CUBA
DEFENDING CUBA
Newsletter #8, July 15, 2021
Compiled by Dick Bennett for a Culture of Peace, Justice, and
Ecology
Omnicenter.org/donate/
Links to
Earlier Newsletters
#7 https://jamesrichardbennett.blogspot.com/2021/07/omni-cuba-newsletter-7-july-3-2021.html
#6 https://jamesrichardbennett.blogspot.com/2021/02/omni-cuba-newsletter-6.html
see end for more
CONTENTS
Cuban
President Diaz-Canel Describes What’s Covered Up by US Corporate
Media
STOP THE US
BLOCKADE/EMBARGO/SANCTIONS, NO
ARMED INTERVENTION:
ANSWER
UNAC
IFCO
CODEPINK
Jacobin Magazine
De Los
Santos. US Leaders and Mainstream Media
Blame Cuba’s
Economic System and Leaders, and Cover Up Its
Medical Achievements
Examining the Looting Story.
CUBAN
MEDICAL ACHIEVEMENTS
Vaccines
Phenomenal
Health Care
RELATED
Canada’s
Trade with Cuba Despite US Embargo.
US
Accusation of Cuban Human Trafficking Called a Lie by Cuba.
LINKS TO
PRECEDING 7 NEWSLETTERS
TEXTS
Cuban president Díaz-Canel: Revolutionaries to the
streets!
Editor. Mronline.org
(7-14-21).
This speech provides crucial context and
information being covered up by the corporate media in the United States.
July 13, 2021 | Newswire
TODAY!
Online event: Let Cuba Live! End the U.S. Blockade Now! 7-14-21
ANSWER
COALITION (ACT NOW TO STOP WAR AND END RACISM).
Trump added 243 new
sanctions to tighten the 62-year long US economic blockade of Cuba. Imposed
shortages of basic goods have created grave suffering throughout the island.
Covid-19 too has severely damaged Cuba's tourism industry. The US wants to
topple the Cuban revolution but supporters of the revolution are fighting back.
Join us for an
online event TODAY, July 14 (5PM PT, 6PM MT, 7PM CT, 8PM ET) for
an in-depth perspective of what's really happening in Cuba and a discussion of
how we can build the movement to end the criminal blockade!
Tune into
the online event from:
Facebook: www.Facebook.com/AnswerCoalition
Twitter: @answercoalition
YouTube: www.youtube.com/answercoalition
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The United Anti-War Coalition/UNAC 7-14-21
click here to view this email in your browser
Hands off
Cuba! End the Blockade!
During his press meeting on Monday, President Biden claimed to
support the people of Cuba, some of whom have protested in recent days. But
the U.S. maintains a blockade of the country that denies the people food,
medicine, fuel and trade with other countries. It is this economic hardship, imposed by U.S. policy which is the reason for the protest. At the same time that Biden and the
U.S. government cry crocodile tears for the Cuban people, they are strangling
them to death with the blockade. Yet, we did not hear a peep from Biden
during the months of protest by the Haitian people demanding that the U.S
puppet Jovenel Moise leave office when his term ended, or when the Colombian people flooded their streets
demanding their democratic rights from the right-wing, U.S. supported
government of Ivan Duque.
The following is a statement by UNAC on the situation in
Cuba Followed by a statement by the President of the Republic of
Cuba, Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez
Statement
by UNAC on the Situation in Cuba.
U.S. Hands
off Cuba! End the Blockade!
The United National Antiwar Coalition stands firmly with the Cuban
people and their revolutionary government against any US intervention in
Cuba’s affairs. We continue our calls to lift the punitive US blockade of
Cuba that has caused humanitarian shortages and been tightened during the
ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
The recent disruptions inside Cuba have all the hallmarks of a
coordinated campaign to lay groundwork for US intervention, following the
regime change playbook used by the United States in nearby Venezuela and
Nicaragua, as well as in countries like Libya and Syria to disastrous effect.
