Translations 677
The Contradictions of the U.S. Left
The Contradictions of the U.S. Left
By Manuel E. Yepe
http://manuelyepe.wordpress.com/
Exclusive for the daily POR ESTO! of Merida, Mexico.
Translated and edited by Walter Lippmann for CubaNews.
The dream of creating a super-majority left-wing party in the United States from the ashes of the old Democratic party could be achieved overnight if Senator Bernie Sanders stopped working against the generation of young people who energized his campaign in the United States. confrontation with Hillary Clinton.
That is the idea put forth by the American writer, professor and political activist Gail McGowan Mellor in an article by her published on Huffington Post on September 27.
It is estimated that two-thirds of voters in the US are opposed to the endless wars waged by their country, the granting of subsidies to large corporations and corruption. They want to support environment, public safety, science and social justice. If they were able to unite, they would roll in any suffrage.
At present, there are those who work for the creation of a new great party of the left. They do not do it with a retail approach, because those who have this commitment are 60% of the total number of voters and 78% of the independents, says Mellor.
But several times in the last year the projected new self-organized progressive party has been close to becoming viable and has been blocked by Sanders, who has prioritized the unification and cleansing of the deeply divided and corrupt Democratic party, to which he himself does not belong.
US Senator Bernie Sanders was a 2016 presidential candidate promoted by progressive democrats from the Democratic Party. They were determined to clean up US policy, get out of its endless wars, restore security networks and fight climate change. But they had not found, at the federal level of the two establishment parties, someone who did not receive money from large corporations.
Bernie was an independent politician (without a party) who, 42 years ago, had held local and federal political positions without receiving partisan support or corporate money. A convincing politician, well-informed and passionate, but unknown at the national level, he was raised to the political limelight and to victory by young people between 18 and 50 years of age, known as the millenials). They average 37 years of age and aim at making changes in culture and politics, without imperialist aims and in favor of a democratic reconstruction of society.
At various times, Sanders rejected calls from many of the “millennials”, that he should leave the Democratic trusteeship and create a new party. But, instead of setting this as a goal, Sanders insisted that he could restore the Democratic Party to its old party party glory.
Without military in the divided and corrupt Democratic party, whose supporters barely represent 28% of the registered electorate, Sanders decided to work to achieve the reunification of it. To this end, he called on his supporters to register as Democrats, to the detriment of the progressive ranks that had promoted him and that, for that reason, would be divided and weakened.
The Democrats had accepted him as their presidential primary candidate because it gave them a competitive image that legitimized Hillary Clinton, their pre-determined candidate. The Democratic leadership calculated that beating Bernie would be an easy task for her. In fact, thanks to the millennial generation, Bernie demonstrated, from the first month of the campaign, that in a few hours he could gather an enthusiastic crowd in any city, something that Hillary could not do despite the abundant corporate money she had.
But neither Sanders nor his supporters knew that the Democratic primaries, with their fabulous public expenditures, are always fraudulent and their outcome is predetermined behind closed doors. And the most serious thing is that the party sees this as its right.
At various times, Sanders rejected the idea of many in the millennial generation, of getting out of the Democratic trusteeship and creating a new left party. Not a few of them thought they’d been cheated by the Democratic Party, and betrayed by Sanders. The rigged Democratic primaries ended in June 2016 with the designation of Hillary as party candidate.
Polls showed that Clinton and Trump were then neck-and-neck, four months before the November vote.
Subsequent polls have shown that in the 2016 elections, Sanders would have swept Trump. One of them suggested that Sanders would have obtained 56% of the vote, “an avalanche.”
As an aspiring Democratic presidential candidate, Sanders told TIME magazine that what he was waging was not an election campaign but a “movement leading to a revolution for which he was trying to create political awareness.”
October 23, 2017.
Indiscipline Penalty for Industriales Manager
National Baseball Directorate reports on penalty for Industriales manager
October 31, 2017
Translated and edited by Walter Lippmann.
The National Baseball Directorate (DNB) informs our fans that the penalty applied to the manager of the Industriales, Víctor Mesa Martínez, was due to an act of indiscipline committed at the Bella Habana hotel, belonging to the Islazul chain.
The incident, which involved Mesa Martinez and one of the security managers of the installation, occurred last Thursday night, after concluding the first game of the sub-series that the Industriales played against Pinar del Río at the Latin American stadium.
Authorities from the capital, INDER, the Ministry of Tourism and the Islazul chain analyzed in detail what happened, and once the facts were clarified, the DNB proceeded to apply the corresponding measure, in line with the level of seriousness of what had happened.
The evaluation of what happened advised suspension of the manager for a sub-series, which corresponds to the one that those from the capital dispute in front of Granma in Bayamo.
This confirms the principle that discipline is inviolable in all venues of our National Series, and that the weight of the established regulation will fall on those who violate it.
The DNB also wants to explain that, as a rule, it does not provide the details of the events for which its athletes, coaches, affiliates and managers are given penalties, in order to protect the moral integrity of those involved and not to affect the internal dynamics of a team or work collective.
National Baseball Directorate
Estela Bravo: The Many Eyes of Her Camera
- English
- Español
Estela Bravo
The Many Eyes of Her Camera
By: Gilda Fariñas Rodríguez
Posted: 08/10/2015
A CubaNews translation. Edited by Walter Lippmann.
Estela and Mario Bravo
The United States, 1953. The call is to meet in front of the White House in Washington to support the campaign for the lives of the couple Ethel and Julius Rosenberg, condemned to die in the electric chair *. Estela Bravo is a 20-year-old daughter of a union leader, studying sociology and working for the furrier’s trade union in New York. Before leaving, she buys an eight-millimeter camera to film what would happen at the rally.
Upon arrival, two children catch her eye. They are the small Rosenberg children who are next to the demonstrators demanding mercy for their parents. That painful image is the first to be captured with her camera. Images and facts mark and set the course of her life. “I could not believe they would do something like that to you. That execution of the Rosenberg couple was always with me. “
This defined Estela Bravo’s existence from the political and personal point of view. That same year, she traveled to Europe as part of the delegation of her country participating in the Fourth World Youth Festival in Bucharest and the Third World Student Congress. In Warsaw, she also came to know Ernesto Bravo, the Argentine student leader with whom she has shared love, home, three children, two grandchildren and an impressive cinematographic work for almost 60 years.
Married in Argentina in January 1956, Estela and Ernesto decided to settle in Cuba, in 1963, after he received a contract to work as a professor of biochemistry at the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Havana. She also does radio and television programs and organized the memorable Encuentro de Cancion Protesta (Protest Song Encuentro) in 1967. It was an event that would lead to the creation of the Center for Protest Song that Estela herself would direct.
From that event, she kept some memories that she now shares with Mujeres. “The first time the song Hasta Siempre, Comandante was sung, was in that Encuentro. Carlos Puebla wrote it when Che Guevara left Cuba. It was also the first time that Silvio, Pablo, and Noel sang together. “
It was in this same Casa that the multiple-award-winning filmmaker returned. Now, to donate to the archives of the Library a part of her more than 50 documentaries. With these she has registered the diversity of contexts and realities, with its human and divine conflicts, its migratory processes, its good actions, its political and social complexities, their barbarities, their injustices, their wars, their peace pacts, their joys, their dramas, their heroics, testimonies and truths that shake and hurt as they fill the soul with tenderness and love.
There they are to confirm it Those Who Left, Los Marielitos, Missing Children, Debtor Children, Holy Father and Glory, Cuba-South Africa, after the battle, Miami-Havana, Nelson Mandela in Cuba, The Excludables, Operation Peter Pan, Closing the Circle in Cuba, Fidel, The Untold Story.
FROM NEW YORK TO HAVANA, THE BRAVOS
New York University (NYU) is facing the arduous and expensive task of digitizing the filmography of Estela and Ernesto Bravo. It is a project that will guarantee the durability of this historic and universal heritage.
