“The implications of the bloqueo are very serious. Cuba’s income per person is probably 1/3 or 1/4 of what it would be without the bloqueo.” – Jeffrey Sachs, Columbia University Professor and Economist
August 28 (Belly of the Beast) Belly of the Beast journalist Liz Oliva Fernández interviewed world-renowned economist and Columbia University professor Jeffrey Sachs after his recent visit to Havana.
Sachs analyzes the impact U.S. sanctions have on Cuba’s economy and explains how the embargo, or bloqueo, is extraterritorial.
Delegation of journalists from Vietnam is visiting Cuba
Havana, September 3 (Radio Habana Cuba) A delegation from the Association of Journalists of Vietnam, led by its vice president, Tran Troug Dung, arrived in Havana this Monday to strengthen ties with their Cuban colleagues.
The delegation was received at Havana’s ‘José Martí’ international airport by Bolivia Tamara Cruz, vice president of the Union of Journalists of Cuba (UPEC).
Tran highlighted the exchange between the journalists’ unions of Cuba and Vietnam, the result of bilateral relations between their governments, communist parties and peoples. In turn, Cruz recalled that in September 2022, UPEC president Ricardo Ronquillo arrived in Hanoi at the head of a delegation to learn and exchange about press management models in the two countries.
The Vietnamese journalists will remain until September 7 and will visit media outlets and places of interest. (Fuente: Prensa Latina)
The agreement between the faculties of the Mexican and Cuban univiersities will allow academic exchange of students and professors, joint research work, among other benefits
Havana, September 2 (Radio Habana Cuba) The Faculty of Public Accounting of the Benemérita Universidad Autónoma de Puebla, in Mexico, and the Faculty of Economics and Business Sciences, of the Ignacio Agramonte Loynaz University of Camagüey, in Cuba, signed this Monday a collaboration agreement that strengthens the links between both educational institutions.
According to doctor of Sciences María Antonieta Moserrat Vera Muñoz, director of the Faculty of Public Accounting, the agreement brings multiple mutual benefits such as the academic exchange of students and professors, joint research work, publication of articles and participation in events, and the possibility of achieving a double degree for students and of completing master’s and doctoral programs.
For her part, doctor of Sciences Dayanis Socarrás Viamontes, dean of the Economics and Business Sciences Faculty of the Camagüey university, commented that the doctoral program of Accounting and Financial Sciences will soon hold the category of Excellence. Starting the signing of the agreement, Mexican professors will be able to access this program to achieve said scientific degree.
The universities have a more than three decade ties, and the agreement signed this Monday is the first between the two aforementioned faculties.
The event, which took place at the Camagüey headquarters of the National Association of Economists and Accountants of Cuba, is part of a program carried out by directors of the Mexican Faculty in Camagüey until September 4.
A Dassault Falcon 900EX owned and operated by Venezuela, parked on the tarmac at Fort Lauderdale Executive Airport in Florida on Monday. Credit: Cristobal Herrera-Ulashkevich/EPA
Havana, September 3 (Radio Habana Cuba) — Cuba has strongly condemned the U.S. hijacking of a Venezuelan jet used as a presidential plane by Nicolas Maduro.
On this X account, Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel said:
“Once again, #Venezuela is the focus of aggression and blackmail.
We denounce the plundering of resources that belong to the Venezuelan State and demand the complete lifting of unilateral coercive measures against our Venezuelan sisters and brothers.” @DiazCanelB
For his part, Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez also denounced the international crime of stealing an aircraft from another country and claiming it as its own. The top Cuban diplomat called the action “an act of piracy and a violation of International Law.”
Havana, September 2 (Radio Habana Cuba) — Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel on Sunday criticized the international press’s neglect of the damage caused to his country by the alleged “Havana syndrome,” a media construction discredited even in the United States.
The head of state cited in X a news item recently released by CNN about the cancellation by the National Institutes of Health in the northern nation (NIH, for its acronym in English), of an investigation into the “Havana syndrome,” due to unethical coercion of the participants, said the television station.
