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, 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 ]

CAMPAIGN FOR PEACE, AGAINST THE BLOCKADE AND AGAINST TERRORISM                                                                                                                                             A CALL TO ACTION

To all people of good will:

From the Cuban Institute of Friendship with the Peoples (ICAP), we call on all regions to join in the Day for Peace, against the Blockade and Terrorism.  It will take place from September 4th until the vote in the General Assembly of the United Nations on the draft resolution on the need to end the U.S. blockade against Cuba.

In times when the defense of peace is urgent, facing what seems to be a favorable scenario for a new world conflagration, this day will present an opportunity to unite around fundamental principles that govern our humanity: justice, equity and mutual respect.

With this call, we have special motivations.  The most urgent is, without a doubt, the immediate cessation of the genocide that the Zionist state of Israel is committing against the brother and sister people of Palestine, with the complicity of its Western partners.

Just as urgent is the need to end the U.S. blockade against Cuba, which for more than six decades has caused incalculable suffering to our people, and which continues to suffocate our possibilities of development and limit our free enjoyment of human rights.

The blockade is in itself an act of war and terror.  However, with the cynicism that characterizes it and the effort to subdue our people, the United States has unilaterally designated our country as a so-called State Sponsor of Terrorism, placing an extra burden on the suffocating framework of measures that impede the normal performance of our nation.  We Cubans have suffered firsthand the pain of state terrorism that has been driven by imperial hatred.  Such a designation is a vile lie that seeks to discredit the prestige that the Cuban Revolution has earned by demonstrating its commitment to peace and international cooperation.

For these three reasons, we call for solidarity, to join in the most varied actions to raise awareness in physical and virtual spaces, demonstrations, debates, forums, cultural activities and any initiative we can promote.  Every action counts, every voice is important.  Together we can contribute to building a more just world, where respect for human rights and the dignity of all prevails.

The struggle for peace is universal and together we can echo our voices in favor of a future without blockades or terrorism.

For a Free Palestine!

For a Cuba without a blockade!

For a future of peace and sovereignty!

Cuban Institute of Friendship with the Peoples (ICAP)