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Re: Cuba

Post by blindpig » Thu Jul 15, 2021 1:45 pm

Cuba Proves U.S. Involvement in Destabilization Actions against the Cuban People
Posted by INTERNATIONALIST 360° on JULY 14, 2021
Milagros Pichardo

The member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of Cuba and Minister of Foreign Affairs, Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla, accused the U.S. Government of being directly involved and of having serious responsibility in the incidents that occurred in our country on July 11th.

The member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of Cuba and Minister of Foreign Affairs, Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla, accused the U.S. government of being directly involved and of bearing serious responsibility for the incidents that took place in our country on July 11.

During a press conference, convened this Tuesday, the Cuban Foreign Minister presented evidence of this statement and warned that northern nation that it will be responsible for the consequences if it persists in the policy of strangulation against our country, and that its irresponsible conduct can have serious consequences that damage the interest of both countries.

Rodríguez Parrilla denounced that the controversial hashtag #SOSCuba did not emerge in the Greater of the Antilles, but was launched last June, in New York, to try to hinder the pronouncement of the United Nations General Assembly against the blockade. He specified that this operation utilizes millions of dollars in resources, and technological laboratories and platforms with funds from the U.S. Government.

He stressed that, in its inception, the scope of this hashtag was insignificant, “the campaign was disarticulated when it was crushed by an international clamor, by the predominance in networks of the world will to proclaim the lifting of the blockade”.

He explained that the call to protest at the United Nations and the launching of the campaign were made by the US company ProActivo Miami Incorporations, which coincidentally received the certificate of validity to receive state funds from the Florida Department of State on June 15, 2021.

For this reason, the head of Cuban diplomacy accused the Republican Government of Florida of financing these destabilizing actions, and presented the journalists in attendance with a copy of this certification.

He added that this instrumental company works through the coordination of a group of companies, with high technology that mobilizes, finances and technologically sustains a limited but influential group in Florida and in the virtual world, as well as a handful of media that controls the flow of data, always with manipulative nuances.

Rodriguez Parrilla explained that they accomplish this through numerous illegalities, violating the codes of the very U.S. platforms that host them, and managing the narrative to deceive the naïve who do not have the capacity to validate that information. “They take advantage of naivety and youth, of the emotional empathy with which people access networks,” he stressed.

He asserted that that small group of media, which was articulated in a significant way during the Donald Trump’s campaign in Florida, receives federal and state funds and manages the discourse on digital networks against our country, encourages violence, disorder and subversion.

He stressed that among the main operators of this campaign is adn Cuba, a project created by the U.S. Government and financed by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) for the communicational war against Cuba.

“The company Proactive Miami Incorporation itself, lists among its partners Yaima Pardo, the head of information of adn Cuba, and Norge Rodriguez, who is a political operative linked to that media,” he said, adding that neither of them are representatives of our people, but have participated in violent actions of siege against our embassy at the United Nations and in Washington, and were also among the agitators against the baseball team during the pre-Olympics in Florida.

“The link between the funds and the operations of the U.S. Government and these operators is undeniable,” said our Foreign Minister.

TACTICS TO VIRALIZE THE #SOSCUBA HASHTAG.

According to the information provided by Rodriguez Parrilla, as of June 5, that media laboratory launched a campaign on Twitter called Humanitarian Intervention in Cuba and Humanitarian Channel Cuba.

“Those who ask for it should be warned that it not only violates the laws, but that asking for a humanitarian intervention in Cuba is asking for a U.S. military intervention,” clarified the Minister.

He highlighted that as these tags lost space, on June 9 #SOSCuba was taken up again because it is a tag widely used during the COVID-19 pandemic for humanitarian and solidarity purposes, but which is now used to manipulate people, using it as a Red Cross banner, when it is really a warlike tag against Cuba.

He denounced that this label was moved from a dozen accounts, but with high technological capacity, automated, inorganic, robotic, with computers. Rodríguez Parrilla showed the press the leading accounts that moved that tag, which was joined by #SOSMatanzas and #CubaDuele. He also denounced that the operators used troll farms, which are users that coordinate a number of fake accounts and that disseminate automated messages on Twitter, which involves this large number of fake accounts launching tweets through bots at a speed that can only happen on an automated basis.

“Some of these bots used in this campaign are state-of-the-art, they are expensive and they are undetectable, unless you conscientiously probe through the platforms’ auditing systems that regulate the environment on the networks,” he clarified.

“It is a political operation. It is an aggression by the U.S. government, which today does not need missiles, nor marines, and which has an enormous capacity for non-conventional warfare actions,” he stressed.

#SOSCUBA VIOLATES TWITTER RULES

Rodríguez Parrilla showed a measurement carried out on July 8 and 9 that revealed that the most prolific users of the hashtags #CanalHumanitarioCuba, #SOSCuba and #SOSMatanzas operate all three tags and are also coordinated by the directors of ProActivo Miami.

He explained that on July 9 they deployed coordinated actions to inauthentically increase the volume of #SOSCuba, and achieved 16 times the number of the #SOSCuba tag, which does not happen in digital networks, unless there are deliberate and high-tech designed operations.

He stressed that the fact that this tag has been positioned in the networks is the result of an inorganic action from the U.S. territory, with the support of trolls, digital media, activists and automated systems to convert a message into a global trend, which is a violation of Twitter company rules.

That platform sanctions, suspends and interrupts legitimate accounts of Cuban users by applying a capricious interpretation of that regulation; however, when the manipulation of the tweets with #SOSCuba took place, it did not intervene, said the island’s Foreign Minister.

He specified that a single account, located in Spain, managed from the U.S., posted more than a thousand tweets on July 10 and 11, at a rate of five retweets per second. He added that it also organized the harassment of influencers, a tactic that was denounced by Cuban users on Twitter.

He reported that, at the same time, dozens of users who engaged in normal activity did so without knowing that they were being manipulated by U.S. companies participating in the information war against Cuba.

He explained that these ten users were asked to change in their account profiles the geolocation from where they were acting, to indicate that they were acting from Cuba, to deceive the Internet community, to create the fantasy that there was a social explosion in Cuba when in reality this was only happening from the very expensive servers of U.S. companies that protect, for political purposes, these digital operations.

He said that Twitter never activated its anti-spam systems, despite the complaints it received, nor has it blocked a single one of these accounts to date.

He categorically affirmed that the users who participated in this campaign were located in the U.S., and called on Twitter to disprove or confirm this. He asked the platform to act to prevent this, in compliance with its own policy.

“Twitter’s geolocation tools were manipulated to falsely indicate that 60% of the users were in Cuba,” he detailed in the denunciation of the Foreign Minister of the Greater Antilles.

“The US government’s and these companies’ tolerance of the anti-Cuba campaign is inadmissible, and I urge them to take measures to stop it,” he said.

Likewise, he denounced that there was a manipulation of images, not only in social networks, but also in some television stations that used images from Egypt and Argentina, during their national soccer team’s arrival, or from the Caracas airport, as if they were taking place in Cuba on July 11, creating so-called Fake News.

Image
As part of the manipulation, some media have used images of Cubans, who went out to the streets to show their support to the Revolution, as if they were protesters. In this photo, Gerardo Hernández Nordelo can be seen behind the flag. Photo: Screenshot

THERE WAS NO SOCIAL OUTBURST IN CUBA

Rodríguez Parrilla affirmed that in Cuba there was no social outburst, that on Sunday July 11 there were disturbances, disruptions on a very limited scale, taking advantage of the current conditions, but that those disturbances were generated by the development of a political-communicational operation even at the price of violence.

“These facts are to be condemned, and are being rejected by all our people,” he exposed.

He added that the disorder was caused by the presence of criminal elements, and that they have tried to manipulate the people by making them believe that there are pseudo-movements, with the purpose of forming a political opposition.

He stressed that the events of last Sunday were the result of the combination of several elements, among them: the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on the lives of Cubans, the shortages caused by the economic difficulties, and the economic problems faced by our nation due to the tightening of the blockade, which has repercussions on our health system, electric service, food and medicines, shortages and prices.

“The United States dedicates hundreds of millions of dollars to interfere in Cuba, at the cost of generating disorder and instability to fracture the social order and the tranquility of the citizenry. It uses sophisticated tools to try to take advantage of the harsh social conditions that the pandemic has generated on the planet. It is a design with political purposes that imperialism has been developing for a long time”, reiterated the member of the Political Bureau of the Party.

He recalled that during the presentation of the resolution against the blockade at the UN, on June 23, the use of lies and manipulation by the United States was warned. In that speech it was pointed out that some dream of provoking social chaos, violence and death in Cuba, already used in several countries. He added that, since that day, calls for violence and the assassination of the President of the Republic, Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, were registered.

Rodríguez Parrilla stated that today we are debating the sovereign right of a people to exercise self-determination without foreign interference, the alternative between ensuring peace and tranquility, stability and security against the usurper, a power that is attempting to determine our destinies.

“The international peace of all the States of the planet is threatened, and the constitutional order of our country is undermined,” he denounced.

U.S. HYPOCRISY

During his speech, he explained that since Monday, U.S. spokespersons have made distorted statements towards our country, including U.S. President Joseph Biden, who should listen to his own citizens who are speaking out against the blockade and against the imposition of not being able to travel to Cuba.

“It requires a lot of cynicism to ask the Cuban State to listen to its people, when the policies against the island are intensifying and the Cuban economy is being strangled with unilateral policies”, he pointed out.

He stressed that if Biden had any interest and wanted, in some way, to alleviate the difficulties suffered by the Cuban people, he could take executive action, and with his mere signature modify, without a legislative vote, fundamental aspects of the blockade. He could urge Congress to lift the blockade. He could suspend the application of Title III of the Helms-Burton Act. It could take measures in relation to the difficulties imposed on Cuba to acquire medical supplies to fight against COVID-19.

“However, what has occurred is an increase in political and media aggression, an increase in disinformation communication operations financed by federal and covert funds. The conduct of the United States is in violation of international law and constitutes a threat to the enjoyment of human rights”, he remarked.

WE WILL APPLY OUR LAWS AND INTERNATIONAL LAW

The Cuban Foreign Minister acknowledged that our people, in the exercise of their sovereignty, together with the Government, will make use of the application of our laws and international law.

Of course, there are difficulties in our country, he stressed, and the US has opportunistically taken advantage of the pandemic for aggression.

“Our Revolution, within international law and the Constitution, will exercise its right to defend the legal order that in free referendum has been given,” he said.

He reiterated that we have lived through worse times, and that we will know how to face the current one. “We are devoted to solve the problems of our economy, we have international support”, he said.

In addition, he added that we are working to face the difficulties: the COVID-19 pandemic and the blockade, both of which suffocate and kill.

“We will continue to work through our victorious resistance. We will defend our right to free and sovereign self-determination; and we will not rest until we emerge from the pandemic situation and the aggravated impacts on our economy,” he insisted.

He also stressed that we will defend to the utmost our right to peace, our national consensus. We will defend the Revolution and our people. With absolute loyalty to the memory of Fidel we will defend the truth, our people and the Revolution.

“We count on the overwhelming consensus of our people,” he expressed.

EXCHANGE WITH THE PRESS

In the Foreign Minister’s exchange with the press, the first question was aimed at knowing if there is any solution package to the people’s dissatisfactions. He was also asked if the information interruption is a defensive measure.

Rodríguez Parrilla explained that the economic circumstances are complex and the Cuban government has worked hard in spite of this. The country has evenly distributed the weight of the difficulties it is going through.

He added that Cuba will never renounce defending itself against any aggression at any level, but we will respond appropriately, on the basis of consensus.

We will always act in accordance with our laws, the truth and in consultation with our people, and in the coming days we will intensify exchanges with our citizens.

Another question from the press referred to whether the Cuban government has had communication with the Biden administration about what has happened on the island. Mention was made of the movement in social networks of a campaign about boats coming to Cuba.

Rodríguez Parrilla replied that there is communication. Both embassies work under very difficult conditions and there is communication at the diplomatic level.

Regarding the second question he revealed: “I hope that the U.S. government is respectful of international law and does not repeat the tragic experiences of the past”.

He added that Cuba is a sovereign state and our people will act with determination. “We expect the United States to adopt the necessary measures. It would be surprising if the United States, in its impunity, encourages irregular and discriminatory emigration,” he said.

To the question of whether the Cuban government contemplates diplomatic retaliation against the U.S. government, the Politburo member commented that Cuba’s conduct is totally in line with international law.

“We are interested in respectful relations based on international norms and in the national interest of both countries. Therefore, there is always an attitude of respect and constructive disposition to dialogue from the Cuban side,” he said.

If there is any honest concern left in the current U.S. government with respect to Cuba, then there are very powerful reasons to change that policy that harms Cubans inside and outside the country, and that harms American interests.

To the question of whether the rights of Cubans are being violated, according to the images circulating about the control of the riots, the Chancellor answered that he has seen worse scenes of police violence in Europe, in different conditions.

He recalled the aggressions experienced by the press in the United States during the demonstrations in Washington.

It is true that violent events have taken place, but it is not in Cuba where there has been a repression like what has occurred in some European countries, he said, and stressed, once again, that “we will apply our laws in accordance with what is required”.

To a question related to the differences between the Republican and Democratic administrations, the Chancellor responded that there is a big difference in the platform that led Biden to the electoral triumph. “There exists an inertial effect of politics,” he clarified.


Translation by Internationalist 360°

https://libya360.wordpress.com/2021/07/ ... an-people/

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Cuba faces looting, whose hands are behind it?
Posted Jul 14, 2021 by Farooque Chowdhury

Imperialism, Media, MovementsAmericas, Cuba, United StatesCommentaryFeatured
The imperialist media and its camp followers are over-active in circulating the news: Protests and loot in Cuba. Then, they draw conclusion: The people in Cuba are rejecting socialism.

