Uncategorized 179
Immigrants’ Voices Heard
La Opinion (Los Angeles, California)
Immigrants’ voices heard on International Women’s Day
They demand respect, they’re not afraid, but they also demand no end to fighting for their rights.
By Araceli Martínez Ortega. Reporter for the newspaper La Opinión since 2006.
March 8, 2018
Translated and edited by Walter Lippmann for CubaNews
Hundreds gathered in downtown Los Angeles. Photo: Aurelia Ventura.
Alondra Becerra, a young university student of the English literature career, a dancer, and who has two jobs, one as a waitress and the other serving coffee, took time on her busy schedule to attend and lead a march in downtown Los Angeles to celebrate International Women’s Day.
“I’m here for my mom who raised me as a single, sick mother. She is a Mexican immigrant who inspired me to fight for people. I am here for mothers and women who do not know that they have rights and do not go out to fight. For them, I’m here,” Becerra said as she stood in front of the marchers with a long blanket that read “International Women’s Strike.
Immigrants in; racists out,” read one of the march’s posters. Photo: Aurelia Ventura
AUTHOR’S VIDEO: https://www.instagram.com/p/BgFhXn4hNrN/
To immigrants like her mother, she told them to be patient, to keep fighting for change. “I am 21 years old and I will help my mother with her papers,”she said.
This young activist was part of the festive demonstration and march that gathered some 300 women in the evening. Armed with banners and blankets with messages against inequality, poverty, violence, criminalization and discrimination, they sang, danced and prayed. The group left the federal building in downtown Los Angeles to walk around a few streets.
Alondra Becera, a young student and worker who participated in the struggle to raise the minimum wage to $15 per hour in Los Angeles, was one of the speakers on International Women’s Day. (Araceli Martínez/La Opinión).
They are part of a worldwide movement
Angela Sambrano, chairman of CARECEN’s board of directors and immigrant rights activist, said they came together to celebrate women as women from more than 52 countries around the world did.
My message to immigrant women is that we demand a halt to deportations, to the separation of our families and that we stand together and support California’s continued status as a sanctuary so that police and government employees don’t collaborate with the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE),” she said.
And he added that immigrant parents are not likely to be afraid to take their children to school, to the hospital or just go shopping for food. We are struggling to keep our families together,” she said.
Sambrano urged immigrant families not to stop fighting. “Know that you are not alone. We are fighting to ensure due process because only together will we change the racist, xenophobic and patriarchal system that has produced someone like President Trump who doesn’t want immigrants and is only interested in protecting the rich behind the backs of the poor, workers and women,” she said.
Angela Sanbrano, immigrant rights activist and Edith Anderson Hernandez participated in the march for International Women’s Day. (Araceli Martínez/La Opinión).
TPS holders in the struggle
Edith Anderson Hernandez, an immigrant from El Salvador, arrived at the march with signs alluding to the defense of Temporary Protected Status (TPS), the program that allows Salvadorans and other immigrants to live and work in the country. President Trump set a deadline to end TPS for Salvadorans, September 2019.
“I have a brother, a brother-in-law, my nephews and a lot of family with the TPS. I need my family,” cried Anderson Hernandez without releasing her banner.
She called on TPS beneficiaries not to be afraid and stick together.
“It’s the only way we can make a difference. We are in this country for many reasons. We immigrants bring a very hard story. I left my children under 4,8 and 9 years old to come here so they would be able to eat,” she said.
Transgender activist Jennicet Gutierrez of TQLM Family spoke about the injustices suffered by transgender women. (Araceli Martínez/La Opinión).
Transgender Present
Jennicet Gutierrez, a transgendered Mexican immigrant and activist for the Trans Queer Liberation Movement “TQLM Family” had the opportunity to take the microphone during the demonstration.
As a transgendered woman, it is very important to be present to tell compañeras and women in general that we are part of the struggle and we must not tolerate injustice, violence, discrimination and attacks, day after day,” she said.
She stressed that it is important for the voice of transgender women be heard on International Women’s Day because they too suffer a lot of violence, rejection and injustice.
“I want to tell transgender people and all of them that there are strong and powerful women, fighting to stop them from suffering and putting an end to abuses, whether in detention centres, prisons or being rejected by their families,” she said.
Gutierrez stressed that the International Women’s Day march is an opportunity to show unity in resistance. “Go on with all your dignity day by day. We are human beings and deserve respect!”, she said.
Cuba and “State Capitalism”
Those Who Look and Do Not See
Cuba and “State Capitalism”
By Nelson P Valdés, Professor Emeritus, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque
November 20, 2016
A CubaNews translation. Edited by Walter Lippmann.
