Cuba reaffirms solidarity with Palestine in the face of Israeli genocide

Posted on October 15, 2024 by Anthony Brenner

Havana, October 15 (RHC) — Cuba maintains its support for the cause of the people of Palestine in the face of the genocide of the Zionist government of Israel, which today expands its attacks to the entire region and affects nations such as Lebanon, Syria and Yemen.

This historic position of the Caribbean island in the face of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict was supported on Monday before in a solidarity mobilization called by the Union of Young Communists, in which President Miguel Díaz-Canel and other senior leaders of the country participated along with around 60,000 young people.

From the Anti-imperialist Tribune of Havana, destination of the march that began in the Fragua Martiana, the first secretary of the Union of Young Communists of Cuba, Meyvis Estévez, affirmed that each crime of the Zionist army also kills the shame of humanity.

The genocide, he said, is the full responsibility of Israel and the United States, which provides military, logistical and political support to barbarism, and causes panic in an entire population, also using hunger and thirst as weapons of mass destruction.

He pointed out that this march and the mobilizations carried out throughout the country in recent days support the position of this Caribbean nation alongside the Palestinian people, whom he described as an impressive example of self-denial and patriotism.

In the midst of material difficulties, in the midst of the bloodiest blockade suffered by our people, we Cubans have decided to fill these streets because no one can hide the true essence of the Yankee empire, because we will not close our eyes to colonization, suffering and massacre, he pointed out.

Palestinian students in Cuba also expressed the will of their compatriots to resist until they recover their nation, achieve their inalienable rights and a just and lasting peace.

They denounced the expansionist interests of the State of Israel against nations of the Middle East, with the complicity of the United States, while the world remains paralyzed, unable to stop the tragedy.

It is not a war, it is a widespread and progressive genocide, they condemned at the political-cultural event, in which they expressed their gratitude to Cuba for its permanent solidarity with the just cause of the Palestinian people.   (Source: Prensa Latina)

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Filmmaker Michael Moore asks Biden to lift embargo on Cuba

Posted on October 15, 2024 by Anthony Brenner
Michael Moore with his golden statuette for the documentary The Columbine Massacre. Photo: 20 MINUTOS

Also on his wish list for the last 100 days of the Democratic administration is the return of the territory of the Guantanamo naval base, a colonial possession of Washington for more than 120 years.

by  OnCuba Staff October 14, 2024 in Cuba-USA

The famous American filmmaker and activist Michael Moore asked Joe Biden on Saturday, in his last 100 days in office as president, to lift the embargo on Cuba and close the illegal torture base at Guantanamo.

The author of Bowling for Columbine documentary with which he won several renowned awards, including the Oscar in 2003, listed in his blog 13 wishes to happen during the last 100 days of President Biden in the White House.

In the fourth of these wishes is the closure of the U.S. military’s “Guantanamo Bay torture base”, which he called “a dark stain on America’s standing in the world”.

“It is time for GITMO to disappear,” demanded the director of Fahrenheit 9/11, a documentary in which he dissects the causes and consequences of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 in the United States and the subsequent invasion of Iraq.

Moore’s fifth petition is entitled Free Cuba, Free Our Souls, in which he made it clear that “it is time to normalize all relations with Cuba, end all sanctions against Cuba, end the embargo (blockade) and fully recognize the Cuban people’s right to self-determination,” according to Prensa Latina.

The filmmaker noted that “last November, an overwhelming 187 countries gathered at the United Nations General Assembly, for the 31st time! – to demand that the United States end our six-decade trade embargo against Cuba. The only country to vote with us was… wait for it… Israel! Oh, and one nation abstained: Ukraine.”

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What Cubans Think About U.S. Elections & The Cost of the Blockade

Posted on October 14, 2024 by Anthony Brenner

Wed, Oct 2

Welcome to the seventh installment of Belly of the Beast’s newsletter: Cuba in Context.

This week we interview former Secretary of Commerce Carlos Gutierrez about Cuba policy and his own political awakening, we hear what everyday Cubans think about the upcoming U.S. election, and we take a look at the impact of the blockade on Cuba from 2023-24.

