Cuba

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Re: Cuba

Post by blindpig » Fri Mar 18, 2022 2:09 pm

Big Pharma vs. Little Cuba: Why Cubans trust vaccines and how they’re helping vaccinate the world
Published: March 16, 2022 10.17am EDT

Vaccines could be saving the world from COVID-19, but they aren’t. Almost everywhere, vaccine access or vaccine hesitancy are our Achilles heels.

Vaccine access correlates to GDP, and higher income countries can strike deals with pharmaceutical companies. Vaccination programs also deploy less of these countries’ health-care budgets — 0.8 per cent versus 56.6 per cent for lower-income countries.


By developing and administering its own vaccines, Cuba has ensured affordable coverage (0.84 per cent of health-care costs), despite the United States embargo blocking medical supplies, including during the pandemic.

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That same blockade is impeding vaccine export from Cuba and has risked thwarting vaccine import to the island. Despite these challenges, Cuba is now one of the most vaccinated countries in the world.

Cuba’s public health

Vaccine hesitancy is rare in Cuba. Its COVID-19 policies and practices are fundamentally science-based. The Cuban government is garnering public support by protecting its citizens from grave illness and death; one of governments’ primary mandates.

This small nation blocked an Omicron spike through its vaccinations and social hygiene measures.

Not-for-profit and universal, Cuba’s public health incorporates standardized, robust immunization schedules that have been the norm for decades. Many medicines and vaccines in the country are created by publicly funded national labs.

Factual, positive analysis on Cuba typically draws fire internationally, with critics objecting that its government controls information.

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A girl is entertained by clowns as she waits after being injected with a dose of the Soberana-02 vaccine for COVID-19 in Havana, Cuba, in August 2021. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)

Why Cubans trust vaccines

In December 2021 and January 2022, I asked open-ended questions directly to 40 Cuban residents — acquaintances, colleagues and friends from my more than 20 years studying Cuban culture and, since 2020, Cuba’s COVID-19 response.

In January and February, I collected 40 anonymous responses via a VoIP survey with the assistance of my colleague Alejandro Mestre. While not statistically representative, this study is indicative. Every respondent — even government naysayers — wanted to be vaccinated.

As she rubbed the veins of her inner forearm, an office worker joked: “Yes, everyone has confidence in the vaccines. You know, sometimes I think, because the Cuban doctors know us, the vaccines have a component of us in them.”

This widespread, popular confidence is based on lived experience.

Since the 1960s, Cubans have followed a robust vaccine scheme from childhood onward, with the subsequent experience of protection from contagious disease. In one respondent’s words, “I am not sure of the effectiveness of this vaccine, nevertheless, I know that in my country we have been making globally recognized vaccines for many years.”

Residents often compare Cuba with other countries. Many have travelled abroad, including those in the Henry Reeve Brigade — a group of Cuban medical professionals, deployed worldwide during major health crises with the mission of international medical solidarity — and confronted deadly outbreaks like COVID-19. Many also have loved ones abroad and see the difference between the low contagion rates in their country versus the higher rates in countries without widespread vaccination.

Inhabitants of this tropical, middle-income island have personal experiences with infectious diseases, including meningitis (Cuba developed a vaccine) and dengue (Cuba developed public health measures and a medication, interferon alpha-2b).

Why Cubans trust vaccines: Clear messaging

Messaging about the benefits of vaccination, and other public health practices, for individual and societal good is clear and constant in Cuba.

It includes news briefings from the national director of epidemiology, Dr. Francisco Duran, infomercials, popular songs and billboards and human-focused documentaries about doctors in COVID-19 wards like Volverán los abrazos (hugs will return) and on the scientists developing vaccines, like Soberania (which means sovereignty). Further, the respondents of my inquiry believe that Cubans don’t pay much attention to fake news about vaccines that arrives from abroad via social media.

Although not mandated, vaccination is the norm. Primary care providers must obtain an informed consent waiver from patients who decline inoculation and there is peer pressure.

One interviewee wrote, “In the situation in which this pandemic has placed the world, there is no space not to get vaccinated. It is very egotistical.” Another added, “The liberty of every person must not curtail the liberty of others.”

Most Cubans trust in the expertise of their densely woven and interconnected web of health services. “In Cuba, one might die from lack of specialized machines or medicine, but not from lack of specialized, human care,” said one respondent.

Even Cubans who are skeptical of their government in other areas stated that the only reason for Cuban medical experts to do their work is to save lives. In contrast, many talked about how financial interests play into health care in other countries, making it potentially less trustworthy.

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Two recent Cuban documentaries, ‘Volverán los abrazos’ which embeds viewers in the daily lives of COVID ward doctors early on in the pandemic. ‘Soberanía’ follows the challenges and triumphs of scientists developing vaccines. (ICAIC)

Cuba’s vaccine rollout

In Cuba, the immunization campaign continues. Cuba began vaccinating children two years and older in September 2021, well before most other — and much richer — countries. It’s now running Phase 2 clinical trials with children under age two.

Cuba is not putting its children at risk; it’s using time-tested research — vaccine platforms used previously for other vaccines — to ensure everyone gets vaccinated as quickly and as safely as possible.

And, while subunit vaccines are considered slow to create and the U.S. embargo slowed development and rollout, Cuba beat other protein subunit vaccines to the finish line.

Developers of U.S.-based Corbevax scrambled for investors to enable research and development, while Cuban national labs simply pivoted to meet the need.

Subunit vaccines have incredible promise as workhorses. Although harder to tweak than mRNA, they are cheaper, less finicky and have much longer track records, the latter of which is particularly relevant for vaccinating children.

While Cubans trust their health experts, the international pharmaceutical industry’s track record — recently with their role in the opioid crisis — is fuelling popular skepticism towards vaccines, also among minority groups.

The idea that market-driven innovation facilitated mRNA technology is misleading. Hungarian-American biochemist Katalin Kariko, whose research enabled mRNA vaccines and who is a contender for a Nobel Prize, struggled for funding, as have other innovators.

Cuba continues working to stop the pandemic, exporting vaccines and transferring production technology to countries including Argentina, Bolivia, Iran, Mexico, Nicaragua, Syria, Venezuela and Vietnam. It’s acting on the scientific fact that humanity will be safest when all who can be vaccinated are vaccinated. Cuba is following the science and earning its trusted reputation.

https://theconversation.com/big-pharma- ... rld-178119
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Re: Cuba

Post by blindpig » Tue Apr 05, 2022 12:27 pm

MAP OF ACTIONS AND ACTORS IN THE SOFT WAR AGAINST CUBA
4 Apr 2022 , 7:21 am .

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The carefree sensationalism of Luis Otero Alcántara has contributed to the overexposure of the soft-coup strategy exercised against Cuba since Trump occupied the White House (Photo: File)

On March 30, the High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs, Josep Borrell, issued a statement in which he described "spontaneous demonstrations" that were "a reflection of the legitimate demands of the population, but were received with repression " to the national protests of July 11 and 12, 2021 in Cuba.

The intervention of the United States and several of its allied governments in the destabilizing escalation that took place last year in the framework of a worsening of unilateral coercive measures and the effects of the global covid-19 pandemic is well known .

In a clear act of interference, Borrell described as "disproportionate" the 128 sentences applied to the operators of the violent escalation that sought to carry out a soft coup. He also called on the Cuban authorities to allow the diplomatic community to attend the trials and urges the release of all those involved who are subjects of justice and law, according to Cuban law.

The response of the Cuban government was immediate. The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Cuba, Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla, who is also a member of the Political Bureau, pointed out that "only our courts, and not any European authority, are empowered to issue sentences in strict adherence to due process," adding that he would not There is no right or moral authority for the EU to intervene in matters that only concern the Cuban State. He stated that the EU should deal with episodes of repression taking place in its member states and with minors detained in its prisons.

ACTIONS TO CRIMINALIZE CUBA

As is known, last year small and medium-sized demonstrations took place in some Cuban cities calling for a "humanitarian intervention" , but deep down they sought to dismantle, with the same script but with new actors, the revolutionary process that has been going on for more than 60 years in development. This was accompanied by a disinformation war and a component that included sectors of the island's cultural scene.

It was a call to the United States and the "international community" to intervene in an alleged collapse of the health and economic crisis that the island experienced due to the pandemic, aggravated by the impacts of the economic, financial and commercial war that it is carrying out. Washington. The judicial balance was more than 1,400 people arrested and 790 accused, of which the sentences indicated by the European interventionist statement arise.

In an act of illusory superiority, the European axis tries to pontificate on human rights, even though it is subordinate to Washington, its members close media outlets , condemn rappers like Pablo Hasel for accusing a monarch allegedly involved in corruption and the repression of the protests of the Yellow Vests in France exceed 1,000 injured and has caused the loss of eyes and even hands to several protesters.

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While the EU condemns Cuba, the Spanish rapper Pablo Hasel was convicted of "insulting the monarchy and praising terrorism" and in the protests for his imprisonment there were 137 detainees throughout Catalonia (Photo: Reuters)

During the protests last July in Cuba, Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara, the coordinator of the San Isidro Movement (MSI), was arrested. Since then he has carried out several hunger strikes in prison and deposed such a measure last February.

One of its sponsors, the Center for the Opening and Development of Latin America (CADAL), based in Argentina, asked the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, to intercede for Otero. They also asked for intercession for Maykel Castillo Pérez "Osorbo", who has been detained since May 2021 for alleged crimes of resistance and contempt, is the winner of two Latin Grammys for the song "Patria y Vida" along with rapper Yotuel Romero, the singer and songwriter Descemer Bueno, and the reggaeton group Gente de Zona.

Borrell's statement refers to sentences of 30 years. These are two cases that correspond to the crime of sedition (destabilizing the State and subverting order, legally established in Cuba) because they armed themselves with stones, bottles and other objects for the aggression, which they threw at the cordon of public agents, while They advanced towards them. The convicts sought to take over a police station, one of them is a repeat offender in the commission of criminal acts and was on extra-penal leave, the other is a multiple repeat offender and had been sentenced to 12 years in prison for robbery with force, and three months in jail. imprisonment for theft.

In relation to convicted persons who are minors:

*31 defendants between 16 and 20 years of age were punished, to whom the reduction of the minimum and maximum sentences was applied.
*Those between 16 and 18 years old can be reduced by up to half, and those between 18 and 20, up to 1/3.
*22 of them were proven to have "social misconduct", in addition to being without work or student ties.

A MAP OF ACTORS AND ACTIONS ( NEW AND NOT SO NEW ) WITH AN OLD SCRIPT

In addition to the EU, dozens of prestigious world organizations, such as Amnesty International and Pen International, have demanded for months the release of those detained for the events of last July.

In a previous investigation, it is revealed how the Cadal Foundation economically stimulated the protests, and its resources coming "from the hands of the CIA branches for the region; the Atlas Foundation (linked to the Koch brothers), the Fupad (Pan American Foundation for the Development), USAID and the NED".

There are other actors such as the Peace and War Journalism Institute, Factual, Different Latitudes, the Swedish Foundation for Human Rights, Editorial Hipermedia, Diario de Cuba, Cubanet, the Sergio Arboleda University (the technocratic nucleus of Uribism from which Iván Duque comes), in addition to of fundraisers from the different agencies and foundations together with other NGOs registered in different countries that mask media such as CiberCuba, ADN Cuba, Cubans around the World, Cubita Now, Cubanet, Periodismo de Barrio, El Toque, El Estornudo and YucaByte.

The network of media, influencers and financed media agents support the activity of actors bought for regime change in Cuba, has moved with strong financing to date in networks and digital media .

In addition to cyberactivism, they have escalated into new journalistic trends, as journalist Javier Gómez Sánchez affirms :

" They are digital media created and sustained as part of a long-term operation implemented by the CIA in Cuba to manufacture a press that, from the Internet, will generate deliberately toxic political content towards the Revolution, under the guise of journalistic exercise."

On June 2, shortly before the insurrectionary staging, USAID director Samantha Power condemned Osorbo's imprisonment, making clear her agency's commitment to infiltrating Cuba's hip-hop music industry and capturing rappers to culturally condition younger generations and incite them to "regime change". It is a strategic project that has as its core the main Cuban cities but remotely controlled from the United States.

BRIEF PROFILES OF SOME OPERATORS

A brief profile defines the two named characters:

*Luis Manuel Otero Alcantara. He has dedicated himself, through grotesque pseudo-artistic expressions, to promoting values ​​contrary to the Cuban Revolution, the patriotic symbols, bordering at ease with public offense, provocation and illegality.
*Maykel Castillo " Osorbo". He issued constant calls, via social networks, for violence, disrespect and disorder, advocating a US invasion of Cuba. He has been previously prosecuted for the crimes of robbery with force, theft, contempt and attack.

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Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara and Maykel "Osorbo" Castillo of the San Isidro Movement have been convicted of recurring crimes in Cuba and the United States government demands that they be released "immediately" (Photo: Diario de Cuba)

Other actors:

*Bertha Soler. Leader of the Ladies in White , who declared in Spain that Batista's Cuba was a "golden jewel", has a long history of provocations backed by money from the Cuban American National Foundation in Florida (United States). The lack of effectiveness of her media actions have taken their toll, which is why she has reduced the amount of money she receives, she has been accused of using those funds for personal benefits and not to fight for a supposed "cause of Cuba" .
*Jose Daniel Ferrer. Promoter of criminal and counterrevolutionary actions endowed with international recognition. It is about that character who hit his head several times against a table, to later accuse a security officer of having assaulted him.
*Dennis Solis. Positioned as a mobilization engine for the MSI. He served a sentence in Cuba for assaulting a policeman at the door of his house when he was summoned to testify about his link with counterrevolutionary groups abroad that were planning to carry out acts of vandalism. At the end of the measure , he left Cuba with unknown destination.

Actors from outside Cuba:

*Orlando Gutierrez Boronat. Cuban-American based in South Florida, he directs the organization Cuban Democratic Directorate or Cuban Democratic Directorate, even though his speeches are tinged with pacifism in November 2020 he issued a statement saying that:
" If there is deadly repression, the use of military force to repress the people of Cuba is legitimate, and we call for international intervention led by the United States to overthrow that regime and put an end to it."

*Ultrak . It promotes terrorist actions in Cuba, finances the carrying out of acts of vandalism within the Island and uses social networks to make rude calls for contempt, thus transferring the aggressiveness of its language in social networks to the Cuban reality, it has even threatened to kill journalists in Cuba.
*Alexander Otaola. Initially, it attracted the public and followers by addressing issues related to artists and entertainment, but later it defined its clear line of incitement to a social explosion on the Island through disobedience and chaos. In 2020, he interviewed then-US President Donald Trump on his program and gave him a "red list" of Cubans who would be prevented from entering the country, including the duo Gente de Zona and their families for having greeted President Miguel Díaz-Canel. during a concert in Havana. The group purged their guilt by participating in "Patria y Vida".
*Tanya Bruguera. MSI operator that seeks benefits and positioning, bordering on illegality by organizing provocative acts of violence and confrontation in spaces such as the Plaza de la Revolución, all from a symbolic construction in art.
*Carlos Manuel Alvarez. He directs the medium called El Estornudo , from his social networks he tries to denigrate the work of Cuban doctors abroad, of Che and Fidel. He is a high-level Cuban journalist and writer installed in Mexico who managed to insert the MSI in hegemonic media such as the New York Times .
*Omara Ruiz Urquiola. She is a former professor at the Higher Institute of Design, a participant in the MSI, related to high-ranking officials of the US government in Cuba. She described as " free riders and careerists " a part of the San Isidro Movement that participated in spaces for dialogue with the Cuban Ministry of Culture.
*Elaine Diaz. Journalist and former professor at the University of Havana based outside of Cuba and dedicated to recruiting young journalists and university students to build subordinate narratives against the Cuban Revolution. She was the first Cuban to obtain a Nieman scholarship from Harvard University, within the "training of leaders" programs that have been implemented and financed in various universities in the United States, Europe and Latin America through apparently interfering entities. innocent.

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Elements that make up the subversive campaign led by cultural actors, news media and social networks (Photo: Prensa Latina)

*Eliecer Avila. Based in the United States, who has stated on multiple occasions that he is committed to violence and the invasion of Cuba, linked to the far -right Vox party and operates from the Somos+ group. He came to criticize the Black Lives Matter demonstrations, and said that the high unemployment among the black population in that country is due to their lack of "will to work." He signed a letter, addressed to President Joe Biden, demanding not to lift the blockade or the economic sanctions against his country (14).
*Ariel Ruiz Urquiola. Biologist who has tried to denigrate the island's international medical cooperation and the National Health System that treats him for a chronic illness and guarantees his medications free of charge. He is presented by the United States as an environmentalist and defender of Human Rights, has a sanction for the crime of contempt and links with representatives of the United States government in Havana.
*Rosa Maria Paya. Representative of the interests of the extreme right of Miami in relation to Cuba, on his Twitter account he published: "For years I have asked first the Obama administration and then the Trump administration to reincorporate the Cuban regime in the list of sponsors of the terrorism because it is the correct and coherent thing to do". On Wednesday, March 30, she requested the United Kingdom Parliament to apply sanctions to Cuba for "violating human rights and judicial repression against the protesters of the social outbreak of July 11 and 12 last."

https://misionverdad.com/investigacione ... ontra-cuba

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US Blockade Against Cuba Decried During World Media Marathon

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The media marathon brought together intellectuals, journalists and friends of Cuba to demand an end to the U.S. blockade. April. 4, 2022. | Photo: Twitter/@antonisoy

Published 4 April 2022 (10 hours 39 minutes ago)

Regarding the blockade imposed by the United States against Cuba, representatives of the National Workers Central of Panama (CNTP) condemned this policy on Monday, stating that it is an outdated policy that has failed.


Zelideth Rosales, who is responsible for international relations of the CNTP, said that the U.S. blockade imposed on the island for more than half a century is a crime against humanity.

Rosales said Cuba's ability to access essential medical supplies needed in containing the COVID-19 pandemic has been seriously affected by increased harassment from the U.S. government.

Rosales also said that Cuba has defended its sovereignty and demonstrated its courage with the production of domestic vaccines aimed at combating the COVID-19 pandemic in the midst of Washington's coercive measures targeting Cuba's achievements in all fields, including health, science, education, and technology.

The official referred to the World Media Marathon that took place on April 2 and 3, an event organized by the Europe for Cuba solidarity channel with 24 hours of transmissions on social networks, noting that it represents an opportunity for those who demand an end to Washington's hostility to speak out against the U.S. blockade.



In this regard, he added that during the Media Marathon, several Panamanian workers rose their voices to denounce Washington's economic, commercial and financial blockade and its extraterritorial nature, stating that it is a policy that has sought to suffocate the people of Cuba since the victory of the Revolution in 1959.
At the event, activists from organizations such as the Latin American and Caribbean Continental Network of Solidarity with Cuba, the National Coordinator of Solidarity with Cuba in Panama, the National Front for the Defense of Economic and Social Rights conveyed a message of support to the island. Leaders of the Broad Front for Democracy, the Federico Briton Community Movement, and the Jose Marti Association of Cubans Residing in Panama transmitted as well messages of support.

Representatives of the Popular Party, indigenous communities, peasant groups, community audiovisual creators, the Revolutionary Youth, Transforming Thought and Action, the National Union of Women, and the Revolutionary Student Front of November 29 also sent their regards and expressed their support for Cuba.

https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/US- ... -0018.html
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Re: Cuba

Post by blindpig » Thu Apr 07, 2022 3:01 pm

CUBA PREPARES FOR DISASTER
Posted by Richard Giovanoni | Apr 4, 2022 | Other Featured Posts | 0

March 24, 2022 resilence

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The September 2021 Scientific American included a description by the editors of the deplorable state of disaster relief in the US. They traced the root cause of problems with relief programs as their “focus on restoring private property,” which results in little attention to those “with the least capacity to deal with disasters.” The book Disaster Preparedness and Climate Change in Cuba: Adaptation and Management (Lexington Books, 2021. 258 pages) came out the next month. It traced the highly successful source of the island nation’s efforts to the way it put human welfare above property. This collection of 14 essays by Emily J. Kirk, Isabel Story, and Anna Clayfield is an extraordinary assemblage of articles, each addressing specific issues.