“We needed to clean up and digitize many of our files. NYU kindly offered to do the work. That is a very costly process, and we do not have enough resources to conduct it. We must bear in mind that each material was filmed and recorded with formats and equipment that are already obsolete,” Estela explains. She thanks the cooperation and donations received from “people who appreciate our documentaries to finance the digitization of films .”
Last January, Casa de las Americas received the good news that the Bravo couple had decided to donate much of that restored material.
“We already have other documentaries, passed on to the new technology, in our hands. That way, all the documentaries will be in the libraries of New York and of Casa so that the public has free access to them, which gives us great satisfaction “.
With marked jubilation, Estela mentions a message sent by NYU where she lea that they had shown, “the film Conversando con García Márquez on his friend Fidel in this center for advanced studies. A hundred people were unable to get in. It was all a success!”
THE VOICES OF HER CAMERA
It’s a Sunday in April at midday. Estela Bravo opens her home and part of her life to Mujeres magazine. We spoke in a room where there are plenty of portraits of her children (two women and one man), as well as her two grandchildren (woman and man). Pictures with posters of the Protest Song Encuentro and some works of art cover the walls. A picture of wood stands out. Estela is smiling between Nelson Mandela and Fidel Castro. It’s an image of which, of course, she is very proud.
“It was in 1991. It turns out that Mandela and I were talking at a reception where Fidel was coming to speak, and that’s when we took the picture. Having been there makes me feel very special; to be a woman with enormous luck because it is to be among the two most certainly important men of our time. I met Mandela in Namibia, during the celebration of Independence Day; From that moment I’ve also kept a photo with him. Later I saw him again when he was in Cuba.
There are many other images of memorable moments for Estela. These figures confirm the intensity with which this woman, born on June 8, 1933 in New York, has lived and created: major world leaders, political and religious figures, social leaders, artists, poets, writers, dear friends and friends and protagonists of her documentaries. In addition to numerous prizes, decorations, and memories that she leafs through with the same nostalgia with which she reads the small note next to a drawing, sent by the (recently-deceased) Uruguayan writer, Eduardo Galeano. “I would like to have as many eyes as the camera of Estela Bravo.” She is silent for a few moments, and her eyes seem to be damp.
Respectful of her sadness, I remain silent. She smiles with a warm tenderness as if distressed by the raw quality of her memories. So we talked a little more about her audacious cinematic experiences.
“My career has not been without difficulties when filming, to obtain testimonies, although that happens to every person seeking information. However, I have always received help from many people, and many doors have been opened to me. In the end, I feel a deep satisfaction because the public sees my films, comments on them, they stop me in the street … and that gives me the biggest bliss “.
Are you fond of a particular documentary?
“I am fond of each of the works we have done. Because if, through a film, we can transmit to people what we feel, then we make the stories of many people imperishable. Certainly, there are some jobs that one wants more than others, for example, Operation Peter Pan … Today I maintain ties with all those young people. Similar affection provokes me The Found Children of Argentina, for which I remained a great friendship with Estela Carlotto, president of the Grandmothers of Plaza de Mayo. I remember when she found her grandson (who is 114[?]) I went back to the documentary and added it at the end. We even made a new version that ends with the testimony of her embracing her 37 year-old grandson.
“The film The Holy Father and Gloria is the most-awarded of all that we have done. Personally, I have a deep affection for this documentary, as well as Carmen Gloria **, her protagonist who is married today and has a beautiful girl. “
Will Estela Bravo ever stop making films?
“I’m almost 82 years old. I cannot believe it! It is no longer the same, but I will always try not to stop working. Right now we are immersed in a new production, but I do not want to speak, for the moment, of what we are doing. “
Even if she does not want to reveal to this magazine the details of her new documentary, it is evident to us that once again we will be confronted with stories, experiences, dramas, and joys, images and voices captured in an exceptional way by this woman’s brave camera.
Estela Bravo
Los tantos ojos de su cámara
Por: Gilda Fariñas Rodríguez
Publicado: 10/08/2015
Estados Unidos, año 1953. La convocatoria es reunirse frente a la Casa Blanca, en Washington, para apoyar la campaña por la vida de los esposos Ethel y JuliusRosenberg, condenados a morir en la silla eléctrica*. Estela Bravo tiene 20 años, es hija de un líder sindical, estudia sociología y trabaja para el sindicato de peleteros, en Nueva York. Antes de salir, compra una cámara de ocho milímetros para filmar lo que ocurriría en el mitin.
Al llegar, dos niños llaman su atención. Son los pequeños hijos Rosenberg que están junto a los manifestantes que pedían clemencia para sus padres. Aquella dolorosa imagen es la primera que capta con su cámara. Imágenes y hechos que marcan y determinan su vida. «Yo no podía creer que les harían algo así. Esa ejecución de los esposos Rosenberg quedó siempre conmigo».
Así quedaba definida la existencia de Estela Bravo desde lo político y personal: ese mismo año 53 viaja a Europa como parte de la delegación de su país que participa en el IV Festival de la Juventud, en Bucarest, y al III Congreso Mundial de Estudiantes, en Varsovia; también conoce a Ernesto Bravo, el dirigente estudiantil argentino con el que ha compartido amor, hogar, tres hijos, dos nietos y una impresionante obra cinematográfica por casi 60 años.
Casados en Argentina en enero de 1956, Estela y Ernesto deciden instalarse en Cuba, en 1963, luego de que él recibiera un contrato para trabajar como profesor de Bioquímica en la Facultad de Medicina de la Universidad de La Habana. En tanto ella hace programas de radio, de televisión y organiza en la Casa de las Américas el memorable Encuentro de la Canción Protesta, en 1967. Un suceso que daría paso a la creación del Centro de la Canción Protesta que la propia Estela dirigiría.
De aquel suceso rescata algunos recuerdos que ahora comparte con Mujeres. «La primera vez que se cantó la canción Hasta siempre, comandante, fue en ese Encuentro. Carlos Puebla la escribió cuando el Che Guevara salió de Cuba. También fue la primera vez que Silvio, Pablo y Noel cantaron juntos».
Precisamente, a esta misma Casa retorna la multipremiada cineasta. Ahora, para donar a los archivos de la Biblioteca una parte de los más de 50 documentales con los que ha registrado la diversidad de contextos y realidades, con sus conflictos humanos y divinos, sus procesos migratorios, sus buenas acciones, sus complejidades políticas y sociales, sus barbaries, sus injusticias, sus guerras, sus pactos de paz, sus alegrías, sus dramas, sus heroicidades… Testimonios y verdades que estremecen y duelen lo mismo que llenan de ternura y amor el alma.
Ahí están para confirmarlo Los que se fueron, Los Marielitos, Niños desaparecidos, Niños deudores, El Santo Padre y la Gloria, Cuba-Sudáfrica, después de la batalla, Miami-La Habana, Nelson Mandela en Cuba, Los excluibles, Operación Peter Pan, cerrando el círculo en Cuba, Fidel, la historia no contada…
DE NUEVA YORK A LA HABANA, LOS BRAVO
La Universidad de Nueva York (UNY) está encarando la ardua y carísima faena de digitalizar la filmografía de Estela y Ernesto Bravo. Una labor que garantiza la perdurabilidad de ese patrimonio histórico y universal.
«Necesitábamos limpiar y digitalizar muchos de nuestros archivos. La UNY se ofreció, gentilmente, para hacer el trabajo. Ese es un proceso costosísimo y nosotros no tenemos suficientes recursos para asumirlo. Hay que tener en cuenta que cada material fue filmado y grabado con formatos y equipos que ya son obsoletos», explica Estela, quien agradece la cooperación y donativos recibidos de «personas que aprecian nuestros documentales para financiar la digitalización de las películas».
En enero pasado, la Casa de las Américas recibía la buena noticia de que el matrimonio Bravo decidió donar buena parte de ese material restaurado.
