tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-88328337498531811792024-03-13T09:35:08.732-07:00Rock around the Blockade - Viva Cuba! news blogRock around the Blockade - Viva Cuba! news blogRATBhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07065391236772925173noreply@blogger.comBlogger394125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8832833749853181179.post-55479772832762974382011-10-07T08:55:00.000-07:002011-10-07T09:07:53.774-07:00Rene Gonzalez to be released - punishment to continue<strong>Source</strong>: <a href="http://www.ratb.org.uk/news/cuba/188-rene-gonzalez-to-be-released">RATB</a>.<br />by Helen Yaffe, 05 October 2011.<br /><br />On Friday 7 October, Rene Gonzalez, one of the Cuban Five incarcerated in United States since 1998 for combating terrorism against Cuba, faces a ‘supervised release’ under life-threatening conditions. In 2001, Rene was sentenced to 15 years in prison charged with conspiracy to act as a non-registered foreign agent. He had already spent 33 months in ‘preventative custody’, including 17 months in isolation in ‘the hole’.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-SdpkHD8uDMk/To8h-qjP04I/AAAAAAAAAPE/l89RdJXZ6Z0/s1600/Rene%2BGonzalez.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; width: 300px; height: 250px; text-align: center; display: block; cursor: pointer;" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5660780617085735810" border="0" alt="" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-SdpkHD8uDMk/To8h-qjP04I/AAAAAAAAAPE/l89RdJXZ6Z0/s400/Rene%2BGonzalez.jpg" /></a><br /><br />Rene’s real crime, like that of his co-defendants (Gerardo Hernandez, Antonio Guerro, Ramon Labanino, Fernando Gonzalez), was defending Cuba against acts of terrorism planned, financed and launched by Cuban exile groups in Miami; groups with well documented links to the US government agencies. The conditions imposed by Federal Court Judge Lenard on Friday 26 September 2011, force Rene to reside in Miami for three years, without returning to Cuba to be with his wife (who has been permitted to visit him just once by US authorities) and two children.<br /><br />Rene was born in the United States in 1956, but returned to Cuba as a child just after the Cuban Revolution in 1961. He became a pilot and flight instructor. Between 1977 and 1979 he was among thousands of Cuban combatants who fought for the national liberation of Angola and against the racist apartheid regime of South Africa. In 1990, at the request of the Cuban government, Rene returned to the United States to gather information in order to prevent terrorist plots against Cuba.<br /><br />The Cuban Five had no guns and no explosives. They were not after classified information or threatening US national security. They were gathering information and evidence from terrorist networks about actions planned and launched from US soil. In the 1990s more than 200 attacks were launched from Miami, many of them targeting Cuba’s expanding tourist industry. In 1998, Cuba handed the FBI a mountain of evidence compiled by the Cuban agents from the terrorist networks in Miami. That information made it possible to successfully prevent 170 attacks against Cuba, including a plan to blow up aeroplanes filled with Cuba-bound tourists from Europe and Canada. Instead of acting on the information to break the terror networks, the FBI arrested the Cuban agents.<br /><br />The utter hypocrisy of the US judiciary is emphasised by the conditions established for Rene’s ‘supervised release’, which prohibit him ‘from associating with or visiting specific places where individuals or groups such as terrorists, members of organizations advocating violence, organized crime figures are known to be or frequent.’ In other words, the court can identify where terrorists and criminals hang out in Miami, but rather than arrest and put them on trial, it warns Rene, a US-citizen who has actively opposed terrorism, not to disturb them. So much for the war on terrorism!<br /><br />Perversely, while warning Rene to stay away from these groups and individuals, the court will not permit him to do the only thing which would secure his safety – return to Cuba. The conditions force him to remain in the same city as the terrorists he was monitoring, where the ‘show trial’ took place, during which journalists were paid by the US government to secure a conviction, and which has a powerful right-wing Cuban exile population. Among Miami’s Cuban exile residents is Luis Posada Carriles, an ex-CIA agent, responsible for bombing a Cuban civilian aeroplane in 1976, killing all 73 persons aboard, and the bombing of hotels and restaurants in Havana in 1997. Carriles recently reaffirmed his support for further violence against Cuba.<br /><br />‘Why is the Court putting Mr Gonzalez’s safety at risk by forcing him to live for the next three years side by side with the very terrorists that he tailed as an unregistered Cuban agent?’ demands José Pertierra, an attorney representing the Venezuelan government’s extradition case against Carriles.<br /><br />Terrorism against Cuba has cost the lives of 3,478 Cubans and permanently maimed another 2,099. Rene’s life is at risk if he is forced to remain in Miami. Judge Lenard, who issued the ‘supervised release’ has justified her decision by stating that if Rene returns to Cuba she won’t be able to assess whether the US public ‘will be protected from further crimes of the defendant’. But as Pertierra responds: ‘His only “crime” was failing to register as a foreign agent.’ Absurdly, Judge Lenard also claims more time is needed to ‘provide the defendant with needed educational or vocational training, medical care, or other correctional treatment in the most effective manner’. This is nonsense. Rene has declared his intention to renounce his US citizenship and return to live in Cuba with his family, he does not need to be ‘reintegrated’ into US society. Pertierra adds: ‘As for medical care, he will have access to the best medical care in Cuba and it will be available at no expense to the United States or to himself.’<br /><br />Judge Lenard’s decision allows Rene to re-file his motion to return to Cuba at a later time ‘should circumstances warrant modification’. Pertierra asks: ‘What circumstances could she be waiting for? For a terrorist to take a potshot at Rene?’<br /><br />However, for right-wing Cuban-exile community even this ‘supervised release’ is too generous. Miami Republican Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, Chairman of the US Senate’s Foreign Affairs Committee, condemned Rene’s release stating on 3 October that: ‘He has American blood on his hands and dedicated his life to harming our country on behalf of a regime that is a state sponsor of terrorism.’ This from a woman who just weeks ago called for Cuba to be attacked Libya-style; an attack which has so far cost the lives of 50,000 to 60,000 Libyans.<br /><br />In early September, RATB activists participated in two anti-terrorism events in Havana. The first, on Saturday 10 September, commemorated the 14th anniversary of the murder of Italian tourist Fabio di Celmo, killed in the 1997 explosion at the Copacubana hotel in Havana. Guistino di Celmo, Fabio’s elderly father thanked the Cuban people for remembering his son and complained that, years after the terrorist act which took his son’s life, the US press continues to report the lie that Cuba supports terrorism, while the Cuban Five remain in US prisons for combating terrorism. Magalys Llort, mother of one of the Five, presented Guistino with a plaque in homage to his son made by Gerardo Gonzalez, another one of the Cuban Five.<br /><br />Two days later, RATB joined thousands of representatives of Cuba’s grassroots organisations, cultural organisations, military, foreign diplomats, foreign students and Cuban workers in a cultural event to honour the Cuban Five, whose poems and letters were put to music. President of Cuba’s National Assembly, Ricardo Alarcon, condemned the conditions imposed on Rene Gonzalez’s ‘supervised release’ and pointed out that the case of the Cuban Five proves the US government is complicit with terrorist groups in Miami.<br /><br />Rock around the Blockade joins international condemnation of this cruel and unusual punishment meted out to Rene and the Cuban people who are waiting to welcome him home. We demand the full, immediate and unconditional release of the Cuban Five and the trial of those terrorist plotters and supporters in the United States, including all those in US government agencies.RATB2http://www.blogger.com/profile/09887926652700573883noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8832833749853181179.post-20797385620580423682011-10-07T08:42:00.000-07:002011-10-07T08:55:12.887-07:00US SMS campaign targets Cuba<strong>Attacking censorship: U.S. text-messaging campaign targets Cuba</strong><br /><strong>Source</strong>: <a href="http://cubamoneyproject.org/?p=2732">CubaMoneyProject</a>, 01 October 2011.<br /><br />A Maryland company has won a U.S. government contract to set up a system capable of sending tens of thousands of text messages every month to Cuban cell phone users who want to receive news and information from TV and <em>Radio Martí</em>. Washington Software, Inc., will design a text messaging system aimed at countering Cuban government attempts to block politically sensitive messages, according to a Sept. 23 award notice. The Broadcasting Board of Governors, or BBG, solicited bids for the text-messaging service on Aug. 17. The base contract is worth $84,000 during the first year. Four additional one-year options would boost the total value of the contract to $464,160. One prospective contractor wondered if the text-messaging campaign was legal. He wrote:<br /><blockquote>We are concerned with the legality of sending these types of notifications to people in another country. Does the US government take all legal responsibility for these messages? Are there legal considerations a vendor would have to be aware of on these kinds of broadcasts?</blockquote><br />The BBG replied:<br /><blockquote>The Agency assumes responsibility for the content of the messages. The Contractor assumes all responsibility under this requirement and should consider all aspects of this requirement before submitting an offer.</blockquote><br />Translation: If you’re worried about legal trouble, don’t bother to apply.<br /><br />The International Broadcasting Bureau, which oversees Miami-based Radio and TV Martí, explained the need to get around Cuban censors.<br /><blockquote>The IBB’s Internet anti-censorship program seeks to ensure Internet users in target countries are able to access USG broadcasters’ web sites to access their news and other programming, using a variety of tools to counter foreign government-sponsored Internet censorship controls. These techniques must include the ability to add unique changes to each message instance sent to each individual subscriber to avoid detection of messages being sent in bulk to many subscribers. Additionally, these techniques may include keyword substitutions, where potentially provocative keywords which are likely to be censored are replaced with other words or characters which leave the meaning intact but foil automated keyword detection.</blockquote><br />FedBizOpps.gov lists Washington Software as the winning contractor. The firm’s first-year contract runs from Sept. 15, 2011, through Sept. 14, 2012. The government contract requires that the contractor be able to distribute up to 24,000 total messages per week – and that amount may rise, depending on events in Cuba. Washington Software has been in business since 1998. Its address is 20410 Century Blvd, Ste 220, Germantown, Maryland. Its clients include the U.S. Department of Education, the Department of Health & Human Services and the Department of Labor and other government agencies. Washington Software also serves such businesses as IBM and Lockheed Martin. The company website states:<br /><blockquote>We are an IT Solution Provider and we pride ourselves in our experience, knowledge, and skill set to provide our clients with positive results. We utilize a secure and agile methodology alongside proven technologies to maximize our efforts in our projects. Our main focus has been to satisfy our commercial and government organizations located in our region.</blockquote><br />The full text of the bid is <a href="http://cubamoneyproject.org/?p=2732">here</a>RATB2http://www.blogger.com/profile/09887926652700573883noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8832833749853181179.post-21577916337382388772011-09-29T15:58:00.000-07:002011-09-29T16:02:53.733-07:00Cuba’s Report On Resolution 65/6 of the UN General Assembly on ending the US blockade<a title="View Cuba Report 2011 on Scribd" href="http://www.scribd.com/doc/66872512/Cuba-Report-2011" style="margin: 12px auto 6px auto; font-family: Helvetica,Arial,Sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 14px; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; -x-system-font: none; display: block; text-decoration: underline;">Cuba Report 2011</a><iframe class="scribd_iframe_embed" src="http://www.scribd.com/embeds/66872512/content?start_page=1&view_mode=list&access_key=key-2d527ir8sutc62rr9643" data-auto-height="true" data-aspect-ratio="0.706697459584296" scrolling="no" id="doc_35553" width="100%" height="600" frameborder="0"></iframe><script type="text/javascript">(function() { var scribd = document.createElement("script"); scribd.type = "text/javascript"; scribd.async = true; scribd.src = "http://www.scribd.com/javascripts/embed_code/inject.js"; var s = document.getElementsByTagName("script")[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(scribd, s); })();</script>RATB2http://www.blogger.com/profile/09887926652700573883noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8832833749853181179.post-39233524201361630552011-09-29T15:35:00.000-07:002011-09-29T15:49:50.821-07:00Chilean police violently repress peaceful demonstration<span style="font-weight: bold;">Source</span>: <a href="http://www.plenglish.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=343665&Itemid=1">Prensa Latina</a>, 29 September 2011.<br /><br />Chilean police suppressed on Thursday a peaceful and massive march for free public education with tear gas and water cannon, which was denounced here by the leaders of the student.<br /><br /> "Police should have helped to guide or control the demonstration, but not repress it", said a spokeswoman for the Confederation of Students of Chile (CONFECH), Camila Vallejo. "We saw the police repressing all the demonstrators, not only those who threw a pebble", says Vallejo in statements on the march that ended Thursday in Santiago O'Higgins Park with an estimated 150,000 participants.<br /><br />According to the press, a tear gas canister thrown by the police near the O'Higgins Park caused injuries to a five-year child.<br /><br />However, the mayor of Santiago, Pablo Zalaquett, told the press that those calling for marches are responsible for the unrest. For the Chilean people, the police attack on the march, just within hours of the start of a dialogue between the government and social sectors, was quite shocking.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-6CruFnKiS0I/ToT1o17KL4I/AAAAAAAAAO8/A7YwhjHh1qQ/s1600/Camila%2BVallejo.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 267px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-6CruFnKiS0I/ToT1o17KL4I/AAAAAAAAAO8/A7YwhjHh1qQ/s400/Camila%2BVallejo.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5657917113902968706" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Ongoing Social Protests in Chile </span></span><br /><a href="http://www.plenglish.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=342195&Itemid=1">Prensa Latina</a>, 29 September 2011.<br /><br />Primary health care workers and the Social Movement for Free and Public Education on Thursday will join together in a new day of anti-neoliberal protests around the country.<br /><br />On Thursday, the students movement called for another national mobilization to oppose for-profit education, while being supported by dozens of social organizations including public health unions, which organized a 72-hour strike against privatizing the sector.<br /><br />If the Social Movement is not mobilize, it will not be able to dialogue or do anything while holding a negotiating table with the government, said Camila Vallejo, president of the Chilean Students Federation (CONFECH).<br /><br />According to CONFECH spokesman Giorgio Jackson, the negotiating table between the government and leaders of the Social Movement should not be seen as just a negotiating moment or photo opportunity, but as a way to channel citizen's demands.<br /><br />Skepticism and distrust prevail among members of the CONFECH, in regard to a true government will to solve the conflict. The CONFECH, however, in spite of the government stance and discourse, maintains its willingness to dialogue while continuing further mobilizations.RATB2http://www.blogger.com/profile/09887926652700573883noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8832833749853181179.post-74551362812857716922011-09-29T14:22:00.000-07:002011-09-29T15:34:17.606-07:00Bolivia: NGOs wrong on Morales and Amazon<span style="font-weight: bold;">Source</span>: <a href="http://boliviarising.blogspot.com/2011/09/bolivia-ngos-wrong-on-morales-and.html">BoliviaRising</a><br />by Federico Fuentes, 25 September 2011.