[Marxistindia] Reflections by Fidel Castro

[news from the cpi(m)]

   Cuba, Reflections by comrade Fidel: Not a Word About the Blockade





 

                     Not A Word About The Blockade



 

The U.S. administration announced through CNN that Obama would be
visiting Mexico this week, in the first part of a trip that will take
him to Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, where he will be within four
days taking part in the Summit of the Americas. He has announced the
relief of some hateful restrictions imposed by Bush to Cubans living in
the United States regarding their visits to relatives in Cuba. When
questions were raised on whether such prerogatives extended to other
American citizens the response was that the latter were not authorized.

 

But not a word was said about the harshest of measures: the blockade.
This is the way a truly genocidal measure is piously called, one whose
damage cannot be calculated only on the basis of its economic effects,
for it constantly takes human lives and brings painful suffering to our
people.

 

Numerous diagnostic equipment and crucial medicines --made in Europe,
Japan or any other country-- are not available to our patients if they
carry U.S. components or software.

 

The U.S. companies producing goods or offering services anywhere in the
world should apply these restrictions to Cuba, since they are
extraterritorial measures.

 

An influential Republican Senator, Richard Lugar, and some others from
his same party in Congress, as well as a significant number of his
Democratic peers, favor the removal of the blockade. The conditions
exist for Obama to use his talents in a constructive policy that could
put an end to the one that has failed for almost half a century.

 

On the other hand, our country, which has resisted and is willing to
resist whatever it takes, neither blames Obama for the atrocities of
other U.S. administrations nor doubts his sincerity and his wishes to
change the United States policy and image. We understand that he waged a
very difficult battle to be elected, despite centuries-old prejudices.

 

Taking note of this reality, the President of the State Council of Cuba
has expressed his willingness to have a dialogue with Obama and to
normalize relations with the United States, on the basis of the
strictest respect for the sovereignty of our country.

 

At 2:30 p.m., the head of the Interests Section of Cuba in Washington,
Jorge Bolaños, was summoned to the State Department by Deputy Secretary
of State Thomas Shannon. He did not say anything different from what had
been indicated by the CNN.

 

At 3:15 p.m. a lengthy press conference started. The substance of what
was said there is reflected in the words of Dan Restrepo, Presidential
Adviser for Latin America.

 

He said that today President Obama had instructed to take certain
measures, certain steps, to reach out to the Cuban people in support of
their wishes to live with respect for human rights and to determine
their own destiny and that of the country.

 

He added that the president had instructed the secretaries of State,
Commerce and Treasury to undertake the necessary actions to remove all
restrictions preventing persons to visit their relatives in the Island
and sending remittances. He also said that the president had issued
instructions for steps to be taken allowing the free flow of information
in Cuba, and between those living in Cuba and the rest of the world, and
to facilitate delivering humanitarian resources directly to the Cuban
people.    

 

He also said that with these measures, aimed at closing the gap between
divided Cuban families and promoting the free flow of information and
humanitarian assistance to the Cuban people, President Obama was making
an effort to fulfill the objectives he set out during his campaign and
after taking on his position.

 

Finally, he indicated that all those who believe in the basic democratic
values hope for a Cuba where the human, political, economic and basic
rights of the entire people are respected. And he added that President
Obama feels that these measures will help to make this objective a
reality. The president, he said, encourages everyone who shares these
wishes to continue to decidedly support the Cuban people.

 

At the end of the press conference, the adviser candidly confessed that
‘all of this is for Cuba’s freedom.’

 

Cuba does not applaud the ill-named Summits of the Americas, where our
nations do not debate on equal footing. If they were of any use, it
would be to make critical analyses of policies that divide our peoples,
plunder our resources and hinder our development.

 

Now, the only thing left is for Obama to try to persuade all of the
Latin American presidents attending the conference that the blockade is
harmless.

 

Cuba has resisted and it will continue to resist; it will never beg for
alms. It will go on forward holding its head up high and cooperating
with the fraternal peoples of Latin America and the Caribbean; with or
without Summits of the Americas; whether or not the president of the
United States is Obama, a man or a woman, a black or a white citizen.

 

 

Fidel Castro Ruz

April 13, 2009

6:12 p.m.