“The false Havana syndrome can no longer be supported by studies, but the media forget to mention that it was the vile pretext to include Cuba on the list of sponsors of terrorism and reinforce the genocidal blockade with more than 240 measures,” the president wrote on the social network.
Díaz-Canel also recalled that the United States’ economic, financial and commercial siege policy against the Caribbean island was the work of the Donald Trump administration (2017-2021) and maintained by the current Joe Biden administration.
The excuse of alleged damage to the health of diplomatic personnel accredited in the Antillean capital was widely used by elements of the American extreme right and the Cuban-American mafia to justify the tightening of sanctions against Cuba.
With this misleading story, several times dismissed by investigations by prestigious international and island scientists, they also intended to reinforce the idea that Russia and China constitute a threat to world security, the Granma newspaper reported the day before.
The NIH announced on Friday that it was ending its studies on the topic out of an “abundance of caution” after an internal investigation found that people had been coerced into taking part in the research, several media outlets reported. (Source: Prensa Latina)
Havana, September 2 (Radio Habana Cuba) A delegation of parliamentarians from Trinidad and Tobago, led by the president of its House of Representatives, Bridgid Annisette-George, arrived this Sunday in Cuba on an official visit.
The visitor and her entourage were received at the capital’s José Martí international airport by the vice president of the Cuban parliament, Ana María Mari Machado.
Mari and Annisette-George agreed on the importance of continuing to develop interparliamentary ties between both nations that have maintained diplomatic relations for 52 years.
The leader of the Lower House of the Trinidadian Parliament expressed her rejection of the US economic, commercial and financial blockade of Cuba and its inclusion on the list of alleged state sponsors of terrorism.
The visitor will remain until September 7 and will visit centers of economic, historical, scientific and cultural interest. She will also hold conversations with Cuban authorities, including the President of the Cuban parliament and the Council of State, Esteban Lazo.
According to the Cuban legislative body’s website, Annissette-George’s official visit will contribute to continuing to strengthen friendship, collaboration and solidarity between both peoples, governments and parliaments.
Trinidad and Tobago was one of the first four Caribbean States that in 1972 established diplomatic relations with Cuba. (Source: Prensa Latina)
Deputy Foreign Minister Anayansi Rodríguez / Photo taken from Prensa Latina
Havana, August 29 (Radio Habana Cuba) — Deputy Foreign Minister Anayansi Rodríguez will lead the Cuban delegation to the ministerial segment of the Regional Conference on the African Diaspora in the Americas, to be held in Brazil, the Foreign Ministry reported.
According to the source, the Cuban representation at the meeting that will take place on August 31st in the city of Salvador in the Brazilian state of Bahia will show the efforts made by the Government of this Caribbean nation and its commitment to advance in the fight against all vestiges of racism and racial discrimination.
Likewise, it will share the results of the International Conference “New narratives: memories, resistance and vindication”, held recently in Havana, in commemoration of the 30th Anniversary of the UNESCO Program “The Routes of Enslaved People”.
The meeting will also discuss the International Conference Cuba 2024: Decade of People of African Descent, to be held in Havana from December 9 to 13.
Cuba has reiterated its principled position and permanent condemnation of any manifestation of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related forms of intolerance and its unrestricted commitment to the Durban Declaration and Program of Action, the Foreign Ministry noted. (Source: Prensa Latina)
Havana, Aug 29 (Radio Habana Cuba) Cambodia’s Minister of Health, Chheang Ra, requested greater cooperation with Cuba in the health sector, to contribute to achieving universal health coverage in 2035.
Ra made the request when receiving the Cuban ambassador to the Kingdom, Milena Zaldívar, to whom he conveyed his country’s gratitude for the support and contribution to the improvement of health services by sending a group of volunteer doctors since 1979.
He also highlighted the training offered by members of the Cuban Medical Brigades during their stay in Cambodia, as well as the training of medical students through scholarships granted by the Cuban government from the 1980s to date.
The Cuban ambassador, for her part, reiterated the firm willingness to continue cooperation with the Cambodian Ministry of Health, in particular the granting of scholarships for general practitioners and public health specialists.
