April
16, 2009 - No. 77
V Summit of the Americas
The Elephant in the Room in
Port of Spain
V Summit of the Americas
• The Elephant in the Room in Port
of Spain
- Manuel E. Yepe
• Bolivia to Demand End to
Blockade at Americas Summit
• Letter to Prime Minister Stephen
Harper Re: Summit of the Americas
- Isaac Saney, Canadian Network on Cuba
• Fidel Castro: The Unseen Guest
at the Vth Summit of the Americas
- Norman Girvan, Agencia Latinoameicana de
Informacion
Reflections of Comrade Fidel Castro
• Does the OAS Have a Right to
Exist?
- April 14, 2009
• Days that Cannot Be Forgotten
- April 14, 2009
• Not a Word about the Blockade
- April 13, 2009
• Walking on Solid Ground
- April 5, 2009
• Why Is Cuba Being Excluded?
- April 4, 2009
Anniversary of Cuba's Victory at the Bay of Pigs, April 20, 1961
• First Defeat of Imperialism in
America
- Aixa Alfonso Guerra, El Habanero
SUPPLEMENTS
• No. 3: Obama's
"New Partnership for the Americas"
-BarackObama.com
• No. 4: No U.S.
Troops in Mexico!
V Summit of the Americas
The Elephant in the Room in Port of Spain
- Manuel E. Yepe, April 7,
2009 -
In recent days the big corporate news media have
resorted to flights
of fancy to explain the strangely inevitable presence of the Cuban
question in the discussions expected at the Summit that begins on April
17 in Trinidad and Tobago, without pointing out who is responsible for
the absurd situation.
How can you explain the "Cuba problem," and try to
resolve it,
without delving into the real origin of the "isolation" of a member of
the Latin American community of nations, a country that has been
establishing normal diplomatic relations with all the members of the
organization hosting the Summit,
as their governments have regained their respective nations'
sovereignty?
In the "big media" the news reports and op-ed
pieces have jumped
through ingenious hoops in referring to the events that led to Cuba's
absence from regional forums.
With hardly an exception the corporate media all
state that "Cuba
was expelled from the organization in 1962 when the member states said
that its Communist system was contrary to Inter-American principles,"
without pointing out that with the honorable exception of Mexico, all
of them reluctantly
obeyed an order from Washington.
As the years unfolded, the policy became ever more
intolerable,
especially for the new governments that came to power in the
hemisphere's countries as the military dictatorships supported by the
United States were toppled. In one country after another the exercise
of sovereignty regarding their foreign
relations led to reestablishing ties with Cuba as the growing tendency
toward independence spread throughout Latin America and the Caribbean.
Washington's domineering abuses in Latin America
led to a situation
where the new leaders in the region were increasingly politicians who
had more points of contact with Havana than with the White House,
despite the enormous influence that the economic, technological, and
military power of the
United States bestows on its rulers.
Furthermore, the discredited argument about
violations of human
rights in Cuba no longer serves to bolster the case for the attempt to
internationally isolate Cuba. The economic and commercial blockade that
the United States hoped would strangle the Cuban Revolution has been
explicitly and unanimously
rejected by the world community of nations. In the United Nations
General Assembly it led to U.S. diplomacy's most humiliating defeats in
the entire postwar period.
Amnesty International, in a definitive public
document released by
its London-based International Secretariat, notes that the United
States is now the only country in the Americas without diplomatic
relations with Cuba and it dismisses the argument that the attempted
isolation of Cuba might in any
way have served the cause of defending human rights in the world.
Cuba's exclusion from the Fifth Summit of the
Americas, which will
take place in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, highlights the
irrationality of a policy of Washington's that has already lasted more
than half a century and that everyone knows will have to end sooner or
later, without having achieved
even one of its real or supposed objectives.
When the American superpower finally acknowledges
and respects the
Caribbean island's national sovereignty and its right to pursue the
social order and political system that its people have chosen, the
Cuban people will have gained a victory of historic proportions.
Undoubtedly, when that moment arrives, it will
need to come up with
diplomatic formulas and media spin to cover up or tone down the
spectacular defeat of this imperial policy, but the indisputable fact,
which will serve as an example for all peoples, is that when a nation,
however small and poor
it might be, unites as strongly in defense of its rights and with such
a readiness to sacrifice as the Cuban people have done since 1959,
there is no empire or power capable of holding it back.