<br /><br />Statements, articles, letters and petitions have been circulating on the internet for the past month calling for an end to the "destruction of the Amazon". The target of these initiatives has not been transnational corporations or the powerful governments that back them, but the government of Bolivia's first indigenous president, Evo Morales.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-YtTtgdzVq94/ToTyNbg15bI/AAAAAAAAAO0/VsWbNik3_Bk/s1600/Evo-Morales_Hugo-Chavez.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 380px; height: 269px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-YtTtgdzVq94/ToTyNbg15bI/AAAAAAAAAO0/VsWbNik3_Bk/s400/Evo-Morales_Hugo-Chavez.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5657913344421914034" border="0" /></a><br />At the centre of the debate is the Bolivian government’s controversial proposal to build a highway through the Isiboro Secure National Park and Indigenous Territory (TIPNIS).<br /><br />TIPNIS, which covers more than 1 million hectares of forest, was granted indigenous territory status by the Morales government in 2009. About 12,000 people from three different indigenous groups live in 64 communities within TIPNIS.<br /><br />On August 15, representatives from the TIPNIS Subcentral that unites these communities, as well as other indigenous groups, began a march to the capital city, La Paz to protest against the highway plan. International petitions have been initiated declaring support for this march, and condemning the Morales government for undermining indigenous rights. The people of TIPNIS have legitimate concerns about the highway’s impact. There is also no doubt the government has made errors in its handling of the issue.<br /><br />Unfortunately, petitions such as the one initiated by international lobby group Avaaz and a September 21 letter to Morales signed by over 60 environmental groups mostly outside Bolivia misrepresent the facts and misdirect their fire. They could inadvertently aid the opponents of the global struggle for climate justice.<br /><br />Avaaz warns that the highway "could enable foreign companies to pillage the world's most important forest”. But it fails to mention the destruction that is already happening in the area, in some cases with the complicity of local indigenous communities. On the other hand, the Morales government has promised to introduce a new law, in consultation with communities within TIPNIS, to add new protections for the national park. The proposed law would set jail terms of between 10 to 20 years for illegal settlements, growing coca or logging in the national park.<br /><br />Also, Avaaz claims that "huge economic interests" are motivating Morales’ support for the highway. But Avaaz omits the benefits that such a highway (whether it ultimately goes through TIPNIS or not) will bring Bolivia and its peoples. For example, this 306 kilometre highway linking the departments of Beni and Cochabamba (with only a part of it going through TIPNIS) would expand access to health care and other basic services to isolated local communities that now travel for days to receive medical care.<br /><br />The highway would also give local agricultural producers greater access to markets to sell their goods. At the moment, these must go via Santa Cruz to the east before being able to be transported westward. Given Beni’s status as the largest meat producing department (state), this would break the hold that Santa Cruz-based slaughterhouses have on imposing meat prices. The highway would also allow the state to assert sovereignty over remote areas, including some where illegal logging takes place.<br /><br />It is facts such as these that have convinced more than 350 Bolivian organisations, including many of the social organisations that have led the country’s inspiring struggles against neoliberalism, to support the proposed highway. Many indigenous organisations and communities (including within TIPNIS) support the highway. It is therefore false to describe this as a dispute between the government and indigenous people.<br /><br />Nor is it a simple conflict between supporters of development and defenders of the environment.<br /><br />All sides in the dispute want greater development and improved access to basic services. The issue at stake is how the second poorest country in the Americas, facing intense pressure from more powerful governments and corporate forces, can meet the needs of its people while protecting the environment.<br /><br />Given this, surely it makes more sense for those who wish to defend Bolivia’s process of change to support steps towards dialogue, rather that deepening the divisions.<br /><br />Legitimate criticism can be made of the government’s handling of the consultation process. But the Avaaz petition and the letter from environmental groups simply ignore the government’s repeated attempts to open discussions with the protesters. Half the members of Morales' ministerial cabinet, along with many more vice-ministers and heads of state institutions, have traveled to the march route to talk with protesters.<br /><br />The petitioners don’t mention the Morales government’s public commitment to carry out a consultation process within the framework of the Bolivian constitution, popularly approved in 2009. Neither do they mention its offer to have the consultation process overseen by international observers selected by protesters themselves. The government has also remained open to discussing the economic and environmental feasibility of any alternative route that could bypass TIPNIS. No such alternative has been presented yet.<br /><br />As a result of these initiatives, a number of the TIPNIS communities that had joined the march, as well as representatives from the Assembly of the Guarani People, have since decided to return home. They will continue discussions with the government.<br /><br />Sadly, the key opponents of the proposed consultation process are among the march leaders, which includes organisations based outside TIPNIS. These organisations were also the main proponents of a further 15 demands being placed on the government the day the march began.<br /><br />Many of these demands are legitimate. But it is alarming that some of the more dangerously backwards demands have been ignored or dismissed by international environment groups. For example, the letter to Morales raises concerns regarding the Bolivian president's statement that "oil drilling in Aguarague National Park 'will not be negotiated'". Those gas fields represent 90% of Bolivia's gas exports and are a vital source of funds that the Morales government has been using to tackle poverty and develop Bolivia's economy.<br /><br />The fact that the bulk of gas revenue is controlled by the Bolivian state rather than transnational corporation is the result of years of struggles by the Bolivian masses, who rightfully believe this resource should be used to develop their country. The concerns of local communities should be, and have been, taken into consideration. But for Bolivia to cut off this source of revenue would have dire consequences for the people of one of the poorest nations in the Americas.<br /><br />It would, without exaggeration, be economic suicide.<br /><br />Initially, protesters also demanded a halt to gas extraction in Aguarague. They have retreated on this and are now focused on the question of plugging up unused oil wells due to the contamination this is could cause to local water supplies. Similarly, neither of the Internet statements mentions the protesters’ support for the Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD) program.<br /><br />REDD is a grossly anti-environmental United Nations program that aims to privatise forests by converting them into “carbon offsets” that allow rich, developed countries to continue polluting.<br /><br />Some of the biggest proponents of this measure can be found among the NGOs promoting the march. Many of these have received direct funding from the US government, whose ambassador in Bolivia was expelled in September 2008 for supporting a right-wing coup attempt against the elected Morales government.<br /><br />Rather than defend Bolivia’s sovereignty against US interference, the letter denounces the Bolivian government for exposing connections between the protesters and "obscure interests".<br /><br />These "obscure interests" include the League for the Defence of the Environment (LIDEMA), which was set up with US government funds. Its backers include the US government aid agency, USAID, and the German-based Konrad Adenauer Foundation, which frequently funds actions against governments opposed by the United States and European governments such as Cuba.<br /><br />Secret US diplomatic cables recently released by WikiLeaks and declassified US government files have conclusively shown that USAID directly targets indigenous communities in a bid to win them away from support for Morales and towards supporting US interests. Behind these very real interests lies a campaign by rich nations and conservative environmental groups to promote policies that represent a new form of "green imperialism".<br /><br />After centuries of plundering the resources of other countries, wiping out indigenous populations, and creating a dire global environmental crisis, the governments of rich nations now use environmental concerns to promote policies that deny underdeveloped nations the right to control and manage their own resources. If they have their ways, these groups will reduce indigenous people to mere “park rangers”, paid by rich countries to protect limited areas, while multinational corporations destroy the environment elsewhere.<br /><br />Bolivia's indigenous majority has chosen a very different road. They aim to create a new state in which they are no longer marginalised or treated as minority groups that require special protection. In alliance with other oppressed sectors, they aim to run their country for the collective benefit of the majority.<br /><br />The Bolivian masses have successfully wrested government power from the traditional elites, won control over gas and other resources, and adopted a new constitution. Mistakes have been made, and are likely in future. But they are the mistakes of a people of a small, landlocked and underdeveloped country fighting constant imperialist assaults. Key to the Bolivian peoples’ fight is the world-wide front for climate justice, in which Bolivia is playing a vital leadership role.<br /><br />One example was the 35,000-strong Peoples Summit on Climate Change organised by the Morales government in Cochabamba in April 2010. The summit’s final declaration named developed countries as “the main cause of climate change". It insisted that those countries must "recognise and honor their climate debt", redirecting funds from war to aiding poorer nations to develop their economies "to produce goods and services necessary to satisfy the fundamental needs of their population".<br /><br />To achieve this, the international climate justice movement must focus its efforts on forcing rich nations to accept their responsibilities. The global movement must explicitly reject imperialist intervention in all its forms, including the “green imperialist” policies of US-funded NGOs. Only through such a campaign can we support the efforts of poorer countries to chart a development path that respects the environment.<br /><br />Unfortunately, Avaaz and the organisations that have signed the letter against Morales let the real culprits off the hook. Their campaign should be rejected by all environmentalists and anti-imperialists fighting for a better a world.RATB2http://www.blogger.com/profile/09887926652700573883noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8832833749853181179.post-18508581167087904022011-09-29T14:09:00.000-07:002011-09-29T14:09:52.897-07:00Uruguay apologizes over alleged Haiti sex assault<b>Source</b>: <a href="http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5ijn2HdE7QcJvzm-xR8pVDM0wEyzA?docId=CNG.aaa9f4e10dff37afe7aeebb3a65f25a2.141">AFP</a>, 07 September 2011.<br />
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Uruguay's president has apologized for the "outrage" carried out by peacekeepers accused of sexually assaulting a young Haitian man and vowed the "maximum penalty" for anyone found guilty.
The soldiers, who were based in southern Haiti, stand accused of attacking an 18-year-old man in the small coastal town of Port-Salut. Video footage of the alleged attack on a Uruguayan base has been <a href="http://globalvoicesonline.org/2011/09/09/haiti-un-troops-must-go-say-haitians-after-rape-scandal/">circulated on the Internet</a>.<br />
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"I come at this terrible time to offer you and the dear and heroic people of Haiti my apologies for the outrage that some soldiers of my country committed," Uruguay's President Jose Mujica said in a letter released late Tuesday.
"I share your sadness, which I feel as my own," he said, adding that authorities would investigate the matter and apply the "maximum penalty" to those responsible.<br />
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Uruguay's defense minister had earlier admitted that the incident had caused "a lot of damage" to the armed forces, which provide around 2,400 peacekeepers worldwide, mostly in Haiti and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The five peacekeepers accused of sexual assault are to be sent home this week, Defense Minister Eleuterio Fernandez Huidobro said.
The Uruguayan government has opened a case in the matter, as peacekeepers must be tried in their home country for any crimes allegedly committed during their deployments abroad.
Montevideo has also sacked a navy commander with the UN mission in Haiti over the incident.<br />
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-fdfnZ3R1Gnk/ToTeTqOhb1I/AAAAAAAAAOs/q4YV80Z_p0A/s1600/minustahrape.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="229" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-fdfnZ3R1Gnk/ToTeTqOhb1I/AAAAAAAAAOs/q4YV80Z_p0A/s320/minustahrape.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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Haitian President Michel Martelly has condemned the alleged attack and demanded a detailed report on the exact circumstances of the incident, according to his office.
Martelly has also requested a meeting between Haitian officials and UN mission staff so that "measures can immediately be taken to ensure that such acts do not reoccur," his office said in a statement.
On Monday, hundreds of people demonstrated in Port-Salut to demand justice for the alleged victim, while some Haitians have asked for the UN mission -- in the country since 2004 -- to be shut down.<br />
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The UN mission -- formed to help maintain peace after chaos erupted at the end of Jean-Bertrand Aristide's presidency -- has also come under fire after a cholera outbreak that could have been transmitted by Nepalese peacekeepers.RATB2http://www.blogger.com/profile/09887926652700573883noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8832833749853181179.post-7604143112700739402011-09-25T14:13:00.000-07:002011-09-25T14:24:44.549-07:00‘Another terrible injustice’: A message from the Cuban Five on the execution of Troy Davis<b>Source</b>; <a href="http://www.blogger.com/www.FreeTheFive.org">National Committee to Free the Cuban Five</a><br />
by the Cuban Five, 23 September 2011.<br />
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The message below was sent by Ramón Labañino on behalf of the Cuban Five. The Cuban Five are political prisoners in the United States, serving four life sentences and 75 years collectively after being falsely convicted of politically motivated criminal charges while monitoring the operations of anti-Cuba terrorist organizations in Miami.
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<blockquote>
Brothers and sisters:
We feel deeply the horrific execution of Troy Davis. It is another terrible injustice and stain on the history of this country. We join in the pain felt by his relatives, friends and brothers across the world. Now we have another cause, another flag, to pursue our struggle for a better world for all, free of the death penalty and barbarism.
In Troy’s honor, and all the innocents of the world, we must continue, united, until the final victory!
Our most heart-felt condolences! </blockquote>
<blockquote>
Five fraternal embraces,
</blockquote>
Antonio Guerrero<br />
Fernando González<br />
Gerardo Hernández<br />
René González<br />
Ramón Labañino
RATB2http://www.blogger.com/profile/09887926652700573883noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8832833749853181179.post-81303424416239633032011-09-25T13:45:00.000-07:002011-09-25T14:08:51.169-07:00Cuba launches campaign for Cuban Five<b>Source</b>: <a href="http://lchirino.wordpress.com/2011/09/12/cuba-launches-campaign-for-the-cuban-five-2/">South Journal</a>, 11 September 2011.<br />
<br />
The Cuban people, headed by the youth, kick off a nationwide campaign on Monday for the release of the five Cubans held in US jails for 13 years.
