April 5, 202
Compiled by Dick Bennett for a Culture of Peace, Justice, and Ecology
What’s at Stake: Cuba’s long resistance to US attempts to destroy its socialist government and society as a whole, and, despite the oppression, Cuba’s signal achievements.
CONTENTS OF CUBA ANTHOLOGY #12
US WAR ON CUBA
The People’s Forum, “Bread for Our Neighbors, Let Cuba Live”
Liberation News Staff. “Three Lies about Cuba Debunked.”
Pedro Ross. How the Workers’ Parliaments Saved the Cuban Revolution . Rev. by Dick Bennett
Atilio Borón. “Leave Cuba Alone.”
Dario Calvisi. “Biden Administration Prolongs Economic Warfare on Cuba.”
W. T. Whitney, Jr. “The Terror Returns: Cuba Discloses Latest Attacks by the U.S.”
Jeremy Kuzmarov. “House Foreign Affairs Committee. . . Calls for Regime Change.”
Luis Linares Petrov. “U.S. Puts ‘shameful pressure’ on Italy for Hiring Cuban Doctors.”
Carlos L. Garrido. “The U.S. Blockade and its Effects on Cuban Medicine.”
Roger Harris. “The Havana Syndrome Case Cracked.”
Cubaminrex. “Cuba rejects presence of U.S. nuclear submarine in Guantanamo Bay.”
Raúl Antonio Capote. “Is Washington seeking to fabricate a casus belli against Cuba?”
Jeremy Kuzmarov. “U.S. Intelligence Agencies Advance Disinformation About Chinese Spy Base in Cuba. . . .”
Noam Chomsky & Vijay Prashad. Cuba is Not a State-Sponsor of Terrorism
CUBA’S ACHIEVEMENTS
Fidel Castro
Agustín Lage Dávila. The Knowledge Economy and Socialism: Science and Society in Cuba.
Pedro Ross. How the Workers’ Parliaments Saved the Cuban Revolution.
CUBAN HEALTH CARE SYSTEM
National Single Payer.“What The US Can Learn From The Cuban Health Care System.”
“Gerardo Hernández on the Resilience and Continuity of the Cuban Revolution.”
Farooque Chowdhury. “Defiant Cuba Celebrates May Day.”
Tanalis Padilla. “Cuba and the Children of Chernobyl.”
Telesur/JF. “Lavrov Arrives to Promote Russia-Cuba Cooperation.”
Kimberly Monroe. “An African Palenque: Cuba and Global Solidarity.”
Tariq Anderson. “Cuba’s Support [for Palestinians]. . . .”
Sources (These numerous international sources remind us that we have alternatives to the corporate propaganda machine that dominates information in the US. We can make choices to be informed by reading alternative views. But so exclusive are our bipartisan views, corporate ownership, and media, you must seek out other ways of understanding. –D)
Countercurrents
Counterpunch
Covert Action Magazine
Daniel Kovalik
Dick Bennett
Granma
Hood Communist
The Internationalist 360
Liberation News
Monthly Review
Morning Star Online
People’s Dispatch
People’s Forum
People’s World
Prensa Latina English
Resumen: Latinoamericano and the Third World
Science for the People
Struggle-La Lucha
teleSUR English
TEXTS
US WAR ON CUBA
.04.2024
Greetings friends!
What would you do if your neighbor was starving? This is not a hypothetical. Right now the U.S. government is deliberately starving the Cuban people 90 miles to our South. We all must act now.
A food crisis is unfolding on the island of an unprecedented scale. A country where hunger had been made a thing of the past is now running out of bread and other essential food items. Known worldwide for its health care system, it is now running out of medicine, too. Long fuel lines have become a source of constant hardship. Under the weight of intensified U.S. sanctions, hundreds of thousands have made the painful decision to emigrate, leaving their loved ones behind.
We are launching an emergency campaign — Let Cuba Live: Bread for Our Neighbors. Our goal is to send 800 tons of wheat flour to Cuba as legal humanitarian aid, so that millions of people have bread for a month. Can you join with thousands of others to make a donation, as you would for your neighbor next door?
We aren’t just trying to feed a family or a single block. We want to bring bread to whole provinces. A $100 donation buys enough wheat flour to produce 70,000 bread rolls.
The U.S. could end this suffering quickly if it were to lift the blockade and remove Cuba from the “State Sponsors of Terrorism List,” which Trump absurdly imposed on the island five years ago. This has totally blocked Cuba from a broad range of financial and trade transactions and made it impossible to get international credits. U.S. citizens are blocked from visiting for tourism, Cuba’s main economic engine. Ships that agree to go to Cuba find their insurance policies revoked, leading to lots of cancellations.
As an example: in the last three weeks we called 14 grain companies in the United States offering to pay market rate for grain to go to Cuba as urgent humanitarian aid. We haven’t received a single positive reply. At this point, we intend to ship hundreds of tons from Turkey, even while in the US there are massive grain silos just a few miles away.
It’s all by design. A declassified 1960 State Department memorandum explained the strategy behind it all: “denying money and supplies to Cuba, to decrease monetary and real wages, to bring about hunger, desperation and overthrow of government.” Sixty years later, the Trump and Biden administrations tightened the screws even further, pushing the Cuban people to the brink. A few weeks ago Cuba saw desperate protests for “Food and Power” in Santiago, but the US State Department didn’t relax their restrictions one bit. They feel they’re “working.”
This cannot stand. All people of conscience in the United States have to speak up and take action to let Cuba live. We’ve all been outraged to see the urgent aid for Rafah blocked at the border, while famine stalks the Palestinian people. We can’t allow the same thing to happen directly to our south.
Once the wheat flour arrives in Cuba, it will be received and distributed by the Martin Luther King Jr Memorial Center in Havana, Cuba. The People’s Forum will match all donations up $100,000.
Please make a donation today — give bread to our neighbor.
Together we can break the blockade!
Sincerely yours,
Manolo De Los Santos
Executive Director, The People’s Forum
Three lies about Cuba debunked
Editor. mronline.org (3-28-24). All across the corporate media today, there are stories attacking Cuba and its revolution.
Originally published: Liberation News on March 18, 2024 by Liberation News Staff (more by Liberation News) | (Posted Mar 27, 2024)
Inequality, Movements, State Repression, StrategyAmericas, Cuba, United StatesNewswireBeatriz Johnson Urrutia, Blockade of Cuba, Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel, Donald Trump, President Joe Biden, Santiago
All across the corporate media today, there are stories attacking Cuba and its revolution. After protests took place in the city of Santiago over blackouts and food shortages, the Biden administration is hoping to provoke a crisis inside of the country. But the hardships in Cuba are the making of the U.S. government itself.
This is a tried and true tactic of the empire. In the run up to the infamous 1973 CIA coup in Chile that overthrew elected president Salvador Allende, the Nixon administration’s strategy was to “make the economy scream” to erode support for the government. But Cuba doesn’t need to go back to the days of being a colony of Washington and Wall Street—what Cuba needs is for Biden to end the blockade!
