Bruno Rodriguez Speaks the Truth after Mike Pence’s Lies
Elio Delgado Legón
HAVANA TIMES — My latest article published on HT was called “I can’t understand this world”, of course this was a rhetorical statement which I used as a pretext to talk about (a few of) the calamities that overwhelm our planet, the consequences of capitalist and colonial plundering over five centuries which doesn’t seem to have ended.
Even though there was a group of people who stand up for the indefensible and detractors of everything that represents progress for the general population and social justice who criticized my article, what recently happened at the 8th Summit of the Americas, when US Vice-President Mike Pence read a speech full of lies about Cuba and Venezuela and Cuban Ambassador Bruno Rodriguez gave him a forceful response, proves I was right and that everything I wrote in the abovementioned article was true.
In order to try and justify their destabilizing efforts in Venezuela and support for violence which has cost dozens of lives, some of whom were even burned alive, at the greatest display of savagery which hasn’t been seen since the war of aggression on Vietnam, Vice-President Pence accused the Venezuelan government of being a dictatorship and anti-democratic.
Clearly, the US vice-president has been misinformed or he was deliberately lying so as to confuse and deceive public opinion, as he talked about the shortages that the Venezuelan people are suffering, even saying that patients are dying in hospitals because of a lack of medicines.
However, the greatest shortages that these people are suffering have been provoked by the rightwingers who are carrying out US government orders to overthrow the country’s constitutional leaders who have been legitimately elected by their people.
Regarding medicine shortages, which could exist for the very same reason, they will never be greater than the shortages that existed during previous governments, when this large and wealthy country only provided medical care in cities to middle and upper class citizens, as the poor didn’t have the means to pay for healthcare and dentists, which now exist all over the country and are completely free, even the most complex surgeries. Noone told Mr. Pence that, or maybe he deliberately lied.
Mr. Pence’s lies about Cuba came to a head with the truth that our Ambassador Bruno Rodriguez told when he said:
“I reject these insulting references to Cuba and Venezuela and the humiliating attitude towards Latin America and the Caribbean.
“The US government’s moral vacuum can’t be and isn’t a reference for Latin America and the Caribbean.
“Over the past 100 years, they are the ones who are responsible for the most brutal violations of human rights and abuse of human dignity. All of the region’s undemocratic governments, without exception, have been imposed or received support from the US government, including the most brutal military dictatorships. Shameful events such as Operation Condor or the bloody coup in Chile are on the US governments’ conscience.
“Mr. Pence’s country has been the first and only one to use nuclear weapons against innocent civilians. The US is responsible for criminal wars and hundreds and hundreds of thousands of deaths, of massacres of civilians, including children, women and old people, who they call ‘collateral damage’.
“It is responsible for torturing and disappearing people, extrajudicial executions and kidnappings.
“If his government was interested in the Cuban people’s wellbeing, human rights and free choice, they could lift the blockade, collaborate with our international cooperation efforts instead of sabotaging it, and give funds for Cuban medical collaboration programs and literacy projects worldwide.
“We are a few hours away from the 57th anniversary of the US air strikes on Cuban airports, during which Cubans died defending our independence and sovereignty and the socialist nature of the Cuban Revolution was proclaimed during their memorial service, and it’s surprising that vice-president Pence comes here using the same language, after so many decades, that led governments at the time to carry out that abominable event.
“Events of the last few years prove that the US and Cuba can co-exist and have a productive, and maybe even a civilized, relationship.
“So, I hope he and the delegation that now sit on the bench he just left don’t expect Cuba to give in a millimeter on their principles, or give up on their efforts to build socialism.”
The only thing I can add to these truths which our ambassador shared is that our island has been suffering an economic, commercial and financial blockade for nearly 60 years and it provides more aid to develop other countries than Mr. Pence’s powerful country does, which does nothing but stand in their way.
Because Grace by living in a “miserable country” they can openly express their individual opinions. There are Americans who choose to live in countries like Britain, Canada, Australia or the EU. But there they still have similar freedom. They don’t choose to live in communist countries. As I have previously noted here, Cuba in 2012 had fewer than 5,500 people born in other countries – evidence of a zero level of immigration. The Cuban regime criticizes other countries on its state controlled TV (capitalist ones) for any limitations upon immigration, but attracts none!
When Elio looks at the moon Moses he gets pangs of hunger, because he knows that it is made of cheese.