«Ya tenemos otros documentales, pasados a la nueva tecnología, en nuestras manos. De ese modo, podrá estar toda la documentalística en las Bibliotecas de Nueva York y de Casa para que el público tenga acceso libre a ella, lo cual nos da mucha satisfacción».
Con marcado júbilo, Estela menciona un mensaje enviado por la UNY donde le comunican que exhibieron, en ese centro de altos estudios, «la película Conversando con García Márquez sobre su amigo Fidel. ¡Cien personas se quedaron sin poder entrar. Fue todo un éxito!»
LAS VOCES DE SU CÁMARA
Domingo de abril al mediodía. Estela Bravo abre su casa y parte de su vida a la revista Mujeres. Conversamos en una sala donde abundan retratos de sus hijos (dos mujeres y un hombre), al igual que sus dos nietos (mujer y varón). Cuadros con afiches del Encuentro de la Canción Protesta y algunas obras de arte cubren las paredes. Sobre un mueble de madera resalta una foto. Estela sonríe entre Nelson Mandela y Fidel Castro. Una imagen de la que, por supuesto, se siente profundamente orgullosa.
«Fue en el año 1991. Resulta que Mandela y yo estamos hablando en una recepción y Fidel se acerca para conversar y es cuando nos toman la foto. Estar ahí me hace sentir muy especial; ser una mujer con una suerte enorme porque es estar entre los dos hombres, con toda seguridad, más importantes de nuestro tiempo. Yo había conocido a Mandela en Namibia, durante la celebración del Día de la Independencia; de ese momento también guardo una foto con él. Después lo volví a ver cuando estuvo en Cuba.
Hay otras muchísimas imágenes de instantes memorables para Estela. Manifiestos gráficos que confirman la intensidad con que esta mujer, nacida el 8 de junio de 1933, en Nueva York, ha vivido y creado: importantes líderes mundiales, figuras políticas y religiosas, dirigentes sociales, artistas, poetas, escritores, entrañables amigas y amigos y protagonistas de sus documentales. Además de numerosos premios, condecoraciones y recuerdos que hojea con la misma nostalgia con que lee la pequeña nota junto a un dibujo, enviada por el escritor uruguayo (recién fallecido), Eduardo Galeano. «Yo quisiera tener tantos ojos como la cámara de Estela Bravo». Queda callada unos instantes y sus ojos parecen humedecerse.
Respetuosa de su tristeza, guardo silencio. Sonríe con una ternura cálida, como apenada de la desnudez de sus recuerdos. Entonces, hablamos un poco más de sus audaces experiencias cinematográficas.
«Mi carrera no ha estado exenta de dificultades a la hora de filmar, de conseguir testimonios; aunque eso le ocurre a toda persona que busca información. Sin embargo, siempre he recibido ayuda de numerosas personas, y muchas puertas se me han abierto. Al final, experimento una profunda satisfacción porque el público ve mis películas, las comenta, me paran en la calle… y eso me proporciona la más grande dicha».
¿Siente cariño por un documental en particular?
«Le tengo cariño a cada uno de los trabajos que hemos realizado. Porque si a través de una película podemos trasmitir a la gente eso que sentimos, entonces hacemos imperecedera la historia de muchas personas. Ciertamente, hay algunos trabajos que una quiere más que otros, por ejemplo, Operación Peter Pan… Hoy mantengo relación con todos esos muchachos. Similar cariño me provoca Los niños encontrados de Argentina, del que me quedó una gran amistad con Estela Carlotto, presidenta de las abuelas de Plaza de Mayo. Recuerdo que cuando ella encontró a su nieto (que es el 114) volví al documental y lo agregué al final. Incluso, hicimos una nueva versión que finaliza con el testimonio de ella abrazada a su nieto de 37 años.
«La película El Santo Padre y la Gloria, es la más premiada de todas las que hemos realizado. En lo personal, siento profundo cariño por ese documental, al igual que por Carmen Gloria**, su protagonista que hoy está casada y tiene una preciosa niña».
¿Nunca dejará de filmar Estela Bravo?
«Casi voy a cumplir 82 años. ¡No lo puedo creer! Ya no es igual, pero siempre trataré de no dejar de trabajar. Ahora mismo estamos inmersos en una nueva producción, pero no quiero hablar, por el momento, de lo que estamos haciendo».
Aun cuando ella no quiera revelar a esta revista los detalles de su nuevo documental, nos resulta obvia la expectativa de que, una vez más, estaremos frente a relatos, vivencias, dramas y alegrías, imágenes y voces captadas, de manera excepcional, por la cámara brava de esta mujer.
Poor Puerto Rico
- English
- Español
Poor Puerto Rico
By Manuel E. Yepe
http://manuelyepe.wordpress.com/
Exclusive for the daily POR ESTO! of Merida, Mexico
Translated and edited by Walter Lippmann for CubaNews.
Sad is the situation that Puerto Ricans are going through. The island was recently devastated by a deadly hurricane that crossed its entire length. Hovering over it, sharpened vehemence, is another phenomenon, one more criminal, prolonged and bloody. its condition of being a colony of the United States..
The Federal Agency for Emergency Management (FEMA) has bureaucratically hindered the distribution of aid that has been able to reach Puerto Rico. There are reports that claim that most of the aid for the disaster is still on the docks of San Juan, the capital.
Fifty percent of the population still lacks access to drinking water. The power grid is so damaged that 85 percent of the population still does not have electricity. The lack of fuel and energy hinders the functioning of hospitals and puts at risk the lives of the most vulnerable: children and the elderly. The death rate is increasing, especially in rural areas.
In the midst of the greatest devastation on the island, due to the passage of Hurricane Maria, Puerto Ricans were severely offended when President Trump blamed them for the humanitarian crisis the island was facing.
“Texas and Florida are doing very well, but Puerto Rico, which already suffered from a damaged infrastructure and massive debt, is in trouble,” Trump wrote in his Internet account, comparing the rapid recovery of two of the nation’s major states hit by hurricanes. In the process of degradation that affected them, with the tragedy suffered by their country in the Caribbean because of the most violent hurricane in Borinquen history, with sustained winds of 155 mph (250 km/h).
Trump’s angry reaction to the atrocious humanitarian crisis in Puerto Rico exacerbated by the meteorological phenomenon in the conditions of a country deeply hurt by decades of colonialism and neoliberal policies, has created an explosive situation.
Puerto Rico currently has a debt of $73 billion to its creditors, which is equivalent to the total of its GDP. The commonwealth officially is in default (unable pay the debt). Neither the US government nor the International Monetary Fund (IMF) have presented any solution.
In reality, the country’s debt began to grow in the 1970s. Its economy, since the middle of the last century, was based mainly on the pharmaceutical industry. But with the appearance of the maquiladoras in Mexico and Asia, this sector has been moving to those regions in search of cheaper labor and higher productivity.
Currently, the official unemployment rate in 16 municipalities is 20 percent and in 61 others it exceeds 12 percent, although in reality the real unemployment rate is much higher than the official rate. Some 45 percent of the island’s 3.5 million people live in poverty and 83 percent of children live in poor areas. In a desperate act, last may Governor Rosselló cut the budget by $674 million dollars. This affected the health care system, education, various social programs and the University of Puerto Rico. As a result of the economic crisis, 144,000 Puerto Ricans left the island in search of employment.
Puerto Rico and Cuba have shared destinies as Spanish colonies. Their emancipatory struggles were interrupted by an opportunistic US intervention that sought to adjudge the remnants of the Spanish colonial empire in disgrace. Cuba achieved that the military occupation of the then nascent US imperialism was limited to 4 years and gave way to the proclamation in 1902 of an independent pseudo-republic. January 1959 brought, through the revolution, a genuine independence, although at the cost of a bloody daily battle against American hegemonic appetites.
