed by the United States and its extraterritorial nature, as was denounced by President Miguel Díaz-Canel in his last public appearance.

The water supply system in Havana has also been affected by the energy contingency, since it practically depends on electric energy, which led to the adoption of strategies to sustain basic issues in the aqueduct systems.

In this sense, the Empresa Aguas de La Habana reported on the prioritization of basic services to hospitals and other critical places; meanwhile work furiously continues in order to guarantee that the total supply will be available for the population.

Source: Cuba en Resumen

https://www.struggle-la-lucha.org/2024/ ... -restored/

******

Cuba: Blackout and Blockade
October 25, 2024


Cuba flag. Photo: Resumen Latinoamericano - English/File photo.

By La Jornada Editorial – Oct 21, 2024

Cuba is going through its greatest energy crisis, with practically the entire island and almost ten million out of its 11 million inhabitants deprived of electricity. The blackouts—which have been occurring with increasing frequency and duration for some time now—turned into a total collapse of the electrical system as a result of the shutdown of its main thermoelectric plant on Thursday 17, which forced the suspension of classes, programs, and the closure of almost all economic activity while the authorities and technicians worked to reestablish the power supply. The population fears that this situation could lead to an imminent famine due to food putrefaction.

The immediate cause of the crisis lies in the lack of fuel to feed their thermoelectric power plants, worsened by a climatic situation that delayed the arrival of a ship with fuel oil. However, the ultimate cause is the same as the one shared by the island’s major and minor problems: the commercial and financial blockade imposed by Washington more than six decades ago, with the declared purpose of starving the Cuban population and forcing it to ‘rise up’ against its authorities. Although that sinister objective has been frustrated, the endless difficulties Havana has to face to raise foreign currency and acquire essential supplies have indeed led the country to a severe shortage of everything necessary for daily life.

It is often recognized that the argument of the blockade is a mere pretext and the criminal nature of the dozens of laws and decrees that make up the most dense network of unarmed aggressions directed against a sovereign nation is forgotten. As an island located in the Caribbean Sea, Cuba’s natural economic vocation lies in tourism, and its location only 144 kilometers from the US imperial entity makes their citizens its logical and simplest market. But Washington’s illegal regulations prohibit its citizens from traveling to the island. The illegal application of sanctions not only affects the inhabitants of the superpower, but any company, from anywhere on the planet, that buys or sells any object—be it an onion, a cancer drug, or a notebook for children to study—to Havana is subject to prosecution and crushing by the country that dictatorially controls the global financial system. One of the most important sources of income for practically all Latin American and Caribbean states, the remittances sent by their nationals working abroad, is also closed to Cuba because it is not allowed to access international payment systems, one of the many tentacles of US imperialism.

Since Hugo Chávez democratically came to power in Venezuela at the head of the Bolivarian Revolution, Caracas has provided invaluable assistance to the Cuban people with its shipments of hydrocarbons. But as Washington has made Venezuelans victims of the same atrocities it perpetrates against Cubans, the government of Nicolás Maduro has been forced to cut down on its aid to Cuba, which has ended up overwhelming an extremely precarious situation. Likewise, Havana is prevented from buying machinery, tools and spare parts to reverse the deterioration of the electric power infrastructure, so the failures will continue to be structural as long as Washington’s boot suffocates the island. Cuba is also not allowed access to the technologies needed to undertake transitions in energy production, despite the fact that, in their discourse, the current occupant of the White House and other Western leaders proclaim themselves to be promoters of the fight against climate change.

In this century, with the exception of the Israeli settler entity over the Palestinian people, no state has been as systematically and enduringly sadistic with a civilian population as the US colonial entity in its onslaught against the Cubans. The human suffering and the stripping of any prospect of a dignified life in their own land are testimony to the total disregard of the US imperial political class for the welfare of the people and the freedom in the name of which they speak.

(Resumen Latinoamericano – English)

https://orinocotribune.com/cuba-blackout-and-blockade/

Italics added because that's what I wanted to know. But where are the Chinese comrades in this hour of need?

[blindpig]

Internationalism: Is It Dead or Dying?

It is difficult to think about Cuba without engaging emotionally. I couldn’t get back to sleep the other night, distressed over the tragic blackout of nearly the entire country with a hurricane approaching.

Yes, the genocide in Palestine and Lebanon evokes similar fits of emotion and sleeplessness; the actions of the Israeli government are obscenely bestial and criminal. Yet Cuba, because of its over six decades of defiance of US imperialism and its enormous sacrifices for other peoples, holds a special place for me.

No country with so little has done so much for others.

In the first half of the twentieth century, the example of the selfless support for the struggling Spanish Republic defined solidarity with others as well as internationalism. The Soviet Union sent weapons and advisors, defying the great-power blockade and confronting German Nazi and Italian Fascist support for the military insurrectionists. Tens of thousands of volunteers, largely organized by the Communist International, came to Spain clandestinely, overcoming closed borders, to defend the nascent Republic.

Millions rallied in support of the Republic-- though it fell, in significant part because of the indifference and active hostility of the so-called democracies. How was it-- many came to see for the first time-- that democracies would not defend an emerging democracy?

For the last sixty years, tiny Cuba has been the beacon of solidarity and internationalism for later generations. Cuban internationalists have aided and fought alongside nearly every legitimate liberation movement, every movement for socialism in Asia, Africa, and South America. Cuban doctors and relief workers have rushed to disasters in uncountable countries. Wherever need arose, Cubans were the first to volunteer, including in the US (Hurricane Katrina), the country where the government has been most damaging to Cuba’s fate.