Just an observation Carla. Following the revolution in Cuba and the later claim by Fidel Castro (after the purge of the non-communists) that it was a communist revolution, it became criminal for Cubans to express any form of criticism of the regime, they could not and still cannot do and say as they choose.
People bitch about USA, but none of them leave….if life is so wonderful else where, I wonder WHY they stay in this miserable country????
Repatriado, let me help you understand. Trump is INTENTIONALLY bad. Also, there is no moral equivalency between the US and Cuba. As an African-American, I have borne the brunt of the hypocrisy and misdeeds of my country. But in all cases, the possibility, at times remote, have existed to redress grievances. Either through an independent media and judiciary or by constitutional decree, Americans have the hope to address wrongdoing. In Cuba, under the tyranny of the Castro dictatorship, there is no legal recourse. There is no comparison between the two countries.
Trump, Pence, Bruno Rodriguez, Castros are all the same, bad people. it is not question of comparing wickedness. You all can criticize the American reality at the same time that criticize the Cuban one.
Please, do not make the mistake of defend Castro´s legacy just because Trump is the worst person you could elect for president. Neither USA has any moral, neither any other country has it, it is not a question of moral, it is a question of power and influence.
Morality in the people, not in countries, countries normally has interest and it is a moral government those that defend the interest of the majority, not just their own.
I do not know if Trump is intentionally bad or he is mistaken about what is the best for American people, but I do know that the Castros have being intentionally handling Cuba more interested in to maintain their personal power than in to defend Cubans best interest.
So Trump is discusting, but Castros are also discusting, trump will be president for 8 years, I hope less, Castros had Cuba for 60 years.
And Bruno represent the longer and more brutal dictatorship in Latin America with a constitution it says that the only party that the right to organize is the communist party. 2 and half millions of Cubans in exile, 15,000 killed by the death squad in the beginning of the Castro’s monarchy took power . More the 20,000 lost in the sea , the repression they use to Las damas de Blanco and any one than dare to rise theirs voice. Bruno has not legs to stand up.
Bruno Rodriguez’s remarks regarding the regarding the record of the USA in it’s ‘backyard’ are indeed highly accurate.
As for Pence ?
Well he’s the deputy to the liar-in-chief. A fact which pretty much sums this sorry individual up.
I share your opinion. I’m fed up with the Pence styled Hallelujah-Mob
Pence is a religious fanatic, political coward, and worst of all, Trump supporter. But, his remarks to the other Summit leaders was 99% correct.
Roberto, you write, “….But just who the hell do they think they are?” Who are the “they” you are referring to? The racists idiots? They are real but they are not the majority. They are also in Cuba, and Venezuela, and Russia, etc. The US has our share but in no way are we alone in discrimination against others based on race, sex, sexual orientation, national origin, etc.
Pobrecito Elio. He is simply a victim of the Castros propaganda machine. He probably really believes there are no shortages in Venezuela.
Elio writes “….it [Cuba] provides more aid to develop other countries than Mr. Pence’s powerful country does”. Is he nuts? My State of California alone sends 5 times the foreign aid abroad that Cuba sends.
I strongly agree with you, Roberto. Being born in the former Dutch East Indies (Indonesia), I was ten years old when my family and I emigrated to the United States from Europe in 1959, the same year when the Cuban Revolution was launched.
I was brought to this Country when I was just 9 years old and have been here ever since. Although I had (and still have some) family in Cuba I could not just wander back being that I had my mother and father here with me, but I have wanted to return so many times!! The food… the music… the choice of Cuban women over all other nationalities… it is all in my blood!
But this is not an easy Country in which to live. There is so much discrimination! Every person in this Country claims that they are Americans and therefore any body beyond there family… is a target for discrimination. But just who the hell do they think they are? All here in the USA (except the Indians that have been taken advantage of and abused for hundreds of years) are from somewhere else! Even the Statue of Liberty was an immigrant… from France!
The US has always criticized Cuba for having sent troops to Angola, but let’s see… the Americans have sent troops to Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, Granada, Africa, Syria… etc, And have thousands of troops stationed all over the world… BUT THAT IS OKAY!!
Basically this is a cruel world
And Mike Pence, in my opinion, is worse than Trump since he has NO AGENDA… just a radical religious fanatic.
Revolution is a process, not an event. A person who can do and say and accumulate what they like typically struggles to understand this concept, in my experience.
The US needs to stop behaving like it has the moral high ground in terms of his history and human rights record. The rest of the world is no longer fooled, and that is the singular thing we can thank Trump and his yes-men for, his temper-tantrum has outed The States as the spoiled baby it is.