Cuban defense minister, Julio Casas Regueiro, dies at age 75

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Julio Casas Regueiro, Cuba’s Minister of Revolutionary Armed Forces (FAR) died of a cardiac arrest in Havana on Saturday, 3 September. He was 75 years old. He was cremated according to his wishes and his remains will be transfered to the Mausoleum of the Frank País Second Eastern Front in the Sierra Maestra where he will receive military honors. The government has declared a 3-day period of mourning.

A veteran of the revolution, Casas Requiero was trained as an accountant but joined Fidel Castro’s troops in the 1950s. With the triumph of the revolution, he occupied many different posts in the Armed Forces including Chief of the Eastern Army and Chief of military economic activities.

In 2008, when Raúl Castro took over as President from his brother, Casas Requiero replaced him as the Minister of FAR. He was also member of the National Assembly of the People’s Power and Vice-president of the Council of State.

Casas Regueiro is replaced by his first deputy, General Leopoldo Cita Frias.

Source

Sixth Congress meets as 50th Anniversary of Bay of Pigs invasion marked

Raul Castro,  presenting the central report,  during the opening session of the Sixth Congress of the Cuban Communist Party (PCC)

Raul highlighted the fact that the inauguration of the Congress was taking place coinciding with the 50th anniversary of the proclamation of the socialist nature of the Revolution by its Commander in Chief, Fidel Castro Ruz, on April 16, 1961, during a ceremony to pay tribute to those killed the day before during the bombings of Cuban air bases, which was the prelude to the U.S.-backed Bay of Pigs mercenary invasion.

The Cuban leader noted that the military and people’s parade held earlier on Saturday at the Revolution Square, dedicated to the young generations, was eloquent proof of the fortitude of the Revolution to follow the example of the heroic Cuban revolutionary fighters of Bay of Pigs.

In this regard, he added that next May 1, on the occasion of the International Workers Day, “we will do likewise throughout the country to show the unity of Cubans in defense of their independence and national sovereignty, which as proven by history, can only be conquered through Socialism.”

Raul said that the Congress brings together 1,000 delegates representing nearly 800,000 PCC members affiliated to over 61,000 party cells.

 “But, this Congress really started on November 9 last year, with the release of the Draft Guidelines of the Economic and Social Policy of the Party and the Revolution, a subject that, as previously indicated, will be at the center of the debates of this meeting that is regarded with great expectations by our people,” he stated.

The Cuba president explained that, from December 2010 to February of this year, 8,913,838 people participated in more than 163 thousand meetings held by the different organizations and that over three million people offered their contributions in the discussion of the Guidelines.

 “The data collected from the results of the discussions become a formidable working tool for the government and Party leadership at all levels, like a popular referendum, given the depth, scope and pace of the changes we must introduce,” Raul said.

He added that “in a truly extensive democratic exercise, the people freely stated their views, clarified their doubts, proposed amendments, expressed their dissatisfactions and discrepancies, and suggested that we work toward the solution of other problems not included in the document.”

In this regard, he pointed out that every opinion, without exception, was incorporated to the analysis, which helped to enhance the Draft submitted to the consideration of the delegates to the Congress.

 “The principle that guided this process was that the validity of a proposal would not depend on the number of opinions expressed about it.

This is shown by the fact that several guidelines were either modified or removed based on the opinion of only one person or a small number of them,” the Cuban leader noted.

Raul described the Guidelines as an expression of the people’s will to update the Economic and Social Model in order to secure the continuity and irreversibility of Socialism as well as the economic development of the country and the improvement of the living standard of the people combined with the indispensable formation of ethical and political values.

> Congress  Session Gallery
> Bay of Pigs Anniversary Parade Gallery

Documentary Denounces U.S.’s Cyberwar against the Caribbean Nation

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"Cuba is the target of permanent media warfare"

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The U.S. Government’s plans to subvert the Cuban Revolution were again denounced on Monday in the documentary ‘Cyberwar’, aired by Cuban television as part of a series of programs called ‘Cuba’s Reasons’, which reveal Washington’s ongoing efforts to destabilize the Cuban society, now resorting to the new communication technologies.
 
“The US Government earmarks huge sums of money every year to cyber warfare,” said American-Venezuelan lawyer Eva Golinger.
 
She added that, for 2010 alone, Washington approved a budget of more than 90 billion dollars to finance the United States Cyber Command (USCYBERCOM).

Carlos del Porto, Engineering Director of the National Office for Informatization of the Cuban Ministry of Informatics and Communication, commented that diverse studies show that the US Government has almost 90,000 people working in cyber-warfare-related activities.

The editor of CubaDebate Rosa Miriam Elizalde, noted that most of these ‘digital wage-earners’ are hired as cyber-dissidents, who are not only used by the United States against Cuba but also against many other countries around the world.

“Cuba is the target of a permanent media warfare promoted by a group of people who —in the island and abroad— are paid to lie and defame,” said Enrique Ubieta, director of the newspaper ‘La Calle del Medio’.
 
