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Showing posts with label US. Show all posts
Showing posts with label US. Show all posts

Wednesday, October 26, 2022

British PM Rishi Sunak proves that his apparent cultural difference offers no political distinction or innovation!

THE GOLDEN CHALICE BELONGS TO THE BOLD!


By Professor Gilbert Morris:
Gilbert Morris

Sunak’s supporters will say both that it’s early - give him a chance and he did well, appointing a cabinet and at his first Prime Minister’s question time.

But listen to him:

He simply parrots the old strategies and offered nothing newer than his ethnicity; which is itself a labyrinth of nationalities, race and ethnicities!

In his first Question Time he copied the tried and tired formula of taking the question and turning it around to attack the other side…then laughing in self-satisfaction.
Heavyweight do take such lazy, meaningless delights! [sic]
I spent a good deal of my career, trying to show elected governments that they must be bold from the first day!
If you have 5 year election cycles…you must hit pay dirt immediately with something that gives the feel of a new country with new possibilities.
Merely performing routine tasks correctly - as every previous leader has - is not a game changer!
In a 5 year cycle, you have 18 months to get a policy done, if you announce it on the first day!
If you miss that first 18 months, events out of your control - natural disasters, wars, etc. ruins plans…and you’re left making excuses!
Already, his statement on Fiscal Strategy is delayed by 15 days! As Ca Newry would say “Sigh”!
Sunak has banned fracking. That’s good! But why is it not part of a broader strategy?
If he’d banned fracking, removed all transactional taxes for small businesses and instead of sucking up to Biden - who couldn’t remember his name on their first phone call - he should have announced a global coalition of the Commonwealth, Germany, China and the 30 US Congressional group proposing a Russia-Ukraine Peace Pact.
That’s how you come out of the box as a player on day one!
I mentioned these initiatives specifically because they are within his immediate grasp. When you have a change of leader during the life of a parliament, your mandate is already active. And in the case of peace agreement…you don’t just celebrate your India ties, you leverage it because Prime Minister Modi of India would LOVE nothing more than partnering with an Indian led Britain to solve a problem created by Europe!
Moreover India is essential to the conflict in Ukraine as both Russia and the US are trying to keep India on-side; whilst China would welcome every opportunity to work with India to solve their problems. India China and Russia would also have given him Brazil and Indonesia. He’d have gotten African through the Commonwealth. Therefore, such a peace initiative would involve nearly 5 billion people on earth and immediately he would be a global player beyond Britain’s resource capacity!
The point is Britain is reeling from high energy prices: ending the conflict is the surest way to bring down energy prices in the medium to long term!

But alas…he opted for the empty - eager-to-please lackey approach; proving that his apparent cultural difference offers no political distinction or innovation!

Source 

Tuesday, May 17, 2022

Understanding The Significance of The United States Game Against The Bahamas and Cuba

Cuba Hero JOSE  MARTI
CUBAN STORY - JOSE MARTI


“Deo adjuvante, non timendum.”
“With God as My Helper, I have nothing to fear”


We Must Ensure that the United States of America Does Not Create Confusion in The Bahamas Relationship with the Republic of Cuba


By Dr Kevin Alcena

Unlike men with political ambition, Jose Marti was a man with political ambition with a difference: a difference that propels a political activist, poet, journalist and teacher to attain national heroic status in the Republic of Cuba. Born in 1853, Jose Marti became a known activist against established foreign institutions and powers that dominated Cuba. He suffered and labored for the people - notwithstanding the level of oppression by colonial powers against him and his people.


No wonder he wrote that "Men of action, above all those whose actions are guided by love, live forever. Other famous men, those of much talk and few deeds, soon evaporate." His love for his people is immeasurable and profound, without form and shape and not bounded by any potential personal gain.


Jose Marti’s dedicated and zealous pursuit of freedom resulted in many incarceration with authorities right from an early age of 17 when he was exiled to Spain for being vociferously against the colonial rule suppression of the people of Cuba. and exploiting the natural resources of Cuba. Jose Marti selflessly took up the task of educating the people of Cuba to contradict the political system of the colonial powers in order to raise awareness with the generality of the people of Cuba to stand up for their rights. He used his expertise in poetry, and journalistic edge to advance his fight for the freedom of the Republic of Cuba from foreign domination.


