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Economic Blockade

One Dead And 121 Injured In Fuel Storage Depot Fire In Matanzas, Cuba

August 7, 2022 Orinoco Tribune. , , ,
At least one person has died, 17 firefighters are missing, and 121 people have been injured in a huge fire that broke out on Friday, August 5, in a fuel depot in Matanzas, in western Cuba, 60 miles east of Havana. The fire started on Friday evening after a lighting hit a fuel tank in Matanzas, and then in the early hours of Saturday it spread to a second tank, causing a big explosion around 5:00 A.M. while government officials and firefighter teams were trying to control the first explosion. All throughout Saturday Cuban authorities worked tirelessly to prevent the fire from reaching a third tank. The storage facility consists of eight storage tanks overall. The governments of Mexico and Venezuela have already sent expert teams to help the Cubans in the midst of the catastrophe that has shaken the island nation subjected to more than 60 years of an illegal US blockade.

Hate Campaign Targets Bridges Of Love For Its Solidarity Work With Cuba

August 5, 2022 Alejandra Garcia, Resumen English. , , ,
Marco Rubio has done it again. The man famous for slandering and being ashamed of his Cuban and Latino roots once again made a fool of himself before the world by requesting the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to conduct an “immediate” inquiry into the ties between the U.S.-based solidarity group Puentes de Amor and Cuba. The Florida senator believes it is highly suspicious that Carlos Lazo, who founded and currently coordinates the group, is meeting with authorities on the island. The movement has traveled to the Caribbean country dozens of times with health supplies and food, especially during the hardest months of the pandemic. According to Rubio, it is inadmissible that Lazo has met with Cuban leader Miguel Diaz-Canel at two very recent moments, in June of this year and August of last year.

Pressure On Biden To Remove Cuba From Terror List

July 27, 2022 Medea Benjamin and Natasha Lycia Ora Bannan, Consortium News. , , ,
As the Cuban government celebrates the July 26 Day of the National Rebellion — a public holiday commemorating the 1953 attack on the Moncada Barracks that is considered the precursor to the 1959 revolution — U.S. groups are calling on the Biden administration to end cruel sanctions that are creating such hardship for the Cuban people. In particular, they are pushing President Joe Biden to take Cuba off the list of state sponsors of terrorism. Being on this list subjects Cuba to a series of devastating international financial restrictions. It is illegal for U.S. banks to process transactions to Cuba, but U.S. sanctions also have an unlawful extraterritorial reach.  Fearful of getting in the crosshairs of U.S. regulations, most Western banks have also stopped processing transactions involving Cuba or have implemented new layers of compliance.

Cuba Responds To Biden’s Announcement On Economic Blockade

May 17, 2022 Cubaminrex. , , ,
Havana, Cuba - Today, the government of the United States announced several measures, which are positive but of a very limited scope, regarding Cuba associated to the granting of visas, regular migration, flights to Cuban provinces, remittances and adjustments to the regulations governing transactions with the non-state sector. Taking into account the nature of such measures, it would be possible to identify some of the promises made by President Biden during the electoral campaign of 2020 to alleviate the inhumane decisions adopted by President Trump’s administration, which tightened the blockade to unprecedented levels and increased the “maximum pressure” policy applied ever since against our country.

Over 5 Million People March On May Day In Cuba, A Country Of 11 Million

May 5, 2022 Evan Branan, Liberation News. , , ,
Led by the slogan, “Cuba Works and Lives,” Havana’s 2022 May Day parade was attended by more than 700,000 workers and students from across Havana, demonstrating both a joyful celebration and triumphant victory of the Cuban Revolution. More than 5.5 million people celebrated throughout Cuba on May 1 in their respective provinces, for a total of 6 million people at events over the weekend. It was a special celebration because of the parade’s cancellation the last two years due to COVID-19 restrictions. Cuba’s May Day parade is historically the largest in the world, and this year it came back with a roar in one of the largest turnouts seen in years. Intense fuel shortages due to the U.S. blockade make transportation difficult — even so, people from all provinces of Cuba traveled to take part in this historic International Workers’ Day celebration.