118 years ago Washington seized Puerto Rico and the other vestiges of the Spanish empire in the Western Hemisphere. When neoliberalism broke onto the scene, to provide an injection of life to capitalism in crisis, the impulse towards the privatization of everything that existed caused extraordinary damage in Puerto Rico. Living conditions deteriorated with the disappearance of government funds for social programs and jobs. The island’s infrastructure was devastated by a campaign to convert everything from roads and public services to the education system into private for-profit companies.
Colonialism imposed an unpayable debt on Puerto Rico. Now it has had a dictatorial junta imposed on it to ensure that this debt is paid, even at the cost of a humanitarian crisis for the Puerto Rican people. Boricuas are demanding, specifically, that this debt be audited and that it be determined which part of it is legitimate and who is responsible for having assumed it.
October 30, 2017
Pobre Puerto Rico
Por Manuel E. Yepe
http://manuelyepe.wordpress.com/
Exclusivo para el diario POR ESTO! de Mérida, México
Triste es la situación por la que atraviesan los puertorriqueños; recién arrasada su isla por un mortífero huracán que la atravesó por toda su extensión, se cierne sobre ella con agudizada vehemencia otro fenómeno más criminal, prolongado y cruento, su condición colonial respecto a Estados Unidos.
La Agencia Federal para el Manejo de Emergencias (FEMA, según las siglas en inglés) ha obstaculizado burocráticamente la distribución de la ayuda que ha podido llegar a Puerto Rico. Hay reportajes que afirman que la mayor parte de la ayuda para el desastre aún se encuentra en los muelles de San Juan, la capital.
Cincuenta por ciento de la población carece aún de acceso a agua potable y la red eléctrica está tan dañada que el 85 por ciento de la población aún no tiene electricidad. La falta de combustible y energía obstaculiza el funcionamiento de hospitales y pone en riesgo la vida de los más vulnerables: los niños y ancianos. La tasa de mortandad está aumentando sobre todo en áreas rurales.
En medio de la mayor devastación de que se tenga memoria en la isla a causa del paso del huracán María, los puertorriqueños se sintieron duramente ofendidos cuando el presidente Trump les culpó por la crisis humanitaria a la que estaba abocada la isla.
“Texas y Florida van muy bien, pero Puerto Rico, que ya sufría una infraestructura dañada y una deuda masiva, está en problemas”, escribió Trump en su cuenta de Internet comparando la rápida recuperación de dos de los principales estados de la nación ante huracanes en proceso de degradación que les afectaron, con la tragedia sufrida por su colonia en el Caribe a causa del cruce por su territorio del huracán más violento que haya azotado a Borinquen en toda su historia, con vientos sostenidos de 155 m/h (250 km/h).
La reacción iracunda de Trump ante la atroz crisis humanitaria de Puerto Rico agudizada por el fenómeno meteorológico en las condiciones de un país profundamente herido por décadas de colonialismo y políticas neoliberales, ha creado una situación explosiva.
Actualmente Puerto Rico tiene una deuda de 73 mil millones de dólares a sus acreedores, lo que equivale al total de su PIB. El Estado Libre Asociado oficialmente está en default (incapacidad de pagar la deuda) sin que ni el gobierno norteamericano ni el Fondo Monetario Internacional (FMI) hayan presentado solución alguna.
En realidad la deuda del país empezó a crecer a partir de los años 1970. Su economía desde la mitad del siglo pasado estaba basada principalmente en la industria farmacéutica pero con la aparición de las maquiladoras en México y en Asia, este sector se ha estado trasladando a aquellas regiones en busca de mano de obra más barata y de mayor productividad.
Actualmente el índice oficial de desempleo en 16 municipios es del 20 por ciento y en otros 61 supera al 12 por ciento, aunque en realidad la tasa real de desempleo es mucho más alta que la oficial. Un 45 por ciento del total de 3,5 millones de habitantes de la isla viven en la pobreza y el 83 por ciento de los niños viven en áreas pobres. En acto desesperado, el gobernador Rosselló recortó en mayo pasado el presupuesto en 674 millones de dólares afectando el sistema de salud, la educación, varios programas sociales y la Universidad de Puerto Rico. Como resultado de la crisis económica 144.000 puertorriqueños abandonaron la isla en busca de empleo.
Puerto Rico y Cuba han compartido destinos como colonias de España cuyas luchas emancipadoras fueron interrumpidas por una oportunista intervención estadounidense que pretendió adjudicarse los remanentes de imperio colonial español en desgracia. Cuba logró que la ocupación militar del entonces naciente imperialismo de Estados Unidos se limitara a 4 años y diera paso a la proclamación en 1902 a una seudorepública independiente que en enero de 1959 trajo, revolución mediante, una independencia verdadera, aunque al costo de librar una cruenta batalla cotidiana contra los apetitos hegemónicos estadounidenses.
Hace 118 años que Washington se apoderó de Puerto Rico y los demás vestigios del imperio español en el hemisferio occidental. Cuando el neoliberalismo irrumpió en la escena para proporcionar una inyección de vida al capitalismo en crisis, el impulso hacia la privatización de todo lo existente causó perjuicios extraordinarios en Puerto Rico. Se deterioraron las condiciones de vida al desaparecer los fondos gubernamentales para fines sociales y los empleos. La infraestructura de la isla quedó devastada por una campaña para convertirlo todo, desde las carreteras y los servicios públicos hasta el sistema educativo, en empresas privadas con fines de lucro.
El coloniaje impuso a Puerto Rico una deuda impagable y ahora le ha impuesto una junta dictatorial para asegurar que se pague esa deuda, aunque sea al costo de una crisis humanitaria para el pueblo puertorriqueño. Los boricuas reclaman, justamente, que se audite esa deuda y se determine qué parte de la misma es legítima y quiénes son los respons
A Tale of Deaf and Unmentionable Spies
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A Tale of Deaf and Unmentionable Spies
By Manuel E. Yepe
http://manuelyepe.wordpress.com/
Exclusive for the daily POR ESTO! of Merida, Mexico
Translated and edited by Walter Lippmann for CubaNews.
It appears that a new maneuver against Cuba by terrorist sectors in the US government’s foreign policy establishment has been exposed and neutralized when the Associated Press (AP) published information dated September 15, 2017 about damages caused by Hurricane Irma and the penetration of the sea that affected the building that houses the US Embassy in Havana.
According to the AP, a National Security Subcommittee (NSSC) official, who asked not to be identified, revealed to his correspondents that the NSSC was filing a lawsuit against the American Technology Corporation (ATC), maker of the LRAD equipment -RX that the NSSC uses to communicate with its agents in Cuba.
The suit was based on the auditory harm that these equipment would have caused to workers of the NSSC, its officials and relatives. According to the plaintiff, the equipment in question was purchased less than a year earlier and the ATC experts who trained those who would be responsible for using them at any time warned them against hearing problems.
Anonymous sources had then told the AP that the hearing loss may have been related to sound devices that emit inaudible waves capable of causing deafness.
According to the source, the suit presented by the NSSC included economic compensation for damages caused to workers of the teams and their relatives, as well as for operational damages suffered by the NSSC.
Immediately the NSSC knew of the auditory problems caused to the operators, it ordered discontinuance of use of the LRAD-RX but this implied an immediate change in the means of communication with its agents, which entailed higher expenses that surpassed what which is budgeted.
However, in May 2017, the State Department ordered the expulsion of two Cuban diplomats in response to “incidents” at the US embassy in Cuba without specifying what or whom they considered guilty.
The penetration of the sea in the embassy due to a hurricane. It complicated the investigation into the technological aspects of the case. This was because part of the equipment was under the sea. Although the trip to Cuba by a number of technicians and specialists was supposed to verify the condition of the equipment, this aspect of the research did not make sense. Public and staff access to the Embassy was restricted in order to disassemble the equipment and send it to the United States for eventual repairs by the manufacturers without the knowledge of the result.