The mainstream media (MSM) circulated news on Cuba saying:

Large anti-government protests broke out in Cuba’s major cities. Thousands of protesters marched on Sunday in Havana, Santiago de Cuba and other locales, decrying food, medicine and vaccine shortages.
It’s a display of “pro-freedom” sentiment. The protesters were demanding an end to the present communist rule. Numerous videos posted on social media showed crowds marching and chanting such slogans as “Liberty”. Protesters flipped cars and threw rocks at police in Havana and in other places. Some videos showed people vandalizing and looting shops.
Thus, the media-masters cheer and draw conclusions while they show their ignorance in ignoring the demarcation line between socialism and communism, as the two systems are far-far different.

Nothing to hide: There are protests in Cuba.

Nothing to hide: There’s are incidents of looting.

The issue for consideration is what goods were looted. Do food-hungry people loot TV and electronics goods? Were not there reports of loot of food products and clothes in cities in the Empire months ago while a section of the populace was raging in protests demanding justice? Those people were at least a bit hungry, at least a bit deprived of clothes. The stories of unemployment and homelessness are another issue for another story. And, there’re reports on members of an important organization of the state machine in the Empire, who were facing hunger, were facing difficulty in procuring food due to salary-shortage.

The Empire is resource-rich. This richness goes for hundreds of years. This richness comes from accumulation of wealth from all corners of the world. The Empire has never, till now, faced any economic embargo.

On the contrary, Cuba, immediately since its emergence as a dignified nation, began facing embargo of all sorts. It’s continuing. It’s not at war in any country, with any country. It has not invaded any country. It has not devastated any country with invasion and war. Yet, an all-choking embargo is imposed on Cuba! It’s unprecedented in human history.

How many reports the MSM have produced and circulated on the issues? Which of the MSM can claim that that has circulated reports on the way Cuba’s procurement of raw materials for producing Coronavirus-fighting vaccines was stalled, and who the actors were behind this stalling of a nation’s fight against pandemic? How many reports have the MSM carried on Cuba’s unprecedented help to countries including a member of the powerful G-7 in fighting the pandemic? How many reports on Cuba’s research and successful production of vaccines to fight the coronavirus the MSM have circulated? How many reports on the Cuba’s fight against the pandemic. Despite the Empire-imposed embargo, Cuba is the first country in Latin America that has successfully developed and produced two coronavirus vaccines, and has vaccinated over a quarter of its population with at least one dose while suffering a severe shortage of syringes due to the Empire-imposed embargo. Has the MSM reported on this? Has a comparison between Cuba and countries with a fat foreign exchange reserve and well-developed infrastructures been made ever? The countries to be compared are not only in Europe. They are in South Asia and South-East Asia also; and a few of these countries have nuclear arsenals, and they regularly tests missiles that can carry nuclear arms and can travel hundreds of miles. “Success”, it’s “success”, “success” at playing with vehicles of death! How many critical stories by the MSM are there on that?

And, the defeat and loss of face of the Empire in the UN General Assembly, which has turned into an annual event now? That was on withdrawal of the embargo on Cuba. Only 2-3-4 countries including the Empire oppose the resolution while rest of the countries stand for the withdrawal of the decades-long illogical embargo imposed on Cuba. Silence there! It’s the MSM-silence!

Isn’t it hypocrisy when reports of protest are partially presented and other basic facts that expose the reality, a major part of which has been created by the Empire, is circulated with electronic speed?

What happened when one of the countries claiming to be the “biggest democracy” abruptly and suddenly imposed joblessness and homelessness on millions of migrant workers? They’re not looting food stores. The helpless walked miles, many of them walked hundreds of miles with wife and children as they frantically tried “fleeing” away from hunger and the pandemic to reach their rural homes. That hundreds of miles-journey was unimaginable!

Now, with respect to Cuba, the mighty MSM spews facts: “Food-hungry” people, cell phone waving well clothed healthy and young, indeed “food-hungry”, have the physical strength to turn over police cars. Food-hungry people “have” that physical power.

This subcontinent, during its colonized days, faced famines that took millions of lives. In Kolkata, how many cars of the colonial rulers were turned over, how many stores were looted?

Today, it’s well-known that the geographically small country of Cuba is plagued with shortages of basic necessities—a result of the Empire’s never-ending embargo. The embargo is the Empire’s position on “human” rights –in fact an embargo on humanity!

Who denies the pandemic situation—food situation deteriorated by the pandemic? Aren’t countries, from India to the Empire, facing the situation?

A certain type of politician bent to demolish Cuba’s present political system helped the MSM in exposing the “protest”-story. These politicians jumped into the MSM bandwagon –drawing attention to the “protest”, praising the “protest”, extending support to the “protest”.

Marco Rubio, U.S. Senator (R-Florida) well-known for his diehard anti-Cuban Revolution stand, pleaded with U.S. president Joe Biden and secretary of state Antony Blinken to urgently “call on Cuban military forces to not fire on their own people.”

Julie Chung, acting assistant secretary for the U.S. state department’s Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs said: “Peaceful protests are growing in Cuba as the Cuban people exercise their right to peaceful assembly to express concern about rising Covid cases, deaths and medicine shortages.”

US Representative Nicole Malliotakis (R-New York) said: “I hope and pray for a free Cuba for my relatives and all suffering under its unbearable communist rule.” [“Communist” rule is “unbearable”, and capitalist rule—capital’s yoke on billions making billions hungry, making millions cannon-fodder is “bearable.”] Nicole Malliotakis felt encouraged as the “protesters” were demanding an end to their “misery”.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said on Twitter: “Florida supports the people of Cuba as they take to the streets against the tyrannical regime in Havana. The Cuban dictatorship has repressed the people of Cuba for decades and is now trying to silence those who have the courage to speak out against its disastrous policies.”

These actors are enough to expose the character of the “protest”, of the “protesters”—siblings of the now well-known organizations from the Empire funding “democracy” projects in countries considered not the Empire’s camp.

These actors maintain silence when people in other countries oppose Empire-imposed regimes and get killed. These actors maintain silence when the Empire creates conditions for shortage of medical and research equipment. These actors maintain silence when carelessness for life of ordinary citizens create conditions that fuel the collapse of the health care system and generate rows of dead bodies waiting to be cremated, as in a South Asian country. The number of dead was so staggering that people had to urge the capital city authorities to allow cutting down trees in the city parks so that dead bodies could be cremated. These actors maintain silence when the rightist regime in Brazil causes deaths of hundreds of thousands of people by brushing out the medical facts related to the coronavirus. These actors maintain silence when thousands of people march in Brazil demanding the country’s rightist regime’s trial for its cruel handling of the pandemic.

These actors are politicians telling “facts”, standing for “freedom”; and yet these actors’ actual acts and utterances—political position—are enough to take away all the credibility of the Cuba-story they’re telling.

They are silent about their funding of subversive activities to topple the revolutionary system in Cuba. They don’t reveal the enormous amounts already spent for “democracy” propaganda in Cuba.

These actors’ loss of credibility makes the contrary claim Miguel Díaz-Canel, the president of Cuba, has made credible: External forces have incited and expanded the protest. The Empire’s media campaign is manipulating sincere protest. In a broadcast to the people of Cuba, Díaz-Canel said:

We are calling all the revolutionaries in the country, all the Communists, to hit the streets wherever there is an effort to produce these provocations.

The Cuban leader tweeted:

The revolution is defended by the revolutionaries. And among the revolutionaries, the Communists are going to the forefront—never as elite, but as a conscious and committed force.

The Cuba “protest-story” is not a single incident. Similar foreign interference happened in other countries. The Cuba-protest-incident is not going to be last attempt by the Empire. In countries in regions including the South Asia, the Empire is organizing its “democracy” campaigns. There its “democracy”-mongering organizations are funding and training organizations, groups and individuals for carrying out the Empire’s design.

https://mronline.org/2021/07/14/cuba-fa ... behind-it/

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China Supports Cuba Against US Destabilization Attempts

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China's spokeperson Lijian Zhao. | Photo: Twitter/ @zlj517

Published 14 July 2021 (12 hours 13 minutes ago)

China joins other countries such as Mexico, Russia, and Venezuela, in support o Cuba amid an international campaign to discredit its government following rare protests on July 11.


China condemned on Wednesday the U.S. attempts to destabilize the political situation in Cuba as it means to create a "color revolution in the island."

"Global justice forces must support Cuba´s efforts to sustain social stability, overcome pitfalls, and together condemn repression, plotting, and subversion from the United States," the Global Times newspaper reported.


On Tuesday, the Foreign Minister said that "China firmly opposes interference of external forces in internal affairs of Cuba, firmly supports Cuban side versus the COVID-19 pandemic, in improving quality of life of the population & maintaining stability."

China joins other countries such as Mexico, Russia, and Venezuela, in support o Cuba amid an international campaign to discredit its government following rare protests on July 11. Cuba's authorities shared evidence of the U.S. role in a digital movement to promote military intervention in the island.

https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Chi ... -0017.html

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The Prime Minister of St. Vincent and the Grenadines on Cuba

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Prime Minister Ralph Gonzales

Published 14 July 2021 (13 hours 15 minutes ago)

The Prime Minister St. Vincent and the Grenadines West Indies, Ralph Gonsalves, rejects meddling in Cuban internal affairs and stands in solidarity with the island.


STATEMENT ON CUBA'S REMARKABLE AND HEROIC REVOLUTION

The protests in Cuba last weekend, fueled by unlawful imperialist economic sanctions, and carried out by a small minority in a nation of 11 million people, in relation to certain shortages of commodities for life and living, bring into focus again the remarkable and heroic achievements of the Cuban people and their Revolution despite monumental challenges. Immediately, it must be acknowledged that the protests are a purely internal matter for the Cuban authorities and the people of Cuba. Foreign interference in this internal affair is entirely unacceptable and is to be rejected. In the context of the inhumane, harsh, unilateral, externally-imposed, and illegal sanctions, no reasonable person can ever accept the pious, hypocritical, and self-serving imperial advocacy of "humanitarian intervention" in Cuba.

It is well-known that the Cuban Revolution, the embodiment of the Cuban people as a whole, has accomplished an immense socio-economic transformation of their country, for the better, since 1959 and has, through their internationalist solidarity, contributed selflessly to the global struggle for liberation, the defence of sovereignty and independence, and all-round social and material development of dozens of countries world-wide, particularly those in the Caribbean, Latin America, Africa, Asia, and the Pacific.

The Cuban people, in affirming their right to pursue a socio-economic and political path of their choice, in their own interest and on their own terms, have been subjected relentlessly to an ongoing criminal destabilization, terror, sabotage, and harsh economic sanctions, inclusive of an economic blockade which was again recently denounced by an overwhelming majority of the United Nations General Assembly as contrary to international law — only two countries out of 193 voted in favour of this criminal and imperialist blockade.

In all this, we ought to be reminded that the Trump Administration in the USA tightened the embargo against Cuba with 243 specific measures which rolled back the partial easings under President Obama. The Trump measures are still in place and are causing real hardship for the Cuban people. International law and elemental justice demand their removal.
Despite the concerted attempts, historically and currently, by imperialist and neo-colonialist forces to subvert the Cuban Revolution, to harm the Cuban people, and even to assassinate their principal leaders, the Cuban people and their Revolution have prevailed for 62 years, thus far.

The global pandemic of COVID-19, the sharp down-turn in the global economy, and the devastating knock-on effects for developing countries, including tourism-dependent economies such as Cuba, coupled with the criminal economic sanctions and blockade against Cuba, have caused real hardship to the Cuban people and economy. All this the Cuban government has made plain to the people of Cuba and the world. The Cuban leaders have spoken honestly to their people about this.

The government and people of St. Vincent and the Grenadines stand in solidarity at this difficult and challenging time with the Cuban Revolution and the Cuban people. We understand the pain and anxiety of the people concerning the shortages of some commodities. The Cuban government has repeatedly acknowledged these difficulties and has advanced credible steps to address the attendant challenges.

We in St. Vincent and the Grenadines are unalterably opposed to the further attempts by imperialism to take advantage of the current difficulties of the Cuban people so as to destroy the Cuban Revolution and roll back the gains of this very Revolution. Imperialism's quest to enthrone its hegemony in Cuba, to impose monopoly capitalism under the guise of hypocritical talk of "freedom", and to bring war, intervention, and suffering to the Cuban people, must be resisted by all persons who uphold peace, justice, sovereignty, independence, and the people's right to choose their own path of development,

The government and people of St. Vincent and the Grenadines commend the Cuban Revolution on its extraordinary achievement of producing at least two vaccines in the fight against COVID-19 and on its selfless commitment to share these vaccines with the developing world on their approved roll-out.

The government and people of St. Vincent and the Grenadines have benefited considerably, particularly over the last twenty years, from its collaboration and partnership with Cuba in a wide range of areas touching and concerning our people's lives, living, and production. We thank yet again the Cuba Revolution for its selfless generosity. We remain steadfast in our solidarity with our brothers and sisters in Cuba, in this our Caribbean civilisation.

We reject completely the attempts by certain unprincipled forces who seek to make the Cuban Revolution and the Cuban people prisoners of Presidential and Senatorial politics of Florida.

We urge calm and peace in Cuba as the Cuban government and people seek to address in a focused way their current difficulties and challenges. We urge imperialism, the monopoly capitalists, and their allies in and out of Cuba to cease their nefarious activities against the Cuban Revolution and the Cuban people.

https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/The ... -0014.html
"There is great chaos under heaven; the situation is excellent."

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blindpig
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Re: Cuba

Post by blindpig » Fri Jul 16, 2021 1:30 pm

The Cuban state and our laws protect citizen tranquility and security
Beyond any damage or injury that may have occurred over these last few days, there is a greater good that has been harmed, which the state and Cuban laws, starting with the Constitution, are obliged to safeguard

Author: Yudy Castro Morales | internet@granma.cu

july 15, 2021 14:07:34

Image
The country has the right to defend itself from conduct meant subvert the constitutional order. Photo: Granma

Although investigations continue of those involved in disturbances that took place in Cuba last Sunday, July 11, José Luis Reyes Blanco, head of the Supervision Department within the Criminal Proceedings Directorate of the Attorney General of the Republic’s office (FGR), reported to Granma that "some of the behaviors observed do constitute crimes."