The Campaign will run until October 6 and it will include actions not only in Cuba but also in other countries of the world, where people will demand the release of Gerardo Hernández, Ramón Labañino, Antonio Guerrero, Fernando González and René González, known as the Cuban Five.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.internationalist.org/freethecubanfive.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="198" src="http://www.internationalist.org/freethecubanfive.jpg" width="480" /></a></div>
<br />
The initiative´s program includes views exchange, arts exhibitions, galas, an anti-imperialist tribunal, book launchings and other activities to start September 12, marking thirteen years of imprisonment of the Five.<br />
<br />
<b>
Here a chronicle of the case:</b><br />
September 1998: five Cubans were arrested in Miami by the FBI and held in punishment cells for 17 months before their case was taken to court. These Cubans were in the United States monitoring Florida-based ultra-right organizations of Cuban origin that had undertaken terrorist actions against Cuba, and even in US territory, over the past 50 years.<br />
<br />
The five Cubans named Gerardo Hernandez, Ramon Labañino, Fernando Gonzalez, Antonio Guerrero and René Gonzalez were charged with conspiracy against the United States. Three of them, Gerardo, Ramon and Antonio were also accused of conspiracy to commit espionage. But the US government never asserted that such act was committed. They were never proven to have possessed any classified document.
Despite energetic objection by the defense, the case was taken to a court in Miami, a community harboring over half a million Cuban exiles with long hostile records against the Cuban government.<br />
<br />
Miami was the environment which, a US federal appeal court described later as “the perfect storm” of prejudices that did not favor a fair trial.
And this trial took over six months, being considered the longest such process ever in the United States. Three retired US army generals, a retired admiral, the former advisor to Bill Clinton on Cuban issues testified at the trial and said there was no evidence of espionage.
Seven months after the official accusation was issued, a new charge was imposed on Gerardo Hernandez: conspiracy to committee assassination. This was the result of a huge media and public campaign to take revenge for the downing in 1996, by the Cuban air force, of two planes belonging to the Florida-based anti-Castro group “Brothers to the Rescue” and the death in the action of four members of this organization. The Brother to the Rescue planes had illegally entered Cuban airspace 25 times prior to the incident and during 20 months, which led to reiterated protests by the Cuban government.<br />
<br />
At the end of the trial, just when the case was almost ready for sentencing, the US administration admitted its failure at proving the charge of conspiracy to commit assassination imposed on Hernandez by saying that in the light of the proofs presented, this would constitute an insurmountable obstacle for the United States in relation to this case and would also result in the failure of the specific accusation.
However, the jury found Gerardo Hernandez and the other four Cubans guilty of all charges, following intense pressure by the local media.<br />
<br />
The Cuban Five, as these men are known around the world, were given 4 life terms and 77 years. This conviction turned three of them into the first people in the United States to have been given life terms in espionage-related cases, in which there was no evidence of their possession or transfer of any secret document. And then, they were confined to five different high-security prisons, far off from each other and with no communication among them whatsoever.<br />
<br />
<b>THE NINE-YEAR LONG APPEAL</b><br />
August 9, 2005: A three judge panel with the Atlanta Court of Appeals revoked the court ruling after considering that the Cuban Five were not given a fair trial in Miami. But, the US government requested the rehearing by the Court en banc of the decision reached by the three-judge panel. This procedure is an action that only takes place in cases involving constitutional principles. One year later, the court revoked, by majority, the unanimous decision of the three judges.<br />
<br />
May 27, 2005: The United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detentions, after having considered the arguments presented by the relatives of the Cuban Five and by the US government, described the convictions as arbitrary and called on Washington to take the necessary measures to correct such decision.<br />
<br />
September 2, 2008: Atlanta´s Court of Appeals ratified the guilty verdicts, upheld the convictions against Gerardo Hernandez (two life terms plus 15 years) and against Rene Gonzalez (15 years) while it annulled the sentences against Antonio Guerrero (life term plus 10 years), Fernando Gonzalez (19 years) and Ramon Labañino (life term plus 18 years) for considering them incorrect. So the cases of the three men were sent back to the Miami Court to be resentenced.
The Court admitted the absence of any piece of evidence about the possession or transmission of any secret information or related to US national security in the case of the defendants under the charge of conspiracy to committee espionage. Some months later Antonio Guerrero was resentenced to 21 years and 10 months in prison, plus a 5-year parole; Fernando was given 17 years and 9 months in prison; and Ramon 30 years in jail.<br />
<br />
June 15, 2009: The US Supreme Court announced, without further details, its decision not to review the case of the five men despite the unquestionable arguments submitted by the defense in the face of evident and countless legal violations committed during the whole process.
With this decision, the US justice also turned a deaf ear on the huge world support of this petition and of the Cuban Five, which was openly expressed in 12 amicus curiae documents—an unprecedented action since it has been the largest number of such documents ever filed with the US Supreme Court requesting the revision of a criminal case.
The amicus curiae documents were signed by ten Nobel laureates including the president of East Timor, Jose Ramos Horta; Adolfo Perez Esquivel, Rigoberta Menchu, Jose Saramago, Wole Soyinka, Zhores Alferov, Nadine Gordimer, Gunter Grass, Dario Fo and Maired Maguire; the Mexican Senate; Panama´s Parliament; former Irish President, Mary Robinson who was High UN Commissioner for Human Rights (1997-2002), and the former director of UNESCO, Federico Mayor, among others.
From the legal point of view the case has concluded. The Cuban Five are now undertaking an extraordinary process, which is known as Habeas Corpus. This is a one-time opportunity of the defendants after all appeal resources have concluded with no success.<br />
<br />
In October 2010, Amnesty International issued a report on the case, which read that if the legal appeal process did not yield on-time compensation, and given the long sentences imposed and the term already served by the Five, the organization would support all calls on US authorities to review the case through the proceeding of pardon or any other appropriate ways.<br />
<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Cuban Five Demand Freedom</b> </span><br />
by Teresita Jorge Carpio<br />
<br />
The Cuban Five have been victims of an unfair conspiracy after being detained on September 12th 1998 for having infiltrated terrorist organizations based in southern Florida aimed at stopping actions against the Cuban people.
Gerardo Hernández, René González, Ramón Labañino, Fernando González and Antonio Guerrero were abruptly striped from their family and submitted to a biased trial in Miami and later sentenced to long unfair prison terms ranging from 15 years to 2 life plus 15 years.<br />
<br />
Their defense statements were impressive, sincere and passionate. Tony Guerrero´s defense was poetic stating that they will always defend their principles and cause in their unjust imprisonment. His final words affirm a better future when he said: Because, at the end, we shall rest free and victorious beneath that sun which we are denied today.
Rene did not request clemency, but justice for his comrades accused of crimes they did not commit, while Ramon proclaimed: I will wear the prison uniform with the same honor and pride with which a soldier wear his most prized insignias! Fernando concluded by saying: In my years in prison, I always carry with
me the dignity I have learned from my people and their history. Gerardo Hernandez was also an example of integrity and dignity when he praised US patriot Nathan Hale saying: My only regret is that I have but one life to give for my country."
Love and hope irradiate the letters of these five men that synthesizes a history of value, sacrifice and love as characterized by African American writer Alice Walker.<br />
<br />
A phrase by French writer Victor Hugo became their own: "Love, you know, seeks to make happy rather than to be happy." Sweetness and kindness accompany the heroism of the Cuban Five in its incarceration in the dark dungeon, witness of their commitment to the Homeland and their loved ones. To his jewels, as characterized Ramon Labañino to his wife Elizabeth Palmeiro and daughters, he said: Love is the most profound feeling in our lives. Rene Gonzalez, one of the five anti terrorist fighters incarcerated for the last 13 years write to his daughter Ivette: Your good qualities today will turn into virtues tomorrow.
In every letter, message or telephone contact, Gerardo, Rene, Ramon Fernando and Tony constantly transmit a message of love and hope.<br />
<br />
These five men, characterized by Gail Walker as heroes are dignified heirs of Jose Marti. Homeland is Humanity, said Cuba´s National Hero. They are an international symbol from their prison cells in the fight for peace and for making a reality the desire that a better world is possible. Their loyalty for the Homeland and firmness of the principles are an example for the honest citizens of the world that demand the immediate release of the five giants, as characterized by the leader of the Cuban
Revolution Fidel Castro.
RATB2http://www.blogger.com/profile/09887926652700573883noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8832833749853181179.post-57846546489988755882011-09-25T10:04:00.000-07:002011-09-25T10:29:05.547-07:00Libya Resistance News Agency created in Venezuela<b>Source</b>: <a href="http://venezuelanalysis.com/news/6506">Venezuelanalysis.com</a>, 20 September 2011.<br />
<br />
by Tamara Pearson <br />
<br />
The Libyan Resistance News Agency (ANRL) was inaugurated yesterday in Caracas at a forum in the Gallegos Foundation Centre for Latin American Studies (CELARG). It aims to break the “information blockade imposed by the international mass media” regarding what’s going on in North Africa and the Middle East.
The agency came out of an “autonomous” proposal by popular collectives and national and international journalist movements, according to the coordinator of yesterday’s forum, “Palestine, Libya, and Syria: Between Revolution and Counter-revolution”, Venezuelan journalist and a founder of the agency, Hindu Anderi, speaking to the <i>Correo del Orinoco</i>.<br />
<br />
The initiative is independent of the Venezuelan government, receiving no financial or technical support from it or from any Venezuelan government institution.
Among the other founders of the news agency are journalists Cristina Gonzalez, Marcos Salgado, Richard Penalver, Miguel Cova, Hernan Cano, and members of the La Piedrita collective, a group “dedicated to Guevaran volunteer work” and grassroots work to solve community problems.<br />
<br />
The ANRL also has the support of Cuba Periodistas, the journalists’ union of Cuba. “We are open to all the international collectives who want to participate in this initiative,” Anderi said. The agency’s website is ‘<a href="http://resistencialibia.info/"><i>Al Mukawama - Resistencia</i></a>’, <b>http://resistencialibia.info/</b> where it has sections for the latest information, “Specials”, analysis, video, audio, and features. The site is currently only in Spanish.
“It’s an initiative responding to the need in the world for information that isn’t distorted. That’s why any project like this is welcome,” Anderi said.
“Analysis will be made of all the information coming out of the different spaces, about the conflict in our North African brother nation,” she added.
In terms of sources the agency will use, Anderi said they would include “direct sources”. “Remember that much of the media that broadcasts information from Libya is censored by the system. In Libya there are many resistance groups and there are, we might say, communication initiatives that are going to be consulted. Also, of course, [we’ll also use] all those websites for the resistance and progressive international agencies linked to our approach,” she explained.<br />
<br />
Another member of the news agency, Basem Tajeldine, said that the “Libyan companeros” also put out a lot of information through websites such as Twitter, Facebook, and blogs, from which the agency will also compile information and reports.