All indications are that the new U.S. President
has the choice to
accept or postpone this culminating moment. Ten of his predecessors
chose the second alternative. Barack Obama is, undoubtedly, a leader
who is different from the previous ones, but it remains to be seen if
the empire itself, its banks
and its military industry, have learned the lesson and accept the
change.
It seems inevitable that there will be "an
elephant in the room" in Port of Spain.
Bolivia to Demand End to Blockade
at Americas Summit
Bolivia is going to request that the Americas
Summit, set for April
17-19 in Trinidad and Tobago, adopts a resolution asking the United
States to lift its economic blockade on Cuba, announced President Evo
Morales on Wednesday.
In statements to the foreign press, Morales said
the text of the
resolution would request that "the current government of the United
States immediately end the economic blockade on the Republic of Cuba,"
reported AFP.
Morales noted: "Only in this way can we re-install
in the Americas
the spirit of respect of countries' sovereignty and the recognition of
international law, particularly related to humanitarian issues."
The Bolivian president said he will first take his
proposal to a
meeting of the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas (ALBA) on April
16 in Venezuela where he will seek a regional consensus.
The ALBA member states are Bolivia, Nicaragua,
Venezuela, Honduras, Cuba and Dominica.
Letter to Prime Minister Stephen Harper
Re:
Summit of the Americas
- Isaac Saney, Canadian
Network on Cuba, April 10, 2009 -
Dear Prime Minister Harper,
The April 17-19th, 2009 Summit of the Americas in
Port-of-Spain,
Trinidad and Tobago represents a potentially historic moment in which a
most regrettable page in the relations amongst the nations of the
Americas can finally be turned. The Summit represents an opportunity
when the Canadian government
can engage in the enlightened statecraft that the times require. By
standing with the overwhelming majority of the nations of Latin America
and the Caribbean, you can uphold the fundamental principles and norms
of international law by insisting: 1. The United States end its illegal
and immoral economic sanctions
against Cuba; 2. Cuba is included in this and future Summits; and 3.
Cuba is unconditionally re-admitted to the Organization of America
States.
Latin America and the Caribbean are united in this
just stand. This
stand also reflects the sentiment of the vast majority of the people of
Canada. Canadians irrespective of their political or ideological
positions, stand in favour of building relations of genuine friendship
with the island nation: relations based on
mutual respect and equality that uphold Cuba's right to
self-determination and sovereignty. Having traveled to Cuba in the
hundreds of thousands and having witnessed Cuban reality for
themselves, Canadians have come away with a profound respect and
admiration for the Cuban people and their efforts to build and
defend a society centered on independence, justice and human dignity.
Sincerely,
Isaac Saney
Co-chair & National Spokesperson,
Canadian Network on Cuba
Tel: (902) 449-4967
Email: isaney@hotmail.com
Fidel Castro: The Unseen Guest at the
V Summit of the Americas
- Norman Girvan, Agencia
Latinoamericana de Información, April 6, 2009 -
Cuba, and in particular its former President,
Fidel Castro, is
already a player at the upcoming V Summit of the Americas. That much
is evident from information coming out of Havana, Moscow, Santiago de
Chile and La Paz in the past 48 hours.
On Friday 3 April, Nicaraguan President Daniel
Ortega met with Fidel
Castro and handed a him a copy of the proposed Declaration of Port of
Spain, which will be sent for adoption by the leaders of the 34
countries attending the Summit.
Fidel expressed strong views about the
Declaration, noting the
absence of any mention of Cuba's exclusion from the meeting or of the
United States' long-standing blockade of his country, routinely
condemned by the majority of member countries of the international
community.
He also appeared to be predicting that there will
be several
reservations to the Draft entered by Heads of State who find some of
the ideas 'unacceptable.'
Fidel went on to publish his account of the
meeting and his views on
the Declaration in his regular column, widely available on the Internet.
The significance of all this seems to have escaped
the mainstream
media. For a Head of State due to attend a Summit to disclose the
contents of the Declaration to be adopted to a non-attending state; and
to someone who is -- technically at any rate -- a private citizen of
that state; in effect soliciting
his views on the Declaration; for this disclosure to be itself
disclosed and the critical views of the private citizen on the
Declaration given widespread media exposure; seems to me to be
virtually unheard of in the practice of international relations.
Except that the summit in question is supposed to
be 'of the
Americas'; that the non-attending state is Cuba, which has full
diplomatic relations with almost all of the attendees; and that the
'private citizen' is Fidel Castro.