Writers are well aware that Cuban approaches are adapted to the unique geography and history of the island. What readers should take away is not so much the specific actions of Cuba as its method of studying a wide array of approaches and actually putting the best into effect (as oppose to merely talking about their strengths and weaknesses). The book traces Cuba’s “preparedness” from the threat of a US invasion following its revolution through its resistance to hurricanes and diseases, which all laid the foundation for current adaptions to climate change.

Only four years after the revolution, in 1963, Hurricane Flora hit the Caribbean, killing 7000-8000. Cubans who are old enough remember homes being washed away by waters carrying rotten food, animal carcasses and human bodies. It sparked a complete redesign of health systems, intensifying their integration from the highest decision-making bodies to local health centers. Construction standards were strengthened, requiring houses to have reinforced concrete and metal roofs to resist strong winds.

Decades of re-designing proved successful. In September 2017 Category 5 Hurricane Maria pounded Puerto Rico, leading to 2975 deaths. The same month, Irma, also a Category 5 Hurricane, arrived in Cuba, causing 10 deaths. The dedication to actually preparing the country for a hurricane (as opposed to merely talking about preparedness) became a model for coping with climate change. Projecting potential future damage led Cubans to to realize that by 2050, rising water levels could destroy 122 coastal towns. By 2017, Cuba had become the only country with a government-led plan (Project Life, or Tarea Vida) to combat climate change which includes a 100 year projection.

Disaster Planning

Several aspects merged to form the core of Cuban disaster planning. They included education, the military, and social relationships. During 1961, Cuba’s signature campaign raised literacy to 96%, one of the world’s highest rates. This has been central to every aspect of disaster preparation – government officials and educators travel throughout the island, explaining consequences of inaction and everyone’s role in avoiding catastrophe.

Less obvious is the critical role of the military. From the first days they took power, leaders such as Fidel and Che explained that the only way the revolution could defend itself from overwhelming US force would be a “nation in arms.” Soon self-defense from hurricanes combined with self-defense from attack and Cuban armed forces became a permanent part of fighting natural disasters. By 1980, exercises called Bastión (bulwark) fused natural disaster management with defense rehearsals.

As many as 4 million Cubans (in a population of 11 million) were involved in activities to practice and carry out food production, disease control, sanitation and safeguarding medical supplies. A culture based on understanding the need to create a new society has glued these actions together. When a policy change is introduced, government representatives go to each community, including the most remote rural ones, to make sure that everyone knows the threats that climate change poses to their lives and how they can alter behaviors to minimize them. Developing a sense of responsibility for ecosystems includes such diverse actions as conservation with energy use, saving water, preventing fires and using medical products sparingly.

Contradictions

One aspect of the book may confuse readers. Some authors refer to the Cuban disaster prevention system as “centralized;” others refer to it as “decentralized;” and some describe it as both “centralized” and “decentralized” on different pages of their essay. The collection reflects a methodology of “dialectical materialism” which often employs the unity of opposite processes (“heads” and “tails” are opposite static states which are united in the concept of “coin”). As multiple authors have explained, including Ross Danielson in his classic Cuban Medicine (1979), centralization and decentralization of medicine have gone hand-in-hand since the earliest days of the revolution. This may appear as centralization of inpatient care and decentralization of outpatient care (p. 165) but more often as centralization at the highest level of norms and decentralization of ways to implement care to the local level. The decision to create doctor-nurse offices was made by the ministry which provided guidelines for each area to implement according to local conditions.

A national plan for coping with Covid-19 was developed before the first Cuban died of the affliction and each area designed ways to get needed medicines, vaccines and other necessities to their communities. Proposals for preventing water salinization in coastal areas will be very different from schemas for coping with rises in temperature in inland communities.

Challenges for Producing Energy: The Good

As non-stop use of fossil fuels renders the continued existence of humanity questionable, the issue of how to obtain energy rationally looms as a core problem of the twenty-first century. Disaster Preparedness explores an intriguing variety of energy sources. Some of them are outstandingly good; a few are bad; and, many provoke closer examination.

Raúl Castro proposed in 1980 that it was necessary to protect the countryside from impacts of nickel mining. What was critical in this early approach was an understanding that every type of metal extraction has negatives that must be weighed against its usefulness in order to minimize those negatives. What did not appear in his approach was making a virtue of necessity, which would have read “Cuba needs nickel for trade; therefore, extracting Cuban nickel is good; and, thus, problems with producing nickel should be ignored or trivialized.”

In 1991, when the USSR collapsed and Cuba lost its subsidies and many of its trading partners, its economy was devastated, adult males lost an average of 20 pounds, and health problems became widespread. This was Cuba’s “Special Period.” Not having oil meant that Cuba had to abandon machine-intensive agriculture for agroecology and urban farming.

Laws prohibited use of agrochemicals in urban gardens. Vegetable and herb production exploded from 4000 tons in 1994 to over 4 million tons by 2006. By 2019, Jason Hickel’s Sustainable Development Index rated Cuba’s ecological efficiency as the best in the world.

By far the most important part of Cuba’s energy program was using less energy via conservation, an idea abandoned by Western “environmentalists” who began endorsing unlimited expansion of energy produced by “alternative” sources. In 2005, Fidel began pushing conservation policies projected to reduce Cuba’s energy consumption by two-thirds. Ideas such these had blossomed during the first few years of the revolution.

What one author refers to as “bioclimactic architecture” is not clear, but it could include tile vaulting, which was studied extensively by the Cuban government in the early 1960s. It is based on arched ceilings formed by lightweight terra cotta tiles. The technique is low-carbon because it does not require expensive machinery and uses mainly local material such as terra cotta tiles from Camagüey province. Though used to construct buildings throughout the island, it was abandoned due to its need for skilled and specialized labor.

Challenges for Producing Energy: The Bad

Though there are negative aspects to Cuba’s energy perspectives, it is important to consider one which is anything but negative: energy efficiency (EE). Ever since Stanley Jevons predicted in 1865 that a more efficient steam engine design would result in more (not less) coal being used, it is widely understood that if the price of energy (such as burning coal) is cheaper, then people will use more energy.

A considerable amount of research verifies that, at the level of the entire economy, efficiency makes energy cheaper and its use goes up. Some claim that if an individual uses a more EE option, then that person will use less energy. But that is not necessarily so. Someone buying a car might look for one that is more EE. If the person replaces a non-EE sedan with an EE SUV, the fact that SUVs use more energy than sedans would mean that the person is using more energy to get around. Similarly, rich people use money saved from EE devices to buy more gadgets while poor people might not buy anything additional or buy low-energy necessities.

This is why Cuba, a poor country with a planned economy, can design policies to reduce energy use. Whatever is saved from EE can lead to less or low-energy production, resulting in a spiraling down of energy usage. In contrast, competition drives capitalist economies toward investing funds saved from EE toward economic expansion, resulting in perpetual growth.

Though a planned economy allows for decisions that are healthier for people and ecosystems, bad choices can be made. One consideration in Cuba is the goal to “efficiently apply pesticides” (p. 171). The focus should actually be on how to farm without pesticides. Also under consideration is “solid waste energy capacities,” which is typically a euphemism for burning waste in incinerators. Incinerators are a terrible way to produce energy since they merely reduce the volume of trash to 10% of its original size while releasing poisonous gases, heavy metals (such as mercury and lead), and cancer-causing dioxins and furans.

The worst energy alternative was favored by Fidel, who supported a nuclear power plant which would “greatly reduce the cost of producing electricity.” (p. 187) Had the Soviets built a Chernobyl-type nuclear reactor, an explosion or two would not have contributed to disaster prevention. Once when I was discussing the suffering following the USSR collapse with a friend who writes technical documents for the Cuban government, he suddenly blurted out, “The only good thing coming out of the Special Period was that, without the Soviets, Fidel could not build his damned nuclear plant!”

Challenges for Producing Energy: The Uncertain

Between the poles of positive and negative lies a vast array of alternatives mentioned in Disaster Preparedness that most are unfamiliar with. There are probably few who know of bagasse, which is left over sugar cane stalks that have been squeezed for juice. Burning it for fuel might arouse concern because it is not plowed into soil like what should be done for wheat stems and corn stalks. Sugar cane is different because the entire plant is hauled away – it would waste fuel to transport it to squeezing machinery and then haul it back to the farm.

While fuel from bagasse is an overall environmental plus, the same cannot be said for oilseeds such as Jatropha curcas. Despite the book suggesting that they might be researched more, they are a dead end for energy production.

Another energy positive being expanded in Cuba is farms being run entirely on agroecology principles. The book claims that such farms can produce 12 times the energy they consume, which might seem like a lot. Yet, similar findings occur in other countries, notably Sweden. In contrast, at least one author holds out hope of obtaining energy from microalgae, almost certainly another dead end.

Potentially, a very promising source for energy is the use of biogas from biodigesters. Biodigesters break down manure and other biomass to create biogas which is used for tractors or transportation. Leftover solid waste material can be used as a (non-fossil fuel) fertilizer. On the other hand, an energy source which one author lists as viable is highly dubious: “solar cells built with gallum arsenide.” Compounds with arsenic are cancer-causing and not healthy for humans and other living species.

The word “biomass” is highly charged because it is one of Europe’s “clean, green” energy sources despite the fact that burning wood pellets is leading to deforestation in Estonia and the US. This does not seem to be the case in Cuba, where “biomass” refers to sawdust and weedy marabú trees. It remains important to distinguish positive biomass from highly destructive biomass.
Many other forms of alternative energy could be covered and there is a critical point applying to all of them. Each source of energy must be analyzed separately without ever assuming that if energy does not come from fossil fuels it is therefore useful and safe.

Depending on How You Get It

The three major sources of alternative energy – hydroturbines (dams), solar, and wind – share the characteristic that how positive or negative they are depends on the way they are obtained.
The simplest form of hydro power is the paddle wheel, which probably causes zero environmental damage and produces very little energy. At the other extreme is hydro-electric dams which cross entire rivers and are incredibly destructive towards human cultures and aquatic and terrestrial species. In between are methods such as diverting a portion of the river to harness its power. The book mentions pico-hydroturbines which affect only a portion of a river, generating less than 5kW and are extremely useful for remote areas. They have minimal environmental effects. But if a large number of these turbines were placed together in a river, that would be a different matter. The general rule for water power is that causing less environmental damage means producing less energy.

Many ways to produce energy start with the sun. Cuba uses passive solar techniques, which do not have toxic processes associated with electricity. A passivhaus design provides warmth largely via insulation and placement of windows. Extremely important is body heat. This makes a passivhaus difficult for Americans, whose homes typically have much more space per person than other countries. But the design could work better in Cuba, where having three generations living together in a smaller space would contribute to heating quite well.

At the negative extreme of solar energy are the land-hungry electricity-generating arrays. In between these poles is low-intensity solar power, also being studied by Cuba.

The vast majority of Cubans heat their water for bathing. Water heaters can depend on solar panels which turn sunlight into electricity. An even better non-electric design would be to use a box with glass doors and a black tank to collect heat, or to use “flat plate collectors” and then pipe the heated water to an indoor storage tank. As with hydro-power, simpler designs produce fewer problems but generate less energy.

Wind power is highly similar. Centuries ago, windmills were constructed with materials from the surrounding area and did not rely on or produce toxins. Today’s industrial wind turbines are toxic in every phase of their existence. In the ambiguous category are small wind turbines and wind pumps, both of which Cuba is exploring. What hydro, solar and wind power have in common is that non-destructive forms exist but produce less energy. The more energy-producing a system is, the more problematic it becomes.

Scuttling the Fetish

Since hydro, solar and wind power have reputations as “renewable, clean, green” sources of energy, it is necessary to examine them closely. Hydro, solar and wind power each require destructive extraction of materials such as lithium, cobalt, silver, aluminum, cadmium, indium, gallium, selenium, tellurium, neodymium, and dysprosium. All three lead to mountains of toxic waste that vastly exceed the amount obtained for use. And all require withdrawal of immense amounts of water (a rapidly vanishing substance) during the mining and construction.

Hydro-power also disrupts aquatic species (as well as several terrestrial ones), causes large releases of greenhouse gases (GHGs) from reservoirs, increases mercury poisoning, pushes people out of their homes during construction, intensifies international conflicts, and have killed up to 26,000 people from breakage. Silicon-based solar panels involves an additional list of toxic chemicals that can poison workers during manufacture, gargantuan loss of farm and forest land for installing “arrays” (which rapidly increases over time), and still more land loss for disposal after their 25-30 year life spans. Industrial wind turbines require loss of forest land for roads to haul 160 foot blades to mountain tops, land loss for depositing those mammoth blades after use, and energy-intensive storage capacity when there is no wind.

Hydro, solar and wind power are definitely NOT renewable, since they all are based on heavy usage of materials that are exhausted following continuous mining. Neither are they “carbon neutral” because all use fossil fuels for extraction of necessary building materials and end-of-life demolition. The most important point is that the issues listed here are a tiny fraction of total problems, which would require a very thick book to enumerate.

Why use the word “fetish” for approaches to hydro, solar and wind power? A “fetish” can be described as “a material object regarded with extravagant trust or reverence”. These sources of energy have positive characteristics, but nothing like the reverence often bestowed upon them.

Cuba’s approach to alternative energy is quite different. Helen Yaffe wrote two of the major articles in Disaster Preparedness. She also put together the 2021 documentary, “Cuba’s life task: Combatting climate change“, which includes the following from advisor Orlando Rey Santos:

“One problem today is that you cannot convert the world’s energy matrix, with current consumption levels, from fossil fuels to renewable energies. There are not enough resources for the panels and wind turbines, nor the space for them. There are insufficient resources for all this. If you automatically made all transportation electric tomorrow, you will continue to have the same problems of congestion, parking, highways, heavy consumption of steel and cement.”

Cuba maps out many different outlines for energy in order to focus on those that are the most productive while causing the least damage. A genuine environmental approach requires a Life Cycle Analysis (LCA, also known as cradle-to-grave accounting) which includes all mining, milling, construction and transport of materials; the energy-gathering process itself (including environmental disruption); along with after-effects such as continuing environmental damage and disposal of waste. To these must be added social effects such as relocating people, injury and death of those resisting relocation, destruction of sacred cites and disruption of affected cultures.

A “fetish” on a specific energy source denotes tunnel-visioning on its use phase while ignoring preparatory and end-of-life phases and social disruption. While LCAs are often propounded by corporations, they are typically nothing but window-dressing, to be pitched out of window during actual decision-making. With an eternal growth dynamic, capitalism has a built-in tendency to downplay negatives when there is an opportunity to add new energy sources to the mix of fossil fuels.

Is It an Obscene Word?

Cuba has no such internal dynamics forcing it to expand the economy if it can provide better lives for all. The island could be a case study of degrowth economics. Since “degrowth” is shunned as a quasi-obscenity by many who insist that it would cause immeasurable suffering for the world’s poor, it is necessary to state what it would be. The best definition is that Global Economic Degrowth means (a) reduction of unnecessary and destructive production by and for rich countries (and people), (b) which exceeds the (c) growth of production of necessities by and for poor countries (and people).

This might not be as economically difficult as some imagine because …

1. The rich world spends such gargantuan wealth on that which is useless and deadly, including war toys, chemical poisons, planned obsolescence, creative destruction of goods, insurance, automobile addiction, among a mass of examples; and,
2. Providing the basic necessities of life can often be relatively cheap, such as health care in Cuba being less than 10% of US expenses (with Cubans having a longer life expectancy and lower infant mortality rate).

Some mischaracterize degrowth, claiming that “Cuba experienced ‘degrowth’ during its ‘Special Period’ and it was horrible.” Wrong! Degrowth did not immiserate Cuba – the US embargo did. US sanctions (or embargo or blockade) of Cuba creates barriers to trade which forces absurdly high prices for many goods. One small example: If Cubans need a spare part manufactured in the US, it cannot be merely shipped from the US, but more likely, arrives via Europe. That means its cost will reflect: [manufacture] + [cost of shipping to Europe] + [cost of shipping from Europe to Cuba].

What is amazing is that Cuba has developed so many techniques of medical care and disaster management for hurricanes and climate change, despite its double impoverishment from colonial days and neo-colonial attacks from the US.

Daydreaming

Cuba realizes the responsibility it has to protect its extraordinary biodiversity. Its extensive coral reefs are more resistant to bleaching than most and must be investigated to discover why. They are accompanied by healthy marine systems which include mangroves and seagrass beds. Its flora and fauna boast 3022 distinct plant species plus dozens of reptiles, amphibians and bird species which exist only on the island.

For Cuba to implement global environmental protection and degrowth policies it would need to receive financing both to research new techniques and to train the world’s poor in how to develop their own ways to live better. Such financial support would include …

1. Reparations for centuries of colonial plunder;
2. Reparations for the 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion, multiple attacks which killed Cuban citizens, hundreds of attempts on Fidel’s life, and decades of slanderous propaganda; and,
3. At least $1 trillion in reparations for losses due to the embargo since 1962.
Why reparations? It is far more than the fact that Cuba has been harmed intensely by the US.

Cuba has a track record proving that it could develop amazing technologies if it were left alone and received the money it deserves.

Like all poor countries, Cuba is forced to employ dubious methods of producing energy in order to survive. It is unacceptable for rich countries to tell poor countries that they must not use energy techniques which have historically been employed to obtain what is necessary for living. It is unconscionable for rich countries to fail to forewarn poor countries that repeating practices which we now know are dangerous will leave horrible legacies for their descendants.

Cuba has acknowledged past misdirections including an economy based on sugar, a belief in the need of humanity to dominate nature, support for the “Green Revolution” with its reliance on toxic chemicals, tobacco in food rations, and the repression of homosexuals. Unless it is sidetracked by advocates of infinite economic growth, its pattern suggests that it will recognize problems with alternative energy and seek to avoid them.

In the video “Cuba’s Life Task”, Orlando Rey also observes that

“There must be a change in the way of life, in our aspirations. This is a part of Che Guevara’s ideas on the ‘new man.’ Without forming that new human, it is very difficult to confront the climate issue.”

Integration of poor countries into the global market has meant that areas which were once able to feed themselves are are now unable to do so. Neo-liberalism forces them to use energy sources that are life-preservers in the short run but are death machines for their descendants. The world must remember that Che’s “new man” will not clamor for frivolous luxuries while others starve. For humanity to survive, a global epiphany rejecting consumer capitalism must become a material force in energy production. Was Che only dreaming? If so, then keep that dream alive!

https://mltoday.com/cuba-prepares-for-disaster/
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Re: Cuba

Post by blindpig » Wed Apr 13, 2022 1:21 pm

‘We will prevail’: A conversation with Cuba’s President Miguel Díaz-Canel
April 8, 2022 Manolo De Los Santos

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Cuba’s President Miguel Diaz-Canel joins a youth sit-in in July 2021.

In 1994, Miguel Díaz-Canel began a new position in Santa Clara, not far from his birthplace of Placetas, as the provincial secretary of the Cuban Communist Party. He set aside the air-conditioned car given to him and went to work each morning on his bicycle, his long hair and jeans defining him. Díaz-Canel organized rock concerts, spent time with his family at El Mejunje, the local LGBTQ cultural center, and roamed about talking to people on the streets. This closeness to the people defined his tenure at Santa Clara, which shaped the man who is now the president of Cuba.

In March, I spent a few hours talking to Díaz-Canel, who—born in 1960—has lived his entire life as Cuba struggled against the suffocating policies from Washington to shape its socialist path. Raised by a teacher and a factory worker, Díaz-Canel saw firsthand the Cuban Revolution’s comprehensive program of social justice in which millions of members of the working class, peasants, Black people, and women began to access for the first time on equal terms the right to work, study and live with dignity. Díaz-Canel’s generation grew up in a period under Fidel Castro’s leadership in which, despite the existence of a U.S. blockade, most Cubans saw their standards of living and quality of life rise significantly due to national development plans, favorable trade relations with the Soviet Union and a growing network of support in the nonaligned world. Díaz-Canel studied electrical engineering at the Central University of Las Villas, but early on in his career teaching engineering there, he devoted much of his time to local activism with the Young Communist League. That led him to an internationalist mission in Nicaragua where, along with thousands of Cuban doctors and teachers, he served among the poorest, often in remote corners of this Central American country that was then trapped under a U.S.-funded war of counterinsurgency.