Lie #1: Electricity and food shortages are the result of failure by the government
The truth: For over 60 years, the U.S. government has attempted to strangle the Cuban economy by cutting it off from the rest of the world. Not only are no U.S. companies or individuals permitted to trade with Cuba, the blockade means that almost any entity from any country in the world is barred from doing business in the United States if they trade with Cuba. The blockade causes Cuba $15 million worth of losses every day.
Because Cuba is prevented from importing enough fuel, plants that generate electricity frequently have to shut down. Plus, since Cuba is prohibited from purchasing spare parts, when equipment at these plants break it can be next to impossible to fix. The same goes for modern agricultural machinery. Storms like Hurricane Ian, intensifying because of climate change, often cause major damage to crops—which cannot be replaced with imports due to the blockade.
Lie #2: The Cuban government violently represses its people
The truth: Beatriz Johnson Urrutia, the leader of the Communist Party in the province of Santiago, personally went to the demonstration to hear the grievances of the protesters. Cuban president Miguel Díaz-Canel reacted to the protests by saying, “Amid a blockade that aims to suffocate us, we will continue… to address the demands of our people, listen, dialogue, and explain the numerous efforts being made to improve the situation.” Leaders of the government have cautioned against letting outside powers take advantage of the situation to provoke violence.
Compare that to the actions of the U.S. government. When millions protested against racism in 2020, did Trump go to the marches to hear people’s concerns? No! He ordered police and soldiers to crush the demonstrations. This is the difference between a capitalist government that serves the elite and a socialist government that serves the people.
Lie #3: Biden cares about “democracy” and “human rights” for the Cuban people
The truth: Biden could end the blockade and let the Cuban people live, but he wants the hardships to continue so the U.S. government can overthrow the revolution. Even short of that, Biden could immediately remove Cuba from the absurd State Sponsors of Terror list and reverse the 243 additional sanctions imposed by Trump. He does not care one bit about the Cuban people or their right to live in dignity.
The Cuban people elect their leaders and participate in decision making. Democracy has nothing to do with it—what matters is whether or not a government is loyal to Washington. Saudi Arabia is a dictatorship ruled by a king, but Biden is good friends with that regime. What motivates Biden is a desire to force Cuba to return to being a de facto colony ruled by U.S. corporations—but the people can stop him!
Atilio Borón. “Leave Cuba alone.”
Mronline.org (2-22-24). Has Cuba really failed if we do not see, as in the imperial metropolis, entire families sleeping on the streets in the middle of winter or under a scorching sun in the summer, children barefoot and dressed in rags, people rummaging through garbage bins looking for something to eat, or thousands of men and women destroyed by drugs, victims of a society possessed by a cruel individualism which condemns them to wander like zombies through the main cities to feed, with their addictions, the profits of the banking and financial corporations that are the final beneficiaries of drug trafficking, a business of close to a billion dollars annually?
Originally published: Resumen: Latinoamericano and the Third World on February 19, 2024 (more by Resumen: Latinoamericano and the Third World)
Culture, Ideology, Movements, SocialismAmericas, CubaNewswire
I have just arrived in Cuba, and I feel, once again, the same emotion that entered me the first time I visited it on the occasion of the International Seminar on the External Debt of Latin America and the Caribbean that Fidel convened in the first days of August 1985. Almost 40 years have passed since that premonitory event, and that island, harassed since the first days of its revolution by the annexationist rampage of the United States, continues to resist and survive the longest aggression that any empire has ever perpetrated against a rebellious people. . . . MORE click on title
Dario Calvisi. “Biden Administration Prolongs Economic Warfare on Cuba.” Covert Action Magazine (February 12, 2024).
No Significant Change in U.S. Policy Toward Cuba As the Biden Administration Concedes That It “Has Not Even Begun the Review Process” to Remove Cuba from the List of State Sponsors of Terrorism – The U.S.-enforced embargo on Cuba is now more than 60 years old. First introduced by the Kennedy administration in February 1962, it remains one of the most anachronistic and cruel legacies of the Cold War, with no credible rationale supporting it today…
“The terror returns: Cuba discloses latest attacks by the U.S.” W. T. Whitney, Jr. mronline.org (1-25-24).
When the U.S. government launched its so-called “Global War on Terror” after the al Qaeda attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, U.S.-led terror attacks against Cuba had already been ongoing for over 40 years.
By W. T. Whitney, Jr. (Posted Jan 24, 2024)
Originally published: People’s World on January 16, 2024 (more by People’s World) |
Inequality, TerrorismAmericas, Cuba, United StatesNewswire“Global War on Terror”
When the U.S. government launched its so-called “Global War on Terror” after the al Qaeda attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, U.S.-led terror attacks against Cuba had already been ongoing for over 40 years. They included: military invasion (1961), CIA-sponsored counter-revolutionary paramilitaries in the countryside (1960s), a fully loaded Cuban airliner brought down by U.S. agents (1976), attacks on coastal towns and fishing boats, biowarfare, hundreds of killings in Cuba and abroad, sabotage, and bombings of hotels and tourist facilities (1997).
With the new century, however, violence and terror seemed to be on vacation. The Cuban media and sympathetic international media were reporting little or nothing about U.S.-based terror attacks that had been their stock in trade.On Dec. 17, 2023, Cuban Chancellor Bruno Rodríguez released a statement harking back to the violent past. He insisted that the “U.S. government is very aware of the official, public, and repeated denunciations by the Cuban government of the assistance, protection, and tolerance that promotors and perpetrators of terrorist acts against Cuba enjoy in the United States. . . .”A report on Jan. 4 from Mexican journalist Beto Rodríguez discusses the Interior Ministry’s “National List of persons and entities… associated with terrorism against Cuba.” Since 1999, they “have planned, carried out, and plotted acts of extreme violence in Cuban territory.’’
The List first appeared on Dec. 7 in Cuba’s Official Gazette as Resolution 19/2023. It names 61 individuals and 19 terrorist organizations, all based in the United States, presumably most of them in South Florida. One of the names on the List belongs to the jet skier, but which one is unspecified. . . . MORE click on title
“China’s Xi vows to support Cuba in defending Cuba’s sovereignty.” Editor. mronline.org (8-26-23). China’s President Xi Jinping has pledged to support Cuba’s defense of its national sovereignty, opposing foreign interference and a U.S. economic blockade, and will expand strategic coordination with Havana.
Originally published: Countercurrents on August 24, 2023 by Countercurrents Collective (more by Countercurrents) | (Posted Aug 25, 2023)
Culture, Movements, StrategyAmericas, Asia, China, CubaNewswireBRICS Summit, Chinese Communist Party (CCP), Communist Party of Cuba (PCC), President Miguel Díaz-Canel, President Xi Jinping
| Jeremy Kuzmarov. “House Foreign Affairs Committee marks anniversary of Cuba’s July 2021 uprising with renewed calls for regime change.” Mronline.org (7-21-23). To commemorate the two-year anniversary of right-wing protests in Cuba in July 2021, the House Foreign Affairs Committee sponsored a roundtable next to the Bay of Pigs museum in Miami, Florida, that affirmed U.S. calls for regime change in Cuba. |
Originally published: CovertAction Magazine on July 18, 2023 (more by CovertAction Magazine) |
Movements, Revolutions, State Repression, StrategyAmericas, Cuba, United StatesNewswire
To commemorate the two-year anniversary of right-wing protests in Cuba in July 2021, the House Foreign Affairs Committee sponsored a roundtable next to the Bay of Pigs museum in Miami, Florida, that affirmed U.S. calls for regime change in Cuba.