To support his statement, Reyes, with 30 years of experience in the sector, cited, first of all, the Constitution, not only as the nation’s Law of Laws, but also as a social project, approved by more than 86% of Cubans.

Its Article 1, he noted, establishes "Cuba as a socialist state of law and social justice, democratic, independent and sovereign, organized with all and for the good of all," while Article 4 states, "The defense of the socialist homeland is the greatest honor and the supreme duty of every Cuban."

This precept, Reyes emphasized, also validates the right of Cubans to combat by any means necessary - including armed struggle when no other recourse is available - any attempt to overthrow the political, economic and social order we have chosen to construct.

In his review of Constitutional principles regarding the nation’s defense, Reyes also cited Article 13, which makes explicit the essential responsibilities of the state, among which are maintaining and defending our independence, integrity and sovereignty, as well as preserving national security.

He likewise called attention, as he has on other occasions, to Article 45, referring to the limits which the Constitution places on the exercise of citizens’ rights, since some participants in the recent disturbances raised as a justification for their conduct "the defense and application of their rights."

It is worth recalling that, according to the Constitutional text, "The exercise of individual rights is only limited by the rights of others, collective security, general welfare, respect for public order, the Constitution and the law."

José Luis Reyes also focused on Article 90, which refers to the responsibilities and duties of citizens in the exercise of their rights and freedoms.

In this context, he mentioned, among others, "the duty to show due respect for authorities and their agents; respect the rights of others and not abuse one’s own; and conduct relations with other persons, according to the principles of human solidarity, respect and observance of the rules of social coexistence."

Beyond any knowledge of the law, our common sense is enough to recognize that the acts in question flagrantly violated these limits and duties.

Crimes and aggravating circumstances

At this time, explained José Luis Reyes, the Attorney General's Office is supervising and guiding the criminal investigation of all cases, ensuring strict observance of quality standards and established timelines, to determine individual responsibility, the personal characteristics of the accused and concurrent circumstances.

Regarding precautionary measures, he added, preventive detention and provisional imprisonment are being used only in the most severe cases, and those involving individuals with criminal records.

Likewise, he pointed out that aggravating circumstances of criminal liability will be taken into consideration, which could imply the modification of minimum or maximum limits of sentences to be imposed. These may include:

-Being part of a group of more than three persons
-Especially serious consequences of the crime committed
-Involving the participation of minors
-Taking advantage of circumstance created by a special situation
-Using means that endanger the public
-Harming persons or goods involved in activities prioritized for the economic and social development of the country

As for possible crimes, the expert described as "common," those committed against the public order, administrative and judicial institutions, as well as those endangering lives (physical injury) and involving acts of vandalism, including the looting of stores.

Based on these categories, he expanded on what is considered disturbing the peace, which includes "provoking fights or altercations in establishments open to the public, mass transportation vehicles, social clubs, shows, family or public parties or other events or locations where numerous persons gather.” By law, anyone convicted of this crime will be sentenced to incarceration for three months to one year or a fine of 100 to 300 quotas or both.

"If the objective (of the crime) is to alter public order in any way, the sanction is incarceration for one to three years or a fine of 300 to 1,000 quotas or both."

He cited the law defining the details which call for the stiffer sentence: "Whoever uses violence or intimidation against an authority, a public official, their agents or assistants, to prevent them from performing their duty, or demand that they perform an act, either as revenge or retaliation for the exercise of their authority, incurs the penalty of deprivation of liberty from one to three years."

Nonetheless, Reyes added, the prison sentence may be increased to three to eight years if any of the following circumstances are involved in the aforementioned acts: two or more persons participate; weapons are used in committing the crime; bodily injury or damage to the health of the victim is caused; or the purpose pursued by the perpetuator is achieved.

The following crimes may also be involved in destabilization attempts:

Resistance: Whoever resists an authority, public official, their agents or assistants in the exercise of their responsibilities, incurs the penalty of deprivation of liberty from three months to one year or a fine.

Contempt: Whoever threatens, slanders, libels, defames, insults, offends or in any way violates, orally or in writing, the dignity or decorum of an authority, public official, their agents or assistants, in the exercise of their functions or on occasion or because of them, incurs the penalty of deprivation of liberty from three months to one year or a fine, or both.

Disobedience: Any individual who disobeys the decisions of authorities or public officials, the orders of their agents or assistants issued in the exercise of their functions, shall be sentenced to a prison term of three months to one year or a fine, or both.

Due process, a basic premise in cuba

Whenever we talk about criminal proceedings, specifically, it is essential to emphasize due process, understood as the guarantor and guardian of the rights of citizens, according to the expert.

As detailed in the Constitution, Cuban authorities ensure compliance with all related principles, in all cases, including:

-Deprivation of liberty is enforced only by competent authorities, for the legally established period of time.
-Legal assistance is available from the beginning of the process.
-Presumption of innocence until a final ruling is determined by the courts.
-Respect for the dignity and physical, psychological and moral integrity of the accused, including non-violent treatment with no coercion of any kind meant to force the accused to testify.
-The right of the accused not to incriminate him or herself, a spouse, common-law partner or relative up to the fourth degree of consanguinity and second degree of affinity.
-The right to be informed of the charges faced.
-Prosecution in a pre-established legal court and under laws in effect at the time of the crime.
-The right to communicate with family or relatives, in a timely fashion following arrest.
-If the accused is a victim, as well, the exercise of rights related to this situation are protected.

Beyond any damage or injury that may have occurred over these last few days, there is a greater good that has been harmed, which the state and Cuban laws, starting with the Constitution, are obliged to safeguard. That good is the tranquility and security of citizens, one of the great conquests of the Revolution.

Cuba’s Constitution, in the words of José Luis Reyes, "protects us all, but limits cannot be violated in its name. The country has the right to defend itself from conduct meant to subvert the constitutional order,” adding that the Penal Code’s primary objective remains in full force: “protecting society, the people, the social, economic and political order and the state’s institutionality."

http://en.granma.cu/cuba/2021-07-15/the ... d-security

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The U.S. government should listen to the Cuban people demanding an end to the blockade
It takes a lot of nerve for the U.S. President to assume a tone of concern for the Cuban people, while maintaining the genocidal blockade and allocating millions of dollars for subversion in our country

Author: Raúl Antonio Capote | informacion@granmai.cu

july 15, 2021 10:07:43

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Photo: Martirena

It takes a lot of nerve for the U.S. President to assume a tone of concern for the Cuban people, while maintaining the genocidal blockade and allocating millions of dollars for subversion in our country.
Displaying colossal hypocrisy, he repeated the Trump administration’s script, rushing to invest as "legitimate" the groups of vandals who disturbed the peace and public order in Cuba, this past Sunday, July 11.
Party Political Bureau member and Cuban Minister of Foreign Affairs, Bruno Rodriguez Parrilla, on Monday denounced the complicit words of U.S. President Joe Biden, who called on the "regime” in Havana to “hear the Cuban people” and "serve their needs at this vital moment."
Rodríguez agreed that it would be a good idea for Biden to listen to the Cuban people who have demonstrated against the blockade, and that he should also hear the U.S. citizens calling for an end to hostile policies toward Cuba, and eliminate the 243 measures implemented during the Trump adminsitration.
The latest example of the cynicism of the U.S. government with regard to Cuba is the launching of new programs for “the promotion of democracy," which, just a few days ago, were granted another two million dollars for counterrevolution on the island, in addition to the more than 20 million allocated previously.

http://en.granma.cu/cuba/2021-07-15/the ... e-blockade

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Weaponizing Covid-19: How Washington is Using the Pandemic to Help Destabilize Cuba
Stephen Gowans Cuba July 14, 2021 3 Minutes
July 14, 2021

Stephen Gowans

What follows is based on my reading of Cuban president Miguel Diaz-Canel Bermudez’s analysis of the causes of the recent protests in Cuba, plus data from Our World in Data, showing a sharp rise in Covid-19 cases on the island since June 22.

Cubans are facing shortages of critical goods. This is happening at a time Covid-19 cases are sharply climbing.

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The pandemic has severely reduced Cuba’s access to its main sources of foreign currency:

*Tourism
*Visits of expatriate Cubans

The reduction in foreign currency has restricted Cuba’s ability to buy foreign goods:

*Food
*Drugs
*Raw materials
*Spare parts

At the same time, fuel imports have been reduced.

Only about 20 percent of the population has been vaccinated. The low level of vaccination is attributable to two factors:

*Cuba had to develop its own vaccines because it couldn’t afford to buy them from foreign suppliers, most of whom wouldn’t sell them to Cuba anyway.
*Cuba doesn’t have the capability of producing doses in sufficient quantity to vaccinate the whole population at once. Vaccinating everyone will take time.

To Cuba’s existing economic difficulties, created by Washington’s ongoing attempts to strangle the country economically, are added these new pandemic-related problems. As a consequence, dissatisfaction has increased.

To exploit the growing difficulties, Washington is running a vigorous campaign to portray:

*The Cuban government as the inept architect of Cubans’ growing misery, and
*The US as a solicitous neighbor keen to rescue Cubans from the incompetence of their government.

While Washington professes solicitude about the health of Cubans, it presides over its own system of private health care which privileges the rich at the expense of the poor. Its concern for the welfare of Cubans [to say nothing of its concern for the welfare of its own citizens] is insincere. [Plus, Washington has shown gross incompetence in protecting the health of its own citizens against the dangers of Covid-19, posting cumulative deaths per million over 13 times greater than Cuba.]

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Some Cubans who are committed to the revolution, but are dissatisfied by the critical goods shortages, participated in the protests. The government is willing to discuss potential solutions with them, so long as they recognize and understand the real causes of the problems Cuba faces.

I’ll add the following to the Cuban president’s analysis.

South Africa offers a similar concurrent case of a political distemper precipitated by pressures produced by a worsening pandemic.

The pandemic has had two main effects in both countries:

*Increased misery on top of already existing misery. (High unemployment and inequality in South Africa and US-sanctions-created privations in Cuba.)
*A growing health hazard.

There are, however, important differences between the two countries.

*South Africa’s political distemper is more severe, marked by rioting and looting.
*South Africa has not been under a six-decades-long blockade (although its long-running regime of neo-liberal economics has probably had comparable effects for all but privileged South Africans.)
*Washington isn’t trying to take advantage of the miseries produced by the pandemic to destabilize Pretoria.

Despite these differences, protests in Cuba and South Africa, and political upheavals in Colombia, Brazil, and Peru, are traceable, in part, to the destabilizing force of the pandemic.

The failure of governments of the right to manage the economic pressures and public health hazards of the pandemic will provide political opportunities for parties of the left to mobilize those whose circumstances have worsened, so long as they offer credible solutions to pandemic-induced problems.

At the same time, the pandemic’s inherent power to destabilize will add to existing US efforts to disrupt and weaken governments that refuse to be brought under US control and influence. (This opportunity, however, is absent in the cases of China and Vietnam, both of which have exhibited peerless competence in managing the public health and economic effects of the pandemic.)

https://gowans.blog/2021/07/14/weaponiz ... lize-cuba/
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Re: Cuba

Post by blindpig » Sat Jul 17, 2021 1:02 pm

MIAMI CONNECTION, THE CORE OF THE LATIN AMERICAN COUP

Eder Peña

16 Jul 2021 , 11:24 am .

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The most dynamic city-port in the United States determines more than Latin American tastes (Photo: Daniel Slim)

The city of Miami (Florida, United States) has functioned as a nucleus in different "regime change" operations against countries. From recent events, and not so much, his El Doral enclave has been classified as a kind of Star Wars bar for aspiring "liberators" and warriors for hire.

Its reputation as a refuge for Latin American politicians accused or implicated in corruption crimes is, in some way, historical, in that sense there has been no greater distinction regarding their nationality. From the deceased Venezuelans Carlos Andrés Pérez, Jaime Lusinchi, through different hierarchical levels that include former governors, former ministers and even former presidents, such as Ricardo Martinelli of Panama, the most recent who has been arrested and on whom an extradition request is made.

False news and conspiracies are also forged in far-right public events calling for coups and interventions, such as the supposed Defense of Democracy in the Americas Forum held last May with the presence of other former presidents who were passing through: Mauricio Macri (Argentina), Andrés Pastrana (Colombia), Luis Guillermo Solís (Costa Rica) and Lenín Moreno (Ecuador), who accused Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro of the protests in Colombia, working hard to remain fixed as an exiled speaker.

The list is long, but it is not the only activity covered in the territory between the Everglades and the Atlantic Ocean. From what is considered a global city due to its importance for the speculative metabolism of transnational capital, antipolitical adventures are implemented because funds are surplus, and if there are not surplus, they are looted by playing Monopoly with urban developments that serve to launder money, wherever it comes from.

The high cylinder capacity of the financial, commercial and media machinery has turned the metropolis into "the capital of the Western Hemisphere south of the Rio Grande and the Gulf of Mexico", as the journalist and historian TD Allman would say in his book Miami. City of future . Hence, their factual powers determine narratives and export violence, as well as funds, becoming a key element in the implementation of unilateral coercive measures against other States.

The impact of such adventures is such that they have become policies that have been able to change the course of history in some countries. Let's look at some cases.

THEFT AND LIES IN NICARAGUA

In July 2019, columnist Nan McCurdy published in The Grayzone that three members of the board of directors of the so-called Nicaraguan Pro-Human Rights Association (ANPDH) accused their former executive secretary now "asylee" in Costa Rica, Álvaro Leiva, of stealing up to half a million dollars of American taxpayer money from America's soft power organizations.

These were funds received between 2017 and 2019 from the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), the National Democratic Institute (NDI) and the Open Society, international entities aligned with processes of destabilization of left-wing governments in Latin America.

This NGO was founded in Miami in 1986 under the mandate of Ronald Reagan to whitewash the abuses of the Contras during the dirty war that the CIA was carrying out against Nicaragua. Leiva was also accused of inflating the death toll during the 2018 coup attempt to ask for more resources from US donors.