Díaz-Canel returned from Nicaragua in 1989 as the USSR neared its final days and as the U.S. government seized the opportunity to tighten restrictions on Cuba. In 1991, Cuba entered a Special Period as trade fell by 80 percent. Cubans were eating less (caloric intake decreased by 27 percent from 1990 to 1996), long queues for food became common, electricity became a rare occurrence, and millions took to riding bicycles as the island faced a severe oil shortage under an intensified blockade. Díaz-Canel was one of those on a bicycle. Cuba’s resilience during the Special Period shaped his view of the world.

Special Period II

In 2018, Díaz-Canel was elected to be the president of Cuba. U.S. President Donald Trump had tightened the U.S. blockade on Cuba, with 243 new sanctions measures, the prevention of remittances from overseas Cubans coming to the island, and Cuba being placed back on the United States’ State Sponsors of Terrorism list. This campaign of maximum pressure has hurt the Cuban economy, which began to see fuel and food shortages that echoed the Special Period. The Biden administration has kept each and every one of these measures in place.

During the pandemic, the U.S. did not allow Cuba any relief from its unilateral blockade. The Cuban government spent $102 million on reagents, medical equipment, protective equipment, and other material; in the first half of 2021, the government spent $82 million on these kinds of materials. This is money that Cuba did not anticipate spending—money that it does not have because of the collapsed tourism sector. Despite the severe challenges to the economy, the government continued to guarantee salaries, purchase medicines, and distribute food as well as electricity and piped water. Overall, the Cuban government added $2.4 billion to its already considerable debt overhang to cover the basic needs of the population.

In this context, public discontent spilled onto the streets in 2021, notably on July 11. Díaz-Canel’s first instinct was to go to the heart of the matter and speak with the people. He went to great lengths not merely to dismiss their concerns but rather to understand them within the broader context of what Cuba was facing. Díaz-Canel said of the people that most of them are “dissatisfied,” but that their dissatisfaction was fueled by “confusion, misunderstandings, lack of information, and the desire to express a particular situation.” “Imagine facing that situation in a country that is attacked, blocked, demonized on social networks, and then COVID-19 arrives,” he told me. “Therefore, I am convinced that they [the U.S.] bet that Cuba had no way out: ‘They cannot sustain the revolution; they cannot get out of this situation.’”

Among the many creative responses to these many challenges was the decision by the Cuban government to develop its own vaccine. On May 17, 2020, Díaz-Canel called together Cuba’s scientists. “I told them, ‘Look, there is no alternative; we need a Cuban vaccine. Nobody is going to give us a vaccine. We need a Cuban vaccine that guarantees us sovereignty,’” he told me. Seven weeks later, in the second half of July, the first bottle of a Cuban vaccine candidate was ready. Soon after Cuba would have five vaccine candidates. Of these, three are already in use: Abdala, Soberana 02, and Soberana Plus. Two others are in the final stages of clinical trials and are quite promising, including one called Mambisa, which can be applied nasally. This is all short of a miracle considering that Cuba was only able to invest $50 million to develop these vaccines.

With the many economic problems that Cuba faces, President Díaz-Canel, in line with his predecessors Fidel and Raúl Castro, has renewed the principle of self-reliance. “We have to face the economic battle ourselves with the concept of creative resistance,” he said. With a growing number of workers in the non-state sector, the economy has encouraged small local businesses. A new energy has emerged between the state-led sectors of the economy and these growing new businesses.

In regular visits made by Díaz-Canel across the island, a great deal of emphasis is being placed on the local capacities of each municipality. He advocates a line of continuity with politics based on the ethics of José Martí and Fidel Castro, whose premise is to study the contradictions that exist in society, find the causes of those contradictions, and propose solutions that eliminate the causes. “We are defending the need to increasingly expand democracy on the basis of people’s participation and control in our society,” said Díaz-Canel. This approach has already opened the door to deep debates about how to eradicate the vestiges of racism that remain in society, the transformation of neighborhoods in disrepair, and a proposed legal code that would radically expand the rights of LGBTQ people, including marriage. In hundreds of meetings, many of which are recorded and televised, Díaz-Canel listens patiently to religious leaders, university students, artists, intellectuals, community organizers, social activists, and other sectors of Cuban society who have much to say. These meetings can quite often be tense. Díaz-Canel smiles and says, “We have learned tremendously, proposals are made, we can share criteria, we can clarify doubts, and then we all go out together to work.”

Cuba continues to face great challenges, and many problems remain to be solved.

Yet it’s clear that Díaz-Canel is leading a profound renewal of the Cuban Revolution in a process that seeks to face many complex challenges by empowering local leaders and citizens to become democratic problem-solvers within their communities. Those who continue to see the Cuban system as a repressive dictatorship refuse to come to terms with an evolving society that, despite the cruel violence from Washington, exists and is creating its own future.

https://www.struggle-la-lucha.org/2022/ ... iaz-canel/

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The communicational battle

The communicational battle is not won in the media, but at school. This certainty and the fact that we are living in the era of digital socialization of information should raise the question of whether it is necessary or not to introduce in our school curricula, in a more rigorous way, elements of semiotics and other related subjects -although such relation is not visible at plain sight-, such as art appreciation

Author: Ernesto Estévez Rams | internet@granma.cu

april 7, 2022 10:04:55

The communicational battle is not won in the media, but at school. This certainty and the fact that we are living in the era of digital socialization of information should raise the question of whether it is necessary or not to introduce in our school curricula, in a more rigorous way, elements of semiotics and other related subjects -although such relation is not visible at plain sight-, such as art appreciation, Cuban culture, history of science.

The idea is supported by what communication theorists have been working on for decades. Perhaps Umberto Eco is the one who put it best, when referring to the phenomena of mass communication, he warned that, regardless of the communicational hegemony of some power, which is capable of drowning the social space with its messages, "it was observed that what the message intentionally said was not necessarily the same as what the public read. The most obvious examples were that the image of a barnyard full of cows is "read" differently by a European butcher than by an Indian Brahmin, that the advertisement of a Jaguar awakens the desire of a wealthy viewer and provokes frustration in a less privileged one. In short, a message aims to produce certain effects, but it can collide with local situations, with different psychological dispositions and desires, and produce a boomerang effect".

The message always depends on what the receiver understands and that is where the battle is decided.

Let us note, to add to Eco's examples, that for a news item on Ukraine, where the journalist seeks the empathy of the public by asserting that the people in Kiev "are people like you and me. I have seen Dolce & Gabbana bags, Louis Vuitton clothes, in other words, people who could be in Madrid perfectly well," there are two types of readers. One type will accept the idea that the human condition crystallizes by the brands they consume and the place the live. The other type, who breaks down the unwritten meanings of the message, will reject it for instrumentalizing the human being in terms of its consumption and its xenophobic background, for reducing to the human condition, those who may have the right to walk the streets of Europe.

Other examples hit closer to home and should trigger our alerts. In spite of all the communicational hegemony against the blockade prevailing in the Cuban media, there is a part of the population -one we should not overlook and that is perhaps growing- that reads in it a justification for internal errors, which speaks of the danger of not understanding that the message always depends on what the receiver understands. Those who scroll across social networks and their Cuba bubbles will observe how this idea of the blockade as a mere smokescreen has an important weight in the opinions expressed.

Beyond certain examples, it is even more serious the conformation of a consumer of information who has not been educated to look outside the immediate information, implicit or explicit in the messages, for sources that make it possible to decode what is read. Sources they have even had access to, but they are unable to make the necessary connections. Very often, I read assignments by my students at the University. They have received hundreds of hours of history lessons, Marxism and other contents of Social Sciences, however, they believe that the Cuba-U.S. dispute and its instrumentalization through the counterrevolutionary sector of the exile, is a problem of "loving each other", and overlook the historical, geopolitical and class basis of the confrontation.

The issue is that it is not enough to teach, it is necessary to ensure that learning not only creates instruments of analysis, but also accessible examples when needed.

This same inability to relate all the knowledge received, is the one that makes a part of the population to have receptive ears to the vile argument that pretends to whitewash the Batista "justice" that assassinated one out of every 2,3 assailants to the Moncada Barracks, that tortured by castrating, mutilating and gouging out the eyes of the imprisoned combatants. Batista persecuted in the streets and murdered young men who had nothing to do with the combative action and then, and only then, brought to trial the survivors he could not kill, who survived thank to the heroic acts of decency of honest people and members of the army.

This argument pretends to compare Batista's "justice," and make it seem less harsh, with the trials of the vandals for the violent acts of July 11, for which no one has been tortured, nor have there been murders in dungeons, nor young people have been hunted to death in the streets; for which less than one out of every 50 participants has been sentenced to prison terms, and only those who engaged in violent acts in the midst of a socio-health emergency that put the country in tremendous tension to preserve human life. Acts of violence where pharmacies, polyclinics and hospitals were assaulted at the very moment people were fighting for their lives. Acts of violence where calls were made to lynch the policemen, those who are also children, neighbors and part of the people, and who at that moment were mobilized to transport the oxygen balloons to where they were needed, and who worked tirelessly to ensure the logistics in the extraordinary battle against the pandemic.

The fact that the enemy (let's not fool ourselves, it is always the enemy, because we are at war, even if they want to sell us the opposite) has learned how to make the receiver understand what they want to say, spreading it from cell phone to cell phone, serve us to set us to change what needs to be change.

Every lie that manages to prevail is a portrait of our incapacities. In our favor we have the truth, history and purpose for the future as our main advantage. No matter how much they try to hide it, the counterrevolution cannot be rigorous, because it needs lies. But we also have the schools, the public spaces, our media as essential instruments to design the rearguard and the stage of this battle.

And we have the people, who will always be the protagonists of the struggle, and from whom their leaders emerge.

Translated by ESTI

https://en.granma.cu/cultura/2022-04-07 ... nal-battle

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Cubans Remember Revolutionary Fighter Vilma Espin

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Her commitment to gender equality was remembered by President Diaz-Canel as a "Revolution within the Revolution" that set a permanent example of firmness and conviction.

On Thursday, Cubans remember the 92nd birth anniversary of Vilma Espin, a prominent revolutionary who fought against the dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista (1952-1959).

Born in Santiago de Cuba, Espin studied chemical engineering at Oriente University and completed a postgraduate degree at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Boston. As a student, she participated in a political movement that demanded the re-establishment of the 1940 Constitution.

As part of this movement, she distributed proclamations to summon the people to come to her university on June 8, 1952, for a rally of patriotic reaffirmation. As a member of the Eastern University Student Federation (FEUO), Espin also took part in a 72-hour teaching stoppage in Feb. 1953 to reject the murder of student Ruben Batista in Havana.

This strike provoked a broad student mobilization, which placed black ties in the lapels of citizens as a public expression of feeling and starred in a symbolic burial of the murdered student in the cemetery of Santa Ifigenia.

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Under the combat name "Deborah," Espin participated in the clandestine struggle against Batista. With revolutionary leader Frank Pais, she organized the uprising of Nov. 30, 1956, in Santiago de Cuba to support the landing of the Granma yacht expedition.

In 1958, she joined the Rebel Army in the Sierra Maestra mountains, where she taught many soldiers and farmers to read and write. After the Revolution triumphed on Jan. 1, 1959, Espin promoted gender equality through actions such as the founding of the Federation of Cuban Women (FMC) in 1960 and the establishment of nurseries throughout the country.

Her commitment to gender equality was remembered by President Miguel Diaz-Canel as a "Revolution within the Revolution" that set a permanent example of firmness and conviction.

“The Cuban revolution has really been two revolutions for women. It has meant a double liberation: as part of the exploited sector of the country, and second, as women, who were discriminated against not only as workers but also as women,” said Espin, a guerrilla fighter whose remains lie since 2007 in the Mausoleum of the "Second Eastern Frank Pais Front".

https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Cub ... -0006.html

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The Cuban 5 archives begin their journey home
April 11, 2022 Bill Hackwell

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Cuban 5 Archives Project at Cuban Embassy, Washington D.C.

A week ago Cheryl LaBash and I started the journey to take home the archives of the long struggle to free the Cuban 5 that Alicia Jrapko and I accumulated over a period of 13 years, carefully and methodically stored in our basement; from the first letter Gerardo Hernandez mailed to Alicia in late 2001 from a federal prison in Miami to the last one he sent us from the hole in the Oklahoma City transfer prison on December 12, 2014. Along with the letters are material from the many campaigns and projects that took place over that time. While this material is a significant amount of the historical record it does not represent all of the information accumulated during that time by the international movement that supported the Five.

The uniqueness of the struggle to free the Cuban 5 was that, unlike most struggles, it was clearly framed in time from the moment they were arrested in Miami on September 12, 1998, for defending their homeland from terrorist attacks organized in that very city to their release on December 17, 2014, through that narrow window that opened for a brief moment under Obama.

What was most inspiring was that it took place as the internet was becoming an increasingly prominent organizing tool that connected the movement like never before enabling international events to take place in London; Holguin, Cuba; Toronto; Puerto Allegre, Brazil; Tijuana, Mexico, to name a few, and in Washington D.C. where for several years supporters of Cuba gathered from all over the globe to protest for the freedom of the five in front of the White House and lobbied on Capitol Hill against the legislation that entrenches the blockade of the island.

Ironically our endeavor to bring this material to its first stop, the Cuban Embassy in Washington, began by retracing the highways of California that Alicia and I traveled during the more than 100 visits we made to Gerardo over that time. Every town and every turn of the 404 miles from our home in Oakland to the doors of the Victorville prison is indelibly stamped into my memory forever; starting by taking Interstate 5 down through the vast Central Valley of California that grows around 20% of the world’s produce, then over the Tehachapi Pass dropping down into the wonders of the desolate Mojave Desert with its twisted but majestic Joshua Trees.

When we arrived at Kramer Junction our route was to continue east to Arizona but I could not help myself but take a detour south with the utility vehicle full of the story of the Cuban 5 to the gates of the penitentiary that imprisoned Gerardo for so long taking a modest but significant victory lap for a struggle waged by the Cuban people and supported by millions around the world. It seemed like an appropriate thing to do. It also seemed right to get off Interstate 40 in Oklahoma City to repeat it at the Federal Transfer Center where prisoners are shuffled to and from federal prisons around the U.S. It was here where Gerardo ended up in the hole for a week before he was sent to Butner Prison North Carolina where he reconnected with his brothers Ramon Labanino and Antonio Guerrero before their triumphant return home. It was from this Oklahoma prison where he was able to get out his final prison letter to Alicia saying he didn’t know where they were taking him but he knew his time in California was over and he thanked her for everything she had done.

The 3,100 miles driven with this historic cargo was personal for me, a time of reflection, and a moving forward since Alicia’s passing this past January. Getting this all back to its rightful owners, the Cuban people, was something she and I had discussed many times and now it had become a fulfillment of a promise in my perceived urgency.

The delivery of the archives to the Cuban Embassy was a moment of solidarity and an important step to its ultimate destination. The finality of the trip took place last night when D.C. area Cuba solidarity activists and the diplomats of the Cuban Embassy gathered to share remembrances of Alicia and her life well lived.

Source: Resumen Latinoamericano – English

https://www.struggle-la-lucha.org/2022/ ... rney-home/
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Re: Cuba

Post by blindpig » Thu Apr 21, 2022 2:09 pm

THE UK CONSPIRED WITH THE CIA TO ASSASSINATE FIDEL CASTRO
19 Apr 2022 , 8:30 am .

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Fidel Castro was tried to assassinate more than 600 times (Photo: MEL Magazine)

The historic Cuban revolutionary and leader Fidel Castro survived more than one assassination attempt during his existence. Fidel spent most of his long life in the crosshairs, surviving half a century of assassination plots. But despite the desperate attempts of his detractors, he died of natural causes at the age of 90.

The 638 assassination attempts , according to the registry of the Cuban intelligence services, were planned and carried out by the United States government through the CIA, as well as Cuban opponents and mafia groups installed in Miami, dissatisfied that Castro ended the business of the famous casinos and brothels of Havana after the victory of the revolution.

Although the constant death threats made by the United States against the Cuban leader are public knowledge, what was not known exactly was the collaboration of the United Kingdom government in the plans, and yet, it is not a surprise.

BRITISH DIPLOMATS AND THE CIA DISCUSSED THE "DISAPPEARANCE" OF FIDEL
Recently, journalist John McEvoy published an investigative article on the Declassified UK website showing the involvement of British diplomats in Washington's anti-Castro conspiracies. He indicates that the evidence comes from a UK Foreign Office document, declassified and published in the National Archives.

The document names British diplomat Thomas Brimelow and his colleague Alan Clark, who at the time had a post at the British embassy in Havana. Both met with US intelligence services and discussed the "disappearance" of Comandante Fidel.

The meeting took place in November 1961, when the United States embassy had already withdrawn from the island country. Brimelow and Clark were with CIA agents and they asked Clark directly "if the disappearance of Fidel Castro himself would have serious repercussions" in Cuba.

Neither of them took issue with the suggestion of attempted murder. According to Brimelow's minutes of the meeting, marked "personal and secret," Clark replied to the CIA that "Raul Castro had been nominated as Fidel's successor," and that he "might get to take Fidel's place if granted the appropriate time".

"If Fidel were assassinated, then it was less certain that there would be a smooth takeover. The [state] apparatus, which was apparently strong enough to deal with gradual change, might not deal with a sudden crisis," he said later in more detail.

To give more context, McEvoy adds that the talks took place a few days before President John F. Kennedy authorized Operation Mongoose, whose objective was to overthrow the government of Fidel Castro by any means.

Brimelow and Clark were well rewarded for their tasks. The first was assigned the direction of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs under the condition of life position and the second was given the position of first secretary of the British embassy in Washington.

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Fidel Castro, historical leader of the Cuban revolution, in 1963 (Photo: Duke University Rubenstein Library / Gado / Getty)

THE UNITED KINGDOM IS CELEBRATED FOR ITS WORK IN THE ASSASSINATION PLANS

The secret exchange of information between London and Washington regarding the revolutionary government of Cuba did not stop there. The declassified documents indicate that, in 1962, the United Kingdom delivered a report to the Pentagon with numerous sketches of the Cuban military apparatus at a military parade held in Havana.

According to a British cable , the information largely came from direct observations of London embassy staff: "We had the ambassador and the head of the chancery in the stands, three staff members in the crowd lining the route and two more watching the procedure on television," says the telegram.

The United States was pleased with the collaboration and expressed its gratitude to the British. "This is just to say how appreciative the Pentagon is for the excellent reporting...on the military parade. They are very impressed by the effort put forth and the detailed results they have obtained," the telegram quoted in the Declassified article reads. UK .

The following year, in March 1962, the Department of Defense reiterated how grateful it was for all the earlier information on the military situation in Cuba.

A few months later, the US government shared with the United Kingdom a list of "priority objectives" for the collection of military information in Cuba. A British official who participated in a secret meeting with the Pentagon wrote that almost all of those "targets" were "in the Havana area, and have been selected because they are almost all in areas that members of the Embassy could visit."

This is the kind of news that does not help at a time when the countries that culturally represent the West are baselessly preaching and punishing the rest of the world to enforce the "principles" of liberal democracy.

On the other hand, the proactive role of Great Britain in one of the 600-odd failed attempts by the United States to assassinate the then Head of State of Cuba says a lot about its participation in conflicts on an international scale. How many more decades will we have to wait for declassified documents to confirm political hit men or other conspiracies that the British are probably currently committing outside the UK's borders?

https://misionverdad.com/globalistan/re ... del-castro

Google Translator

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Girón, a perpetual warning to our enemies
As time passes, the lesson left by the victory achieved in the Ciénaga de Zapata, along the Bay of Pigs in the southern reaches of Matanzas, becomes even more evident.