Fidel, of course, commands enormous respect
amongst most hemispheric
leaders for having defied the hostility of Washington for close to
fifty years, for the impressive social accomplishments of the Cuban
Revolution and for Cuba's numerous acts of solidarity in the hemisphere
and internationally.
As President, he gave strong support to
Nicaragua's Ortega in the
1980s when the Sandinista government was struggling to defend itself in
the 'dirty war' being waged by the Contras backed by the Reagan
administration;' which cost thousands of Nicaraguan lives.
It seems to me unthinkable that Ortega, having
shown the Declaration
to Castro and receiving his response, will not follow this up by
raising the subject of Cuba at the Summit; even if he had not planned
to do so before. And it is likely that he would have the support of the
other Latin American and
Caribbean leaders; all of whom are on record as supporting the lifting
of the blockade. It is even possible that some of the leaders had prior
knowledge of his intention to discuss the proposed Declaration with
Fidel.
The day following the Ortega-Castro meeting in
Havana, President
Michelle Bachelet of Chile met with President Medvedev of Russia in
Moscow.
The two Presidents found space, in their joint
Communiqué dealing
with such weighty matters as energy and military cooperation, to call
for an end to the US embargo on Cuba and for its integration into the
"regional multilateral structures" -- an oblique reference to the OAS,
from which Cuba has
been excluded since 1962.
Michelle Bachelet, let it be remembered, is
regarded as part of the
'moderate' left in Latin America. She suffered some political
embarrassment at home when, after a meeting with Fidel earlier this
year; her host wrote a column that appeared to endorse Bolivia's claim
to a land passage to the Pacific
Ocean through what is now Chilean territory, seized in a war with
Bolivia over a century ago.
The incident caused a political row in Santiago
that led to the
resignation of Bachelet's foreign minister. Nonetheless, her government
has signalled, on the very eve of the upcoming Summit, that its
principled position on Cuba remains intact.
The same goes for President Medvedev, whose
warming of relations
with Washington under Obama is equally matched by a warming of
relations with Havana, which he visited earlier this year, expressing
the desire to rebuild many of the close ties that existed between the
two countries in the heyday
of the Soviet Union.
On the same day as the Bachelet-Medvedev meeting,
President Evo
Morales of Bolivia, speaking at a Press Conference in La Paz; was
appealing to Barack Obama, 'to lift the economic, commercial and
financial blockade imposed on Cuba since February 1962.'
This call was already adopted at the first Summit
of Latin and
Caribbean leaders in Bahia, last December; as well as at the
Cuba-Caricom summit in Santiago de Cuba held earlier the same month.
The calls have now reached a crescendo. Cuba has
become the unseen
guest at the Summit in Port of Spain; and Fidel Castro the spectre
haunting its deliberations.
Hopefully, someone in the White House will have
the good sense to
'wise up' Barack Obama about the new realities in the hemisphere; and
he will have the grace to recognise -- indeed embrace -- them.
Otherwise who will be isolated -- Cuba? Or the
United States?
Reflections of Comrade Fidel
Castro
Does the OAS Have a Right to Exist?
- April 14, 2009 -
Today I spoke frankly of the atrocities committed
against the
peoples of Latin America. Those of the Caribbean were not even
independent when the Cuban Revolution triumphed. April 19, when the
Americas Summit ends, is precisely the 48th anniversary
of Cuba's
victory at the Bay of Pigs. I was careful
with the OAS; I did not say one single word that could be interpreted
as an offense to the venerable institution, although everyone knows how
much repugnance it produces in us.
A fairly hostile dispatch from the British
Reuters news agency
affirms that: "Cuba needs to make clear that it is committed to
democracy if it wants to return to the Organization of American States
as demanded by a growing chorus of Latin American governments,' OAS
chief Jose Miguel Insulza said
in an interview in the Brazilian O'Globo daily.
"U.S. President Barack Obama is reviewing
Washington's decades-old
policy of isolating communist Cuba ahead of a Summit of the Americas
meeting this weekend, where Latin American leaders are expected to
press for an end to the longstanding U.S. embargo on the island.
"Some countries are also expected to push for
Cuba to be readmitted
to the OAS, from which it was expelled in 1962 at the height of the
Cold War.
"... Insulza cautioned that the OAS's democracy
clause remained an obstacle to the push to readmit Cuba, a one-party
state...
