Blockade of Cuba

Minister of Foreign Affairs of Cuba, Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla, before the UN General Assembly

Cuba demanded at the UN the political will to achieve the future to which we aspire

In his speech at the Summit of the Future, the Cuban Foreign Minister reviewed the challenges faced by developing nations and the need for truly profound reforms to eliminate them

Author:  | internet@granma.cu

september 23, 2024 08:09:33

Photo: TAKEN FROM THE CUBAN CHANCELLOR’S X-ACCOUNT 

Greater political will to address the structural and moral failures of the international system that prevent progress towards a just future demanded the member of the Political Bureau of the Party and Minister of Foreign Affairs of Cuba, Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla, before the UN General Assembly.
In his speech at the Summit of the Future, the Cuban Foreign Minister reviewed the challenges facing developing nations and the need for truly profound reforms to eliminate them, Prensa Latina reported.
“The peoples need less interference and more solidarity; less unequal exchange and more equity; less politicization and double standards and more dialogue, cooperation and respect for their inalienable right to choose their political, economic, social and cultural system,” he said.
Rodríguez Parrilla reiterated that, for Cuba, the main obstacle to well-being and development is the criminal blockade of the United States and its infamous inclusion in the arbitrary and unilateral list of States that allegedly sponsor terrorism.
In his words, he stressed that “our futuristic debates are taking place while the genocide in Palestine continues, without an effective response from the international community, when even the institutions and workers of the United Nations are being targeted by Israel’s fire.”
He added that, for millions of people in the global South, the possibility of a dignified future is and will remain a utopia.
“It will be difficult to believe in that promised future as long as developed countries oppose deep reform of the international financial architecture, discussions of which should be centered at the United Nations,” he said.
If these claims have been watered down in the Pact for the Future, should we believe in the promises of greater access to the resources indispensable for our development? How can we trust in the promise of peace, non-interference and multilateralism while coercion, selfishness, domination and hegemonism grow and the UN Charter and international law are violated?, the senior diplomat questioned.
As part of his agenda in New York, the Cuban Foreign Minister also participated, last Saturday, in the 5th Meeting of Cubans living in the United States.
He thanked the work of a large group of Cuban nationals who maintain their public actions in support of the elimination of the blockade and the definitive withdrawal of Cuba from the list of countries sponsoring terrorism, policies that have a direct impact on the quality of life and the purchasing power of families. He also recognized the work of associations and Cubans living in that nation for their humanitarian projects.

Blockade of Cuba

A murderous policy against the people of Cuba

The blockade is a worldwide embarrassment for the United States

The Trading with the Enemy Act is the cushion of this murderous policy against the people of Cuba

Author:  | internet@granma.cu

september 23, 2024 08:09:27

Sorry, there is no game. This has American rubber. 

VIt is not news that the U.S. Government has extended, for one more year, the validity of the law that establishes the basis of the economic, commercial and financial blockade against Cuba. It would be news if it did not, because that is already on the agenda of the president-elect, regardless of the winning party. There is only one political base against the largest of the Antilles: the imperial one.
Last week, Joe Biden played the same role as his predecessors, in a ridiculous and archaic scene, in the middle of the 21st century, by keeping alive the Trading with the Enemy Act, passed by the Federal Congress on October 6, 1917. This gives the head of the White House the power to restrict trade with countries “hostile” to the United States, and the possibility of applying economic sanctions in time of war or any other period of national emergency, and prohibits trade with the enemy or allies of the enemy during armed conflicts.
It is under the protection of this legislative text, the oldest of its kind, that the regulations for the Control of Cuban Assets were put into practice in 1963, after the blockade against Cuba was imposed in 1962 by then President John F. Kennedy. He acted under the umbrella of that regulation.
The Trading with the Enemy Act is the cushion of that murderous policy against the people of Cuba, which aims at killing through hunger, unrest and chaos. This regulation is supposed to be applied when Washington considers a nation a national security problem, and so far it has not issued any document against Cuba in this regard, or when there is a war conflict, which does not exist, because the bombs are dropped far away, in the Middle East, but never near its walls.
However, the Caribbean island is the only country to which the U.S. government applies the old legislation. Previously, China, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea and Vietnam were also subject to it.
That text is part of the legal framework of the blockade, which includes others such as the Foreign Assistance Act (1961), the Export Administration Act (1979), the Torricelli Act (1992), the Helms-Burton Act (1996) and the Export Administration Regulations (1979).
According to the report presented by the Cuban Foreign Ministry, between March 1, 2023 and February 29, 2024, such a monstrosity caused Cuba damages and material losses estimated in the order of 5,056.8 million dollars, which represents an approximate loss of more than 575,683 dollars for each hour of the blockade.
The governments of the United States have filled themselves with laws against a small country that has made it undergo the worldwide embarrassment of not surrendering to its feet. This was stated on the social network X, by the member of the Political Bureau and Minister of Foreign Affairs, Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla, who expressed that, “despite the serious damage caused, they continue to fail in the objective of destroying the Revolution.”