It was also denounced that the OAS, based on faulty data from the ANPDH to instigate convictions and "sanctions" against the Central American country, was silent until then.

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The Nicaraguan Álvaro Leiva, of the ANPDH founded in Miami, is accused of theft and spreading of false information during the attempted color revolution in 2018 (Photo: File)

In order to destabilize both the internal politics of Nicaragua and its international relations, from Miami the customary narrative of a "failed state" was implemented using figures inflated by the ANPDH, stating that in the four months that the violent escalation masked by protests lasted, there were more than 400 dead. This figure exceeded the real figure, published by the Truth, Justice and Peace Commission, in at least 150 deaths and, in addition, it falsely blamed the government for each death.

On the other hand, the only disappeared person related to the events that occurred between April and July 2018 was Bismarck Martínez, a Sandinista militant who was kidnapped on June 29, 2018 and found murdered in May 2019. The Mayan media hid the videos of the tortures Martínez who were found on the mobile phones of his torturers after their arrest, but amplified the exaggerations of the ANPDH regarding the number of detainees, wounded and disappeared.

GIDEON, FAILED RAID TO VENEZUELA

In the heat of the 2020 presidential campaign, then-Republican candidate and president of the United States Donald Trump gave a speech to Venezuelans in Miami wearing his "Make America Great Again" caps, the slogan of the first presidential campaign.

In that February event, the magnate spoke for more than an hour stating that "the days of socialism and communism are numbered, not only in Venezuela, but also in Cuba and Nicaragua," adding that socialism would never be allowed to take root. in the heart of capitalism, in the United States.

Three months later, on May 3, even though the Venezuelan government had warned of the presence of mercenary training camps in Colombian territory, the failed incursion of 47 Venezuelan exiles and two former members of the US Army special forces that resulted arrested, there were also eight deaths.

The objective of Operation Gideon was to capture, detain or remove President Nicolás Maduro, overthrow the government and install the then deputy Juan Guaidó as the president chosen by the United States. The base of the operation was Colombia, specifically La Guajira, but the agreement that led to the events took place on the Red Course golf course at El Doral Resort.

The leader was former US soldier Jordan Goudreau, founder of the private security contractor company Silvercorp USA, who later filed a lawsuit for 1.4 million dollars against Juan José Rendón, an advisor to a criminal scheme called "interim government" by Guaidó, for breach of contract.

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JJ Rendón was a key actor in the design and preparation of the mercenary contract against Venezuela from Miami (Photo: Getty Images)

Goudreau exposed documents in which he demonstrated that Guaidó knew of the attempted coup that would have put him in power, and the media in Miami, especially those not benefited economically by the "interim", did show recordings in which he encouraged the mercenaries, also a contract signed for an advance of 1.5 million dollars and for more than 200 million that would be collected through political favors.

A participant in the preparation , Hernán Alemán, declared : "We talked about the plan, a tactical operation to capture the great political actors of Venezuela who would be handed over to the United States. Juan Guaidó would assume the mandate as interim president, which would lead to free elections in Venezuela".

For his part, Goudreau would finance logistics through donations from people who would obtain financial rewards in an eventual "transition" government.

Rendón told the press that "we analyzed around 22 scenarios. Perhaps a third of them involved the use of force", this product of multiple meetings that were held in Miami of which, with all certainty, some sectors of the government of Trump had knowledge but later declared he did not know.

In addition, Goudreau, a medic, sniper, Afghanistan and Iraq veteran and winner of three bronze stars from the United States Army, claimed to have met with two government advisers and had been hired in February 2019 to provide security at the concert sponsored by another. tycoon, Richard Branson.

It was a musical event that received all the diffusion and even concentrations of support from Miami, but which was carried out as a media pressure tool in Cúcuta, on the Colombian side of the border with Venezuela, so that the Venezuelan government would allow the entry of donations humanitarian organizations that ended up being set on fire by the same anti-Chavista protesters as an excuse, also failed, to generate violence within the national territory.

In 2017, US authorities said they had unveiled a network that illegally trafficked weapons from that country to Venezuela since at least 2013, the previous month the Bolivian government seized 75 large-caliber weapons that left Miami and entered Bolivia.

ASSASSINATION PLOT IN HAITI
The port city that is home to the largest volume of cruise ships in the world and the most international banks in the entire United States has also been a key factor in the assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moïse, which occurred during the early hours of July 7.

The Venezuelan based in Miami, Antonio "Tony" Intriago, was the recruiter for the Colombian mercenaries arrested in Port-au-Prince for the murder of Moïse and for serious injuries to his wife. Media such as La Nueva Prensa have revealed their link with the president of Colombia Iván Duque in the framework of the concert in Cúcuta, in whose organization they both participated.

Intriago owns several companies registered in the state of Florida, including Venezuela Somos Todos, co-organizer of the concert, and CTU Security (Counter Terrorist Unit Federal Academy LLC), contractor for the Colombian mercenaries involved.

Witnesses affirm that the businessman shared with Duque and Guaidó during the event to which the latter arrived at the hands of leaders of the organized armed narco-paramilitary group Los Rastrojos, a fact that was little reported by the Miami cartelized press. The Cucutazo was also little publicized , embezzling funds that were to be used for humanitarian work and for which USAID is still asking .


Intriago and Duque met in Miami during a campaign event in February 2018 when he was a presidential candidate; The Venezuelan government denounced that the businessman offered CTU Security for the contract for the defeated Operation Gideon.

Another character who is linked to the Mayan coup is the Colombian "activist" Alfred Santamaría, Intriago's partner in the board of the Fundación Latino Americanos Unidos, Inc., based right there in Miami, who has published photos with Duque on his social networks dating from last March. He was a candidate for mayor of the city, he is a defender of Martinelli (current boss of María Corina Machado) and some media have shown photos of him with Guaidó, his former adviser JJ Rendón and Álvaro Uribe Vélez.

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Colombian President Iván Duque and Alfred Santamaría, partner of Antonio Intriago on the board of the Fundación Latino Americanos Unidos, Inc., based in Miami (Photo: File)

One of the two Haitian-Americans captured was identified as James Solages, 35, lives in Fort Lauderdale (Florida), where he is the executive director of EJS Maintenance & Repair and runs an NGO. He worked as a chief bodyguard for the Canadian Embassy in Haiti and, while in Florida, supported former President Michel Martelly of Moïse's Party of the Haitian Baldies (PHTK).

He also used to work as a security guard for both Reginald Boulos and Dimitri Vorbe, two members of what the same late president of Haiti called the "Haitian oligarchy."

THE PERMANENT TOXIC DEED AGAINST CUBA

The United States has persisted with a tight blockade of the island and this has been implemented from South Florida together with an inclement media attack and terrorist actions of various intensities. The Soviet Union had offered Cuba ways to circumvent the blockade, however after the fall of the socialist bloc, the US elites, fueled by a terrorist oligarchy of Cuban origin, attacked the economy through the Cuban Democracy Law (1992) and the Law for the Freedom and the Cuban Democratic Solidarity (1996). Nothing to do both names with their effects.

From 1992 onwards, the vast majority of the UN General Assembly has voted for the United States to end the embargo and even experts from the UN Human Rights Council published a statement calling for the withdrawal of such measures which, in addition, they have done Cuba's attempt to combat the covid-19 pandemic is more difficult.

In 2020 alone, the United States applied 55 illegal "sanctions" of the 243 that Trump implemented during his administration, all based on the aforementioned laws and on the desire that a social collapse dislodge the Communist Party of Cuba from power. Last June, Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez denounced before the UN General Assembly that the health sector alone was affected by 200 million dollars between April and December 2020, 38 million more than was reported in 2019.

Even though Cuba has successfully managed the pandemic by keeping infection and death rates relatively low, the presence of more virulent variants has caused an upturn in cases that has caused the health infrastructure to be overwhelmed. In this way, it has been required to send health personnel from other provinces and requests for solidarity aid and donations.

The media platforms at the service of colonial interests, and financed by the same interventionist agencies, have saturated the networks with false news and accusations to the government for rejecting its demand to open a humanitarian corridor or the intervention of international health organizations.

For at least two years, the San Isidro Movement (MSI) has been gestating, with support from Florida, anchored in the Cuban cultural movement, which arose from some artistic revolts that occurred in 2018. Due to controversial measures proposed by the government towards the cultural milieu the elements already known were conformed in attempts of soft coups. The same staging, the same "activists" ( artivists , in this case) who "disappear" when arrested for violating the law, symbolism, songs, fake news, staging, more songs, overexposure of targeted demonstrations ...


Another major player in the latest wave of color is another NGO: Unión Patriótica de Cuba (Unpacu), founded by José Daniel Ferrer García and funded in 2011 by the Miami-based Cuban-American National Foundation.

Several musicians residing in that city, where whoever the Mayan Cuban leadership says speaks, sings or writes, participated in a mixed record marketing and political propaganda operation that resulted in a song called "Patria y Vida", in which members also participate. of the MSI who live in Cuba.

A media agent named Alex Otaola is the one who determines and points out the counterrevolutionary quality of an artist in Miami, hence after each point to an artist, he must decide whether to give in or disappear from the media scene. This occurs in the city from where the artistic tastes and fashions of the Spanish-speaking cultural market are determined "in the name of freedom."

Columnist José Manzaneda recounts how Otaola managed to coerce artists such as the Gente de Zona duo, who greeted Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel during a concert in Havana. They were vetoed by the mayor of Miami at a year-end concert and lost their double residency in Miami and Havana.

Another coerced artist was the composer Descemer Bueno, who praised Cuban medical cooperation and condemned the blockade of his country by the United States. For those two reasons, Otaola managed to boycott his concerts in Miami. Although Bueno resisted and took the presenter to court, he was defeated and ended up giving in.

Last October Otaola gave Trump a "red list" of Cubans to be prevented from entering the country. In the middle of the extortion process, some of them congratulated his fight for the "freedom of Cuba."

Other MSI artivists who live in Cuba, such as Denis Solís González, have recognized links with terrorists based in Miami such as Jorge Luis Fernández Figueras, accused by the Cuban justice of belonging to the paramilitary group Lobos Solitarios. Maykel Osorbo has not followed the line that the song is a call for peace and has declared that it is "a war anthem", in addition to declaring: "I am in favor of an invasion right now. Are you going to invade Cuba? Come for here ".

While inside and outside the United States the powerful cartelized media silence the various organizations and entities that are calling for an end to the blockade, the artists at the service of these media travel to countries like Spain to flatter their "freedom of expression", yes, they do not It is worth mentioning rappers imprisoned in other latitudes such as the Catalan Pablo Hasel.

https://misionverdad.com/globalistan/co ... oamericano

Google translator

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Miami Mayor Suggests United States Should Bomb Cuba

July 16, 2021 orinocotribune Abdala, color revolution, COVID-19, Cuba, regime change operation, Soberana 01, Soberana 02, us blockade
Francis Suárez, a Cuban-American and current mayor of Miami, Florida’s largest city, declared that the United States should explore the possibility of launching air strikes against Cuba.

Since last weekend, a “regime”-change operation has been launched against Cuba’s socialist government and the majority of the Cuban population, using the pretense of alleged mass protests, that are not evidenced other than one or two small incidents. Police repression has also been raised as an excuse for a so-called humanitarian operation, but again, no mass repression can been seen, at least nothing approaching the degree of what was witnessed in the United States during the George Floyd uprising, or more recently in Colombia during the national strike.

The Caribbean island has been heavily affected by COVID-19 in terms of a reduction in tourist revenues but, most importantly, by the US blockade that has made life more difficult for millions of Cubans.

A small spike in COVID-19 cases, along with electricity blackouts, were issues raised by protesters, but scenes of violence were caught on video that then circulated on social media networks. Immediately, Miguel Díaz-Canel, Cuba’s president, went into the streets to speak directly with the protesters, and he, alongside high-ranked government officials, explained the causes of the current problems faced by the island.

Cuba, Nicaragua, and Venezuela are the three Latin American countries with the lowest COVID-19 death rate. The three governments are run by progressive leaders.

Meanwhile, Cuba is already producing three COVID-19 vaccines (Soberana 01, Soberana 02, and Abdala) that present a hope for many people all over Latin America. Cuba is the only country in the region that has been able to develop a technology to produce highly efficient vaccines with results that seem to surpass those of big pharma. In addition, Cuba sent hundreds of doctors all over the world to help in the fight against the pandemic.

https://orinocotribune.com/miami-mayor- ... bomb-cuba/
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Re: Cuba

Post by blindpig » Sun Jul 18, 2021 12:38 pm

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Defend the Cuba Revolution and Struggle for More Socialism, Not Less!
July 17, 2021
By ​​​​​Ajamu Baraka – Jul 15, 2021

Millions have turned away from the illusions and corruption of capitalism toward the possibility of organizing a society informed by the values of cooperation, equality, community, peace, and life.

“Capitalism transforms water into a commodity, food into a luxury, education into an impossibility and basic healthcare into a distant dream.’

Hundreds of thousands of unnecessary deaths, an economic crisis, broken supply chains, killer cops, mass incarceration, government surveillance, nuclear weapons, irrational anti-social mass shootings, normalized racism, homelessness, crumbling schools, depression, fear, suicides, and obscene disparities in incomes and wealth—all the features of a moribund, brutal, anti-human global colonial-capitalist system in the United States—and we are supposed to be defensive about socialism! Give me a break.

Yet, the propagandists of death never sleep. Even as their system is being exposed as the generator of global warming (climate change), nuclear madness, cultural degeneration, and strange, violent societies and people, the ideological dirty workers are busy diverting attention away from the failures of their system to the internal contradictions found within the few examples of societies struggling to remake themselves in ways that center the needs and aspirations of the people.

“The ideological dirty workers are busy diverting attention away from the failures of their system.”

If the social and economic conditions in Cuba, North Korea and Venezuela are supposed to be the result of the inherent flaws of socialism, why the sanctions, subversions, and outright attacks on those projects? If socialism is such an inherently unproductive and unnatural system, just let them implode based on their own supposed internal contradictions.