Author: Ventura de Jesús | informacion@granma.cu

april 19, 2022 10:04:03

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Photo: Granma Archives

Matanzas.–It seems that Girón was recorded in the homeland’s history as a permanent warning to those who dream of taking possession of Cuba.
As time passes, the lesson left by the victory achieved in the Ciénaga de Zapata, along the Bay of Pigs in the southern reaches of Matanzas, becomes even more evident. Our indomitable people were able to confront and defeat the invaders, despite the much greater power of their weapons and imperialist support.
Our enemies’ plan did not take into account that they would meet a determined people, who, in the unequal battle, showed the courage of the Mambises of 1868 and 1895.
Remember April, never forget Girón. It should be obvious to those who, like the mercenaries of that era, continue to harbor the illusion that they can betray and defeat the homeland of Céspedes and Martí.
The enemy was well organized, well armed, with strong support, but they were in the wrong, the cause they defended was unjust. José Ramón Fernández, among the first revolutionary combatants to arrive on the scene, considered this reality key to explaining the defeat of the imperialist backed invasion.
He was convinced that this moral vacuum prevented the mercenaries from fighting with the ardor, the courage, the determination and confidence in victory with which the revolutionary forces did. On the contrary, the people, firmly committed to the concepts of national sovereignty and socialism, proudly wore their blue denim militia shirts and olive green berets, prepared to fight, determined to resist and defeat U.S. aggression.
Interpreting the meaning of these critical days in the country’s history, Fernández commented that these were defining moments of patriotism and revolutionary fervor, and that the leadership ability of Fidel "reached a highpoint that no other head of state in the hemisphere had ever before achieved."
The outstanding revolutionary, among the principal protagonists of the battle, was convinced that this was the fundamental cause of the mercenary defeat.
When on occasion she lacks the strength to continue the march, Nemesia Rodríguez Montano, a woman of the wetlands who cannot forget the terrifying invasion, thinks of that audacious, fearless man who came to Girón to lead the battle personally, regardless of the danger.
Fidel’s conception of the battle was not new. It came with him from the Sierra Maestra, as historians have noted, and his presence contributed a great deal to the morale of the militias and Revolutionary Armed Forces.
Fidel unleashed the strength of a people. This is the only way to explain how it was possible to defeat such a colossal, powerful attack, which cost the lives of courageous Cubans and left Nemesia's precious white shoes bloodied.

https://en.granma.cu/cuba/2022-04-19/gi ... ur-enemies

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Cuba plans for May Day
April 21, 2022 Cheryl LaBash

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Solidarity activists will join the Cuban people in the Plaza of the Revolution, 2008. Photo: Bill Hackwell

Havana, Cuba — Three days of solidarity will mark May Day 2022 in Havana. In Cuba, for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic forced cancellation in 2020 and 2021, the awesome May Day march will joyously take place Sunday, May 1. The march theme, Cuba Vive y Trabaja — Cuba Lives and Works — expresses the firm and unconditional decision to continue consolidating “Our Economic-Social Socialist Development Model.” The events are dedicated to Cuba’s historical leader, Fidel Castro Ruz.

On the eve of May Day, April 30, the Central de Trabajadores de Cuba [Cuban Workers Central Union] is welcoming workers from around the world to learn from Cuban workers and their neighborhoods the pain caused to Cuban families by the unilateral U.S. economic, commercial, and financial blockade — essentially an illegal economic war. After meetings with the hotel and tourism union, delegations will visit communities under reconstruction and partake in the community soup called caldosa with Committees for Defense of the Revolution.

Hundreds — most under 30 years of age — are coming from the United States in various Brigades, delegations and just coming as individuals to demonstrate their solidarity with revolutionary Cuba — real aid to the Cuban people. Their experiences will inform their work when they return to the U.S., be it in work places, mutual-aid projects, communities fighting for affordable housing and against evictions, to abolish the police abuse and murders and to stop the climate catastrophe and looming nuclear war that threatens human existance as the fight to end the intensified U.S. blockade continues.

May Day — International Workers Day — began in the U.S. in Chicago in 1886 where workers fought for the 8 hour work day, but until 2005/2006 it was most celebrated outside the U.S. and especially in countries that have freed themselves from imperialist domination, like Cuba. This year, West Coast port workers in the International Longshore and Warehouse Union will close the ports for May Day.

For a former colonial nation developing under a suffocating blockade ruthlessly imposed by the most powerful military and economic giant only 90 miles to the north, the significance of the march is expressed in the words of a now-80-year-old participant in Cuba’s victory over the U.S. invasion at Playa Girón [aka Bay of Pigs] who said he was returning to the Plaza of the Revolution on May 1 “because this is now our Girón.”

“The squares are, now, another good setting to support the efforts of the government, the party, the CTC, all the institutions and the people in the desire to build the prosperous and sustainable socialist society to which we aspire,” Abel Vázquez Caballero told Trabajadores.cu.

The three day Solidarity gathering culminates on May 2, with a solidarity conference featuring CTC General Secretary Ulises Guilarte de Nacimiento that will conclude with the approval of a Declaration of Solidarity with Cuba and the proposal to fight against imperialism and for the advancement of leftist organizations for a progressive change in the world.

On May 2, buses will depart from the Solidarity Conference headed to Guantanamo for the VII Seminar to Abolish Foreign Bases and NATO.

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https://www.struggle-la-lucha.org/2022/ ... r-may-day/
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Re: Cuba

Post by blindpig » Fri May 20, 2022 3:31 pm

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We Have More in Common with Cuba than We Think
May 18, 2022
By Danaka Katovich – May 13, 2022

The American working class and Cubans both face an important task: demanding dignity from the imperial core that constantly works to undermine our right to life.

A week ago I returned to the United States from Cuba where I got to spend International Workers’ Day with 100 other young organizers from the U.S. alongside over 700,000 other people who celebrated in Havana that day. With the International People’s Assembly of North America, we spent a week learning about the Cuban socialist project and how the blockade imposed by the United States impacts life in Cuba.

For the conditions placed on the Cuban people, it is remarkable how successful their revolution is. One thing I want to emphasize is that Cubans, citizens or government officials, will rarely say that Cuba is a perfect place. I was astounded by the critical analysis that most people seemed to have. Our hosts never strayed away from the hard questions. We engaged in important discussions about a range of topics and they asked increasingly difficult questions of us too. So many people in the United States will tell you that we live in the best country in the world despite our streets being lined with unhoused people, our education system failing, our bridges collapsing, and our people dying because they can’t afford healthcare. We are failing spectacularly—despite all we have access to in the United States—compared to many things Cuba does with only a tiny fraction of the resources.

Life is hard for the Cuban people. In the United States it is uncommon to encounter masses of people who are aware of the origins of their material conditions. Many people are taught to attribute our poor material conditions to meritocracy. Maybe we did not work hard enough to deserve the things that give every human dignity.

The Cuban people knew it was my country that was starving them. They understand because the U.S. government has publicly admitted that the only reason the blockade is in place is to punish Cuba for trying to build something outside of the global capitalist order. Still, they treated me with so much kindness. They fed me well despite not having much.

In the United States we would benefit a lot from gaining a better understanding of where our suffering comes from. We need to get much better at managing nuance, which is something the Cuban people do not lack. They understand their suffering comes from multiple avenues and I didn’t encounter many that said their economic system is one of them. Despite the embargo, the Cuban government has been able to efficiently allocate the resources they do have to keep people alive, housed, in school, and engaging in work and popular education. I believe very deeply that is what any society should strive to do. Without the embargo I believe Cuba would be able to prove to the people of the world who suffer under the neoliberal order that another reality is possible. That is exactly what the embargo is trying to prevent.

I went into the experience particularly interested in how unions and cooperatives exist in Cuba. The first day of our trip, I spent the morning and early afternoon with the auto mechanics union and cooperative, Autochapt. I was interested to see how workers in cooperatives saw themselves within the revolution and how they functioned within socialist society.

The leaders of the mechanics union were probably the most fervent communists I met on the entire trip. They saw their work as critical to sustaining the revolution. Cars get people to work. Farming equipment helps feed people. Buses get people to where they need to go. In a country that cannot import new parts, auto mechanics become more relevant. Many Cubans drive American cars that are decades old. The mechanics have no access to importing spare parts so they manufacture the parts themselves in some cases.

The union members have a solid democratic structure for decision making and their pride for their union was tangible. The mechanics found their work meaningful. They did not feel as though people were making decisions for them. They told us how they voted to give 10% of their salaries to the victims of the hurricane that hit Cuba last year. We danced and paraded around the cooperative together and we approached a wall at the entrance of the cooperative that had a mural of Cuba surrounded by little rings hanging off of nails. It was made by the cooperative to illustrate the blockade. Taking turns, the group from the US, other countries and members of the cooperative broke down the blockade together, tearing the rings off the wall and throwing them to the ground.

I was also curious to see how minority religions function in a socialist society. Religion did not play an important role in the early days of the Cuban revolution, but today religious communities find themselves a part of the revolutionary society and there is significant religious diversity. Various kinds of Christianity are present there, including Roman Catholicism. Many people in Cuba practice several African religions and spiritualities.

As for Islam, when people think of Muslims and Cuba, they may think of the U.S.-run torture blacksite that has incarcerated Muslims exclusively since the War on Terror began. Twenty years later there are still 39 Muslim men held without charge or trial at Guantanamo Detention Center by the U.S. military. I thought of them often while I was in Cuba, especially when I spent time during Eid at the only mosque in the country.

The Cuban Muslim community is small at about 4,000 people, not including Muslims from countries around the world who attend school in Cuba. The Cuban government has an entity that deals with and meets the needs of religious communities, including the Muslim population. The government built the mosque after three men came back from their pilgrimage to Mecca in 2015. In conversations at the mosque, I asked men and women how their religion relates to socialism. They said it would be disrespectful to compare Islam and socialism, but believe they run parallel to each other, both with the intention of raising people up and making life better for everyone. They said the socialist project has contradictions but Islam does not.

All the women I met there were converts, and all of them recounted stories of feeling incredibly welcome by the Muslim community and at the mosque when they were thinking of converting. One of the older women said she felt like the community at the mosque was her new family.

I also visited the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Center, which provides support to delegations like the one I went on. Our guides from the MLK center, Edelso and Izett, always took the time to answer our questions and be present with us for the entire week. Izett talked a lot about liberation theology as a means of freeing everyone, not just people who practice a certain religion. There was a small chapel in the heart of the MLK Center where Izett spent over an hour talking to us about the complexities of Cuban society. Many people in the United States say that the Cuban government doesn’t take kindly to religious diversity, but I can say confidently that is not the case. In fact I struggle to envision a government in the United States that would provide a fraction of support that the Cuban government does to religious minorities.

I cried a lot during the week I was there. One moment that stuck with me was when I found out that Cuba tried to send support to us after 9/11. Cuba was one of the first countries to call after they heard the news of the attacks on the World Trade Center. President Bush refused support not just after 9/11, but also after Hurricane Katrina. When Cuban doctors were turned away from assisting people in the United States they flew to Kashmir to help people affected by the earthquake that had just happened there. In the wake of horrible tragedies like 9/11 and Katrina, the world would be a much better place if more countries sought genuine international solidarity. Cuba was not expecting anything in return.

While we starved them, they tried to give us life. Tears streamed down my face as I heard Cubans tell me over and over again they stand with us. They feel for us because we don’t have healthcare, housing, democracy, or education for all. We have a surveillance state, police crackdowns, brutality, starvation student debt, unemployment and no meaningful way to engage in our governance. They want a better life for us as our government robs them of the opportunity to create something radically different.

I was eating dinner with our Cuban hosts when we got word that Roe could soon be overturned. The table went silent. The Americans were scared and the Cubans were afraid on our behalf.

The American working class and Cubans have much more in common than the dinosaurs in Washington would have us think. Both face an important task: demanding dignity from the imperial core that constantly works to undermine our right to life. In that regard, we can learn many things from Cuba. The U.S. has not achieved its goals in Cuba, a country that has been standing toe to toe with the neoliberal world order since 1959. The 100 young people who returned to the United States and Canada a week ago, including myself, are willing to go to bat for the Cuban people and meet their first and foremost demand: end the embargo.

https://orinocotribune.com/we-have-more ... -we-think/

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“Revolution is a never ending song”: Gabriela Silva on drawing inspiration from the Cuban Revolution
Gabriela Silva, a young Brazilian-American organizer, reflects on her experience participating in a youth brigade to Cuba

May 20, 2022 by Natalia Marques

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Brigade of 100 North American youth marches on International Workers Day in Cuba

Cuba is an island nation whose 1959 socialist revolution broke the chains of US imperialism, which had plagued the country since the beginning of the 20th century. Since the beginning of the revolution, the US has inflicted a blockade on Cuba, which still stands after more than 60 years. A growing movement of people in the US widely denounce the blockade, with the rallying cry “Let Cuba Live!” Most recently, the Biden administration announced that it would lift some of the harshest blockade restrictions on Cuba, including lifting the $1,000 cap on money sent to family members in Cuba.

Gabriela Silva is a young Brazilian-American organizer and artist based in Queens, NY. As a movement leader, she’s been active in many people’s struggles, like the fight against rezoning and gentrification in New York City, especially as part of the struggle against the proposed Amazon tech headquarters in Queens. She’s also been a part of the movement against the blockade in Cuba and sanctions in Venezuela, and is active in the women’s and LGBTQ movements in the United States.

As a member of the Party for Socialism and Liberation, Silva recently participated in a youth brigade to Cuba, where she spoke in a special session with the Cuban president. Read the political declaration of the brigade here. Silva reflected on those experiences, and how revolutionary movements in the United States can learn from Cuba, to Peoples Dispatch.

Peoples Dispatch: What was it like speaking in a session with the president of Cuba? What did you speak about?

Gabriela Silva: For context, this gathering was the International Meeting of Solidarity. There were delegations from around the world presenting, and many Cuban leaders presented as well. There were opening statements, then three different sessions: solidarity with the just causes of the people; the world economic crisis, COVID-19 and the right to life; and unity within diversity in the anti-imperialist war of the people.

I was there with a small group from our brigade, the International People’s Assembly Youth Brigade. I decided to go to a session on COVID-19 because for a time New York City, where I live, was the epicenter of the epicenter. Within that, the borough that I live in was among the hardest hit. Queens is a neighborhood with a large immigrant community and many of our neighbors were workers on the front lines. Many of them were not able to self isolate or quarantine, and had to work throughout the pandemic with little to no protections, hazard pay or even for much of the pandemic, any sort of government assistance because many are undocumented immigrants. I wanted to go to the session to learn more about how Cuba was able to defend its people against COVID-19, despite a blockade.

I was moved to tears by the commitment to protecting human life in Cuba, and the innovation of the Cuban people in their ability to find ways to produce materials on the island despite the deprivation caused by the blockade.

We learned about the three vaccines that Cuba has produced, and they have two more pending. We learned about how Cuba has vaccinated the majority of its population. Over 90% of Cubans have been vaccinated. Cubans as young as age two have been vaccinated.

What was most striking to me is the international solidarity. You see it so clearly in Cuba’s approach to medicine, that solidarity is not giving what you have left over. It’s giving what you have or sometimes what you don’t even have. Despite all of these challenges caused by the blockade, Cuba was still sending medical brigades throughout the world. Cubans spoke about how from the start of their research into creating the vaccine, they were committed to exporting this vaccine wherever it was needed in the world for a very low cost, or in cases of countries that couldn’t pay for it at all, to actually give the vaccine at no cost.

In my speech, I wanted to affirm that there are people fighting against this blockade in the United States. That there are people committed to building a revolution in the United States, and that we recognize, despite all the capitalist propaganda and misinformation that we’re bombarded with, that Cuba is an example to the world. That there are people in the United States who see Cuba as a friend, who are committed to defending Cuba, and that will go with more brigades like this one to Cuba, where they will have the opportunity to learn from the Cuban people, to see for themselves how socialism works.

The president gave the closing statement, and one thing that he said that really struck me was: you can’t block solidarity. And I think this brigade truly affirmed that.

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Silva speaks at the International Meeting of Solidarity

PD: You, along with the rest of the brigade, attended the annual International Workers Day March in Havana. What was the march like and what was the mood of the people marching?

GS: There is a famous slogan: high discipline, high morale. We would often say this chant to start our day as a brigade. I feel like “high discipline, high morale” is how the Cuban people live their lives.

We were up at three in the morning to march, and by the time that we arrived, people were already getting in formation. It was still dark out as people were preparing for the march. The mood was already celebratory.

It was a completely intergenerational experience. There were people in high school uniforms. There were workers and in their work uniforms there were elders. It really felt like all of Havana was out in the streets. Once the march began, it was so joyful.

I’m so happy that the march happened at the start of our trip because many of us, we’ve heard outrageous claims about Cuba. Some of the most ridiculous are the lies about how Cubans are forced to march in the streets, that the images we see of May Day and other demonstrations aren’t real, people are there against their will or all this ridiculousness.

But we saw with our own eyes, we heard with our own ears that the people that took to the streets for May Day were there with a deep sense of joy and pride.

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Silva marches with others from the International Peoples Assembly Brigade in Havana
PD: What do you think that organizers in the United States need to learn from the Cuban revolution and the Cuban people?

GS: All of us on the brigade, despite having some level of knowledge about Cuba, were still blown away by what we witnessed, seeing socialism in practice, and how at every level of society, people are participating in the socialist project.

It’s a democracy like we’ve never experienced here in the United States. For example, millions of ordinary people, workers like you and I, are participating in discussions around the new family code. This is happening across the country, there’s active and enthusiastic participation.

We went to a newer community called La Lisa. The residents of this area have a direct role in building up this community. The government surveyed people of the area, asked them what they wanted to see in their community, and the community asked for a clinic. So a clinic was constructed. A doctor and a nurse were brought in, who are finding creative ways to deal with the limitations caused by the blockade.

Here in the US, we know that working class people have some sense of the solutions that are needed to address our problems. For those of us who are organizers, often we are able to hear directly from working people what they need and what they want in their communities. But there is no avenue for them to actually bring that to fruition.

It would be unheard of for most of us to think that we could reclaim a plot of land and turn it into an urban farm or reclaim an abandoned building and turn it into a beautiful multipurpose arts venue, like the Fabrica de Arte in Havana. There are all these different ways in which working class people are directly contributing to the socialist project.

Revolution is not just this moment in history. We did a mística, which is an expressive, cultural, performative act, meant to evoke the revolutionary spirit. We planted a tree in Santa Clara, and before we planted the tree, we read different quotes and put them into the dirt with our tree. One of the quotes that stood out to me was “Revolution is a never ending song.” That was one of the key lessons from this trip, that revolution is not just this moment in history that’s passed. It’s something that people continue to build and contribute to every single day.

PD: People in the United states are exposed to a massive misinformation apparatus when it comes to Cuba. The blockade also hinders people from traveling to Cuba to directly learn about it. Why do you think that the mass media and government are so desperate to prevent people in the U.S. learning about Cuba?

GS: I think the United States government is well aware of the ripple effect that would happen if more people in North America and across the world were able to witness for themselves what socialism is like in Cuba. It’s inevitable that after having that experience, people will want to not only defend the Cuban revolution, but to work towards a socialist revolution of their own, because fundamentally, our class needs and wants many of the same things.

We want free housing. We want free healthcare. We want free college education. We want cleaner communities. We want an end to police brutality. There are all these demands that working class people in the United States and across the world have, and are actively being told by their capitalist governments that it can’t be done. And here’s Cuba, showing us all that it can be done, even under the circumstances of an economic blockade.

The heart and spirit of the Cuban people, their revolutionary optimism, their level of consciousness, all of it is so infectious. It poses a real threat to US hegemony. It’s not a surprise that the United States is so committed to upholding the blockade.

The Biden administration is also trying to keep Cuba from participating in the Summit of the Americas. The Organization of American States itself was created to help fight socialism and people’s liberation movements. It is an extension of United States foreign policy. Our government is working hard to isolate Cuba, to misinform the people of the US.