“…. At a certain time Lenin raised the idea of the construction of capitalism even under the leadership of the proletariat. For your peace of mind, of course, I tell you that we have no such thing in mind, and it is not because we disagree with Lenin, but because the circumstances are different, since our process, which could count on the assistance of the Socialist camp and the USSR, has made great progress, has very solid forces and does not have to raise the issue in those terms. “Fidel Castro, August 6, 1995.
“I remember reading how at one point Lenin conceived the construction of capitalism under the leadership of the workers, of a workers’ government. He said: ‘We must build capitalism, we must develop our productive forces’. But such was the harassment, the aggression, the isolation and the critical situation that he had no choice but to accept that challenge; Marx would have put his hands on his head, really.” Fidel Castro, August 24, 1998.
“Revolution is a sense of the historical moment; It means to change everything that must be changed …” Fidel Castro, May 1, 2000.
Those who are supposed to study Cuba do not pay sufficient attention to the institutions and practices that exist in the country.
Most scholars and reporters from the outside discuss, write and prescribe an imaginary or imagined Cuba. They write about the future and very little about the real present or the one that was. In other words, they do not ask the question –for example: Why are there CUPET and ORO NEGRO gas stations? Why are there two instead of one single company selling gasoline? They do not wonder why there are so many different types of taxis: HavanaTaxi, PanaTaxi, etc. Everything is seen as ONE State controlling them all… and everything else… because this is not analyzed. Actually, it is not even perceived.
It is obvious that in Cuba there is an almost completely monopolistic state capitalism that faces many difficulties imposed from abroad –particularly by the US government. This description is not meant to be pejorative, it is only descriptive. This state capitalism, however, focuses on the distribution of what it produces or generates from products and income. These aspects differentiate it from the typical state capitalism that distributes profits only among private investors.
With state capitalism, there are corporations which are independent of one another and can respond to different sectors within the state itself. For example, MINFAR [Ministry of the Armed Forces] has companies (including the Banco Financiero Internacional -International Financial Bank –which is different from Banco Popular de Ahorro – (National Savings Bank, which it does not control). Also, MINFAR also has a line of hotels (Gaviota) and its own farms. These farms show us that there is “vertical integration” in different productive chains on the island. And these state entities and chains –autonomous from one[] another –COMPETE with other state entities.
Are there possible contradictions –in Marxist terms– between Gaviota and Cubanacan, for example? And, since when have these institutions existed? They began in 1985. And who has studied the economic and political process of Cuba on the basis of these conditions? What exactly is a “business group” (e.g., AZCUBA [Cuban sugar company)?
Those who call for the introduction of capitalist measures on the island and dream of the market are out of tune and clueless. Some elements already exist, but that is not the whole reality. Everything is more complex and complicated.
Journalists and many academics from abroad confuse this with the capitalism of private corporations. They do not understand that the practice of capitalism by semi-state-owned or fully state-owned corporations is something totally different. One big difference, of course, is who appropriates the profits and how they do it. The profits in private capitalism go –eventually– to private hands. State capitalism usually appropriates profits and distributes some of those profits among the administrators and –individually or socially– among those working in or out of the company. Both types pay taxes.
Note: In Cuba, there were precedents of this situation – and they were established by the United States government. For example, the Nicaro Nickel Company was a US state corporation. Nicaro was an administrative subsidiary of the Freeport Sulphur Company which in turn “acted” on behalf of the Defense Plant Corporation and Metals Reserve Company owned by the United States.
NOTE: The use of the term “state capitalism” has no pejorative intent.
URL of the article: http://www.cubadebate.cu/opinion/2016/11/20/los-que-miran-y-no-ven-cuba-y-el-capitalismo-de-estado/
Cubadebate, Contra el Terrorismo Mediático http://www.cubadebate.cu
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The United Vote is a Way to Defend the Revolution
By Marlene Moya
Translated and edited by Walter Lippmann for CubaNews.
Santiago de Cuba, Feb. 21 (ACN) The united vote in the March 11 elections means giving the Yes for Cuba, for social justice and the conquests of the Revolution, said Elvira Orozco, delegate of the Popular Power of the 76th constituency, in this city.
If we read the biographies of the candidates for the Provincial Assembly of People’s Power and the Cuban Parliament, we see that they are compañeras and compañeros with plenty of merit and genuine representatives from all sectors,” this professional radio journalist in Santiago de Cuba pointed out.
