Florida Governor Sings New Law Stiffening Economic Blockade of Cuba

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Florida Governor Rick Scott signed a bill on Tuesday that prohibits state and local governments from contracting with companies that have business ties to Cuba and Syria.

The piece of legislation, sponsored by Republic Senator Rene Garcia of Hialeah and Representative Michael Bileca of Miami, is seen as a “gesture” towards the coveted Cuban-American right-wing voters in Florida.

“The governments of Cuba and Syria are two of the only four countries that the United States designates as state sponsors of terrorism and the money of Florida taxpayers should not in any way contribute to support them,” Scott said upon signing the bill.

The controversial law has received strong criticism from the Florida Chamber of Commerce and from Florida’s top two trading partners, Brazil and Canada, who have warned the measure could discourage investment from foreign firms.

The piece of legislation goes into effect on July 1 and it affects future state and local government contracts worth at least $1 million.

(acn)

The Pastors for Peace Caravan Arrives in Cuba

The 22nd Pastors for Peace Caravan arrived in Cuba on Friday after touring almost 130 cities and collecting over 100 tons of humanitarian aid for the Caribbean island.

The 107 brigadistas were welcomed at Havana’s Jose Marti Airport by Kenia Serrano, president of the Cuban Institute for Friendship with the Peoples (ICAP); Reverend Raul Suarez, director of the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Center; and representatives of several political and mass organizations.

Leira Sanchez, head of International Relations of the Young Communists League, told the members of the contingent that the Cuban people and particularly the new generations of Cubans thank them for their effort of not letting the ideas of Reverend Lucius Walker die and for the fact that this convoy of solidarity is dedicated to youngsters.

Likewise, she praised the decision of the visiting friends of continuing with their effort of breaking the blockade imposed by the US on the island for over 50 years now, a task to which the founder of the initiative, Lucius, who died in September, 2010, devoted himself with conviction.

In a press conference, Tom Smith, president of the Interreligious Foundation for Community Organization (IFCO), expressed his satisfaction for being in Cuba once again, in a trip he had no doubt would be carried out successfully.

Bill Sales, who travels with his wife, thanked Commander in Chief Fidel Castro for giving their daughter the opportunity to study Medicine in Cuba, and said that both of them are happy for being able to attend her graduation ceremony on Saturday.

The visitors’ program, which will end on July 30, includes exchanges with students, artists, scientists and farmers, and their participation in the graduation ceremony of 20 US youngsters who studied at Havana’s Latin American Medical School.

Source

Pastors for Peace pass through Mexico 

Also See
> Commitment with Cuba Grows, Say Pastors for Peace
> Pastors for Peace Caravanistas Tour Cuba
> Mores images from PhotosPL

Cuban Bound Pastors for Peace Caravan in Mexico

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The 22nd Pastors for Peace Caravan entered Mexican territory after crossing the Pharr-Reynosa border post, where US customs authorities seized seven computers part of a humanitarian aid delivery for Cuba.

Hector Fraginals, a political adviser at the Cuban embassy, told Prensa Latina that the Caravan members protested against the actions by the US custom agents.

According to Helen Bernstein, acting coordinator of the organization, US authorities confiscated seven computers at the border. For Bernstein, the seizure was nothing new. In 1993, a school bus was held by US customs and released after a 23-day hunger strike by 13 caravan members. In 1996, five people fasted for 93 days for the release of hundreds of computers, and last year five computers donated for Cuban schools were also seized.

Victor Vargas, the Pastors for Peace representative in Mexico, said that the caravan was welcomed by various members of the Mexican Movement of Solidarity with Cuba, among other organizations of support to Cuba, at the Reinosa international bridge, in Tamaulipas.

The more than 100 tons of humanitarian aid for Cuba includes medicines, computers, school materials, portable solar panels, and 14 vehicles.

The caravan is scheduled to arrive in the port city of Tampico, on Thursday, where they will board ships to Cuba with over the humanitarian aid collected in 130 US cities. After crossing the US-Mexico border in Pharr-Reynosa, the group of more than 100 activists reaffirmed its defiance of the US blockade of Cuba, saying "love is our license," in memory of the late Rev. Lucius Walker Jr.

The group, which will visit Cuba from July 22 to 30, plans to meet with students, artists, scientists and farmers, and to attend the graduation ceremony that includes 20 young students from the United States who have been studying at the Latin American School of Medicine – ELAM.