Our media acts as a mouthpiece to our government. It breeds fear, it breeds paranoia, it breeds anti-communist sentiments. We’ve seen it not only with Cuba, but with China, with Venezuela, with other countries that are fighting for an opportunity to build and defend their own socialist projects.

We need to show the people of the US that we have nothing to gain from this blockade. We only stand to lose opportunities to learn, opportunities to benefit from the innovation happening in Cuba.

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Silva with Cubans and North American brigade members

PD: How do activists in the US strengthen the movement against the blockade?

GS: It is our government that is imposing the blockade. We are the constituents of the elected officials that are responsible for this blockade. We have to remember, as many of us often say in other movements that we’re a part of, that politicians work for us. They are supposed to represent our interests and yet they don’t.

That continues to delegitimize them year after year. Especially in all the catastrophic ways in which they continue to harm the working class.

The time for this Cuban solidarity work is right. Most Americans lost someone to the pandemic, lost a job, lost an apartment, we’ve just collectively been experiencing so much loss and grief at the hands of our neglectful government. And that will continue to delegitimize them in the eyes of the people. So it is actually the right opportunity for us to show the people of the US that it doesn’t have to be like this.

If last year there were thousands of people in the movement to end the blockade, then I think this year we’ll see hundreds of thousands. Because we are beginning this work of building this movement, growing this movement with this younger generation. I mean, there were people as young as 19 on this brigade. During our trip, we saw people from across the country, from across the world who had been doing Cuban solidarity work for 20, 30, 40 years. They’re passing the torch to us, and we’re very willingly accepting it and carrying it forward.

https://peoplesdispatch.org/2022/05/20/ ... evolution/

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Cuba: ‘One limited step in the right direction’
May 17, 2022 Cubaminrex

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Declaration of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Cuba.

Havana, May 16, 2022 — Today, the government of the United States announced several measures, which are positive but of a very limited scope, regarding Cuba associated to the granting of visas, regular migration, flights to Cuban provinces, remittances and adjustments to the regulations governing transactions with the non-state sector.

Taking into account the nature of such measures, it would be possible to identify some of the promises made by President Biden during the electoral campaign of 2020 to alleviate the inhumane decisions adopted by President Trump’s administration, which tightened the blockade to unprecedented levels and increased the “maximum pressure” policy applied ever since against our country.

These announcements in no way modify the blockade or the main measures of economic siege adopted by Trump, such as the lists of Cuban entities subject to additional coercive measures; nor do they eliminate travelling restrictions for US citizens.

They do not reverse either the arbitrary and fraudulent inclusion of Cuba in the State Department list of countries that allegedly sponsor terrorism, one of the main causes for the difficulties Cuba comes up against in its commercial and financial transactions in many parts of the world.

However, this is a limited step in the right direction, a response to the denunciations made by the Cuban people and government. It is also a response to the claims made by the US society and the Cubans residing in that country. This has been a demand by the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States and virtually all members of the United Nations, expressed in the overwhelming vote against the blockade. These are just demands which have been ignored by the government of the United States at a very high cost for our people.

Since 2019, the blockade has been tightened to the extreme, taking advantage, in an opportunistic way, of the context of the pandemic, the international crisis and the consequent economic depression. It would be no exaggeration to affirm that the consequences of this siege could be described as devastating. The increase in migration is an evidence of that.

In taking these steps, the State Department uses an openly hostile language, accompanied by traditional slanders and new fallacies that have become fashionable in the last few months, which show that neither the goals pursued by the US policy against Cuba nor its main instruments have changed

Understanding the true dimension of this announcement would require waiting until the implementing regulations are published.

The Government of Cuba reiterates its willingness to establish a respectful dialogue, on an equal footing, with the government of the United States, based on the UN Charter, without any interference in the internal affairs of States and with full respect for independence and sovereignty.

(Cubaminrex)

https://www.struggle-la-lucha.org/2022/ ... direction/
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Re: Cuba

Post by blindpig » Wed May 25, 2022 2:41 pm

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A May Day 2022 rally in La Habana, Cuba

Abortion in Cuba vs U.S. shows which country is truly democratic
Originally published: Multipolarista on May 23, 2022 by Calla Walsh (more by Multipolarista) (Posted May 25, 2022)

When I connected to wifi for the first time in five days, a notification appeared on my phone announcing that the U.S. Supreme Court had voted to overturn Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 legal decision that makes access to abortion a legal right.

Like most people when they heard the news, I felt shock waves run down my body. It was a draft opinion, but if the consensus holds, abortion will likely become illegal immediately or very quickly in 13 U.S. states.

This is despite the fact that nearly two-thirds–64%–of people in the United States oppose overturning Roe v. Wade.

We were hit by this news in Cuba, the first country in Latin America to legalize abortion, and where abortion and contraceptives are free–as with all healthcare services.

Like the United States, Cuba is currently engaged in a nationwide debate over LGBTQ+, women’s, and reproductive rights. But unlike in the U.S., where these decisions are made by a few unelected Supreme Court theocrats, Cuba’s process is grassroots and democratic.

The U.S. empire would like us to believe that Cuba is an authoritarian dictatorship, because it does not bow down to the laws of neoliberal “democracy.” Yet comparing the debates over reproductive rights in the two countries can help demystify which country is truly democratic.

Socialism enshrines reproductive rights in Cuba
Abortion was first legalized in Cuba in 1936 in cases of rape, risk to the birthgiver’s life, or the possibility of passing on a serious disease to the fetus.

Before the 1959 revolution, Cubans lived through a period of U.S. neocolonialism, and private medical clinics thrived by offering U.S. “health tourists” services like abortion that were not available in the United States.

During this time, Cuba had the second-highest rural infant and maternal death rates in Latin America. Most Cubans had no access to healthcare, especially outside of the capital, La Habana. There was only one rural hospital in the country.

Abortion was effectively only legal for the Cubans who could afford it–a reality we still face in the U.S.. Only with socialism, and the expansion of free healthcare to all, came a full actualization of abortion rights in Cuba.

After the triumph of the revolution in 1959, health outcomes improved immediately. Cuba now has the most doctors per capita in the world. It even has a higher life expectancy and lower maternal mortality rate than the U.S..

Full access to abortion was institutionalized in 1965 on four basic grounds:

it is the woman who decides, it needs to take place at a hospital, it needs to be carried out by expert staff, and it needs to be totally free.

The only criminalization of abortion in Cuba is “when it is done for profit, outside of health institutions, by non-medical staff, or against a woman’s will.”

In the struggle to secure Cuba’s strong abortion laws, as well as other protections like paid maternal leave, one should not underestimate the role played by revolutionary mass organizations like the Cuban Federation of Women (FMC), whose membership includes more than 85% of all eligible Cuban women over 14 years of age.

Along with the Communist Party of Cuba (PCC) and the Organs of Popular Power (OPP), mass organizations like the FMC and Cuba Workers Federation (CTC) make up the three main pillars of Cuba’s political system.

In Cuba, I met Dr. Samira Addrey. Born in Ghana, raised in the United States, and recently graduated from the Latin American School of Medicine (ELAM) in Cuba, Addrey is intimately familiar with the radical differences in the Cuban health system.

She now coordinates a scholarship program for students from the U.S. to study at ELAM for free, and subsequently work in underserved communities upon graduation. She explained how reproductive care currently works in Cuba.

“​​Every woman of reproductive age has the right to make the decision that is best for her reproductive health,” Addrey told me. “As soon as a woman reaches the menstrual phase of her life, the family doctor and nurse in her neighborhood classify her within the reproductive age, typically 15 to 49 years approximately.”

“Every factor that could contribute to or take away from good reproductive health for a woman is assessed from the beginning to the end,” she stressed.

Addrey noted that a woman “is entitled to choose contraceptive methods that are appropriate for her health background and encouraged to involve her sexual partner in each consult visit to make sure they understand what good sexual and reproductive health means for a both partners.”

“A woman is afforded a safe abortion for free, done by a medical doctor at any local policlinic or hospital,” she added. “Reproductive health in Cuba is approached as a multifaceted part of every woman’s life.”

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Thanks to the widespread availability of abortion, and public trust in the health system, the issue is much less stigmatized in Cuba than it is in the U.S., despite the fact that the Caribbean nation is majority Catholic.

Addrey recalled that “numerous times, my OBGYN professors stressed that they prioritized the life of the woman before all else, especially in the case of pregnancies that threatened the life of a mother. For them, it was a no brainer to save a woman’s life if it meant losing a fetus because the woman still had a full life to live even if she may never have a child through her own womb.”

Dailyn Briñas, a Cuban-American who traveled to Cuba with me on the 15th International May Day Brigade, said “very little social consequences” exist in Cuba for people who choose to get abortions, whereas “in the West, women are at times looked down upon or made to feel less if they do.”

The destigmatization of abortion in Cuba is rooted in the revolution’s steadfast commitment to reproductive rights.

People’s democracy and the Cuban families code
Cuba’s constitution, which was revised through a democratic process in 2019, not only guarantees the right to free medical care, but it also enforces gender equality in all aspects of society, including sexual and reproductive rights:

Women and men have equal rights and responsibilities in the economic, political, cultural, occupational, social, and familial domains, as well as in any other domain. The State guarantees that both will be offered the same opportunities and possibilities. The State encourages the holistic development of women and their full social participation. It ensures the exercise of their sexual and reproductive rights, protects them from gender-based violence in all of its forms and in all spaces, and creates the institutional and legal mechanisms to do so.

The U.S. constitution does not mention women at all.

But what might surprise North Americans the most about Cuba’s constitution is the fact that Cubans get to directly participate in the rewriting of the document.

Cuba is currently updating its 1975 Family Code, which codified gender equality into law, into a new Families Code. This process will update the island’s existing regulations on marriage, divorce, adoption, and other family-related regulations, including by legalizing same-sex marriage, expanding the rights of children, allowing assisted pregnancies, fighting gender-based violence, and protecting the elderly.

Minister of Justice Oscar Silvera Martínez described the document as “a transcendental text, which reinforces rights, fulfills and expands rights, and this is inherent to our revolutionary and socialist essence as a society.”


Elaborating on the parts of the bill that pertain to reproductive rights, Dr. Samira Addrey explained, “In Cuba, surrogate mothers who want to help another woman be a mother is also an option. This is consecrated by the new Families Code, and it is important to note that it is entirely prohibited for anyone to charge people for surrogacy.”

In December 2021, the National Assembly of Cuba approved a draft of the Families Code bill to be sent out for popular consultation.

From February to April 2022, more than 6 million Cubans, in more than 79,000 community meetings, participated in debate and discussion of the bill, making around 434,860 proposals, 61.96% of which were favorable.

Even the 1.3 million Cubans living abroad were invited to participate through an online form.


On May 15, Cuba’s National Electoral Council delivered its summary of the national popular consultation to the National Assembly of People’s Power. The drafting commission will now take the 434,860 proposals made by regular Cubans into consideration, delivering a new version of the draft to the National Assembly by June 17.

The version approved by the assembly will then be submitted to a popular referendum for approval by the Cuban people.

This consultative process has long played a key role in Cuban democracy. As political economist Helen Yaffe described in her book “We Are Cuba!“, the “introduction of the new Labour Code in June 2014 followed five months of debate involving 2.8 million workers in nearly 70,000 workplace assemblies and in the CTC, the Ministry of Labour, and the National Assembly. The process led to over 100 amendments to the draft Code.”

Cubans have many ways to engage in democracy, from participating in grassroots consultation, to joining mass organizations, to running for municipal assemblies, provincial assemblies, or the National Assembly as delegates themselves.

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Cubans reading printed biographies of candidates in front of a polling station.

“It would be a mistake to think that because the opportunities for participation are on people’s doorsteps, that the issues they become involved in are only of local significance,” emphasized Ph.D. researcher Lauren Collins.

What happens at the hyper-local level in translates directly to the national level, showing just how advanced Cuban democracy is.

Roe v. Wade and the illusion of democracy

Danaka Katovich, an organizer with the peace group CODEPINK, visited Cuba as part of the International People’s Assembly youth delegation. She later wrote,

I was eating dinner with our Cuban hosts when we got word that Roe could soon be overturned. The table went silent. The Americans were scared and the Cubans were afraid on our behalf.

Hearing the news about Roe v. Wade while in revolutionary Cuba put the reactionary decision in a different context.

“It made me wonder what my rights really look like, and if I really have any rights,” said B. “Goddess” Dillard Saunders, an internationalist organizer and May Day brigadista from Minnesota who has had multiple abortions in the U.S..

“If you can just take something away from me with your pen, did I ever have it to begin with?” she asked.

The precariousness of reproductive rights–and all rights–in the United States bears a sharp contrast to life in Cuba, where it would be unimaginable for the government to strip away healthcare from millions of people with a single vote, let alone a vote between nine unelected justices.

The fact that these nine unelected justices can make a major decision that is so clearly opposed by 64% of the population, and only supported by 33%, exposes how hollow U.S. “democracy” is.

Moreover, it would be unimaginable to North Americans for us to participate in community debate and national referendums on our constitution, which has barely changed since it was written by a handful of slaveowners 235 years ago.

But most North Americans are still convinced that we live in a functional democracy, while Cubans live in a totalitarian dictatorship.

Dailyn Briñas, who has lived in both countries, explained that in the U.S., “There exists no democracy, and the elite are the main executioners of laws or regulations,” whereas the “Cuban system is quite the opposite, and it is this attention toward collective action and thought that provides the foundation for their system.”

Take voting access. If the United States is the democracy and Cuba is the dictatorship, why does Cuba regularly have 90% voter turnout rates, while the U.S. has rarely passed 60% in recent presidential election years?

Why does Cuba automatically register all citizens and permanent residents to vote at age 16, while endless voter suppression exists in the U.S.? The list goes on.

The illusion of democracy in the U.S. is multifaceted. Studies show that public opinion in the U.S. has zero influence on policymaking.

The United States is the definition of an oligarchy. Laws are determined by the capitalist elite, who buy elections, influence legislation through the corporate lobby, or sit themselves in Congress, where more than half of the members are millionaires.

On average, a U.S. Senate seat costs $10.5 million, and a House seat $1.7 million.

But even if democracy couldn’t be bought in the U.S., our so-called “democratic institutions” were designed to be fundamentally undemocratic.

The Supreme Court is a prime example. Justices are appointed by the president, who can win the electoral college without a majority of votes.

Supreme Court Justices are approved by the Senate, the world’s “greatest deliberative body,” where 40 people can outvote 60, and mostly white, rural states get disproportionate representation. The Nation reported that, “by 2040, it is projected that 70 percent of the country will be represented by just 30 senators, while the other 70 senators will give voice to the 30 percent.”

Once confirmed, Supreme Court justices serve limitless terms, with power over the lives of 330 million people in their hands.

Another deceitful aspect of U.S. “democracy” is the illusion of choice between the Democratic and Republican parties, which are really two sides of the same imperialist coin.

Democrats have used the Roe v. Wade decision as a rallying cry–and email fundraising subject line–for the 2022 midterm elections, arguing that voting in November is the only way to save abortion rights.

What they fail to mention in their fundraising emails is that they could save Roe right now, by codifying abortion rights into federal law with the current Democratic control of the House of Representatives, Senate, and White House.

A Senate vote this May to try to codify Roe nationwide was blocked, as Democrat Joe Manchin joined all 50 Republican senators in opposing the bill. But Democrats in the Senate, without any Republican votes, could end the filibuster, the undemocratic rule that requires 60 votes, instead of a simple majority, to pass most pieces of legislation.

Like Obama, who promised to codify abortion rights into federal law on the first day of his presidency, then decided they were no longer a legislative priority, Biden and his Democratic Party serve as controlled opposition. They claim to fight for abortion rights while failing to pass an abortion bill every time they have had the ability to do so.

Democrats and Republicans are not fundamentally opposed to each other; they simply have different strategies for how to best maintain U.S. global capitalist hegemony.

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Cuba may only have one party (which I should note is not an electoral party and it is barred from involvement in the entire electoral process), but within the Communist Party of Cuba–as well as the Organs of Popular Power and mass organizations it has helped build for women, workers, and youth–there is much more room for democratic debate and direct input from the masses than any viable party in the U.S..

Cuba’s democratic structures also cannot be assessed outside of their surrounding conditions: the onslaught of yankee imperialism and global neoliberalism.

Cuban socialism has not been able to develop for a single day not under siege by the U.S. government–through the illegal economic blockade, direct and indirect terrorist interventions, and the continued illegal occupation of Guantánamo Bay.

The Cuban Revolution has survived for over 60 years, in the harshest possible conditions, as countless other revolutions were crushed by U.S. intervention, for a reason.

Only socialism can bring about democratic and reproductive freedom

When I asked Dr. Samira Addrey if she thinks socialism is necessary for the full actualization of reproductive rights for all people, she gave a wholehearted yes.

“The rights of a woman to determine the best course for her reproductive health can never be a commodity nor a question laid in the hands of men,” she said. “Socialism upholds the humanity of women by ensuring that their roles in society be fully respected and protected.”

“Health is a human right and socialism delivers a system where that unalienable right can never be trampled upon by greedy exploitative capitalist machines,” she added.

Having seen the drastic advancements women made through the Cuban Revolution, Dailyn Briñas views socialism as “a transitional point for the eventual goal of universal women’s liberation.”

She maintained, “Reproductive rights are one of the many things that would come with bringing about the collective transformation and destruction of a capitalist global structure.”

With the destruction of capitalism also comes a full realization of democracy. Socialism–the common ownership of production, distribution, and exchange under the political rule of the working class masses–is the most democratic form of society that can now be constructed.

Before the revolution, Cuba was ruled by a series of U.S.-backed dictators–and before that, direct U.S. military rule and Spanish colonialism.

Today, Cuba has a people-powered, consultative, socialist democracy that is centuries ahead of the U.S. in terms of grassroots participation and social achievements.

For many in the United States, it is easier to believe that Cuba is lying about their democratic achievements than to come to terms with the fact that our own government is choosing to deny us those same rights.

How could a country just 90 miles away provide all of its citizens with healthcare, housing, education, and reproductive freedom, free of cost, when we have been told our entire lives that we do not deserve those same achievements, and that they are physically impossible?

It is not a pretty reality to accept, that the U.S. willingly perpetuates violence upon us and the rest of the world every day, but it is better than living in the delusion of imperialist benevolence.

When we all wake up–and we will–we’ll realize how much we have to learn from Cuba.

https://mronline.org/2022/05/25/abortio ... emocratic/

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Cuba Seeks Alternatives To Move Its Economy Forward

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People wearing face masks walk on a street in Havana, Cuba, Jan. 17, 2022. | Photo: Xinhua/Zhu Wanjun

Published 22 May 2022

Cuba is committed to adopting bold and innovative measures to move its economy forward in an adverse global scenario, assured President Miguel Díaz-Canel at the beginning of a busy week for that sector on the island.

The actions in question are applied in pursuit of the greatest possible equity, as the only way to face the tightening of the United States economic blockade and difficulties such as the rise in fuel and food prices, he expanded on Monday, during the final session of the National Assembly of People’s Power.

The week that began with these declarations was marked by the signing of an agreement for the treatment of wastewater in the Caribbean, the progress of cooperation with India and the launch of important events for the country.

Hydraulic authorities from the Caribbean and France advanced in the mission in Cuba of the Caribbean Cooperation project for Wastewater Treatment inspired by Natural Heritage (Caribsan).

Through workshops, tours and meetings distributed from May 16 to 20, they ratified the commitment to the exploration of artificial wetland systems or planted filters for wastewater treatment in the Caribbean region and specifically on the island.

On the other hand, the president of the Indian Economic Trade Organization, Asif Iqbal, and the head of the Cuban Chamber of Commerce, Antonio Carricarte, agreed on an action plan to strengthen mutual cooperation.

At the headquarters of the Cuban Trade Chamber, both parties signed the document, which will be the roadmap to implement this year the main lines agreed last Monday in a memorandum of understanding.