Tajeldine said the new news agency would also supply “correct information to the different community, national, and international radio programs, and also to the Venezuelan public media”.<br />
<br />
<b>See also</b>: <a href="http://www.correodelorinoco.gob.ve/leer-en-linea/?id=2_2011-09-08">Telesur journalists speak truth on Libya</a>, 08 September 2011; and <a href="http://venezuelanalysis.com/news/6482">ALBA bloc moves to halt “imperialism” through United Nations</a>, 11 September 2011.RATB2http://www.blogger.com/profile/09887926652700573883noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8832833749853181179.post-76209325317279093192011-09-25T09:45:00.000-07:002011-09-25T09:45:20.714-07:00Resistance symbol killed in Honduras<b>Source</b>: <a href="http://www.resistenciahonduras.net/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=3626:a-resistance-symbol-killed-in-honduras&catid=103:human-rights&Itemid=352">ResistenciaHonduras.net</a>, 08 September 2011.<br />
<br />
<br />
<b>The FNRP holds the Honduran State responsible for the act </b><br />
<br />
This day [September 7] during the afternoon the tragic death of a
member of the National Front of People’s Resistance was announced. A
naturalized Honduran Mahadeo Roopchand Sadloo Sadloo, better known as
Emo, who after returning from a FNRP rally was attacked on the visitors
area of his own retailing business. <br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
As expressed by witnesses, Emo was in his tire repair shop near the
Hospital Escuela, when a man approached him and without saying a word
shot his humanity, with at least 6 shots, immediately afterwards he
fled. Still alive, Emo was taken to the emergency room of Hospital
Escuela, where he died soon after.<br />
<br />
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-i4ybn5jR1RQ/Tn4rQ-JDMJI/AAAAAAAAAOo/ak07VO94Itg/s1600/Emo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-i4ybn5jR1RQ/Tn4rQ-JDMJI/AAAAAAAAAOo/ak07VO94Itg/s1600/Emo.jpg" /></a></div>
<br />
At the emergency room former
First Lady Xiomara Castro de Zelaya, who declared that they have killed a
symbol of resistance, "do not come to me and say this is a common
crime, this is a political crime" said Castro de Zelaya. <br />
<br />
"We
will demand an investigation into what happened," Castro said while
adding that the murder of Emo is a threat against former president,
since the now deceased was very close to Zelaya and participated openly
in the mass mobilizations and concentrations of FNRP. During the
morning, he participated in a rally in front of the Court of Appeals,
in solidarity with a member of the FNRP, Enrique Flores Lanza, demanding
an end to political persecution against members of the National Front
of People's Resistance.</div>
RATB2http://www.blogger.com/profile/09887926652700573883noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8832833749853181179.post-26472080105182012022011-09-25T09:43:00.000-07:002011-10-06T08:29:46.114-07:00Cuba excluded from UN 2010 Human Development Index<b>Source</b>: <a href="http://caricomnewsnetwork.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2308&Itemid=410">CaricomNews Network</a>, 19 February 2011.<br /><br />by Calvin G. Brown<br /><br />Cuba is protesting its exclusion from the United Nations 2010 Human Development Index (HDI) calling it a political manipulation aimed at trying to ignore the great strides that country’s development.A statement on the matter from the Cuban Embassy noted that “In the 2009 Human Development Report, Cuba was listed as the 51 country worldwide, preceded only by developed countries and by Argentina, Chile and Uruguay, which means that we were part of the list of “High Human Development” countries. In 2010, if you analyze health and education only, Cuba would rank 17 and considering the Gross Domestic Product it would move into place 36 in the HDI, which would place us on the list of countries with a “Very High Human Development”, where developed nations are ranked.”<br /><br />Human Development Index (HDI) which is published by the United Nations, is a world reference for the assessment of a country’s human development level and is used to make comparisons at a global level. “Whichever way you look at it, this is a political manipulation aimed at ignoring Cuba’s headways. The 2010 HDI bases its indicators on inequalities and poverty, in which Cuba would rank at an outstanding position worldwide for being one of the countries where citizens have universal and free access to health, education up to university and postgraduate levels, employment and social security regardless of race or gender, which is acknowledged throughout the world in UNDP precedent reports and in the reports issued by other international organizations like UNESCO and the WHO, among others,” the Cuban statement declared.<br /><br />According to the statement, “the reason put forward by the Office that drafts this report is that Cuba is among the 4 countries of the world which have the data of all the HDI components except for the gross domestic product (GDP), since it does not use the “global purchasing power parity” (PPP) method used by the World Bank and therefore by the HDI to determine its GDP.” Cuba says “this justification is a falsehood, as Cuba worked with CEPAL in 2005 to resolve those difficulties in relation to the Cuban indicators and our data have been officially acknowledged by the UN system. In fact, our Gross Domestic Income was posted on the UNDP Website until the day following the publication of the HDI Report, time at which it was suppressed.”<br /><br />The report violates the provisions contained in resolution 57/264 of the United Nations General Assembly, which establishes the process for its drafting, particularly, for the drafting of the Human Development Report that should be drawn up in a neutral and transparent way, in full and effective consultation with Member States and bearing in mind the unbiased character and the use of the sources.<br /><br />Among the most negative elements identified in relation with our country is the inclusion of indicators not approved by the inter-governmental organs. The attempts of the UNDP and the HDI Office to draw up assessments and data on issues that are above their competence have been the object of the widest rejection by member states and given rise to resolutions of the UN General Assembly. This is not the first time that Cuba is excluded from the HDI. In 2001, Cuba was not included “by chance” due to the lack of data on the gross domestic product. That incident provoked the reaction that led to the promotion and adoption of resolution 57/264.<br /><br />The information on Cuba in the 2010 HDI Report is not only unacceptably tendentious but it also twists the reality of a country that has endured the longest and most unjust economic, commercial and financial blockade in the history of mankind; a policy that represents the main hindrance to its development. Despite of that, Cuba shows significant results on social matters, which are internationally acknowledged.<br /><br />This kind of manipulation of statistical data with political ends against Cuba, which lacks objective bases, far from favoring prestige and the acknowledgement merited by an organ like the UN Development Program, arouses discredit, categorical rejection and lack of trust from Cuba. The UNDP must refrain from favoring these ignominies against UN member states. Cuba demands a public, oral and written rectification in relation with the information on the Human Development Index so that our results are known.RATB2http://www.blogger.com/profile/09887926652700573883noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8832833749853181179.post-73787374274712383362011-09-24T11:48:00.000-07:002011-09-24T12:07:57.219-07:00Forced disappearances being implemented in Honduras<b>COFADEH: Once Again Forced Disappearance is being Implemented in Honduras</b><br />
<b>Source</b>: <a href="http://hondurashumanrights.wordpress.com/2011/09/02/cofadeh-once-again-forced-disappearance-is-being-implemented-in-honduras/">HondurasHumanRights blog</a> (<a href="http://www.defensoresenlinea.com/cms/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1578:familiares-denuncian-que-policias-les-desaparecieron-forzadamente-a-sus-parientes&catid=54:den&Itemid=171">espanol</a>) <br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://encuentronortesur.files.wordpress.com/2011/06/logo-cofadeh.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://encuentronortesur.files.wordpress.com/2011/06/logo-cofadeh.jpg" /></a></div>
The Committee of Relatives of the Detained and Disappeared in Honduras
(COFADEH), with great concern, would like to inform the international
community, and the Honduran population in particular, that the practice
of forced disappearance is once again being systematically implemented
in Honduras, as demonstrated by the following cases.<br />
<br />
1. Osmin Obando Cáceres (age 22), son of Eliodoro Cáceres,
Coordinator of the National Popular Resistance Front (FNRP) in Tela,
department of Atlántida, has been disappeared since Sunday, June 13,
2010 at 4:30 PM when he was driving his taxi and told his family that he
couldn’t speak to them by phone because he was surrounded by police.
The taxi appeared abandoned that same day around 6:30PM in the community
of Los Cedros, in the jurisdiction of Tela. After his disappearance,
the family received false calls, one caller claiming that Osmin was in
the hospital in Tela and another that claimed that he was dead in the
community of Las Palmas. Relatives went to verify each of the calls and
neither was true.<br />
<br />
2. Denis Alexander Russel (age 19) was captured in an operation of
the Special Anti-Kidnapping Taskforce (GEAS) on July 13, 2010. The
operation was commanded by Vice Minister of Security Armando Calidonio
and police spokesperson Juan Rochez. His mother, Carlota Anariva,
denounced that the day he was taken away he had been with her buying
groceries, and when they returned to the house she left him to park the
car and suddenly the neighbours came to tell her that her son had been
taken away. He was a student in the Instituto de la Patria in La Lima,
Department of Cortés.<br />
<br />
3. Luís Alexander Torres Casaleno, detained on July 20, 2010 by
police agents while driving his motorcycle, after having passed a police
checkpoint on the Corocito highway towards Tocoa, Colón. A few
kilometers passed the checkpoint he was detained by four agents of the
Preventative Police who were riding in a white unmarked double-cab
pick-up truck and crossed in front of him on the highway. Two agents in
uniform got out of the truck and put him into the vehicle, leaving his
motorcycle behind. The motorcycle was retrieved by the Corocito police
shortly afterwards. A habeas corpus was filed in his name and there has
been no response to date.<br />
<br />
4. Vilmar Edmundo Talavera Avilez, a police officer, was detained by
the Border Police (<i>Policía de Frontera y Análisis</i>) on July 15, 2010 when
he was riding a bus. He was detained after presenting his
identification documents. Before his disappearance he was reportedly
threatened by a police officer by the name of Tercero.<br />
<br />
5. Samuel Josué Pastrana Molina was kidnapped on February 7, 2011 at
2:30 when armed men with ski masks entered the place he was in the
department of El Paraíso, ordered those who were with him to place
themselves on the ground and close there eyes, and they took him away.<br />
<br />
6. Francisco Pascual López of the Rigores agricultural cooperative in Tocoa, Colón, is disappeared since May 15, 2011.<br />
<br />
7. Kelvin Omar Andrade Hernández (age 18), son of political exile
Dagoberto Andrade, mysteriously disappeared on June 11, 2011 when he
went out to ride his motorcycle in the neighbourhood of Bella Vista in
Catacamas, department of Olancho. He has not appeared since.<br />
<br />
8. Mauricio Joel Urbino Castro (34), who worked as a taxi driver of
taxi number 248 in the city of Ceiba in the department of Atlántida. He
was having a problem with the electrical system of the car on August 2,
2011 and at approximately 4:30PM he arrived at a garage that specialized
in electrical repairs in the San José neighbourhood of Ceiba to repair
the vehicle. At about the same time four men whose faces were covered
with ski masks, of large and muscular build, who were carrying long and
short barrelled weapons, identified themselves as police and immediately
ordered all present inside the garage to get on the ground, shouting
“we’re the police – hit the floor!” while they kicked the garage owner. They then proceeded to beat Mauricio Joel Urbina Castro, fastened his
hands behind him, and violently removed him from the garage, forcing
him into a grey double-cab pick-up truck with heavily tinted windows and
without liscence plate which was waiting in the street. He has not been
seen since and his cellphone has never been answered since.<br />
<br />
9. Oscar Elías López Muñoz (49) was kidnapped by masked men around
5:00 AM on Sunday August 21st in the Suyapa neighbourhood of Chamelecón
in the North of Honduras. The men arrived in three cars and broke down
the doors of his home, where López Muños was with his wife and ten
year-old daughter. They said they were agents of the National Department
of Criminal Investigation (DNIC). They were wearing hoods and ski
masks.<br />
<br />
10. <a href="http://hondurashumanrights.wordpress.com/2011/09/01/cofadeh-issues-complaint-about-the-kidnapping-of-a-community-leader-by-honduran-police/">José Reynaldo Cruz Palma</a>,
president of the Community Council (Patronato) of Planeta Neighbourhood
in San Pedro Sula. According to his family members he was kidnapped on
August 30, 2011 by agents of the DNIC and Preventative Police when he
was travelling by public transport along with his wife Nubia Carvajal
between La Lima, Cortés and their home in the neighbourhood of Planeta. The bus he was riding in was intercepted by various agents of both
police forces who were driving in two vehicles, one was a grey Mazda
double-cab pick-up truck with the partial licence plate BP50 and the
other was a patrol vehicle of the Preventative Police. The uniformed
agents got on the bus, said to his wife that the problem was not with
her but with her partner, and took him by force.<br />
<br />
In light of these facts COFADEH has filed the corresponding
denunciations but to date the Ministry of the Attorney General, the
Ministry of Justice and Human Rights, and state investigative bodies
have maintained a conspiratorial silence and have not taken any action
in any of these cases.<br />
<br />
COFADEH is accompanying these new families who are regrettably
suffering this torturous journey and hold the State of Honduras
responsible for the re-implementation of this despicable practice, which
is a crime against humanity and was carried out in the 1980s against
our relatives, who we are still looking for. The people responsible for
these crimes continue to benefit from impunity and many are still part
of the failed institutions of this country.<br />
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WE SHALL NOT FORGIVE OR FORGET THE CRIMES OR THE PURPETRATORSRATB2http://www.blogger.com/profile/09887926652700573883noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8832833749853181179.post-40222075330386023952011-09-12T04:11:00.002-07:002011-09-12T04:46:15.814-07:00RATB reports: solidarity with the Cuban 5 – September 2011<strong>Rock around the Blockade – events in Britain in solidarity with the Cuban 5 – September 2011</strong><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-FanAouk7rxA/Tm3r98ka_vI/AAAAAAAAAOU/k0JGUumsNDk/s1600/London%2BSept11%2B%25232.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; width: 400px; height: 300px; text-align: center; display: block; cursor: pointer;" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5651432556883279602" border="0" alt="" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-FanAouk7rxA/Tm3r98ka_vI/AAAAAAAAAOU/k0JGUumsNDk/s400/London%2BSept11%2B%25232.jpg" /></a><br />On Saturday 10 September, as part of the international days of action for the Cuban 5, on the 13th anniversary of their incarceration in US gaols, members and supporters of Rock around the Blockade in Britain, supported by the Revolutionary Communist Group, held street rallies in four cities: in Glasgow by Donald Dewar Statue, in Newcastle at Grey’s Monument, in Manchester’s Piccadilly Gardens and in Trafalgar Square in London.<br /><br />We gathered under banners demanding the freedom for the five political prisoners, Gerardo Hernández, Ramón Labañino, Fernando González, Antonio Guerrero and René González, and with petitions, leaflets, flags and placards, with open microphones, speeches and music, we ensured that everyone who passed the stalls understood the significance of the day and the importance of the Cuban 5, the need to build the campaign for their freedom and solidarity with the socialist revolution in Cuba. The Cuban 5 may have exhausted their legal avenues in the US, but the political struggle on the streets all around the world goes on.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-YQtFn4ztco8/Tm3tep52zPI/AAAAAAAAAOc/ZAUz3l2dN4Q/s1600/Manchester%2BSept11.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; width: 400px; height: 267px; text-align: center; display: block; cursor: pointer;" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5651434218320219378" border="0" alt="" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-YQtFn4ztco8/Tm3tep52zPI/AAAAAAAAAOc/ZAUz3l2dN4Q/s400/Manchester%2BSept11.jpg" /></a><br /><br />Comrades gave speeches in solidarity with the Cuban Revolution and against the US blockade, they talked of the gains made in Cuba, contrasting this with the cuts in public services in Britain in the current economic crisis where health care and education for all are under threat. Speakers raised the issue of the vengeance of the capitalist state against those who pose any threat, as we are witnessing currently in the aftermath of the uprisings in August in cities in Britain. The US and Britain continue shamelessly to use the guise of fighting terrorism while bombing, killing, torturing and incarcerating those who rise up against imperialism. The movement against this oppression must be anti-imperialist, militant and uncompromising. Socialist Cuba and the Cuban 5 are showing the way.