They coincide with a massive social media offensive featuring hundreds of
anonymous accounts that attack public figures who defend Cuba,
and spread provocative disinformation like recycled footage from
protests in other countries. The United States State Department has spent
millions of dollars attempting to turn the masses of Cuban people against the
revolution for years. Anti-government organizations such as the Cuban Human
Rights Observatory and Cuban Institute for the Freedom of Expression and the
Press have received millions from known CIA front groups, such as the
National Endowment for Democracy and United States Agency for International
Development (USAID). [read more]
Cuban
President Díaz-Canel to the people of Cuba: “The order to fight is given, the
revolutionaries to the streets”
We
have been honest, we have been transparent, we have been clear and at every
moment we have been explaining to our people the complexities of the current
moments. I remind you that more than a year and a half ago, when the second
semester of 2019 began, we had to explain that we were going to a difficult
situation. This was taken as part of popular humor and we have remained part
of that conjuncture from all the signs that the United States government was
giving, led by the Trump administration in relation to Cuba.
They
began to intensify a series of restrictive measures, a tightening of the
blockade, of financial persecution against the energy sector with the aim of
suffocating our economy and that this would provoke the desired massive
social outbreak, which sows the possibilities for the entire ideological
campaign that It has been done, to be able to call for humanitarian
intervention that ends in military interventions and interference, and that
affects the rights, sovereignty and independence of all peoples. [read more]
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Read
the UNAC Blog
https://unac.notowar.net/
[VFP-all]
IFCO STANDS WITH CUBA
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Gerry
Condon projectsafehaven@hotmail.com via uark.onmicrosoft.com
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1:41
PM (7 hours ago)
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to Gerry 7-13-21
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From: Gail Walker <ifco@ifconews.ccsend.com>
on behalf of Gail Walker <ifco@ifconews.org>
Sent: Tuesday, July 13,
2021, 11:25 AM
To: gerrycondon@veteransforpeace.org
Subject: IFCO STANDS WITH CUBA
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IFCO/Pastors for Peace unapologetically stands in
solidarity with our Cuban family during this difficult time. We
recognize that the combined impact of the devastating pandemic
and an economic crisis fueled by the 60-year old U.S. blockade
gripping the country is creating tremendous hardship for our
Cuban brothers and sisters.
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While the mainstream media is painting a picture of
severe unrest in Cuba, we know that there have been far more
expressions of support by the Cuban people for their revolution
and their government all across the island including Guantanamo,
Cienfuegos, Las Tunas, and others. It’s not lost on us, that
U.S. corporate media covered the recent protests in Cuba
involving a few hundred people with the sympathy not afforded the
millions of multiracial protesters against lethal police
brutality in the U.S.
Immediately, President Diaz-Canel took to the
streets to talk directly with the Cuban people. This is not the
course of action of a defeated government. Nor is it the action
of an unconcerned government. The Cuban president denounced
misinformation efforts and foreign interference. He called on all
Cuban citizens to take to the streets to defend the Cuban
revolution.
Meanwhile, U.S. President Joseph Biden, who promised
to ease restrictions on Cuba when he was running for President,
issued a statement saying he “stands with the Cuban people”. The
truth is, if the President truly supported the Cuban people, he
would end the cruel, immoral, and illegal blockade that is
causing the suffering that the Cuban people are being forced to
endure. Both Republicans and Democrats routinely shed
crocodile tears for Cubans, even as they dig the knife deeper in
their backs by strengthening the longest running military siege
in modern history.
It is curious that this undermining of Cuba is
happening just after the majority of the members of the UN
General Assembly voted again, for the 29th year in
a row, to condemn the U.S. for its economic blockade…once again
isolating the U.S.
It’s hard to believe that this recent unrest is not
a result of outside agitation aimed at fomenting regime change in
Cuba. The countless attempts to undermine Cuba since 1959
are continuing.
USAID is currently offering grants up to a
million dollars to groups who will ‘bring democracy to
Cuba’.