"We need to know if Cuba is interested in
returning to multilateral
organizations or if it is thinking only about the end of the embargo
and economic growth," Insulza said.
"This is a summit of countries with good will but
good will alone is not enough to cause change."
"'All 34 leaders at the Summit, from which Cuba
is barred, are from
democratic countries,' said Insulza, a former Chilean foreign minister.
"'The general assembly of the OAS decided that
all member countries
must adhere to democratic principles,' he said when asked about Cuba.
"But Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, one of
Washington's fiercest
critics, has already said he would seek to put Cuba at the center of
the summit debates.
Insulza informed O'Globo
that Cuba's return to the organization does not only depend on the
Americas Summit, but on the OAS General Assembly.
The OAS has a history that contains all the
garbage of 60 years of betrayal of the peoples of Latin America.
Insulza is stating that, in order to enter the
OAS, Cuba first has
to be accepted by the institution. He knows that we do not even wish to
hear the infamous name of that institution. It has not provided one
single service to our peoples; it is the embodiment of betrayal. If all
the aggressive actions in which
it was complicit were added up, they would amount to hundreds of
thousands of deaths and accumulate dozens of bloody years. Its meeting
will be a battleground that will put many governments in an
embarrassing situation. Let it not be said, however, that Cuba threw
the first stone. Moreover, the supposition that
we are desirous of entry into the OAS is offensive to us. The train
passed by a while back and Insulza has not been informed of that yet.
Someday, many countries will be asking forgiveness for having belonged
to it.
Evo spoke at midday today. He has not as yet
given his last word on
his attendance at the ALBA meeting and that of the Americas Summit. He
gained a clear and decisive victory.
However, he did accept the reduction to seven of
the number of
[parliamentary] seats assigned to the indigenous peoples, from the 14
that he had proposed. The adversary will no doubt try to exploit that
point in its intrigues against the Movement Toward Socialism, banking
on wearing it down.
The MAS will have to fight hard to ensure the
biometric electoral
register and an alternative if the oligarchy manages to draw out the
manufacture of the new register. His hunger strike was a brave and
daring decision and the Bolivian people gained much in awareness.
Now the center of attention is focused on the
Americas Summit. It
will be a privilege to know what is said there; it will be a test of
intelligence and shame. We shall not be going down on our knees to the
OAS in order to enter the infamy.
Fidel Castro Ruz
April 14, 2009
4:43 p.m.
Days that Cannot Be Forgotten
- April 14, 2009 -
Forty-eight years ago, mercenary forces in the
service of a foreign
power invaded their own homeland, escorted by a U.S. squadron,
including an aircraft carrier and dozens of fighter planes. That date
cannot be forgotten. The superpower to the North could apply the same
prescription to any Latin American country.
It has already occurred on many occasions throughout history in our
hemisphere. Is there any declaration where it has been promised that
such an action is never to be repeated in a direct form or via their
own armies, as was the case in the Dominican Republic, Panama,
Guatemala, Chile, Argentina, Venezuela and
other countries?
The cunning and surprise Girón attack [Bay of
Pigs] cost us more
than 150 lives and hundreds of severely wounded. We should like to hear
some self-criticism from the powerful country and the guarantee that it
will never happen again in our hemisphere.
Yesterday was the seventh anniversary of the
failed coup d'état against the Revolution in
Venezuela.
For the good of democracy and human rights, a
voice is needed to
tell us from Washington that the School of the Americas, which
specializes in coups d'état and torture, is to be
closed down for ever.
We cannot forget that this April, the leader of
ARENA, an oligarchic
ally of Bush in the Iraq genocide, is still governing in El Salvador.
With a million human lives sacrificed, there is sufficient blood to
drown all the accomplices.
I am maybe offending in recalling this, or is it
also prohibited, in
the name of decency, ingenuity, and complicity, to mention the subject?
The measure to ease restrictions on travel is
positive in itself,
although minimal. Many others are needed, including the elimination of
the murderous Cuban Adjustment Act, which is
applied
exclusively to just our country. We would like a response to the
question as to whether the immigration
privileges utilized to combat the Cuban Revolution and divest it of
human resources might be also conceded to all Latin American and
Caribbean peoples. But everything in Port of Spain will be secret.
Prohibited to listen to the debate and the pronouncements of heads of
state and government. In any event, what
each one of them states will become known.