She also offered the possibility of receiving a dozen Cambodian doctors on the island for specialization courses in oncology, as part of the consensus between the Kingdom of Cambodia and the Republic of Cuba.
The two parties reaffirmed the commitment to continue strengthening collaboration between health portfolios, as part of which Cuban doctors could be sent to treat cancer, diabetes and other specialties in Cambodian hospitals.
They also agreed to promote business opportunities in the pharmaceutical sector, the production of vaccines and medical equipment, and to promote the introduction of medications for the treatment of diabetic ulcers, under the Memorandum of Understanding signed between both ministries in 2022. (Fuente: Prensa Latina)
Havana, August 31 (Radio Habana Cuba) — Manolo De los Santos, Executive Director of The People’s Forum in New York City, affirmed that the economic, commercial and financial blockade of the United States against Cuba is a genocidal policy.
“One of the examples of genocide in international law is depriving a people of their food and we see that clearly in the case of the hostility of the U.S. government towards the Cuban people,” the Dominican-American activist declared in Havana.
He commented that the “same government that finances the genocide against the Palestinian people in Gaza, also imposes a genocide against the Cuban people.”
De los Santos headed the donation to the island of 800 tons of wheat flour, acquired as a result of the Let Cuba Live “Bread for Our Neighbors” campaign, promoted by The People’s Forum, an organization based in the United States.
He explained that thousands of citizens from various nations responded to the initiative, “from people who donated one dollar to people who gave thousands of dollars.”
“They are all convinced that we must carry out another type of policy in favor of relations between Cuba and the United States,” he added.
He pointed out that all this is also possible because of the brotherhood and working relationships with the Martin Luther King Center, “with which we have carried out deliveries of powdered milk and other products necessary for life.”
The donation, whose first delivery was made at the La Vivoreña bakery, in the capital municipality of Diez de Octubre, will be distributed in the provinces of Pinar del Río, Mayabeque, Artemisa, Havana and Matanzas.
The People’s Forum describes itself as “a group of organizers, educators, visionaries, cultural workers, thinkers and fighters committed to the systemic transformation of a society rooted in equity, justice and human dignity.” (Source: Prensa Latina)
Havana, August 31 (Radio Habana Cuba) — A shipment of 800 tons of wheat flour — collected by solidarity activists in the U.S. — has arrived in Cuba. The donation will provide bread for millions of people in the provinces of Pinar del Rio, Artemisa, Mayabeque, Matanzas and Havana.
This campaign was organized in the United States by the New York City-based “Let Cuba Live: Bread for Our Neighbors” campaign.
According to Manolo De Los Santos, the executive director of The People’s Forum — which was the main coordinator of the solidarity effort — while the campaign has succeeded in carrying out this delivery, it wasn’t without significant hurdles created by Washington’s blockade of the Caribbean island.
In the process of organizing the campaign, Manolo De Los Santos said they reached out to 14 different grain producers in the U.S. to purchase the massive order but received not a single positive response. In order to successfully complete the delivery, the grain had to be shipped from Turkey and suffered delays “because of the U.S. government’s policy of extreme and arbitrary harassment of Cuba’s foreign trade, which is meant to create desperation for the people of Cuba and has brutal consequences.”
The director of The People’s Forum said that the Joe Biden administration, “in its remaining months before January, has the power to swiftly end this crisis of hunger.” It could remove Cuba from the “State Sponsors of Terrorism List,” an unfounded designation imposed in 2017 by Trump that restricts vital financial and trade transactions.
The “Let Cuba Live: Bread for Our Neighbors” campaign is just one part of the larger fight against the U.S. blockade on Cuba. The people of the U.S. will continue to fight against this brutal blockade and build bridges of solidarity with our neighbors in Cuba.
Manolo De Los Santos emphasized that donations are still being accepted to help offset the costs of this massive delivery, calling on supporters around the world to consider an additional donation.
For more information: https://secure.givelively.org/donate/peoples-forum-inc/let-cuba-live-bread-for-our-neighbors
[ SOURCE: RESUMEN LATINOAMERICANO AND THE THIRD WORLD *** special thanks to Bill Hackwell ]