It was not so long ago that Cuba organized assistance to the Vietnamese freedom fighters.

Even more recently, we should remember, as well, those heroes sacrificing life and limb helping liberate the Portuguese colonies of Angola, Mozambique, and Guinea-Bissau. Cubans heroically gave their lives fighting and defeating the racist military of Apartheid South Africa and the US’s surrogates, inflicting one of the most significant blows against US imperialism since the Vietnam war. The US ruling class has never forgotten this humiliating defeat.

Undoubtedly, Apartheid would have eventually fallen, but those tens of thousands of Cuban volunteers hastened that end by many, many years.

But Cubans were sacrificing for others’ freedom before that remarkable struggle and after. Paraphrasing the song about Joe Hill, wherever people were struggling, you would find Cuban internationalists-- from Lumumba’s Congo to Allende’s Chile, from Bishop’s Grenada to Chavez’s Venezuela.

Some will remember that when Nelson Mandela was freed, he chose to first visit Cuba to thank the Cuban people for their contribution to African liberation.

Of course, Cuba alone lacked the material resources to confront the well-armed Apartheid military and their Western-armed African collaborators. Beside Cuba and behind Cuba was the material and military support of the Soviet Union. This legacy of Soviet internationalism, combined with the inspiring selflessness of Fidel’s Cuba, gave hope to many millions fighting to free themselves from the yoke of imperialism and capitalism.

Without a doubt, the overarching cause of Cuba’s ongoing pain is the United States and its closest allies. The great powers have never forgiven Cuba for mounting the first and only socialist revolution in the Americas, as they have never forgiven Haiti for showing that African slaves could rise and defeat a great power and free an enslaved people. The US blockade of Cuba has done irreparable harm to a people hoping to develop and follow an independent political course. Imperialism punishes a people that values its sovereignty with the same uncompromising integrity as it demonstrates with its passionate commitment to solidarity with others and its selfless internationalism.

Yet the Cuban people persevere. It does not go unnoticed by the plotters at the CIA and other nefarious agencies and the State Department that-- even in its most weakened state, its most challenging moments-- the Cuban people keep the torch lit that was passed on to them by Fidel. Despite the best efforts of the capitalist behemoth to the North, Cuban socialism endures.

In better times, the Soviet Union generously aided Cuba on its chosen development path. Lacking few industrially desirable resources and despite the stultifying effects of centuries of imperialist exploitation, Soviet aid enabled Cuba to integrate into the socialist community’s Council of Mutual Economic Assistance (CMEA) on an equal, even privileged, footing. The capitalist media often compared CMEA aid to Cuba to the US’s robust aid to Israel. Ironically, Cuba used the aid to become a force for global social justice, while Israel has used the US subsidy to make mischief, to become a force for genocidal campaigns to create a “greater” Israel.

But Soviet aid is gone.

It is a source of sorrow, and not a little shame, that no country avowing the socialist road or benefitting from Cuba’s sacrifices has stepped up to even partially fill the void. Sure, countries thought to be “friends” of Cuba have made strong statements condemning the blockade, have made “fraternal” gestures, and have sent token shipments of basic foodstuffs, but not nearly enough to allow Cuba to step away from the dire economic disaster that has been multiplied a hundred-fold by the US blockade.

Lands where Cuban internationalist fighters are buried in the soil, lands with abundant energy resources, lands with modern economies that dwarf the former Soviet economy, fail to remember Cuba’s selfless sacrifices with pledges to help or to organize help at this particularly difficult moment. It may be presumptuous to expect the recipients of Cuban friendship and solidarity to make similar sacrifices for Cuba-- that is what makes the legacy of Fidelismo so special in the annals of socialism. But surely, those countries could individually or collectively repair and guarantee Cuba’s basic infrastructure without great sacrifice-- to give Cuba the minimal means to survive the punishment that imperialism has imposed.

It must be said that “socialism with national characteristics” seems to exclude the internationalism so central to socialism in the twentieth century.

In truth, what kind of socialism fails to sacrifice little to aid a struggling socialist country strangling from a capitalist blockade?

On a personal note, I remember well passing back through Checkpoint Charlie-- the famous portal between German socialism and German capitalism. Tourists and others from the West, seeking to visit East Berlin had to return via the checkpoint. They learned on their return that they could neither exchange nor keep remaining GDR currency used while in the German Democratic Republic. Guards helpfully offered the often-unhappy returnees an option. They pointed to a large vessel brimming with cash with a sign in several languages: “Help rebuild Vietnam.”

I felt pride in knowing that I was a small part of a global movement determined to help rebuild what imperialism had torn down.

I see that pledge to internationalism again honored in the refusal of workers to load ammunition bound for Israel in the port of Piraeus, Greece.

I can only hope that the socialism of the twenty-first century will restore the internationalism that was a signature of the socialism of the twentieth century.

Greg Godels

zzsblogml@gmail.com

http://zzs-blg.blogspot.com/2024/11/int ... dying.html

I have to agree that I would expect China to do more to aid Cuba in this hour of need and must assume that relations with the US and China's long range strategic goals might be limiting this. Maintaining it's sovereignty is China's primary necessity, without sovereignty nothing else is possible.

