US Wall on Cuba Under Attack
Circles Robinson
HAVANA TIMES, April 15 — A half century of attempts from Washington to bring down the Castro government in Cuba through an economic embargo, travel ban and diplomatic isolation is under attack from friends and foes alike at the VI Summit of the Americas in Cartagena, Colombia.
Juan Manuel Santos, the president of Colombia, Washington’s closest ally in South America, started the siege of US foreign policy on Saturday by stating in his opening speech:
“Isolation, the embargo, indifference, turning away, have all already shown their ineffectiveness. In today’s world, that’s not a justifiable path. It’s an anachronism that ties us to the era of the Cold War that was overcome decades ago.”
Santos told his fellow leaders: “It’s time to get beyond the paralysis caused by ideological stubbornness.” He added that Cuba is one example of “the consequences of not overcoming the paradigms of the past, of the absence of bridges and creativity.”
Both left-leaning and conservative-run nations are pushing for Cuba to be included in the next summit, reported the US government’s Voice of America.
Who’s Missing
The presidents of Ecuador, Rafael Correa, and Nicaragua, Daniel Ortega, decided to boycott the summit over the exclusion of Cuba. Venezuelan president, Hugo Chavez and Haitian leader Michel Joseph Martelly are not attending for health reasons.
On Sunday, the Bolivarian Alliance of the Americas (ALBA) announced that it would not be participating in future summits as long as Cuba is excluded. The warning was signed by the eight ALBA governments: Antigua and Barbuda, Bolivia, Cuba, Dominica, Ecuador, Nicaragua, St. Vincent’s and the Grenadines and Venezuela.
According to the block, Cuba is an integral part of the Americas and “has the unconditional and unquestionable” right to participate in this forum, reported dpa news.
ALBA also demanded that Washington “immediately end” it economic blockade against Cuba and “begin a process of dialogue based on respect and the sovereignty and self determination of the Cuban people.”
For its part, the US has argued that Cuba is ineligible to attend “because it lacks democratic credentials and does not respect the human rights of the Cuban people,” noted VOA.
Malvinas Islands, another thorny subject
The other chief political issue of the summit is Argentina’s claim of soverignty over the Malvinas (Falkland) Islands. However no consensus is expected.
Uruguayan president, José Mujica, said he doesn’t expect to see the issues of Cuba or the Malvina Islands in the final document issued by the summit when it closes later Sunday.
Mujica added: “The two political issues [Cuba and the Malivinas] of the summit will in reality not be addressed in the final declaration,” reported TeleSur TV.
Bolivian president Evo Morales said that the summit will conclude on Sunday “without achieving a consensus and with Latin America and the Caribbean “in rebellion”.
“There is a rebellion in Latin American and the Caribbean against the United States over its opposition to the generalized demand of inclusion of Cuba in hemispheric forums and Argentina’s demand over its sovereignty over the Malvinas Islands,” added Morales.
Drugs and Poverty
Another controversial issue being discussed at the summit is drugs.
The US has sought to maintain its high-budget and high-causality drug war, while other countries including Colombia and Guatemala are urging a change in strategy that could include decriminalization or legalization of certain drugs.
While opposing the move, President Obama said he is open to “legitimate discussions”, whatever that means.
The other main themes of the summit are poverty and inequity, natural disasters, security, physical integration and access to new technologies, noted TeleSur.
Washington hopes to achieve greater access for its corporations to sell their products to growing markets while several of the Latin American and Caribbean attempt in varying degrees to defend their weaker national companies.
VOA noted that the US has lost influence in Latin America during the Obama administration as “the region has increased its economic ties “with emerging economies such as China and India.”
Heh…… the friendly-enemies!!!!!……. Cuba and USA for decades showing theet each other in public but acting like allies behind the door………..
Each time I hear some one talking about the “dispute” USA-Castro I repeat the same speech.