She commented that, a few days ago, she saw in the National Television Newsletter a material about Commander in Chief Fidel Castro’s visit to the José Martí Urban Center, in one of the previous trips to a similar process, in an area where the leader of the Revolution was a candidate for the National Assembly.
I had the privilege of doing that coverage and I remember his dialogue with the people gathered there spontaneously, knowing of his presence, about who were the proposed [candidates], people of the people, not millionaires as happens in other countries, and the most recent example is the current president of the United States, she said.
Donald Trump, she said, ranks in that category and does not care about any program that benefits the most vulnerable.
He said that the conquests of today, for which so many Cubans fought, for centuries, must be defended and the united vote is a way to do it.
We are not going to vote for someone who will benefit us personally or [because] we like them, we will vote for dignified men and women with a rich and revolutionary career, said Elvira.
This professional with the pen has more than a thousand voters in her constituency and this is her second term.
It has in its area, the Historic Center, three blocks from the Corredor Patrimonial Las Enramadas and several units of services, among those of commerce and gastronomy, pharmacy, two bakeries, the central post office, gymnasium and self-employed workers, especially food processing.
mmm/cmb 18 16:16
El voto unido es una manera de defender la Revolución
Cuba-elecciones
El voto unido es una manera de defender la Revolución
Marlene Montoya
Santiago de Cuba, 21 feb (ACN) El voto unido en los comicios del 11 de marzo significa dar el Sí por Cuba, por la justicia social y las conquistas de la Revolución, destacó Elvira Orozco, delegada del Poder Popular de la circunscripción 76, en esta ciudad.
Si leemos las biografías de los candidatos a la Asamblea Provincial del Poder Popular y al Parlamento Cubano, vemos que son compañeras y compañeros con sobrados méritos y genuinos representantes de todos los sectores, puntualizó a la ACN esa profesional del periodismo radial en Santiago de Cuba.
Comentó que hace pocos días vio en el Noticiero Nacional de Televisión un material sobre la visita del Comandante en Jefe Fidel Castro al Centro Urbano José Martí, en uno de los recorridos previos a similar proceso, en un área por donde el líder de la Revolución fue candidato a la Asamblea Nacional.
Tuve el privilegio de hacer esa cobertura y recuerdo su diálogo con personas congregadas allí de forma espontánea, al saber de su presencia, sobre quiénes eran los propuestos, gente del pueblo, no millonarios como ocurre en otros países, y el ejemplo más reciente es el actual mandatario de los EE.UU, acotó.
Donald Trump, señaló, clasifica en esa categoría y no se preocupa por ningún programa que beneficie a los más desprotegidos.
Manifestó que las conquistas de hoy por las cuales lucharon tantos cubanos durante siglos hay que defenderlas y el voto unido es una manera de hacerlo.
No vamos a votar por alguien que nos beneficiará en lo personal o nos cae bien, lo haremos por hombres y mujeres dignos y con una rica trayectoria laboral y revolucionaria, apuntó Elvira.
Esa profesional de la pluma cuenta en su circunscripción con más de mil electores y este es su segundo mandato.
Tiene en su área, del Centro Histórico, tres cuadras del Corredor Patrimonial Las Enramadas y varias unidades de servicios, entre esas de comercio y gastronomía, farmacia, dos panaderías, el correo central, gimnasio y trabajadores por cuenta propia, sobre todo de elaboración de alimentos.
mmm/cmb 18 16:16
False Pretexts to Stand Out
False Pretexts to Stand Out
By Manuel E. Yepe
http://manuelyepe.wordpress.com/
Exclusive for the daily POR ESTO! of Merida, Mexico.
Translated and edited by Walter Lippmann.
U.S. imperialism stands out for the fabrication of its pretexts for its wars. But this has been done so often that no one who is moderately intelligent or well-informed believes it.
It is not yet known whether the fantastic science fiction story about alleged “sonic attacks” against intelligence personnel accredited as diplomats at the U. S. Embassy in Havana had it has achieved more than one goal. First,: to terrorize the Americans into neutralizing the attraction that Cuba awakens as a result of more than half a century of media demonization and economic blockade, in contrast to a high level of security for population and its visitors.
The hypothesis of the commentator who wrote this article is that Florida’s Republican Senator Marco Rubio, found himself in a situation in which he thought it OK to fabricate a big lie, one that would benefit the image that needs to be built based on his plans to become president of the United States.
On September 15, 2017, the AP published a report datelined in Havana about the flooding caused by Hurricane Irma due to sea penetration that affected a part of the building housing the U. S. Embassy in Cuba, located on the Havana Malecón.