[blindpig]

When Lights Go Out in Cuba, Media Blame Communism—Not US Sanctions
Paul Hedreen



Cuba is in the midst of an ongoing humanitarian crisis, and October’s widespread power outages are only adding to the Cuban people’s troubles. For the last six decades, Cuba has been on the receiving end of myriad sanctions by the United States government. This blockade has proved devastating to human life.

Reporting on Cuba’s blackouts have either omitted or paid brief lip-service to the effects of US sanctions on the Cuban economy, and how those sanctions have created the conditions for the crisis. Instead, media have focused on the inefficient and authoritarian Communist government as the cause of the island’s troubles.

Pulping the economy

Michael Galant (The Hill, 1/5/24): “Businesses and financial institutions, including many from outside the United States, often elect to sever all connections to Cuba rather than risk being sanctioned themselves for association with ‘a sponsor of terror.'”

One of President Donald Trump’s final acts in office was to re-designate Cuba as a State Sponsor of Terrorism, after President Barack Obama had removed them from the list in 2015 as a part of his Cuban thaw. Inclusion on the list subjects a country to restrictions on US foreign aid and financing, but, more importantly, the SSoT list encourages third-party over-compliance with sanctions. “Businesses and financial institutions, including many from outside the United States, often elect to sever all connections to Cuba rather than risk being sanctioned themselves,” The Hill (1/5/24) reported.

Trump reportedly added Cuba to the list for harboring members of FARC and ELN, two left-wing Colombian armed movements. However, Colombian President Gustavo Petro later “noted that Colombia itself, in cooperation with the Obama administration, had asked Cuba to host the FARC and ELN members as part of peace talks,” the Intercept (12/14/23) wrote. Indeed, if Cuba deported the dissidents, they would have been in violation of the protocols of the peace talks, which they were bound to by international law (The Nation, 2/24/23).

President Joe Biden has not begun the process of reviewing Cuba’s inclusion on the list, despite his campaign promises to the contrary.

The terror designation, plus the many other sanctions imposed by Trump and continued by Biden, are no small potatoes. Ed Augustin wrote at Drop Site (10/1/24) that

the terror designation, together with more than 200 sanctions enacted against the island since Obama left office, has pulped the Cuban economy by cutting revenue to the struggling Cuban state…. The combined annual cost of the Trump/Biden sanctions, [economists] say, amounts to billions of dollars a year.

Augustin argued that the economic warfare regime is a root cause of the rolling blackouts, water shortages and mass emigration that have plagued Cuba in recent years. Even imports that are ostensibly exempt from sanctions, like medication, are caught in the dragnet as multinational companies scramble to cut ties with the island. Banks are so reluctant to run afoul of US sanctions, Augustin wrote, “that often, even when the state can find the money to buy, and a provider willing to sell, there’s simply no way of making the payment.”

Cuba’s pariah status as a SSoT has put a stranglehold on its economy, and its government’s ability to administer public services. However, US restrictions on Cuba are almost never mentioned in US coverage, and reporting on the recent blackouts is no exception.

Cash-strapped Communists

Reuters (10/10/19): “Tougher US sanctions against Cuba have led international banks to avoid transactions involving the island, while prospective overseas investors put plans on hold.”

Coverage has emphasized the inability of Cuba’s government to pay for necessary fuel imports. The New York Times (10/19/24) reported “the strapped Communist government could barely afford” to pay for fuel. Elsewhere, the Times (10/18/24) claimed “a severe economic crisis and the cash crunch it produced made it harder for Cuba to pay for those fuel imports.”

The Washington Post (10/18/24) made broadly similar arguments, chalking the blackouts up to “a shortage of imported oil and the cash-strapped government’s insufficient maintenance of the creaky grid.”

The “cash crunch” referenced by the Times is not just the result of an abstract economic crisis, as is implied. Instead, it is a direct effect of US sanctions on financial institutions. During the Obama administration, European banks, including ING and BNP Paribas, were fined to the tune of over $10 billion for transacting with Cuba (Jacobin, 3/27/22). Even before Cuba was choked further as a result of their SSoT designation, reporting by Reuters (10/10/19) showed the extent to which banks were terminating operations with Cuba and Cuban entities:

Many Western banks have long refused Cuba-related business for fear of running afoul of US sanctions and facing hefty fines.… Panama’s Multibank shut down numerous Cuba-related accounts this year and European banks are restricting clients associated with Cuba to their own nationals, if that.…

Businessmen and diplomats said large French banks, including Societe Generale, no longer want anything to do with Cuba, and some are stopping payments to pensioners living on the Caribbean island.… For the first time in years, the island has had problems financing the upcoming sugar harvest. Various joint venture projects, from golf resorts to alternative energy, are finding it nearly impossible to obtain private credit.

This de-risking by financial institutions manufactures a cash-scarce economy. Cuba’s inability to procure cash for imports is not a function of financial mismanagement, or a lack of credit-worthiness. Instead, it is a deliberate effect of American foreign policy. By omitting the actions of the most powerful government on earth, mainstream coverage allows that only Cuban failures could be the cause of a shortage of cash.

‘Terrorism’ cuts off tourism

Britain’s ambassador to Cuba told the Telegraph (11/6/23), “Those who come are profoundly shocked at what the SSOT designation is doing to the people here.”