Most interestingly, Jose Marti was very plain in denouncing the lack of spirituality and arrogance in the colonial powers’ approach to the manipulation of Cuba. He was strongly in support of democratic principles that will provide and assure ordinary Cubans the greater national security, respect of dignity of being a Cuban.


His zeal for the development of Cuba and freeing Cuba from the domination led him to leave the shores of the US (where he had flee to avoid the retribution of colonial masters) to join the war in Cuba for the independence of Cuba. Jose Marti was a man with courage to leave his comfort in the US to fight for his people without concern of his personal safety, but with vision of the future of the free Republic of Cuba.


Against advice from friends and well-wishers for his welfare and safety and his lack of military training, Jose Marti valiantly went to Cuba to fight the war in favor of his beloved country, which resulted in his death. This conforms to his philosophy that "just as he who gives his life to serve a great idea is admirable, he who avails himself of a great idea to serve his personal hopes of glory and power is abominable, even if he too risks his life. To give one's life is a right only when one gives it unselfishly.”


Jose Marti was one of the most prolific writers in the Hispanic world that helped to transform Cuban arts and cultures. He was a man of great ideas and philosophy that was ahead of his peers.


His vision and thoughts were innovative and constructive to help the development of democracy in Cuba, as he wrote in one his famous quote that ”like stones rolling down hills, fair ideas reach their objectives despite all obstacles and barriers. It may be possible to speed or hinder them, but impossible to stop them."


The Bahamas is not torn between the United States and the Republic of Cuba regarding the two Doctors detained at the Carmichael Detention Center. The Bahamas is a country of law and order and is signatory to international treaties with various countries such as the United States and Cuba, and the government has the obligation to uphold these treaties. The two Cuban Dentists should be prosecuted and fined for entering The Bahamas illegally, regardless of the fact that they are Cubans and have resident documents enabling them to reside in the United States.


We must be very careful with the United States, because they are the ones that brought these two Cubans to The Bahamas detention centre. We have to ensure that the US does not use this strategy to create confusion in our relationship with the Republic of Cuba.


If we comply with the US requirements to send the two Cubans to the US, we would be breaking the treaty between The Bahamas and Cuba, and in addition, it will result in mass travel illegally through The Bahamas by Cubans who have US visas but without Cuban exit permits that would allow them to leave Cuba legally.


In the views of Jose Marti, “the struggles waged by nations are weak only when they lack support’…wisdom and the ability to insist on agreement as guided by treaty between the Bahamas and Cuba. We must not forget that Cuban delegates were kicked out by US imposed conditions to a Sheraton Hotel in Mexico as a result of the US Helms-Burton Act. These Cuban gentlemen were minding their legitimate business, but the hotel was threatened to be fine up to $300,000 against the Hotel for accepting these Cuban delegates.


This is not political - it's perversity. It is not even the Superego judging the Ego. It is our own capacity for hate, increasing until it becomes a kind of compulsion - neurosis where reverence and destruction alternate and we reverently destroy. We falter and faint and deny him thrice. We develop sympathy at the expense of loyalty. I don't like it. It just ain't right.
Where is the outcry? We have become silent spectators, eagerly awaiting our daily dose of public scandal, noisy expulsions and excommunications.
''A man must swallow a toad every morning if he wishes to be sure of finding nothing still more disgusting before the day is over.'' (Morley)
We must stop this. It's not right. There is no honour in this battle. There is no dignity in this death. There are no victors on this battleground of shame. Only a man with the shield of Perseus against the ghosts of character assassination. ''Whatever you blame, that you have done yourself.'' (Groddeck) There is no hate without fear. Hate is the consequence of fear. We hate what we fear and so where hate is, fear is lurking.


We must stop this moth-and-candle preoccupation with hate, this triumph of resentment, this abuse of intellect, this perversion of the heart that obliterates our knowledge of the purpose of life; that denies the God within us, wantonly exterminated. I don't like it. It just ain't right.