It is alleged that, although the ATC is a commercially-registered US firm, it is an entity created by the security forces of the state of Israel and, as has been reported, LRAD is a weapon that emits a sound that temporarily deafens the adversary. From what we’ve seen so far, it is clear that the maneuver was intended to involve Cuba in an act of terrorism, a scourge in which the island has never dirtied its flag, although it has been a constant a victim of it.
However, when suspicions seemed to focus on supplier-related technological problems, US Sen. Marco Rubio made scandalous statements “calling for blood against Cuba”. This showed Florida’s Republican politician as likely axis of terrorist manipulation.
Shortly afterwards, Washington withdrew 60% of the staff from its embassy in Havana, and then expelled 15 diplomats from the Cuban embassy in the United States. The US argued that “there are no adequate Cuban measures to protect our diplomats from sonic attacks”. This is despite the fact that, from the outset, Cuba said that it would do everything possible to investigate the facts and invited the FBI to join the investigation in Cuba.
This investigation by Cuban authorities involved some 2000 people, including law enforcement officials and the best scientists in the country. They interviewed 300 neighbors and carried out dozens of medical examinations to see if anyone outside the diplomatic cadre had been affected.
They examined the rooms of two hotels where several employees of the United States Embassy lived, interviewed 300 neighbors in a neighborhood where many lived in houses. They analyzed air and soil samples, verified whether insects could be the culprits and considered a range of toxic chemicals and even electromagnetic waves.
However, the United States has refused to allow Cuban doctors access to the medical records of those affected or to let Cubans talk to US doctors. Neither were Cuban experts allowed to visit the homes of the US diplomats involved to conduct expert tests.
October 28, 2017
Un cuento de espías sordos e innombrables
By Manuel E. Yepe
http://manuelyepe.wordpress.com/
Parecía que una nueva maniobra contra Cuba de los sectores terroristas en la política exterior del gobierno estadounidense había sido expuesta y neutralizada cuando la agencia Associated Press (AP) publicó una información fechada el 15 de septiembre de 2017 acerca de los daños ocasionados por el ciclón Irma y la penetración del mar que afectó el edificio que alberga a la Embajada de Estados Unidos en La Habana.
Según la AP, un funcionario del Subcomité Nacional de Seguridad (NSSC, por sus siglas en inglés) que pidió no ser identificado, reveló a sus corresponsales que el NSSC preparaba una demanda contra la American Technology Corporation (ATC), fabricante de los equipos LRAD-RX que utiliza el NSSC para comunicarse con sus agentes en Cuba.
La demanda se fundamentaba en la afectación auditiva que dichos equipos habrían causado a operarios del NSSC, sus funcionarios y familiares. Según el demandante, los equipos en cuestión fueron adquiridos menos de un año antes y los expertos de la ATC que entrenaron a quienes se encargarían de utilizaros en ningún momento les advirtieron contra problemas auditivos.
Fuentes anónimas habían dicho entonces a la agencia AP que la pérdida auditiva pudo estar relacionada con dispositivos de sonido que emiten ondas inaudibles capaces de causar sordera.
Según la fuente, la demanda que presentaría el NSSC incluía compensación económica por los daños ocasionados a operarios de los equipos y los familiares de éstos afectados, así como por los perjuicios operativos sufridos por el NSSC.
Inmediatamente que el NSSC conoció de los problemas auditivos ocasionados a los operadores, ordenó descontinuar la utilización del LRAD-RX pero esto implicó un cambio inmediato en los medios de comunicación con sus agentes, lo cual conllevó mayores gastos que sobrepasaban lo presupuestado.
Sin embargo, en mayo de 2017, que el Departamento de Estado dispuso la expulsión de dos diplomáticos cubanos en respuesta a “incidentes” ocurridos en su embajada en Cuba sin precisar a qué o quién consideraba culpable.
La penetración del mar en la Embajada a causa de un huracán complicó la investigación acerca de los aspectos tecnológicos del caso porque una parte del equipamiento quedó bajo las aguas del mar y aunque se había planificado el viaje a Cuba de un número de técnicos y especialistas para verificar las condiciones de los equipos, ya este aspecto de la pesquisa no tenía sentido. Sólo se limitó el acceso de público y del personal a la Embajada a fin de desmontar los equipos y enviarlos a Estados Unidos para su eventual revisión por los fabricantes sin que se sepa del resultado.
Se afirma que, aunque la ATC es una firma estadounidense por su registro comercial, se trata de una entidad creada por las fuerzas de seguridad del Estado de Israel y, según se ha publicado, la LRAD es un arma que emite un sonido que deja temporalmente sordo al adversario. Por los elementos evidenciados hasta el momento es claro que la maniobra tenía el propósito de involucrar a Cuba en un acto de terrorismo, flagelo en el que la Isla jamás ha ensuciado su bandera aunque ha sido constantemente víctima de éste.
Sin embargo, cuando las sospechas parecían concentrarse en problemas tecnológicos imputables al suministrador, escandalosas declaraciones del senador estadounidense Marco Rubio “pidiendo sangre contra Cuba” evidenciaron al político republicano de Florida como probable eje de la manipulación terrorista.
Poco después Washington retiró el 60 % de los trabajadores de su Embajada en La Habana y luego expulsó 15 diplomáticos de la misión cubana en Estados Unidos arguyendo la “inexistencia de medidas cubanas adecuadas para proteger a nuestros diplomáticos de los ataques sónicos” pasando por alto el hecho de que, desde el primer momento, Cuba dijo que haría todo lo posible por indagar los hechos y había invitado al FBI a compartir las pesquisas en Cuba.
Unas 2.000 personas involucraron las autoridades cubanas en esta investigación, incluyendo agentes de orden público y los mejores científicos del país. Entrevistaron a 300 vecinos y llevaron a cabo decenas de exámenes médicos para ver si alguien fuera del cuadro diplomático había sido afectado.
Examinaron las habitaciones de dos hoteles donde vivían varios empleados de la Embajada de Estados Unidos, entrevistaron a 300 vecinos en un barrio donde muchos vivían casas. Analizaron muestras de aire y el suelo, verificaron sí podrían ser insectos los culpables y consideraron una gama de productos químicos tóxicos e incluso de ondas electromagnéticas.
Sin embargo, Estados Unidos se ha negado a permitir a los médicos cubanos acceso a las historias clínicas de los afectados o a dejar que los cubanos hablen con los médicos de Estados Unidos. Tampoco se permitió a los peritos cubanos visitar los hogares de los diplomáticos estadounidenses implicados para llevar a cabo pruebas periciales.
Octubre 28 de 2017
Fifty Years Since the October Missile Crisis
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Fifty Years Since the October Missile Crisis
By Manuel E. Yepe
http://manuelyepe.wordpress.com/
Exclusive for the daily POR ESTO! of Merida, Mexico
Translated and edited for CubaNews by Walter Lippmann.
For the average American citizen, and most of humanity subjected to the US media dictatorship, the origin of the Missile Crisis in October 1962 is that the Soviet Union decided to place missiles with atomic warheads in Cuba to threaten U.S.
But in order to understand the reason for the October Crisis, it is necessary to assess its antecedents. This is because, in the different versions of the circumstances one can understand the real reasons for the presence of the missiles in Cuba and, without that, it is not possible to understand the crisis itself.
It was the continued aggression of the United States against the island and the dangers that these actions foreshadowed because of Kennedy’s conviction that Cuba had to be charged on a large scale by the defeat of Playa Giron, where the extreme cause of tensions between the two countries.
The leadership of the Cuban revolution accepted the installation of the rockets as a measure to make Washington relinquish its plans for extreme violence against Cuba. They were convinced that in doing so they complied with a principle of internationalist solidarity with the socialist camp and, in particular, with the USSR.
On October 16, 1962, Washington drew up plans to militarily occupy Cuba and establish an interim government led by a “military commander and governor” of the United States during the 1962 missile crisis, according to recently declassified government documents issued one week by the National Security Archive (NSA) of George Washington University.