INTERVIEW OF THE WEEK: Carlos Gutierrez

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International colloquium in Cuba dedicated to native cultures

Posted on October 14, 2024 by Anthony Brenner

Havana, Oct 13 (Prensa Latina) The 6th International Colloquium of Studies on Native Cultures of the Americas, to be held Oct. 15-18, organized at Casa de las Americas, will be dedicated to the diversity of knowledge of the indigenous populations of the Americas.

The meeting will be held in Havana under the theme “Counter-hegemonic alternatives from sciences and native knowledge”.

This Colloquium seeks to encourage reflection on the historical conditions that explain the exclusion of knowledge generated from native cultures.

It also aims to make visible the strategies of resistance that make it possible for this counter-hegemonic knowledge to last and be reproduced to this day.

mh/oda/dla

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Friends of Cuba in Honduras demand an end to the U.S. blockade

Posted on October 14, 2024 by Anthony Brenner

Tegucigalpa, October 14 (RHC)– Friends of Cuba in Honduras have demanded an immediate end to the economic, commercial and financial blockade imposed by the United States, a policy that today hinders the development of the Caribbean country.

According to the final declaration of the 12th National Meeting of Solidarity with Cuba held in the Honduran department of Intibucá, Washington’s unilateral measure against the island has caused enormous damage and continues to be the main obstacle to progress towards development.

Referring to the measures to tighten the siege, the members of the Honduras-Cuba Friendship Association affirmed that they not only affect the Cuban people, but also the interests of other countries and several U.S. sectors that are betting on normalizing bilateral ties.

The document also demanded to remove Cuba from the spurious list of countries that supposedly sponsor terrorism, when the island is one of the victims of that scourge and not a promoter.

Likewise, the document demanded the return of the territory illegally occupied at the Guantanamo Naval Base, and described it as a flagrant violation of sovereignty, whose headquarters is a criminal torture center widely denounced worldwide.

The statement denounced the increased hostility and aggressive rhetoric of the Washington government against Havana, which seeks to dismantle the progress achieved at the bilateral level.

It also demanded the independence of Puerto Rico with the purpose of decolonizing all peoples from the imperial yoke.

The solidarity meeting condemned the interventionist policies and the financing of subversive plans against the Cuban Revolution promoted by the government of the United States, which is contrary to international law and to the will of the majority of the Cuban people to choose their own political system.

It expressed solidarity with the peoples of Latin America, the Caribbean and the world who are the object of an imperialist escalation and offensive by the fascist and Zionist forces against humanity, while calling for a halt to the genocide by the Israeli forces against the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip.

The statement made reference to the application of coercive and unilateral measures by the United States and its allies against other nations such as Venezuela and Nicaragua, and demanded an end to these policies.

The XII National Meeting of Solidarity with Cuba was held for two days in Tegucigalpa and was attended by dozens of delegates from various regions of this Central American nation.

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October 12th from Our America: We vindicate the legacy of the oppressed and celebrate the Day of Indigenous Resistance

Posted on October 14, 2024 by Anthony Brenner

Havana, October 13 (RHC)– From Cuba, Casa de las Americas, the Office of the Martiano Program and the World Council of the José Martí Project of International Solidarity vindicated the legacy of the oppressed in memory of the cultural clash of October 12, 1492.

Casa de las Americas, the Office of the Martiano Program and the World Council of the José Martí Project of International Solidarity declared this Saturday in Havana the vindication of the legacy of the oppressed in memory of the cultural clash of October 12, 1492 and the emancipatory process that followed.

Through a statement, Cuba’s cultural institutions condemn “all forms of colonialism, neocolonialism and exploitation — past and present — and denounce any attempt to impose a pink legend or glorify perpetrators and ideologues of such outrages.”

With the hashtag #NadaQueCelebrar — Nothing to Celebrate — which qualifies “one of the darkest chapters of history,” produced in the so-called “discovery” of the American continent, the text alludes to the “extermination, the encomienda, the mita, the imported diseases and the cultural shock that [Europeans] produced in the first century and a half of colonization.”.