House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul (R-TX) said that the peaceful protests designed to take back the island from communist tyranny “met with unspeakable brutality” at the hands of an “oppressive government” that is an “increasing threat to U.S. national security because of its growing relationship with Communist China.”
Supporting a new House bill that would increase funding for radio propaganda and pro-democracy initiatives designed to facilitate regime change, McCaul emphasized how China had (allegedly) established a spy base in Cuba, which had become part of the Belt and Road initiative, and was negotiating to establish a military facility on Cuba’s northern coast.
Similarly stuck in the mindset of the 1980s was Republican Congresswoman Maria Elvira Salazar, who followed McCaul by ginning up fear of an anti-U.S. alliance between Cuba, China, Russia and Iran, whose President Ebrahim Raisi visited Cuba for the first time in June. Salazar claimed that two percent of the Cuban population had decided to leave the island this year because they felt the administration was invincible and that it was better to leave than to fight.
These comments underhandedly point to the futility of the U.S. regime-change strategy that has failed for more than 60 years to dislodge the Castro government and its successor under Díaz-Canel, which has instituted vast social improvements in health care and education while allowing Cuba to escape its status as a neo-colony of the U.S.
While Salazar and McCaul claim that the U.S. was on the side of the Cuban people when it supported anti-government protests in July 2021, CovertAction Magazine previously reported that those protests numbered in the hundreds whereas hundreds of thousands of Cubans took to the streets at the time to defend the Cuban Revolution. . . .
Rather than striving for an objective analysis, this roundtable provided a platform for extremists in Miami’s Cuban exile community and their political representatives to malign the Cuban government and drum up support for a regime-change operation that is destined to fail.
Cubaminrex. “Cuba rejects presence of U.S. nuclear submarine in Guantanamo Bay.” Editor. mronline.org (7-14-23).
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs categorically rejects the entry into Guantanamo Bay, on July 5, 2023, of a nuclear-powered submarine that remained until July 8 at the U.S. military base located there, which constitutes a provocative escalation by the United States, whose political or strategic motives are unknown.
Originally published: Granma on July 11, 2023 by Cubaminrex (more by Granma) | (Posted Jul 13, 2023)
Empire, Inequality, State Repression, StrategyAmericas, Cuba, United StatesNewswire@CubaMINREX, Guantanamo Bay, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, U.S. nuclear submarine
Statement by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs categorically rejects the entry into Guantanamo Bay, on July 5, 2023, of a nuclear-powered submarine that remained until July 8 at the U.S. military base located there, which constitutes a provocative escalation by the United States, whose political or strategic motives are unknown.
As is known, the U.S. military base has occupied that territory of 117 square kilometers for 121 years, against the will of the Cuban people and as a colonial remnant of the illegitimate military occupation of our country that began in 1898, after the expansionist intervention in the war of independence of the Cubans against the Spanish colonial power.
It is an enclave that for many years has lacked strategic or military importance for the United States. Its permanence only responds to the political objective of trying to outrage the sovereign rights of Cuba. Its practical use in recent decades has been reduced to serving as a center for detention, torture and systematic violation of the human rights of dozens of citizens from various countries.
The presence of a nuclear submarine there at this time forces us to question what is the military reason for its presence in this peaceful region of the world, against what objective it is directed and what strategic purpose it is pursuing.
It should be remembered that the 33 nations of the region are signatories of the Declaration of Latin America and the Caribbean as a Zone of Peace, signed in Havana in January 2014. . . . MORE click on title
Raúl Antonio Capote. “Is Washington seeking to fabricate a casus belli against Cuba?” Editor. Mronline.org (6-19-23).
Originally published: Struggle-La Lucha on June 10, 2023 by Raúl Antonio Capote (more by Struggle-La Lucha) | (Posted Jun 12, 2023)
Inequality, Media, State Repression, StrategyAmericas, Asia, China, Cuba, United StatesNewswireEspionage Military Base, Wall Street Journal
The fake media machinery, obeying the dictates of the U.S. government, has started a new dangerous and infamous campaign against Cuba. According to the U.S. newspaper The Wall Street Journal, which had the “honor” of putting the lie into circulation, there is an agreement between Cuba and China, in military matters, for the installation of an alleged espionage base.
| Jeremy Kuzmarov. “U.S. Intelligence Agencies Advance Disinformation About Chinese Spy Base in Cuba to Gain Support for Cruel Embargo Costing Cubans $455 Million Per Month.” CovertAction Magazine (7-2-23).After having lied about WMDs, Russia Gate, chemical weapons in Syria and so many other things, the U.S. intelligence community is now advancing the lie that Cuba is hosting a Chinese spy base that enables China to spy on the U.S…. READ MORE → ) |
Luis Linares Petrov. “U.S. Puts ‘shameful pressure’ on Italy for Hiring Cuban Doctors.” Editor. Mronline.org (4-1-23).
Originally published: Prensa Latina English on March 23, 2023 by Luis Linares Petrov (more by Prensa Latina English) | (Posted Mar 31, 2023)
Health, Human Rights, Inequality, State RepressionAmericas, Cuba, Europe, Italy, United StatesNewswireDoctors
In a statement released this Thursday, the Italy-Cuba Friendship Association (ANAIC), also stated that it is an “absurd interference by the United States in the internal affairs” of Italy, by “asking for explanations” on this issue from the sanitary authorities, as revealed by Corriere della Sera newspaper.
According to the news outlet, the U.S. embassy in Rome demanded that the Italian Ministry of Health explain “the procedures for hiring (Cuban) professionals on a fixed term (in Calabria) and their remuneration”, to determine if they violate Washington’s blockade against Cuba.
Fifty-one Cuban doctors arrived in Calabria on December 28th, including cardiologists, pediatricians and surgeons, who provide services in hospitals in the towns of Locri, Polistena, Gioia Tauro and Melito Porto Salvo.
The president of the region, Roberto Occhiuto, stressed that “we are happy for the opportunity to have highly specialized doctors.”
Carlos L. Garrido. “The U.S. blockade and its effects on Cuban medicine.” Editor. Mronline.org (3-16-23).