The world failed to respond to this abhorrent issue, neither did Wall Street or any major US authorities. According to E. M Forster: ”if I had to choose between betraying my country and betraying my friend, I hope I should have the guts to betray my friend”. It is imperative that our Cabinet Minister understand the significance of this game that the American has instigated against The Bahamas and Cuba. Let’s not forget that our greatest friend is our greatest nightmare: that is the United States of America. They enjoy the art of propaganda and manipulation.


As President Fidel Castro said in an address on the celebration of the 51st Anniversary of the Attack on the Moncada and Carlos Manuel de Cedspedes Fortresses, “I shall address a sinister character that keeps threatening, insulting and slandering us. This is not a whim or an agreeable option; it is a necessity and a duty”.

Wednesday, April 27, 2022

Do Not Exclude Cuba from the Summit of the Americas

Cuba denounces U.S. government exclusion of Cuba from preparations for Ninth Summit of the Americas


Excerpts from statement to the press by Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla


Summit of the Americas



I am obliged to denounce the fact that the U.S. government has decided to exclude the Republic of Cuba from preparations for the Ninth Summit of the Americas set to take place in Los Angeles, June 8-10; and is currently exerting extreme pressure on numerous governments in the region that have privately and respectfully opposed this exclusion.


The U.S. government is misleading the public and governments of the hemisphere by saying that it has not yet made decisions regarding invitations.


I respectfully urge Secretary of State (Anthony) Blinken to say honestly whether or not Cuba will be invited to the Ninth Summit of the Americas.


A central axis, according to preparations for the event, will be health.  And I must inform our people and international public opinion that there are currently negotiations underway, conducted in an unclear manner, with quite a few neoliberal elements, and many shortcomings, in relation to the real needs of the peoples regarding the COVID-19 pandemic, the structural causes of precarious health systems that have led to tragic consequences and caused an extremely high number of deaths in our hemisphere, including the United States of America, and have avoided substantial cooperation and basic financing to address these consequences, and are now negotiating in an opaque manner a so-called Health and Resilience Action Plan for the Americas through the year 2030.


I must note that these negotiations are being held, in an obscure manner, with the exclusion of Cuba and other member states of the Pan American Health Organization, which are participating in these processes, in violation of their own mandates.


Cuba has always, in a modest but altruistic and persistent fashion, provided the possibility for international cooperation in health, which has been recognized worldwide.


There are Latin American vaccines against COVID-19 which are Cuban. The medical brigades that responded to the COVID emergency in the region, in the hemisphere in more than 50 countries on the planet, have been Cuban.


It would be convenient to take into account during this process, and benefit our peoples, Cuban medical presence in confronting natural disasters and epidemics in the past, the provision of tens of thousands of medical scholarships for low-income Latin American, Caribbean and United States youth, the existence of the Latin American School of Medicine in Havana, Operation Miracle that returned the sight of millions of low-income persons, Cuba's ability to establish cooperation, transfer state-of-the-art technology, provide pharmaceutical products, vaccines and novel treatments, the ability to share advanced protocols and medicines in the field of health…


Another central axis of the Summit, from which Cuba is intended to be excluded, is emigration.  A document with a long title: Letter of Understanding on Migration Management and Protection of Migrants is also being negotiated behind the back of international, US, Latin American and Canadian public opinion.  It is a code that seeks to force Latin American and Caribbean States to repress migration, to absorb the migrants that the United States decides to process outside its territory, which incorporates elements of the racist, xenophobic and plundering U.S. vision of our migrants.  It does not address in any way the real causes of migration, but it does, however, offer palliatives, stimuli, financing and economic incentives to countries that send migrants to the U.S. and are closer to its borders, to attenuate this process.


With Cuba, however, his recipe is the extreme tightening of the blockade, causing deprivation to Cuban families, the application of Undersecretary Mallory's stark memorandum: "depressing wages, causing hunger, despair and the overthrow of the Government," is the American prescription in relation to Cuba…
The exclusion of Cuba from the Ninth Summit of the Americas would constitute a serious historical setback in relation to the two previous editions.  In Panama, in 2015, Army General Raúl Castro Ruz led the delegation from our island which participated on equal footing, and raised his firm, dissenting voice, but always serene, respectful and constructive…


A third axis of the Summit of the Americas is that of democracy and human rights.  In the obscure negotiations taking place today, the intention is to establish the Organization of American States to certify all elections in the region.  This is the same OAS of the coup in Bolivia, and the intention of the United States, historically responsible for coups in our region, and also responsible for the coups in recent decades against progressive governments.