Young Cuban blogger Elaine Diaz Rodriguez, a professor at the School of Communication of the University of Havana, pointed out that there are currently hundreds of personal blogs in Cuba, which are updated from any corner of the country.

These blogs show “a plural, diverse and multiple Cuba, of which each author presents his life experiences,” she concluded.

Source

CUBA’S REASONS: There will always be an Emilio

."GREETINGS to the audience of Radio República. Carlos Serpa Maceira, director of the Union of Free Journalists of Cuba, talking to you from Havana…"

.Until shortly before this interview he was considered the spokesperson for the damas de blanco (Ladies in White) and one of the so-called independent journalists. His revelations expose the prevalence of the subversive U.S. policy toward Cuba

"Right now, I can invent some news and
 with no confirmation whatsoever,
 without verifying anything, it will
be broadcast."

The surprise was a big one: Carlos Serpa Maceira, the "independent journalist," whose reporting for the anti-Cuba media during 2009 was the most prolific is, simply, State Security agent Emilio.

Agencies linked to the Ministry of the Interior decided to disclose his identity as irrefutable evidence of the work of counterrevolutionary mini-groups, thus exposing its principal mentors and the sick proposition of successive U.S. administrations to defeat the Cuban Revolution. They direct, finance, support and promote a dissident movement without legitimacy on the island.

Read the interview ...

Also see
> Undercover Agent Emilio: "I have always been and will be a revolutionary"

> Emilio, Honorary Journalist
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Cuba and Venezuela re-launch bilateral Integral Cooperation Agreement

Raúl and Hugo during the event at Havana’s International Conference Center

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Presidents Raúl Castro Ruz and Hugo Chávez Frías, of Cuba and Venezuela, respectively, re-launched this Monday the bilateral Integral Cooperation Agreement for 2010-2020, following the successful development of that accord during the last decade, which has contributed notably to the socioeconomic advance of both countries.

After confirming that both nations are directing their efforts to economic union under a new kind of relationship, which should continue to grow, Raúl took advantage of the opportunity to convene the Communist Party and all the Cuban people to take part in the planning process for the 6th Congress of Cuban communists, scheduled for the second half of April, 2011, on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the Bay of Pigs victory and the proclamation of the socialist nature of the Cuban Revolution.

During the event at Havana’s International Conference Center, President Raúl Castro also presented Chávez with a copy of Economic and Social Policy Development Project, which will be discussed at the Congress.
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Venezuelan Workers to March

in Support of Socialist Model

In response, the Venezuelan president thanked him for the honor and highlighted the great significance of Fidel, the Cuban Revolution and their resistance to imperialism.

Also present at the event were the Venezuelan delegation and Cuban leaders of the Communist Party, government, representatives of the Revolutionary Armed Forces, the Ministry of the Interior, the Union of Young Communists and the mass organizations.

Source

EU awards Cuban 'dissident' 50,000 euros

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European Parliament encourages hunger strikes

by Helen Yaffe for RATB

The European Parliament has awarded the Sakharov Prize to Cuban ‘dissident’ Guillermo Fariñas in recognition of his contribution to 'human rights' in Cuba. Fariñas’ twentieth hunger strike, to demand the release of Cuban political prisoners, ended in July 2010 after 135 days, during which he was kept alive in intensive care by Cuban medics. The President of the European Parliament, Jerzy Buzek said: ‘Fariñas is an independent journalist and a political dissident who has shown that he is ready to sacrifice himself and risk his health and his life as a way of applying pressure to achieve change in Cuba.’ However, Buzek did not mention Fariñas record of non-political violent crime or his employment under US programmes to destabilise the Cuban Revolution.

In 1995 Fariñas assaulted, battered and threatened to kill a female doctor, the director of a hospital. Sentenced to three years and a 600 peso fine, he initiated his first hunger strike, and joined the counter-revolution for the first time. In 2002, an old woman he attacked with a walking stick needed emergency surgery. Sentenced to five to ten years, Farinas began a second hunger strike. His third hunger strike was to demand a television in the hospital wing where he was recovering from dehydration caused by the second. In December 2003, Cuban authorities released him because of his medical condition, but in 2006 Farinas initiated another hunger strike to demand internet access from his home. This was to assist his work as a 'reporter' for the CIA radio station, Radio Martí. Fariñas works closely with the US Interests Section (a substitute for an embassy) and other European diplomats who direct subversion in Cuba, receiving instructions, money and supplies. He lacks popular support and the Cuban people, who Fariñas claims to represent, consider him to be a mercenary for US imperialism.

More ...

Helen Yaffe is the author of Ché Guevara The Economics of Revolution essential reading for those interested in understanding Ché’s full contribution to the Cuban Revolution. 

Peace Boat Arrived in Havana

"Learn from Past Wars to Build a Future of Peace"

A solidarity brigade comprised of almost one thousand Japanese activists arrived in Havana on Tuesday on board the Peace Boat as part of a trip around several countries to strengthen bonds of friendship and solidarity.

This 14th visit of the Japanese ship to Cuba coincides with International Peace Day, established in 2001 by the UN General Assembly.