I do not wish to hurt Obama in the slightest
degree, but he will be
president for one or two terms. He has no responsibility for what has
happened and I am convinced that he would not commit Bush's atrocities.
After him, however, someone similar to or worse than his/her
predecessor could come along.
Humans pass; peoples endure.
There are other extremely grave problems such as
climate change, and
the current president of the United States has decided to cooperate in
that problem which is vital to humanity. We should acknowledge that.
Enough for today. I do not wish to add another
word.
Fidel Castro Ruz
April 14, 2009
11:15 a.m.
Not a Word about the Blockade
- April 13, 2009 -
The U.S. administration announced through CNN that
Obama would be
visiting Mexico this week, in the first part of a trip that will take
him to Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, where he will be within four
days taking part in the Summit of the Americas. He has announced the
relief of some hateful restrictions
imposed by Bush to Cubans living in the United States regarding their
visits to relatives in Cuba. When questions were raised on whether such
prerogatives extended to other American citizens the response was that
the latter were not authorized.
But not a word was said about the harshest of
measures: the
blockade. This is the way a truly genocidal measure is piously called,
one whose damage cannot be calculated only on the basis of its economic
effects, for it constantly takes human lives and brings painful
suffering to our people.
Numerous diagnostic equipment and crucial
medicines --made in
Europe, Japan or any other country-- are not available to our patients
if they carry U.S. components or software.
The U.S. companies producing goods or offering
services anywhere in
the world should apply these restrictions to Cuba, since they are
extraterritorial measures.
An influential Republican Senator, Richard Lugar,
and some others
from his same party in Congress, as well as a significant number of his
Democratic peers, favor the removal of the blockade. The conditions
exist for Obama to use his talents in a constructive policy that could
put an end to the one
that has failed for almost half a century.
On the other hand, our country, which has resisted
and is willing to
resist whatever it takes, neither blames Obama for the atrocities of
other U.S. administrations nor doubts his sincerity and his wishes to
change the United States policy and image. We understand that he waged
a very difficult battle
to be elected, despite centuries-old prejudices.
Taking note of this reality, the President of the
State Council of
Cuba has expressed his willingness to have a dialogue with Obama and to
normalize relations with the United States, on the basis of the
strictest respect for the sovereignty of our country.
At 2:30 p.m., the head of the Interests Section of
Cuba in
Washington, Jorge Bolaños, was summoned to the State Department by
Deputy Secretary of State Thomas Shannon. He did not say anything
different from what had been indicated by the CNN.
At 3:15 p.m. a lengthy press conference started.
The substance of
what was said there is reflected in the words of Dan Restrepo,
Presidential Adviser for Latin America.
He said that today President Obama had instructed
to take certain
measures, certain steps, to reach out to the Cuban people in support of
their wishes to live with respect for human rights and to determine
their own destiny and that of the country.
He added that the president had instructed the
secretaries of State,
Commerce and Treasury to undertake the necessary actions to remove all
restrictions preventing persons to visit their relatives in the Island
and sending remittances. He also said that the president had issued
instructions for steps to be
taken allowing the free flow of information in Cuba, and between those
living in Cuba and the rest of the world, and to facilitate delivering
humanitarian resources directly to the Cuban people.
He also said that with these measures, aimed at
closing the gap
between divided Cuban families and promoting the free flow of
information and humanitarian assistance to the Cuban people, President
Obama was making an effort to fulfill the objectives he set out during
his campaign and after taking
on his position.
Finally, he indicated that all those who believe
in the basic
democratic values hope for a Cuba where the human, political, economic
and basic rights of the entire people are respected. And he added that
President Obama feels that these measures will help to make this
objective a reality. The president,
he said, encourages everyone who shares these wishes to continue to
decidedly support the Cuban people.
At the end of the press conference, the adviser
candidly confessed that ‘all of this is for Cuba's freedom.'
Cuba does not applaud the ill-named Summits of the
Americas, where
our nations do not debate on equal footing. If they were of any use, it
would be to make critical analyses of policies that divide our peoples,
plunder our resources and hinder our development.
Now, the only thing left is for Obama to try to
persuade all of the
Latin American presidents attending the conference that the blockade is
harmless.
Cuba has resisted and it will continue to resist;
it will never beg
for alms. It will go on forward holding its head up high and
cooperating with the fraternal peoples of Latin America and the
Caribbean; with or without Summits of the Americas; whether or not the
president of the United States is Obama,
a man or a woman, a black or a white citizen.