Source

Pastors for Peace’s Friendshipment Caravan Crosses U.S.-Canada Border

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The U.S.-Cuba Friendshipment Caravan, organized by the Pastors for Peace religious group, managed to cross the U.S.-Canada border carrying humanitarian aid destined to Cuba in spite of the intimidation of the American authorities there.

 “The crossing was a success,” announced in a communiqué the organization Vancouver Communities in Solidarity with Cuba (VCSC), according to Prensa Latina news agency.

Last Sunday, the United States refused to allow a pickup truck carrying humanitarian assistance to Cuba to enter Canadian territory alleging that it was a commercial load that should comply with certain requirements.

The VCSC communiqué adds that the border guards threatened to fine the activists for the alleged violation but, shortly afterwards, thanks to the efforts of a lawyer of Pastors for Peace, they reversed their decision.

During the crossing, the activists carried banners and Cuban flags, and demanded the elimination of the almost 50-year-old U.S. economic blockade against the Caribbean nation.

Organized by the U.S. religious group Pastors for Peace, the Friendshipment Caravan tours several U.S. and Canadian cities collecting humanitarian aid. This year, they began on July 2 and will finish on July 21 with the crossing of the U.S.-Mexico border.

This caravan was founded in 1992 by Rev. Lucius Walker, a friend of Cuba who passed away in September 2010.
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Obama slaps ban on Irish musicians travelling to Cuba

The Obama Administration has refused to allow Irish American traditional musicians (and Irish musicians resident in the US) to participate in the Second Annual Celtic Festival in Cuba, April 15-26.

The festival is being organized by Kilian Kennedy of Ireland who discovered during a vacation in Cuba a lively Celtic tradition sustained by immigrants and descendants from Gaelic provinces of northern Spain.  Last year, he arranged for musicians from Ireland and Canada to come to Cuba for a week of performances, workshops and seisiuns based in the lovingly restored Old Havana.  This year's festival is receiving support from Culture Ireland as well as Havana's Office of the Historian, Dr. Eusebeo Leal.

John McAuliff, who served in the 1980s as president of the Philadelphia Ceili Group and assistant editor of that city's monthly Irish Edition, applied for a license for traditional musicians from the US under the auspices of his 25 year old not-for-profit organization, the Fund for Reconciliation and Development of Dobbs Ferry, NY. Initially the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) of the Treasury Department turned him down on the grounds he did not provide sufficient detail as required by 2004 guidelines.
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McAuliff provide the requested information, only to be informed on Thursday, barely a week before the Festival begins, that his application was "beyond the scope of what was authorized," citing again the 2004 guidelines.

Although President Obama in principle opened the door to "purposeful travel" on January 14th, and new regulations were published in only two weeks, three months later OFAC has still not issued guidelines to implement them or issued any new licenses.  Programs for undergraduate and graduate students and religious organizations do not require a specific license, but artists, performers and people-to-people exchanges must still jump through OFAC hoops.

McAulif has written to Adam Szubin, the director of OFAC challenging the use of guidelines, "issued at the direction of President Bush in 2004 that were intended to destroy purposeful travel as a concession to his political supporters in Florida " He asked, "How can Bush Administration criteria be relevant to implementation of the policy of President Obama who wants to do just the opposite, foster purposeful travel?"

click here to view a slideshow of CeltFest  ‘10

McAuliff suspects that OFAC has its own bureaucratic agenda and has been under pressure from hard line Cuban Americans like New Jersey Senator Bob Menendez who oppose even Obama's authorization in 2009 of unlimited family travel by Cuban Americans.

Should OFAC reconsider at the last minute, McAuliff is not sure how many American musicians will still be able to arrange their schedules or raise the money to go.

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Festival organizer Kilian Kennedy reports that, "The main societies with Celtic music are from Galicia and Asturias in Northern Spain. In Havana, the two largest societies are the Agrupación Artística Gallega de La Habana and the Centro Asturiano de La Habana. Both of these societies have bands that play gaitas (bagpipes), drums, flutes and other Celtic instruments. They also have groups of dancers who wear traditional outfits when celebrating the music and dances of their ancestral Celtic homelands in Spain. These are not the only societies in Havana with Celtic origins - there are also the Monterroso y Antas de Ulla and the Rosalia de Castro Galician societies, all of whom performed at CeltFest Cuba 2010."

U.S. Measures Maintain Blockade

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Measures announced by the White House allowing some people from the United States to travel to Cuba are positive, but do not change the U.S. policy of hostility.

  "Although the measures are positive, they fall far short of those just demands; they have a very limited scope and do not change the policy on Cuba," states a press release issued by the Cuban Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The new regulations are the result of an effort by large U.S. sectors that have demanded the lifting of the blockade against Cuba and the end of the ban on U.S. travel to the island.