<br /><br />The international days of action for the Cuban 5 have also been marked by Rock around the Blockade with film showings in all these four cities of Saul Landau’s award winning documentary, <em><a href="http://ratbnews.blogspot.com/2011/08/will-real-terrorist-please-stand-up.html">Will the real terrorist please stand up</a></em>, released this year which tells the hidden story of 50 years of US terrorism against Cuba, presenting the case of the Cuban 5.<br /><br />Rock around the Blockade has the following message for the Cuban 5:<br /><br /><blockquote>‘Dear comrades,<br /><br />We are writing to you with solidarity on the 13th anniversary of your detention and imprisonment. We organise regular demonstrations, meetings, film showings and solidarity brigades for Cuba because we know that Cuba is a beacon of hope for oppressed people around the world. We know that here in imperialist Britain we have a lot to learn from socialist Cuba and it is the only way to destroy the state and overthrow capitalism. We want to thank you for your continued struggle in the prisons of the US and we want you to know that we take a lot of inspiration from your fight and the continued advances of the Cuban revolution. We are not going to stop until capitalism is destroyed and you are free.<br /><br />With much love and solidarity,<br /><br />Rock around the Blockade’</blockquote><br />For more information about Rock around the Blockade visit www.ratb.org.uk<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-QmHInR0IvwI/Tm3uB3hSchI/AAAAAAAAAOk/mOET6-4f4oY/s1600/IMG_0170.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; width: 400px; height: 267px; text-align: center; display: block; cursor: pointer;" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5651434823270691346" border="0" alt="" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-QmHInR0IvwI/Tm3uB3hSchI/AAAAAAAAAOk/mOET6-4f4oY/s400/IMG_0170.JPG" /></a>Cuba Solidarity campaign joined in with RATB in Manchester, 10 September 2011.<br />________________________________________________________________________<br /><strong>Rock around the Blockade – Gran Bretana– solidaridad con los Cinco Cubanos - September 2011</strong><br /><br />El sábado 10 de septiembre, los miembros de Rock around the Blockade y el Grupo Comunista Revolucionario, realizó un evento animada en las calles de Newcastle upon Tyne, Manchester, Glasgow y Londres, Gran Bretana, exigiendo la libertad de los 5 cubanos. Los compañeros dieron discursos en solidaridad con Cuba Socialista, contra el bloqueo de EE.UU. y en contra de la prisión ilegal de los cinco héroes cubanos. Los habitantes se detuvo a firmar peticiones para los 5 cubanos y firmar cartas de solidaridad que han sido enviados a Gerardo Hernández, Ramón Labañino, Fernando González, Antonio Guerrero y René González. La manifestación marcó 13 años desde su detención en Miami y busca destacar el caso de los 5 cubanos y fomentar la solidaridad con la Revolución Socialista Cubana. Rock around the Blockade tiene el siguiente mensaje para los 5 cubanos y sus partidarios<br /><br /><br /><blockquote>‘Queridos compañeros,<br /><br />Nos dirigimos a ustedes con la solidaridad en el 13 aniversario de sus detención y encarcelamiento. Se organizan manifestaciones periódicas, reuniones, proyecciones de películas y brigadas de solidaridad de Cuba, porque sabemos que Cuba es un faro de esperanza para los pueblos oprimidos de todo el mundo. Sabemos que aquí en Gran Bretaña imperialista que tenemos mucho que aprender de Cuba socialista y es la única manera de destruir el Estado y derrocar el capitalismo. Queremos darle las gracias por su continu luacha en las cárceles de los EE.UU. y queremos que sepan que tenemos un montón de inspiración de que la lucha continúa y los avances de la revolución cubana. No vamos a dejar de luchar hasta que el capitalismo se destruye y ustedes son libres.<br /><br />Mucho amor y solidaridad.<br /><br />Rock around the Blockade’</blockquote><br /><br /><br />El fin de semana de acción culmina en una película que muestra de "¿El verdadero terrorista por favor ponerse de pie", un premiado documental lanzado este año cuenta la historia oculta de 50 años de terrorismo estadounidense contra Cuba, al presentar el caso de la Cinco cubanos. Los entrevistados son renombrados terroristas Luis Posada Carriles, Orlando Bosch, José Basulto y otros, que tengan libertad de caminar por la calles de Miami, apoyado y protegido por el gobierno de EE.UU., junto con<br />imágenes raras de la invasión de Bahía de Cochinos.<br /><br /><br />Para más información sobre Rock around the Blockade, visita www.ratb.org.ukRATB2http://www.blogger.com/profile/09887926652700573883noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8832833749853181179.post-28401552283168422732011-09-12T04:11:00.001-07:002011-09-12T05:02:18.933-07:00Chile police officer implicated in student death<strong>Source</strong>: <a href="http://www.santiagotimes.cl/chile/education/22339-chile-police-officer-implicated-in-student-death"><em>The Santiago Times</em></a>, 29 August 2011.<br /><br />by Alison Silveira and Adeline Bash<br /><br /><strong><em>Bullet from officer's UZI machine gun matches that found in student's body, prosecutor says.</em></strong><br /><br />The bullet that killed 16-year-old high school student Manuel Gutiérrez last week was fired from Carabinero police officer Miguel Millacura's firearm, prosecutor Jorge Martinez confirmed late Monday night. Martinez said that experts reviewed 160 weapons before concluding that Millacura’s was a match.<br /><br />Millacura was asked to resign earlier Monday after admitting to using his firearm in the Macul borough of Santiago near where Gutiérrez was shot and killed Thursday night.<br /> According to an announcement by Interior Minister Rodrigo Hinzpeter, Millacura hid his 9mm UZI submachine gun and changed the ammunition after the incident to avoid detection by the prosecutor's office.<br /><br />In a press conference, Minister Hinzpeter also formally requested that the national director of Carabineros ask Gen. Sergio Gajardo, deputy chief of the Metropolitan Zone, to resign. Gajardo rejected the possibility of police involvement in the student's death last week and refused to open an internal investigation into possible wrongdoing within the police force.<br /><br />Four other Carabinero officers were also discharged from the force Monday night in connection with the student death.<br /><br />"Just as we have said on many occasions, we support the important, valuable sacrifices made by the Carabineros de Chile, but we demand that their actions be always within the framework of respecting the law, the rights of our citizens, and the norms that regulate these procedures," Hinzpeter said. "In this we are categorically inflexible."<br /><br />He called both for recognition of the difficult situation that Carabineros have faced at ongoing student protests, and asked for the cooperation of both citizens and police officers in understanding and respecting the law and public order.<br /><br />According to local media, Millacura, who has been with the Carabinero police force for 18 years, admitted early Monday to firing two shots into the air from an UZI machine gun close to midnight Thursday in the same area where Gutiérrez was reportedly shot in the chest. Gutiérrez died Friday morning in a nearby hospital.<br /><br />Officer Millacura insisted that he fired his weapon only in response to other gunshots fired by protestors in the Macul area after Chile’s two-day national strike on Wednesday and Thursday.<br /><br />Witnesses, including Manuel’s brother Gerson Gutiérrez who was with him at the time, have nevertheless maintained that Carabineros were responsible the youth’s death.<br /><br />Carabinero officials immediately rejected these claims, however, initially refusing to even conduct an internal investigation.<br /><br />Police maintained this stance until Monday, when Deputy Chief José Luis Ortega confirmed that Millacura was asked to resign for unauthorized use of his firearm. Ortega insisted that the measure was not related to possible involvement in the 16-year-old’s death.<br /><br />There is still not enough evidence to connect Carabineros to Gutiérrez’s death, Ortega said midday Monday, explaining that an investigation of the bullet extracted from the youth would help officials better determine whether it came from Millacura’s weapon. Yet by Monday night Hinzpeter had confirmed the bullet to be a match for Millacura's machine gun.<br /><br />The announcement about Millacura’s unauthorized firearm use on Monday coincided with public demands by politicians, national human rights groups and Chilean activists for investigation into alleged police involvement in Gutiérrez’s death.<br /><br />"It's not reassuring that police officers use their weapons against civilians," said Supreme Court Justice and spokesperson Jaime Rodríguez after Hinzpeter's Monday night announcement.<br /><br />Rodríguez likewise recommended that the case be reviewed by the military justice system, as the Carabineros police force is considered part of the Armed Forces.<br /><br />On Saturday, student strike leaders demanded further investigation into Gutiérrez’s death as one of their pre-conditions for meeting with Chilean President Sebastián Piñera to discuss education reform. That same day, Lorena Fries, president of Chile’s National Institute of Human Rights (INDH), publicly criticized Carabinero police officials’ refusal to investigate the claims of police involvement.<br /><br />“It does not seem like an adequate response by the Carabineros to say we are not going to investigate because we had nothing to do with it,” Fries told Radio Cooperativa, adding that the organization plans to take legal action if someone is not held accountable.<br /><br />According to Fries, appropriate investigation into Manuel’s death is especially pertinent given the Carabinero police force’s fragile public image, especially in light of allegations of excessive force in the recent citizen demonstrations across Chile.<br /><br />“We know that there have been incidents of excessive violence in different cities and regions of the country,” Fries said. “(Investigating Gutiérrez death) requires maximum transparency so as to not increase the public’s existing distrust of police activity.”RATB2http://www.blogger.com/profile/09887926652700573883noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8832833749853181179.post-36210506733668220542011-09-06T07:51:00.000-07:002011-09-06T08:11:15.355-07:00Cuba refuses to recognize the Transitional National Council in Libyaby the Cuban Foreign Ministry<br /><br /><a href="http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/2011/cuba030911.html"><strong>Translation </strong></a>by <a href="http://montages.blogspot.com/">Yoshie Furuhashi</a><br /><br />The Foreign Ministry of Cuba has withdrawn its diplomatic staff from Libya, where foreign intervention and NATO military aggression has exacerbated the conflict and prevented the Libyan people from advancing toward a peaceful negotiated solution, in full exercise of their self-determination.<br /><br />The Republic of Cuba does not recognize the Transitional National Council, nor any provisional authority, and will only recognize a government established in Libya in a legitimate manner, without foreign intervention, through the free, sovereign, and common will of the brother people of Libya.<br /><br />Ambassador Víctor Ramírez Peña and First Secretary Armando Pérez Suárez, accredited in Tripoli, have maintained impeccable conduct, strictly observing their diplomatic status, have endured risks, and have stood by the Libyan people in this tragic situation. They have directly witnessed the NATO bombings of civilian targets and deaths of innocent people.<br /><br />Under the grotesque pretense of protecting civilians, the NATO has murdered thousands of them, disregarded the constructive initiatives of the African Union and other countries, and even violated the questionable resolutions imposed at the Security Council, in particular by its attacks on civilian targets, by its financing and arming of one side, and by its deployment of diplomatic and operational personnel on the ground.<br /><br />The United Nations has ignored the clamor of international public opinion in defense of peace and ended up becoming complicit in a war of conquest. The facts confirm the early warnings of Commander in Chief Fidel Castro Ruz and the timely condemnations issued by Cuba at the UN. Now the world can see better what purpose the so-called "Responsibility to Protect" serves in the hands of the powerful.<br /><br />Cuba declares that nothing can justify the murder of innocent people.<br /><br />The Foreign Ministry demands the immediate end to NATO bombings, which continue to claim lives, and reiterates the urgent need to permit the Libyan people to find a peaceful negotiated solution, without foreign intervention, in exercise of their inalienable right to independence and self-determination, to sovereignty over their national resources, and to the territorial integrity of that brother nation.<br /><br />Cuba condemns the conduct of the NATO, which is aimed at creating similar conditions for intervention in Syria, and demands the end to foreign intervention in that Arab country. Cuba calls upon the international community to prevent a new war, urges the United Nations to abide by its duty to safeguard peace, and supports the right of the Syrian people to full sovereignty and self-determination.<br /><br />Havana, 3 September 2011<br /><br />--------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br />The original statement "<em>Declaración del MINREX: Cuba no reconoce al Consejo Nacional de Transición</em>" may be read at <a href="http://www.cubadebate.cu/noticias/2011/09/03/declaracion-del-minrex-cuba-no-reconoce-al-consejo-nacional-de-transicion/">CubaDebate.cu</a><br /><br /><br /><br /><strong>See also</strong>: <a href="http://www.voltairenet.org/Nicaragua-refuses-to-recognize-NTC">Nicaragua refuses to recognise NTC, calls NATO drunken warmonger</a>, 05 September 2011.RATB2http://www.blogger.com/profile/09887926652700573883noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8832833749853181179.post-43123134292566838932011-08-27T16:13:00.000-07:002011-09-06T07:51:44.885-07:00Weekend of action for the Cuban 5!Over the weekend of 10-11 September 2011, RATB activists across Britain will be organising activities in support of the Cuban 5 as they approach the 13th anniversary of their 'kidnapping' and imprisonment by the US government.<br /><br />In Manchester on Saturday 10 Sepember, we will be holding a campaign stall with leaflets, petitions and a speak-out in Piccadilly Gardens, city centre starting at 12 noon. The following day we will be showing the new film by Saul Landau, '<a href="http://ratbnews.blogspot.com/2011/08/will-real-terrorist-please-stand-up.html"><span style="font-style: italic;">Will the Real Terrorist Please Stand Up</span></a>' in the Cross Street Chapel, Cross Street, starting at 2pm. Make sure you put the film show in your diary, this will be the first time the film has been showed anywhere in the North West.<br /><br /><iframe height="345" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/KFra1GuBTzo" frameborder="0" width="560" allowfullscreen=""></iframe><br /><br />Free the Cuban 5!<br />Solidarity With Socialist Cuba!<br /><br /><br />RATB events you can join in<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">FREE FILM SHOWINGS</span><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Will the Real Terrorist Please Stand Up</span> (2011, Saul Landau), telling the story of the Cuban Five and a half century of hostile US-Cuban relations.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">LONDON</span><br />Sunday 4 September, 5pm<br />The Compass pub, corner of Chapel Market and Penton Street<br />Angel, Islington, N1<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">MANCHESTER</span><br />Sunday 11 September, 2pm<br />Cross Street Chapel<br />Cross Street, M2<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">NEWCASTLE</span><br />Tuesday 13 September, 7pm<br />Barkollo<br />22 Leazes Park Road, NE1<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">GLASGOW</span><br />Wednesday 14 September, 7.30pm<br />Langside Halls,<br />Shawlands, G4<br /><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">RALLIES AND PROTESTS FOR THE CUBAN FIVE</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">LONDON</span><br />Saturday 10 September, 12-3pm<br />In front of the National Gallery. Bring stalls, literature, banners and music.<br />Trafalgar Square, Central London<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">MANCHESTER</span><br />Saturday 10 September, 12-3pm<br />Piccadilly Gardens<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">NEWCASTLE</span><br />Saturday 10 September, 12-3pm<br />Grey’s Monument<br />Grey Street, NE1<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">GLASGOW</span><br />Sunday 11 September, 1-3pm<br />Donald Dewar Statue<br />Buchanan Street, G1RATB2http://www.blogger.com/profile/09887926652700573883noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8832833749853181179.post-70009123027825959182011-08-27T16:03:00.001-07:002011-08-27T16:38:16.445-07:00Free the Cuban Five! - Defend the socialist revolution in Cuba<span style="font-weight: bold;">Source</span>: <span style="font-style: italic;">Fight Racism! Fight Imperialism!</span> (<a href="http://www.revolutionarycommunist.org/index.php/cuba/2266-free-the-cuban-five-defend-the-socialist-revolution-in-cuba--frfi-222-aug--sep-2011">FRFI</a>) no. 222, August/September 2011.