Cuba has historically used tourism as a way of bringing money into the economy, but lately the Cuban tourism industry has been severely depressed. The explanation employed by corporate media for the decline of this industry is to blame the extended effects of the pandemic recession (New York Times, 10/19/24; Washington Post, 10/18/24).

This explanation, however, is incomplete. Cuba has indeed had a lackluster rebound in their tourism industry, but the Times and the Post fail to explain why Cuba has faltered while other Caribbean islands have more than re-achieved their pre-pandemic tourist numbers.

Travelers from Britain, Australia, Japan and 37 other countries do not need to procure a visa for travel to the United States. Instead, they can use ESTA, an electronic visa waiver. This greatly reduces the cost and the annoyance of obtaining permission to visit the US. However, since Cuba’s 2021 listing as a SSoT, any visit to the country by an ESTA passport-holder revokes the visa waiver, for life (Telegraph, 11/6/23). In other words, any Brit (or Kiwi, or Korean, and so on) who visits Cuba must, for the rest of their lives, visit a US embassy and pay $180 before being able to enter the United States. US policy, not a Covid hangover, is hamstringing any possibility of a resurgence in tourism to Cuba.

Blame game
During Cuba’s most recent energy crisis, the New York Times published three stories describing the blackouts. Two of these stories mention the US blockade only as something that the Cuban government blames for the crisis.

The New York Times (10/21/24) presented the idea that the US is punishing Cuba’s economy as a Communist allegation: “The Cuban government blames the power crisis on the US trade embargo, and sanctions that were ramped up by the Trump administration.”

The headline on the Times website (10/21/24) read: “A Nationwide Blackout, Now a Hurricane. How Much Can Cuba Endure?” The paper was right to report on the humanitarian crisis ongoing in Cuba, but it chose to downplay the most important root cause: the decades-long US blockade on Cuba’s economy and its people.

That same story described Cuba as “a Communist country long accustomed to shortages of all kinds and spotty electrical service.” Why is the country so used to shortages? Eleven paragraphs later, the Times gave an explanation, or at least, Cuba’s explanation:

The Cuban government blames the power crisis on the US trade embargo, and sanctions that were ramped up by the Trump administration, which severely restricts the Cuban government’s cash flow. The US Department of the Treasury blocks tankers that have delivered oil to Cuba, which drives up the island’s fuel costs, because Cuba has a limited pool of suppliers available to it.

Earlier coverage by the Times (10/18/24) similarly couched the effects of the blockade as merely a claim by Cuba. The Washington Post (10/22/24) also situated the blockade as something that “the Cuban government and its allies blame” for the ongoing crisis.

To report that Cuban officials blame the US sanctions for the energy crisis is a bit like reporting that fishermen blame the moon for the rising tide. It is of course factual that US trade restrictions–which affect not just US businesses, but also multinational businesses based in other countries–are a blunt weapon, with impact against not just a government, but an entire people.

At the very least, it is incumbent upon journalists to do at least minimal investigation and explanation of the facts concerning the subject of their reporting. None of the coverage in either major paper bothered to investigate whether this was a fair explanation, or even to report generally the effects a 60-year blockade might have on an economy.

Brief—and buried

“Cuban economists and foreign analysts blamed the crisis on several factors,” the New York Times (10/19/24) reported; 18 paragraphs later, the story gets around to mentioning US sanctions.

On October 19, the Times gave its most complete explanation of the relationship between the US sanctions regime and the Cuban blackouts:

Cuba’s economy enjoyed a brief honeymoon with the United States during the Obama administration, which sought to normalize relations after decades of hostility, while keeping a longstanding economic embargo in place. President Donald J. Trump reversed course, leading to renewed restrictions on tourism, visas, remittances, investments and commerce.

This explanation can be found in the 31st paragraph of the 37-paragraph story. Only once the Times has painted a picture of all the ways the Communist government has gone wrong can there be a brief mention of the role of US sanctions. And how brief it is; the Times chose not to detail the extent of blockade against Cuba, nor how Cuba was wrongfully placed on the SSoT list, nor the failure of Biden to reevaluate Cuba’s status as he promised on the campaign trail.

Describing the US starvation of Cuba’s economy in abstract terms like “economic crisis” provides cover for deliberate policy decisions by the US government. By reporting on the embargo only as something that the Cuban government claims, it is easy for readers to dismiss that explanation as simply a Communist excuse. Instead of asking why the United States is choosing to enforce a crippling sanctions regime on another country, outlets like the New York Times find it easier to repeat the line that Cuba’s government has only itself to blame for its problems.

https://fair.org/home/when-lights-go-ou ... sanctions/

[blindpig]

Cuba goes immediately into recovery after Hurricane Rafael leaves the island
November 8, 2024 Leticia Martinez Hernandez



News coming out of Cuba is spotty this morning as the second hurricane in a week has pounded the island, once again knocking out the compromised national electric grid of the blockaded country.

Ed Newman from Radio Havana Cuba has reported that Hurricane Rafael, which followed a trajectory that passed between Pinar del Rio and Artemisa in the western part of the country, left the island last night at 8 p.m. leaving behind significant damage but at this time there are no reports of any deaths.

Nov. 7 — As soon as Hurricane Rafael began to leave Cuba, the National Defense Council, headed by President Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, met to evaluate the steps to be taken after the strong impact of this meteorological phenomenon.