The measures are an expression of acknowledgment that U.S. policy on Cuba has failed, and that the United States is seeking new ways to achieve its historic objective of dominating the island's people, the note says.

Only certain U.S. sectors will benefit, because the new rules do not restore the right of all its citizens to travel.

The people of the United States will continue to be the only ones worldwide who cannot freely visit Cuba, the press release says.
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With the authorization of trips with academic, educational, cultural and religious purposes, that country restored some regulations from the 1990s, during the government of William Clinton, which were eliminated in 2003 by his successor George W. Bush.

Those measures confirm there is no willingness to change Washington's anti-Cuban policy, the MINREX statement stated.

After announcing them, U.S. officials said the blockade would remain intact and they proposed using new measures to foster subversion and interference in Cuba's internal affairs.

"If there is any real interest in expanding and facilitating contacts between our peoples, the United States should lift the blockade and eliminate the ban that makes Cuba the only country worldwide to which the U.S. people cannot travel," the press release says.

Source

World Condemns US Blockade against Cuba at UN General Assembly

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Cuba: 187

Abstentions: 3

USA: 2 

For the 19th consecutive year, The U.N. General Assembly has voted overwhelmingly to condemn almost a half-century of U.S. sanctions against Cuba, demanding an end to what member states say is a cruel Cold War anachronism that only hurts ordinary people.

Cuba´s report on the UN 64/6 Resolution received the support of 187 countries, while three abstained and the US, along with its traditional ally Israel, voted against .

Thirty heads of state and government and foreign ministers from several countries reiterated their condemnation of the blockade a month ago in the General Assembly.

The US blockade has a huge negative impact on the Cuban people’s everyday lives and has caused Cuba’s economy losses for over 751 billion dollars.

The US government’s hackneyed argument that this is a “bilateral issue” is demolished by the blockade’s extraterritoriality as it affects companies and citizens from third countries, making of it an actual economic war.

Sources 1 2 3

Also See

NZ Cuban Embassy Press Release October 27th 2010

Blockade Resolution Ready

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For the nineteenth consecutive year, the General Assembly of the United Nations will vote on a Cuban resolution demanding the end of the almost 50-year-old US blockade against the islan9

Prensa Latina news agency reports that the UN General Assembly will vote on the document as part of the discussion on topic 41 of the agenda under the title “Necessity to End the Economic, Trade and Financial Blockade Imposed by the United States of America against Cuba.”

The text of the resolution reaffirms the principles of equal sovereignty among States, non interference in domestic affairs and freedom of trade and international navigation.

It also rejects the approval and implementation of laws such as the Helms-Burton Act, “whose extraterritorial effects damage the sovereignty of other states and the legitimate interests of entities or individuals.”

The document mentions that a similar resolution has been approved by the UN General Assembly on 18 previous occasions. It also refers to other declarations and accords adopted by several intergovernmental forums, international organizations and governments rejecting the implementation of this kind of unilateral measures.

The text urges all states to abstain from passing and implementing similar regulations and to comply with the principles included in the Charter of the United Nations and international law.

Finally, it asks the UN General-Secretary to prepare a report on the compliance with the resolution to present it during the 66th ordinary period of sessions of the UN General Assembly.

Last year, 187 countries voted to lift US blockade against Cuba while only three voted against (United States, Israel and Palau) and two abstained (Marshall Islands and Micronesia).

According to conservative estimates, the blockade has cost the island more than 751 billion dollars.

Source

Also see

Cuba is the Second Haiti

Cuba Policy to Remain Intact, says Obama

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2009 United Nations vote on a Cuban motion condemning the US blockade;

178 FOR : 3 AGAINIST

US President Barack Obama, ruled out a change of policy toward Cuba until the island’s government shows its gestures are serious on the road toward greater freedom in the Caribbean island nation, reported IPS on Wednesday.

Speaking during a press conference to Spanish-speaking media in Washington, Obama said “I think that any release of political prisoners, any economic liberalization that takes place in Cuba is positive, positive for Cuban people, but we’ve not yet seen the full results of these promises.”

Before Obama took office in January 2009, he gave the impression of his desire to make changes in the hostile US policy towards Cuba and possibly free-up ordinary US citizens to visit the neighbouring country.

Nonetheless, after nearly two years of the current administration, the half-century economic blockade and the travel ban remain firmly in place.

