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The blockade is an outdated policy and must end: Josefina Vidal, director general for the United States at the Cuban Ministry of Foreign Relations

CUBA-U.S.

The blockade is an outdated policy and must end
A year after diplomatic relations between the two countries were reestablished on July 20, 2015, Granma International spoke with Josefina Vidal, director general for the United States at the Cuban Ministry of Foreign Relations, to discuss Cuba-U.S. relations as they stand today

Author: Sergio Alejandro Gómez | informacion@granma.cu
july 20, 2016 14:07:30

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Josefina Vidal, director general for the United States at the Cuban Ministry of Foreign Relations. Photo: Juvenal Balán

“We have been working for many years for a change in U.S. policy toward Cuba,” stated Josefina Vidal, the main face representing Cuba in diplomatic negotiations with the United States to open a new chapter in bilateral relations between the two nations.

But the Cuban diplomat isn’t referring to the quarter of a century she has spent dealing with this issue. “You need to read history and see how Fidel, at different times, expressed Cuba’s willingness to discuss and resolve our differences with the United States through negotiations, without renouncing a single one of our principles. And Army General Raúl Castro Ruz, on assuming the leadership of our government, stated that we have always been willing to normalize relations with that country on the basis of equality.

“This process began on December 17, 2014, following more than half a century of resistance by the Cuban people to all kinds of aggression. A few months later, on July 20, 2015, diplomatic relations between the two nations were officially reestablished with the opening of respective embassies in Washington and Havana.”

A year on, Granma International spoke with Josefina Vidal, director general for the United States at the Cuban Ministry of Foreign Relations, to discuss Cuba-U.S. relations as they stand today.

What has been achieved?

Continue reading The blockade is an outdated policy and must end: Josefina Vidal, director general for the United States at the Cuban Ministry of Foreign Relations →

Latino, Solidarity

Leading National Latino Coalition Calls for Lifting of Cuban Trade Embargo Washington, D.C.

 

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PRESS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE

DISTRIBUTION
July 5, 2016
Leading National Latino Coalition Calls for Lifting of Cuban Trade Embargo
Washington, D.C. – In a major indicator that the U.S.-Cuban relationship is changing dramatically, the National Hispanic Leadership Agenda (NHLA), a coalition of 40 of the nation’s preeminent Latino advocacy organizations, called for lifting of the Cuban Trade Embargo. At its June 22nd board meeting, NHLA adopted the following resolution:
“The National Hispanic Leadership Agenda (NHLA) supports the full normalization of relations between the United States and Cuba. We do not support the Cuban Trade Embargo because we recognize that it does not promote mutually beneficial economic, cultural and scientific relations between both countries. We believe this can be best achieved through an active and open engagement between them. The current policies only serve to impede the full human development of the people of Cuba and Americans, including Cuban-Americans. Support for normalization is, also, strong among Americans, the people of Cuba and a majority of Cuban-Americans.”
“Following the resumption of diplomatic relations between the United States and Cuba, removal of our nation’s trade embargo on Cuba is the next logical step, which will provide a path toward greater engagement between our two nations, to the benefit both nation’s peoples and particularly for the much-needed advancement of human rights and economic well-being for the Cuban people,” said Hector Sanchez, NHLA Chair and Executive Director of the Labor Council for Latin American Advancement.
“This is a historic moment for the Latino community,” stated Angelo Falcón, Co-Chair of NHLA’s Cuban Trade Embargo Working Group and President of the National Institute for Latino Policy (NiLP), “The leading mainstream Latino civil rights organizations have historically avoided addressing the issue of U.S.-Cuban relations in deference to the anti-Castro Miami exile community, but this support for the lifting of the embargo marks a major departure from longtime political accommodation.” Falcón went on to point out that “this development reflects a change not only in the Latino community in general, but also within the Cuban-American community, which is undergoing significant generational changes in their politics.”