An official of the U. S. National Security Subcommittee (NSSC), who asked the AP not to be identified, told the agency that a lawsuit was being prepared against the American Technology Corporation (ATC), a manufacturer of LRAD-RX equipment used by the NSSC to communicate with its agents in Cuba.
The suit would be based on the auditory impairment that the equipment would have caused to several NSSC workers, their employees and family members. According to the plaintiff, the equipment in question was purchased less than a year earlier and the ATC experts who trained those who would use you at no time warned them against hearing problems.
According to the source, the suit to be filed by the NSSC included financial compensation for damages caused to operators of the equipment and their affected family members, as well as for operational damages suffered by the NSSC.
The NSSC immediately ordered the discontinuation of the use of the LRAD-RX but this implied an immediate change in the media with its agents, which led to higher expenses that exceeded the budgeted amount.
The penetration of the sea into the Embassy due to the hurricane complicated the investigation of the technological aspects of the case, because a part of the equipment was under the sea waters. Although a number of technicians and specialists had planned to travel to Cuba to verify the conditions of the equipment, this aspect of the investigation was already useless.
So far, the precedents that the United States omits in its history of the alleged sonic attacks.
Surprisingly, in May 2017, the U. S. State Department ordered the expulsion of two Cuban diplomats in response to “incidents” at their embassy in Cuba without specifying which ones, or whom they considered guilty.
According to Internet search engines, the ATC is a company with U. S. commercial registration, but it is also an entity created by the security forces of the state of Israel. From the same source it is known that LRAD is a weapon that emits a sound that makes the opponent temporarily deaf.
However, when suspicions seemed to concentrate on technological problems attributable to the supplier, scandalous statements by U. S. Senator Marco Rubio “asking for blood against Cuba”. This showed the Florida Republican to be an axis of manipulation that led to the withdrawal of 60% of the workers of the Embassy in Cuba and the expulsion of fifteen diplomats from the Cuban mission in Washington, claiming the “lack of adequate Cuban measures to protect the Cuban people”,
Observers of U. S. policy argue that Senator Marco Rubio, who is not Cuban and has never been on the island nation, has been determined for some time to become the first Hispanic president of the United States.
Hence, his obsession with excelling in the press, and his involvement with the controversial figure of Donald Trump, whose political premise is to allow only “people less intelligent than him”. And Rubio amply meets that requirement.
February 16, 2018
Shooting Survivors to March Against Violence.
Student Survivors of Shooting to March Against Armed Violence in U. S.
The promoters of the initiative announced that children and families will take to the streets of Washington on March 24 to demand’ that their lives and safety become priorities’.
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Author:
WASHINGTON – Students who survived last week’s massive shooting in the U. S. state of Florida are preparing today for a national mobilization called “March for our lives” to demand action against armed violence.
Through a page already available on the Internet, the promoters of the initiative announced that children and families will take to the streets of this capital on March 24 to demand’ that their lives and safety become priorities’ and that the massive shootings in schools be stopped.
Sister marches are also expected in other cities, according to five students from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, where 17 people were killed and 15 wounded on 14 February when an ex-student, Nikolas Cruz, opened fire with an AR-15 assault rifle.
People say this is not the time to talk about gun control and we can respect that. This is the moment: March 24, he told ABC Cameron Kasky, who is in his third year at the aforementioned educational institution.
In every city we will march together as students who plead for our lives. This isn’t about the Republican Party, it’s not about the Democrats, it’s about adults, we feel careless and, at this point, you’re with us or against us,” he told the network.
One of the students who told the U. S. media about the upcoming march was Emma Gonzalez, who made a big impact on social networks over the weekend by spreading her speech during a rally at the Federal Court in Fort Lauderdale.
“If the president wants to come to me and tell me that it was a terrible tragedy and that it should never have happened and continue to tell us that nothing will be done about it, I’m going to ask him how much money he received from the National Rifle Association,” she said.
According to the March rally call for mobilization, the action is “created, inspired and led by students across the country who will no longer risk their lives waiting for someone else to take action to stop the epidemic of mass shootings”.
In the tragic wake of the 17 lives brutally cut short in Florida, politicians tell us that this is not the time to talk about guns. The March for our lives believes that the time is now,’ the text said.
Following the events in high school, Gun Violence Archive noted that during the first six weeks of 2018, 1,816 people died from gun violence in the United States, equivalent to an average of 40 deaths per day.
Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator
Something More Than a Publishing Hit
Something More Than a Publishing Hit
By Manuel E. Yepe
http://manuelyepe.wordpress.com/
Exclusive for the daily POR ESTO! of Merida, Mexico.