Proclamation number one of the Military Government that would have been constituted would establish that “every person who is in the occupied territory must obey immediately and without questions all the laws and orders promulgated by the military government”. He warned that “resistance to the United States Armed Forces will be punished with force. Offenders will be treated severely. ” He said, however, that “those who remain peaceful and fulfill all the orders of the military command, will be subjected to a repression no greater that prescribed by the military exigencies”.
The proclamation stated that “once Castro’s aggressive regime is completely destroyed” and Washington has installed a new government “that responds to the needs of the people of Cuba”, US forces “will withdraw and the traditional friendship of the United States and the government of Cuba will be assured once again. “
Cuban and American historians are preparing a book to be published by Editorial GEO, from the Cuban History Institute, with abundant original documents and maps. It’s edited by American journalists William Burr and Peter Kornbluh, who provide abundant information about that event which put the world on the brink of a third world war.
To prepare the Cuban population for the invasion, the US military planned to launch thousands of leaflets on Cuban cities and fields. Initially the leaflets would report that “the US military has temporarily taken over their country.” Then they would warn the population that “they should stay inside their houses” because “everything that moves will be considered a target of our bullets.”
On 28 October, final preparations for the US invasion and occupation of Cuba were halted when Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev announced that he was withdrawing the missiles from the island. That decision was, according to US media sources, the result of a secret agreement, under which the Soviet missiles in Cuba would be withdrawn in exchange for President Kennedy’s commitment to remove US Jupiter missiles from Turkey.
“The settlement of the missile crisis certainly avoided what would have become the bloodiest military confrontation in Latin American history, between the ‘Northern Colossus’ and a revolutionary Caribbean nation,” according to Peter Kornbluh, who heads the Cuba documentation project at the National Security Archives.
Ignored by the US intelligence community, according to Kornbluh, was the fact that, “in addition to intercontinental ballistic missiles, the Soviets had transported tactical field nuclear weapons to Cuba and planned to deploy them against an invading US force.”
Documents related to the Cuban occupation were recently obtained by the NSA-accredited archival analyst, William Burr, by formulating a series of petitions to the United States Navy, as established for the Re-declassification Requests Mandatory (MDR).
October 20, 2017.
A 55 AÑOS DE LA CRISIS DE MISILES EN OCTUBRE
By Manuel E. Yepe
http://manuelyepe.wordpress.com/
Para el ciudadano estadounidense medio y la mayor parte de la humanidad sometida a la dictadura mediática de Estados Unidos, el origen de la Crisis de los Cohetes en octubre de 1962 está en que la Unión Soviética decidió situar misiles con cargas atómicas en Cuba para amenazar a Estados Unidos.
Pero para comprender la razón de la Crisis de Octubre hay que valorar los antecedentes de ésta, porque en las diferentes versiones de las partes acerca de las circunstancias es en lo que se aprecian las verdaderas razones que provocaron la presencia de los mísiles en Cuba y, sin ello, no es posible entender la crisis misma.
Fueron las agresiones continuadas de Estados Unidos contra la isla y en los peligros que estas acciones presagiaban a causa de la convicción que tenía Kennedy de que debía cobrarse, invadiendo a Cuba en gran escala, la derrota de Playa Girón, donde se aprecia la causa extrema de las tensiones entre ambos países.
La dirección de la revolución cubana aceptó la instalación de los cohetes como medida para hacer desistir a Washington de sus planes de violencia extrema contra Cuba, convencida de que con ello cumplía con un principio de solidaridad internacionalista con el campo socialista y, en particular, con la URSS.
El 16 de octubre de 1962, Washington elaboró planes para ocupar militarmente a Cuba y establecer un gobierno provisional encabezado por un “comandante y gobernador militar” de Estados Unidos durante la crisis de los misiles de 1962, según documentos gubernamentales recientemente desclasificados, publicados hace una semana por el Archivo de Seguridad Nacional (NSA) de la Universidad George Washington.
La Proclama número uno del Gobierno Militar que se habría de constituir establecería que “toda persona que se encuentre en el territorio ocupado debe obedecer de inmediato y sin preguntas todas las leyes y órdenes promulgadas por el gobierno militar”. Prevenía que “la resistencia a las Fuerzas Armadas de Estados Unidos será castigada con fuerza. Los infractores serán tratados severamente”. Afirmaba, sin embargo que “quienes se mantengan pacíficos y cumplan todas las órdenes del mando militar, serán objetos a una represión no mayor que la prescrita por las exigencias militares”.
La Proclama establecía que “una vez que el régimen agresivo de Castro sea completamente destruido” y que Washington haya instalado un nuevo gobierno “que responda a las necesidades del pueblo de Cuba” las fuerzas estadounidenses “se retirarán y la amistad tradicional de Estados Unidos y el gobierno de Cuba será asegurada una vez más”.
Historiadores cubanos y estadounidenses preparan un libro que publicará la Editorial GEO, del Instituto de Historia de Cuba, con abundantes documentos originales y mapas, editado por los periodistas estadounidenses William Burr y Peter Kornbluh, que aporta abundante información acerca de este acontecimiento que puso al mundo al borde de una tercera guerra mundial.
Para preparar a la población cubana para la invasión, el ejército estadounidense planeaba lanzar miles de folletos sobre ciudades y campos cubanos. Inicialmente los folletos informarían que “las fuerzas armadas de Estados Unidos se han hecho cargo temporal de su país”. Luego advertirían a la población que “debe permanecer en sus casas” porque “todo lo que se mueva será considerado un blanco de nuestras balas”.
El 28 de octubre se interrumpieron los preparativos finales para la invasión de estadounidense y la ocupación de Cuba, cuando el líder soviético Nikita Jruschov anunció que estaba retirando los misiles de la isla. Tal decisión fue, según fuentes mediáticas de Estados Unidos, resultado de un acuerdo secreto, en virtud del cual serían retirados los misiles soviéticos de Cuba a cambio del compromiso del Presidente Kennedy de sacar de Turquía los misiles Júpiter estadounidenses dislocados allí.
“La solución de la crisis de los misiles evitó ciertamente lo que se habría convertido en el enfrentamiento militar más sangriento en la historia de América Latina, entre el ‘Coloso del norte’ y una nación caribeña revolucionaria” según Peter Kornbluh, quien dirige el Proyecto de documentación sobre Cuba del NSA.
Ignorado por la comunidad de inteligencia de Estados Unidos, según Kornbluh, quedó el hecho de que, “además de los misiles balísticos intercontinentales, los soviéticos habían transportado a Cuba armas nucleares tácticas de campo y planeaban desplegar contra una fuerza invasora de Estados Unidos”.
Los documentos relacionados con la ocupación de Cuba fueron obtenidos recientemente por el analista de archivo acreditado ante el NSA, William Burr, mediante la formulación de una serie de peticiones a la Marina de Estados Unidos, según lo establecido para las solicitudes de Revisión para la Desclasificación Obligatoria (MDR).
Octubre 20 de 2017.
Strengthening Cuban Socialism
Ramón Labañino: The changes in Cuba aim at improving our Socialism, not dismantling it
By Yunier Javier Sifonte Díaz
October 24, 2017
As part of the academic program of the I International Scientific Convention of the “Marta Abreu” Central University of Las Villas (UCLV), Ramón Labañino, Hero of the Republic of Cuba, gave a keynote address today and spoke with those present about the main challenges of updating the Cuban economic model.
With a title as controversial as “Is Cuba returning to Capitalism?” , the Vice-President of the Cuban National Association of Economists and Accountants, presented in his talk the main characteristics of the national context. He discussed the need to understand the changes made in the Island as a way of working to ensure a better standard of living and an equitable and fair benefit for all citizens of the nation.