On Tuesday October 26, the United Nations is scheduled to once again vote on a Cuban motion to condemn the US blockade.  In last year’s vote only Israel and Palau voted with the US, while 187 countries sided with Cuba’s position.

Havana Times

Also See

Open Letter to the President from Danny Glover on the Cuban Five

Cuban Parliament Calls for World Solidarity against US Blockade

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The Commission for International Relations of the National Assembly of the People's Power (Parliament) called upon the international community on Tuesday to demand the end of the economic, financial and commercial blockade imposed by the United States on Cuba.

Ramon Pez Ferro, president of the commission, presented the members of this working group the draft of the call, unanimously approved after being read by Deputy Yenielys Vilma Regüeiferos at the island's Parliament office.

The document asks for the solidarity of parliaments and peoples from around the world, so they request their respective governments their support for Cuba at the United Nations, when there are only a few days left before the discussion at the UN General Assembly of the Cuban resolution against the blockade.

The absolute truth some intend to conceal –reads the call- is that for over 200 years the United States has tried to control Cuba's destiny in the face of Cubans' determination to live in a free, independent and sovereign nation.

The text recalls that that indefensible US policy against the island caused the death of 3,478 people and disabling injuries to another 2,099, as a consequence of terrorist acts.

Also see
> US Blockade Affects Cuban Civil Aviation
> US Economic Blockade: Without Change
> Call for Lifting the Blockade and Repeal of the Common Position

The Blockade Shoots to Kill and Wounds Everyone

No Cuban escapes from the effects of the blockade. Age, sex, race, social position, education level, religious beliefs or political affiliation does not matter. Cuba does not exaggerate when it speaks of genocide. The economic, commercial and financial blockade imposed by the United States during the last 50 years targets all of us.

Time has turned this measure a part of our daily lives. Millions on the island do not know any other way of living under this terrible measure and the Cuban people have done miracles to resist and open paths towards development and leave imperialism with the desire of destroying the Revolution or starving out the Cuban people.

Click to read the Report

Effects of the blockade? It would be impossible to list, but it is visible at all times, everywhere, even in the psychic of the Cuban people. In the health care system it is particularly painful. But in education no one escapes the blockade, because in a country like Cuba where human rights is fully guaranteed to its population, everyone goes to school and even after graduating we are all still tied to the sector in one way or another.

Since the literacy campaign in 1961, experiences and achievements have turned Cuba as a source of reference in the world as how to work in the field of quality education and its accessibility to all.

The National Literacy Campaign of 1961 is recognized as one of the most successful initiatives of its kind, mobilized teachers, workers, and secondary school students to teach more than 700,000 persons how to read. This campaign reduced the illiteracy rate from 23% to 4% in the space of one year

Despite the blockade, education is still there, intact and Cuba shares its experiences with other nations in the world. What affects education is its quality, because not one single child has been left without a school or teacher and this information is found in Cuba´s report on Resolution 64/6 of the UN General Assembly entitled: “Necessity to End the economic, commercial and financial blockade imposed by the United States of America against Cuba”.

More ...

By María Elena Álvarez

Want more on the 1961 literacy campaign?  - download

Perspectives on the Cuban National Literacy Campaign

(PDF)

Cuba Reelected to Council of the ITU

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With more votes than in previous elections, Cuba was re-elected for the sixth consecutive time as a member of the Council of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU).

During the 18th Conference of Plenipotentiaries that is underway since October 4 in Guadalajara, Mexico, the island obtained one of the nine spots given to the Americas with 125 votes.

The other countries of the region elected as members of the ITU Council were Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Costa Rica, the United States, Mexico, Paraguay and Venezuela.

The Cuban delegation described their election to this body of 48 members as a victory for the island and for regional integration.

In Guadalajara, Cuba denounced that Washington’s almost 50-year-old blockade of the island prevents the country from access to state-of-the-art technology, systems, software and access to Internet sites and services.

They also denounced that nearly 2,000 hours are broadcast through 30 frequencies from the United States to Cuba with subversive purposes violating international law and many other regulations.

The Cuban delegation to the ITU meeting, which is held every four years, is led by Ramon Linares, first deputy president of the Cuban Ministry of Informatics and Communication.

Source acn

Also see

> U.S. blockade makes Cuba's Telecommunication Company Loss Millions

> Twitter Admits Cutting Messages via Cell Phone to Cuba

Cuban Religious Leader Attends Lucius Walker’s Wake

"We think the US blockade of Cuba is against the Holy Scriptures. We dare to say that what Cuba needs the most is our solidarity to break the blockade,"

The funeral of Baptist pastor Lucius Walker took place on September 17, at the Convent Avennue Baptist Church, in Manhattan, New York. Organized by his family, the memorial service was attended by noted religious leaders and American graduates of Havana’s Latin American School of Medicine.