Caravans Show That The World Stands With Cuba

March 28, 2022 Alejandra Garcia, Resumen English. , , ,
The world is living in uncertain times. The Western powers, led by the United States, insist on escalating tensions in Eastern Europe over an regional conflict that should have nothing to do with them. Unbridled hatred is spreading through social networks as never before, towards Russia, Russians, and anyone who is not on Washington’s side in defending its “world order”. The White House and its allies announced a battalion of sanctions against Moscow for the war in Ukraine and deployed thousands of NATO troops across the region, threatening to bring the planet to the brink of a nuclear catastrophe. Their obedient media echo the messages of violence, exaggerate the successes of Ukrainian troops, paint Russian leader Vladimir Putin as the Hitler of the 21st century and this morning Biden from Poland called for regime change in Russia.

World Federation Of Trade Unions Supports Initiative Against Blockade

February 21, 2022 Prensa Latina, Struggle La Lucha. , , ,
Paris, France - The World Federation of Trade Unions (WFTU) announced today its support to the media marathon called by the channel Europe for Cuba to denounce and condemn the blockade imposed by the United States on the island for more than 60 years. The WFTU, the militant voice of more than 105 million workers worldwide, supports and participates in this initiative scheduled for April 2 and 3, said the organization’s Secretariat, in a communiqué shared with Prensa Latina by the European solidarity platform activated in October 2020. In the document, the Federation recalled its traditional rejection of the economic, commercial and financial siege that Washington applies to the Caribbean country, a policy intensified in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Cuba And The World Demand Lifting Of US Blockade

January 31, 2022 Ultimas Noticias, Orinoco Tribune. , , ,
This Sunday, January 30, on the streets of Cuba and other parts of the world, the demand for lifting the illegal US blockade against Cuba prevailed. This came just days after the 60th anniversary of the officialization of this hostile policy against the Caribbean island. According to the Twitter profile of the Cuban Foreign Affairs Ministry, from the cities of Santa Clara in the center of the country, and Bayamo in the east, the family of the Antillean nation joined a caravan that demanded the end of the economic, commercial and financial siege. “Compatriots residing in Italy and friends of #Cuba build #PuentesDeAmor and demand the end of the blockade that hit this Island 60 years ago,” published the Twitter account of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, since the initiative is also engaged with other cities around the world.

15,000 Pounds Of Powdered Milk Delivered To Cuba

January 16, 2022 Medea Benjamin, People's Forum. , , ,
On January 15, 2022, the organizations Puentes de Amor, The People’s Forum and CODEPINK are sending a cargo plane loaded with 15,000 pounds of powdered milk from Miami to Cuba. Representatives of the organizations are traveling to Cuba with the shipment. The aid will be received by the Martin Luther King Center in Havana. It will be distributed to pediatric hospitals in Havana. Since the pandemic and the disruption of food supplies it has caused, there has been a shortage of powdered milk in Cuba, which is normally given out by the state—for free—to children, pregnant women, the elderly and people with medical needs. Due to the reluctance of U.S. companies and banks to deal with Cuba for fear of running afoul of U.S. sanctions, Cuba buys imported milk—at an inflated cost—from places as far as New Zealand and Uruguay.

Cuba Grows And Advances Despite The Difficulties Of 2021

January 2, 2022 Alejandra Garcia And Gustavo A. Maranges, Resumen. , , ,
This 2021 has been the most difficult year for the Cuban people. In addition to the ravages of the blockade, thousands of people died due to the Covid-19. The list was immense, and as the days went by, names became familiar and beloved faces. Moreover, it was also a year of economic readjustments and changes needed to move the island towards a possible and sustainable development over time. The changes, the deaths, and the pandemic came at a time when the world economy suffered the strongest recession since the years of the Second World War. Cuba suffered double this new crisis since it had already been dragging around the chains of an unjust financial blockade for decades, which between April 2019 and December 2020 alone caused over nine trillion dollars in losses.