Originally published: Science for the People on March 6, 2023 by Carlos L. Garrido (more by Science for the People) | (Posted Mar 16, 2023)
Health, Imperialism, Inequality, State RepressionAmericas, Cuba, United StatesNewswire
The Cuban socialist healthcare system is internationally recognized as one of the best in the world.1 It is innovative, preventative, people-oriented, comprehensive, community-centered, internationalist, and, of course, de-commodified—treating healthcare as a human right, not a profitable commodity. However, in spite of its extraordinary successes, the United States’ sixty-year long blockade has tremendously detrimental effects on Cuban life in general, and their healthcare system in particular. As Amnesty International reported, the U.S. blockade “limits Cuba’s capacity to import medicines, medical equipment, and the latest technologies, some of which are essential for treating life-threatening diseases.”2
The intentions behind the U.S. blockade on Cuba have always been clear. As Lester Mallory, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs, wrote in 1960:
Every possible means should be undertaken promptly to weaken the economic life of Cuba. If such a policy [blockade] is adopted, it should be the result of a positive decision which would call forth 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 . . . the only foreseeable means of alienating internal support is through disenchantment and disaffection based on economic dissatisfaction and hardship.3
The blockade is thus aimed at making the material conditions of Cubans as difficult as possible, creating fertile soil for discontent in the Cuban revolutionary process to arise. However, the United States doesn’t leave the arrival of discontent to chance. As Tracy Eaton from the Cuba Money Project has shown, the United States, through regime change fronts like the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), and the U.S. State Department, has spent more than one billion dollars funding Cuban opposition groups and media within and outside of the country.4 This combination of blockade and opposition funding is a central component of the hybrid warfare against Cuba (as well as other victims of U.S. imperialism). . . .MORE click on title
Roger Harris. “The Havana Syndrome Case Cracked.” Roger Harris (Posted Mar 08, 2023). Originally published: Resumen: Latinoamericano and the Third World on March 7, 2023 (more by Resumen: Latinoamericano and the Third World). Health, Inequality, Movements, StrategyAmericas, Cuba, United StatesNewswire“anomalous health incidents” (AHIs), “Havana syndrome”
The Havana Syndrome was first reported in Cuba in 2016. The mysterious malady initially afflicted U.S. embassy staff in Havana, especially those attached to intelligence missions. It then spread to Canadian embassy officials. The sudden headaches, debilitating dizziness, and hearing excruciatingly painful sounds struck both at work and at home. . . .
Inferring blame to Cuba and Russia for the “sonic attacks”
White House chief of staff John Kelly commented: “We believe that the Cuban government could stop the attacks on our diplomats.” In September 2017, non-emergency U.S. embassy personnel and family members were evacuated from Cuba.
President Trump blamed the Cubans and in retaliation for the alleged attacks expelled most of their embassy staff from Washington. His Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said the expulsions were “made due to Cuba’s failure to take appropriate steps to protect our diplomats.”
The Cubans, who had no incentive to provoke their powerful neighbor, denied any culpability. They offered to fully cooperate with U.S. authorities in their investigation of the syndrome.
The Cubans deployed 2,000 scientists and law enforcement officials in their investigation, which was hampered by the refusal by the U.S. government to share medical information on those supposedly afflicted by the Havana Syndrome. Access to residences in Cuba that were purportedly targeted by the “sonic attacks” was also blocked.
But the Yankees had bigger fish to fry. Could the evil foreign adversary beaming the invisible energy waves be none other than the one blamed for stealing Hillary Clinton’s election victory? The so-called “free press,” exemplified by this message from CNN, incessantly reminded us regarding the Havana Syndrome:
The list of known, and suspected, aggressions Russia has carried out against U.S. democracy and American personnel is vast. . . .
CIA chief William Burns called the incidents “attacks.” When the bipartisan HAVANA (Helping American Victims Afflicted by Neurological Attacks) ACT of 2021 unanimously passed, the incidents were officially designated as “attacks.”
CNN reported on the act: “Its signing comes as cases continue to rise worldwide,” floating the theory that “Russia is behind” these attacks. In September 2021, the CIA even recalled one of its station chiefs for expressing “skepticism” about the veracity of the “attacks.”, , , ,
Case cracked: cognitive impairment is an occupational hazard for U.S. cold warriors
A little over a year ago in January 2022, an interim assessment by the CIA suggested that the Havana Syndrome was NOT a product of “a sustained global campaign by a hostile power.” Stress, environmental conditions, and cognitive impairment were the more likely culprits in the 1000 cases investigated with “analytic rigor, sound tradecraft, and compassion,” in the words of CIA Director William Burns.
However, the interim investigation continued. Finally this month, all seven U.S. intelligence agencies found “available intelligence consistently points against the involvement of U.S. adversaries in causing the reported incidents.”
Still, anti-Cuba zealots did not accept this explanation for the selective pandemic. Senator Marco Rubio rejected the intelligence community’s assessment, tweeting,
it’s hard to accept… it didn’t happen.
U.S.’s Cuba policy
Cuba may have been exonerated for the Havana Syndrome, but the socialist country is still targeted by the empire for regime-change. The 61-year-old asphyxiating U.S. blockade continues, which puts Washington at odds with the 185 countries that voted in the UN against the unilateral coercive measures with only Uncle Sam and apartheid Israel voting in favor.
In a parting gesture of ill will, Trump re-designated Cuba as a “State Sponsor of Terrorism” eight days before he left the presidency. Obama had rescinded the designation in 2015, originally imposed in 1982 by Reagan.
In 2021, Biden renewed Trump’s designation, ironically citing Cuba’s efforts to broker a peace in Colombia between the government and a guerilla insurgency. Biden backtracked on his campaign promises to reverse Trump’s harsh sanctions against Cuba and return to a process of normalization of relations.
Inclusion on the terrorist list bars Cuba from access to most international finance. “The real purpose of slandering Cuba as ‘terrorist’ is to justify the criminal blockade on Cuba,” according to the National Network on Cuba (NNOC).
Among the grassroots organizations working to get Cuba off the terrorist list are ACER (https://acere.org/) and the NNOC (https://nnoc.org/). The latter observes:
Despite the devastating impacts of the U.S. economic blockade, Cuba still has a longer life expectancy, lower infant and maternal mortality rates, better health outcomes, higher literacy, more education, and less violence than in the U.S.
The Havana Syndrome, used to falsely accuse Cuba of attacking U.S. personnel, exemplifies how distorted U.S. policy is. Like drug peddlers hooked on their own supply, the spooks and kooks who populate the U.S. governmental apparatus suffered literal physical damage believing the paranoic false propaganda that they push on the populace to justify the empire’s forever wars and brutal regime-change intrigues.
Cuba is Not a State-Sponsor of Terrorism
Noam Chomsky & Vijay Prashad: “A Vindictive Act by the US.” Counterpunch (2-14-23).
In the last days of the Trump administration, the U.S. government returned Cuba to its state sponsors of terrorism list. This was a vindictive act. Trump said it was because Cuba played host to guerrilla groups from Colombia, which was actually part of Cuba’s role as host of the peace talks. MORE click on “Cuba Is Not….”
CUBA’S ACHIEVEMENTS
Editor. mronline.org (8-16-23). The Commander of the Cuban Revolution is, without a doubt, one of the indispensable figures in the history of the Americas and this explains, in part, the permanent symbolic assassination to which his figure was and is subjected.