We are going immediately to the recovery, with no time to lose, from the early hours of Thursday, said President Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, when heading, on Wednesday evening, the meeting of the National Defense Council, in which the next steps were evaluated, after the strong impact of Hurricane Rafael.

The meteorological phenomenon reached the western zone of Cuba with category three, and registered winds of over 180 kilometers per hour.

Accompanied by the members of the Political Bureau of the Party, Manuel Marrero Cruz, Prime Minister, and the Secretary of Organization of the Central Committee, Roberto Morales Ojeda, as well as the heads of several ministries, the President indicated to make the preliminary assessment of the damages during the night and early morning, in order to make the first analysis early in the morning, and trigger the recovery process.

The President will be, with several ministers, touring the affected areas as from Thursday, to assess the damage on the ground and make decisions.

The Minister of Economy and Planning, Joaquín Alonso Vázquez, head of the Economic-Social Group of the National Defense Council, informed about the measures taken for the protection of people and material goods, the distribution of the standard family food basket, the anticipated harvests, the production of bread, the supply of fuel to the generators, the protection of vessels, the preparation of the brigades for the recovery, among other decisions.

The implementation of the strategy to connect the National Electric System, which has been down since Wednesday afternoon due to the strong winds of the hurricane, is underway, for which electric subsystems are being created in the Center and the East.

The revision of the distribution lines in the West has begun in order to start the recovery of the electric service.

Source: Granma, translation Resumen Lationamericano – English

To make an urgent donation to help Cuba’s recovery from Hurricanes Rafael and Oscar visit Peoples Forum

https://secure.givelively.org/donate/pe ... tarian-aid

https://www.struggle-la-lucha.org/2024/ ... he-island/

Venezuela sends aid to Cuba in response to Hurricane Rafael
November 8, 2024 teleSUR



November 7, 2024 – On Wednesday night, Venezuelan President Maduro expressed his solidarity with the Cuban people as Rafael, a Category 3 hurricane, made landfall with winds reaching up to 175 kilometers per hour.

“We are sending a ship with humanitarian aid that will arrive in Cuba in four days. We are preparing a second shipment with additional aid,” he said, referring to a load of approximately 300 tons that includes supplies, construction materials, and first aid equipment.

“Solidarity and brotherhood will continue to be the fundamental principles uniting our nations,” Venezuelan Foreign Affairs Minister Yvan Gil affirmed from La Guaira port.

Rafael caused significant damage in Artemisa, Mayabeque, and Havana, three provinces where the electricity service was cut off. In Artemisa, authorities reported damage to hospitals, schools, homes, roofs, and the electrical grid. In Mayabeque, the main impacts occurred in banana and cassava crops.

Hurricane Rafael made landfall at 4:20 p.m. local time (9:20 p.m. GMT) along the southern coast of the Artemisa province and left Cuban territory more than two hours later via the northern coast of Pinar del Río. The Cuban Meteorological Institute recorded winds up to 185 kilometers per hour (115 mph) and rainfall reaching 200 millimeters (7.9 inches).

On Thursday, while rains continue in Cuba, President Miguel Diaz-Canel confirmed that his administration is focusing its efforts on infrastructure recovery tasks following the hurricane’s passage.

Lazaro Guerra, the Director of Electricity at the Ministry of Energy, reported that the power supply had already been restored in several areas of Matanzas, Sancti Spíritus, and Holguín.

By midday Thursday, Rafael was moving toward Mexico at 155 km/h (96 mph), impacting the weather conditions in El Salvador, where afternoon and nighttime rain and storms are expected.

https://www.struggle-la-lucha.org/2024/ ... ne-rafael/

A Cuban perspective on race and revolution
November 9, 2024 Gregory E. Williams


A sign reading 'La Habana de todos' or 'Havana for everyone' in downtown Havana, Cuba, in 2023. Photo: Gregory E. Williams.

Part 1: Populists fought the ruling class
Part 2: Populism or fascism?
Part 3: The history of Black Populism
Part 4: Two paths after slavery's end
Part 5: A Cuban perspective on race and revolution
In preparing Part 4 of this series on the history of the populist movement, I included a section comparing the starkly different post-slavery trajectories of Cuba and the US While preparing that material, I spoke with a young Cuban woman of African descent. We met her during our US Friends Against Homophobia and Transphobia delegation to Havana in 2023. Here, she is identified as “R” for “respondent.”

Gregory E. Williams: My article concerns the legacy of the Civil War in the United States. Both Cuba and the US abolished slavery after a long struggle. But the reality in the two countries is quite different today because of the two different social systems: capitalism in the US and socialism in Cuba.

Cuba doesn't have racist housing discrimination or police murdering hundreds of Black people every year like in the US So I am comparing that in one section of the article.

What do you think about the progress Cuba has made regarding equality of people of African descent since 1959? Does Cuba have racism in any way comparable to the United States?

A : In Cuba, the triumph of the Revolution in 1959 brought radical changes to the lives of people of African descent. But, although the progress is unquestionable, manifestations of racial discrimination still persist since it is not so easy to reverse centuries of racist and discriminatory attitudes in 65 years.

In 2019, the National Program Against Racism and Racial Discrimination was created as a strategy at the highest management level to provide a definitive solution to these issues.

However, it is important to mention that the signs of discrimination based on skin color, which may still be present in Cuban society, are not at all comparable to the situation in the United States. All Cubans equally enjoy the same rights and access to opportunities under the legal protection of the Constitution of the Republic.