In addition, the eastern region received the first edition of the Local Development Fair of the city of Holguín, in which more than 80 actors from the economy of the territory and other provinces participated.

During this period, the next celebration of two fundamental events for the economic and commercial development of the country was also announced.

The Ministry of the Food Industry adjusted the last details of the International Food, Beverage and Food Technology Fair (Alimentos Cuba 2.0), which will be held from May 24 to 26 in the Cuban capital and will help boost national production.

Meanwhile, the Minister of Foreign Trade and Foreign Investment, Rodrigo Malmierca, summoned Caribbean and African diplomats to the XVII ExpoCaribe 2022 International Fair, scheduled for June 23-26 in Santiago de Cuba.

https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Cub ... -0013.html

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May 18, 2022 – FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Let Them In! Stop the Exclusion of Cuban Artists & Academics
Sign the Petition
Among the 23 person delegation that was set to travel to Los Angeles to participate in the Summit are scientists, olympians, and youth activists

Los Angeles - The People’s Summit for Democracy is outraged by the decision of the United States government to deny visas to a 23 person delegation from Cuban civil society. The denial of their visas is an affront to the same democratic values that the US government and its “Summit of the Americas” pretends to uphold. With this decision and Cuba’s exclusion from Biden’s official Summit, Cuba has been denied a voice in vital discussions about democracy, integration, and regional cooperation.

Among the 23 people set to travel to Los Angeles to participate in the People’s Summit for Democracy were renowned Cuban scientist and medical doctor Tania Crombet Ramos a member of the World Academy of Sciences who contributed to the development of several life-saving vaccines, Reineris Salas Pérez an Olympic wrestler who won the Bronze medal in Tokyo, Jorge González Nuñez a queer Christian student leader, and many others including journalists, artists, trade unionists, and community leaders.

The participation of these diverse representatives of Cuban society would have given people in the US, particularly young people, an important opportunity to learn more about the island and build people to people relationships. It is an affront to the very necessary dialogue and normalization of relations between the people of the United States with the Cuban people who have been unjustly separated by the six-decade illegal US blockade.

Manolo De Los Santos, one of the organizers of the People’s Summit said: “The US government’s policy is cruel towards the Cuban people, but also towards the people of the United States who are being denied the right to not only relate with the people on the Island, but also to be able to speak and dialogue directly with them.”

We call on the US government and its Embassy in Havana, to reverse the decision to deny their visas.

Sign our petition calling on the US to reverse their decision
Let Them In! Stop the Exclusion of Cuban Artists & Academics

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The People’s Summit for Democracy is outraged by the decision of the United States government to deny visas to a 23 person delegation from Cuban civil society. The denial of their visas is an affront to the same democratic values that the US government and its “Summit of the Americas” pretends to uphold. With this decision and Cuba’s exclusion from Biden’s official Summit, Cuba has been denied a voice in vital discussions about democracy, integration, and regional cooperation.

Among the 23 people set to travel to Los Angeles to participate in the People’s Summit for Democracy were renowned Cuban scientist and medical doctor Tania Crombet Ramos a member of the World Academy of Sciences who contributed to the development of several life-saving vaccines, Reineris Salas Pérez an Olympic wrestler who won the Bronze medal in Tokyo, Jorge González Nuñez a queer Christian student leader, and many others including journalists, artists, trade unionists, and community leaders.

The participation of these diverse representatives of Cuban society would have given people in the US, particularly young people, an important opportunity to learn more about the island and build people to people relationships. It is an affront to the very necessary dialogue and normalization of relations between the people of the United States with the Cuban people who have been unjustly separated by the six-decade illegal US blockade.

Manolo De Los Santos, one of the organizers of the People’s Summit said: “The US government’s policy towards is cruel towards the Cuban people, but also towards the people of the United States who are being denied the right to not only relate with the people on the Island, but also to be able to speak and dialogue directly with them.”

We call on the US government and its Embassy in Havana, to reverse the decision to deny their visas.

https://www.change.org/p/reverse-visa-d ... e_petition
https://peoplessummit2022.org/petition
"There is great chaos under heaven; the situation is excellent."

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Re: Cuba

Post by blindpig » Wed Jul 13, 2022 3:04 pm

Thanks to U.S. blockade, Cuba’s economic situation more desperate than ever
July 7, 2022 10:26 AM CDT BY W. T. WHITNEY JR.

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Yuliet Colon, center in tank top, waits her turn outside an agricultural market in Havana, Cuba. Colon is among several Cubans who, with more ingenuity than resources, help their compatriots cope with shortages with Facebook posts of culinary creations designed around the limited number of foods they're actually likely to find at the market or with government rations. Shortages are growing acute, and inflation has soared by 70% for some items. | Ramon Espinosa / AP.

Friends of socialist Cuba like good news about that country. Now bad news has its use. Grief and hardship currently are such that, clearly, the U.S. economic blockade of Cuba must end at once.

The harsh details of the current situation testify to potential destabilization in Cuba, danger to Cuba’s socialist project, and the nefarious role of the blockade. A major mobilization against the blockade is due; the need for action is obvious.

The blockade, a 60-year-old relic of history, places few heavy demands on the U.S. public. No governmental funding is required. The Treasury Department issues fines, and presidents make ritualistic declarations. People dodge travel restrictions. It’s a slow-motion affair.

Distracted pro-Cuba activists may lose track of harassment details. Here, we provide a refresher course for motivation toward action. It emphasizes the blockade’s effects on people’s lives.

In the beginning

Cuba’s vulnerability is the result mainly of U.S. policies directed at “denying money and supplies to Cuba…to bring about hunger, desperation, and overthrow of government.” The words are those of a State Department memorandum of April 6, 1960.

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A woman waits to be shown a dress in a private clothing and craft store in Havana, Cuba. After five years of waiting, a new legal system took effect last fall that expanded the scope of legal private businesses in Cuba. So far, over 1,000 new small private businesses have been established. | Ramon Espinosa / AP

The flow of money to Cuba—international loans and export income—has long been feeble. International banks, financial institutions, and corporations handling dollars on Cuba’s behalf risk big U.S. Treasury Department fines. U.S. legislation blocks Cuba from importing the products of multinational companies with branches in the United States—even food and medical supplies.

For almost 30 years, third-country ships docking in Cuba have been prohibited from entering a U.S. port for the six months that follow. Since 2019, the U.S. government has sanctioned Venezuelan ships carrying oil to Cuba.

The U.S. government harasses Cuba’s tourism industry, the source of most of the country’s foreign currency. Restrictions, variably regulated, operate against U.S citizens’ travel to the island. Why? They would spend money there. To discourage potential investors, U.S. legislation enables the heirs of properties nationalized in Cuba to take legal action in U.S. courts against investors who make use of such properties.

Cuba’s commerce with the United States has been nil for 60 years, except for heavily regulated Cuban agricultural exports. The northern neighbor used to be and still could be Cuba’s most convenient trading partner, but Cold War anti-communism and imperialism stand in the way.

Cuba’s people are hurting

The U.S. blockade constitutes the main impediment to Cuba’s industrial production and overall economic development. Trade with the socialist nations of Eastern Europe, chiefly the Soviet Union, formerly provided relief. But since the end of socialism in those places, strictures placed on imports have caused shortages of raw materials, replacement parts, consumer goods, new tools and machines, and reagents for drug and vaccine manufacture.

The blockade recently has complicated lives already beleaguered by the COVID-19 pandemic and a 1% economic recession resulting from the pandemic.

An Associated Press report of June 22 highlights a lack of new housing and impediments to repairing existing houses. In 2019, 44,000 homes were built; in 2000, 32,000 homes; and in 2021,18,000. Building materials are in short supply, and hurricanes and the pandemic have aggravated the situation.

Elderly Cubans experienced isolation and lack of supplies during the pandemic. For two years, they’ve confronted weakened cultural and support services and reduced housing options. Fuel shortages in late 2021 led to fewer bus runs in Havana. Wait times were even longer. And pharmacies in 2020 had available only 35% of their normal stock.

In recent times, infant death rates in Cuba matched the favorable rates of well-resourced countries and were lower than U.S. rates. Astoundingly, Cuba’s infant mortality rate in 2021 was 7.6 infant deaths per 1000 births, up from 4.9 in 2000 and 5.0 in 2019. Cuba’s 2021 rate of mothers dying from pregnancy and childbirth difficulties was 176.6 out of 100,000 mothers giving birth—up from 40.0 mothers in 2000 and 37.4 in 2019.

The increases stem from COVID-19 infection mortality added to deaths in non-COVID times. Experts say the deaths of children and mothers can reflect social factors—mothers’ low educational levels, reduced access to healthcare and other services, and poor nutrition. Therefore, the U.S. blockade, which has been affecting social well-being for decades, has likely imposed an additional toll in this area, too.

Cuba’s food supply is unstable, with reduced food production, inefficient distribution, marketing based on income levels, and quality variations. At an annual cost of $2 billion, Cuba’s government still must import 60-70% of the food consumed in Cuba.

Production levels remain low despite reforms introduced after 2008, among them: land distribution, allowances for farmers’ permanent use of land, marketing reforms, governmental assistance to individual farmers and agricultural cooperatives, new distribution systems, local decision-making on assistance and policies, and ecologically sustainable methods.

The U.S. economic blockade is not responsible for soil deficiencies, officials’ inaction, drought conditions, overgrowth of invasive plants, and the appeal of urban life for rural youth. Blockade effects do show up in farmers’ reduced access to credit and lack of funds for fertilizer, seeds, breeding stock, spare parts, new equipment, and fuel, however.

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A day laborer carries a sack of potatoes during harvest time in Guines, Cuba, March 26, 2021. Authorities are promoting the production of basic staple foods while many essential vegetables have disappeared from markets, triggered by the coronavirus pandemic’s effect on the country’s already compromised economy and the ongoing U.S. blockade. Government reforms of the agricultural sector meant to spur more private production have reportedly yielded less than satisfactory results. | Ramon Espinosa / AP

Inflation holds sway in Cuba now, as in most areas of the world. Prices, rising for two years, are up now by 70% and more. Access to essential goods is impaired. Frustration at high prices and shortages helped trigger island-wide protests on July 11, 2021, and has contributed to record emigration.

The U.S. blockade set the stage for inflation. After losing its commercial partnership with the Soviet Bloc, which disappeared in 1991, Cuba was in trouble. The blockade blocked access to international loans and interfered with income derived from exports, the latter effect stemming from export restrictions. Consequently, funds have been short for importing essential products and for developing the economy.

Cuba desperately needed foreign currency and therefore brought tourists to the island to spend money that would end up with the government. From 1993 on, their money was captured via a new currency called the Cuban convertible peso (CUC). Tourists surrendered their own currencies in exchange for the CUCs.

Cubans, not all of them, acquired CUCs and were able to buy goods and dollars unavailable to Cubans without CUCs. Inequalities emerged. Responding, the government gradually withdrew CUCs from circulation, beginning in January 2021. Anticipating hardships, it raised salaries and pensions payable in Cuba’s “national peso.”

New money in circulation stimulates inflation, especially when goods for sale are in short supply, as in Cuba. The national currency lost value. Tourists, who disappeared during the pandemic, returned in late 2021. Their money, circulating, added to inflationary pressures. CUCs with a prominent role in Cuba’s informal economy, and still circulating, did likewise. The role of CUCs suggests the blockade’s indirect contribution to inflation.

Persevering

Those defenders of Cuba worried about diminished Cuban-government commitment to bettering people’s lives may need reassurance. Of note:

Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel on June 21 addressed a meeting which elevated the role of social work. Discussion centered on mothers living in cities in “situations of vulnerability.”
Support programs are in place for elderly Cubans experiencing isolation, for example, the “Accompany Me (Acompáñame)” project of telephone assistance and the National Program for Comprehensive Attention to Elders.
As of 2021, 423 so-called Projects of Local Development promoted food production, small workplaces, and tourism along with socio-cultural, environmental, and research programs.
The government promotes its program known as “micro, small, and medium [size] businesses.” These mostly privately-owned enterprises, numbering 1,188 last year, produce food products, building materials, furniture, textile products, footwear, cleaning supplies, computer accessories, and more.
In April 2021, the government approved 43 measures directed at increased agricultural production and food availability. Results are far from ideal, however, an observer notes.
Prime Minister Manuel Marrero Cruz, on June 24, visited a district in Cardenas to assess progress toward “improvements of roads, water supply, housing construction, and social work.”
What to do

Resistance to the U.S. blockade within the United States has been constant for decades but to no avail. Thanks to the Helms-Burton Law of 1996, the hurdle now is forcing Congress to act. For that to happen, masses of people must stand up together and weigh in.

But that won’t happen, it seems, as long as activists continue to view the blockade as an isolated issue. What’s needed is collective action on many issues toward changing the direction of the U.S. government itself. The common ground would be justice and decent lives for all people everywhere, Cubans among them.

Also required would be a new understanding that the U.S. assault on Cuba happens as part of the larger U.S. project of capitalist and imperialist domination worldwide. The big mobilization to end the blockade would be part of a larger mission to take apart that U.S. project. Oppressed and plundered nations would be rescued, Cuba among them.

One adjustment: U.S. progressives ought to reject that old dictum that “Politics stops at the water’s edge.” It sends the message that solidarity with and struggle for oppressed peoples overseas doesn’t matter. That’s not so.

By no means will these suggestions bear fruit in time to end the blockade soon. Hope and struggle will remain. U.S. public opinion favors ending the blockade. People in the United States now fighting the blockade are experienced and want to enlarge the movement.

Maybe the chaos attending capitalism’s failures, new wars, and international divisions will distract the U.S. government from bothering with Cuba. Maybe international solidarity with Cuba will continue growing.

Revolutionary Cuba, with unity and effective leadership, is known for overcoming challenges. Right now, it faces some of the greatest challenges in decades.

https://www.peoplesworld.org/article/th ... 4f0d67d419

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Cuba: Putting on the Boots
By Randy Alonso Falcón on July 3, 2022

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It is a dilemma for Cubans to make ends meet. Wages are not enough to face the very high prices that the lack of offers, real inflation and speculation bequeath to us.

What we know well at the household level, we sometimes fail to understand at the level of the larger dwelling that is the country. Even at that scale, finances are not enough for everything we aspire to and especially for what we need.

As the heads of the nuclei in each household, the leadership of the country has to draw up accounts and more accounts of how it is going to solve the most urgent needs and define priorities in the midst of all that is lacking.

Drawing up accounts every day at pencil point to know how to acquire food, fuel, medicines, spare parts, raw materials, services and other things that are required is not an easy task.

Especially because these accounts must be drawn for the needs of 11 million Cubans. Where others solve with satisfying the elites, and the rest…we already know, the socialist state has to look for solutions for all or for the majorities.

Add to these additions and subtractions the money to pay what we can of the debts we have and the obligations of the contracts signed. And in this world, if you don’t pay, nobody will sell you or give you credit again. Even less in the midst of such a complicated international economic crisis.

The calculations are becoming more complex after two years of high expenses due to the pandemic and little income from exports of goods or services.

To get an idea of the dimension of our economic challenges: the country’s total foreign currency income for the first quarter of 2022 exceeded 493 million dollars, a figure similar to that achieved in the same period of the previous year, but much lower than what we had before March 2020. However, imports of goods amounted to more than US$2 billion, US$688 million higher than in the same period of 2021.

Such an imbalance between what we take in and what we buy in hard currency implies new debts and more challenges. And it does not mean that more spending equals more goods. Generally, more has been spent to acquire the same or fewer quantities. Inflation is not just here at home; it is now a growing global process.

If the price of oil in June 2021 was at $71 a barrel today it exceeds $118 a barrel. In June 2020 it was around 38 dollars. In other words, in just two years, the country has to spend 80 dollars more for each barrel of oil if it acquires it on the international market. We are not talking about transportation costs or the permanent harassment by the United States against shipping companies that risk transporting fuel to Cuba.

In order to continue to ensure basic foodstuffs for our diet, such as rice and wheat for bread, as well as other components of the standard basic food basket, which is sold to every citizen of the country without distinction, the government and our importing companies not only have to deal with an increasingly restrictive and protectionist market, but also have to pay more money for the same amount of products.

We must remember that guaranteeing a pound of rice for each Cuban means acquiring 5,200 tons of rice. And so on for each product of the standard basic food basket: 5,200 tons to guarantee one pound.

The country needs about 700,000 tons of rice for its consumption, most of which is imported. The trend of rice prices in the world market has been upward in the last five months and already exceeds US$430 per ton. And prices are expected to rise due to increased demand, in the face of insufficient supply and high prices of other basic foodstuffs.

The value of many food commodities, from wheat and other grains to meat and oils, has soared. That has been driven by a number of factors, including rising fertilizer and energy costs over the past year, as well as the Russian-Ukrainian conflict.

The UN food price index shows that prices are 75% above pre-pandemic levels.

In its latest Food Outlook report, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) explained that an additional $49 billion will be spent worldwide on food imports this year due to higher prices.

Chicken, the lifeline of these times, has also seen its prices rise.

Sources from which to obtain the money to meet these rising prices are scarce. In our case, the rise in nickel prices since March, after the beginning of the war in Europe, is remarkable, but it does not compensate the growing liquidity needs of the country.

Tourism, the activity that makes the country’s cash box ring the loudest in terms of fresh money, has given a lift, registering 564,847 visitors up to May, according to data from the National Office of Statistics and Information of Cuba (ONEI). That’s as much, as all the visitors recorded in all of 2021.

But it is nothing comparable to 2017, when already on May 3 of that year 2 million visitors had accumulated in Cuba; or 2018, when the same figure was reached on May 18 .

The sugar harvest was the leanest of this century, marked by low agricultural yields and insufficient technical availability of the industry. Rising sugar prices on the world market would have benefited us had we had a better harvest.

Our income from service exports is also lower than in previous years. And this is not offset by the slight growth in exports of goods in the first four months of the year.

With that less money, we have to do the math to decide how much to buy chicken, oil, cytostatics, parts for thermoelectric plants and agricultural inputs.

Add to this the fact that the U.S. is pursuing to its heart’s content any money that Cuba moves around the world and the banks are more than frightened by the high fines that Washington has imposed on the financial sector for transactions with Cuba. This implies additional efforts to receive export revenues or to make export payments. There are operations that have taken weeks or months because they have not been able to find ways to collect or make payments. And this has been worse since January 2021 when Trump felt like foisting on us the fallacious label of State sponsor of terrorism.

Each day of blockade costs the country about 12 million dollars at current prices. Can you imagine how much more can be done? How much less complicated would the accounts be?

◊ “Can you imagine that every day of the year a different municipality in the country could be given 12 million dollars so that it could invest them in its economic and social development?

◊ “The year, with the generosity of its 365 days (366 this leap 2020) would even allow that amount of money to be given twice in the year to each municipality (we have 168); and there would still be days left to give a third round of 12 million to the 14 provincial capitals and the 15 municipalities of Havana.

◊ “Can you imagine if we injected that financial capacity to what we already have in the plan and what each municipality collects through the territorial contribution?

The most recent accounts of the costs of the blockade for one year put the losses to Cuba in the order of 5,570.3 million dollars. More than twice what we import in food for one year; a figure that multiplies by 10 times what the country can allocate this 2022 for investments in agriculture (more than 13,734 million pesos -around 572 million dollars).

It would be interesting to see a few network opinion-makers and narrow-minded theoreticians put on their boots and battle with insufficient finances, a resurgent blockade, unexpected climatic variables, world inflation and battered logistic chains to guarantee the needs of an entire people.

To lead in times of crisis, one must be decisive, be creative, summon collective intelligence, use science. You have to walk all the time with your boots on and with a clear compass. That is what the Cuban government is devoted to; although it is not always accompanied by enough businessmen, intermediate or grassroots leaders, officials.

Dealing with a blocked economy, without sufficient sources of fresh money and with accumulated problems is a real exercise of tenacity and thought. Liberal economics would easily solve the dilemma leaving many out of the saving equation. Socialism should and must think of everyone. Hence, we should meditate more on our steps and we have less room for mistakes.