But this is where the joke comes in. The propagandists will say these societies would indeed implode if it was not for some dictator or repressive system that keeps the population in check. This is where the trope of the brutal dictator and the suffering, fearful people is deployed ready for liberal—and even radical—white saviorism. The social gains under an emerging socialist project like the reduction of poverty, literacy, and inequality, as well as the provision of free healthcare, education, and free or affordable housing are not mentioned or are dismissed as irrelevant because these policies supposedly come at the cost of freedom!

But people in the United States who are still able to think for themselves and have experienced the structural violence of capitalism have gained a new clarity. Sharpened by the revelations of the COVID-19 pandemic—which ripped away the carefully cultivated veneer of social mobility and civilization that hid the ugly inner workings of capitalism—they have discovered their individual experiences of exploitation and fear are shared by millions of people confined by capitalism to a life of toil, stunted humanity, and early death. That is why so many today have turned away from the illusions and corruption of capitalism toward the possibility of organizing a society informed by the values of cooperation, equality, community, peace, and life.

“The COVID-19 pandemic ripped away the carefully cultivated veneer of social mobility and civilization that hid the ugly inner workings of capitalism.”

And that is the fear of the denizens of death. Joe Biden can caution Cuba not to “crack down” on protesters with a straight face. The same Joe Biden whose failure to defend democracy in Haiti created the crisis in that country. The same Joe Biden who claimed it was permissible for the Israelis to lob artillery shells into residential neighborhoods in Gaza because the Israeli colonialists had a right to defend themselves against the colonized Palestinians they were oppressing. And the same Joe Biden who has been silent on the over 70 deaths during the recent national strike at the hands of Colombian security forces, who have been armed and trained by the United States.

The Cuban revolution has survived 62 years of consistent subversion and outright attacks from the United States and its white-supremacist colonial allies. The revolution has nothing to be ashamed of. It has been a beacon of hope and a model for millions around the world. That Cuba needs to defend itself against capitalism and against the billions of people around the world living in abject poverty is absurd.

It is capitalism that degrades and destroys Mother Earth. It is capitalism that transforms water into a commodity, food into a luxury, education into an impossibility and basic healthcare into a distant dream. The colonial-capitalist system is responsible for millions dying in genocidal wars. It created race and perpetuates white supremacy. It is U.S. and European state policies in the form of sanctions that deny peoples and nations medicines in the midst of a pandemic. It is the rapacious greed of capitalists and the warmongering states they control that have imposed inhumane conditions on poor states, which has made it impossible to pay back the odious loans they often had been forced to assume. This situation creates devastating consequences for their people. Resources cannot be devoted to providing healthcare, education, housing, a clean environment, food, and a means to a living because the people’s resources must be used to pay bankers in the West.

“The Cuban revolution has been a beacon of hope and a model for millions around the world.”

This is not theoretical, but a fact. This is the reality of a capitalist world.

But across this capitalist world, the people are fighting back. They are taking their histories into their own hands. That is the threat of nations like Venezuela and Cuba. That is why Western capitalist nations slander China and attempt to mobilize their populations for the possibility of war. China has exposed what can be accomplished with central planning and a rational allocation of the people’s resources to address human needs.

To confuse the populations and mobilize them against their own interests, the capitalists deploy not only their traditional liberal and conservative ideologues. They let loose the social-imperialist intelligentsia—who are fundamentally anti-communist and Bernsteinian social democratic, at best—to provide a left cover to imperialist intrigue. This intrigue is framed as being in opposition to “authoritarianism,” a term and idea that bourgeois propagandists discovered through focus groups can be used to undermine left projects by mobilizing the sensibilities of the soft, materially corrupted and NGOed latte-left in the United States and Western Europe.

]However, among millions of people in the global South and among the colonized and exploited working classes in global North countries, Cuba and its project will be defended and the call and struggle for socialism will continue. We see the choice. It has always been between the barbarism of the colonial-capitalist North and human freedom and transformation emerging from the South.

For nationally oppressed and exploited African peoples in the United States, we stand with the people of the South, where revolution is emerging. We will defend Cuba, support Venezuela, demand that North Korea’s sovereignty be respected, struggle against global militarization, and oppose U.S. and Western imperialism without equivocation, apology, or hesitation. We are clear on the enemy because we have seen it up close and personal since 1492.

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Re: Cuba

Post by blindpig » Mon Jul 19, 2021 1:22 pm

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The Bay of Tweets: Documents Point to US Hand in Cuba Protests

By Alan Macleod – Jul 16, 2021

The U.S. government can cause economic misery for the Cuban people, but it cannot, it appears, convince them to overthrow their government.

HAVANA — Cuba was rocked by a series of anti-government street protests earlier this week. The U.S. establishment immediately hailed the events, putting its full weight behind the protestors. Yet documents suggest that Washington might be more involved in the events than it cares to publicly divulge.

As many have reported, the protests, which started on Sunday in the town of San Antonio de los Baños in the west of the island, were led and vocally supported by artists and musicians, particularly from its vibrant hip-hop scene.

“For those new to the issue of Cuba, the protests we are witnessing were started by artists, not politicians. This song ‘Patria y Vida’ powerfully explains how young Cubans feel. And its release was so impactful, you will go to jail if caught playing it in Cuba,” said Florida Senator Marco Rubio, referencing a track by rapper Yotuel.

Both NPR and The New York Times published in-depth features about the song and how it was galvanizing the movement. “The Hip-Hop Song That’s Driving Cuba’s Unprecedented Protests,” ran NPR’s headline. Yotuel himself led a sympathy demonstration in Miami.

But what these accounts did not mention was the remarkable extent to which Cuban rappers like Yotuel have been recruited by the American government in order to sow discontent in the Caribbean nation. The latest grant publications of the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) — an organization established by the Reagan administration as a front group for the CIA — show that Washington is trying to infiltrate the Cuban arts scene in order to bring about regime change. “A lot of what we do today was done covertly 25 years ago by the CIA,” NED co-founder Allen Weinstein once told The Washington Post.

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Yotuel poses with workers, July 14, 2021, at at a Cuban restaurant in Miami’s Little Havana neighborhood. Wilfredo Lee | AP

For instance, one project, entitled “Empowering Cuban Hip-Hop Artists as Leaders in Society,” states that its goal is to “promote citizen participation and social change,” and to “raise awareness about the role hip-hop artists have in strengthening democracy in the region.” Another, called “Promoting Freedom of Expression in Cuba through the Arts,” claims it is helping local artists on projects related to “democracy, human rights, and historical memory,” and to help “increase awareness about the Cuban reality.” This “reality,” as President Joe Biden himself stated this week, is that the Cuban government is an “authoritarian regime” that has meted out “decades of repression” while leaders only “enrich themselves.”

Other operations the NED is currently funding include enhancing Cuban civil society’s ability to “propose political alternatives” and to “transition to democracy.” The agency never divulges with whom it works inside Cuba, nor any more information beyond a couple of anodyne blurbs, leaving Cubans to wonder whether any group even vaguely challenging political or societal norms is secretly bankrolled by Washington.

“The State Department, the U.S. Agency for International Development, and the U.S. Agency for Global Media have all financed programs to support Cuban artists, journalists, bloggers and musicians,” Tracey Eaton, a journalist who runs The Cuba Money Project, told MintPress. “It’s impossible to say how many U.S. tax dollars have gone toward these programs over the years because details of many projects are kept secret,” he added.

A currently active grant offer from the NED’s sister organization, USAID, is offering $2 million worth of funding to groups that use culture to bring about social change in Cuba. Applicants have until July 30 to ask for up to $1 million each. The announcement itself references Yotuel’s song, noting, “Artists and musicians have taken to the streets to protest government repression, producing anthems such as ‘Patria y Vida,’ which has not only brought greater global awareness to the plight of the Cuban people but also served as a rallying cry for change on the island.”

The hip-hop scene in particular has long been a target for American agencies like the NED and USAID. Gaining popularity in the late 1990s, local rappers had a considerable impact on society, helping bring to the fore many previously under-discussed topics. The U.S. saw their biting critiques of racism as a wedge they could exploit, and attempted to recruit them into their ranks, although it is far from clear how far they got in this endeavor, as few in the rap community wanted to be part of such an operation.

The graphic below shows how much money various artists have received from the US government. Credit | Cuba Money Project

[Graphic available at link.The intersection of culture, entertainment and propaganda could not be illustrated better. bp)

MintPress also spoke with Professor Sujatha Fernandes, a sociologist at the University of Sydney and an expert in Cuban music culture. Fernandes stated:

For many years, under the banner of regime change, organizations like USAID have tried to infiltrate Cuban rap groups and fund covert operations to provoke youth protests. These programs have involved a frightening level of manipulation of Cuban artists, have put Cubans at risk, and threatened a closure of the critical spaces of artistic dialogue many worked hard to build.”

Other areas in which U.S. organizations are focussing resources include sports journalism — which the NED hopes to use as a “vehicle to narrate the political, social, and cultural realities of Cuban society” — and gender and LGBTQ+ groups, the intersectional empire apparently seeing an opportunity to also use these issues to increase fissures in Cuban society.

The House Appropriations Budget, published earlier this month, also sets aside up to $20 million for “democracy programs” in Cuba, including those that support “free enterprise and private business organizations.” What is meant by “democracy” is made clear in the document, which states in no uncertain terms that “none of the funds made available under such paragraph may be used for assistance for the government of Cuba.” Thus, any mention of “democracy” in Cuba is all but synonymous with regime change.



Capitalizing on a battered economy

The protests began on Sunday after a power outage left residents in San Antonio de los Baños without electricity during the summer heat. That appeared to be the spark that led to hundreds of people marching in the street. However, Cuba’s economy has also taken a nosedive of late. As Professor Aviva Chomsky of Salem State University, author of “A History of the Cuban Revolution,” told MintPress:

Cuba’s current economic situation is pretty dire (as is, I should point out, almost all of the Third World’s). The U.S. embargo (or, as Cubans call it, blockade) has been yet another obstacle (on top of the obstacles faced by all poor countries) in Cuba’s fight against COVID-19. The collapse of tourism has been devastating to Cuba’s economy — again, as it has been in pretty much all tourism-heavy places.”

However, Chomsky also noted that it could be a mistake to label all the protestors as yearning for free-market shock therapy. “It’s interesting to note that many of the protesters are actually protesting Cuba’s capitalist reforms, rather than socialism. ‘They have money to build hotels but we have no money for food, we are starving,’ said one protester. That’s capitalism in a nutshell!” Chomsky said.

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Florida Sen. Rick Scott holds a photo of Cuban protesters during a press conference in DC, July 13, 2021. J. Scott Applewhite | AP

Eaton was skeptical of the idea that all those marching were in the pay of the U.S. “Certainly, much of the uprising was organic, driven by Cubans who are desperate, poor, hungry and fed up with their government’s inability to meet their basic needs,” he said. Yet there were signs that at least some were not simply making a point about the lack of food in stores or medicines in pharmacies. A number of demonstrators marched underneath the American flag and the events were immediately endorsed by the U.S. government.

“We stand with the Cuban people and their clarion call for freedom,” read an official statement from the White House. Julie Chung, Biden’s Acting Assistant Secretary for U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs, added:

Cuba’s people continue to bravely express yearning for freedom in the face of repression. We call on Cuba’s government to: refrain from violence, listen to their citizens’ demands, respect protestor and journalist rights. The Cuban people have waited long enough for ¡Libertad!”

Republicans went much further. Mayor of Miami Francis Suarez demanded that the United States intervene militarily, telling Fox News that the U.S. should put together a “coalition of potential military action in Cuba.” Meanwhile, Florida Congressman Anthony Sabbatini called for regime change on the island, tweeting:


The corporate media cheering section

Corporate media were also extremely interested in the protests, devoting a great deal of column inches and air time to the demonstrations. This is extremely unusual for such actions in Latin America. Colombia has been living through months of general strikes against a repressive government, while there have been three years of near-daily protests in Haiti that were almost completely ignored until earlier this month, when U.S.-backed President Jovenel Moïse was assassinated.

The effect of U.S. sanctions was constantly downplayed or not even mentioned in reporting. For example, The Washington Post’s editorial board came out in favor of the protestors, claiming Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel was reacting “with predictable thuggishness…blaming everything on the United States and the U.S. trade embargo.” Other outlets did not even mention the embargo, leaving readers with the impression that the events could only be understood as a democratic uprising against a decaying dictatorship.

This is particularly pernicious because government documents explicitly state that the goal of the U.S. sanctions is to “decrease monetary and real wages, to bring about hunger, desperation and [the] overthrow of [the] government” — exactly the conditions brewing in Cuba right now. Professor Chomsky noted:

The U.S. embargo/blockade is one (not the only) cause of Cuba’s economic crisis. The U.S. has overtly and continuously said that the goal of the embargo is to destroy Cuba’s economy so that the government will collapse. So it’s not just reasonable, it’s obvious that the U.S. has some kind of hand in this.”

Chomsky also took issue with the media’s explanation of events, stating:

Look at coverage of Black Lives Matter or Occupy Wall Street protests in this country. One thing that we see consistently is that when people protest in capitalist countries, the media never explains the problems they are protesting as caused by capitalism. When people protest in communist or socialist countries, the media attributes the problems to communism or socialism.”

Media were at pains to emphasize how large and widespread the anti-government demonstrations were, insisting that the pro-government counter-demonstrations were smaller in number, despite images from the protests suggesting that the opposite might be true. As Reuters reported, “Thousands took to the streets in various parts of Havana on Sunday including the historic centre, drowning out groups of government supporters waving the Cuban flag and chanting Fidel.”

If this were the case, it is odd indeed that so many outlets used images of pro-government movements to illustrate the supposed size and scope of the anti-government action. The Guardian, Fox News, The Financial Times, NBC and Yahoo! News all falsely claimed a picture of a large socialist gathering was, in fact, an anti-government demo. The large red and black banners emblazoned with the words “26 Julio” (the name of Fidel Castro’s political party) should have been a dead giveaway to any editors or fact checkers. Meanwhile, CNN and National Geographic illustrated articles on the protests in Cuba with images of gatherings in Miami — gatherings that looked far better attended than any similar ones 90 miles to the south.