“The name of my talk is just a hook, a provocation to discussion, but what really matters is to draw attention to the most negative characteristics of capitalism and what are the inviolable essences in our country in order to maintain the social model chosen by the island for more than 50 years,” he added.
In his presentation, Labañino outlined the main characteristics seen in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics years before the fall of Socialism in that country. The role of the party, the need to keep the media in the hands of the people, to avoid regionalism, as well as the “wholesale privatization and commodification of the socialist economy” are factors that are essential for us not to repeat in Cuba the mistakes made in the Eurasian nation, he said.
He also referred to the importance of preserving the policy of a single party against alternatives aimed at dismantling that idea and advocated confronting imperialism’s cultural war with intelligence and a critical sense.
“The single party strengthens us as a nation. Defending alternative formulas to ours, based on a model of democracy that has already proven its ineffectiveness in many countries, means playing Imperialism’s game. Our party has the essences of that created by Marti in 1892: anti-imperialist, sovereign and with a defense of national dignity as the first inviolable law. These characteristics make it strong and necessary in every moment of the country’s history. “
Issues such as monetary dualism, the role of the press in the country, non-agricultural cooperatives, work in the agricultural sector, the development of the labor force in the public and private sectors and the need to increase labor productivity in all the areas of the country as a basic rule to achieve an effective growth of the Cuban economy, were also among the main issues discussed between the Hero and the delegates gathered to hear it.
Regarding the new economic figures that emerged in the heat of the changes implemented in the Cuban economy, Ramón spoke about their importance to free the state from the unnecessary wear and tear of controlling small spheres, but warned of the importance of carrying them out so that their income also plays a key role in the development of society.“What we transfer to private hands is not property, but the management of social property,” he summarized.
Similarly, Labañino discussed the relevance of the main transformations to the economic, political and social model of the country. He defended the idea of that these changes are essential for subsistence as a nation, but always for the sake of maintaining our social achievements .
“In a highly democratic process, the greatest news was consulted with the majority of Cubans, because one of our great strengths is that the measures applied are based on all citizens, especially to defend the most underprivileged. Although we want a greater speed in implementation, sometimes we must stop, rectify what is wrong and move forward, because we can not afford to make mistakes and waste the few resources at our disposal,” he said.
After his comments, the Hero of the Republic of Cuba talked exclusively with Cubadebate. He said the the merit of sharing his experiences in an event like the one organized by the UCLV, a Department of Advanced Studies “with highly-qualified professionals in both the technological and the political, as well as the scientific and academic.”
Likewise, Labañino spoke of his experience of returning to the island after 15 years of absence. He said he found a country “always changing, with a beautiful and well-done opening, especially since there is an awareness that the transformations in our society exist because of an historical necessity and not because of a whim or an idea of playing at Capitalism,” he said.
Questioned on the main challenges for Cuba’s present and future, Labañino did not hesitate to describe the blockade imposed by the United States as the first of them. “Although people sometimes do not see it, every economic action bears its stamp. If this were not so, our country would do better, because we have a high cultural and educational level, natural conditions and a high professional capacity to rub shoulders with first world nations. “
In a simple dialogue, always open to discussion and sharing experiences, the anti-terrorist fighter recalled the importance of knowing history so as not to repeat negative experiences. Likewise, in these times of “empty and manipulative discourses,” he highlighted Fidel Castro’s legacy for the construction of an increasingly prosperous and inclusive country. He warned of the importance of maintaining essential principles of the Cuban Revolution, such as internationalism, anti-imperialism and solidarity with the peoples of the Third World.
Translated and edited by Walter Lippmann for CubaNews. Thanks to Walter Tillow for bringing this to my attention. Thanks to Emile Schepers for assistance with the translation. (He caught my mistakes and made suggestions to fix them.)
Virgin Group Founder Visits Habana Vieja
Important British Empresario Visits Habana Vieja
By Editor, Havana Radio/ Photos: Alexis Rodríguez
October 20, 2017
Origins of the Cuban-American Mafia
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Origins of the Cuban-American Mafia of Miami
By Manuel E. Yepe
http://manuelyepe.wordpress.com/
Exclusive for the daily POR ESTO! of Merida, Mexico
Translated and edited by Walter Lippmann for CubaNews.
Miami, Florida, is considered in political circles around the world as the home of the worst of the Cuban community in North America. As a safe haven for some of the most dangerous terrorists in the country and the world, in that country’s plight, they have established many garrison headquarters that control illicit businesses related to arms, drugs and human trafficking.
But it has not always been this way. The story was told by Mario Puzo in his Godfather books and films about the violent methods used by the first Italian mafia groups of immigrants, who changed their ways to adapt to the American Way of Life. This even reached the level of the high politics of the United States, and can be compared with the history of the Cuban mafia of South Florida.
In 1959, hundreds of corrupt politicians and servants of the defeated Batista tyranny began to arrive in Miami with bags stuffed with dollars stolen from Cuba’s public treasury. There were hundreds of torturers and murderers among them. They were organized and re-organized by the CIA and other agencies of the United States government to be used in military and terrorist acts against the Cuban revolution and other misdeeds of the extreme right-US in the world.
These fearsome “refugees” were the germ of what came to be the powerful Cuban-American mafia in Miami when they joined other elements of the subsequent Cuban emigration.
Meanwhile, the American extreme right, using its intelligence and subversion organizations, organized various terrorist groups of Cubans. They were recruited from among the emigres and on the island. Their goal was subverting order in Cuba and creating the conditions for military invasion and re-occupation of the island.
After the roaring failure of the Bay of Pigs invasion in the Bay of Pigs, the American extreme right intensified hundreds of other terrorist projects that also went down to defeat.
They then opted for a tactical change that gradually turned the cleverly-made Cuban terrorists into politicians who controlled US foreign policy toward Cuba for almost half a century and through the administration of twelve different US presidents.
The process of legitimizing the representatives of Cuban-American mafia in the political establishment of the United States was fast and effective. They learned the game of politicking, opportunism, and fraud. Soon they had several members of congress, senior executive officials and ambassadors, as well as a number of members of the judicial power in Florida. They incorporated to this learning their methods acquired during the bloody dictatorship of Batista in Cuba.
Some of these groups have been imposing since 1959 methods of depression comparable to those of the Chicago gangsters in the 30s or 40s of last century to manipulate the population of Cuban immigrants in the United States.
The Cuban-American mafia of South Florida has carried out numerous terrorist acts. They have participated in political crimes funded by the extreme right US policy as much in Cuba as ub the United States as well as in other countries in Latin America and Europe.
They have been involved in electoral tricks and political scandals involving Latin American countries, and in the United States as well. They know the protagonists of Watergate and the electoral fraud in Florida that presided over George W. Bush in 2000. It is known that they were involved in the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.
It was not that they were politicians and officials of Cuban origin, but not only that. They were “Cuban-Americans” clearly aligned with the extreme right of the country, recently unmarked from the ranks of known terrorist elements with links to Miami.
There have been attempts to get Cuban-Americans to lead Latinos in the political establishment, but the interests and ambitions of both groups have been incompatible.
Cuban-American politicians, with honorable exceptions, are a more homogenous and manageable group than other Latino immigrants because, as a rule, they respond uniformly to the interests of those who promote them, because they are something like laboratory politicians, cloned and breastfed by the conservative forces to which their promotions owe.
However, at present, we must take into account that three-quarters of the Cubans who emigrated to the United States. After 1980, they did so for economic reasons. Because of this, they are carriers of many of the ethical, moral and patriotic values of the revolution. Sooner or later they will end up imposing coexistence with Havana, making the business of the counterrevolution, with which the Cuban-American mafia made its fortune, obsolete.
October 13, 2017.