Who We Are

Our full support for the Anti-Fascist International

DECLARATION OF THE CASA DE LAS AMERICAS, Cuba

Not the same organization as, CASA DE LAS AMERICAS, New York

 

Our full support for the Anti-Fascist International

A constant in two centuries of U.S. interference in the region is the obsession to destroy any sovereign or moderately progressive project

Author:  | cultura@granma.cu

september 18, 2024 08:09:40

Artwork El eco del llanto (1937) Photo: David Alfaro Siqueiros 

In 1937, when the Spanish Republic was resisting the assault of Franco’s troops, decisively supported by Hitler and Mussolini, and in the face of the complicit silence of most of the European governments, the clamor of the best intellectuals of the time was raised in Valencia. From there, Juan Marinello sentenced: “it is not possible to fight fascism without attacking its twin brother, imperialism.”
Today the United States has many open fronts in the world. It is stirring up conflicts in Europe, in the Middle East, in the Far East -to speak only of the best known right now-, and even within the country, conflicts are flaring up that are endangering its own version of democracy. None of this prevents them from forgetting our region, which they continue to consider their backyard.
Heirs of a two hundred year history based on formulations such as the “empire for freedom” proclaimed by Jefferson, with its inevitable corollary in the Monroe Doctrine and the policy of Manifest Destiny; in line with the dozens of direct or indirect interventions, barracks, judicial coups, blockades and pressures of all kinds in Latin America and the Caribbean from the mid-nineteenth century until today, the United States maintains intact its imperial vocation over the territories south of the Rio Grande, and renews it again and again.
A constant in these two centuries of interference is the obsession to destroy any sovereign or moderately progressive project in the region, not to mention, of course, the unrestrained and relentless war against those who defend revolutionary alternatives. At a time when the world and our own continent are witnessing the advance of the extreme right, the attacks are multiplying and becoming more evident. Meanwhile, a new iron lady, General Richardson, head of the dreadful Southern Command, travels part of our geography -recently Chile, as before Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Uruguay-, so that everyone remembers who is in charge.
But there are peoples who do not obey or accept empires, doctrines or manifest destinies. For that reason, the most rabid destabilizing crusade is being waged against Venezuela today, which includes from fascist violence, armed conspiracies such as the one denounced just a few days ago, the brazen interference of foreign governments, to the incessant smear campaign through hegemonic media, digital platforms and social networks.
All this without discounting economic sanctions: the weapon that Lester D. Mallory, an obscure Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs recommended, in the Cuban case, in 1960, in order to “provoke hunger, desperation and the overthrow of the Government”. The same weapon that ten years later, as soon as Salvador Allende was elected, President Nixon, also known among his compatriots as Dirty Dick, would instruct his Secretary of State to use: “the Chilean economy must be made to squeak”. Similar also to the one used a decade later against the Sandinista Revolution, and so usual today in a good part of the world.
Being the most scandalous and open, the onslaught against Venezuela -as against Cuba, about to turn 65 years old- is not unique. Honduras is once again facing the specter of a coup d’état, when the previous one is still fresh in the memory of its citizens. For his part, President Gustavo Petro has warned that “a Colombian-style coup d’état has begun”. And in Mexico, the government of López Obrador decided to put relations with the United States on hold, in view of the interference of its officials in decisions that are the exclusive responsibility of Mexican men and women.
The unity of revolutionaries was one of the main demands of the World Congress against Fascism, held in Caracas on September 10 and 11. Today we see with pain and anguish that in sister Bolivia a suicidal division is growing that can only benefit the fascist forces and the empire. The same forces -those sinister twins- that the Congress called to confront, as one of the greatest dangers that humanity suffers today, with the creation of an Anti-Fascist International.
From Casa de las Americas we ratify all our support to the nascent Antifascist International and its decision to make Our America and the world a space where the right to life and human dignity prevails above all else.

Terrorism against Cuba is state policy

The assassination of Cuban diplomat Felix Garcia Rodriguez in New York

The double standards of the self-proclaimed judges of terrorism

For more than six decades, 3,478 deaths and 2,099 disabled put names to the statistics of this criminal war against Cuba

Author:  | informacion@granmai.cu

september 13, 2024 11:09:29

On September 11, 1980, Omega 7 claimed responsibility for the assassination of Cuban diplomat Felix Garcia Rodriguez in New York. Photo: Archivo de Granma

In its arsenal of aggressions against Cuba, the U.S. government has put into practice a hundred different forms of terrorism ranging from sabotage of civilian airplanes to biological warfare and economic blockade.
From that country, one of the largest and most dangerous terrorist networks in the world was created, made up of organizations that have carried out a sad corollary of crimes.
Among them was Omega 7, founded in the United States on September 11, 1974, an organization that perpetrated, between 1963 and 1981, more than 60 terrorist attacks against Cuban installations and commercial institutions.
On September 11, 1980, Omega 7 claimed responsibility for the assassination of Cuban diplomat Felix Garcia Rodriguez in Queens, New York.
Over more than six decades, 3,478 fatalities and 2,099 disabled people put names to the statistics of this war against Cuba.
Let us remember the attacks on fishing and merchant vessels, such as the one against the Spanish ship Sierra Aránzazu, which caused the death of the captain and two of the officers.
On the other hand, we cannot forget the biological warfare, aimed at destroying agriculture and damaging the health of Cubans.
In order to confront the violent actions organized from Washington, men and women born from the bowels of the people, run all the risks and make all the sacrifices.
On September 12, 1998, five Cubans who decided to dedicate their lives to the fight against terrorism in the city of Miami were arrested in the United States.
For that reason, Gerardo Hernández, Ramón Labañino, Antonio Guerrero, Fernando González and René González served severe and unjust sentences for more than 16 years.
However, in spite of the high price in lives and material resources that this murderous policy has cost the Cuban people, Washington designed, since the first years of the Revolution, a strategy of discredit, with the objective of justifying the permanent siege and presenting the largest of the Antilles as a terrorist country.
The inclusion of the island on the U.S. State Department’s list of countries sponsoring terrorism is a measure that goes far beyond isolating an adversary of the White House.
Such a measure is part of the scourge they claim to fight. It cannot be seen separately from the blockade or the violent actions or cognitive warfare, it is part of a whole designed to bring a people to its knees.
In spite of everything, the largest of the Antilles, which is a signatory to 19 international conventions related to the fight against terrorism, condemns this scourge and will continue to honor the commitments assumed in this matter, a responsibility it elevated to constitutional rank in 2019.