Fidel Castro Ruz
April 13, 2009
6:12 p.m.
Walking on Solid Ground
- April 5, 2009 -
On April 2nd, while the G-20 Summit Meeting was
beginning and ending in London, the well-known journalist of the
influential Washington Post,
Karen De Young, wrote: "Senator Richard G.Lugar called on President
Obama to appoint a special envoy to initiate direct talks with the
island's communist
government.
"The nearly 50-year-old economic embargo against
Cuba, Lugar
(R-Ind.) said puts the United States at odds with the views of the rest
of Latin America, the European Union and the United Nations, and
‘undermines our broader security and political interests in the Western
Hemisphere.'
"The April 17-19 Summit of the Americas in
Trinidad and Tobago would
present a ‘unique opportunity for you to build a more hospitable
climate to advance U.S. interests in the region through a change in our
posture regarding Cuba policy.'
"Lugar, the ranking Republican on the Senate
Foreign Relations
Committee," -- says Karen De Young -- "is in the forefront of a broad
movement advocating a new policy that includes the U.S. Chamber of
Commerce and other business groups, a number of state governments and
human rights groups.
A bipartisan majority of Congress has repeatedly voted to ease
restrictions on travel and other contact with Cuba, although the
measures died after threatened presidential vetoes during the Bush
administration."
"Lugar is a co-sponsor of a bipartisan bill
introduced in the Senate
this week that would end all restrictions on travel to Cuba except in
cases of war or direct threats to health or safety."
"Lugar said the appointment of an envoy and
initiation of direct
talks on subjects such as migration and drug interdiction would "serve
vital U.S. security interests ... and could ultimately create the
conditions for meaningful discussion of more contentious subjects."
Karen's article expresses no doubt that the
Indiana Senator is
walking on solid ground. His starting point is not a philanthropic
position. As she states, he is working with "the U.S. Chamber of
Commerce and other business groups, a number of state governments and
human rights groups."
I am certain that Richard G. Lugar doesn't fear
the silliness of being described as soft or pro-socialist.
If President Barack Obama travels the world
asserting, as he did in
his very own country, that it is necessary to invest the sums needed to
pull out of the financial crisis, to guarantee the homes where
countless families live, to guarantee jobs for the American workers who
are becoming unemployed
by the millions, to install health services and quality education for
all citizens, how can he reconcile that with blockade measures to
impose his will over a country like Cuba?
Today drugs are one of the most serious problems
in this hemisphere
and in Europe. In the war against drug trafficking and organized crime,
encouraged in the enormous U.S. market, the Latin American countries
are now losing almost ten thousand men each year, more than twice the
number lost by
the United States in the Iraq war. The number grows and the problem is
very far from being resolved.
That phenomenon does not exist in Cuba, a
neighboring country close
to the United States. On that thorny subject and in the war against
illegal migration, the U.S. and Cuban coast guard services have been
cooperating for many years. On the other hand, no American has ever
died as the result of terrorist
actions coming from our country, because such activities would not be
tolerated.
The Cuban Revolution, which has not been destroyed
either by the
blockade or the dirty war, is based on ethical and political
principles; that is the reason why it has been able to resist.
My aim is not to exhaust the subject. Far from it:
in this
reflection I am leaving out the damage inflicted on our country by the
United States' arrogant attitude towards Cuba.
Those who are capable of serenely analyzing the
events, as is the
case of the senator from Indiana, use an irrefutable argument: the
United States' measures against Cuba, over almost half a century, are a
total failure.
There is no need to emphasize what Cuba has always
said: we do not
fear dialogue with the United States. Nor do we need the confrontation
to exist as some foolish people think: we exist precisely because we
believe in our ideas and we have never feared dialogue with the
adversary. It is the only
way to secure friendship and peace among peoples.
Fidel Castro Ruz
April 5, 2009
1:04 p.m.
Why Is Cuba Being Excluded?
- April 4, 2009 -
Yesterday on Thursday April 3rd, at midday, I had
an almost two-hour meeting with Daniel Ortega and his wife Rosario
Murillo.
As I explained to Daniel in the letter I sent to
him in the
afternoon, I was pleasantly impressed with the meeting. I thanked him
for the opportunity I had in learning about the details of his struggle
in Nicaragua.