GEW : This gives a good context for people to understand. Of course, racism is a continuing problem because of the centuries of racist colonial oppression, as you say. But, Cuba is proactive and making new advances, not just resting on the old achievements of the revolution.

This is one thing I really respect about the Cuban revolutionary approach. As with gender and sexual rights — areas where Cuba is advancing — it is a question of how to move forward. By contrast, with the capitalist class's attacks in the US, we are moving backward.

GEW : My article is about the legacy of the Civil War in the United States. Both Cuba and the United States abolished slavery after a long struggle. But the reality in the two countries is quite different today because of the two different social systems: capitalism in the United States and socialism in Cuba.

Cuba doesn't have racist housing discrimination or police officers who murder hundreds of African-Americans every year like in the United States. So I'm comparing that in one section of the article.

What do you think about the progress Cuba has made in terms of equality for people of African descent since 1959? Does Cuba have a level of racism comparable to that of the United States?

A : In Cuba, the triumph of the Revolution in 1959 brought with it radical changes in the lives of Afro-descendants. But, although the progress is unquestionable, manifestations of racial discrimination still persist, since it is not so easy to reverse centuries of racist and discriminatory attitudes in 65 years.

In 2019, the National Program against Racism and Racial Discrimination was created as a strategy, at the highest level of management, to provide a definitive solution to these issues.

However, it is important to mention that the examples of skin color discrimination that may still be present in Cuban society are in no way comparable to the situation in the United States. All Cubans enjoy the same rights and access to opportunities under the legal protection of the Constitution of the Republic.

GEW : This provides a good context for people to understand. Of course, racism is an ongoing problem because of centuries of racist colonial oppression, as you say. But Cuba is proactive and making new progress, and not simply building on old achievements of the revolution.

This is something I really respect about the Cuban revolutionary approach. As with gender and sexual rights – areas where Cuba is making progress – it is a question of how to move forward. Instead, with the attacks of the capitalist class in the United States, we are going backwards.

https://www.struggle-la-lucha.org/2024/ ... evolution/

[blindpig]

A frontal assault against the effect of hurricanes and earthquakes
The National Defense Council reviewed the actions for the gradual recovery in all the affected territories

Author: René Tamayo León | internet@granma.cu

november 12, 2024 09:11:16


Photo: Estudios Revolución

The President of the National Defense Council (CDN), Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, highlighted the intense work being carried out in Granma and Santiago de Cuba provinces in response to the effects of Sunday's earthquakes, in the proximities of Pilón; the one being waged in Artemisa, Havana and Mayabeque to recover from Hurricane Rafael; and the one being carried out by Guantánamo's people to erase the traces of Hurricane Oscar.
The First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Party and President of the Republic headed yesterday, through videoconference, the CDN check-up, which was also headed by the members of the Political Bureau, Manuel Marrero Cruz, Prime Minister; Roberto Morales Ojeda, Secretary of Organization of the Central Committee, and Salvador Valdés Mesa, Vice President of the Republic.
In view of the current seismic situation, special measures have been adopted in Santiago de Cuba for this whole week, including the amplification of information to the population, in which, after overcoming the psychological effect of the tremor south of Pilon, the perception of danger is decreasing, informed the first secretary of the Provincial Committee of the Party, Beatriz Johnson Urrutia, for whom it is still necessary to remain alert.
She explained that this Monday night an exercise of the direction systems in the province was planned to be carried out, in case of a high intensity earthquake.
She recalled that the National Center for Seismological Research (Cenais) has registered since Sunday more than 1 130 aftershocks, more than fifty of them perceptible.
According to preliminary data, in Santiago de Cuba, more than 230 houses were affected by the earthquake in the municipalities closest to the epicenter. Damages are reported in some state, educational and health institutions, among others.
About the situation in Granma, the CDN was informed by the member of the Secretariat of the Central Committee, Jorge Luis Broche Lorenzo, who highlighted the organized response that the political and government authorities of the province have given in the face of the earthquake.
He highlighted the work of the members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces, the Ministry of the Interior, Public Health, the Electrical Union and the rest of the institutions.
In Granma province, he summarized, they have acted "with professionalism and speed" before this "sudden event of great magnitude."


Photo: Estudios Revolución

https://en.granma.cu/cuba/2024-11-12/a- ... arthquakes

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Venezuela Expresses Solidarity With Cuba After Earthquakes
November 12, 2024


Debris from a building damaged by Hurricane Rafael covers the street in Havana, Cuba. Photo: Ariel Ley/AP.

Venezuelan officials expressed their solidarity with the brother people and government of Cuba following the two strong earthquakes reported on Sunday, November 10, in its territory. The earthquakes had magnitudes of 6.0 and 6.8, which shook the entire island and generated moments of anguish in the population just hours after Hurricane Rafael passed.

The information was released by Venezuelan Minister for Foreign Affairs Yván Gil through a statement posted on his Telegram account.

In the statement, Venezuela and its people reaffirm their admiration for and firm will to provide unconditional support, once again placing themselves at the service of the brotherly people of Cuba to provide any necessary assistance.



The full unofficial translation of the statement is below:

The Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela expresses its absolute solidarity with the brother people and government of the Republic of Cuba following the two strong earthquakes recorded today in its territory, with magnitudes of 6.0 and 6.8, which have shaken the entire island and caused moments of anguish among the population.

