Barely four years ago, the former Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque played a leading role at the United Nations against the American embargo of Cuba. It was his voice that explained the commercial, economic and financial privations that derive from it. The exalted official exposed what many know by heart: the multiple effects resulting from these limitations -- since 1962 -- to industry, technological development and even public health. But the then Minister of Foreign Affairs said nothing about the internal siege that we suffer from, nothing about that other wall of censorship and punishment that, shortly afterward, would fall also upon him.
The simple fact of choosing the word "embargo" or preferring the more fearsome "blockade" marks a quasi-ideological position. That issue has been so manipulated in the national press that the government doesn't recognize that among those who oppose the system are many who also oppose the United States trade restrictions on the island. The newspaper Granma assumes that those of us who demand a political opening applaud, ipso facto, the existence of the embargo. Hence, so many surprised faces when they hear our own arguments for lifting it as soon as possible; reasons that Felipe Perez Roque never said at the U.N. and that he only learned when he came to be the ousted foreign minister.
The five decade prolongation of the "blockade" has allowed every setback we've suffered to be explained as stemming from it, justified by its effects. But its existence has not prevented the luxurious mansions of the nomenklatura from swimming in whiskey, their freezers packed with food while modern cars sit in the garages. To make matters worse, the economic fence has helped to fuel the idea of a place besieged, where dissent comes to be equated with an act of treason. The exterior blockade has strengthened the interior blockade.
I hope that today's vote in the United Nations is favorable toward those of us who wish such absurdity to end, especially we who consider the end of the embargo as a definitive blow to the authoritarianism under which we live. The official delegation, for its part, will interpret it otherwise: they will applaud with satisfaction, declare that this constitutes "another victory for the Revolution." In Havana, meanwhile -- far from watchful eyes -- certain higher ups will celebrate with Johnny Walker and wolf down some delicate appetizer "Made in the USA."
Yoani's blog, Generation Y, can be read here in English translation.
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“It is necessary to impose financial, economic and material restrictions to dictatorships, so that they will not take roots for long years….Diplomatic and morals measures do not work against dictatorships, because these make fun of the Governments and the population”. Fidel Castro, “Fidel Castro and Human Rights”, Editora Política, Havana, Cuba, 1988. What better justification of the embargo than his own words.
What will bring "Change" to Cuba are “free elections, the freeing of all political prisoners, and the implementation of a market economy.” Everything else is “mental masturbation!”
OFICINA NACIONAL DE ESTATISTICAS DE CUBA - Office of National Statistics of Cuba
15.3 - Visitantes por países / Visitors per country of origin - I think it includes Cuban-Americans in the total but now shown on US category.
2003 = 1,905,682 ( US 84,529 )
2004 = 2,048,572 ( US 49,856 )
2005 = 2,319,334 ( US 37,233 )
2006 = 2,220,567 ( US 36,808 )
2007 = 2,152,221 ( US 40,521 )
2008 = 2,348,340 ( US 41,904 )
http://www.one.cu/aec2008/esp/15_tabla_cuadro.htm
REUTERS : Cuban tourism up 10.6 percent, U.S. travel stable - Fri Jul 29, 2011
According to industry insiders 375,500 Cubans residing abroad visited in 2010, compared with 296,000 in 2009, with most of the increase attributed to Cuban Americans.
The number of U.S. citizens visiting their government's long-time ideological foe also increased last year by 20 percent, reaching 63,000, according to Cuban government statistics.
Travel providers report they are swamped and forecast more than 100,000 Americans not of Cuban descent will come to the island this year.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/07/29/us-cuba-tourism-idUSTRE76S5V420110729
In 1961, President Kennedy cut the Cuban sugar quota to zero but it wasn't until 1962, after the Bay of Pigs invasion of the previous fall, that Kennedy announced a total embargo of Cuba would begin. Although the embargo has remained, it has been modified through the years to include the export of U.S. food products and medicine to Cuba as well as the import of Cuban art and music to the United States. Since then all US administration frustrated attempts to normalize relations with the Castro brothers’ regime reflect a pattern of deception on the part of them, ready to obtain U.S. concessions without making any themselves.
I expect that those who insist there is no embargo, and who are who are US citizens, speak without little or no firsthand knowledge of Cuba as it is today.
After all, they are forbidden to travel to Cuba.
And who do they hear telling them about Cuba in the article above? A woman who is abetted by the US State Department.
The US model of Democracy is currently being protested by American Yoani Sanchez-es throughout the states, through the spread of the message of "Occupy Wall Street".
Perhaps these young American dissidents are being funded by Cuba?
As for who funds dissention in Cuba, see
http://cubamoneyproject.org/?p=3066
and for a broader overview of "funding human rights"
see
http://nyti.ms/vaG6lK
"U.S. Underwrites Internet Detour Around Censors"
The US model of democracy is corrupted by nature of its election process - legislators are bought and sold by the corporations that lobby Congress. Human rights are subservient to the aims and goals of large corporations, whose first priority is the maximising of returns to the stockholder.
The USA is happy to co-operate with one-party democracies like China, Vietnam and Lao PDR, but not Cuba. I wonder if the embargo-deniers above have any opinions on that particular inconsistency in US foreign policy.
Summary of State Dept-John Kerry Q&A- USAID
Excerpt: “These programs are comparable to what we and other donors do to support democracy and human rights in repressive societies all over the world. Possible counterintelligence penetration is a known risk in Cuba. Those who carry out our assistance are aware of such risks. …the Cuban government arbitrarily arrests and detains citizens who try to exercise basic freedoms…Unfortunately, given these circumstances, we are not always able to publicly convey the details and impact of our programs.”