Originally published: Internationalist 360° on August 13, 2023 by José Ernesto Novaez Guerrero (more by Internationalist 360°) (Posted Aug 15, 2023)
Imperialism, Movements, Revolutions, StrategyAmericas, Central America, Cuba, Latin AmericaNewswireFidel Castro, Organization of American States (OAS)
Fidel not only survived the fury of the Batista dictatorship, guerrilla war, and 600 assassination attempts, but led a revolutionary process which after 60 years, continues to resist and triumph
Few leaders in recent history have been so vilified by the great corporate press and its supporters as Fidel Castro. The Commander of the Cuban Revolution is, without a doubt, one of the indispensable figures in the history of the Americas and this explains, in part, the permanent symbolic assassination to which his figure was and is subjected. On his 97th birthday, it is worthwhile to point out some ideas about Fidel and the significance of this great leader.
The man
Those who have had the good fortune to visit Fidel Castro’s birthplace in the small town of Birán, in the province of Holguín, can get a clear idea of his origins. Without being the son of one of the great landowners of pre-revolutionary Cuba, Fidel was, nevertheless, the son of a family with resources.
His father, a Spanish emigrant, had been able to build a small fortune and acquire land, which allowed him to support a large family, guarantee a good standard of living and a good education. This education took him first to Santiago de Cuba, the second most important city in the country, and then to study law in Havana, where he was able to fully integrate himself into his generation’s process of coming of age and political struggle.
As a member of the Orthodox Youth*, with an intrinsic sense of justice, Fidel, like all his generation, deeply lamented the suicide of Eduardo Chibás. The death of the orthodox leader, drowned by the corruption and rottenness of the authentic governments, was a formidable and almost disheartening blow for a youth formed in the failure of the revolution of 1930 and who saw how the yearnings of redemption and national reform were slipping through their fingers.
Batista’s coup d’état in March 1952 seemed to be the final sentence. The military and the barracks returned to impose themselves on the destiny of the nation. And they did so in the service of the interests of big North American capital. Batista was, once again, the hard man who would reestablish order and security. With him, gangster confrontations, hired assassinations and assaults would end. The army would ensure the necessary tranquility so that North American money, including that of the mafia, could carry out its “business as usual”.
In the process, all freedom would be limited and all opposition violently silenced. The gains of the 1940 Constitution became a dead letter.
The difference is that the generation that emerged in those years to political life, especially its most revolutionary wing, was not willing to accept that order of things. Fidel was the natural leader of that process of rebellion. He was the one who captained the audacious assault on the Moncada, which, although it was a failure, demonstrated two fundamental things: the bloodthirsty brutality of Batista’s regime, which persecuted and massacred the survivors of the action, and the existence of a spirit of rebellion willing to fight for a better Cuba.
That spirit was not crushed by prison, exile or defeat. In his plea of self-defense, later known as “History will absolve me”, Fidel made clear the claims of social justice and sovereignty that were at the base of the whole revolutionary movement.
Chance, which also plays a role in history, determined his survival in very difficult conditions, after the assault on Moncada, in the defeat of Alegría de Pío, in the numerous bombings and combats in the Sierra (his recklessness was such that after the combat of El Uvero, Che and several officers wrote him a letter asking him not to expose himself unnecessarily), the more than 600 attacks against him.
His intellectual level, his political lucidity of not allowing himself to be dragged into any of the pacts and lobbies that were forged around him on numerous occasions, his military capabilities and then his gifts as a popular leader when the Revolution triumphed, made him the undisputed leader of the process and the expression of the aspirations of an entire people.
The politician
As a politician, Fidel knew how to overcome very complex scenarios. The triumph of the Revolution also marked the beginning of an unprecedented escalation of aggression against Cuba. The existence of a triumphant Revolution in a continent that was its backyard was inadmissible for the U.S. power. A Revolution that dismantled the dogmas of the right and the left, demonstrating that it was possible to win against a professional army with a guerrilla group inferior in numbers and weapons, and further, that it was also possible to do so from a small neocolonial country, without great natural resources.
This Revolution had to overcome internally the more or less open aggression of the large and medium national bourgeoisie, which manifested itself both in the form of blackmail and aggressions of different natures. Armed groups, financed and trained by the U.S. and the Creole oligarchies, proliferated in various regions of the country, sowing fear and destruction with pirate attacks, sabotage, bombings, assassinations, robberies.
Important figures of the revolutionary government of those early years ended up betraying by action or omission, including military chiefs such as the first commander of the air force, Diaz Lang (who defected to the U.S. in a stolen plane and regularly returned to drop grenades in central streets of Havana) or Hubert Matos, commander of the military region of Camagüey. Also the first president of the revolutionary government, Urrutia, the first president of the Central Bank, etc. A good part of the country’s professionals emigrated abroad and even the Catholic Church lent itself to infamous defamation campaigns, such as the infamous Operation Peter Pan.
At the international level, sanctions, threats, economic blackmail. Persecution and defamation by the OAS and several U.S. allied governments in other latitudes. Numerous Latin American countries, under pressure, broke off all kinds of relations with Cuba. In March 1960, the French ship La Coubre exploded in the port of Havana as a result of sabotage, causing the death of almost one hundred people and more than 200 wounded. In April 1961, planes from Honduras bombed several Cuban civilian airports and a few days later 1,500 Cuban mercenaries, armed and trained by the CIA and with the support of the U.S. Navy, disembarked in Playa Girón**, initiating an invasion that was defeated in less than 72 hours and whose prisoners were exchanged to the U.S. government for compotes for children and agricultural machinery.
In 1962, Cuba was involved in the famous Missile Crisis, which was resolved by an agreement between powers leaving Cuba out, which provoked a dignified response from Fidel on behalf of the revolutionary people.
In the midst of that political whirlwind, Fidel knew how to lead and express the moods and expectations of the people and the members of the revolutionary leadership. He knew how to build the necessary unity among the revolutionary forces and to maneuver firmly on the international scene.
The Revolution was immediately translated into concrete advances: an Agrarian Reform Law that broke the backbone of the large landowning property in the country and gave the land to those who worked it; a massive literacy campaign; health and housing programs, with tens of thousands of scholarships for students at all levels; the creation of a massive system of protection and diffusion of culture that put culture within the reach of the people; and job creation.
Fidel knew how to build hegemony within the process from a dynamic conception of reality, which derived the keys to his political actions from a deep understanding of the various stages he had to go through. He managed to preserve the political autonomy and the particular essences of the Cuban process in his years of greater relationship with the USSR and the socialist camp and, after the collapse in Eastern Europe, he knew how to reconfigure in a very complex scenario the possibility of the existence and permanence of socialism and its achievements in Cuba.
Fidel was also an extraordinary popular educator, who in long and multitudinous speeches inculcated in the people a new conception of history and the role of Cuba in the Latin American and world scene. Under Fidel’s leadership, Cuba went from being a small sugar-producing island to being a nation that took upon itself the right to expose, denounce, and fight the colonial and neocolonial regime. To support the independence movements of all continents, to send doctors, teachers, sports coaches to all latitudes of the planet. No other nation in the western hemisphere has deployed such a broad and generous international activity. Fidel’s political leadership demonstrated to the Cuban people that they could leap far beyond their own stature, that the size of a nation is defined by the heroism and generosity of its women and men, and not by the imposed handicaps of colonialism and underdevelopment.