The Movement Standing Up To Biden’s Maximum Pressure Campaign

July 29, 2021 Manolo De Los Santos and Vijay Prashad, People's Dispatch. , , ,
Most of the 193 member states of the United Nations made public statements to defend Cuba against the “maximum pressure” campaign. In a statement, the 120 members of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) “strongly condemn[ed] the international campaign organized… with the purpose of destabilizing the Republic of Cuba.” The NAM called for an end to the US blockade.

Civil Society Calls On Congress To End War And Blockade On Yemen

July 20, 2021 Action Corps, Popular Resistance. , , ,
New York - Civil society groups rallied at U.S. legislators’ offices in New York, Boston, and San Francisco on Friday, July 16th as part of a National Day of Action for Yemen. They called for U.S. senators & representatives to introduce a new War Powers Resolution to end U.S. participation in the 6-year war and blockade on Yemen that has created the world’s largest humanitarian crisis, according to the U.N.  In Boston, Brian Garvey of Massachusetts Peace Action noted, “We’re not going to stop until we end the U.S. war in Yemen, and that means War Powers....It’s the only legislation that meets the urgency right now.” During the Day of Action, letters were hand-delivered (see letter to Sen. Sanders below) to local offices of the following legislators signed by dozens of local civil society groups in each state calling for the new War Powers Resolution.

US Takes Advantage Of The Price Cubans Are Paying For The Blockade

July 14, 2021 Manolo de los Santos and Vijay Prashad, Peoples Dispatch. , , ,
Cuba, like every other country on the planet, is struggling with the impact of COVID-19. This small island of 11 million people has created five vaccine candidates and sent its medical workers through the Henry Reeve International Medical Brigade to heal people around the world. Meanwhile, the United States hardens a cruel and illegal blockade of the island, a medieval siege that has been in place for six decades. In April 2020, seven United Nations special rapporteurs wrote an open letter to the United States government about the blockade. “In the pandemic emergency,” they wrote, “the lack of will of the US government to suspend sanctions may lead to a higher risk of such suffering in Cuba and other countries targeted by its sanctions.” The special rapporteurs noted the “risks to the right to life, health and other critical rights of the most vulnerable sections of the Cuban population.”

Cruel US Blockade Causing Misery And Unrest In Cuba

July 14, 2021 Rania Khalek, Breakthrough News. , , ,
US officials and their corporate media mouthpieces were elated at the sight of protests in Cuba in recent days against deteriorating living conditions that are a direct result of the US blockade, which Trump increased and Biden has maintained during the pandemic to deliberately heighten suffering at a time when Cuba was sending doctors around the world to fight the disease. As is often the case when an adversary country experiences protests of any kind, it was immediately weaponized to push for a regime change narrative against Cuba. There's so much to unpack, from the protest double standards, to the blatant efforts at meddling and sabotage, to the pure hypocrisy from those in power. To help make sense of it all, Rania Khalek was joined by Manolo De Los Santos, founder & co-director of The People's Forum in New York City and a researcher with Tricontinental who spent six years living in Cuba.

We Stand With Cuba Against The US Embargo And Hybrid War

June 4, 2021 Luna Olavarría Gallegos, Manolo De Los Santos, Vijay Prashad, et al, Counterpunch. , , ,
On May 26, The New York Review of Books published an open letter signed by a group of successful artists and writers — including Junot Díaz and Edwidge Danticat — stating that Cuban artist Luís Manuel Otero Alcántara is “detained…solely for expressing his ideas through his art.” We the undersigned challenge the aforementioned signatories to reconsider their letter, which fails to mention Otero Alcántara’s alleged connections to the U.S. government and ignores crucial context, namely the ongoing war waged by the U.S. against Cuba. On May 2, Otero Alcántara was taken to Havana’s Calixto García Hospital several days into a hunger strike he claimed to have been staging. The Health Ministry issued a statement that he had “no signs of undernutrition” but would remain “under observation.”
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