One of the first disgraces castro brought to Cuba was the capital escape….. and not only castro…… each time a political problem affects a Latin American country like Venezuela under Chavez the capitals of this country leave temporary or permanently to a more quiet place….. to where leave the capitals??? Well, they use to leave to a rich and stable country…. in America this rich and stable country is USA. It was the first “present” of castro to USA: Both human and economical capitals left Cuba to USA after castro started his madness. Then came the turn of the tourism industry…… castro needed to isolate the Cuban people in order to indoctrinate it and keep it away from “bad influences” of foreign people, so he closed the country for more than 20 years and killed the huge tourism industry Cubans had built. It was the second big present of castro to USA. The Cuban tourism industry went to engross the already huge tourism industry in Florida and Puerto Rico. Eventually Dominican Republic, Bahamas and Mexico also got a piece of the pie.
The third present was the commerce industry. Spaniards spent 5 centuries building the Singapore of America in Havana and Santiago de Cuba. When political differences started between castro and USA the huge commerce that went between North America and South America trough Cuba changed route. When castro drove Cuba to the orbit of the soviets and tied the country to the commerce with the communist countries, the huge commerce between Europe and central-south America that went through Cuba changed route too. Then Miami took the place of Havana and became what is today: the center of commerce between north and South America and Europe and America giving to the light the huge ports of Tampa, Miami and Everglades.
Who does not remember Che Guevara saying in a crazy speech: “Cuba’s economy is like a dwarf, with a big chest, big and strong shoulders but short legs and arms….. we need to transform this situation, we can afford no longer to have a big “light industry” fabricating consumption items and do not have an “adequate” “heavy industry” that is the ground of the industrialization…… we can no longer afford to depend of the Sugar industry, the agriculture and some cultivations ……..”
Who the hell said to Guevara he was economy master!!!!!!!
Well, the result of all this madness was 3 or 4 presents more to USA. The huge cattle industry Cubans built working hard along s. XV, XVI, XVII, XVIII, XIX and the first half of s. XX is gone. Cuba was the third meat and milk producer in America behind giants like USA, Brazil and Argentina. Cuba even exported meat and milk to USA and other American countries. Cuba produced shoes of international rename and Cuban lather industry was the bigger in Latin-America. But castro believed in his megalomaniac mind he was smart enough to build a better cattle industry …….. he started to import cattle from India and Holland, cattle experts from Europe and tried to build a new race of cattle he dreamed would be the best in the world……. he destroyed what our people created in centuries to fulfill his ego demands. The result was the vanishing of Cuba’s cattle population and the creation of a new race of cattle that needed air-conditioning, and imported super expensive pastures to survive…….. of course, he never accepted his fault and blamed the imported technician for the disaster…….. I still remember when we was child how teachers were compelled to teach us at school how our great leader would build a super cow that would give us milk and meat by the pipe !!!!
Of course the hole in the market left by the destruction of our cattle industry was quickly filled by USA’s cattle producers.
The Citric industry was once ones of the crown jewels of Cuba’s industrialization process. Huge land extensions in several provinces of the country including Pines Island were involved in the production of citric fruits. Industries derivate of this production like beverages bottling, comfitures, traditional deserts, etc supplied the internal market and production of concentrates supplied both the internal and external market…….. These industries are gone…… of course all of them reborn in Florida where citric industry reached peaks of development never dreamed by their founders just because castro present……. citric derivate industries like beverages production and concentrates found a new beginning in Florida by the hand of same actors that drove them up in Cuba……. Cubans produces in Florida same types of beverages even keeping the old names……. long time favorites of Cuban people taste like Jupiña, Materva, Ironbeer, among other are now exclusive drinks of Cubans in exile……… the only remains of this before huge industry in Cuba are some acres still producing citric in Camaguey and Pine Island, this production is entire bought by the “enemy zionist state of Israel”.