The symbol
The figure of Fidel embodies the ideals of sovereignty and social justice of a nation and is the expression that it is possible to build a more just and inclusive nation even in the most adverse circumstances. He is also a key factor of unity for the continuity of the Cuban process over time.
To erode his symbolic dimension, they constantly appeal to lies and half-truths. They wallow in possible mistakes, in rumors, in specific episodes of recent history, in opportunistic testimonies. Undoubtedly, as a man and as a politician he made mistakes, but these also come hand in hand with great successes, key successes for the subsistence, more than 60 years later, of a Revolution like the Cuban one. His human condition sustained his symbolic condition, and his coherence as a man determines to a great extent the dimension of his figure.
His thought, like all living thought, must be subject to a permanent dialogue. Nothing could be more alien to his conception of politics than the immobility of ideas and peoples. At a time when one of the most effective forms of symbolic assassination is mummification or commodification (think of what they tried with Lenin or Che), the duty of revolutionaries everywhere is to debate, discuss, and create.
Marx said that ideas become material power when they take hold of the masses. Fidel lives today, precisely because his symbol remains as proof that it is possible to make a Revolution with the humble, by the humble, and for the humble, and to persist in that endeavor against the hostility and persecution of the greatest imperial power in history.
José Ernesto Novaez Guerrero is a writer, journalist, and researcher from Santa Clara, Cuba. He coordinates the Cuban chapter of the Network of Intellectuals and Artists in Defense of Humanity and he works with several publications inside and outside the island.
* The youth wing of the Orthodox Party, the communist party at the time in Cuba.
** Playa Girón is known in the U.S. context as Bay of Pigs.
SCIENCE
New! Monthly Review Press <press@monthlyreview.org> 4-3-24 [The notice arrived minutes ago.]
New from Monthly Review Press Inspiration from an internationally known and respected immunologist:
In this pathbreaking book, The Knowledge Economy and Socialism: Science and Society in Cuba, Agustín Lage Dávila offers clearly written and easily understood answers to questions critical to the very survival of humanity.
Why is culture critical to science?
What distinguishes Cuba’s socialist culture from that of capitalist societies?
What are the social responsibilities of scientists?
How has Cuba made such incredible scientific advances in the face of the brutal and illegal U.S. blockade?
How can a country like Cuba earn needed foreign exchange through the sale of its knowledge-intensive products to countries in the Global North while maintaining its ethical, socialist ideals?
Dr. Lage’s interrogation of these questions will be of interest to scientists and economic planners around the world, to all those struggling for a better world–and, no doubt, even to those corporations competing with Cuba in global markets.
As Dr. Lage shows, Cuba has become a global leader in both the generation and application of scientific knowledge—as demonstrated by its ubiquitous production of socially useful products, from vaccines and medicines, to organic food. Speaking from his position as a noted Cuban immunologist, Dr. Lage shows how Cuba achieved such prominence, positing that the training of its scientists, their scientific practices, and their relationships with the Cuban people are intimately connected to the socialist culture that derived from the Cuban Revolution.
“Agustín Lage is both a participant and an observer in the development of Cuban science, an outstanding molecular biologist, and a militant in the Cuban Communist Party.
At the core of Agustín Lage’s work: That just as the factory and the farm marked the end of feudal systems of production, the economy of knowledge is the emergence of the new means of production.”
—RICHARD LEVINS, polymath, revered educator, committed antiwar activist and internationalist, and a scientific advisor for Cuba
“Cuba, a country with scarce resources which has sustained an economic blockade throughout its modern history, maintains a vigorous biotechnology sector that has developed vaccines against meningitis, cancer, and Covid….
Lage describes how science and technology, when unshackled from the constraints of the capitalist profit system, can be directed to solving pressing human needs.” —STUART A NEWMAN, Professor of Cell Biology and Anatomy, New York Medical College
“I am confident that even those who desire the failure of Cuban socialism will not abandon the book after reading the Introduction.
For champions of ‘a better capitalism’ (an oxymoron because it is not possible to improve a system that metastasizes like aggressive cancer), this book will be bad news. If they are enlightened and knowledgeable enemies of socialism, they will have to approach this book with respect.
It would not surprise me if some even reconsider their prejudices or ways of thinking.” —NESTOR G. DEL PRADO, Center of Molecular Immunology, Havana
CUBA’S ACHIEVEMENTS DESPITE US EFFORTS TO CRUSH CUBA’S REVOLUTION
[I wrote the following before receiving the emergency appeal from The People’s Forum; see the opening article.]
Pedro Ross. How the Workers’ Parliaments Saved the Cuban Revolution: Reviving Socialism after the Collapse of the Soviet Union. Monthly Review P, 2022.
Following the revolution led by Fidel Castro that overthrew the dictator Batista in 1959, the US went to war against Cuba employing a diversity of weapons. An increasingly severe blockade began soon afterward. An (unsuccessful) invasion was attempted in 1961. And then dissolution of the USSR and its Eastern European Bloc (1989) produced “seismic repercussions, devastating for the revolution and progressive movement worldwide and in Cuba” (21).
Ross makes the case, that after overthrowing Batista, defeating the invasion, resisting the Blockade, and confronting the disasters at the end of the USSR, the people of Cuba, led by Fidel Castro, built a democratic government based upon workers’ parliaments (1994) and labor unions. These institutions were severely tested by the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the Socialist bloc, which had provided the basis of Cuba’s development for thirty years, and by the reinforcement of the US blockade which had been imposed in the Revolution’s early years. But the leaders’ perseverance and the workers’ parliaments and unions preserved the essential achievements of the Revolution and socialism, particularly in education, public health, social security, and food production. “This unprecedented democratic and participatory process produced results that exceeded the most optimistic expectations.” Yet the pathological US antipathy toward socialism driving the US War Against the Cuban workers’ democratic socialism continues. [And the The People’s Forum article warns of a dire food shortage because of the US economic blockade and the State Sponsors of Terrorism listing.] –Dick
CUBAN HEALTH CARE SYSTEM (3 articles)
“What The US Can Learn From The Cuban Health Care System” By National Single Payer. Popular Resistance.org (2-11-24). David Ramirez Alvarez is Second Secretary in the Cuban Embassy, representing Cuba’s cultural and political forces sectors. He will be presenting an historical and current analysis of the Cuban health care system, how it differs from our profit-driven system, how Cuba provides comprehensive primary and quaternary health services in the face of a decades’ long illegal and brutal U.S. blockade and still has better outcomes than ours. Ramirez Alvarez will also address how the training of health care providers and scientists in Cuba is intimately connected to the socialist culture derived from… -more-
Alejandra Garcia. “World Health Assembly: The World Should Be More Like Cuba.” Editor. Mronline.org (6-4-23).