Cuban Presbyterian Pastor Miriam Ofelia, who is also the head of the World Council of Churches for Latin America and the Caribbean and deputy to the Cuban parliament, attended the ceremony on behalf of the Cuban people, who so much loved and admired Walker.

Other Cuban religious leaders were unable to attend the ceremony because their visa applications to enter the United States were granted too late or denied. Such is the case of Reverend Raul Suarez, head of the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Center; Episcopal Pastor Pablo Oden Marichal, who is also the executive secretary of the Cuban Council of Churches, and Baptist Pastor Estela Hernandez, head of the Pastors for Peace Distribution Commission.

Comrades Fidel Castro and Raul Castro sent wreaths to the brave and faithful friend of Cuba.

Walker, who for died on September 7, was the executive director of the Pastors for Peace Interreligious Foundation for the Organization of the Community, an organization he directed since its foundation in 1967.

He was also the founder and promoter of the Cuba-USA Friendship Caravans, known in Cuba as the Pastors for Peace Caravans, which in 1992 began challenging the US blockade of Cuba by travelling to the island carrying humanitarian aid. "We think the US blockade of Cuba is against the Holy Scriptures. We dare to say that what Cuba needs the most is our solidarity to break the blockade," said Walker once.

> Adios to Lucius Walker Jr. in Harlem

> Lucius Walker is in the Hearts of the Cuban People
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Source

U.S. blockade Causes Billions in Losses

The  blockade has cost Cuba over 750 billion dollars in direct economic damage

The U.S. economic, commercial and financial blockade has cost Cuba over 750 billion dollars in direct economic damages in half a century, reads a report introduced today by Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez Parrilla.

This figure reveals that despite there is a new US government, allegedly inspired by the philosophy of change, there hasn’t been any change in its policy towards the island, said the Cuban Minister.

Rodriguez Parrilla presented today to the domestic and foreign press the report on the subject that Cuba will take to the 65 regular session of the UN General Assembly.


An act of genocide

He called the blockade an act of genocide that has extraterritorial reach, since its unilateral sanctions would have a widespread effect on business outside the U.S. territory over third countries and their citizens.

He denounced that Cuba continues being prevented from exporting or importing goods and services freely to or from United States; it cannot use the US dollar in international transactions or have accounts in that currency in banks of third countries, and it is not allowed access to credit from U.S. banks , its subsidiaries and institutions under its control.

He cited statements made to NBC by the economic adviser to President Barack Obama Lawrence Summers, according to which, the lifting of the embargo, as he euphemistically call it “will depend on what Cuba does”

No intention to change

 “It is clear that the United States government harbors no intention to change in its policy toward Cuba, or to comply with the repeated resolutions of the General Assembly of the United Nations calling for its removal,” said the minister.

On the contrary, he said, they still cling to interventionist unacceptable conditions and requirements as a condition for a correction of their strategy.

Although he had a considerable political support in Congress, in the press, public opinion and the business sector, President Obama has been far below the expectations of its prerogative to alter significant aspects of policy, he said.

It is a smoking mirror the claim that the U.S. president cannot change the economic, commercial and financial siege that has lasted half a century, said the Minister of Foreign Affairs.

Violation of basic international norms and continued political subversion
 
However, he warned, the current U.S. administration, violating basic international standards, continues using political subversion as a weapon in its confrontation with Cuba and approved, to promote such programs, 40 million US dollars for the 2009 and 2010 fiscal years

In 2009 representatives of 187 countries showed their support to Cuba at the Un General Assembly, with only three against: U.S., Israel and Palau, the last two dependent on the first.

The 65 session of the General Assembly of the United Nations began on Tuesday and there will be a debate with the participation of Heads of State and Ministers of Foreign Affairs. It will run from September 23 to the 30.
Source

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Report By Cuba

On Resolution 64/6 of the United Nations General Assembly

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United Nations Documents

Resolution adopted by the General Assembly
62/3. Necessity of ending the economic, commercial and financial embargo imposed by the United States of America against Cuba


Reports of the Secretary-General at the United Nations on the Us Blockade Against Cuba

2005    2006   2007  2008

US to Ease Travel Rules to Cuba

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The Obama Administration may ease travel restrictions: a Democracy Now item
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Apparently the criminal blockade will remain in place.