Translated and edited by Walter Lippmann.
The real revelation in Michael Wolff’s new and successful book, Fire and Fury, is not that President Donald Trump acts like a child, suffers from psychopathologies like delusions of grandeur and paranoia, is an ignoramus who neither reads nor listens and, in short, is totally incapable of fulfilling the duties of his office.
It is not necessary to be a mental health professional to realize that Trump is an extremely dangerous character, a psychologically-distorted personality, a man with cognitive impairment, in complete denial, and with the unilateral power to initiate a nuclear holocaust that could destroy civilization. The Republican, right-wing and conservative project tries to erase the traces of the mid-20th century American Enlightenment and aims to make the United States once again great for religious fanatics, racists, xenophobes, misogynists, homophobes, plutocrats and the wildest capitalists.
To complete this project, the Republicans, despite their hypocrisy, have shown themselves ready and eager to sign a pact with the devil. They have done so with a political leader who is not satanic, but only a demagogue, serial liar, swindler and manipulator of the ethnic and economic fear of Americans. His goal is to fuel anger and hatred. He is a man lacking empathy, a sense of impartiality, history, appreciation and understanding for science and knowledge, and a man lacking in temperament and judgment to rule the world’s most powerful country.
The preceding paragraphs are the first of a very popular article published by the Progreso Semanal website, published in Florida, USA, about Wolf’s well-documented book that has been, as expected, a great publishing success in that country.
Anthony Zurcher, Washington correspondent for the British Crown Media Complex, the BBC, sums up in ten points what the media has been doing for the past ten years.
(1). Steven Bannon, the former chief strategist of Trump and his former trusted man, describes the president’s son, Donald Trump Jr. as “traitor” and “unpatriotic.
(2). Trump expressed astonishment and consternation after his victory in the November 2016 presidential elections. Donald Trump, Jr. revealed to a friend that his father was perplexed, transformed himself into an incredulous Trump and then into a horrified Trump. Then came his final transformation into a man who believed he deserved everything, capable of being the president of the United States.
(3). Trump did not enjoy his inauguration because of the event’s non-attendance by top-level personalities. He was dissatisfied with the White House lodging, and was seen fighting with his wife -who seemed to be on the verge of tears- in anger, with bent shoulders, swinging arms, eyebrows and wrinkled lips.
(4). Trump found the White House to be creepy. He asked for a lock on the door, which led to a confrontation with the Secret Service, which insisted on having access to the room.
(5). Ivanka Trump, the president’s daughter, and her husband, Jared Kushner, allegedly reached an agreement for her to become the first woman president, Wolff said:
(6). Ivanka herself mocked her father’s so-called “scalp reduction surgery”, ironically, going as far as to mock her hair in front of others. She often described to her friends the mechanics of his hairstyle.
(7). Not even the most trusted White House staff are aware of management priorities.
(8). Trump’s admiration for media mogul Rupert Murdoch is evident in the book even though he had repeatedly spurned Murdoch as a charlatan and a fool.
(9). Murdoch thought that a liberal approach to granting H-1B visas to specialized foreign workers in desperate need would open the door to immigrants. And that it could be difficult to set up with the promise of building a wall with Mexico and closing the borders. Trump seemed indifferent, but immediately he said to Murdoch,”Let’s solve it! And soon after, Murdoch muttered: What a fucking idiot! and shrugging his shoulders, he hung up the phone.”
(10). Michael Flynn, the former National Security advisor had been warned by friends that it was not a good idea to accept $45,000 from the Russians for giving a speech. He later admitted that he had lied during the Justice Department’s investigation into alleged Russian interference in the presidential elections. According to the author of this selection of outstanding notes in the book, Anthony Zurcher: “Sometimes there has been a disconnect between Trump’s rhetoric and his actions. Maybe because the President reflects his sensitivity in business. Or simply because he was echoing the opinion of the last group of people he had met.
February 15,2018.
Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator
What Lies Ahead in 2018
What Lies Ahead for Cuba and Latin America in 2018
By Manuel E. Yepe
http://manuelyepe.wordpress.com/
Exclusive for the daily POR ESTO! of Merida, Mexico.
A CubaNews translation edited by Walter Lippmann.
A good friend of mine who has been living in the United States for many years,
whom I consider an excellent analyst of international political issues, tells me that former President James Carter recognized, just a few months ago, that it was his mistake not to have completed the process of normalization of relations with Cuba during his term in the White House.