The once mighty Cuban Media Industry is gone. There was a time where every single artist in Latin-America that hoped to jump to the fame had to come to Cuba to be recorded in celluloid or paste…… even European artists that hoped to be heard or seen by Latin-America or Spanish speaking people in USA had to pay a visit to the record studies or radio-TV studios in Cuba. The second country in the world to develop TV was Cuba and we helped the rest of Latin-America to build TV. The inventors of radio-telesoaps, the creators of rhythms and dance styles like Mambo, Cha cha cha, Salsa, etc were long ahead the rest of the non anglo world creating the second bigger media industry in America…… 160 radio stations, 23 TV stations, 14 publishers of international importance, 18 national newspapers and thousands of regional and local newspapers and magazines made Cuba de center of the Latin-American and south USA media.
Of course, for regime this impressive source of art, freedom and richness was a pain in the rear, that’s why this industry was simply killed like a opponent in the fire squad. By 1961 the core of this industry was liquidated and the actors killed, in jail or in exile…… in exile, in Miami, were it was rebuilt and today serve as culture, richness and freedom creator by the hand of Cubans like Emilio and Gloria Stephan.
The Sugar Industry, once the bigger in the world, for centuries the sugar provider of the world is today a bunch of rusted metal scrap assaulted by vegetation like those Science Chanel’s programs that related how will be the Earth after human been pass away. From the bigger sugar producer of the world regime transformed Cuba into a country that depends of USA to supply Cubans needs of sugar. Of course, Cubans traditional sugar producer that escaped in the 60s to USA, like Sanjul or Lobo families, created huge sugar industries in Florida, Alabama, Central America, Puerto Rico and Dominican Republic, another spectacular present from castro to USA.
The alcohol industry depending of sugar Industry, the new Ethanol industry born after regime killed Cuban Sugar Industry and so attacked by castro because (of course) Cuba is no longer a producer of importance because castro impoverishing policy!!!!! Bacardi is not today a local rum fabricator in a hot town south of Cuba but of a gigantic American multinational that fabricates since a pen to rockets parts. All other bigger industries related to sugar industry like Paper Industry, Animal Food Industry (Cuba was the main exporter in and to Latin-America of this important product), Syrup Industry (this one gave life to others Human Food Industries), Artificial Wood Industry (which also generated others Wood Millwork Industries), Alcohol Industry (that generated the Rum-Industrial Alcohol- Industries), and a lot of medium-small industries depending of Sugar industry found their death in regime’s hands and were resuscitated by Cuban capitalists in capitalism emporium: USA.
The classic Tobacco Industry is on its way of disappearing off Cuba and relocate in Miami. Emigrated Cuban growers smuggled Cuban tobacco seeds and started to grow up the plants in fields with similar chemical composition that Cuban soil in Honduras, Nicaragua and Dominican Republic. In few years these growers got to produce a tobacco ranked among the first in the world. Already those producers are taking niches of market to the inefficient and state controlled Tobacco Industry in Cuba. Very soon they will give the final blow to this last of Cuba’s big industries still “working”. Calle 8 in Miami is full of Offices and Showrooms of the different Tobacco producers of Miami.
What’s next???….. Who knows?
Conclusions……. To those that believe there is an confrontation going on between castro regime and USA and USA has intentions of destabilize castro regime I ask the following question:
Why USA would wants to change so beneficial state of things????
I am sure that as long USA continues to get so precious presents “the country of the free” will not allow anything bad to happen to its preferred “enemy”.
While in Cuba I was given as a gift an old January 1989 Granma newspaper (the national CP newspaper in Cuba) and the bolded headline declares “Soviet economy tears down Capitalists walls”. When I saw the headline of this post, I could not help but snicker a bit again. The truth is that the US just handed Latin American leaders a perfect opportunity to talk tough against the “evil imperio” and then go back to business as usual. Where are the ALBA sanctions? What sacrifice is Correa really willing to make to promote hermano pais Cuba? Why do I care that a still economically marginal group of latin american lefties are disappointed that their icon of rebellion still does not have a seat at the grown ups table? Lack of respect? Hardly. If Google called Morales tomorrow and asked for a meeting regarding building a Latin American HQ in La Paz, he would wet his pants in excitement. All I can say is wake me up when those guys are really serious about helping Cuba.