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<br />by Ali Erkaslan
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<br />12 September 2011 will mark 13 years since the arrest in Miami, Florida of five Cuban intelligence agents who had infiltrated right-wing terrorist organisations in the United States to help foil terrorist attacks against the Cuban people. They remain incarcerated in US prisons. The campaign for their release is an essential part of the struggle to defend Cuban socialism. In September, Rock around the Blockade will join activists from around the world demanding the release of the Cuban Five.
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<br /><blockquote>‘No revolution is worth anything unless it can defend itself’ – Lenin</blockquote>
<br />Since 1959, Cubans have learned the hard way the importance of defending their revolution from sabotage and terrorism in every sphere and sector. In 1961 there was the invasion at Playa Giron (Bay of Pigs) by Cuban exiles and mercenaries, organised and funded by the CIA. In 1962, there was the threat of nuclear attack during the Cuban Missile Crisis. The Revolution has defended itself for more than 50 years against the brutal and criminal US blockade, which has cost the country $236 billion since 1960. It survived the collapse of the socialist bloc and subsequent loss of around 80% of its trade. Cuba has also defended itself against diplomatic isolation, severe natural disasters, the global capitalist crisis, against propaganda and slander from the right-wing and <a href="http://ratbnews.blogspot.com/p/oppressed-people-of-world-support.html">sectarianism and lies from ‘left-wing’ opportunists</a>.
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<br />Cuba has been the victim of sustained terrorism for longer than any other country in the world, costing the lives of 3,478 Cubans and permanently maiming another 2,099. Miami, Florida, hosts a terrorist network which has frequently launched attacks against Cuba: bombing and arson attacks on factories, offices, recreation centres, and Cuban agencies abroad; killings of Cuban diplomats in foreign countries; burning sugar cane fields and other economic targets; smuggling pests, viruses and diseases into Cuba; bombings and shootings of tourist hotels; assassination attempts against Fidel Castro and other leaders. Examples include: 4 March 1960, the French cargo ship La Coubre exploded in the Havana docks, killing 101 people; 6 October 1976 two bombs exploded on a civilian Cubana Airlines flight killing all 73 people on board (57 Cubans, 11 Guyanese and five Koreans); dengue fever was introduced into Cuba in 1981, infecting over 344,000 people and killing 158, including 101 children.
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<br />In the 1990s as the bourgeoisie celebrated the collapse of the socialist bloc, terrorist attacks against Cuba intensified. More than 200 attacks were launched from Miami, mostly targeting Cuba’s expanding tourist industry, which became the principal means of securing the hard currency necessary to pay upfront in cash for goods imports – a precondition imposed uniquely on Cuba. Cuban exile groups shot at coastal tourist resorts from the sea and bombed five hotels in Havana in 1997. They sent mercenaries to bomb the famous Tropicana entertainment venue in Havana, but the attack was foiled.
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<br />On 11 September 2011, a flood of rhetoric about the ‘US war on terror’ will accompany the 10th anniversary of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Centre in New York. That day will also mark 31 years since Felix Garcia Rodriguez, a Cuban diplomat accredited by the UN, was murdered in broad daylight on a crowded street in New York by terrorists from the Miami-based group Omega 7. It is, of course, also the 38th anniversary of the US-backed coup d’état against democratically elected President of Chile, Salvador Allende, which led to the brutal dictatorship of General Pinochet, friend of Reagan, Thatcher and the Chicago Boys.
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<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">The Cuban Five revolutionary heroes</span>
<br />‘In the view of these aggressions and the shameless avoidance of punishment of the aggressors’, writes Randy Alonso Falcon, Director of the Office of Communication of Cuba’s Council of State, ‘Cuba has the right to employ every method and instrument at its disposal in order to save the lives of its own people and of the citizens of other countries who visit Cuba’ (With Honour, Courage and Pride, Cuban Council of State, Havana, 2002).
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<br />The US authorities refuse to stop Cuban exile terrorists operating domestically and often act with complicity. It is the need for the Cuban Revolution to mount its own defence that sent Gerardo Hernandez, Ramon Labanino, Fernando Gonzalez, Antonio Guerrero and Rene Gonzalez, the Cuban Five, to infiltrate terrorist groups in Miami in the early 1990s and monitor the threat against Cuba. The Cuban Five had no guns and no explosives. They were not after classified information or threatening US national security. They were gathering information and evidence from terrorist networks about actions planned and launched from US soil. They did their job with utmost professionalism and rigorous care.
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<br />In June 1998, Nobel prize winning novelist Gabriel Garcia Marquez brokered an unprecedented meeting between top officials at the FBI and Cuban State Security. Over three days, the Cubans handed the FBI a mountain of evidence – four volumes of more than 300 pages each, two hours and 40 minutes of video tapes, eight audiocassette tapes – compiled by the Cuban agents from the terrorist networks in Miami. They demonstrated the links between the Cuban American National Foundation and the hotel bombings in Havana the previous year and revealed their intention to ratchet up the campaign of terror. The information gathered by the Cuban Five made it possible to successfully prevent 170 attacks against Cuba, including a plan to blow up aeroplanes filled with Cuba-bound tourists from Europe and Canada.
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<br />Instead of acting on the information to break the terror networks, the FBI arrested the Cuban agents. 26 charges were made against them by the US government, 24 of which were technical offences relating to the use of false names and failure to register as foreign agents. All five were charged with conspiracy to commit espionage and Gerardo Hernandez was charged with conspiracy to commit murder. This relates to the shooting down by Cuban authorities of two aeroplanes from the Brothers to the Rescue exile group in 1996. After repeated incursions into Cuban territory throughout the 1990s, the planes were given a final warning before being shot down by the Cuban Air Force killing four men. Gerardo Hernandez was accused of supplying information to the Cuban government which led to the shooting. No evidence was provided.
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<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">US imperialism and human rights</span>
<br />The case of the Cuban Five shows how imperialism will trample its own ‘bourgeois-democratic’ laws to fight against socialism. The Cuban Five were put in solitary confinement after their arrest and effectively denied the right to collaborate on their defence for the first five months. It took 17 months to bring the case to court. The trial took place in Miami, a hotbed of the counter-revolutionary exile community and home of the terrorist organisations they had infiltrated. <a href="http://www.pslweb.org/reporters-for-hire/">Documents recently published</a> by the Partnership for Civil Justice, the Committee to Free the Cuban Five and the US newspaper <span style="font-style: italic;">Liberation </span>show that during the trial the US government paid Miami-based journalists who saturated the Miami media with inflammatory and prejudicial reports about the five Cubans. This is illegal under US law. The trial judge refused the request to move venues because, in his words, a trial in Miami would be more interesting than any television show.
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<br />After a six month trial, in July 2001 the Five were convicted of all charges and sentenced to a total of four life sentences plus 77 years. Dispersed across the US in maximum security prisons they were denied the opportunity to communicate with each other and obstructed from seeing families and lawyers. The US government has repeatedly denied visas to Adriana Perez, wife of Gerardo Hernandez, and Olga Salanueva, wife of Rene Gonzalez, to travel from Cuba to visit their husbands.
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<br />In August 2005 the US Federal Appeals Court in Atlanta unanimously overturned the Cuban Five’s convictions and ordered a retrial. They ruled that the original trial was unfair due to the hostile publicity before and during the trial and intimidating presence of the Miami exile community. However, the Cuban Five were kept in prison and one year later the ruling was appealed and reversed. In June 2009, an appeal to the US Supreme Court to review the case was turned down despite being supported by an unprecedented 12 Amicus Curiae (friends of the court) briefs from ten Nobel Laureates, 75 members of the European Parliament, 85 Mexican Deputies and 87 British parliamentarians, among others. The Supreme Court’s decision marked the end of the legal battle. The political battle, however, continues.
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<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Solidarity with the Cuban Five</span>
<br />‘The worst thing that can happen to anyone in the American system of justice is to be alone. Solidarity is necessary, not to intimidate the Court, but to indicate that the world is watching and the law should be followed’ – Leonard Weinglass, US civil rights lawyer and lead appellate of the Cuban Five (<a href="http://ratbnews.blogspot.com/2011/03/leonard-weinglass-presente.html">died on 23 March 2011</a>).
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<br />The solidarity movement which has developed worldwide shows that the world is watching the case of the Cuban Five. They are not alone in their struggle against terrorism, imperialism and the repressive ‘justice’ system. Activists have taken to the streets and outside US embassies during and after every court hearing and for international days of action. In Britain Rock around the Blockade (RATB) began campaigning for the Cuban Five shortly after they were sentenced. We see this as part of the struggle to defend the socialist Revolution. In September we will be participating in the international days of action marking the 13th year of their incarceration. (See below for details of events around the country.)
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<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">US imperialism, harbouring the real terrorists</span>
<br />While the Five are punished for their commitment to socialism, the terrorists responsible for deadly attacks on Cuban civilians have <a href="http://ratbnews.blogspot.com/2011/08/us-gives-asylum-to-dozens-of-terrorists.html">lived freely in Miami</a>. Among them Orlando Bosch (<a href="http://ratbnews.blogspot.com/2011/05/death-orlando-bosch-unrepentant.html">died peacefully in Miami 27 April 2011</a>) and Posada Carriles, who both admitted to planning the bombing of the Cubana Airlines flight in 1976. Both have been on the CIA’s payroll and are protected by their associates in the tops ranks of the US establishment. After a three-month trial in Texas earlier this year, <a href="http://ratbnews.blogspot.com/2011/04/us-terrorist-carriles-acquitted.html">Carriles was acquitted</a> of 11 charges of perjury, immigration fraud and obstruction of procedure. Evidence of his involvement in international terrorism, from Iran to Honduras and, of course, Cuba, was brushed aside. There is also evidence that the White House had advance information about Carriles’s plans for the Cuban Airlines’ bombing in 1976, the 1997 Havana hotel bombs and plans to assassinate Fidel Castro in Panama in November 2000.
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<br />This is not just ‘hypocrisy’ – it is the very nature of the imperialist system which tramples all rights and laws to maintain its hegemony over the people of the world. US imperialism shamelessly uses the guise of fighting terrorism while it bombs, kills, tortures and incarcerates those who rise up against its interests. The movement to oppose this system of oppression must be an anti-imperialist one, militant and uncompromising. Socialist Cuba and the Cuban Five are showing the way.
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<br /><p><strong>Send your solidarity to the Cuban Five: </strong></p> <p><strong> </strong></p> <p><strong>Gerardo Hernandez</strong></p> <p>#58739-004</p> <p>USP Victorville</p> <p>PO Box 5300</p> <p>Adelanto, CA 92301</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Antonio Guerrero</strong></p> <p>#58741-004</p> <p>FCI Florence</p> <p>PO Box 6000</p> <p>Florence, CO 81226</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Luis Medina</strong></p> <p>(Ramon Labañino)</p> <p>No. 58734-004</p> <p>FCI Jesup</p> <p>2680 301 South</p> <p>Jesup, GA 31599</p> <p>(NOTE: address the envelope to ‘Luis Medina’, but the letter inside to Ramon)</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Rubén Campa </strong> (Fernando González)</p> <p>#58733-004</p> <p>FCI Terre Haute</p> <p>PO Box 33</p> <p>Terre Haute, IN 47808</p> <p>(NOTE: address the envelope to ‘Rubén Campa’, but the letter inside to Fernando)</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>René González</strong></p> <p>#58738-004</p> <p>FCI Marianna</p> <p>PO Box 7007
<br /></p><p>Marianna, FL 32447-7007
<br /></p>RATB2http://www.blogger.com/profile/09887926652700573883noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8832833749853181179.post-83116660551643963112011-08-27T15:44:00.001-07:002011-08-27T16:10:22.932-07:00Government-funded propaganda operation in Miami exposed - Part 1<span style="font-weight: bold;">Source</span>: <a href="http://www.pslweb.org/reporters-for-hire/analysis/govt-funded-propaganda-part-1.html">Reporters for Hire</a>
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<br />by Gloria La Riva
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<br /><span style="font-style: italic;">More than 2,200 pages of documents obtained through FOIA</span>
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<br />In 1998, five Cuban men were arrested by the U.S. government and tried in Miami on charges of conspiring to commit espionage on the United States.
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<br />The five men’s mission was to stop terrorism, keeping watch on Miami’s ultra-right extremists to prevent their violent attacks against Cuba. “The Cuban Five,” as they are now known, were convicted after repeated denials by the judge to move the trial venue out of Miami. The U.S. government insisted that they be tried in Miami.
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<br />What the Cuban Five and their attorneys did not know during trial was that the U.S. government—through its official propaganda agency, the Broadcasting Board of Governors—was covertly paying prominent Miami journalists who, at the same time as the government conducted its prosecution, saturated the Miami media with reports that were highly inflammatory and prejudicial to the Cuban Five.
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<br />The presence of Miami journalists on the U.S. government payroll, who purported to report as “independent” press, goes to the heart of the unjust conviction of the Five. The Five were not only victims of a politically-motivated prosecution, but a government-funded propaganda operation as well.
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<br />Lawrence Wilkerson, chief of staff for Colin Powell when he was Secretary State from 2001 to 2005, commented about the inability of the Cuban Five to receive a fair trial in Miami:
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<br />When the case came to trial, a change of venue was warranted and asked for because no Miami court was going to give the Cuban Five a fair trial, since the city is largely in the hands of some of the very Cuban-Americans and their supporters who've allegedly perpetrated these atrocities on the Cuban people and are prepared to invade the island. But the change of venue motion was denied. And of course the five were convicted.