In these times of adversity, Venezuela and its people reaffirm their admiration and firm will to provide unconditional support and once again place themselves at the service of the brotherly people of Cuba to provide any necessary assistance.

The Bolivarian government remains attentive to the cooperation plans that Cuba determines to organize aid and reiterates its willingness to provide all the solidarity support of our nation in this difficult situation.

Caracas, November 10, 2024.

Two powerful earthquakes (6 and 6.8 magnitude on the Richter scale) hit eastern Cuba on Sunday, followed by several aftershocks, reported Cuba’s National Center for Seismological Research.

According to the Cuban National Seismological Service’s network of stations, an earthquake was reported as perceptible at 11:49 local time, at a depth of 10 kilometers (km) with a magnitude of 6.8 on the Richter scale, located 32 kilometers southeast of Pilón, in the eastern province of Granma.

An hour earlier, the agency reported a perceptible earthquake in the same town at 10:50 local time, at a depth of 10 kilometers with a 6.0 magnitude.

According to the institution’s director, Enrique Arango, the epicenter of the first of these events was located approximately 47 kilometers south of the Pilón municipality at a depth of 14.2 kilometers.

https://orinocotribune.com/venezuela-ex ... rthquakes/

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Why Cuba Hasn’t Adjusted to US Sanctions after Six Decades
Posted by Internationalist 360° on November 10, 2024
Roger D. Harris


People walk along a street under a Cuban flag, in Havana, on October 14, 2021. (Photo by Yamil Lage / AFP via Getty Images)

Now is an historical moment for recognition of not what Cuba has failed to do, but for appreciation of how much it has achieved with so little and under such adverse circumstances not of its making.

For the thirty-second time in so many years, the US blockade of Cuba was globally condemned at the UN General Assembly’s annual vote in October. Only Tel Aviv joined Washington in defending the collective punishment, which is illegal under international law.

For the vast majority of Cubans, who were born after the first unilateral coercive measures were imposed, life under these conditions is the only normalcy they have known. Even friends sympathetic to socialism and supporters of Cuba may question why the Cubans have not simply learned to live under these circumstances after 64 years.

The explanation, explored below, is that the relatively mild embargo of 1960 has been periodically intensified and made ever more devastatingly effective. The other major factor is that the geopolitical context has changed to Cuba’s disadvantage. These factors in turn have had cumulatively detrimental effects.

Cuba in the new world order

The Cuban Revolution achieved remarkable initial successes for a small, resource-poor island with a history of colonial exploitation.

After the 1959 revolution, the population quickly attained 100% literacy. Life expectancy and infant mortality rates soon rivaled far richer countries, through the application of socialized medicine, prioritizing primary care. Cuba also became a world sports powerhouse and made noteworthy advances in biotechnology. At the same time, Cuban troops aided in the overthrow of apartheid in South Africa, among many other exercises of internationalism.

Cuba did not make those advances alone but benefitted from the solidarity of the Soviet Union and other members of the Socialist Bloc. From the beginning of the revolution, the USSR helped stabilize the economy, particularly in the areas of agriculture and manufacturing. Notably, Cuba exported sugar to the Soviets at above-market prices.

The USSR’s military assistance in the form of training and equipment contributed to the Cuban’s successfully repelling the US’s Bay of Pigs invasion in 1961. In addition, the Socialist Bloc backed Cuba diplomatically in the United Nations and other international fora. East Germany, Czechoslovakia, and Poland, for example, also assisted with economic aid, investment, and trade to help develop the Cuban economy.

The implosion of the Socialist Bloc in the late 1980s and early 1990s severely impacted Cuba.

No longer buffered by these allies, the full weight of the US-led regime-change campaign sent Cuba reeling into what became known as the “Special Period.” After an initial GDP contraction of about 35% between 1989 and 1993, the Cubans somewhat recovered by the 2000s. But, now, conditions on the island are again increasingly problematic.

A new multipolar world may be in birth, but it has not been able to sufficiently aid Cuba in this time of need. China and Vietnam along with post-Soviet Russia, remnants of the earlier Socialist Bloc, still maintain friendly commercial and diplomatic relations with Cuban but nowhere the former levels of cooperation.

Ratcheting up of the US regime-change campaign

The ever-tightening US blockade is designed to ensure that socialism does not succeed; to strangle in the cradle all possible alternatives to the established imperial order.

The initial restrictions imposed by Dwight Eisenhower in 1960 banned US exports to Cuba, except for food and medicine, and reduced Cuba’s sugar export quota to the US. Shortly before the end of his term in 1961, the US president broke diplomatic relations.

He also initiated covert operations against Cuba, which would be significantly strengthened by his successor, John Kennedy, and subsequent US administrations. Since then, Cuba has endured countless acts of terrorism as well as attempts to assassinate the revolution’s political leadership.

John Kennedy had campaigned in 1960, accusing the Eisenhower-Nixon administration of failing to sufficiently combat the spread of communism. Kennedy was determined to prevent communism from gaining a foothold in America’s “backyard.” He made deposing the “Castro regime” a national priority and imposed a comprehensive economic embargo.

After Kennedy’s failed Bay of Pigs invasion of 1961 and the Cuban missile crisis the following year, he initiated Operation Mongoose. The president put his brother Robert Kennedy in charge of attempting to overthrow the revolution by covert means. This CIA operation of sabotage and other destabilization methods was meant to bring to Cuba “the terrors of the earth.”