LOS ORÍGENES DE LA MAFIA CUBANA DE MIAMI
By Manuel E. Yepe
Exclusivo para el diario POR ESTO! de Mérida, México.
http://manuelyepe.wordpress.com/
La ciudad estadounidense de Miami, en el estado de Florida, es reputada en medios políticos de todo el mundo como sede de lo peor de la comunidad cubana en Norteamérica. Como santuario seguro para algunos de los terroristas más peligrosos del país y el mundo, en esepedazo de la nación norteña, han radicado muchas jefaturas depandillas que controlan negocios ilícitos relacionados con el contrabando de armas, drogas y seres humanos.
Pero esto no siempre ha sido así. La historia que relata Mario Puzo en sus libros y filmes acerca de los métodos violentos de las primeras familias mafiosas italianas de inmigrantes que fueron modificando sus procederes para adaptarse a la American Way of Life, incluso al nivel de la alta política de Estados Unidos, se puede comparar con la historia de la mafia cubana del Sur de la Florida.
Cuando en 1959 comenzaron a llegar a Miami centenares de corruptos políticos y servidores de la derrotada tiranía de Batista con sus maletas cargadas de dólares robados al tesoro público cubano, iban con ellos cientos de policías torturadores y asesinos. Ellos fueron reclutados y organizados por la CIA y otras agencias del gobierno de Estados Unidos para ser utilizados en actos militares y terroristas contra la revolución cubana y en otras fechorías de la extrema derecha estadounidense en el mundo.
Estos temibles “refugiados” constituyeron el germen de lo que llegó aser la poderosa mafia cubana de Miami cuando a ellos se unieron otrosfactores de la posterior emigración cubana.
Entretanto, la extrema derecha estadounidense, valiéndose de susorganizaciones de inteligencia y subversión organizaba diversos gruposterroristas de cubanos reclutados en la emigración y en la isla con elpropósito de subvertir el orden en Cuba y crear las condiciones para ainvasión militar y ocupación de la isla.
Tras el estruendoso fracaso de la invasión de Playa Girón en la Bahía de Cochinos, la extrema derecha estadounidense intensificó cientos de otros proyectos terroristas que también naufragaron.
Optaron entonces por un cambio táctico que gradualmente convirtió alos terroristas cubanos, hábilmente maquillados, en políticos quellegaron a controlar la política exterior de Estados Unidos respecto a Cuba durante casi medio siglo y la administración de doce presidentesdistintos. El proceso de legitimación de los representantes de lamafia cubana en el establishment político de Estados Unidos fue rápidoy efectivo.
Aprendieron el juego de la politiquería, el oportunismo,los fraudes y pronto tuvieron varios congresistas, altos funcionarios del poder ejecutivo y embajadores, así como un número de miembros delpoder judicial en la Florida. Incorporaron a este aprendizaje susexperiencias metodológicas adquiridas durante la cruenta dictadura de Batista en Cuba.
Una parte de esos grupos fueron imponiendo desde 1959 métodos depresión comparables con los de los gangsters de Chicago en los años 30o 40 del pasado siglo para manipular a la población de inmigrantes cubanos en Estados Unidos.
La mafia cubana del Sur de la Florida, ha realizado numerosos actos terroristas y ha participado en crímenes políticos financiados por la extrema derecha política estadounidense tanto en Cuba y Estados Unidos como en otros países de América Latina y Europa.
Han intervenido en trampas electorales y escándalos políticos en varios países latinoamericanos y, en los propios Estados Unidos, seles sabe protagonistas de los hechos de Watergate y del fraudecomicial en Florida que dio la presidencia a George W. Bush en el año2000. Se sabe que estuvieron involucrados en el asesinato delpresidente John F. Kennedy.
No es que fueran políticos y funcionarios de origen cubano, no son sólo eso. Eran “cubanoamericanos” claramente alineados con la extrema derecha del país, recién desmarcados de las filas de connotados elementos terroristas con referentes en Miami.
Ha habido intentos por hacer que los cubanoamericanos lideren a loshispanos en el establishment político pero los intereses y ambiciones de ambos grupos se han mostrado incompatibles.
Los políticos cubanoamericanos, con honrosas excepciones, resultan un grupo más homogéneo y manejable que los de otros inmigrantes hispanos porque, como regla, responden de manera uniforme en su actuación a los intereses de quienes los promueven, porque son algo así como políticos de laboratorio, clonados y amamantados por las fuerzas neoconservadoras a las que deben sus ascensos.
Sin embargo, en la actualidad, hay que tener en cuenta que trescuartas partes de los cubanos que emigraron a EE.UU. después de 1980lo hicieron por motivos económicos. Por ello, son portadores de muchos valores éticos, morales y patrióticos de la revolución y acabarán porimponer, más temprano que tarde, la coexistencia con La Habanahaciendo obsoleto el negocio de la contrarrevolución con que la mafia cubana hizo su fortuna.
Octubre 13 de 2017.
Elián called for unity
Elián called for unity at World Youth Festival
By: Luis Mario Rodríguez Suñol
Translated and edited for CubaNews
by Walter Lippmann. Oct. 20, 2017.
Elián González during the XIX World Festival of Youth and Students in Russia. Photo: Roberto Suárez / Cubadebate.
What can happen to the mind of a five-year-old boy who floats alone in the middle of the sea after losing his mother in a shipwreck? They say that he prayed to the Guardian Angel and that some dolphins dragged their raft towards the shore, but the opposite, away from his father and his true family in Cuba.
Little Elián González became a victim of the Cuban Adjustment Act. And at the same time, the key figure in the battle of a whole country [people] for his return. The shipwrecked child has become a 24-year-old revolutionary. He shared his story on Wednesday at the Anti-imperialist Tribunal, one of the core areas of the XIX World Festival of Youth and Students.
His history and the images of his return, in June of the year 2000, shook those present. Their voices united against imperialism. When he recalled his experiences, Elián could not contain his tears. Neither did the audience who heard his heartbreaking testimony in the first person.
Elián recalled how, as a victim of the Cuban Adjustment Act, he and his mother left Cuba illegally for the United States and the boat sank in the middle of the voyage. He maintained that the pain of losing his mother and being away from his father and his land, added to the violation of his rights and identity on American soil.
“They violated everything that is my country, my feelings, everything that was my culture,” said Elian, who said that these abuses happened with the approval of the United States government. He added: “Our crime has been sovereignty! Sovereignty was conquered, indeed, in January 1959! Our crime has been socialism! “
González pointed out other factors condemning imperialism, such as the 60 years of blockade against Cuba, the main barrier to the country’s development. He traced the history of Cuba, listing deeds that should have been prosecuted and condemned, such as the mercenary invasion at Playa Girón [Bay of Pigs], orchestrated by the Central Intelligence Agency; the illegal presence on Cuban territory of the US Naval Base at Guantanamo and the crime of Barbados where they killed 73 people [a reference to the 1976 mid-flight bombing of a Cuban passenger plane. The plane — containing all of Cuba’s young gold-medal winning fencing team as well as adults, students and children from 5 other countries — was returning to Cuba from Venezuela.It was history’s first terrorist bombing of a passenger plane, organized and carried out by a team led by Cuban counterrevolutionary expatriates Orlando Bosch and Luis Posada Carriles with the knowledge of the CIA, led at that time by George Bush.]
At the end of his speech, on behalf of the heroic Cuban people, which he said would rather disappear than go down on its knees, he asked for a condemnation of Yankee imperialism for all the human and economic damage it has caused.
Other voices from around the world spoke up at the tribunal, such as the young Saharaui Omar Hanesa, who maintained that in 1975 his country was under the dominion and occupation of Morocco, after two years of Spanish colonization. He also demanded justice for the crimes committed and demanded the release of political prisoners, sentenced to more than 20 years for organizing peaceful marches to defend the cause of his people.
Korean President Ri Cho Liu also spoke. He listed the damage caused by the US government’s economic blockade of Democratic Korea for more than 60 years in order to subdue his country.
The Tribunal became a space of unity to fight against imperialism by denouncing its crimes and proving that the young people of the world are willing to carry out the belief that a better world is possible.
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