How can a Summit take place, centered on democracy, having excluded, at the arbitrary whim of the host, certain countries of Latin America and the Caribbean?  Can anyone think of something more undemocratic?
The U.S. has no moral authority to set itself up as a model in this matter or to criticize others…


The Ninth Summit of the Americas could still be an opportunity if, in an inclusive manner and on equal terms for all countries, it debated, without exclusions and with sincere commitment, the most pressing problems that affect the continent.


Cuba supports the genuine efforts to promote dialogue, links and cooperation between Our America, the America of Bolivar and Martí, and the United States, between the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States and the United States government…


Cuba, which firmly defends the unity within the diversity of Our America, today expresses our profound gratitude to the peoples and governments that maintain a courageous, dignified, solidary position, demanding of the U.S. government that Cuba not be excluded from the Ninth Summit of the Americas.

Source

Friday, March 4, 2022

The US, the EU, the drowsy politicians, and the media are plunging us into a cesspool of hatred towards Russia as a nation

RUSSOPHOBIA, HATE FOR HATE

Russophobia has been going on since Russia opted for communism
In the wake of the war between Russia and Ukraine, an ice cream shop in the city of Cordoba in Argentina banned Russian cream from its ice cream menu.

And this seems like a joke, it's not.

It's the supreme idiocy cooked from the "media" and feeding so many guiles.

"You have to hate Russia, with no mercy, no compassion."


In December 1941, after the Japanese Navy's attack on Pearl Harbor (Hawaii) - a tsunami of hate was unleashed against all Japanese citizens residing in the US.

Humiliated, spat on and trampled on - they were taken to concentration camps in the desert - for the "crime" of being born in Japan, being children of Japanese, or looking Japanese. And they were just hard-working immigrants.

You know how hardworking and polite the Japanese are.

But in those years of war, when these thousands of people were in concentration camps on American soil for having "eyes sharp" - no one asked; "What are we doing...? "

You got to hate for hating.

Russophobia is not new in Europe. It's been around for hundreds of years. And in the US, Russophobia has been going on since Russia opted for communism at the beginning of the last century.

Napoleon, once, with an invincible army - attempted to destroy the Tsar Empire. He was defeated, and in his failure, set Moscow on fire.

Hitler said that the Russians were a people of slaves; sub-humans - who had to be annihilated and invaded. Russia, with an invincible army of millions of soldiers, including hundreds of thousands of nazis Ukrainians who were infinitely more cruel and bloody than the SS themselves... defeated Hitler's Army.

The war in Ukraine is 8 years old. There are 14,000 women, children and men killed by the Ukrainian Army in the separatist provinces. No servile and tracker "journalist" ever told you about those 14 thousand human beings that are no longer here.

Yeah, they keep lying to you. Never like today so many lies are exposed at the hours of being cackled by the media. Today, in a kind of "war tourism", hundreds of stray journalists are in Europe "covering" the war.

What did they go for if they all repeat the NATO report? And they even show you the same images, over and over again.

From so much media hammering, there's no shortage of the dumbass who owns an ice cream parlor and decides not to sell more Russian cream ice cream - because he was gripped by a terrible hatred of Russia.

The US, the EU, the drowsy politicians, and the media are plunging us into a cesspool of hatred towards Russia as a nation.

And it's dangerous, there won't be a duck of Russophobes who will give a beating to some young man for having been born in Russia - and living in this so good, innocent and Christian West.

The Russian people are like any people in the world - with their dreams, frustrations, and hopes. Thousands of Russians are in the streets today calling for an end to the war. Hundreds of them have been arrested for protesting.

Russians are neither aliens nor predators... Even if the media tells you yes, and celebrate like crazy every minute sanctions are imposed against the Russian people. Sanctions that are contrary to sanity and common sense.