Post-Soviet era

Subsequent US administrations continued the policy of blockade, occupation of Guantánamo, and overt and covert destabilization efforts.

Former CIA director and then-US President George H.W. Bush seized the opportunity in 1992 posed by the implosion of the Socialist Bloc. The bipartisan Cuban Democracy Act passed under his watch. Popularly called the Torricelli Act after a Democratic Party congressional sponsor, it codified the embargo into law, which could only be reversed by an act of congress.

The act strengthened the embargo into a blockade by prohibiting US subsidiaries of companies operating in third countries from trading with Cuba. Ships that had traded with Cuba were banned from entering the US for 180 days. The economic stranglehold on Cuba was tightened by obstructing sources of foreign currency, which further limited Cuba’s ability to engage in international trade.

The screws were again tightened in 1996 under US President Bill Clinton with the Helms-Burton Act. Existing unilateral coercive economic measures were reinforced and expanded.

The act also added restrictions to discourage foreign investment in Cuba, particularly in US-owned properties that had been expropriated after the Cuban Revolution. The infamous Title III of the act allowed US citizens to file lawsuits in US courts against foreign companies “trafficking” in such confiscated properties.

Title III generated substantial blowback and some countermeasures from US allies, such as the European Union and Canada, because of its extraterritorial application in violation of international trade agreements and sovereignty. As a result, Title III was temporarily waived.

Later, US President Barack Obama modified US tactics during his watch by reopening diplomatic relations with Cuba and easing some restrictions, in order to unapologetically achieve the imperial strategy of regime change more effectively.

But even that mild relief was reversed by his successor’s “maximum pressure” campaign. In 2019, US President Donald Trump revived Title III. By that time, the snowballing effects of the blockade had generated a progressively calamitous economic situation in Cuba.

Just days before the end of his term, Trump reinstated Cuba onto the list of State Sponsors of Terrorism (SSOT) after Obama had lifted it in 2015. The designation has had a huge impact on Cuba by reducing trade with third countries fearful of secondary sanctions by the US, by cutting off most international finance, and by further discouraging tourism.

President Joe Biden continued most of the Trump “maximum pressure” measures, including the SSOT designation, while adding some of this own. This came at a time when the island was especially hard hit by the Covid pandemic, which halted tourism, one of Cuba’s few sources of foreign currency.

In the prescient words of Lester D. Mallory, US deputy assistant secretary of state back in 1960, the imperialists saw the opportunity to “bring about hunger, desperation and overthrow of government.”

US siege on Cuba perfected

In addition to the broad history outlined above of incessant regime-change measures by every US administration since the inception of the Cuban Revolution, some collateral factors are worthy of mention.

Major technological advances associated with computer technology and AI have been applied by the US to more effectively track and enforce its coercive measures. In addition, the fear of US fines for violation of its extraterritorial prohibitions on third-country actors has led to overcompliance.

Uncle Sam has also become ever more inventive. Visa-free entry (VWP) into the US is no longer available to most European and some other nationals if they stopped in Cuba, thereby significantly discouraging tourism to the island.

The internal political climate in the US has also shifted with the neoconservative takeover of both major parties. Especially now with the second Trump presidency, Cuba has fewer friends in Washington, and its enemies now have even less constraints on their regime-change campaigns. This is coupled by a generally more aggressive international US force projection.

Under the blockade, certain advances of the revolution were turned into liabilities. The revolution with its universal education, mechanization of agriculture, and collective or cooperative organization of work freed campesinos from the 24/7 drudgery of peasant agriculture. Today, fields remain idle because, among other factors, the fuel and spare parts for the tractors are embargoed.

Cuba’s allies, especially Venezuela, itself a victim of a US blockade, have been trying to supply Cuba with desperately needed oil. Construction of 14 oil tankers commissioned abroad by Venezuela, which could transport that oil, has been blocked. Direct proscriptions by the US on shipping companies and insurance underwriters have also limited the oil lifeline.

Without the fuel, electrical power, which run pumps to supply basic drinking water, cannot be generated. As a consequence, Cuba has recently experienced island-wide blackouts along with food and water shortages. This highlights how the blockade is essentially an economic dirty war against the civilian population.

Cumulative effects on Cuban society

Life is simply hard in Cuba under the US siege and is getting harder. This has led to recently unprecedented levels of out migration. The consequent brain-drain and labor shortages exacerbate the situation. Moreover, the relentless scarcity and the associated compromised quality of life under such conditions has had a corrosive effect over time.

Under the pressure of the siege, Cuba has been forced to adopt measures that undermine socialist equality but which generate needed revenue. For example, Obama and subsequent US presidents have encouraged the formation of a small business strata, expanding on the limited “reforms” instituted during Raúl Castro’s time as Cuba’s president.

The Cubans will surely persevere as they have in the past. “The country’s resilience is striking,” according to a longtime Cuba observer writing from Havana.

Besides, the imperialists leave them little other choice. A surrender and soft landing is not an option being offered. The deliberately failed state of Haiti, less than 50 miles to the east, serves as a cautionary tale of what transpires for a people under the beneficence of the US.

Now is an historical moment for recognition of not what Cuba has failed to do, but for appreciation of how much it has achieved with so little and under such adverse circumstances not of its making.

https://libya360.wordpress.com/2024/11/ ... x-decades/