Source: Cuba en Resumen

https://www.resumen-english.org/2022/07 ... 4f0d67d419

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Cuba’s solidarity with Africa and the Soviet Union
July 11, 2022 Stephen Millies

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Fidel Castro with Angolan President Eduardo dos Santos. Dos Santos, who died July 8, 2022, was a leader of the People’s Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA). He studied engineering in the Soviet Union and fought for the MPLA during the Angolan War of Independence.

“When Africa called, Cuba answered” is a well-known and true description of how Cuba aided the African liberation struggle. The slogan was popularized by Elombe Brath, the late Pan African educator and organizer who was a founder of the December 12th Movement.

Over 2,000 Cuban soldiers died fighting alongside their African comrades in defeating the fascist army of apartheid South Africa.

At the decisive battle of Cuito Cuanavale in southern Angola, soldiers from the People’s Armed Forces of Liberation of Angola threw back the apartheid invaders in 1988. Joining Angolans were soldiers from the People’s Liberation Army of Namibia (PLAN), the armed wing of the South West Africa People’s Organization (SWAPO); uMkhonto we Sizwe (MK), the armed section of the African National Congress (ANC), and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Cuba.

Also present were military advisers from the Socialist Republic of Vietnam and the Soviet Union. It was Soviet-built MiG-25 jet fighters that gave the African forces air superiority.

Less than two years later Nelson Mandela walked out of prison on Feb. 11, 1990. Mandela declared that “the Cuban people hold a special place in the hearts of the peoples of Africa.

“The Cuban internationalists have made a contribution to African independence, freedom and justice, unparalleled for its principled and selfless character,” said Mandela. “Cubans came to our region as doctors, teachers, soldiers, agricultural experts, but never as colonizers. They have shared the same trenches with us in the struggle against colonialism, underdevelopment, and apartheid.”

Che and Fidel in Africa

One million Algerians died winning independence from France in 1962. Forty thousand Algerians were tortured to death by war criminals like Jean-Marie Le Pen, the founder of the French fascist movement now called the National Rally.

In 1963, Cubans helped Algeria fight off an attack by the U.S.- backed Moroccan monarchy. Che Guevara and other Cuban internationalists fought alongside the followers of the murdered Patrice Lumumba in Congo in 1965.

Fidel Castro helped freedom fighters in Zimbabwe unite and form the Patriotic Front that overthrew the white minority regime. Just as the U.S. economically blockades Cuba, Wall Street sanctions the people of Zimbabwe for taking back their land from white settlers.

Amílcar Cabral, the leader of the African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde (PAIGC), met with Fidel Castro in Cuba. Cabral was assassinated in a plot masterminded by the Portuguese secret police, which was a close ally of the CIA.

Cuban military instructors assisted PAIGC liberation fighters while Cuban doctors treated their wounds.

Meanwhile the Pentagon was sending napalm bombs to its fellow NATO member, the fascist regime then in power in Portugal. Today the U.S. and NATO are supplying fascists in Ukraine with billions of dollars of bombs.

Portuguese communists aided their African comrades and helped overthrow the fascist regime in Lisbon on April 25, 1974. The hundreds of thousands of Africans who died fighting for independence also brought some freedom to poor and working people in Portugal.

Saving the world twice

When the Cuban revolution triumphed on Jan. 1, 1959, the Bolshevik Revolution was 41 years old. Lenin and the other Bolshevik leaders hoped their revolution would inspire people around the world to break their chains.

The Bolshevik Revolution itself was an international event since more than 150 nationalities and peoples took part. Oppressed peoples who had been humiliated by the Russian czar and Russian capitalists now stood up.

After Lenin died on Jan. 21, 1924, the Honorable Marcus Garvey said, “We as Negroes mourn for Lenin because Russia promised great hope not only for Negroes but to the weaker people of the world.”

A year after the Bolshevik victory, the German Kaiser was overthrown in November 1918. German workers and sailors formed soviets, councils of poor and working people.

But this revolution was drowned in blood. Revolutionary leaders Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht were killed on Jan. 15, 1919.

A dozen armies invaded the new Soviet Republic. U.S. soldiers occupied Vladivostok on the Pacific and Arkhangelsk near the Artic.

Millions of people died in a civil war supported by the imperialist capitalist powers. It was followed by a terrible famine with more victims.

In 1919, the Hungarian Soviet Republic lasted 133 days before it was overthrown by foreign troops. The Soviet people were all alone.

Instead of a fellow socialist republic in Germany ― the homeland of Karl Marx and Frederick Engels ― the Nazis came to power over the bones of the working class.

Twenty-seven million Soviet people died defeating Hitler. Close to 80% of the Nazi regime’s military casualties were on the eastern front.

President John F. Kennedy described the destruction wrought by Nazis as comprable to everything east of the Mississippi River in the United States being destroyed.

After World War II, Soviet workers and peasants not only had to rebuild their country. They also had to devote a large part of their economy to match the U.S. nuclear arsenal.

Whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg, who revealed the Pentagon Papers, wrote that the military-industrial complex had plans to launch a nuclear first strike on the socialist countries. An estimated 600 million people would be killed.

It was only because the Soviet Union was able to match the Pentagon’s arsenal that this genocide was averted. The Bolshevik Revolution saved the world twice: first from the Nazis and then from Wall Street.

Dangerous illusions

Lenin described a strike as a small revolution. In a long strike of a few months, some strikers weaken. Capitalists do everything to demoralize workers.

All of the socialist countries have been on strike against world capitalism for decades.

Last year the official U.S. spy budget was $84 billion. The U.S. State Department ― which is just another spy shop ― is getting another $83 billion.

All this money is spent to fight socialist countries, workers’ movements and any country that wants to be independent of world capitalism. At the same time, the capitalist media lies 24/7, like their current denials about the fascist gangs in Ukraine.

After being isolated for over 25 years, the peoples of the Soviet Union welcomed the Chinese Revolution. The world’s most populous country had chosen communism!

Yet the post-war world capitalist economic boom nurtured political illusions, which were spread by U.S. propaganda outlets like Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty.

At least 60 million people died in World War II. For capitalism, however, the destruction of much of Western Europe and Japan got rid of a vast inventory of unsold goods that had caused the Great Depression. Capitalist “prosperity” sprung from the ruins.

Capitalist illusions were particularly dangerous in the new socialist countries of Eastern Europe. For example, around a quarter of Hungarians had relatives in the United States.

In the 1920s the Communist Party published a Hungarian language daily newspaper in Cleveland. The great CIO union organizing drives improved the living conditions of millions of U.S. workers, including those from Eastern European backgrounds.

So some Hungarians compared their living standards in a region rebuilding from war with their cousins in the United States. Many people thought that everybody in the U.S. had a car. In fact, in the 1950s less than 50% of households in the U.S. had a car, with only about 10% of households having two cars.

Radio Free Europe wasn’t telling Hungarians about the living conditions of Black people or the millions of poor white people. The propaganda outlet was saying socialism was inferior.

There were also unnecessary concessions towards political reaction in the Soviet Union. It didn’t help world peace to allow Vice President Richard Nixon to come to Moscow with a “typical” U.S. kitchen.

The truth was that millions of working-class families in the United States couldn’t afford those “typical” appliances Nixon was advertising. What Soviet people needed to be told was that millions of people in the U.S. were hungry.

It was the Black liberation movement that won food stamps, now called SNAP benefits. The Black Panther Party pioneered school breakfast programs.

More than 20 years before Mikhail Gorbachev became General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, “One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich,” by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, was allowed to be published in 1962.

Solzhenitsyn was so right-wing that he later praised Soviet Gen. Andrey Vlasov―who defected to the Nazis ― in his book “The Gulag Archipelago.”

Welcome Fidel!

While Nixon was in Moscow, the Cuban Revolution was already six months old. Cuban workers and peasants were taking back their country.

This included $2 billion of U.S.-owned plantations, railroads, mines and other properties. That was one-sixth of Wall Street’s loot in Latin America.

As Fidel Castro said after the attempted U.S.-mercenary invasion at Playa Girón (Bay of Pigs), “This is what they cannot forgive: the fact that we are here right under their very noses. And that we have carried out a socialist revolution right under the nose of the United States!”

In October 1962, the U.S. threatened nuclear war over the defensive missiles placed in Cuba by the Soviet Union. A few months later, Fidel Castro was invited to visit the USSR.

The historical leader of the Cuban Revolution spent 40 days in the Soviet Union, from April 26 to June 3, 1963. Everywhere the Soviet people of every national background welcomed him, particularly the youth.

That the Cuban people made a socialist revolution right under Wall Street’s nose lifted the spirits of Soviet communists ― while it set back the cynics and the pro-capitalist elements.

The Soviet Union and the other socialist countries gave much aid to Cuba. After 80% of Cuban doctors were enticed to leave their country, Czechoslovakia helped train a new generation of medical workers.

This aid wasn’t all one way. Cuban exports also helped the socialist bloc. Even more important was Cuba’s revolutionary policies, like its aid to Africa.

The overthrow of Soviet power and the socialist countries in Eastern Europe was an immense tragedy. But what if these counter revolutions had occurred not in 1989-1991 but ten years earlier?

It would have been even worse. Besides all the other accomplishments of the Cuban Revolution, it helped set back capitalist restorationist elements in the Soviet Union during the early 1960s.

https://www.struggle-la-lucha.org/2022/ ... iet-union/
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Re: Cuba

Post by blindpig » Mon Aug 08, 2022 2:33 pm

Crisis in Matanzas: Venezuelan Delegation Already in Cuba as Third Tank Explodes
ORINOCOTRIBUNE AUGUST 8, 2022

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Venezuelan Minister for Oil Tareck El Aissami with members of the emergency response team sent to Cuba to cooperate in the extinguishing of a fuel fire affecting the city of Matanzas and the whole island since last Friday. Photos: Twitter/@TareckPSUV.

Caracas, August 8, 2022 (OrinocoTribune.com)—Venezuelan Oil Minister Tareck El Aissami reported this Saturday night that a delegation of specialist Venezuelan firefighters and PDVSA (Petróleos de Venezuela) technicians departed to support in the extinguishing of a fire at the Matanzas Supertanker Base in Cuba, where a significant fire incident has been active since last Friday night and has left a significant number of injured and missing people.

“On the instruction of President Nicolás Maduro, a mission of specialist firefighters and technicians from PDVSA, one of the most trained in this type of incident, is taking off to the Republic of Cuba to support in the work of extinguishing the fire in Matanzas,” explained El Aissami.

“In addition to the mission of 35 firefighters specialized in highly complex operations, we have sent 20 tons of supplies (foam) and chemical powders to take care of this contingency. All our support and solidarity to revolutionary Cuba,” he said in his short heartfelt speech. “In any circumstance, regardless of the size of the adversity, the sons and daughters of Chávez will always be at the side of Cuba, of its revolution, of its heroic history. Long live Fidel! Onwards President Díaz-Canel, we will triumph!”


Previously, President Nicolás Maduro expressed his solidarity with the people and government of Cuba in the face of the fire that is developing at the supertanker base in Matanzas. In a press release from the Cuban Ministry for Health published Sunday night, it was reported that so far the Cuban health system has taken care of 122 citizens, of which 24 remain hospitalized and 98 have already been discharged. 17 firefighters are missing after the explosion of the second fuel tank of the storage facility consisting of eight tanks.

“The whole of Venezuela stands in solidarity with Cuba and the people of Matanzas, in the face of the accident that occurred at the supertanker base. Receive the Bolivarian hug, you are not alone! We are fully available to provide the necessary help. President @DiazCanelB count on us,” wrote the head of state on his Twitter account.

Official statement

Likewise, the Venezuelan Foreign Ministry expressed this Saturday, through a statement, its solidarity with the people and government of Cuba.


Below is the full unofficial translation of the statement issued by Venezuela’s Ministry for Foreign Affairs:

The government of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela expresses its deep regret to the brotherly people and government of the Republic of Cuba, due to the fire that has been taking place since last night at a super tanker base located in the city of Matanzas, northwest Cuba.

Faced with this terrible event, which brings with it an unfortunate balance of injured and missing persons, the Bolivarian Government extends its deepest condolences to the families and close friends of the victims. At the same time, it expresses its firm willingness to collaborate with the homeland of Martí and Fidel to face this event.

The Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela reiterates, at a time of such deep sorrow, its unwavering solidarity with the brotherly people and government of the Republic of Cuba, which with admirable courage and fortitude face this unfortunate incident that mourns Cuban men and women.

Caracas, August 06, 2022


Likewise, Nicaragua, Mexico, Chile, the United States and the EU bloc also expressed their willingness to collaborate in extinguishing the fire, which has left several people wounded.

Diaz-Canel expresses his gratitude

The President of Cuba, Miguel Díaz-Canel, thanked the Venezuelan people and President Nicolás Maduro for sending a contingent of firefighters and experts from the PDVSA to the island to provide specialized technical support to accompany the extinction efforts of the fire in Matanzas.


Díaz-Canel expressed his gratitude through a message posted on his Twitter account: “The endearing message from Minister Tareck El Aissami is moving, which announced the departure of a group of firefighters and experts from PDVSA for Cuba. Thanks to brother Nicolás Maduro and the noble people of Venezuela for the support. #FuerzaMatanzas.”

Third tank explosion

On Sunday, a few minutes before midnight, social media accounts reported the explosion of the third fuel tank which the Cuban authorities and international emergency teams, mainly from Venezuela and Mexico, had been trying to prevent since Saturday.


Cuban news outlet, Cubadebate, reported around midnight Sunday via its Twitter account that the cap of the third tank collapsed, which the government had informed of its risk and that emergency response teams were evacuated. They have not yet provided information about possible casualties.


Meanwhile, social media accounts reported a very strong explosion, a third of which had been reported since the beginning of the contingency which left a cloud similar to the one caused by the atomic bomb drop by the US army over Hiroshima. The magnitude of the explosion raises concern about the possibilities of new human loss.

Cubadebate also reported that a foam pump was being set up and that soon it was going to begin operations in a new approach to control the complex fire on the island already heavily affected by the criminal US blockade. The Venezuelan delegation brought foam and chemical components along with experts to control this incident, which have been in Cuba since Saturday night.

https://orinocotribune.com/crisis-in-ma ... -explodes/

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Aid Arrives in Cuba in Response to the Fire in Matanzas
Posted by INTERNATIONALIST 360° on AUGUST 7, 2022

Aid from Mexico and Venezuela Arrive in Cuba to Fight the Fire in Matanzas

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Planes from Mexico and Venezuela arrived early Sunday in Cuba to support the fight against the fire in the industrial zone of the western city of Matanzas.

The first to arrive was a Boing 737-700 of the Mexican Airforce Force with 62 military personnel and 16 experts in the oil area. Brigadier General Juan Bravo led the group that was deployed on the express orders of Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador.


A Conviasa aircraft from Venezuela arrived a few hours later with solidarity aid to help quell the large-scale fire.

It carried 35 Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVESA ) specialists and approximately 20 tons of consumables (foam) and chemical powders to control the blaze.

On Twitter, Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro “expressed his solidarity with Cuba and the people of Matanzas, given the accident at the Supertanker Base. Receive the Bolivarian embrace; you are not alone! We are fully available to provide the necessary assistance,” he said.

The Cuban Minister of Transport, Eduardo Rodríguez, and authorities of the province of Matanzas were on hand at the Juan Gualberto Gómez International Airport to welcome the highly appreciated assistance.
The accident in Matanzas industrial Zone started Friday evening after a lightning stroke in an oil storage tank.

Cuba Si



Comments by Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova on the fire in crude oil depots in Cuba

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Russian Foreign Ministry
August 07, 2022

On August 5, in the Cuban province of Matanzas, lightning struck a storage tank of crude oil, containing about 25,000 cubic meters of oil, and caused a huge fire. In spite of the firefighters’ self-sacrificing work, the fire spread to a neighboring tank and caused several explosions. The fire has been extinguished for several days, the units of the Cuban Air Force continue working on the extinguishing tasks. According to official data, there are dead and missing, dozens of injured with burns of varying severity, about 2,000 people have been evacuated from the disaster area. Among the injured is the Cuban Minister of Energy and Mines, Liván Arronte Cruz.

The country’s President, Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, described the incident as a major and complex event, urged that priority attention be given to the victims and the families of the missing, and that as much fuel as possible be removed from the disaster area.

Cuba requested international assistance in the wake of the disaster that struck the country. The Russian Foreign Ministry and competent entities are in constant contact with the Cuban side to coordinate possible joint actions and provide the necessary assistance.

In these difficult days for Cuba we express our most sincere words of support to our Cuban friends, our deepest condolences to the families and relatives of the victims and our wishes for a speedy recovery to the injured.

https://libya360.wordpress.com/2022/08/ ... -matanzas/
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Re: Cuba

Post by blindpig » Tue Aug 09, 2022 3:02 pm

Cuban helicopters carry out more than 100 missions to drop water on fire

Image
Each of the aerial missions has thrown about 2,500 liters of water on the fire, which began last Friday in the industrial zone of Matanzas. | Photo: Cubadebate
Published August 9, 2022 (1 hour 24 minutes ago)

Firefighters and workers from Cuba participate in the fire control work in Matanzas, supported by experts from Mexico and Venezuela.

Helicopters of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Cuba have so far carried out more than 100 water drop missions over the area affected by the fire at the fuel depot base in the city of Matanzas, in the west of the country.

Official sources and the media specified that each of the air missions has thrown some 2,500 liters of water on the fire, which began last Friday when an electrical discharge hit a tank containing thousands of liters of hydrocarbons.

The explosion of a second and third deposits caused the spill of crude oil in the surrounding areas, which increased the affected area, for which the withdrawal of specialized forces was ordered and aerial means were used to contain the fire.



However, on Monday afternoon a new explosion occurred and the flames affected a fourth tank that was empty.

Firefighters and workers from Cuba, supported by experts from Mexico and Venezuela, are participating in the fire control work in Matanzas, located about 100 kilometers east of Havana.


This Monday, an aircraft from Mexico arrived in the Caribbean country with four tons of retardant foam, as part of that country's aid to deal with the emergency.

Venezuela has also contributed with specialists, several tons of foam and chemical products used in this type of accident.

So far, the fire has left a balance of 125 injured, one deceased and 14 people missing, according to official figures.

https://www.telesurtv.net/news/cuba-hel ... -0005.html

Google Translator

*********************

US Sanctions are Blocking Life-Saving Relief to Cuba
Posted by INTERNATIONALIST 360° on AUGUST 8, 2022
Natalia Marques

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A firefighter near the ongoing Matanzas fire (Photo via David Ramírez Álvarez on Twitter)

A fire in a Cuban oil storage facility has killed, injured, and displaced Cubans and exacerbated the country’s energy crisis. Crucial aid efforts have been impeded by US sanctions


On August 5, a major oil storage facility was struck by lightning in the Cuban province of Matanzas, injuring 121, killing one, and leaving 17 firefighters missing. 5,000 people have been evacuated from the surrounding region.

The fire in Matanzas, still blazing as of August 8, is the largest in Cuban history. This fire will only exacerbate the energy crisis in Cuba, which has been racked with high fuel costs and aging infrastructure. Yet US anti-blockade organizations claim that existing US policies make providing humanitarian aid extremely difficult.

Despite the US Embassy in Cuba claiming that “US law authorizes US entities and organizations to provide disaster relief and response in Cuba,” activists say that existing US policy severely restricts any aid to Cuba.

“Right now, the biggest impediments to both Cuba’s relief, but also recovery in the future, continue to be the US’s unilateral sanctions, the blockade, the fact that Cuba continues to be on the list of State Sponsors of Terrorism, despite engaging in no way or form in any of this,” People’s Forum co-executive director Manolo De Los Santos told Peoples Dispatch.

The US government offered “technical support” for the devastating fire, with no mention of sending specific material aid to Cuba. In response, Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel tweeted, “We express deep gratitude to the governments of Mexico, Venezuela, Russia, Nicaragua, Argentina and Chile, which have promptly offered solidary material aid in the face of this complex situation. We also appreciate the offer of technical advice from the US.”