The US even banned the release of "Batman" in Russia. "Holy robin bell tower!" We will not be able to perform in Moscow!"

(This Thursday 3rd is the Mudial Premiere of the last Batman Film, except in Russia)

Meanwhile from the media, Russophobia is encouraged every minute - like a Sunday sermon. I wonder; "In the not too distant future - if we will have to clandestinely buy the novels by Dostoyevsky, Tolsti, Chejov, Solzhenitsyn, Gorki, etc, etc...? "

"Are they going to ban the Russian salad...?" "If in doubt, I advise you to prepare it only when you have guests of your most absolute trust."

And lastly, even if I'm accused of being pro-Russian; I'll give you the ingredients for the Russian cream:

*5 eggs (only the yolks)
* 100 grams of whipped cream.
*8 tablespoons of condensed milk.
*1 tablespoon of cornstarch.
*1 tablespoon of lemon zest.
*1/2 cup chopped walnuts.

I'm not going to tell you how to prepare the Russian cream. I have a cat to look after. Who gone feed it if something happen to me....

Thursday, February 19, 2015

US-Cuba: Is the great thaw on ice?


 David Roberts Business News Americas

By David Roberts



Cuban President Raúl Castro's recent comments at a summit of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States that before full diplomatic relations can be established with Washington, first the US must lift the trade embargo on the island, pay compensation for the damage it has caused the country and return Guantánamo military base need to be taken with a pinch of salt.

The US quickly ruled out discussing the Guantánamo base, which is a legacy of the Spanish-American war of the late 19th century, while the embargo cannot be lifted without congressional approval, which given the fact that both houses of the US congress are now controlled by the Republicans will be no mean feat.

So does that mean the end of the US-Cuba rapprochement? That's unlikely, not least because Cuba has a great deal to benefit from the historic agreement announced in December to restore full diplomatic ties, along with President Barack Obama's pledge to work to lift the 54-year embargo and a prisoner swap.

The embargo was, after all, designed to punish the Fidel Castro regime and encourage its downfall, and Obama had said previously he would not support ending the 'blockade', as it is known in Cuba, unless there was political change on the island. While Cuba has partially opened up its economy in the last few years since Raúl took over from Fidel, there has been zero political change.

The thaw in relations involves what Obama's critics have described as a series of concessions to Cuba with nothing in return, such as increasing the amount of money that can be sent to Cubans and allowing exports of telecommunications equipment and building materials, among others. The US also agreed to ease travel restrictions on its citizens wishing to visit Cuba, and allow US credit and debit cards to be used in the Caribbean country.

Obama also promised to review Cuba's listing on the US government's list of state sponsors of terrorism, where it was placed in 1982 and is currently accompanied by Iran, Syria and Sudan. That decision could pave the way for other economic or political sanctions to be lifted.

Despite these 'concessions,' does the agreement amount to a real change in US strategy towards Cuba? Or is it merely an acknowledgement that isolating Havana is not going to bring political change, whereas encouraging economic ties may lead to the communist-ruled country opening up – widespread use of the internet could be key – and eventually regime change? It seems unlikely that Obama has come to accept the existence of the totalitarian regime and, although he may not say it in public, he presumably believes the fresh approach will indeed result in change.

The risk on the part of Obama, therefore, is limited, given the clear failure of past policies and the fact that much now depends on congress, while the risk on the part of Raúl Castro is much greater. The Cuban regime has long used the embargo and the US policy towards Havana as a scapegoat for the country's ills, and an excuse to rule with an iron fist. If that goes, the future of communist rule will be threatened. That is a risk that Raúl Castro (maybe even both Castros) must be well aware of, just as he surely must have expected Washington's predictable response to the Guantanamo demand. So while it's easy to be cynical and cast doubt on his sincerity and willingness to follow through on the agreement, the Cuban leader's courage to enter this period of entente with Washington is something worthy of recognition.