I expressed my sadness to him about the cadres who
deserted and I
recalled Tomás Borge, Bayardo, Jaime Wheelock, Miguel D´Escoto and
others who had remained faithful to Sandino's dreams and to the
revolutionary ideas brought to Nicaragua by the Sandinista Front.
I asked him to please send me news as often as
possible in order to
know about the ups and downs of a small Third World country in the face
of the insatiable ambitions of the G-7.
I sent Rosario a copy of the book "The Geology of
Cuba for All" that
I received three days ago, a marvelous biography of nature on our
island throughout hundreds of millions of years, illustrated with
beautiful pictures and photographs, written by 12 Cuban scientists and
constituting a literary jewel
with its articles and analyses. I showed it to her and she had been
very interested in it.
I chatted with Daniel at length about the "famous"
Summit of the
Americas which will be taking place on the 17th, 18th and 19th at Port
of Spain, the capital of Trinidad and Tobago.
Those summit meetings have a history which has
certainly been rather
dismal. The first took place in Miami, capital of the
counterrevolution, the blockade and the dirty war against Cuba. That
summit was held on the 10th and 11th of December in 1994. It had been
convened by Bill Clinton, elected
president of the United States in November of 1992.
The USSR had collapsed and our country was in the
midst of the
special period. The fall of socialism in our country as it had happened
first in Eastern Europe and later in the Soviet Union was taken for
granted.
The counterrevolutionaries were packing their bags
for their
victorious return to Cuba. Bush Sr. had lost the elections as a result
of that warmongering venture in Iraq. Clinton was preparing for the
post-revolutionary-Cuba era in Latin America. The Washington Consensus
was in full swing.
The dirty war against Cuba was at the point of
having a successful
conclusion. The Cold War was ending with the victory of the West and a
new era was dawning for the world.
The presidents of South and Central America
enthusiastically attended the 1994 Miami Summit, heartened by Clinton's
invitation.
President Carlos Menem of Argentina topped the
list of South
American presidents who attended the meeting, followed by his
right-wing neighbor Lacalle of Uruguay, Eduardo Frei of the Christian
Democratic Party in Chile, the Bolivian Sánchez de Lozada, Fujimori of
Peru and Rafael Caldera of
Venezuela. There was nothing strange about the fact that they pulled
along Itamar Franco and Fernando Enrique Cardoso, his successor in the
presidency, Samper of Colombia and Sixto Duran of Ecuador.
The list of attendees from Central America in
Miami was headed by
Calderón Sol, of the ARENA Party in El Salvador and Violeta Chamorro
who, by virtue of the anti-Sandinista dirty war, had been instated by
Reagan and Bush Sr. in Nicaragua.
Ernesto Zedillo was representing Mexico at the
Miami Summit.
A strategic objective lurked in the background of
this meeting: the
imperialist dream for a free trade agreement reaching from Canada all
the way to Patagonia.
President Hugo Chavez of the Bolivarian Republic
of Venezuela had
not yet made his appearance at the summits until the year 2001 in
Quebec; neither had George W. Bush with his sinister role on the
international scene.
History decreed that José Martí, our National Hero
and the champion
of Cuban independence, would experience capitalism's first great
economic crisis in the United States, the one lasting until 1893. He
understood that economic union with the United States would mean the
end of the independence
and culture of the peoples of Latin America.
In May of 1888, the president of the United States
had sent the
peoples of the Americas and the Kingdom of Hawaii in the Pacific Ocean
an invitation from the U.S. Senate and the House of Representatives to
an international conference in Washington to study, among other things,
"the adoption of
a common silver-based currency by each of the governments that would be
enforced for the reciprocal trade transactions among the citizens of
all the American states."
Certainly, the members of Congress must have
studied well the consequences such measures would have.
Nearly two years after the International American
Conference, of
which the United States was a party, an international monetary union
was recommended and, as basis for this union, the minting of one or
more currencies that might be used in the represented countries.
Finally, after a month's delay, as Marti himself
tells it, the
United States delegation declared in the International Monetary
Commission, in March 1891, that "it was a fascinating dream that could
not be attempted without the agreement of all the other countries on
the globe." It also recommended that
gold or silver be used in the currencies that would be minted.
It was a premonition of what would happen 55 years
later in Bretton
Woods where the U.S. was granted the privilege of issuing an
international paper currency, using gold and silver.
However, that event led to Marti drawing up the
most impressive
political and economical analysis I have ever read in my life,
published in the Illustrated Review of New York
in the month of May of 1891 in which he resolutely opposed the idea.