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Cuban Solidarity, Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico Mission

Two peoples united by fraternity and solidarity, Puerto Rican mission in Havana

Two peoples united by fraternity and solidarity
On March 8, 1966, a Puerto Rican mission was inaugurated in Havana by the historic leader of the Cuban Revolution, Fidel Castro Ruz, and Puerto Rican independence activist, Juan Mari Bras. The mission works to demand the decolonization of the Caribbean nation, as well as an end to the U.S. blockade of Cuba
Author: Nuria Barbosa León | internet@granma.cu
july 7, 2016 09:07:0

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During the ceremony at ICAP, the Puerto Rican independence movement repeated their demand for the release of political prisoner, Oscar López Rivera, unjustly incarcerated for over 35 years for his support of Puerto Rican independence. Photo: ICAP

A strong history of fraternity and solidarity unites Cuba and Puerto Rico, demonstrated by the presence in Havana for over 50 years, of a mission from the sister nation, sole representative of Puerto Rico’s independence movement on the island.
Inaugurated March 8, 1966 by the historic leader of the Cuban Revolution Fidel Castro Ruz and Puerto Rican independence activist Juan Mari Bras, the mission works to demand the decolonization of the Caribbean nation, subjected to five centuries of foreign domination, the last 118 by the United States.
The organization also directs its efforts to condemning the criminal economic, commercial and financial blockade imposed by the U.S. government on Cuba, and facilitating cultural exchanges between both peoples.
As such, it has contributed to enabling Puerto Rican students to study in Cuba, like Alberto Rodríguez Rivera, who has just completed his fifth year of Medicine at the University of Medical Sciences in the central province of Las Villas. The young Puerto Rican is grateful for the knowledge he has gained, not only in regards to his profession but also life.

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Chile, Víctor Jara

Assassin of Victor Jara convicted, in Orlando, Florida,

Assassin of Victor Jara convicted, denying repressive forces impunity
A U.S. verdict convicting Pedro Barrientos of murdering singer-songwriter Víctor Jara has opened the way to investigations into events surrounding the country’s 1973 military coup
Author: Miguel Fernández Martínez | internet@granma.cu
july 8, 2016 08:07:16

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Víctor Jara was murdered at 41 years of age, following the military coup which overthrew President Salvador Allende in 1973. Photo: Archives

The U.S. verdict convicting former Chilean army officer, Pedro Barrientos, accused of the murder of Víctor Jara singer-songwriter Víctor Jara, has opened the way to continue investigations into the events which occurred during the country’s 1973 military coup.
On June 27, a jury at the civil trail in Orlando, Florida, found Barrientos guilty of the torture and extrajudicial killing of the popular Chilean musician, poet and political activist, during the early days of the military coup led by General Augusto Pinochet against President Salvador Allende, 43 years ago.
The jury awarded Jara’s family 28 million dollars in punitive and compensatory damages, while Barrientos could now also be extradited to face criminal murder charges in Chile.
Barrientos is the subject of an arrest warrant issued by Judge Miguel Vázquez, on several charges including murder and aggravated abduction and obstruction of justice, also linked to Jara’s murder.
The 67 year old criminal, now a U.S. citizen residing in the town of Deltona, near the city of Daytona Beach, Florida, has lived in the country since 1989. The suit was first brought against him in 2013, under theAlien Tort Statute and Torture Victim Protection Act, designed to prosecute human rights abusers living in the U.S. before eventually going to trial in an Orlando court. 
According to U.S. immigration service records, the former army officer, failed to declare his ties to the military coup plotters, and his participation in the acts of torture and murder committed in Santiago de Chile’s stadium.
The civil suit filed by Joan Jara, the musician’s widow and his daughters Manuela and Amanda, was represented by the Center for Justice and Accountability (CJA) a California-based human rights group, and New York law firm, Chadbourne & Parke.
During the trial, Barrientos denied knowing the popular singer-song writer and having been in the Santiago Stadium, used as a torture center, at the time of Jara’s murder.
The prosecution refuted the former army officer’s claims, presenting testimonies recorded in Chile of six former soldiers loyal to the military government led by Pinochet, who all stated that they had seen Barrientos at the sports complex at least 20 times over the days before and after the murder. 
The prosecution called attention to former solider José Navarrete Barra’s statement, in which he claimed that Barrientos even boasted about his crime. “He repeatedly said that he had killed Víctor Jara,” stated the solider in a video recording.
Joan Jara never lost faith that her husband’s murderer would be brought to justice. Despite having filed a criminal complaint in Chile in 1978, she was obliged to wait over 40 years before she was to hear the verdict delivered in a Florida court.
“It’s the beginning of justice for all those people, those relatives in Chile who are waiting to learn the fate of their loved ones, who have been for years and years, just like us, seeking justice [and] knowledge,” stated Jara’s widow speaking to British newspaper, The Guardian.
For her part, Almudena Bernabéu, CJA lawyer who led the case investigation, expressed her satisfaction following the verdict. “This verdict is not the end, but rather the beginning of work to extradite or expel Barrientos from the country and achieve full justice for the Jara family,” she noted.