Cuba And The World Demand Lifting Of US Blockade

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.

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Bank Blocks Donations Supporting Cuban Effort To Vaccinate World

Progressive International recently asked for contributions so they can send a delegation to Havana next week to promote Cuba’s effort to vaccinate the world against Covid-19.

But in an apparent genuflection to the illegal U.S. embargo against the island, Dutch multinational bank ING has blocked all donations supporting the trip, the group said Tuesday.

“This is scandalous,” said Progressive International (PI) general coordinator David Adler.

“The U.S. wields unparalleled power over our global financial system,” Adler continued. “Yesterday, a message received by our supporter revealed the far-reaching consequences of the U.S. embargo on Cuba: a European bank, established in the Netherlands, has decided to put the interests of the U.S. government above the lives of millions of people.”

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15,000 Pounds Of Powdered Milk Delivered To Cuba

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.

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Comparing The COVID-19 Responses In Cuba And The United States

With fundamental differences in health systems structure and organization, as well as in political philosophy and culture, it is not surprising that there are major differences in outcomes. The more coordinated, comprehensive response to COVID-19 in Cuba has resulted in significantly better outcomes compared with the United States. Through July 15, 2021, the US cumulative case rate is more than 4 times higher than Cuba’s, while the death rate and excess death rate are both approximately 12 times higher in the United States. In addition to the large differences in cumulative case and death rates between United States and Cuba, the COVID-19 pandemic has unmasked serious underlying health inequities in the United States.

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Alicia Jrapko, Presente!

With deep sorrow and on behalf of her family, we announce that our dear colleague, sister and friend Alicia Jrapko passed away last evening after fighting a cruel illness for more than two years. In spite of the hard treatment, she never stopped working as much as she could.  Alicia regretted not being able to continue contributing, loving and living with the energy that always characterized her.

Alicia was a great Argentine revolutionary, the daughter of workers who at a very young age took up the struggles of a generation that dreamed of building an Argentina with social justice for the people. Alicia once said in an interview…”in Latin America a great admiration was forged for Cuba, for Fidel, Raul, Che and so many other revolutionaries. In Argentina we wanted the same thing, but it was not achieved and a great part of my generation lost their best children”.

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Cuba Remembers First Tricontinental Anti-Imperialist Conference

On Monday, progressive organizations celebrate the 56th anniversary of the First Tricontinental Conference, which gathered 500 delegates from Africa, Asia, and Latin America in Havana to adopt policies to strengthen the fight against imperialism and neo-colonialism.

“This event was an exercise in diplomatic cooperation between anti-hegemonic forces of different origins that advocated peace and the self-determination of peoples,” German intellectual Jennifer Hosek stressed.

Besides discussing the imperialism’s smear campaigns against social revolutions, delegates founded the Peoples of Asia, Africa, and Latin America Solidarity Organization (OSPAAAL) to support countries that had recently liberated themselves from colonialism.

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Cuba Grows And Advances Despite The Difficulties Of 2021

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.

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The Fierce Determination Of Ordinary People To Build An Extraordinary World

United States President Joe Biden has suborned 111 countries to attend his Summit for Democracy on December 9–10, ending on Human Rights Day. ‘We welcome all countries, organizations, and individuals to support the goals of the Summit’, the US State Department wrote. However, there are 82 countries that have not been invited, including two large countries that are permanent members of the United Nations Security Council (the People’s Republic of China and Russia) and two small countries from the Caribbean (Cuba and Haiti). In the name of democracy, the US government is pushing its own agenda to consolidate power and further its national interests.

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The Cuban Guaidó Wannabe

Cuban opponent of the system, Yunior García Aguilera, has announced a “strategic alliance” of opposition forces in Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua. This “alliance” of activists “confronting the same dictatorship” could help “change the reality in Cuba”, he declared in a report published by the Europa Press news agency on Saturday. After meeting with representatives of Spain’s fascist Vox party and the post-Franco Popular Party (PP), the co-founder of the “Archipelago” platform, who landed in Madrid on November 18, also met late last week with right-wing opposition politician Leopoldo Lopez, who fled Venezuelan justice to Spain a year ago.

The connection with López, responsible for numerous deaths at roadblocks, the so-called guarimbas, in Venezuela in 2014, would allow “to better understand the play” that García “wanted to stage in Cuba,” the Cuban portal Cubadebate commented on Sunday.

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The World Stands With Cuba

The US-backed counter-revolutionary protests planned for November 15 in Cuba fell flat as the Caribbean country reopened its borders to tourists and its schools on the same day. The Cuban people blatantly rejected being a part of the US destabilization attempt and proved that they are more concerned about the reopening of the economy and the return to normalcy after a year and a half of restrictions due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

A small number of people in a few cities took to the streets as a part of the “Civic March for Change”, called for by an NGO called Archipiélago in 10 cities across Cuba. Videos shared on social media showed that these “organized protests” were quickly overshadowed by pro-revolutionary supporters.

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Cubans Are More Excited About School Reopening Than Regime Change

Havana – “If you build it, they will come,” said Kevin Costner in the Field of Dreams. In Cuba, they didn’t come. Dissidents on the island, with their U.S. backers, had been working feverishly for months to turn the unprecedented July 11 protests into a crescendo of government opposition on November 15. They built a formidable structure, with sophisticated social media (including an abundance of fake news), piles of cash from Cuban Americans and the U.S. government, and declarations of support from a bipartisan Congress and all the way up to the White House.

Even after the Cuban government denied the protesters a permit on the grounds that they were part of a destabilization campaign led by the United States, anti-government forces insisted that they were undeterred and were ready to take the risks.

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Militant Solidarity With Cuba On Display In 80+ Cities Worldwide

Solidarity movements with Cuba, political parties, social groups, and Cuban emigrants in other countries celebrated on Monday the restart of the school year on the island, its economic-productive revival, and the Cuban people’s determination to defend their Revolution against destabilizing attempts plotted from the United States.

Cuban President, Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, said through Twitter that “solidarity actions in more than 80 cities support the will of the Cuban people to build their own future.”

In an act in front of the headquarters of the Cuban diplomatic representation in the Venezuelan capital, Caracas, political parties and social movements supported the reopening of activities and rejected the recent acts of interference by the White House.

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BAP Condemns US Sponsorship Of Anti-Government Protests Against Cuba

The US government continues to amplify its war on the Cuban people through political, economic, and media efforts. In their own words, the US State Department has announced its role in organizing reactionary protests in Cuba, scheduled for November 15 as a continuation of the #SOSCuba campaign that began in July. The US has also preemptively threatened to place even more sanctions on Cuba if it deems that the Cuban government has interfered with the protests. As we know, sanctions kill, and while these will be framed as supporting human rights, the 60+-year long blockade and recent Trump and Biden administration crackdowns are war tactics that represent violence against the Cuban people, particularly Afro-Cubans.

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Why Is The US Fueling The November 15 Cuba Protests?

On September 20, letters began to arrive at eight Cuban municipal or provincial government headquarters announcing the holding of “peaceful” marches on November 15 by a group called Archipiélago. The motivation for these marches was a call for change. The letter was not a formal request to occupy the busiest streets of some cities in Cuba, but rather a notification by the group that they would do so and they also demanded that the authorities provide them with security for these marches. By virtue of Cuban laws and obsessive American support for the marches, the Cuban government denied permission for holding the protests.

Almost two months have passed since these letters were sent, but there are few indications that the march will take place in Cuba.

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