The subject came up in light of the indication that, in his view, for more than two months, Trump’s destructive drive against relations with Cuba has entered a new phase. The momentum seems to have lost steam in the sense that there have been no new hostile actions. The farce of the “sonic attacks” was officially frozen, and the bilateral meetings and specific negotiations that began before Trump are being resumed.
According to my friend, “it is as if the course towards the collision was being reconsidered, giving way to a kind of temporary truce, or towards a certain arrangement or new modus vivendi.” This is not the first time an approach of this type has turned up in the policy options that appear at the level of the executive branch by way of proposals.
In 1979, Robert Pastor, assistant and very close advisor to Zbigniew Brzezinski, himself advisor to US President Lyndon Johnson between 1966 and 1968 —when describing several proposals on Cuba— introduced the notion of “Cool but Communicative”. This meant that Washington should maintain communication channels with Havana, but at the same time, should be tightening a siege around Cuba’s neck.
Could this apparent temporary truce be a new version of the “Cool but Communicative” style or —considering the different context that sustains Cuba’s international position? Could it as well the domestic support in the United States for normalization of ties with the Island— a move towards a low profile modus vivendi, that might bring stability?
Of course, the siege that Pastor talked about then was set in a very different context from today’s. The governments of Canada and of all Latin America are aligned in favor of the normalization of trade and cooperation with Cuba.
The Prime Minister of Japan, Shinzo Abe, visited Cuba and promotes relations with his country. South Korea has become an important commercial partner of Cuba and their positions are approaching normalization.
The European Union advances in the Political Dialogue and Cooperation Agreement with Cuba, after three visits to Havana by Federica Mogherini, the High Foreign Policy Representative and Vice President of the European Union.
Just a few days ago, Trump met with the Prime Minister of Norway, a country that has cooperated closely with Cuba for years in the peace process in Colombia. Without these players on the oppressor´s side, there is no possible siege; the position of all of them contradicts the course announced by Trump in Miami last June 16.
I do not share the forecast that Trump’s policy towards Cuba includes a cooling and temporary truce in its aggressiveness. That is not what becomes apparent, among many other things, after the announcement of the setting up of a new Internet Task Force aimed at subverting Cuba’s internal order. This assumes the continuity of failed Cold War policies and the blockade as part of the doctrine of Unconventional Warfare that have proven inoperative against the concept of All Peoples’ War on which the Island bases its defense readiness.
On the other hand, I do fully agree as to how influential a majority opinion can be in favor of the normalization when it is supported by important pressure groups and American economic interests agreeable to a low profile modus Vivendi. This option runs contrary to the one Marco Rubio has been working for with his spectacular farce of sonic attacks and inconsequential senatorial hearings against Cuba.
The coming electoral victory in socialist Cuba will bring continuity to the revolutionary process on the Island. It will stimulate peoples throughout Latin America to continue their struggle for self-determination against the designs of the local oligarchies and the imperialist hegemony of the United States.
The presidential victory of the Chilean right wing led by Santiago Piñera could not silence a remarkable rise of the center-left forces represented by the novel example of the Frente Amplio (Broad Front). Additional factors will include: the return of Lula and the Workers’ Party in Brazil, MORENA with López Obrador in Mexico, the almost certain victory of Maduro and the United Socialist Party in Venezuela, in the face of an atomized opposition backed by all the resources of the US empire; the undoubted victory of Evo in Bolivia. Finally, there are Macri´s crisis in Argentina, the uncertain outcome in Colombia and the return of the left in Paraguay, are the most commented scenarios of in Latin America’s patriotic struggle in 2018.
January 25, 2018
USA tells its citizens to reconsider trips to Cuba
USA
tells its citizens to reconsider trips to Cuba, one of the safest countries in the world
Legislators of Cuban origin, opposed to the rapprochement between the two countries, intend to achieve an even more drastic reduction in the flow of people between the two nations.
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Translated and edited by Walter Lippmann for CubaNews
Cuba is ranked as one of the safest destinations in the world. Photo: Al Jazeera
Although Cuba is one of the safest destinations in the world, and meets all international standards, the United States on Wednesday recommended that its citizens “reconsider” possible trips to the Greater Antilles.
The State Department changed its old alert system with a ranking that places all nations on four levels, where the first only involves “taking normal precautions” and the fourth receives the warning “do not travel.”
Cuba, whose citizen security indicators are among the best in the region, was located at level three, with the suggestion of “reconsidering visits” because “there are serious risks to their safety and protection.”
Venezuela, Honduras, Haiti and Guatemala are among the Latin American countries given the same classification.