February 10, 2015

BN Americas

Sunday, December 28, 2014

The un-revolutionary mending of US-Cuba relations


David Roberts

By David Roberts


The recently announced thaw in US-Cuba relations is a boon to all Latin America and to the region's ties with Washington. The issue of US sanctions against Cuba has dogged relations between Latin America and the US for decades, with even the more liberal, pro-market countries in the region calling for the embargo to be lifted.

Some have speculated that Venezuela, Cuba's closest ally in the region, will now be isolated as Havana looks more to the US, leaving Caracas as something of a lone wolf in its ranting and raving against Washington. That appears to be wishful thinking. Cuba and the US are not suddenly going to become the best of chums.

The decision to restore full diplomatic ties and loosen the economic and travel restrictions (including the ability of US citizens to travel to Cuba, a restriction that smacks of a totalitarian state) is highly significant, even historic as Barack Obama put it. But major change is not going to come overnight, and the likes of McDonalds and Starbucks are not suddenly going to pop up in Havana and Santiago de Cuba.

For a start, the US already has a large diplomatic mission in the Cuban capital, and economic restrictions have been partially lifted in recent years, while Cuba itself has been undergoing a process of gradual and very partial economic liberalization. What is more, to end the embargo altogether will require the approval of the US congress, where the Republicans will now control both houses and will surely not vote in favor.

But the hope and expectation is that, as relations improve during the last two years of the Obama administration, support for the embargo will fade with the benefits of closer political and economic ties becoming evident, and whoever succeeds him will have the backing to end the patently ineffective embargo. That, in turn, would mean the Cuban regime would no longer have an excuse – as the embargo has been for the last 50 years – for stifling democratic change and using it as a scapegoat (with some justification) for the country's economic woes.

At the same time, scrapping the embargo would be good for business in the US and elsewhere – given the dire economic straits that Cuba's oil benefactor Venezuela is in, and with crude prices in freefall, shouldn't US companies help Cuba develop its own hydrocarbon resources?

Finally, and almost as an aside, a big unknown in all this is the role of Fidel Castro. Did he approve of the secret talks with Washington and the agreement between his brother Raúl and Obama? Was he involved in the process? Could the agreement have been reached if he were still in charge? We've heard nothing from Fidel so far.

Whatever the case, many have said that real change could not happen in Cuba while the Castro brothers are still alive. It seems those people could, thankfully, be proved wrong, and that would be of benefit to the whole of the Americas.

December 23, 2014

BNAmericas

Thursday, June 12, 2014

OAS 44th General Assembly: U.S. increasingly alone in efforts to isolate Cuba

By Sergio Alejandro Gómez



The recent 44th General Assembly of the Organization of American States (OAS) held in Paraguay’s capital Asunción, clearly showed that the United States is increasingly alone in its efforts to isolate Cuba, a strategy unsuccessfully followed since January of 1959.

Although the issue was not listed on the official agenda, debate on Cuba’s participation in the upcoming Summit of the Americas, to be held in Panama next year, occupied a good amount of time at the June 3-5 gathering.

It is not, in fact, an issue to be decided by the OAS itself, but one made by the country organizing the Summit. It was clear that sister countries in the region are not disposed to live another 50 years with the unjust exclusion of Cuba and lost no time in making their position clear, reiterating that they will not accept another meeting without Cuban participation.

Cuba’s presence at these events, where heads of state from the Americas gather every three years, is a long-standing demand of the Latin American and Caribbean community, since the first Summit was held in Miami in 1994.

IF CUBA IS EXCLUDED, SO ARE LATIN AMERICA & THE CARIBBEAN

The issue emerged immediately during the opening of the 44th Assembly, when Nicaragua began the first round of statements and its representative Dennis Moncada recalled, “It is not possible to hold another Summit of the Americas without the presence of Cuba,” as many said during the 2012 Cartagena meeting.

Throughout the three-day gathering, statements were made by some 20 countries in support of Cuba. Roy Chaderton, Venezuela’s permanent representative to the OAS, insisted that “preconditions and vetoes” with respect to Cuba must end.

The delegation from St. Vincent and the Grenadines spoke for the Caribbean Community (Caricom), reiterating the group’s firm position in favor of Cuba’s participation, and St. Lucian Foreign Minister Alva Baptiste took advantage of the occasion to emphasize Cuba’s accomplishments in health and education as human rights, recalling that the majority of U.S. citizens now support a change in Washington’s policy toward Cuba.