During my meeting with Daniel, he gave me a large
number of
paragraphs that are being debated about the final declaration of the
upcoming Port of Spain Summit.
The OAS as the permanent secretary for the Summit
of the Americas is
dictating guidelines: it is the role assigned to it by Bush. It
contains 100 paragraphs; it seems that the institution likes round
numbers to sweeten the pill and give more punch to the document; an
epigraph for each one of the 100
best poems in the lovely language.
Surely there are a great number of inadmissible
concepts. It will be
a litmus test for the peoples of the Caribbean and Latin America. Could
it be a step backwards? Blockade and also exclusion after 50 years of
resistance?
Who will assume those responsibilities? Who now
demands our
extinction? Could it be that they do not understand that the days of
treaties excluding our people are a thing of the past? There will be
important reservations in that declaration signed by heads of state so
that it can be understood that
in spite of the changes attained through tough talks, there are ideas
which are unacceptable to them.
Cuba has always shown its willingness, in new
circumstances, to
provide maximum cooperation with the diplomatic activities of the
countries of the Caribbean and Latin America. Those who ought to, know
this well but we cannot be asked to keep silent in the face of
unnecessary and inadmissible
concessions.
Even stones shall speak!
Fidel Castro Ruz
April 4, 2009
7:34 p.m.
Anniversary Cuba's Victory
at the of Bay of Pigs, April 20, 1961
First Defeat of Imperialism in America
- Aixa Alfonso Guerra, El
Habanero, April 2009 -
Since the first days of the Triumph of the Cuban
Revolution, North American imperialism undertook an unlimited
aggressive and hostile crusade against the Island, aimed at destroying
the process that was built on a wide popular and socio-economic base,
diametrically opposed to the interests of the national
oligarchy and the government of the United States.
From the brutal North there will be the threats,
blackmail,
sabotage, plans to murder Fidel and the rest of the leaders, different
forms of embargo and finally the invasions.
1961 was passing by, and the Central Intelligence
Agency of the USA
was completing the details of the known Pluto Plan, which had foreseen
the invasion to create a beachhead on Cuban territory, to justify the
North American intervention and place a puppet regime in power.
They count on the members of a brigade they had
financed and trained
-- the 2506 -- made up in the majority by former Batista henchmen, paid
murderers, terrorists and overthrown oligarchs.
On April 17,
1961, the U.S.-organized Bay of Pigs invasion began. Fidel Castro jumps
from a Cuba tank, as he leads the combat against the invaders.On the southern part of Matanzas province, in a
place known as the
Bay of Pigs, there is Giron Beach, an essential point for the landing
of the mercenaries sent by the CIA to eliminate the Revolution and with
that the sons and daughters of the humble men and women of this people.
Since the daybreak of April 15th, 1961, the Yankee
incursions to the
airports of the country had increased; bombing important points,
especially the bases of Havana and Santiago de Cuba causing death and
considerable damage.
 The answer of the young people
on guard in those
places was heroic;
we pay them today the deserved tribute, among them Eduardo Garcia
Delgado who, seriously wounded, wrote with his blood the name of the
Commander in Chief as a symbol of devotion and love for his Homeland.
Coming from Central America with Cuban insignias
on the planes, the
mercenaries tried to misinform and confuse public opinion, pretending
to be rebel pilots from the Armed Forces.
The mobilization of the people, together with the
glorious militias,
the National Police and the members of the Rebel Army was immediate.
The nation was at war against the invader who dared trample our flag.
In no less than 72 hours, after hard battles, the
mercenaries who
landed in Giron on April 17 and 19, were defeated; they had surrendered
facing the spirit and heroism of the Cubans.
Counter-revolutionaries
of Assault Brigade 2506,
after their capture at the Bay of Pigs. |
Around 200 combatants died and a great number of
farmers and civilians were victims of the grapeshot and the invader's
bombing. An average of 1,200 usurpers, who tried to
besmirch the nation, were
taken prisoner and later returned to their masters, exchanged for
medicine and children's alimonies.
This Cuban victory represented the first great
defeat of imperialism
in America and above all it demonstrated that the population of this
Earth is determined to defend, no matter the necessary cost, the
Homeland and the Revolution.
Read The
Marxist-Leninist
Daily
Website: www.cpcml.ca
Email: editor@cpcml.ca
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