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<br />Wilkerson has called for the release of the Cuban Five.
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<br />So, too, has former U.S. president Jimmy Carter, who stated:
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<br />I believe that there is no reason to keep the Cuban Five imprisoned, there were doubts in the U.S. courts and also among human rights organizations in the world. Now, they have been in prison 12 years and I hope that in the near future they will be released to return home.
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<br /><a name='more'></a>
<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Digging up the truth</span>
<br />A multi-year effort by the National Committee to Free the Cuban Five, the civil rights legal organization the Partnership for Civil Justice Fund and, most recently, Liberation newspaper, has uncovered thousands of pages of previously unreleased materials exposing this government operation.
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<br />More than 2,200 pages of contracts between Miami journalists and Radio and TV Martí—released thus far to Liberation newspaper through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) petition—expose the fallacy of an independent press in Miami.
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<br />This is the first in a series of articles about these new disclosures.
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<br />The BBG and its Office of Cuba Broadcasting have operated Radio Martí since 1985 and TV Martí since 1990. They broadcast into Cuba with the intent to destabilize the government. They also broadcast directly into Miami.
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<br />The Smith-Mundt Act of 1948 regulating U.S. “public diplomacy” abroad—Voice of America, Radio Free Europe, Radio and TV Martí, etc.—prohibits the U.S. government from funding activities to influence and propagandize domestic public opinion, see 22 U.S.C. § 1461.
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<br />The U.S. government has funneled nearly half a billion dollars into the Office of Cuba Broadcasting in Miami. With an annual budget nearing $35 million, the OCB and BBG put on their payroll domestic journalists to broadcast the same message inside and outside the United States on Cuba-related issues, effectively violating the law against domestic dissemination of U.S. propaganda.
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<br />The earliest documents obtained thus far from the BBG go back to Nov. 1, 1999. Despite the FOIA petition request for data on the journalists going back to the date of the shoot-down in 1996—which also covers the date of the Five’s 1998 arrest—the BBG has so far refused to comply, claiming that contracts and other documents have been destroyed.
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<br />These contracts evidence the U.S. government’s payments to journalists in Miami whose reports constituted a sustained effort to create an atmosphere of hysteria and bias against Cuba and the Cuban Five. Three of the Cuban Five—Gerardo Hernández, Antonio Guerrero and Ramón Labañino—have filed habeas corpus appeals arguing that their constitutional rights to due process were grossly undermined by the government’s media operation in Miami and payments to the Miami reporters.
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<br />The reportage of these journalists and their contracts with the government demonstrate a close partnership between Washington and right-wing Cuban exile reporters. Prominent journalists who churn out biased anti-Cuba themes in the Miami media are richly rewarded with contracts from the BBG.
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<br />Headquartered in Miami, Radio and TV Martí are the only U.S. propaganda stations that operate outside of the Washington, D.C., area. Moving to Miami in 1997, they were able to recruit a stable of virulent anti-Cuba reporters.
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<br />Those contracted by the U.S. government also served as guests, hosts, regular commentators and writers of shows such as “Actualidad Mundial” (“World Update”), “Mesa Redonda” (“Roundtable”) and regular daily newscasts. In other words, they directed and shaped the message. At the same time that they are employed by the U.S. government, these journalists also hold themselves out as independent reporters covering U.S.-Cuban affairs in other media.
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<br />Such is the case with Pablo Alfonso and Ariel Remos.
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<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Reporters condemn the Five before trial</span>
<br />Pablo Alfonso was a longtime reporter for El Nuevo Herald. The contracts released by the Liberation newspaper FOIA show that Alfonso received BBG payments of $58,600 during the Cuban Five’s trial during the period between Nov. 1, 1999 and Dec. 31, 2001. His total payments were $252,325 through Aug. 22, 2007.
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<br />Ariel Remos is a longtime reporter and commentator for Diario Las Américas. Remos received BBG payments of $11,750 during the Five’s trial from Nov. 1, 1999 to Dec. 12, 2001—roughly the same time span as Alfonso. His total pay was $24,350 through Nov. 20, 2006.
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<br />During the Cuban Five’s prosecution, both Alfonso and Remos wrote incendiary articles that were placed in the Miami media accusing the Cuba government of murder.
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<br />Brothers to the Rescue had repeatedly sent planes to invade Cuban airspace in 1995 and early 1996, including buzzing Havana buildings and dropping thousands of leaflets over the city. With the Brothers to the Rescue’s public announcement that they would once again fly into Cuban territory on Feb. 24, Cuba warned that it would take direct action if the planes invaded again. When the planes crossed into Cuban airspace, they were shot down.
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<br />Virtual hysteria and demand for vengeance became pervasive in the Miami media in the aftermath of the shoot-down.
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<br />Despite being in Miami, not Cuba, and playing no role whatsoever in Cuba’s action to defend its territory, Hernández became a scapegoat. Seven months after the Five were arrested, Hernández was charged with conspiracy to commit murder.
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<br />Although trial judge Joan Lenard later claimed that the non-sequestered jury was sufficiently shielded from the media with her instructions that they should not follow the news during the trial, the Miami community had already been inundated with inflammatory coverage on the shoot-down for almost five years before the jury was selected.
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<br />Alfonso and Remos pounded a steady drumbeat to condemn Fidel Castro for the plane shoot-down, and interviewed others who demanded his arrest for “murder.” Their articles were inflammatory and sensationalist.
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<br />In 1999, while under contract with the U.S. government, Remos interviewed Tampa attorney Ralph Fernández—the legal representative of José Basulto, the president of Brothers to the Rescue.
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<br />The article by Remos, dated Nov. 28, 1999, states:
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<br />… [I]n the case of U.S. v. Gerardo Hernández, in which Caroline Heck-Miler has been serving as the prosecutor and where the chain of command and cause for the death of the four members of Brothers to the Rescue – three of them citizens of the US and one resident – supposedly begins with Fidel Castro.
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<br />Castro, therefore, is in the referenced case accused of murder and under investigation for murder; and if he sets foot on United States territory he can be arrested and brought before the justice of this country. That is the opinion of attorney Fernández, and that is how he just told it to <span style="font-style: italic;">DIARIO LAS AMERICAS</span>.
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<br />The harm created by the partnership between the government and its paid journalists was reinforced during the trial itself.
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<br />The trial began in November 2000 and concluded in June 2001.
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<br />Three months into the trial, an article by Ariel Remos appeared in Diario las Americas (Feb. 27, 2001) under the headline “Jeane Kirkpatrick Asks Ashcroft to Prosecute Cuban Officials for International Terrorism.” The article reveals a letter to the new Bush administration attorney general, John Ashcroft, written by Kirkpatrick, the neo-conservative U.S. ambassador to the United Nations during the Reagan administration.
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<br />The article highlights the claim made in the letter to Ashcroft that “in the upcoming trial of five Cuban officials in Florida, evidence has come forward that the murders [of the Brothers to the Rescue pilots] were premeditated,” as well as the complaint that the “highest authorities who approved this act of state terrorism, have still not been charged.”
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<br />On its face, the “arrangement” between the government and the journalists covering Cuba and the Cuban Five prosecution clearly impacts—or rather negates—the possibility of a fair trial in Miami. But the government, in its April 25, 2011, “Response in Opposition” to a motion filed by Gerardo Hernández that appeals his double life sentence, puts forth a simple “you can’t ever catch me” defense.
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<br />The government’s recent response, filed by the Obama administration’s Justice Department attorneys, argues that the articles written by the government’s paid journalists could have no possible impact either because A) they were published before the trial started; or B) they were published after the trial started and the jury was empanelled and admonished by the judge not to be influenced by the media.
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<br />Thus, hostile and inflammatory media coverage could never be harmful to the defendants. According to the government, its pumping millions of dollars into the so-called “independent” media in Miami is of no significance or impropriety.
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<br />However, the U.S. prosecutors knew that the judge’s instructions were insufficient to protect the trial process from undue media influence, as demonstrated by the government's motion filed by prosecutor Caroline Heck-Miller in December 2000 seeking a gag order to prohibit the press from quoting potential witnesses – out of concern that those witnesses would help the defense.
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<br />The motion was filed after one potential witness, Richard Nuccio, had expressed disgust at learning that the FBI was aware that the shoot-down might occur before it had taken place.
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<br />The government's motion stated: “…the jury in this trial has been strictly instructed not to read press accounts of the case, and there is no reason to believe that they have disregarded their instruction. Nonetheless, unbridled comment by persons who are designated witnesses in this matter, contrary to the Court’s clear directives, poses risks to the process that none of the parties should have to endure.” (emphasis added)
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<br />The government knew and admitted the media could influence the jury. And it continued to pay reporters who were doing just that. It continued to simultaneously prosecute the Cuban Five in Miami in the midst of press-generated anti-Cuba hysteria that it generously funded.
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<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Creating a climate of hysteria</span>
<br />Some of the journalists on the government payroll as of the date of the earliest 1999 documents released by the FOIA request were writing prejudicial articles about the Five immediately after their arrest.
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<br />The coverage went far beyond regular news reporting on a breaking story of the arrests to create the specter of a supposed threat that the just-arrested defendants and Cuba held for the United States.
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<br />On Sept. 16, 1998, four days after the arrest of the Five, Pablo Alfonso published a highly-inflammatory and unsubstantiated charge of a link of Cuba and its agents with terrorism. It appeared in El Nuevo Herald, titled “Possible Alliance with Terrorism.”
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<br />As evidenced by documents released to the National Committee, Alfonso received over $250,000 in BBG contracts between 1999 and 2007.
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<br />Alfonso writes:
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<br />The surprising offensive against an alleged network of Cuban spies in Miami, may be an action aimed at preventing a possible collaboration between the Cuban government and countries involved in terrorist actions against the United States, according to military and intelligence experts who expressed this to El Nuevo Herald.
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<br />In his article, Alfonso quotes Orestes Lorenzo, an ex-major of the Cuban Air Force who deserted to the United States in 1991:
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<br />“It’s ridiculous to assume that the Cuban army can do something serious to the powerful US military”, Lorenzo indicated. “However, if we think in terms of services provided to terrorist groups or nations like Libya, Iran or the like, things change.”
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<br />Lorenzo said that he isn’t surprised Fidel Castro’s regime is “lending or selling its intelligence services” to Islamic terrorist groups or powerful nations that are interested in carrying out terrorist acts on U.S. territory.
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<br />Alfonso’s unsubstantiated story ends by turning the speculation of Cuba’s link to “Islamic” terrorists into a fact.
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<br />This type of reporting contributed the political context and climate facing the Cuban Five following their arrest and all the way through their trial, jury deliberations and ultimate conviction. Cuba was painted as a terrorist entity by the Miami media, including by the inflammatory reports of anti-Castro journalists who wrote during the same period that the U.S. government was prosecuting the Cuban Five in Miami and who have received hundreds of thousands of dollars from the U.S. government.
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<br />Wilfredo Cancio Isla, according to contracts published by Liberation newspaper, received $4,725 from Sept. 30, 2000, to Dec. 3, 2001—dates within the period of the Five’s prosecution. His contract P109-1036 with Radio Martí committed him to weekly “debate” participation on the station through Sept. 30, 2001. His total pay was $21,800 through Nov. 20, 2006.
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<br />During this same period, Cancio published the unsubstantiated U.S. government accusations in El Nuevo Herald that the jury was not permitted to hear in the courtroom. Yet those charges would appear in the press for all to read, including the unsequestered jury.
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<br />On June 4, 2001, the day the jury was to begin deliberations, a Cancio article appeared in El Nuevo Herald with the headline “Cuba Used Hallucinogens to Train its Spies.”
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<br />This inflammatory article—supposedly based on information from an anonymous “Cuban spy defector”—claimed that Cuba gave LSD and other hallucinogens for “behavior modification” for the purposes of “intelligence and counter-intelligence.”
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<br />The supposed “anonymous” ex-spy defector given two pseudonyms—Alex and José—conveniently links the drug accusation with the Cuban Five. Cancio writes:
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<br />Cuba experimented with hypnosis techniques and hallucinogens to "modify the behavior" of numerous agents who were sent abroad ... "Among these hallucinogens were psilocybin and LSD. ..." [as described by his source, Alex]
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<br />“I can assure you that the Wasp Network (broken up in September 1998) is just a part of the espionage work that was conceived to infiltrate the United States on a long-term basis,” said Alex, who now lives in southern Florida. [The Wasp Network is a reference to the Cuban Five.]
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<br />It is clear that the Cuban Five political prisoners were victims of vicious anti-Cuba propaganda by reporters on the payroll of their very accusers, the U.S. government.
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<br />The Reporters for Hire website will soon be publishing other articles and releasing additional documents obtained from the BBG exposing this illegal government propaganda operation and manipulation of the justice system.
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<br /><span style="font-size:85%;">Contributing to this article was Ben Becker, editor of </span><span style="font-style:italic;font-size:85%;" >Liberation </span><span style="font-size:85%;">newspaper.</span>
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<br />
<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">read Part 2 </span><a style="font-weight: bold;" href="http://www.pslweb.org/reporters-for-hire/analysis/govt-funded-propaganda-part-2.html">here</a><span style="font-weight: bold;">.</span>
<br />RATB2http://www.blogger.com/profile/09887926652700573883noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8832833749853181179.post-12163838487581777632011-08-27T15:39:00.000-07:002011-08-27T16:45:42.169-07:00Chile: teenager shot dead, over 1,000 people arrested<span style="font-weight: bold;">Source</span>: <a href="http://www.plenglish.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=318231&Itemid=1">Prensa Latina</a>, 26 August 2011.
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<br />A 14-year old teenager died Friday of a chest wound afer being shot by the Chilean police forces during a mass protest Thursday against the government's neoliberal policies. During the mass rallies, at least 200 people were injured and 1,300 arrested, according to a government official.