Secretary of State Blinken has continued Trump’s
‘policy’ of accusing Cuba of “human trafficking”; claiming
that Cuban doctors are subjected to "forced labor" and
equated as slaves. A special immigration parole was developed to
entice them to defect. This is an obvious attempt to counter the
goodwill Cuba has gained by its health
internationalism.
Over the past year alone, Cuba has sent 3,700
health workers, in 52 international medical brigades, to 39
countries overwhelmed by the pandemic. Cuba’s international
medical brigades have treated patients and saved lives for the
past 15 years in 53 countries confronting natural disasters and
serious epidemics, such as COVID-19 and the Ebola crisis in West
Africa.
The U.S. has discredited Cuba's international
cooperation in the field of health even though its international
medical program has been recognized by dozens of governments, the
United Nations, the World Health Organization, and other
international organizations.
In fact, access to healthcare is a
human right in Cuba but a daily struggle for 29 million people in
the U.S. who live without health insurance, according to the
Kaiser Family Foundation.
At least 40 different resolutions have been passed
by churches, city councils, labor unions, state legislators and
school boards calling for an end to the U.S. blockade against
Cuba. These resolutions represent the will of more than 30 million
people in the United States.
As the National Network on Cuba has reported, these
30 million people join:
* Cuban Americans whose families are suffering
and have initiated car and bike caravans in Miami and other
cities across the U.S. and around the world.
* Generous people who in a few short weeks donated
more than $500,000 to send syringes to Cuba so the five COVID-19
vaccine candidates developed by Cuban scientists could be
administered
* A group of dedicated Cuban Americans walking in a
peace pilgrimage from Miami to Washington DC to call on President
Biden to end the blockade.
It’s time to Let Cuba Live…and the end the economic
stranglehold of the Cuban people. U.S. out of Cuba!!
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Follow us on social media!
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Lift The
Embargo On Cuba Webinar Sent from
Marcy, CODEPINK: info@codepink.org
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Dear Friend,
You Are Invited To
Join Tuesday CODEPINK CONGRESS Calling Parties To
Mobilize Peace Legislation! Chat with Peacemakers and Experts on
Tuesday, July 13th at 5:00
PM (PT) - 8:00
PM (ET)
Join CODEPINK Congress for talk and action to lift the US
embargo on Cuba and express solidarity with the pink tide sweeping Latin
America. We will take a look at the left in Bolivia, Peru, Chile,
Brazil, Colombia and Ecuador.
Featuring
Special guest co-host Michelle Ellner, a
CODEPINK Latin America campaign coordinator.
Guests:
Angelica Salazar, steering committee member,
Alliance for Cuba Engagement and Respect; organizer with Cuba Nobel Campaign
to award Cuba's Henry Reeve Brigade the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize.
Leonardo Flores, CODEPINK's Latin America
campaign coordinator who recently returned from Venezuela for the
Bicentennial Congress of the Peoples, a global summit of movement organizers.
Dr. Steve Ellner, a retired professor who
taught history at Universidad de Oriente, Venezuela, and author of the
books Latin America Extractivism and Populism in
Latin America.
Take Action!
Contact your senators and ask them to co-sponsor S.1694, the Freedom
to Export to Cuba Act. Plus, sign our
petition to President
Biden telling him to get with the times and lift the blockade on Cuba!
Google Group & Local Leaders
Join our CODEPINK Congress Google Group, a space for sharing
events and actions. Request to be added here!
Become a CODEPINK Congress liaison in your district to
mobilize support for demilitarization and progressive foreign policy! Sign
up here as a
volunteer organizer.
Finally, if you missed last week's meeting, you can view
it here on
YouTube. View the entire CODEPINK Congress archives here.
Onward Toward Peace and
Justice,
Medea, Marcy, Hanieh, Mary & the Entire CODEPINK Team
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On Sunday, the largest anti-government
protests in at least twenty-seven years broke out in Cuba. Thousands of
people marched in the streets chanting slogans. Others overturned police
cars or looted stores.
Quite likely, the people in the streets represent a mixture of factions
with very different complaints and long-term agendas.