Originally published: Resumen: Latinoamericano and the Third World on May 23, 2023 by Alejandra Garcia (more by Resumen: Latinoamericano and the Third World) (Posted Jun 03, 2023)
Culture, Health, Human Rights, StrategyAmericas, CubaNewswireCOVID-19, pandemic, SARS-CoV-2, vaccine
The world is still suffering from the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic. Inflation, supply chain crises, and shortages of medicines and basic goods continue to affect most of the world’s countries, especially those less developed and besieged by the major powers, such as Cuba, but this is not news. What can governments do to counteract a future health crisis and can we overcome the dominate greed of the developed countries when it comes to public health?
These days, the world’s top health officials are meeting in Geneva as part of the 76th World Health Assembly, which is once again dedicated to the health emergency that has paralyzed the world, and where a big question has come to light: Are we prepared to contain a new pandemic? . . .
Cuba is a great oasis in the midst of this stark reality, where health is a privilege and not a right even after a deadly pandemic. The Cuban Minister of Health, Jose Angel Portal Miranda, with tremendous humility, spoke to the leaders gathered in Geneva about the need for a new vaccine against SARS-CoV-2. It seems increasingly difficult for the world to reach a substantial compromise. He went on to talk about the accomplishments of Cuba despite being a small blockaded nation greatly lacking in resources. The development of anti-COVID vaccines of its own, the special care patients received, the heroic work of health personnel inside and outside Cuba, are some of those feats.
“Cuba is proud of the over 600 thousand health workers who have brought hope and life to millions of people over the past 60 years, almost always in extremely complex scenarios, especially during the pandemic. Health professionals and technicians saved lives in distant lands, with great courage,” Portal commented. . . .MORE click on title
Daniel Kovalik. “Fidel Castro’s legacy lives on as Cuba keeps sending ‘Doctors, not Bombs’ all across the World.” Editor. Mronline.org (2-26-23).
Originally published:” Fidel Castro’s legacy lives on as Cuba keeps sending ‘Doctors, not Bombs’ all across the World” on February 19, 2023 by Daniel Kovalik (more by Fidel Castro’s legacy lives on as Cuba keeps sending ‘Doctors, not Bombs’ all across the World) (Posted Feb 24, 2023)
Health, Ideology, Movements, WarAmericas, Cuba, United StatesNewswireFidel Castro
In the immediate aftermath of the recent devastating earthquakes in Turkey and Syria, Cuba dispatched medical teams to the affected areas to provide care to victims. Their departure was marked by a farewell ceremony, which featured a large photo of Fidel Castro. It was quite appropriate, for the international medical solidarity which Cuba regularly extends to countries throughout the world is the brainchild of the late iconic leader himself, who, in 2003, proudly proclaimed that Cuba does not drop bombs on other countries but instead sends them doctors.
Though Castro retired from his official duties as President of Cuba 15 years ago to the day, he has continued to remain a leader in solidarity and in peace. Cuban doctors were sent to more than 70 countries over the years, including nearly 40 different countries in 2020 to help in the fight against Covid-19. In 2010, even the New York Times acknowledged Cuba’s successful campaign against the cholera epidemic which broke out in Haiti after another earthquake. In 2014, the Times similarly gave credit to Cuba’s leadership in successfully fighting Ebola in Africa:
“Cuba is an impoverished island that remains largely cut off from the world and lies about 4,500 miles from the West African nations where Ebola is spreading at an alarming rate. Yet, having pledged to deploy hundreds of medical professionals to the front lines of the pandemic, Cuba stands to play the most robust role among the nations seeking to contain the virus. . . .MORE click on title for additional Cuban achievements
Daniel Kovalik teaches International Human Rights at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law, and is author of the recently-released book Nicaragua: A History of U.S. Intervention & Resistance.
“Gerardo Hernández on the Resilience and Continuity of the Cuban Revolution.” Editor. Mronline.org (2-18-23).
Originally published: Peoples Dispatch on February 15, 2023 by Denis Rogatyuk (more by Peoples Dispatch) | (Posted Feb 17, 2023)
Movements, Revolutions, State Repression, StrategyAmericas, Cuba, United StatesInterviewBlockade of Cuba, Cuban Five, Cuban Revolution, Fidel Castro, Gerardo Hernández, Miguel Díaz-Canel, U.S. state sponsors of terrorism list
This piece was first published in Spanish at El Ciudadano
Cuba today is facing one of its toughest tests. It has been under a U.S. financial and trade embargo for over six decades, and in the past year has suffered catastrophic environmental disasters with Hurricane Ian and the fire at the Matanzas fuel facility. In spite of this, the Cuban people continue to resist and defend their revolution.
Denis Rogatyuk sat down with Gerardo Hernández, a Cuban revolutionary and one of the “Cuban Five Heroes” who spent over 16 years in a U.S. prison convicted of conspiracy to commit espionage and acting as an agent of a foreign government. Since his release in 2014, Hernández has committed himself to deepening and advancing the revolution in the grassroots and today is the national coordinator of the Committees for the Defense of the Revolution (CDRs). He spoke about the history of the CDRs, their role in the revolutionary process and the diverse attempts of Washington to overthrow the revolution. . . .
WALKING TO MAY DAY
Farooque Chowdhury. “Defiant Cuba Celebrates May Day.” Mronline.org (5-10-23). Mainstream reports on this past May Day celebration in Cuba leave out a key element: the imperialist economic and financial blockade.
(Posted May 09, 2023) ImperialismCubaCommentaryFeatured
. . .The reports explained that “a fuel shortage lasting more than a month has greatly complicated the daily lives of ordinary Cubans. Even President Miguel Diaz-Canel and his wife Lis Cuesta walked to the promenade to take part in the ‘revolutionary reaffirmation,’ alongside his predecessor Raul Castro.” The article went on to cite Ulises Guilarte de Nacimiento, the general secretary of the Workers’ Central Union, the trade union federation in Cuba: “This change of location is consistent with the current limitations on fuel insurance as part of the complex economic situation our country is going through.”
The article asserts that Cuba is suffering its worst economic crisis in three decades, exacerbated by the pandemic, the war in Ukraine, and U.S. sanctions. These have left the country with frequent shortages of food, medicine, and fuel, and soaring inflation.
Today, the May Day March in Havana is a symbol of reassertion—a reassertion of the class position of the working class in humanity’s historical march toward a society free of exploitation and injustice, and against finance capital, imperialism, and retrogressive ideas. . . .MORE click on title
Farooque Chowdhury is a freelance writer based in Dhaka. His books in English include Micro Credit, Myth Manufactured (ed.), The Age of Crisis, and The Great Financial Crisis, What Next?: Interviews with John Bellamy Foster (ed.), Dhakha: Books (2012), 190 pp.