As on September 29th of last year, when an unjustified travel alert was issued against the Island, the argument used by Washington once again was the occurrence of alleged “attacks” against US diplomats in Havana, about which there is no any evidence.
“Because the safety of our personnel is at risk and we can not identify the source of the attacks, we believe that US citizens may also be exposed to danger,” says the Department of State website.
However, after months of both US and Cuban investigations, evidence to support the hypothesis of the so-called “acoustic attacks” is still lacking.
Three State Department officials acknowledged before a US Senate hearing last Tuesday that the causes and reasons for the health conditions alleged by their staff in Havana are still unknown.
Also, a report by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), cited by the Associated Press, argues that there is no evidence that “sonic attacks” have been carried out against US diplomats in Cuba.
On Tuesday, Josefina Vidal, General Director for the United States of the Cuban Foreign Ministry, criticized on Tuesday the State Department for continuing to use the word “attack” when it lacks evidence to support that.
“Cuba is a safe, peaceful and healthy country for Cubans, for foreigners, for accredited diplomats and for the millions of people who visit us every year, including the Americans,” said Vidal.
SAFER THAN IN THE UNITED STATES
Despite the unilateral measures taken by the administration of Donald Trump to strengthen the blockade and limit travel between the two countries, in 2017 there was an increase in visits by Americans to Cuba.
According to official figures from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, between January and November of last year 579 288 people traveled from the United States, for an increase of 248.7% in relation to 2016.
The increase in visits has occurred in a security environment, as recognized by travelers, specialized sites and tour operators.
«I have always felt safe in Cuba. I spent a month there recently and I felt more secure than in Los Angeles,” American journalist Walter Lippmann told Granma.
“Under the current law, it is still illegal for Americans to travel as tourists,” Lippmann recalled.“But anyone who visits the island, no matter the route, will find that they are in what is probably the most peaceful country in the world.”
Daniel Howell, a professor at the University of New York and a specialist in Cuban literature, told this newspaper that Cuba is objectively a very safe country, because there are almost no crimes, especially compared to the United States, which has one of the highest rates of highest violence in the first world.
According to figures from the Brady Center Against Armed Violence, about 93 Americans die every day from the use of firearms. Last year, one person killed 58 others in Las Vegas, using more than a dozen assault rifles that can be purchased without difficulty in that country.
“It does not make sense to recommend to Americans not to visit Cuba. I think they use the supposed sonic attacks to scare away tourists, but this does not make sense,” Howell added.
DISAGREE WITH THE MEASURE
Although Cuba was placed in one of the most negative categories, without the support of objective data, some lawmakers of Cuban origin reacted indignantly, expecting a worse rating.
“The Department of State should not minimize Cuba’s threat to American citizens. Lowering the level of travel warning to the Island is irresponsible, especially when there are still so many unanswered questions about the attacks against US diplomats in Havana, “Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, a well-known supporter of the anti-Cuban ultra-right of Miami.
In her opinion, the new classification is less drastic than that of last September 29, when the US authorities, despite lack of evidence, said that their citizens “could be at risk of being victims of sonic attacks” and recommended abstaining from everything about traveling.
Michele Thoren Bond, an undersecretary of the Bureau of Consular Affairs of the State Department, was consulted on Wednesday in a teleconference.
“We made a careful examination, we consulted with our experts and this has been the conclusion regarding Cuba,” she said after pointing out that the new classification is not due to “a change in the situation on the island, but to the need to be consistent.” in classifications of risks in different countries ».
Quoted by several media, she explained that category four includes countries where there is “a high probability of life risks.” Eleven nations have that classification: North Korea, Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Somalia, South Sudan, Central African Republic, Libya and Mali.
The legislators of Cuban origin, opposed to the rapprochement between the two countries, would be pressing for Cuba to appear in the fourth level and thus achieve an even more drastic reduction in the flow of people between the two nations.
Counseled by some of them, including Senator Marco Rubio, the Trump administration has already taken unilateral measures such as reducing the categories of approved trips and drawing up a list of products and places banned for Americans in Cuba.
In addition, under the pretext of the supposed acoustic attacks, the State Department reduced the personnel of its embassy in Havana to the essential and paralyzed the consular services. He also demanded the withdrawal of 17 Cuban officials from Washington.
These actions have a “high cost for our population, Cuban emigration and the American people,” recently reported Josefina Vidal. (With the collaboration of Ernesto Gómez, Dayron Rodríguez and Jeiddy Martínez)
Hollywood March Against Sexual Abuse
LA OPINION
Hollywood March Against Sexual Abuse
Farmworker women join the protests
Hundreds of women and men marched this Sunday in Hollywood against sexual harassment. (@Katcystephan)
By Francisco Castro, November 12, 2017.