One thing that is clear is that shortages in food, medicine, electricity,
and other basic goods were the immediate spark for the protests. (The
stores that have been looted are controversial because they sell
expensive products to foreigners who can pay in currency that most Cubans
don’t possess.) American politicians who long to topple the Cuban
government have been pointing to these conditions as they call for
intervention.
But anyone who thinks US intervention would lead to better outcomes and
not vastly worse ones has lost touch with reality...
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CUBAN MEDICAL
ACHIEVEMENTS
Cuba’s vaccine shield and the five monopolies that
structure the World: The Twenty-Sixth Newsletter (2021)
Vijay Prashad. Mronline.org (7-3-21).
In 1869, at the age of fifteen, José Martí
and his young friends published a magazine in Cuba called La Patria
Libre (‘The Free Homeland’), which adopted a strong position against
Spanish imperialism. The first and only issue of the magazine carried Martí’s
poem, ‘Abdala’.
July 2, 2021 | Newswire. 
Cuban Health Care: The Ongoing
Revolution by Don Fitz.
Monthly Review P, 2020.
Quiet as it’s kept inside
the United States, the Cuban revolution has achieved some phenomenal goals,
reclaiming Cuba’s agriculture, advancing its literacy rate to nearly 100
percent—and remaking its medical system. Cuba has transformed its health care
to the extent that this “third-world” country has been able to maintain a
first-world medical system, whose health indicators surpass those of the United
States at a fraction of the cost. Don Fitz combines his broad knowledge of
Cuban history with his decades of on-the-ground experience in Cuba to bring us
the story of how Cuba’s health care system evolved and how Cuba is tackling the
daunting challenges to its revolution in this century.
Fitz weaves together
complex themes in Cuban history, moving the reader from one fascinating story
to another. He describes how Cuba was able to create a unified system of
clinics, and evolved the family doctor-nurse teams that became a model for poor
countries throughout the world. How, in the 1980s and ‘90s, Cuba survived the
encroachment of AIDS and increasing suffering that came with the collapse of
the Soviet Union, and then went on to establish the Latin American School of
Medicine, which still brings thousands of international students to the island.
Deeply researched, recounted with compassion, Cuban Health Care tells
a story you won’t find anywhere else, of how, in terms of caring for everyday
people, Cuba’s revolution continues.
This is
the best written and most accurate work published in years about the history
and recent achievements of Cuban health care. The book gives inspiration for
people around the world concerned about the future of health care and health
itself. —Howard Waitzkin,
Distinguished Professor Emeritus, University of New Mexico; coordinator, Health Care Under the Knife: Moving Beyond Capitalism for Our
Health
An extraordinary book about an extraordinary health care system. —Dr. Steffie Woolhandler, Distinguished
Professor of Public Health, City University of New York; co-founder, Physicians
for a National Health Program
This book offers an outstanding overview of many aspects of
Cuba’s multifaceted approach to healthcare, at home and abroad. Well researched
and insightful, with solid data and extensive research, this is essential
reading for any seeking to understand how this small country has such an
enviable record at home (better in many aspects than the US system, and at a
fraction of the cost), while leading the world in medical internationalism. —John M. Kirk, Professor of Latin American
Studies at Dalhousie University, Canada
I have never visited Cuba, but I learned so much by serving as
the medical reviewer for Don Fitz’s book! Since 1959, Cuba has done a
remarkable job rebuilding and improving their health care system. Cuba now
deploys a just system of primary care down to the neighborhood level across the
entire island. American and Cuban medical leaders could learn from each other, if
they spent the time to speak and truly listen to each other. Don Fitz has
written a well-referenced book, and his words deserve a broad audience! —Gary M. Gaddis, MD, PhD; Fellow of the
International Federation for Emergency Medicine; Professor of Emergency
Medicine, Washington University, Saint Louis School of Medicine
This text offers a thorough examination of the history of Cuba’s
public health system. It is an important read for anyone interested in
understanding how and why Cuba built a world renown health care system based on
preventative care. Fitz puts Cuba’s commitment to medical internationalism into
context by outlining the history of the small island nation where poverty and
disease were once rampant and telling the story of how, against all odds, it
built a world class health care system and made it available to some of the
poorest nations of the world. —Gail
Walker, Executive Director, IFCO/Pastors for Peace
How can a small island nation, subjected to six decades of US
antagonism, provide universal health care, fund a world-class biotech industry,
educate thousands of doctors from around the world, and collaborate in global
staffing, disaster relief and epidemic control? For the curious (and
dubious), Cuban Health Care answers that
question. In today’s context, where climate change, pandemics, and rampant
chronic disease threaten human and planetary health, Don Fitz’s new book serves
as a road map for how to shift the paradigm towards a more equitable,
humanistic health care approach. Based on extensive interviews and exhaustive,
evidence-based research, this should be required reading for anyone interested
in building a healthier future for all. If Cuba can do it, other countries can,
too. —Conner Gorry, Senior Editor, MEDICC Review; founder, Cuba Libro
Underscored by the disastrous American medical and political
response to the Covid-19 pandemic, Cuban Health Care: The Ongoing
Revolution should receive as wide a readership as possible.