The US government has made no indication that it would lift the devastating blockade and sanctions it imposes on Cuba, nor that it would take Cuba off of its “State Sponsors of Terrorism” list. As activists Medea Benjamin and Natasha Lycia Ora Bannan argue in a recent piece, Cuba’s designation on this list is especially harmful. Donald Trump designated Cuba as a State Sponsor of Terrorism during his presidential term, a title only given to three other countries, all that the US is actively hostile towards: Syria, North Korea, and Iran. Trump cited Cuba’s refusal to extradite members of the peace delegation of the National Liberation Army (ELN) of Colombia, a refusal which ran contrary to the wishes of Colombia’s right-wing president at the time, Ivan Duque. Trump also cited Cuba’s ongoing granting of asylum to escaped US political prisoner Assata Shakur, admired by many for her role in the US Black liberation movement.

Due to Cuba’s designation as a “State Sponsor of Terrorism,” it is illegal for US banks to process transactions from Cuba. However, many banks in the West, fearful of being punished in some way by the US government, over-comply with sanctions and refuse to process transactions involving Cuba.

Trump also added over 200 new sanctions against Cuba during his presidential term, including limiting remittances to under $1,000 per person per quarter, and even targeting Cuba’s tourism industry by barring cruise ship visits and limiting trips. US sanctions against Cuba make it difficult for organizations to provide emergency aid, due to a lack of air cargo service between the US and Cuba, and a need for Commerce Department export licenses.

Biden has kept many Trump-era sanctions in place regarding Cuba, but has recently re-authorized donative remittances to Cuba. Despite this, there is no mechanism in place to send them, as the US continues to refuse to use Cuban entities that have processed remittances in the past.

In addition, most payment platforms that are most widely used in the US, such as GoFundMe, PayPal, Zelle, and Venmo, will not process transactions even loosely related to Cuba due to fear of the US government’s response. Venmo users have complained that even the mention of a “Cuban sandwich” in a payment will cause the company to flag the transaction.

CODEPINK, an anti-war organization, has called for the US, among the wealthiest countries in the world, to provide humanitarian aid to Cuba. “We urge President Biden to order immediate coordination among relevant U.S. agencies to provide direct and urgent assistance that Cuba is requesting. The administration should also lift existing policies and sanctions that inhibit or prevent Cuba from providing essential medical, humanitarian and environmental relief, or from receiving financial and other assistance from other nations or entities,” the organization wrote.

On the grassroots level, organizations such as the People’s Forum and Puentes de Amor in the United States have already organized initiatives for aid to Cuba. Yet the People’s Forum is also calling for the US government to step up and provide assistance. “It’s hard for friendly organizations in the United States to do relief work and to support Cuba at this moment, when no US bank is even willing to go through the maze, or possible threats, from doing transfers to Cuba,” De Los Santos said.

In addition to possible repercussions coming from the US government, US-based organizations that have been, for a long time, providing lifesaving humanitarian aid such as powdered milk and syringes have faced attacks by right-wing politicians. Florida Senator Marco Rubio penned an opinion piece in the Miami Herald shortly before the fire, about Puentes de Amor and wrote: “Despite its sentimental name, the organization really exists to advance the goals of Cuba’s repressive dictatorship,” the politician said, adding “What Puentes de Amor is doing isn’t just wrong — it’s illegal.” And yet while all three organizations have advocated for humanitarian aid for Cuba due to the fire, Marco Rubio has been completely silent on the matter.

De los Santos indicated that those in solidarity with Cuba would not back down. “Our call is to the Biden administration, out of a sense of humanity, out of a sense of being neighbors, if the US really wants to help Cuba right now, it’s not enough to just offer technical advice, as they have. To defeat not only the fire that’s raging now, but the bigger fire that is the blockade, remove those sanctions. Remove those sanctions that belong to a bygone era, that belong to the Trump administration. Remove Cuba from the list of State Sponsors of Terrorism.”

International solidarity pours in as Cuba copes with major fire at oil facility

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A fire broke out at the Matanzas Supertanker Base when lightning struck a tank.

Three oil storage tanks at the Matanzas Supertanker Base have collapsed after a fire broke out at the site on August 5. Thousands have been evacuated as emergency efforts continue with critical on-ground help from Mexico and Venezuela.


Extensive efforts are underway in Cuba to control a major fire that broke out at an oil storage facility in the city of Matanzas last week. Around 7pm local time on August 5, a lightning strike set off a blaze in crude oil storage tank 52 at the Matanzas Supertanker Base. As of the morning of August 8, three out of the eight tanks at the site had collapsed.

Containment operations have been ongoing for over three days, with critical on-ground assistance and aid provided by Mexico and Venezuela.

#ULTIMAHORA 🚨

Presidente @DiazCanelB intercambia con los jefes de las delegaciones de #México y #Venezuela que en las últimas horas arribaron a #Cuba para contribuir a sofocar el siniestro en la Base de Súpertanqueros de #Matanzas, a quienes agradeció la solidaridad inmediata. pic.twitter.com/625S5eLwXc

— Presidencia Cuba 🇨🇺 (@PresidenciaCuba) August 7, 2022


Cuba’s Ministry of Public Health reported on the morning of August 8 that 125 people had been injured in the fire, including 24 people who remained hospitalized. 17 people were being monitored, five were deemed to be in a “critical” condition and two in a “serious” condition. One death has been confirmed at the Supertanker Base so far– that of a 60-year old firefighter, Juan Carlos Santana Garrido, from the Special Fire Protection Command of the Cienfuegos Refinery. 16 firefighters remained missing as of August 7.

Declaring that “Cuba is Matanzas”, President Miguel Díaz-Canel and his government have been directly involved in addressing the crisis in the port city. The socialist leader also met with the families of the missing persons at the Velasco Hotel as well as injured people being treated at the Commandante Faustino Pérez provincial hospital on August 7.

Over 4,000 people living in the vicinity of Matanzas’ industrial area, including around 800 residents from the neighborhood of Dubrocq which is located closest to the fire, have been evacuated. Serious concerns have also been raised about the environmental and health impacts of the smoke arising from the fire which has continued to expand on the north coast and towards the western part of Cuba, reaching areas located 100 kilometers away.

📸La Habana esta mañana #8agosto#FuerzaCuba #FuerzasMatanzas pic.twitter.com/EQn1NGtqGd

— Cubadebate (@cubadebatecu) August 8, 2022


The Director of Public Health of Matanzas stated on Monday morning that there had been intensive monitoring since the beginning of the fire, and that so far no increase in respiratory or other diseases associated with toxic elements had been observed in the western part of the country. The environmental ministry (CITMA) has confirmed that the fire had caused the emission of polluting substances, however, as of August 7, it did not pose danger. The health and environment ministries continue to observe the situation.

Emergency response efforts continue

According to Cuba’s state-owned oil company Cupet, storage tank 52 contained around 26,000 cubic meters of crude oil, 50% of its overall capacity, when the fire first broke out. By the morning of August 6, four new explosions had been reported in a second of the eight tanks at the site. At 4PM local time on August 7, the president of the Provincial Defense Council of Matanzas confirmed that the blaze in the first tank had been successfully extinguished.

However, the fire in the second tank, containing around 50,000 cubic meters of oil, continued to burn, with a major explosion reported around 11pm on Sunday night. It was confirmed that the second fuel tank had collapsed, after the structure had been on fire for nearly 40 hours. The Faustino Perez hospital reported three minor injuries from the incident.

In the early hours of August 8, the Matanzas governor Mario Sabines Lorenzo confirmed that the explosion had been much stronger than the one that had occurred on August 6, and had caused oil to spill and spread to surrounding areas.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Energy and Mines stated that the situation at the Matanzas Supertanker Base was “very complex” as the site could not be accessed and explosions had continued to occur. However, the Ministry announced that the 225 megawatt Antonio Guiteras Thermoelectric Plant, the largest in Cuba, remained online at 219 megawatt.

Experts have also been working to extract the fuel from the third tank through the use of trucks and a ship that was docked near the area on August 7.

Response teams in Matanzas continued to try to contain the fire in coordination with experts from Mexico and Venezuela early on Monday, and a 5000GPM Dominator Pump, provided by Caracas, was dispatched to the site at 4AM to disperse chemical agents to dissipate the fire.

Sale armada para el lugar del siniestro, la bomba Dominator de 5000GPM, aportada por Venezuela, para bombear el agente químico que disipará el fuego. pic.twitter.com/NdeCAuPJ4v

— Cubadebate (@cubadebatecu) August 8, 2022


However, at around 9:30 AM on Monday, Governor Lorenzo announced that the third tank had collapsed, after its deck had been compromised by the fuel spillage from the second tank. He added that visibility remained low due to the smoke, however, Air Force helicopters were continuing to pour water to prevent the fire from spreading and a large hydraulic pump and brigades carrying foam had been positioned.

#MatanzasIsNotAlone

Experts from Mexico and Venezuela have continued to assist and participate in firefighting operations in Matanzas. The first plane bringing aid from the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela landed at Cuba’s Juan Gualberto Gómez International Airport on Saturday night. On board were 35 specialist firefighters who were experienced in highly-complex operations and technical experts from the state-owned oil company, PDVSA. The Venezuelan government also dispatched 20 tons of supplies including foam and chemical powders to be used to extinguish the fire.

2/2 Además de la misión de 35 bomberos especializados en operaciones de alta complejidad, hemos enviado 20 toneladas de insumos (espuma) y polvos químicos para atender esta contingencia. TODO nuestro apoyo y nuestra solidaridad a la CUBA REVOLUCIONARIA!! VIVA CUBA🇨🇺 VENCEREMOS!! pic.twitter.com/69MliG8obR

— Tareck El Aissami (@TareckPSUV) August 7, 2022


Earlier on August 6, socialist president Nicolás Maduro reiterated Venezuela’s solidarity with Cuba and the people of Matanzas– “Receive the Bolivarian hug, you are not alone!”

“In any circumstance, regardless of the size of the adversity, the sons and daughters of [Hugo] Chavez will always be at the side of Cuba, of its Revolution, of its heroic history”, declared Tareck El Aissami, Venezuela’s Minister of Petroleum as he stood with the firefighters outside the Conviasa airplane bound for Cuba.

En cualquier circunstancia, del tamaño que fuese la adversidad, los hijos e hijas de CHÁVEZ, estaremos siempre al lado de CUBA, de su Revolución, de su historia heroica. VIVA FIDEL !! Adelante querido Presidente @DiazCanelB, nosotros VENCEREMOS!! pic.twitter.com/vr6l21JcVD

— Tareck El Aissami (@TareckPSUV) August 7, 2022


A few hours prior, the first of three assistance planes from Mexico had arrived in Cuba, carrying 60 members of the military and 16 technicians and specialists from the state-owned petroleum company PEMEX. President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) had confirmed that personnel from PEMEX, the Secretariat of the Navy (Semar) and the Secretariat of National Defense (Sedena) would be traveling to Cuba, during his tour of the state of Colima on Saturday.

The Cuban embassy in Mexico expressed its gratitude to the government, stating “In times of need, the true ties of friendship and solidarity between our peoples are reaffirmed.”

🇲🇽🇨🇺 Arriba al aeropuerto Internacional Juan Gualberto Gómez de Varadero el Boeing 737-700, con ayuda solidaria del ejército y la fuerza aérea mexicanos a Cuba para el enfrentamiento al incendio que desde ayer se desarrolla en la zona industrial de Matanzas

Informa @ACN_Cuba pic.twitter.com/nBWXcIMIEf

— Cubadebate (@cubadebatecu) August 7, 2022


The Cuban News Agency (ACN) reported on Sunday that a second plane had arrived from Venezuela, bringing additional experts, 14 tons of foam, and five tons of chemical products to assist ongoing efforts. A fifth plane from Mexico carrying humanitarian cargo also landed on Sunday Cuba’s Minister of Transportation, Eduardo Rodríguez Dávila, also told reporters that Mexican Air Force ships would continue to operate throughout the night to increase the availability of foam barrels in Matanzas.

Cuba has also continued to receive messages of solidarity from countries including Bolivia, Nicaragua, Chile, Argentina, China, Guyana, Barbados, Iran, Russia, and the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic. Ghana has also provided aid consisting of 23 packages of gloves, syringes, and other medical supplies.

Expresamos profunda gratitud a los gobiernos de México, Venezuela, Rusia, Nicaragua, Argentina y Chile, que con prontitud han ofrecido ayuda material solidaria ante esta compleja situación. También agradecemos ofrecimiento de asesoría técnica por parte de EEUU. #FuerzaMatanzas

— Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez (@DiazCanelB) August 6, 2022

Una vez más, ante situaciones de dolor y angustia, nuestros compatriotas residentes en el exterior envían mensajes de apoyo y reiteran disposición a ayudar en todo lo necesario

Reconfortan tantas muestras de amor y solidaridad

A todos, la más profunda gratitud#FuerzaMatanzas pic.twitter.com/L1pavEexJT

— Bruno Rodríguez P (@BrunoRguezP) August 7, 2022


End the blockade!

In response to the emergency, the United States of America has offered “technical support”. Cuba’s Deputy Foreign Minister Carlos Fernández de Cossío stated that the proposal was in the hands of specialists for the due coordination. Meanwhile, the US embassy in Havana also declared that “US law authorizes US entities and organizations to provide disaster relief and response in Cuba”.

Washington has continued to impose an illegal and cruel blockade on Cuba for the past 60 years. In this context, any offerings of assistance are rendered effectively meaningless till the time the US continues its destabilization agenda against Havana, undermining its sovereignty, and pushing unilateral measures that harm the lives of the Cuban people.

The fire in Matanzas could potentially have an effect on fuel supply to the rest of the country, which could impact electricity supply. US sanctions have already made it difficult to purchase fuel and replacement parts to repair existing power plants.

As such, alongside their efforts to raise funds to secure medical supplies and other resources for the people of Matanzas, groups including CODEPINK, The People’s Forum, and Puentes de Amor (Bridges of Love) have also renewed their calls for the total lifting of the blockade on Cuba.

DONATE to help our comrades in Cuba

A huge fire has left people missing, dozens injured & hundreds evacuated

This will impact their energy supply & health facilities which already suffer under the US Blockade

Help us send medical & other supplies ASAPhttps://t.co/mQ93cI7uF9 pic.twitter.com/j88tS9llRO

— The People’s Forum (@PeoplesForumNYC) August 7, 2022


“Unfortunately, US sanctions on Cuba are the worst of fires!”, read a statement. “Many organizations cannot afford the costs of expensive lawyers and the long cumbersome processes required in order to provide urgent assistance to Cuba. Also, Cuba’s inclusion in the State Sponsor of Terrorism List means that banks, in both the United States and abroad, are reluctant to process humanitarian donations.”

While the US has claimed that humanitarian aid and trade is exempt from sanctions, the actual process of providing such assistance, as witnessed in other cases, has been heavily restricted by factors including overcompliance by third parties (banks, etc.)

The call to lift sanctions has also been echoed by other groups, including the Communist Party of France (PCF) which stated, “the human toll, the material and ecological damage of the fire” obliged the international community for the “immediate and definitive lifting of the illegal sanctions of the USA”.

🚩Agradecemos solidaridad del Partido Comunista Francés🇫🇷

Nous remercions @PCF pour le soutien dans cette situation très douloureuse pour Cuba. Merci pour votre solidarité et l’appel à la levée des sanctions américaines contre notre pays@PartidoPCC @CubaMINREX @EmbaCubaFrancia https://t.co/KSbfF7oJag

— Ambassade de Cuba en France (@EmbaCubaFrancia) August 8, 2022


The single most helpful and genuine action the US government could take to help Cuba following the tragedy in Matanzas would be to end its blockade and allow humanitarian aid and donations to be made. https://t.co/QLVUbPUsJz

— Cuba Solidarity (@CubaSolidarity) August 7, 2022

Additional Reporting by teleSUR





https://libya360.wordpress.com/2022/08/ ... f-to-cuba/

Other video at link.

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Another tense day fighting fire at Matanzas Supertanker Depot

Friday evening, August 5, tank 52 of the Supertanker Depot in the Matanzas Industrial Zone was hit by lightning, leading to a fire of serious proportions. Since that time, efforts to control spreading of the fire and extinguish the flames have not ceased.

Author: Granma | internet@granma.cu

august 9, 2022 08:08:57

Image
Shortly before midnight on Sunday, a large explosion occurred at the Supertanker Depot and caused the fire to spread to adjacent areas, presumably due to the collapse of a tank that has been burning since early Saturday morning. Photo: Ricardo López Hevia

Friday evening, August 5, tank 52 of the Supertanker Depot in the Matanzas Industrial Zone was hit by lightning, leading to a fire of serious proportions. Since that time, efforts to control spreading of the fire and extinguish the flames have not ceased.
On Sunday afternoon, the fire in the first tank had been extinguished, from which only white smoke was emanating, reported the province’s Party first secretary, Susely Morfa González, but following an explosion around midnight, the fire spread to adjacent areas.
Thus far, the accident has claimed the life of one person and 16 remain missing. Close to 5,000 inhabitants near the industrial zone of the port city have been evacuated and strict vigilance is being maintained to determine if evacuation of other areas is needed.
Susely Morfa, along with Matanzas Governor Mario Sabines, met with CubaPetróleo specialists working at the Supertanker Depot, who projected reaching the capacity to pump 1,000 cubic meters per second of water to the area today, to support firefighting efforts.
As of Sunday night, foam had yet to be sprayed on tank 51, since water was still being collected for this operation which requires a steady supply for 65 continuous minutes.
The Ministry of Public Health reported that, as of 10:00 am local time, today August 8, 125 persons have been treated for injuries, of which 24 remain hospitalized in six institutions, five in critical condition.

https://en.granma.cu/cuba/2022-08-09/an ... nker-depot

Solidarity arrives aboard flights loaded with courage
Venezuelan and Mexican professionals have arrived in Cuba to support firefighting efforts at the Supertanker Depot in Matanzas

Author: Yeilén Delgado Calvo | nacionales@granma.cu

august 9, 2022 07:08:53

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Specialists and technicians from Venezuela’s oil company, PDVSA, depart to Cuba. Photo: Venezolana de television

The First Secretary of the Party's Central Committee and President of the Republic, Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez personally thanked Venezuelan and Mexican professionals who arrived in our country to support firefighting efforts at the Matanzas Supertanker Depot. They moved immediately to offer their solidarity with the Cuban people, following a difficult period overnight and facing a decisive day today in this battle for life, according to the Cuban Presidency.
Four flights with supplies, equipment and personnel from Mexico and one from Venezuela, were the first to arrive on Saturday at the Juan Gualberto Gómez airport.
The first was a Boeing 737-700 from the Mexican Air Force, which was later joined by another plane, to reinforce the battle against the fire.
The Boeing 737-700 transported 82 Mexican specialists, including 60 military personnel and 16 technical experts from Petróleos Mexicanos (Pemex), who traveled at the request of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador. The second aircraft brought equipment and chemical products.
Brigadier General Juan Bravo Velázquez was in charge of the operation and said upon arrival: "We are here to help in risk prevention and to put out the fire with water and foam."
Early Sunday morning, Conviasa flight 340-642 arrived from Venezuela carrying 35 firefighters, specialists and technicians from Petróleos de Venezuela, S.A. (Pdvsa).
They are "some of the men best trained in dealing with this type of accident," Venezuela's Minister of People's Power for Petroleum, Tareck El Aissami tweeted.
In addition to the firefighters specialized in highly complex operations, 20 tons of foam and chemical powders were also on board the plane.
Granma's correspondent in Caracas, José Llamos Camejo, reports that a second plane is being prepared to fly to Cuba with eight additional firefighters, plus ten tons of foam, chemical powder and equipment to battle the flames. With these reinforcements, a total of 43 Venezuelans will collaborate in extinguishing the fire.

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Mexican solidarity arrives at Juan Gualberto Gomez Airport in Matanzas. Photo: Delgado Calvo, Yeilén

https://en.granma.cu/cuba/2022-08-09/so ... th-courage
"There is great chaos under heaven; the situation is excellent."

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