Explicit rejection of the exclusion, along with statements indicating that countries would not attend the 7th Summit, if Cuba is not invited, were again expressed by representatives from Ecuador, Nicaragua, Venezuela and Bolivia. Argentina joined this group, with Foreign Minister Héctor Timerman summarizing the situation by saying, “If Cuba is excluded, we consider ourselves excluded, as well.”

OAS General Secretary José Miguel Insulza acknowledged, at the conclusion of the event, that the great majority of countries favor the attendance of all countries, saying, “If we talk about inclusion, we can not exclude anyone. All countries of this region and the Caribbean must be present.”

DEFENDING THE INDEFENSIBLE

The U.S. delegation, including Deputy Secretary of State for Management and Resources Heather Higginbottom and permanent OAS representative, Carmen Lomellín, were obliged to defend the indefensible U.S. position alone, with a brief, tepid statement of support from Canada. The two could only manage to repeat the overused U.S. refrain about the need for a “democratic Cuba,” before the country could attend a Summit of the Americas. Lomellín and Higginbottom were responding, surely unaware, to a question posed by Comandante en Jefe Fidel Castro 52 years ago, in the Second Declaration of Havana, when he asked, “How long will they be so shameless and cynical to talk about democracy?”

“If democracy means the people, if democracy means government of the people, then what is this?” he added, speaking before hundreds of thousands of Cubans gathered in Havana’s Plaza de la Revolución for a general assembly of the people, following the OAS decision made in Uruguay to expel Cuba.

Fidel was confident that Cuba would always have at its side “the solidarity of all free peoples of the world,” and “all honorable men and women of the world,” clarifying that what had been heard in Punta del Este was the voice of oligarchies, not that of the peoples.

UNITY WITHIN DIVERSITY

It was precisely this new voice of the people which was heard in Paraguay, not only in support of Cuba, but during discussions of common positions on the region’s principal problems.

Based on the principle of unity within diversity, an agreement was reached to call on Britain to participate in talks with Argentina on the issue of the Malvinas, with speakers emphasizing their support for Argentine sovereignty over the islands, occupied by force to create a 21st century British colonial enclave.

The U.S. delegation could not have felt comfortable with the agreement, having violated the Inter-American Treaty of Reciprocal Assistance, to support the UK during the 1982 Malvinas War.

Those attending the General Assembly also voted to support the government of Venezuela, facing violence perpetuated by the right wing opposition and supported from abroad. Foreign Minister Elías Jaua described the attacks on the country’s constitutional order which has been fully documented and widely denounced.

The OAS body agreed to a resolution supporting peace talks between the Colombian government of Juan Manuel Santos and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia-People’s Army (FARC-EP) which have been underway in Havana since November of 2012. Colombia’s Foreign Minister María Ángela Holguín, thanked everyone for their support, especially guarantors Cuba and Norway, and companion countries Venezuela and Chile.

VOTES FOR JUSTICE

The future of Our America is to be found in integration, in regional organizations such as the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC); Unasur, (the South American Union); the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America, Alba; and others. These groups have shown that it is possible to build unity within diversity, with respect for the histories and cultures of all, without discrimination.

These are the values recognized by the vast majority of the world’s countries, in the yearly UN vote against the U.S. blockade of Cuba. These are the values of those who demand that Cuba be removed from the spurious list of state sponsors of terrorism; and by those recently assembled in Washington demanding justice for the Cuban Five.

Now, as U.S. citizens increasingly favor a change in U.S. policy toward their neighbor to the south, it behooves the government to stop listening to a radical, right wing minority which supports continued aggression and subversive operations in Cuba.

How far will U.S. disrespect for Latin American and Caribbean countries go? How will the U.S. deal with this increasing isolation, given the process of change underway in the region? Will the U.S. boycott the Summit of the Americas which it created, for fear of being in the same room with a revolutionary leader? These are only a few of the questions which remain unanswered after the 44th General Assembly of the Organization of American States.

June 11, 2014