Expertly written, effectively organized, and thoroughly ‘reader friendly’ in
presentation, Cuban Health Care is
extraordinarily informative, thoughtful and thought-provoking. —Midwest Book Review
Cuban Health Care examines the transformation
of Cuba’s medical system following the 1959 revolution. Fitz posits that the
change in medical education and the creation of a new health-care system
centered on expanding care beyond the most privileged sectors of Cuban society
illustrate innovative solutions to poverty and disease. Among the book’s most
important themes are the development and evolution of a system of policlinics
across the island; the role of Cuban medical personnel in delivering
anti-imperialist military and humanitarian aid to other developing countries,
particularly in Africa and Latin America; and a critical comparison between
Cuba’s more egalitarian approach to medicine and the more corporatized US
model. Fitz certainly makes a strong case for the material and moral triumphs
of Cuba’s medical revolution, but he does not shy away from critiquing its shortcomings,
e.g., when he points out how homophobia negatively impacted patient care during
the AIDS crisis. This well-written study of Cuban health care is a timely and
important read for students, faculty, and practitioners in a wide range of
fields, from medicine and medical humanities to history, sociology, political
science, and even business.
—B. A. Lucero, University of Houston-Downtown, CHOICE
Don Fitz is
a member of the editorial board of Green Social Thought and
newsletter editor for the Green Party of St. Louis. He contributes frequently
to Monthly Review magazine.
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RELATED
Cuba thanks Canadian entrepreneurs´ trust despite
U.S. blockade
Prensa Latina. Mronline.org (7-8-21)
Cuba thanked Canadian entrepreneurs who do
business with the country despite the economic, commercial and financial
blockade imposed by the United States on Cuba, the Ministry of Foreign Trade
and Foreign Investment (MINCEX) reported.
July 7, 2021 | Newswire
Washington’s accusation in its report that Cuba
engages in people trafficking is a lie
Editor.
Mronline.org (7-8-21)
Declaration by the Ministry of Foreign
Affairs
July 7, 2021 | Newswire
LINKS to Earlier
Newsletters
#7 https://jamesrichardbennett.blogspot.com/2021/07/omni-cuba-newsletter-7-july-3-2021.html
#6 https://jamesrichardbennett.blogspot.com/2021/02/omni-cuba-newsletter-6.html
#5 https://jamesrichardbennett.blogspot.com/2020/03/omni-cuba-newsletter-5-march-8-2020.html
#4 http://jamesrichardbennett.blogspot.com/2015/01/cuba-newsletter-4.html
#3 http://jamesrichardbennett.blogspot.com/2014/11/cuba-newsletter-3.html
#2 Oct. 21,
2012
#1 Feb. 4,
2011
DEFENDING THE
CUBAN REVOLUTION
END CUBA
NEWSLETTER #8, JULY 15, 2021