Social media meltdown

Social media also played a pivotal role in turning what was a localized protest into a nationwide event. NBC’s Director of Latin America, Mary Murray, noted that it was only when live streams of the events were picked up and signal-boosted by the expat community in Miami that it “started to catch fire,” something that suggests the growth of the movement was partially artificial. After the government blocked the internet, the protests died down.

The hashtag #SOSCuba trended for over a day. There are currently over 120,000 photos on Instagram using the hashtag. But as Arnold August, the writer of a host of books on Cuba and Cuban-American relations, told MintPress, much of the attention the protests was getting was the result of inauthentic activity:

The latest attempt of regime change also has its roots in Spain. Historically, the former colonizer of Cuba plays its role in all major attempts of regime change, not only for Cuba, but also, for example, in Venezuela. The July operation made intensive use of robots, algorithms and accounts recently created for the occasion.”

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Within days the #SOSCUBA hashtag generated over 120,000 images on Instagram

August noted that the first account using #SOSCuba on Twitter was actually located in Spain. This account posted nearly 1,300 tweets on July 11. The hashtag was also buoyed by hundreds of accounts tweeting the exact same phrases in Spanish, replete with the same small typos. One common message read (translated from Spanish), “Cuba is going through the greatest humanitarian crisis since the start of the pandemic. Anyone who posts the hashtag #SOSCuba would help us a lot. Everyone who sees this should help with the hashtag.” Another text, reading “We Cubans don’t want the end of the embargo if that means the regime and dictatorship stays, we want them gone, no more communism,” was so overused that it became a meme in itself, with social media users parodying it, posting the text alongside pictures of demonstrations beside the Eiffel Tower, crowds at Disneyland, or pictures of Trump’s inauguration. Spanish journalist Julian Macías Tovar also cataloged the suspicious number of brand new accounts using the hashtag.

Much of the operation was so crude that it could not have failed to be discovered, and many of the accounts, including the first user of the #SOSCuba hashtag, have now been suspended for inauthentic behavior. Yet Twitter itself still chose to put the protests at the top of its “What’s Happening” for over 24 hours, meaning that every user would be notified, a decision that further amplified the astroturfed movement.

Twitter leadership has long displayed open hostility towards the Cuban government. In 2019, it took coordinated action to suspend virtually every Cuban state media account, as well as those belonging to the Communist Party. This was part of a wider trend of deleting or banning accounts favorable to governments the U.S. State Department considers enemies, including Venezuela, China and Russia.


In 2010, USAID secretly created a Cuban social media app called Zunzuneo, often described as Cuba’s Twitter. At its peak, it had 40,000 Cuban users — a very large number for that time on the famously Internet-sparse island. None of these users were aware that the app had been secretly designed and marketed to them by the U.S. government. The point was to create a great service that would slowly start to feed Cubans regime-change propaganda and direct them to protests and “smart mobs” aimed at triggering a color-style revolution.

In an effort to hide its ownership of the project, the U.S. government held a secret meeting with Twitter founder Jack Dorsey, aimed at getting him to invest in the project. It is unclear to what extent, if any, Dorsey helped, as he has declined to speak on the matter. This is not the onlyanti-government app the U.S. has funded in Cuba. Yet, considering both what happened this week and the increasingly close ties between Silicon Valley and the National Security State, it is possible the U.S. government considers further cloak-and-dagger apps unnecessary: Twitter already acts as an instrument for regime change.

Cuba in perennial crosshairs

By the end of the nineteenth century, the United States had effectively conquered its entire contiguous landmass; the frontier was declared closed in 1890. Almost immediately, it began to look for opportunities to expand westwards into the Pacific — to Hawaii, the Philippines and Guam. It also began looking southwards. In 1898, the U.S. intervened in the Cuban Independence War against Spain, using the mysterious sinking of the U.S.S. Maine as a pretext to invade and occupy Cuba. The U.S. operated Cuba as a client state for decades, until the Batista regime was overthrown in the 1959 revolution that brought Fidel Castro to power.

The U.S. launched a botched invasion of the island in 1961, the Bay of Pigs event driving Castro closer to the Soviet Union, laying the groundwork for the Cuban Missile Crisis the following year. The U.S. reportedly attempted to kill Castro hundreds of times, all without any luck. It did, however, carry out a bitter and protracted terroristic war against Cuba and its infrastructure, including using biological weapons against the island. Along with this came a long-standing economic war, the 60-year U.S. blockade of the island that throttled its development. In addition to this, it has attempted to bombard the Caribbean nation with anti-communist propaganda. TV Martí, a Florida-based media network, has cost the U.S. taxpayer well over half a billion dollars since its creation in 1990, despite the fact that the Cuban government successfully jams the signal, meaning virtually nobody watches its content.

After the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, Cuba was left without its main trading partner, to which it had geared its economy. Without a guaranteed buyer for its sugar, and without subsidized Russian oil imports, the economy crashed. Sensing blood, the U.S. intensified the sanctions. Yet Cuba pulled through the grim time collectively known as the “Special Period.”

After a wave of left-wing, anti-imperialist governments came to power across Latin America in the 2000s, the Obama administration was forced to move towards normalizing diplomatic relations with the island. However, once in office, President Donald Trump reversed these actions, intensifying the blockade and halting vital remittances from Cuban-Americans to the island. Trump advisor John Bolton labeled Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua a “troika of tyranny” — a clear reference to George Bush’s “Axis of Evil” speech, implying that these three nations could expect military action against them soon. In its last days, the Trump administration also declared Cuba a state sponsor of terrorism.

While Biden had intimated that he might turn the U.S. Cuba policy back to the Obama days, he has, so far, done little to move away from the Trump line, his unequivocal endorsement of this week’s actions the latest example of this.

Despite monumental worldwide media coverage, encouragement and legitimation from world leaders, including the president of the United States himself, the recent action petered out after barely 24 hours. In most cases, counter-protests effectively diluted the protests, without the need for repressive forces to be deployed.

The U.S. government can cause economic misery for the Cuban people, but it cannot, it appears, convince them to overthrow their government. “The current events in Cuba constitute in reality the U.S.S. Maine of 2021,” August said. If this really was an attempted color revolution, as August is implying, it was not a very successful one, amounting to little more than a Bay of Tweets.

Featured image: Floridians from Cuba’s ex-pat community in Hialeah, Fla., shout during a protest against the Cuban government, July 15, 2021. Marta Lavandier | AP

https://www.mintpressnews.com/documents ... ts/277987/
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Re: Cuba

Post by blindpig » Tue Jul 20, 2021 1:20 pm

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The Only Way to End Economic Hardship in Cuba Is to Lift the US Blockade
July 19, 2021
By Francisco Dominguez – Jul 17, 2021

For 60 years, Cuba has lived under siege from the most powerful nation on earth, denying it basics like food, medicine and building equipment – anyone who cares about economic hardship must call for it to end.

In an evidently well-coordinated action, on 11 July 2021, groups of opponents of the government staged demonstrations in several Cuban cities, notably Havana. Within seconds of the event the world’s mainstream media, including, of course, the media in the UK, were in full swing magnifying the event.

Such social outburst is an unusual event in Cuba and even more surprising were the intensity and violence deployed by the protestors (vandalism, aggression against officials, attacks on public buildings), reminiscent of similar protests in Venezuela in 2014 and 2017 and Nicaragua in the coup attempt of July 2018.

It was clear these opposition groups were carrying out the well-known Venezuelan tactic of guarimba (violent and media-oriented street disturbances). The protests were immediately responded by mass mobilisations in support of the revolution across Cuba, pictures of which were presented as anti-government by media such as the Guardian (though it subsequently rectified the mistake).

The reasons for the original street protests were scarcity of food, medicines, electricity supply and fuel that burden the daily life of the island’s 11 million Cubans with severe difficulties. These include food and fuel queues, electricity blackouts, fall in income, and general economic hardship.

Cubans have genuine concerns about a deteriorating socio-economic reality in their country, brought about mainly by the drastic intensification of the U.S. blockade under Donald Trump. Biden, despite electoral promises to restore the good relations under Obama, has done nothing to alleviate this situation – and its impacts have dramatically heightened with the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The pandemic has decimated tourism in Cuba, the island’s main hard revenue earner. It also interfered with trade and slowed the economy. But in addition to these impacts on income and food, Cubans also had to face shortages of medicine – severely impacted by the effects of the embargo – which has contributed to a health crisis, notably in Matanzas.

The election of Donald Trump led the U.S. to fully reverse the timid but positive decisions to alleviate aspects of the blockade on Cuba under Obama. Under Trump, the United States imposed an additional 243 unilateral coercive measures (aka sanctions), including adding Cuba to the U.S. list of states sponsoring terrorism, which amounted to a brutal and entirely unjustified intensification of the U.S. aggression against the Cuban people.

The sanctions target every aspect of Cuba’s economy. They prohibit trade with businesses controlled or operated by and or on behalf of the military; ban U.S. citizens from travelling to Cuba individually and as groups for educational and cultural exchanges; withdraw most of its staff from the U.S. embassy in Havana leading to, among other things, the suspension of visa processing; allow U.S. nationals to enter into litigations against Cuban entities that “traffic” or benefit from property confiscated by the Cuban revolution since 1959; prohibit cruise ships and other vessels from sailing between the U.S. and the island; ban U.S. flights to Cuban cities other than Havana; suspend private charter flights to Havana and bar U.S. citizens from staying in establishments linked to the Cuban government or the Communist party; curb the sending of remittances from the U.S. to Cuba (Western Union had to shut down its operations in the island); seek to block the flow of Venezuelan oil to Cuba through applying sanctions to shipping companies and Cuba’s and Venezuela’s state oil companies; ban Cuban officials from entering the U.S. for alleged complicity in human rights abuses in Venezuela, and much more.

These are all in addition to existing conditions which make it very difficult for international businesses which operate in the United States to also do business with Cuba, something which means the blockade in reality is not just a two-way affair. The sanctions aim to cause the maximum hardship, exactly as the blockade was designed to do in the infamous 1960 U.S. State Memorandum 499:

The only foreseeable means of alienating internal support is through disenchantment and disaffection based on economic dissatisfaction and hardship […] every possible means should be undertaken promptly to weaken the economic life of Cuba […] a line of action which, while as adroit and inconspicuous as possible, makes the greatest inroads in denying money and supplies to Cuba, to decrease monetary and real wages, to bring about hunger, desperation and overthrow of government.

By 2018, the UN Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) reported that the U.S. financial and trade embargo on Cuba had cost the country’s economy US$130 billion.

The Covid-19 pandemic has, additionally, taken a vicious extra toll on the Cuban economy. The arrivals of foreign tourists declined by over 90% in the period 2020-2021, wreaking havoc in the economy. Revenues from vital hard currency were cut off, and the vibrant services sector that had emerged with the expansion of tourism was almost entirely shut down. The total number of foreign tourist arrivals in 2019 was 4,275,558 whereas in 2020 was only 1,085,920; but the fall by May 2021 (January to February) was on average 96%.

It would be naive if not disingenuous to believe that, as part of Trump’s sanctions strategy against Cuba, officials and strategists of the U.S. machinery did not include a plan for destabilisation. We are doubtlessly witnessing part of this today with the co-ordinated violent street demonstration combined with a U.S.-led social media offensive. For years, many millions have flowed from the U.S. to opponents of the Cuban revolution – under Trump, this number increased, and the impacts of this at a time of broader crisis can’t be underestimated.

The dreaded USAID and the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) had, since Donald Trump’s coming to office in 2017, been funding at least 54 groups opposed to the Cuban revolution. Their funding amounted to nearly US$17 million, but the figure is likely much higher when you consider that ‘democracy-building strategies’ are exempt from disclosure under the U.S. Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).

U.S. funding of ‘democracy-promotion’ in Cuba is shrouded in secrecy and the recipients of this funding are not known, nor is known how they use it. USAID and NED fund digital journalists, ‘human rights’ promotion groups, citizen participation organisations, hip-hop singers and rappers, academics, artists and so forth. Not included in the 54 groups are contractors and subcontractors, nor how many Cubans receive money, but the Directorio Democratico Cubano, for example, reported paying 746 contractors and 1,930 subcontractors in 2018.

That is, one opposition organisation out of the 54 known USAID-funded in Cuba reports having paid over US$150,000 to more than 2,500 activists. This kind of funding can help to explain the high degree of homogeneity and co-ordination exhibited by the timing, places and non-peaceful nature of the July 11 demonstrations.

It is no surprise that Cuba, as many a Latin American nations before it, faces an assault on its national sovereignty. After all, we have seen only in recent years how the coup d’état in Bolivia played out, with full Western backing. These events are most often executed from within but led, organised and financed from without.

Those without include from USAID and NED, but also more vocal and deliberate right-wing elements such as Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz and the Miami Republican organisations at home, as well as the likes of Bolsonaro, Alvaro Uribe and Luis Almagro on the wider continent. Their aim is to act as defenders of ‘democracy’ and establish narratives in the international media. Marco Rubio has made an appeal to president Biden to intervene against Cuba and has lambasted the Black Lives Matter movement for issuing a statement supporting Cuba and condemning the U.S. blockade.

Conversely, the governments of Argentina, Bolivia, Nicaragua, Venezuela, Mexico, the ALBA group of countries, but also Lula, Dilma Rousseff, Pedro Castillo, the Puebla Group and the Sao Paulo Forum have made it clear they oppose external interference in the internal affairs of Cuba. They have demanded an end to the blockade as a pre-condition for the necessary improvement of economic circumstances for the people of the island. The international lines on this subject between progressives and conservatives couldn’t be clearer.

Not once has a U.S. intervention (under any guise) brought anything resembling democracy to Latin America. Time and again, its efforts have resulted in dictatorships, mass privatisations and brutal violence meted out against the poorest. By contrast, despite its many problems and imperfections, in 60 years the Cuban Revolution has become a beacon of solidarity and generosity around the world – undertaking to support the cause of justice even while its own circumstances have often been difficult.

