Yes, but I suspect that we don't know the truth of what Cuba is really like. I
gather that the majority of people are poor and that the government is
authoritarian. Still, Cuba has managed to survive what the US has been doing to
it and has been altruistic toward other countries. It's rather amazing.
Miriam
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
<blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> On Behalf Of Carl Jarvis
Sent: Wednesday, June 2, 2021 9:42 PM
To: blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [blind-democracy] Re: Rinse and Repeat: Will Biden Make Normalizing
Relations With Cuba a Priority?
All the piles of propaganda make it difficult to cut to the chase, especially
all the whining from the poor little rich Cubans living in Miami. So I fall
back on my years of reading between the lines, and my long memory of what Cuba
looked like back during the Batista reign.
When the wealthy Cubans fled to Miami they left their best part behind. Cuba
has come a long way since the days when the Mafia bosses held court in the posh
casinos, and were waited upon hand and foot by the men and women who would, one
day make Cuba into a respectable Nation. Hard work and determination has made
this small nation able to stand up to the worst the USA has dished out.
Carl Jarvis
On 6/2/21, Miriam Vieni <miriamvieni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Rinse and Repeat: Will Biden Make Normalizing Relations With Cuba a
Priority?
Despite talk that his administration's Cuba policy will be guided by
human rights concerns, Biden seems more concerned about catering to
right-wing Cuban Americans in southern Florida than changing the
decades of entrenched American policy.
by Medea Benjamin
June 01st, 2021
Mint Press News
By Medea Benjamin
HAVANA - Silvia from Miami, Eduardo from Hialeah, Abel from Lakeland.
The names pour in on the donations page for "Syringes to Cuba" as
Carlos Lazo promotes the campaign on his popular Facebook livestream.
An energetic Cuban-American high school teacher in Seattle, Lazo
created a group called Puentes de Amor, Bridges of Love, to unite
Cuban Americans who want to lift the searing U.S. blockade that is
immiserating their loved ones on the island.
Puentes de Amor is the latest addition to the Syringes to Cuba
initiative, which was started by the Saving Lives Campaign and the
humanitarian organization Global Health Partners to help Cuba
vaccinate its people against COVID-19. With the help of two other
groups, The People's Forum and CODEPINK, the campaign has raised over
$350,000 and has already placed an order for four million syringes.
Two million will arrive in June and the balance in July.
This initiative is in response to the dire economic situation in Cuba,
where the economy shrank by 11 percent last year-Cuba's worst economic
downturn since the early 1990s when the country was left reeling from
the collapse of the Soviet Union and the Eastern bloc. The present
economic meltdown is largely a result of the COVID-induced shutdown of
the tourist industry and a tightening of the embargo under Trump.
Reversing the gains made by the Obama-Biden administration in
normalizing relations with Cuba, Trump added over 200 restrictive
measures, including limiting remittances Cuban Americans can send to
their families, stopping U.S. flights to every city but Havana, and
prohibiting cruise ships from docking in Cuban ports. As a final stab
in his parting days, Trump took the completely bogus step of adding
Cuba to a U.S.-created list of state sponsors of terrorism, a
designation that discourages investments and substantially limits the
entry of foreign currency.
As a presidential candidate, Joe Biden pledged to "promptly reverse
the failed Trump policies that have inflicted harm on the Cuban people
and done nothing to advance democracy and human rights." Early in the
Biden administration, the White House announced that it was
undertaking a review of Cuba policy. But to the surprise and
disappointment of many Cuba watchers, and despite the fact that most
of Trump's policy changes could be reversed with a single executive order,
Biden has not moved an inch.
Questioned about this at an April 16 press conference, Press Secretary
Jen Psaki callously claimed that changing U.S. policy towards Cuba was
"currently not among the president's top foreign policy priorities."
On May 25, the State Department even announced that it would continue
Trump's determination that Cuba does not cooperate with U.S.
anti-terrorism efforts. The Cuban Ministry of Foreign Affairs fired
back, calling this action "irresponsible and shameful" and reminding
U.S. officials that Cuba itself has been "the victim of 713 terrorist
attacks, in their majority organized, financed and executed by the
U.S. government or individuals and organizations that are protected and act
with impunity in U.S. territory."
On June 23, the U.N. General Assembly will hold its yearly vote
calling for the U.S. to lift its embargo on Cuba. Every year since
1992, the world's nations overwhelmingly reject the embargo, leaving
the U.S. and one or two of its allies, like Israel and Brazil,
clinging to this unpopular and anachronistic policy. In 2016, the
Obama administration broke with 25 years of U.S. opposition to the UN
resolution by abstaining. A new lobby group ACERE (Alliance for Cuba
Engagement and Respect), with the support of over
100 organizations, is calling on Biden to follow President Obama's
lead by not opposing this year's resolution, and instead using the
occasion to announce the measures that his administration will take to
provide relief for the Cuban people and a return to the path of normalization.
A push for action has also come from the grassroots, through creative
and growing anti-blockade car and bicycle caravans held on the last
Sunday of every month. The largest of the nation's caravans winds
through the heart of the pro-blockade world: Miami. In the most recent
May 30 Miami caravan, over
200 people participated, most of them Cuban-Americans. "We've had 10
of these caravans so far," said organizer Jorge Medina (a.k.a. El
Proteston Cubano on YouTube). "Each one is bigger than the last and
the energy is fantastic." But so far, the media-and the Biden
administration-have ignored them.
Congress has been pushing Biden as well. In March 2021, 80
representatives, led by Congressman Bobby Rush, sent a letter to Biden
urging him to take swift executive action to reverse the Trump
administration's draconian policies and return to the diplomatic path
charted by the Obama-Biden administration, and Congressman Rush later
introduced a bill to that effect.
On May 21, U.S. Senators Jerry Moran (R-Kan.), Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.)
and Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) introduced the bipartisan Freedom to Export
to Cuba Act that would eliminate the legal barriers to Americans doing
business in Cuba, a move that would be particularly popular with farm
and business groups interested in trade and export opportunities.
Unfortunately, Biden seems more concerned about catering to right-wing
Cuban Americans in southern Florida, where the Democrats, failing to
stand up to Trump's red-baiting, lost the state and two congressional
seats in the last election. Despite the talk that his administration
is guided by human rights concerns, Biden ignores what the
humanitarian group OXFAM, in its detailed report on the devastating
effects of U.S. policy, called "The Right to Live Without a Blockade."
But Biden ignores the crisis in Cuba at his own peril. The dire food
and medicine shortages may well spark a migration crisis that will
exacerbate the rush of Central American asylum seekers at the Mexican
border that the Biden administration is already unable to cope with.
Cuba expert Bill LeoGrande predicts "a mass exodus of desperate
people" if Biden doesn't act soon.
Biden would do well to heed the warning and with the stroke of a pen,
lift trade and travel restrictions and allow unrestricted remittances.
These measures would quickly infuse more money into Cuba's economy and
alleviate the needless suffering Cubans are experiencing at the hands
of an administration that does not consider the well-being of 11
million Cubans "a priority."