2) Question: Democracy programs were supposed to evolve under the Obama administration. How is that happening?
Answer: This isn’t regime change anymore. We’re helping Cubans “freely determine their own future.” Also, the emphasis has shifted. We’re channeling as much aid as possible directly to Cuba rather than spending outside the island. We’re helping a wider range of people, not just legacy dissidents, but LGBT groups and the disabled.
Excerpt: “This focus on the island supports our efforts to reach broader segments of the Cuban population, while deepening the direct impact of the programs.”
Comment: I wonder if support for the LGBT community is a jab at Cuban gay rights activist Mariela Castro. She directs Cuba’s National Center for Sex Education and is President Raul Castro’s daughter.
http://cubamoneyproject.org/?p=1961#more-1961
Here's what the US told the General Assembly about it today:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CubaNews/message/127549
REUTERS : Cuban tourism up 10.6 percent, U.S. travel stable
U.S. President Barack Obama lifted all restrictions on Cuban American travel to the island in 2009, resulting in a big jump in arrivals in 2010. That appears to have leveled off this year.
According to industry insiders 375,500 Cubans residing abroad visited in 2010, compared with 296,000 in 2009, with most of the increase attributed to Cuban Americans.
The number of U.S. citizens visiting their government's long-time ideological foe also increased last year by 20 percent, reaching 63,000, according to Cuban government statistics.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/07/29/us-cuba-tourism-idUSTRE76S5V420110729
The Castros’ tyranny continues to talk about the embargo (call by them blockade) to create the impression in the public opinion that it is the principal cause of the failure of its dysfunctional economic system. It is the old tactic used by Joseph Goebbels, the Nazi regime minister of propaganda whose very famous quote says, “If you tell a lie long enough, it becomes the truth.” The only effective embargo that today affects the Cuban people is the internal embargo that the Castros’ tyranny maintains on them.
The Cubans in the island doesn’t need any external help it has been proven through the scattered opportunities the dictatorship relaxed the hard regulation over the private initiative. Each time it happen the people self solved all their problems without the government involving. The farmers produced all food the people needed; the markets were full with vegetables, meat, eggs, milk, etc. Small industries proliferated everywhere and the vendors found theirs stands full of shoes, cloths, deodorants and all kind articles long time ago vanished from the market.
But in the same way dictatorship is afraid of information is also afraid of richness, even if this richness is account in thousands and not in millions. Because richness means independence and insubordination and leftist dictatorships needs for surviving the people’s dependence and subordination.
In 2007 USA sold to Cuba goods for $582 000 000
In 2006 sold goods for $484 000 000
In 2008 sold goods for $680 000 000
USA supplies Cuba almost all food the island needs, including……………..sugar!!!!!!!!!
In the years of the soviet subside to Cuba, the dictatorship received from Russia $360 000 000 000 cash and all needed, oil, weapons, wood, machinery, trucks. iron, paper and spear parts.
Only the received cash were equivalent to 100 Plan Marshall ………….. remember people……… with only one Plan Marchall Europe rose from devastation to welfare after WWII………… the embargo simply does not exist
REUTERS: Cuba says U.S. climbs to 5th leading trade partner-HAVANA | Thu Aug 14, 2008
(Reuters) - The United States ranked among communist Cuba’s top five trading partners for the first time in 2007 despite the decades-old U.S. trade embargo, as U.S. agriculture sales increased by $100 million. Trade data for 2007 posted on the Web site of Cuba’s National Statistics Office (www.one.cu) placed the United States fifth at $582 million, compared with $484 million in 2006, including shipping costs.
The United States, which began selling food to Cuba in 2002 under an amendment to the embargo, placed seventh in 2006 and 2005.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2008/08/14/us-cuba-usa-trade-idUSN1447847620080814
Under the Cuban Democracy Act of 1992 (the “CDA”) and the Trade Sanctions and Export Enhancement Act of 2000 (the “TSRA”), the Commerce Department provides licenses for the sale and export or re-export of certain medicine and medical supplies, food and agricultural commodities to Cuba. The list of agricultural commodities that may be licensed is narrowly defined. Eligible items include products such as tobacco, certain live animals, bamboo, wood charcoal, and fiberboard but not others such as certain fertilizers or cardboard boxes. Total U.S. agricultural exports to Cuba exceeded $690 million in 2008, up from $413 million in 2007, and the U.S. is the fifth largest exporter to Cuba.
http://www.chadbourne.com/files/Publication/9fba32f9-774f-467f-9c93-9666c0173d9e/Presentation/PublicationAttachment/949a5fc7-d50f-4af6-bc50-a87f314f1ea4/090505-Cuba.pdf
YOUTUBE : EL MITO DEL SISTEMA DE SALUD EN CUBA - The myth of the Cuban health system. A PICTURE IS WORTH A THOUSAND WORDS.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h95_qCTOGEE
Despite some initial disagreement, there now seems to be a consensus around the figure of a minimum of $1.2 billion as the amount remitted yearly from Cuban Americans to their relatives in Cuba. Of this, the Cuban government assesses about 20 percent in various fees. If Cuban expatriates and their now adult children had not fled to the U.S. and elsewhere, the economy of Cuba would be in far worse shape than it is today. That's one of the many ironies of the Cuban Revolution
http://spectator.org/archives/2011/08/19/an-old-mans-island#