In recent years, Cuba and Venezuela’s joint medical programme, Operation Miracle, led to over 4 million free of charge eye operations to poor people with cataracts and related eye ailments. Its medical internationalism has meant that to date, ‘Cuba has sent some 124,000 health professionals to provide medical care in more than 154 countries’ and, since March 2020, more than 3,700 Cuban health doctors, nurses and technicians have volunteered to go to 39 countries (including Italy) to help fight the Covid-19 pandemic.

The only long-term solution to Cuba’s woes is the immediate and unconditional lifting of the U.S. blockade. That is the demand of the world, expressed by every U.N. General Assembly since the 1990s, it is the demand of international law, and it is the demand of justice.





Featured image: Cubans drive past the US embassy during a rally calling for the end of the US blockade against Cuba, in Havana, March 28, 2021. (PHOTO / AFP)

(Tribune)

https://orinocotribune.com/the-only-way ... -blockade/

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Peaceful Protesters Violently Repressed in California but US Concerned Only About Cuba (#SOSUSA)
July 19, 2021

In recent days, the United States government has fixed its gaze on Havana and “asked” the revolutionary government to “listen to its people.” Meanwhile, in the city of Los Angeles, brutal police repression is a recurring and increasing problem, most recently against a peaceful transgender demonstration of unarmed, non-violent civilians.

The president of Cuba, Miguel Díaz-Canel, denounced this Monday, July 19, that recent small protests in Cuba were a “provocation by the United States to destabilize the country,” as the BBC quoted on its website.

Meanwhile, in the videos below, posted on Twitter by @waterspider_ , @VPS_Reports, and @JoshuaPotash, social media users saw how Los Angeles police in full riot gear violently charged a small group of counter-demonstrators who confronted a larger group of anti-LGBTQ protesters. The disproportionate use of violence occurred near the Wi Spa in Koreatown, Los Angeles, where an anti-LGBTQ hate incident was recently reported. After asking police to lower their weapons, a demonstrator was shot at point-blank range with a rubber bullet.


“The US has carried out policies of economic suffocation in order to provoke social outbursts, misunderstandings and dissatisfaction on the island, ” said the Cuban president in repudiation of US interference in Cuba. Díaz-Canel did not dwell on the fake news operation launched by US mainstream media, exposed by numerous journalists, or the use of social media accounts to magnify the size of the protests in Cuba, or the Twitter bot operation exposed by the Spanish expert Julian Macias.

Ironically, while intolerance, police brutality, and human rights violations reigns in the US, President Joe Biden called on the “Cuban regime to hear their people and serve their needs at this vital moment rather than enriching themselves,” as reported by the BBC.


This Saturday, July 17, Los Angeles local media reported two demonstrations by the transgender community, in which activists demanded respect for their rights. A woman was injured after the police shot her with an anti-riot shotgun, and the others were viciously attacked with batons.

In previous weeks there were also other confrontations against this community, which claims to be ignored by the Executive, according to NBC. Meanwhile Biden remains silent on these domestic issues but choses to continue sticking his nose into Cuba’s affairs, thereby writing another chapter in the long awaited, and repeatedly failed, US overthrow of the Cuban Revolution.



Featured image: Police in full riot gear in front of a small peaceful protest defending transgender peoples’ rights in LA, California. Photo courtesy of the New York Post.

(La IguanaTV) with Orinoco Tribune content

Translation: Orinoco Tribune

https://orinocotribune.com/peaceful-pro ... ba-sosusa/
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Re: Cuba

Post by blindpig » Wed Jul 21, 2021 1:10 pm

Cuba Denounces Threats to Anti-Intervention Emigrants in the US

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Manipulated messages loaded with hate and false or taken out of context news and images have been used, disseminated through social networks, hegemonic media and Spanish-language radio stations. | Photo: Twitter/@KatiaMontpeller

Published 20 July 2021

These threats are encouraged by extremist sectors in South Florida against those who promote better ties between both countries.

Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez denounced on Tuesday that threats against Cubans residing in the United States (U.S.) who promote better ties between the two countries have increased and called for these intimidating actions to stop.

In a message disseminated through the social network Twitter, the head of Cuban diplomacy blamed extremist sectors in South Florida for encouraging such aggressive behavior.

In addition, he demanded that "hostile actions against citizens of Cuban origin for promoting better ties between both nations cease," he said in his publication.

During the last few days, Cubans living in the U.S. made known that they have received threats for opposing Washington's call for military intervention against the Caribbean nation.

Previously, these sectors have also been victims of aggressions to stop the increasingly broad calls to condemn the unilateral restrictive measures of the White House and the change in the policy towards Cuba demanded from the Administration of President Joe Biden.


The case of Cuban-American professor Carlos Lazo, who advocates for the end of the U.S. economic, commercial and financial blockade against Havana through his project Bridges of Love, is well known. The activist publicly stated that he had received threats against his life through social networks.

Cuba recently denounced that from the state of Florida, and specifically from the city of Miami, the street riots that took place in several Cuban cities on July 11 were encouraged.

Cuban authorities maintain that on that day, a hybrid warfare manual was applied to cause destabilization and promote the idea of a country without governability and the need for foreign intervention.

For this purpose, manipulated messages loaded with hate and false or taken out of context news and images were used, disseminated through social networks, hegemonic media, and Spanish-language radio stations.

https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Cub ... -0011.html
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Re: Cuba

Post by blindpig » Thu Jul 22, 2021 1:49 pm

If You Grew Up with the US Blockade as a Cuban, You Might Understand the Recent Protests
Posted by INTERNATIONALIST 360° on JULY 20, 2021
Manolo De Los Santos, Vijay Prashad

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Cubans have been mobilizing over the past week in defense of the revolution and against the US blockade. Photo: Minrex

The six-decade US blockade of Cuba was made worse under the administration of Donald Trump. Joe Biden can lift these measures and immediately improve the lives of the 11 million living in Cuba

During the early morning of July 17, Johana Tablada joined tens of thousands of Cubans as they gathered along the Malecón boulevard in Havana to stand with the Cuban Revolution. “We are human beings who live, work, suffer, and struggle for a better Cuba,” she told us. “We are not bots or troll farms or anything like that.” She referred to what has been called the Bay of Tweets, a social media campaign developed in Miami, Florida, that attempted to inflame Cuba’s social problems into a political crisis.

The social problems, Tablada told us, derive from the US blockade of Cuba that began in the 1960s but has been deepened by former US President Donald Trump’s 243 coercive measures. “The United States has criminalized Cuban public services,” she said, “including our public health system and our public education system.” These sanctions make it impossible for Cubans to visit their families in the United States. They make it impossible for remittances to be sent into Cuba, and they make it impossible for Cuba to access essential goods and services (including fuel). On top of everything else, Trump designated Cuba as a “state sponsor of terrorism,” a decision which US Senator Patrick Leahy called “frivolous.” The US government claims that the blockade and these coercive measures are to punish the government, but—says Tablada—they “criminalize the country.”

The Miami Mafia

Tablada keeps a close eye on the Cuban policy being shaped by Washington, D.C., and Miami, where right-wing Cuban exiles effectively drive the agenda. She does this in her role as the deputy director-general in the Cuban Foreign Ministry in charge of US affairs. There is a cast of characters in this story that is little known outside the world of US right-wing politics and the Cuban exile community. Of course, four well-known elected officials lead the attempt to overthrow the government in Cuba: Republican Senators Marco Rubio and Rick Scott of Florida, as well as Democratic Senator Bob Menendez of New Jersey and Republican Representative María Elvira Salazar of Florida. Beside them are other politicians such as Miami Mayor Francis X. Suarez and a range of Cuban American businessmen and professionals such as Emilio Braun of the Vulcan Funds and the lawyer Marcell Felipe.

These men are at the core of a set of organizations that lobby US politicians to harden the US blockade on Cuba. Felipe runs the Inspire America Foundation, which Tablada describes as the “heir to the most anti-Cuban, reactionary, and pro-[former military dictator of Cuba Fulgencio] Batista traditions from South Florida.” This foundation works with the Assembly of the Cuban Resistance—a coalition of anti-communist groups that calls for a US invasion of Cuba. At the center of these men is Mauricio Claver-Carone, a former head of the Cuba Democracy Advocates, who was Trump’s main adviser on Cuba and is now president of the Inter-American Development Bank based in Washington, D.C. Claver-Carone, Tablada tells us, “has been nothing short of the leading lobbyist of the groups acting politically against Cuba in the United States, in the US Congress, representing those entities who benefit from this policy of hatred and aggression against my country.” “If you ever mentioned [Fidel] Castro, he’d go berserk,” recalled Claver-Carone’s friend about his attitude in the 1990s.

“The main goal of these people,” Tablada said, “is to overthrow the Cuban Revolution.” Their plan for Cuba, it seems, is to revert it to the days of Batista when US corporations and gangsters ran riot on the island.

Lester Mallory’s Memorandum

In 1960, the US State Department’s Lester Mallory wrote a memorandum on Cuba. Mallory said that most “Cubans support Castro” and there is “no effective political opposition.” Mallory said that there was only one way to go: “The only foreseeable means of alienating internal support is through disenchantment and disaffection based on economic dissatisfaction and hardship.” There has been no change in policy. The entire embargo is based on Mallory’s memorandum.

In 2019, Trump’s National Security Adviser John Bolton gave a speech to the veterans of the Bay of Pigs. He said that the US government would use every instrument to suffocate tourism to Cuba. The Trump-era coercive measures are intended to deprive Cuba of any means to conduct normal trade and commerce not only with the United States but also with other countries and firms. Sixty-three companies that sell oil do not want to challenge the US embargo, Tablada said.

Let Cuba Live

The Trump policy continues into the Biden administration. “There are 22 signed agreements that Trump didn’t revoke,” Tablada told us. “They could be implemented. Today, we could’ve been cooperating against COVID. Nobody knows why Biden excluded Cuba from one of his first executive orders in which he instructed a complete review of the sanctions that hindered the capacity of states to respond to COVID-19.” In fact, on February 24, Biden signed an executive order to continue the national emergency with respect to Cuba (which prevents traffic between the countries).

While the economic stranglehold has been severe, the information war against Cuba has been equally vicious. Certainly, Cubans migrate to other countries, as the weight of the blockade is difficult to bear. But there is a higher migration rate from Central American countries and other Caribbean islands into the US, Tablada said. The US government’s embargo costs Cuba $5 billion per year, Tablada told us, while the US spends “tens of billions of dollars trying—and failing—to drive us to defeat.” There is cruelty in these policies.

Tablada considers what it would mean if Biden ended Trump’s 243 coercive measures against Cuba. As a result of the blockade, she said, Cuba produced 90 percent of its medications. It is out of this tradition that Cuba’s scientists were able to develop five COVID-19 vaccine candidates. “If Trump’s measures were lifted,” she said, “Cuba would be able to buy necessary inputs to produce medication.” In which case, Cuba’s medical internationalism would be enhanced.

“Even if Biden does nothing,” Tablada said, “we’ll still pull through. It may cost us a bit more, but we have a plan, we have a strong social consensus. None of these plans include giving up socialism. The ordinary Cuban—all of us—is capable of sacrificing our individual interests because we know that it is essential for us to have a sovereign homeland [that is]free [and] independent, and that might be as far as we go.”

https://libya360.wordpress.com/2021/07/ ... -protests/

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Solidarity Groups from the US Send 6 Million Syringes to Cuba

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U.S. solidarity organizations send 6 million syringes to Cuba. | Photo: Twitter/@EmbaCubaUS

Published 21 July 2021

With a call for solidarity, love and the elimination of the blockade, the Cuba Solidarity Movement in the United States held a press conference to reaffirm its commitment to the island and announce the successful U.S. campaign to send 6 million vaccination syringes to Cuba.

At the event, which took place at the Embassy of the Republic of Cuba in Washington D.C., members of the Movement spoke about the campaign to raise funds for the purchase of syringes recently sent in support of the fight against COVID-19.

As a symbol of the donation, of which around two million arrived at the Cuban port of Mariel last Saturday, July 17, the members of the Movement presented a certificate to the Cuban Embassy in Washington D.C.

Likewise, Medea Benjamin, a member of the group, pointed out that they will continue collecting funds to send not only syringes, they also announced that they would start collecting funds for medicines and medical supplies, including antibiotics, painkillers, contraceptives, vitamins, and medicines for people with hypertension, cancer, and diabetes; as a sign of how many people in the United States want to help the Cuban people.

The activist highlighted the support they have received from Cuban-Americans, thanks to the work of Professor Carlos Lazo and his project Puentes de Amor (Bridges of Love).

During her appearance before different international media outlets, she highlighted the work of Cuban doctors around the world saving millions of lives, while recalling an anecdote: when they were in the car presenting the campaign, someone stopped them, took out $20 from his pocket and said it was his contribution in recognition of the great work of Cuban doctors. "It is a campaign in which people with limited resources have contributed, but with a great willingness to help," she remarked.


For his part, Félix Sharpe-Caballero, a Cuban resident in the United States, stressed the need for unity of both peoples and the willingness of the majority of Cubans living outside Cuba to support their country.

The overall amount that has been raised, just over $500,000, is the result of the contribution of people from all parts of the United States, who identify with Cuba and are committed to the unity of both peoples.

The purchase and shipment were organized by Global Health Partners, a humanitarian organization sending medicines and medical supplies to Cuba for 27 years. Among the groups that raised funds were the #SavingLives Campaign (a coalition of dozens of organizations opposed to the embargo), CODEPINK, The People's Forum, International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU), Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), and two groups made up of Cuban Americans: the No Embargo Cuba Movement and Puentes de Amor.