The cultural institution Casa de las Americas, the Office of the Martiano Program and the World Council of the José Martí Project of International Solidarity vindicate the resistance embodied by “those who rose up five centuries ago against the oppressors and all those who, on this side of the world, since then, have decided to cast their lot with the poor of the earth.”

“The invasion of America by Europeans – in the words of José Martí – constituted the interference of a devastating civilization, two words that, being an antagonism, constitute a process,” contains the text, which was posted on the Facebook profile of Casa de las Americas in Havana.

“Nothing to celebrate.  The conquest and colonization of the Americas turned the initial encounter of two cultures into a sequence of plundering and underdeveloping plundering to which a greater infamy would be added: the slave trade.”

For his part, Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez stated on his X account that “the conquest and colonization of America would add a greater infamy: the slave trade.”

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Indigenous, Afro, and Revolutionary Forces Continue Fighting in the Streets, President Maduro

Posted on October 13, 2024 by Anthony Brenner
Indigenous peoples of Venezuela claim their heritage in anti-colonialist march in Venezuela. Photo: X/ @alfredogonvzla

Oct 12 (teleSUR) Venezuela’s President Nicolás Maduro expressed his solidarity with the March to commemorate 532 years of Indigenous Resistance in Caracas, and questioned whether Spain should celebrate October 12 as a national date when in fact the populations of the Americas were robbed and murdered.

“Now they say it’s Hispanity Day and we are Hispanic, they call us Hispanoamerica,” but he rejected this slogan and reaffirmed that ” we are Our America rebel, the America of resistance, make no mistake,” said Maduro.

“Long live the Day of Indigenous Resistance, long live the Indian Homeland, we are a fighting people and have only one march, 532 marching towards the process of decolonization; they surnames, empires are heirs of colonialism, of slavery and all forms of discrimination and crime”, declared the head of State.

President Maduro said that fascism is the heir and direct expression of colonialism, and that today’s fascists are the heirs of the worst in human history.

“President Nicolás Maduro: The Bolivarian Government has taken into account the indigenous peoples in the social, cultural, and political areas, reclaiming their historical struggles; we continue forward, defending this sacred land. Long live the Indigenous Resistance of our #America!“

In contrast, Maduro considers himself and his people to be the heirs of the noblest and most beautiful resistance, represented by the indigenous “great chief Guaicaipuro.”

“Here we are, the children of who faced them, who did not kneel and who did not submit our American people; we are a perfect blend of diversity, a demonstration that the popular indigenous, Afro, and revolutionary forces continue in the streets because the streets belong to the people and not to the oligarchy,” he said.

The text highlights the recognition of Commander Hugo Chávez for making the indigenous cause visible in Venezuela, pushing its recognition in the Constitution and laws and requests to consolidate an institute that rescues indigenous languages and housing plans, Health and education in the indigenous communities.

He concludes by stating that the 532-year resistance of the indigenous peoples joins the resistance of Palestine, Lebanon and Syria against the same colonizing powers, and calls for preparation to remain at the forefront of just causes.

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Gambia interested in exploring new opportunities with Cuba

Posted on October 13, 2024 by Anthony Brenner
Sonko believes that no country has the right to subject the citizens of any nation to untold suffering, hardship and misery.
Photo taken from Prensa Latina

Havana, October 12 (RHC)– Gambia’s new ambassador to Cuba, Seyaka Sonko that the willingness of his country and the largest Antillean island to explore new opportunities in relations is a clear demonstration that both are interested in moving forward.

“This partnership is deeply rooted in the basic principles of trust, mutual respect and reciprocal benefits,” said the head of Mission, who presented the credentials to Vice President Salvador Valdes Mesa on September 18.

At the ceremony of his presentation to the rest of the diplomatic corps and officials of local institutions, Sonko affirmed that his objective and by extension that of the Embassy in Havana is to strengthen the existing cordial ties through productive commitments.

“In doing so, we also seek to actively liaise with other missions accredited to Cuba to foster greater collaboration in our collective goal of finding comprehensive and lasting solutions to the many complex problems that threaten global stability and peaceful coexistence,” the ambassador asserted.