Tanalís Padilla. “Cuba and the Children of Chernobyl.” Editor. Mronline.org (4-29-23). Originally published: Resumen: Latinoamericano and the Third World on April 26, 2023 by Tanalís Padilla (more by Resumen: Latinoamericano and the Third World) (Posted Apr 28, 2023)
Health, Ideology, Movements, StrategyAmericas, CubaNewswireChernobyl
On April 26, 1986, the explosion of a reactor at the Chernobyl plant produced a nuclear spill whose radiation contaminated 150 thousand square meters of what today are Ukraine, Belarus and Russia. Considered the worst nuclear accident in history, it was in many ways a slow-motion mishap. In addition to the 30 workers and rescuers who perished in the hours and days immediately after the explosion, hundreds of thousands of people were exposed to dangerous levels of radiation. Land, water, agriculture and livestock were contaminated. The number of deaths in subsequent decades remains in dispute. The lowest estimates are 4,000; others 90,000 and up to 200,000.
Several countries contributed resources, personnel and assistance to the recovery; the overwhelming majority went to contain and seal the reactor. In 1990, when the horror of the tragedy had ceased to be news, Cuba sent a medical team to evaluate the health consequences of the radiation. They found a situation in which cancer levels in children had increased 90 percent. The island would soon undertake medical assistance that is still difficult to measure: from 1990 to 2011, it cared for 26,000 people—22,000 children—from the affected area, covering medical, food, housing and recreational expenses for the minors and their companions.
The first 139 children from Chernobyl arrived on March 29, 1990 and were received by Fidel Castro. . . .MORE click on title
“Lavrov arrives in Havana to promote Russia-Cuba cooperation.” Editor. Mronline.org (4-22-23).
Currently, Russia is one of Cuba’s top ten trading partners, and both governments define their partnership as “strategic.”
Originally published: teleSUR English on April 20, 2023 by teleSUR/ JF (more by teleSUR English) | (Posted Apr 21, 2023)
Movements, Political Economy, StrategyAmericas, Cuba, Europe, RussiaNewswireCooperation, Havana, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov
On Wednesday night, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov arrived in Havana for talks that will focus on promoting political, economic, educational and cultural cooperation. Previously, he visited Brazil, Venezuela and Nicaragua.
On Thursday, he is expected to meet with President Miguel Diaz-Canel, whom the Cuban parliament yesterday re-elected for a second five-year term.
“Russia-Cuba relations are excellent since both countries give them priority. They are also based on their peoples’ traditional friendship ties,” the Granma newspaper commented.
Kimberly Monroe. “An African Palenque: Cuba and Global Black Solidarity.” Editor. Mronline.org (4-19-23). Originally published: Hood Communist on April 13, 2023 by Kimberly Monroe (more by Hood Communist) | (Posted Apr 18, 2023)
Culture, Human Rights, Ideology, MovementsAfrica, Americas, Cuba, United StatesNewswireAmiri Baraka, Black Power solidarity, Community Movement Builders (CMB), Red Barrial Afrodescendiente (RBA)
When Black nationalist and poet Amiri Baraka returned from Cuba in 1959, his life was completely transformed. While there he met Afro Cubans, Black Americans such as Robert Williams and Cuban President Fidel Castro. The trip proved to be instrumental not only in developing his black international consciousness but also in mobilizing local political power. Baraka, Williams, Harold Cruse, Sarah Wright, and other Black Nationalists had visited Cuba before the establishment of The Black Arts Repertory Theater/School which helped them build the stage for the coming together of Black artists. Baraka talks about the “growing need to fully express our soul and mind connection with the Black struggle in our art and in the street.”1 The same can be said about the streets of Havana and Matanzas Cuba today.
In August 2022, a Black activist delegation2 from Atlanta, Charleston, and Washington, D.C. followed this tradition during a nine-day trip to Cuba. It was there that we not only learned from Afro Cuban organizers, but we also learned from the streets. From the murals along the buildings in Havana, to the rumba dancing and drumming, art connects and gives a voice to our global struggle. . . .MORE click on title
TARIQ ANDERSON. “Cuba’s Support [for Palestine] Goes Far Beyond Mere Words.” Editor. mronline.org (1-30-24).
The support Cuba has been offering to Palestine and Palestinians since Che’s visit to Gaza in 1959.
Originally published: Morning Star Online on January 27, 2024 by Tariq Anderson (more by Morning Star Online) | (Posted Jan 29, 2024)
Human Rights, Movements, State Repression, WarAmericas, Cuba, Gaza, Israel, Middle East, PalestineNewswireInternational Court of Juistice (ICJ), Latin American School of Medicine (ELAM)
THE Palestinian people’s fight for national liberation stands at the centre of the struggle for socialists, progressives and all those seeking to build a better world in the 21st century.
For decades, Latin America’s left has been among Palestine’s strongest allies and, as a genocidal war has been waged against the Palestinian people in recent months, left governments and movements in Latin America have been vocal in their condemnation of what Hugo Chavez once described as the “terrorist and murderous state” of Israel.
From the moment it came into existence, revolutionary Cuba has been at the forefront of this movement in the region. From Che Guevara’s visit to the refugee camps of Gaza in 1959, Cuba has been unwavering in its support for the Palestinians—providing direct assistance to the Palestinian fedayeen (guerillas) in the ’60s and ’70s, severing all diplomatic relations with Israel in 1973 and supporting Palestine’s attempts to gain international recognition as an independent state in recent years.
Since October 7, Cuban leaders have been forthright in their condemnation of Israel’s genocide in Gaza.
CONTENTS CUBA ANTHOLOGY #11
US Meddling, Intervention, Subversion (of Cuba and US Constitution), Blockade, Propaganda, Armed Invasion, Kidnapping, Murder
https://jamesrichardbennett.blogspot.com/2022/11/omni-cuba-anthology-11-november-6-2022.html
McAdoo. Embargo.
Landau. “Punish Cuba” Bill.
The Nation Editorial.
Wayne Smith. Overthrowing Castro a “Costly Cuba Policy.”
Peter Kornbluh. UN v. US Embargo.
The Nation Editorial.
Peter Kornbluh and William Leogrande v. Embargo.
Margaret Flowers. “Biden’s Disastrous Foreign Policy.”
Cubaminrex. “Cuba Responds” re Biden and Trump.
Cuban Resistance (and International Allies)
Dunn. “Beginning of the Cuban Revolution.”
Ben Norton. 185 to 2 World Votes v. Blockade of Cuba
Peter Kornbluh. “60 Years of a Brutal, Vindictive, Pointless Embargo.” Et al.
Manolo De Los Santos. Cuba’s “Foreign Policy of Peace and Socialism.”
Cuban Achievements
Medical
Prashad and de Los Santos. Cuba “Eradicating Child Mortality and Banishing Diseases.”
Martinez and León. New Vaccine 92.28% Efficacy.
Laura Giráldez. Cuba’s Improving Medical Technology.
Jake Johnson. Contrast Vaccine for Profit: “Big Pharma’s Vaccine Profiteering.”
General
Cuba’s Post-Revolutionary Architecture.
Energy Revitalized and Carbon Emissions Reduced.
Assata Shakur. Refuge in Cuba for Political Prisoners.
“The Code of Families” Democratically Revised.
https://jamesrichardbennett.blogspot.com/2022/11/omni-cuba-anthology-11-november-6-2022.html
END CUBA ANTHOLOGY #12
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