During the meeting, the participants also advocated for the improvement of diplomatic relations between the two nations.

https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Sol ... -0011.html

That liberals like DSA and Code Pink provide needed help to the Cuban people is appreciated(ya don't look a gift horse in the mouth). That they do not support the government of that people, which has overwhelming popular support, is the kind of fatal contradiction that makes their charity suspect.
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Re: Cuba

Post by blindpig » Fri Jul 23, 2021 4:48 pm

Freedom Rider: Standing with the Cuban People
Margaret Kimberley, BAR senior columnist 23 Jul 2021

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Freedom Rider: Standing with the Cuban People

The current Black-centered Cuban protest operation is very well orchestrated and if Black people in this country are not careful, they will end up amplifying the dictates of U.S. imperialism.

“The same people who claim concern for the Cuban people are also in favor of continuing their suffering.”

The Movement for Black Lives has an interesting and sometimes contradictory political history. Popularly known as Black Lives Matter (BLM), they gave birth to a now international rallying cry against anti-Black racism. They are identified with the issue of police violence so much that any protest involving Black people is dubbed Black Lives Matter whether there is any connection with that group or not.

But BLM has also been problematic. Its founders have close ties to the Democratic party and its funding apparatus. Its membership has always been more radical than its leadership, who disclosed that they raised $90 million dollars in 2020 alone. The public accountability came about because their local chapters demanded more transparency and accountability.

Sometimes though they get things right, as happened when BLM released a statement demanding an end to the 60-year long sanctions imposed by the U.S. against the Cuban government and its people. The impetus for their statement came after a well orchestrated psy-op was carried out against the Cuban government.

“BLM’s founders raised $90 million dollars in 2020 alone.”

In early July there was a sudden burst of twitter posts using #SOSCuba . There were more than 1,000 posts over two days, with five retweets per second. These automated tweets originated in Spain and were connected with Agustin Antonetti, a right wing Argentinian who used the same methods of subterfuge against Evo Morales in Bolivia and president Lopez Obrador in Mexico. A total of two million #SOSCuba tweets were sent in July.

The online bot attack succeeded and there were protests in Cuban cities on July 11. They were immediately amplified by corporate media around the world. They were modest in size but they were described as being spontaneous and of historic proportions. The media even posted photos of pro-government actions or those which took place outside of the country and represented them as home grown anti-government protests.

“The online bot attack was were immediately amplified by corporate media around the world.”

The manipulation added a new wrinkle which makes this campaign quite insidious. Suddenly Black Cubans were made the focus of commentary. The right wing Cuban exile community and their allies could not get buy-in for their old regime change argument if people like Alejandro Mayorkas, the Secretary of Homeland Security, were the face of Cuban discontent. The Mayorkas family were wealthy business owners in Cuba and when they left ended up living in Beverly Hills. That is not a good look when a high level propaganda operation is needed.

Now a new crop of Black faces have appeared on the Black News Channel on Questlove’s Instagram page , and in popular culture. The #SOSCuba tweets were directed to performing artists, some of whom like Yotuel Romero have recorded songs opposing the government. Romero now lives in Miami and the title of his song Patria Y Vida is the slogan used for 60 years by Cubans who are the staunchest opponents of the revolution. This operation is very well orchestrated and if Black people in this country are not careful, they will end up amplifying the dictates of U.S. imperialism.

It is important to clarify what sanctions are and how they are used against Cuba and 38 other countries around the world. Sanctions do more than prevent U.S. individuals, banks, and businesses from doing business with the target nation. The U.S. also targets any nation that dares to defy its edict. Any country considering breaking a U.S. embargo suffers the same fate as the target.

“The U.S. targets any nation that dares to defy its edict.”

Cubans, Syrians, Venezuelans, Iranians, Nicaraguans and others cannot conduct the international financial transactions that any nation needs in order to survive. Nor are food and medicine exempt from these restrictions. The same people who claim concern for the Cuban people are also in favor of continuing their suffering.

The plight of the Cuban people cannot be separated from Washington’s sanctions. Cuban scientists developed their own Covid vaccine, Soberana, which has a high rate of efficacy. But sanctions have left them without enough syringes and they cannot provide their own people with protection from Covid.

The BLM statement was clear and principled. The ongoing blockade is causing great suffering and any critique of BLM in this instance supports U.S. imperialism, whether that is the intention of commentary or not.

“Sanctions have left Cuba without enough syringes.”

The only way to show solidarity with Black Cubans is to expose U.S. aggressions which create misery for them and their fellow citizens. Any claim of concern for their lives which does not include an unequivocal demand for ending sanctions is dishonest and does Washington’s bidding.

After releasing their statement BLM was under immediate attack from the self-declared right wing and from liberals who in fact have the same tendencies. The liberals are worse, as they make the case for imperialism under a variety of guises, in this case a desire to help Black people. A new trope appeared overnight, which alleged that the Cuban government is more racist than the one we live under, and that Black Cubans are supportive of the 60-year old war which has devastated their country and their lives.

The latest propaganda campaign against Cuba is well orchestrated and it must not be allowed to succeed. That is why BLM’s statement must be defended. They are to be commended for stepping up at a critical moment and exposing an ongoing crime against another nation. That is the responsibility of everyone who claims to care about Cuba or about humanity anywhere in the world.

https://www.blackagendareport.com/freed ... ban-people
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Re: Cuba

Post by blindpig » Sat Jul 24, 2021 1:32 pm

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There are No Disappeared or Tortured People in Cuba (+Video)
July 24, 2021
By Yudy Castro Morales – Jul 21, 2021

Following the riots that took place on July 11 and 12, as part of the political-communication operation encouraged and paid for by the US government against Cuba, lists of alleged missing persons have begun to circulate on the internet.

But, are there really missing persons in the country? Are such lists real? What is the procedure for the detention of a person? What limits are there to the actions of the authorities?

In answering these questions, during an appearance this Tuesday on the program Hacemos Cuba, Colonel Victor Alvarez Valle, second chief of the Specialized Body of the General Directorate of Criminal Investigation of the Ministry of the Interior (MININT), categorically assured that in Cuba there are no missing persons, neither due to the recent disorder, nor due to any other operations that were carried out.

“We have as a principle, in the Revolution—and it is also what characterizes the actions of the authorities—the right to life, to freedom, the right to the preservation and security of people,” said the colonel, while informing that Cuba is a signatory of the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance.

This position, he said, was also recognized in the Constitution approved by the majority of Cubans, and there is a group that monitors and would discipline any who commit these actions, in the event that an enforced disappearance is proven.

Furthermore, he added, “there is no secret establishment for the processing of persons who, for any reason, or for the commission of crimes, are taken to one of the units of MININT.”

Regarding the process of detention of a citizen, José Luis Reyes Blanco, head of the Department of Supervision of the Directorate of Criminal Proceedings of the Attorney General’s Office (FGR), explained that regarding “the records of this process, the detention record that is signed by the person involved, the information about the detainee, and the presence of the Prosecutor’s Office throughout the criminal process from the beginning, contributes to monitoring the investigation and allows us to ensure that in our country, after 1959, there have never been missing persons.” Evidently, if there were events of this nature in the country, the number of denunciations in the Prosecutor’s Office, through all its channels available to citizens, would be considerable.

However, commented Reyes Blanco, in the year 2020, in the middle of the pandemic, the Prosecutor’s Office served more than 129,000 people throughout the country; during the first semester of this year, the requests exceeded 49,000 and, as of July 12, for events associated to the riots, 63 people have contacted the office, mostly through face-to-face channels.

“However, none of these complaints or claims have been related to disappearances”, stressed Reyes Blanco, “but to arrests.” That is to say, individuals were in search of information, which they have received, regarding locations to which the parties in question were held, for example.

“Today,” he added, “the Prosecutor’s Office is investigating five claims related to procedural irregularities, but none of these pending cases deals with the question of an individual’s location. There is information and, more importantly, the family knows it.”

In this sense, Colonel Alvarez Valle pointed out that when a person is taken to a police unit, the first thing that is done is to register them in a logbook, manually, before the arrest record is drawn up. Therefore, the person knows why they are being taken to the station.

Then, he continued, there follows a process that can take place in the first 24 hours, which includes taken the detained individual’s statement, and determining the measures that, depending on the crime, can be imposed.

“In the first 24 hours, the family generally knows where the person is because, in addition, MININT has a system of notification for the population, automated and interlinked among all units, where each of the detained persons is recorded.”

“In recent cases,” continued Alvarez Valle, “all the families know where detainees are; they have gone to the locations, they have delivered belongings with personal hygiene materials or specific medicines. In other words, the information on the whereabouts of the people is established and auditable by the control bodies of the Prosecutor’s Office.”

He also referred to the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance, to which Cuba is a party and was reviewed in 2017. As applied in the country, Article 17, specifically, establishes, among other elements, that:

• No one shall be secretly detained.

• Without prejudice to other international obligations of the State party regarding deprivation of liberty, each State party, in its legislation:

• Shall establish the conditions under which orders of deprivation of liberty may be issued.

• Determine the authorities empowered to order deprivation of liberty.

• Guarantee that any person deprived of liberty shall be held only in officially recognized and controlled places of deprivation of liberty.

• Guarantee that any person deprived of liberty shall be authorized to communicate with and be visited by their family, a lawyer or any other person of their choice, subject only to the conditions established by law, and in the case of a foreigner, to communicate with their consular authorities, in accordance with applicable international law.

• Shall guarantee the access of any competent authority and institution empowered by law to locations of deprivation of liberty, if necessary, with the prior authorization of judicial authority.

For his part, the prosecutor clarified that all persons detained after the events of July 11 are able to appoint a lawyer. That some do not have one is due to the choice of each individual.

And to totally refute the veracity of the aforementioned lists, at another point during the program communication was established with one of the alleged missing persons, who also spoke of other compatriots whose names inflate the lists circulated on the internet, and who are actually in perfect condition.

The Second Chief of the Specialized Body of the General Directorate of Criminal Investigation of MININT reiterated that these lists lack credibility due to the absence of verifiable data, and because it has been proven that many of those registered therein have never been arrested or even questioned by the authorities.

Reyes Blanco commented that, among the detainees, a group has already been released because it has been confirmed that they did not participate in any criminal acts, others are under a non-custodial precautionary measure, and there are defendants in the preparatory phase, held under a precautionary measure of provisional detention.

Torture will never be practiced by Cuban authorities
Another narrative that has been put forth on social media networks is the allegation that those involved in the destabilizing actions are now being tortured.

“Just like forced disappearances, torture is not a practice in Cuba,” said Colonel Alvarez Valle. “The history of the Revolution proves it. It is not, and it will not be, the practice of the agents of the Ministry of the Interior to use force against those being prosecuted.” He also said that Cuba is a party to the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhumane and Degrading Treatment or Punishment.

José Luis Reyes detailed that, after the protests, the presence of prosecutors in the units has increased, because it is in the interest of hearing the opinion of the detainees, and this is a favorable scenario for dialogue and to convey any concerns or complaints.

The broadcast of Hacemos Cuba also called attention to a complaint of a young man that has been shared widely on social media networks, referring to alleged acts of violence committed against him, following his detention after the riots.

This person, the colonel pointed out, was subject to a precautionary measure of house arrest for a previous process, which incurred measures that he has to comply with. However, he was in the street, outside the vicinity of his home, in the middle of the disturbances of the order, which broke the provisions of his house arrest, of which he was informed.

Prosecutor Reyes Blanco added that, among the complaints in progress at the Prosecutor’s Office, there is that of this young man, since his father presented himself at the office. All the relevant data was taken and the pertinent inquiries and investigations will be carried out, with total transparency.

Should any irregularity arise, said the colonel, the circumstances in which the facts occurred will be clarified and the corresponding measures will be taken, either in the disciplinary order, if he were a combatant, or in the criminal order if the conduct were to be in violation of the law.

Therefore, the case was made abundantly clear that in Cuba there are no disappeared or tortured persons, and if any irregularity occurred or had occurred in the actions of the Ministry of the Interior or the Prosecutor’s Office, it will be investigated, the results will be made known to the public. If violations are confirmed, measures will be taken to permit justice to be served.



https://orinocotribune.com/there-are-no ... uba-video/

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Biden follows the ignominious path of sanctions against Cuba
The current US administration announced this Thursday the imposition of new sanctions against Cuban officials and entities, for alleged "abuses against protesters," after the events of July 11 on the island

Author: Raúl Antonio Capote | internacional@granma.cu

July 23, 2021 12:07:09

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Photo: BBC

With the hatred fueled for years against the Cuban people and their Revolution, they now call for the destruction and death of an entire people.

Representatives of the anti-Cuban ultra-right recently asked US President Joe Biden for "concrete actions" against Cuba, including a possible "military intervention" to overthrow the "communist regime."

The head of the "Estefan" mafia clan, Emilio Estefan, who like his ilk has turned counterrevolutionary action into a buoyant business, demanded that Washington speak little and "take action."

Also the anti-Cuban Republican congresswoman, María Elvira Salazar, a firm defender of the blockade and one of the promoters of the inclusion of Cuba in the list of countries sponsoring terrorism, addressed the Government in similar terms demanding "an intervention now."

Meanwhile, US lawmakers have been collecting signatures to demand that the White House fulfill this criminal purpose.

On the other hand, the current US administration announced on Thursday the imposition of new sanctions against Cuban officials and entities, for alleged "abuses against protesters", after the events of July 11 on the island.

The member of the Political Bureau and Minister of Foreign Affairs, Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla, rejected the "baseless and slanderous sanctions of the US Government." against the Minister of the FAR, General of the Army Corps Álvaro López Miera, and the National Special Brigade of the Minint. "He should apply the Global Magnitsky Law to himself for the daily acts of repression and police brutality that cost 1,021 lives in 2020," said the Chancellor.

These sanctions, which according to a statement from President Joe Biden are just the beginning, block any assets that those involved may have under US jurisdiction, and prohibit people in the United States from dealing with them, which is practically irrelevant. , but they do constitute a violation of international law, in addition to seeking a shameful media and psychological impact.

http://www.granma.cu/mundo/2021-07-23/b ... 1-00-07-09

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Funny, en.granma.cu was not to be found today. Coincidence??
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