He also expressed his position that no country has the right to subject the citizens of any nation to untold suffering, hardship and misery, referring to states that apply policies of sanctions and blockades.

“If we truly wish to live in a just and peaceful world, we must always strive to live by the Golden Rule:  Do unto others as you would have them do unto you,” Sonko noted.

The diplomat recalled that the history of The Gambia and Cuba began in 1979 when they established diplomatic relations; however, it was not until 2000 that the Gambian government opened its embassy in Havana, “and since then cooperation between the two countries has been growing in importance,” he remarked.   (Source: Prensa Lartina)

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Cuba’s support for Belize’s progress highlighted

Posted on October 13, 2024 by Anthony Brenner
Mai praised the permanence of Cuban collaboration in the field of health for 34 years.
Photo: Archive/Cuban Diplomatic Missions of Cuba

Havana, October 12 (RHC)– The director general of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade of Belize, Amalia Mai highlighted Cuba’s support to her country.

Mai thanked and highlighted the Cuban support in several areas of the economy and society, at the Conference of International Partners of Strategic Alliances, which took place on October 10 and 11, sponsored by the Government of Belize.

During his speech, he praised “Cuba’s traditional support for the training of human resources”, according to the text sent by the Cuban embassy in Belize and published by the Foreign Ministry of the island.

He also praised “the permanence of collaboration in the field of health for 34 years, in terms of public health of our people”.

He also highlighted “the important work carried out by the Henry Reeve Brigade during the Covid-19 pandemic” in different regions of the country with complex situations.

Under the theme “Unlocking climate finance and disaster risk financing for sustainable development”, the event was inaugurated by the Prime Minister of Belize, John Briceño.

In addition to Amalia Mai’s speech, Francis Fonseca, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Foreign Trade, Education, Culture, Science and Technology, gave a keynote address.

The Cuban ambassador to Belize, María Caridad Balaguer, participated in the meeting together with ministers of state, general directors, other diplomats, officials of international organizations and numerous specialists in the topics discussed, according to the Foreign Ministry’s press release. (Source: Prensa Latina)

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October 12th from Our America: We vindicate the legacy of the oppressed and celebrate the Day of Indigenous Resistance

Posted on October 13, 2024 by Anthony Brenner

Havana, October 13 (RHC)– From Cuba, Casa de las Americas, the Office of the Martiano Program and the World Council of the José Martí Project of International Solidarity vindicated the legacy of the oppressed in memory of the cultural clash of October 12, 1492.

Casa de las Americas, the Office of the Martiano Program and the World Council of the José Martí Project of International Solidarity declared this Saturday in Havana the vindication of the legacy of the oppressed in memory of the cultural clash of October 12, 1492 and the emancipatory process that followed.

Through a statement, Cuba’s cultural institutions condemn “all forms of colonialism, neocolonialism and exploitation — past and present — and denounce any attempt to impose a pink legend or glorify perpetrators and ideologues of such outrages.”

With the hashtag #NadaQueCelebrar — Nothing to Celebrate — which qualifies “one of the darkest chapters of history,” produced in the so-called “discovery” of the American continent, the text alludes to the “extermination, the encomienda, the mita, the imported diseases and the cultural shock that [Europeans] produced in the first century and a half of colonization.”.

The cultural institution Casa de las Americas, the Office of the Martiano Program and the World Council of the José Martí Project of International Solidarity vindicate the resistance embodied by “those who rose up five centuries ago against the oppressors and all those who, on this side of the world, since then, have decided to cast their lot with the poor of the earth.”

“The invasion of America by Europeans – in the words of José Martí – constituted the interference of a devastating civilization, two words that, being an antagonism, constitute a process,” contains the text, which was posted on the Facebook profile of Casa de las Americas in Havana.

“Nothing to celebrate.  The conquest and colonization of the Americas turned the initial encounter of two cultures into a sequence of plundering and underdeveloping plundering to which a greater infamy would be added: the slave trade.”

For his part, Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez stated on his X account that “the conquest and colonization of America would add a greater infamy: the slave trade.”

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