Translated and edited by Walter Lippmann for CubaNews
Whistles and compliments – sometimes risque – are constant and common. So are harassment and even sexual attacks in exchange for work or favors, and complaints, due to fear, ignorance or immigration status, are nonexistent.
This is how Ramona Félix, coordinator of the program on harassment and sexual assault and human trafficking for the Líderes Campesina organization, describes what happens in the countryside to rural women.
“People are afraid to report it, they are afraid of being fired, many are single mothers,” about what agricultural workers live on. “There have been cases where there is harassment and run and supervisors spread the word ‘she is problematic’. The woman is left without any money. For fear, for the legal status, for what they will say, they remain silent. “
That’s why this Sunday, almost two dozen of them traveled from Ventura County to be present and participate in the #MeToo March against sexual harassment that took place in Hollywood.
Survivors of harassment and sexual assault and abuse walked from the meeting point – the corner of Hollywood Boulevard and Highland Avenue – to the offices of a television station [CNN] where several people spoke out against this social scourge, before going back to the point initial.
The scandal over allegations of sexual harassment against powerful men in the film industry has opened the door for women in all kinds of industries to raise their voices and tell their cases.
“For every Harvey Weinstein (the famous Hollywood producer), there are hundreds more men in the neighborhood who are doing the same,” said Tarana Burke, founder of the #MeToo movement. “The conversation around Hollywood will spread to include other industries if we force it to happen.”
A female farmworker during the march. (@bgazzar)
“This goes beyond Hollywood,” said Brenda Gutierrez, one of the organizers of the march. “I think it’s time that we no longer keep silent, that we are not ashamed and that we end up with the stigma and I think that is the great message of this march.”
“If a person can go out and get help, that will make me happy,” Gutiérrez added.
With chants of “Stop the violence, stop the rapes”, “Stand up for the women of the world” and “Violence must disappear”, hundreds of women – and men – joined the march yesterday in solidarity with their wives, mothers and sisters, as well as, some actresses.
“If people start talking about this, I think it will make a difference,” said Elizabeth Perkins, actress of the movie “Big” with Tom Hanks.
Many women said that men’s help in stopping this is essential.
“They are the ones who can solve this,” said Gretchen, who did not want to give her last name. “There are many wonderful men out there, but they have to go and talk to those who cause problems.”
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TIME MAGAZINE story, including support statement by female farmworkers:
http://time.com/5018813/farmworkers-solidarity-hollywood-sexual-assault/
Plaza de Mayo Grandmothers find Granddaughter 125
October 27, 2017.
Translated and edited by Walter Lippmann for CubaNews.
Estela de Carlotto announces the meeting of granddaughter 125. Photo: Telam
“Grandmothers of Plaza de Mayo have the immense joy of communicating the restoration of the daughter of Lucia Rosalinda Victoria Tartaglia.” In this way, the Grandmothers, who just commemorated the forty years of searching, announced from the mouth of Estela de Carlotto the meeting of granddaughter 125.
Lucia, a political militant in La Plata, was kidnapped on November 27, 1977, at age 24. Since her family knew she was pregnant, they began the search for a child born in captivity. The samples that they contributed to the National Genetic Data Bank allowed the identification 38 years later.
Lucia was born on June 6, 1953 in Santa Rosa, La Pampa. Her family called her “La Flaca”. She moved to the city of La Plata where she studied law and was a member of the Peronist University Youth. “For a year, efforts on the part of her family to locate Lucia were in vain. They, had no news of her until, in November 1978, a year after her disappearance, her brother, Aldo Tartaglia, received a first letter from Lucia where she related that she was detained.
In another letter, she said that she was pregnant and expected to give birth in early 1979, “says the statement that Estela de Carlotto just read when announcing ” Today we find another granddaughter. “
In a democracy, her family was able to rebuild thanks to testimony from survivors that Lucia was kidnapped in the clandestine detention center known as “Atlético-Banco-Olimpo”. They knew it with the nickname of “anteojito”. The survivors reported that she was pregnant and was taken to give birth while in captivity.
Federal Criminal Oral Court Number 2 convicted fourteen members of the repressive forces, including Samuel Miara, on March 22, 2011, for the disappearance of Lucia.
“Thanks to the perseverance of our search and the human rights movement, today granddaughter 125 can know the truth about her origin,” said the statement from the Grandmothers.
(Taken from Pagina 12 )