During their stay in Havana, the visitors will tour places where important health, sports, cultural and production projects are being carried out. They will also visit the Tarara International Camp in East Havana where they will learn about a Cuban program to treat thousands of children who were victims of the Chernobyl nuclear catastrophe.

Under the slogan "Learn from Past Wars to Build a Future of Peace," the Japanese Peace Boat NGO has organized international sea voyages twice a year since 1983, with the purpose of promoting peaceful solutions to world problems.

Since 1990, the Peace Boat has included Cuba among its destinations, which has favoured direct contacts of university students from Japan and other nations with Cuban organizations and institutions and with the population.

The ship has visited some 100 countries and the project has involved over 30,000 people in its global educational programs, aimed at promoting peace and positive social and political changes in the world, and at contributing to spread a culture of respect for the environment.

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Fidel Castro Meets with Peace Boat Activists

The previous stay of the ship in Havana, in 2009, was dedicated to the 50th anniversary of the triumph of the Cuban Revolution and to the 80 anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Cuban and Japan.

The Peace Boat will leave Havana on Tuesday afternoon heading for Jamaica. They will also visit Guatemala, Nicaragua, Panama and Mexico before going back to Japan.

Also see “The truth is being hijacked”

Chavez Recalls First Declaration of Havana

September 2, 1960: More than one million Cubans ratify the First Declaration of Havana, which declares the support of the Cuban people for the Revolution and against U.S. imperialism. Right: Fidel Castro rips up the anti-Cuban Declaration of San José issued by the OAS

Hugo Chavez, President of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, highlighted the significance of the First Declaration of Havana, on the occasion of its 50th anniversary.

With this Declaration, the leader of the Cuban Revolution, Fidel Castro, responded to the aggressions of the United States and lackey nations against the newly-created social project, specified Chavez in a simultaneous television broadcast from the state of Zulia.

Approved in a mass meeting at Revolution Square, the document denounced the interventionist policy of the United States and proclaimed the right of the peoples to put an end to exploitation and build a new, united and independent America, he underlined.

Fidel’s speech that September 2, 1960, shook the world and announced a historic delivery: the birth of the Cuban Revolution, which has done a lot not only for that country but also for peoples in the region, Africa and beyond, emphasized the head of state according to a report by Prensa Latina news agency.

Likewise, he stressed the dignity and spirit of solidarity of the Cuban people, after speaking highly of the fraternal relations existing between the two countries, consolidated for over a decade now.

He said that, during the first years, the Bolivarian Revolution was practically isolated, and the only ally it had -and will continue to have- was the government of the Caribbean island, which gave us a hand and supported us from the start, asserted the head of state.

On September 2, 1960, over one million Cubans, met in a National General Assembly at the Jose Marti Revolution Square, enthusiastically approved the First Declaration of Havana, read by Fidel.

That historic statement was the virile reply to the Declaration of San Jose, agreed in Costa Rica during a meeting of the Organization of American States (OAS), in which Foreign Minister Raul Roa Garcia denounced the attacks, fallacies and manoeuvres of the United States and its allies against the Caribbean island.

Fidel calls on young people to fight to prevent a nuclear war

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In a message to the university students, who packed the historical steps of the University of Havana to listen to the iconic leader of the Cuban Revolution, Fidel thanked the young crowd for their moral support for the struggle for world peace, and called on them to not cease fighting for it because, like in many battles of the past, it is also possible to win.

Fidel said that it is possible to win the battle to avoid a nuclear war of unpredictable consequences for the world and to defend the right of all human beings to live.

Addressing thousands of university students and others at the steps of the University of Havana today, where —as Fidel has said— he became a revolutionary and found the true purpose of his life, the leader of the Cuban Revolution called upon all the governments and peoples of the world to save peace, life and the future of humanity.
  
In reference to the real and imminent threat of another war in the Middle East that could have catastrophic consequences for the human race, Fidel said, “Humanity’s time to wage this battle is incredibly limited.” He said that the 7 billion people on the planet must prevent this horrific tragedy, and that the two most important tasks are preventing war and making efforts to combat climate change.

Wearing his trademark olive green uniform, Fidel read his message to the students urging them and everyone to fight against those who have imposed a system that threatens the very existence of the human species and the planet, and stressed the importance of eliminating the causes that make humans see one another as enemies.

“We are here to convince, to persuade, to avoid a war that would end our hopes, and to show that we are all devoted to the love for life. We will defend our right to live until the end"  Maydel Gomez Lago, President FEU

Maydel Gomez Lago, president of the Cuban Federation of University Students (FEU), said, “We are here to convince, to persuade, to avoid a war that would end our hopes, and to show that we are all devoted to the love for life. We will defend our right to live until the end; we don’t want to die in such an absurd way; we want to see our dreams come true,” she added as she called upon US President Barack Obama to restrain himself from launching a nuclear war.

Gomez Lago continued by saying, “We have the right to fight for our future and it’s our duty to build it. We still have time. Let’s defend peace; life will not forgive us if we do less than that.”
 

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Message to the University Students of Cuba – Fidel’s Speech 

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Photos (1)  Photos (2)

Source  Prensa Latina Radio Havana