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<br />The teenager, Manuel Gutierrez, died early Friday morning in a hospital in the capital's neighborhood of Macul, as a result of a large-bore gunshot. Regarding this event, Under Secretary of the Interior, Rodrigo Ubilla, urged Chileans "not to speculate" and "let institutions deal with this terrible case."
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<br />Ubilla underlined that Gutierrez' death occurred amid "clashes" and the government will do its best to quickly clarify the case. The official confirmed that more than 1,300 people have been arrested during the nationwide strike and nearly 200, civilians and police officers, have been injured.
<br />RATB2http://www.blogger.com/profile/09887926652700573883noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8832833749853181179.post-68348077133946377182011-08-27T14:57:00.000-07:002011-08-27T15:26:32.757-07:00WikiLeaks reveal: US and UN officials oversaw integration of ex-army paramilitaries into Haiti’s police forceby <a href="http://jebsprague.blogspot.com/2011/08/wikileaks-reveal-us-and-un-officials.html">Jeb Sprague</a>, 10 August 2011.
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<br />Throughout 2004 and 2005, Haiti’s unelected <span style="font-style: italic;">de facto</span> authorities, working alongside foreign officials, integrated at least 400 ex-army paramilitaries into the country’s police force, secret U.S. Embassy cables reveal.
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<br />For a year and a half following the ouster of Haiti’s elected government on Feb. 29, 2004, UN, OAS, and U.S. officials, in conjunction with post-coup Haitian authorities, vetted the country’s police force – officer by officer – integrating paramilitaries with the goal of both strengthening the force and providing an alternative “career path” for paramilitaries.
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<br />Hundreds of police considered loyal to President Jean-Bertrand Aristide's deposed government were purged. Some were jailed and a few killed, according to numerous sources interviewed. At the same time, former soldiers from the disbanded Haitian Armed Forces (FAdH), who were assembled in a paramilitary “rebel” force which worked with the country’s elite opposition to bring down Aristide, were stationed – officially and unofficially – in many towns across the country. As part of this, an extrajudicial strike brigade was assembled in Pétion-Ville. It carried out brutal raids (sometimes alongside police), often several times a week, in the capital’s coup-resisting neighborhoods, as documented in a November 2004 University of Miami human rights study. The secret U.S. dispatches detailing the police force’s overhaul were part of 1,918 Haiti-related cables obtained by the media organization WikiLeaks and provided to <span style="font-style:italic;">Haïti Liberté</span>.
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<br /><a name='more'></a>
<br />The cables show that UN and U.S. officials saw the program as a useful way to disarm and demobilize combatants, but the implications of providing coup-making paramilitaries with government security jobs have been hidden or ignored. The cables also make clear that the US officials – using “redlines” and “red flags” – took on a leading role in the “reforms,” minutely following the process of repopulating Haiti’s police. Millions of dollars in funding for the demobilization and integration of the FAdH was gathered — mainly through the UN and the U.S. — but officials also looked to other governments for funding.
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<br />Immediately after the coup, the integration process was carried out by officials of the so-called Interim Government of Haiti (IGOH), under U.S., OAS and UN supervision. Then, starting in November 2004, a longer-term apparatus, the UN’s DDR (Disarmament, Demobilization, and Reintegration) program, was set up. Part of its duties included a continued integration of some of the paramilitaries into the Haitian National Police (HNP).
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<br />The U.S. Embassy cables go into detail about the integration of paramilitaries into the HNP and other government agencies. One of the most revealing cables is titled “Haiti’s Northern Ex-Military Turn Over Weapons; Some to Enter National Police.” The Mar. 15, 2005 cable provides an overview of a gathering two days earlier in Cap-Haïtien attended by Haiti’s de facto Prime Minister Gérard Latortue and the UN Secretary-General’s Special Representative to Haiti, Juan Gabriel Valdès. The officials oversaw a “symbolic disarmament,” where more than “300 members of Haiti's demobilized military in Cap-Haïtien” turned in a token seven weapons and then boarded buses to the capital. The UN and IGOH officials parked the paramilitaries at Port-au-Prince’s Magistrates’ School, where many other ex-soldiers were being placed.
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<br />The cable describes how previously high-level IGOH officials had made promises to the ex-FAdH paramilitaries. Some “of the ex-soldiers in Cap-Haïtien said they had been told by the PM's nephew and security advisor Youri Latortue and the PM's political advisor Paul Magloire that they would be admitted into the HNP,” explained the cable by U.S. Ambassador James Foley. “This raised a red-flag for us and the rest of the international community...” But at the Mar. 13 meeting, Gérard Latortue “made clear this was not the case,” telling the paramilitaries “that integration into the HNP would be a possibility for some, but they had to understand that not everyone would make it into the police. Ex-soldiers not qualified for the HNP could be hired into other public administration positions (e.g., customs, border patrol, etc.),” Foley wrote.
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<br />But the UN and IGOH authorities wanted to keep some of the ex-military together as a cohesive unit prepped for integration into the police, the cable reveals. The officials handed the matter over to UNOPS, a wing of the UN that focuses on project management and procurement services. Accordingly, “UNOPS has been working to relocate both the Managing Office [for Demobilized Military] and the approximately 80 individuals from the Magistrate's School to a former military camp in the Carrefour neighborhood outside of Port-au-Prince,” wrote Foley. (In March 2011, the author visited an ex-FAdH-run training camp in the Carrefour area.)
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<br />UN and U.S. officials appear to have often focused on achieving symbolic successes like the “demobilization” of paramilitary forces. “The symbolism of the ex-military disarming and leaving Haiti's second-largest city represents a significant breakthrough,” Foley concluded in his Mar. 15 cable. At the time, around 800 ex-military men were being housed in Port-au-Prince, with UN help. Of the 400 former soldiers integrated into the police, about 200 came in 2004 from the 15th graduating class of HNP cadets (called a “promotion” in Haiti), and 200 from the 17th promotion in 2005, the cables say. The number 200 was no coincidence.
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<br />The Embassy had told the IGOH that “the USG [U.S. Government] would not support more than 200 former military being included in Promotion 17” because “the USG was concerned that inclusion of ex-FADH in large numbers would detract from ongoing police reform measures; they therefore had to be closely scrutinized,” a May 6, 2005 cable explains. This cable also reveals Washington’s dominance of the police force’s reconstruction. In a meeting, the Embassy told the HNP’s chief Léon Charles that “the practice of allowing a class of people to receive special quotas for class enrollment (as had happened with the ex-FADH) had to end,” wrote Foley. Dutifully, “Charles agreed and stated that the practice would end immediately.” This did not mean that ex-soldiers wouldn’t continue to be integrated, only that “future recruitment drives would make no distinction with regard to the former military, but would also not discriminate against anyone for previous duty in the Haitian Armed Forces,” Charles said, according to the cable. An Apr. 5, 2005 cable explains that the 16th promotion of 370 HNP cadets included “none of [those who] had a history of ex-FADH activity.”
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<br />In another Mar. 15, 2005 cable entitled “DG [Director General] Charles Update on Ex-FADH in the Haitian National Police,” Foley outlined how the process of integration was occurring with new HNP cadet classes. “OAS officials charged with vetting police candidates reported approximately 400 ex-FADH candidates at the Police Academy on March 11 undergoing physical fitness testing,” his cable explained. The men, who had just previously served in paramilitary squads around the country, were vying for 200 slots in the HNP. The cable explains that a number of such individuals had been hired in prior months.
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<br />Police chief Charles, stated “that the ex-FADH from the 15th class who were rushed on to the streets last fall [of 2004] would return to class.” It was clear that officials felt somewhat worried about the new men they were bringing into the police force, so they decided that the ex-FAdH cadets from the 17th promotion would, upon graduation, “be deployed throughout Haiti on an individual basis and not as a group.” Charles added that, among the 200 ex-FAdH in the 15th promotion, most “had been assigned to small stations in Port-au-Prince,” adding that, “although they were disciplined, they were older and physically slower.” OAS officials noted that Haitian police officials who were now assisting the OAS in its vetting process feared some of the former soldiers they were interviewing: “HNP personnel assisting the OAS with the vetting program were afraid to interview some of the ex-FADH candidates out of concern they might be targeted if the panel disqualified an applicant.”
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<br />The U.S. embassy closely supervised how Haitian <span style="font-style:italic;">de facto</span> officials conducted the integration, worried about the impact of any failures. Foley was pleased that Charles was holding ex-soldiers to “the same requirements as civilians for entrance into the HNP,” a policy resulting from “continuous pressure from us,” he wrote in the Mar. 15 cable. But Foley worried about “political pressures and decisions of PM [Gérard] Latortue, Justice Minister [Bernard] Gousse, and others,” his cable reported. “We have raised this issue with them on countless occasions, pointing out the real danger the IGOH runs of losing international support for assistance to the HNP if the process of integrating ex-FADH into the police does not hew to the redlines we have laid down,” Foley wrote.
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<br />Embassy officials, along with the OAS mission, would “monitor the recruitment, testing, and training process, including a review of the written exam, test scores, and fitness results.” Ambassador Foley added that “the pressure to bring ex-FADH into the HNP remains high.” He was likely referring to the calls made by some of Haiti’s most powerful right-wing politicians and businessmen, many having established relationships with the paramilitaries back when they were soldiers. Furthermore, Chief Léon Charles was “worried that others in the IGOH had made unrealistic promises to the ex-FADH about jobs in the HNP in order to convince them to demobilize,” the ambassador wrote. Charles “fretted that the Cap-Haïtien group set an example that others may follow, and indicated the IGOH could have over 1,000 former soldiers looking for jobs soon, including the 235 from Cap-Haïtien; 300 from Ouanaminthe; 200 from the Central Plateau; 150 from Les Cayes; 100 from Arcahaie, and 80 from St. Marc.”
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<br />The second Mar. 15 cable concludes “that the USG was willing to contribute $3 million to the DDR process but could not release the funds until the IGOH concluded an agreement with the UN on an acceptable DDR strategy and program.” The U.S. Embassy, playing a dominant role, was also clearly seeking to operate in accord with a transnational policy network — U.S. officials had helped to oversee other such integration processes in El Salvador and Iraq, and the DDR program has been deployed in a number of other countries where UN forces operate, such as Burundi, the Central African Republic, Cote d’Ivoire, Democratic Republic of Congo, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Sudan, Uganda, Afghanistan, Nepal, and the Solomon Islands. After Charles provided information on the monitoring and processes through which the ex-FAdH paramilitaries were integrated into the police force, Ambassador Foley remarked in an Apr. 5, 2005 cable: “The fleeting reply to requests for updates on human rights investigations demonstrate the HNP's inability to perform internal investigations.”
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<br />During their first year in office, IGOH authorities appear to have received far less oversight in their handling of ex-FADH integration into the police. “Until now, the Interior Ministry and/or the Managing Office [for Demobilized Soldiers] have been in charge of identifying possible ex-FADH candidates for the HNP,” Foley wrote in one of his Mar. 15 cables. Then he made clear Washington’s oversight: “This needs to change, so that ex-FADH candidates for the police come out of the reintegration/counseling process that the UN (with U.S. support through the International Organization for Migration) will manage.”
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<br />While former soldiers were being integrated into the HNP, hundreds of police who had been loyal to Aristide’s government were fired, their names and positions documented in a list put together by Guy Edouard, a former officer with the Special Unit to Guard the National Palace (USGPN). In a 2006 interview, Edouard explained that some of these former police and Palace security officers had been "hunted down" after the coup. Furthermore, with US support, Youri Latortue, a former USGPN officer and Prime Minister Latortue’s security and intelligence chief, had led efforts to "get rid of the people he did not like," Edouard said.
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<br />Gun battles continued to occur between the Haitian police and a handful of gangs in the capital’s poorest slums well into 2005, and on numerous occasions, police opened fire on peaceful anti-coup demonstrations. “April 27 was the fourth occasion since February where the HNP used deadly force,” explained a May 6, 2005 cable. The Embassy was vexed that “despite repeated requests, we have yet to see any objective written reports from the HNP that sufficiently articulate the grounds for using deadly force. Equally disturbing are HNP first-hand reports from the scene of these events. These are often confusing and irrational and fail to meet minimum police reporting requirements.” The HNP, however, was working with UN forces in conducting lethal raids. Léon Charles acknowledged that UN troops had a “standard practice” of putting more lightly armed HNP forces in front of its units as they moved into Cité Soleil, and this “often resulted in the HNP overreacting and prematurely resorting to the use of deadly force,” the May 6 cable notes.
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<br />In a 2001 study published in the academic journal <span style="font-style:italic;">Small Wars and Insurgencies</span>, researcher Eirin Mobekk explained in part how the U.S. worked to integrate large numbers of former soldiers into the HNP as Aristide, to thwart future coups, dissolved the FAdH in 1995. Washington’s strategy was to hedge in Lavalas with the new police force. A decade later, this policy was resurrected. Just as Washington recycled part of the military force that carried out the 1991 coup, it (along with the UN and the IGOH) recycled part of the paramilitary force that carried out violence leading up to the 2004 coup.
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<br />The WikiLeaked cables reveal just how closely Washington and the UN oversaw the formation of Haiti’s new police and signed off on the integration of ex-FAdH paramilitaries who had for years prior violently targeted Haiti’s popular classes and democratically elected governments.
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<br />
<br /><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:85%;" >Jeb Sprague is the author of a forthcoming book on paramilitarism for Monthly Review Press. He has a blog at jebsprague.blogspot.com and tweets as <a href="http://twitter.com/">http://twitter.com/#!/jebsprague</a></span>
<br />RATB2http://www.blogger.com/profile/09887926652700573883noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8832833749853181179.post-53969594587368322472011-08-27T14:47:00.000-07:002011-08-27T15:55:41.822-07:00CIA forced to release long secret official history of Bay of Pigs invasionNational Security Archive Lawsuit Yields Never-Before-Seen Volumes of Massive Study; Agency Continues to Withhold Volume 5
<br />by Peter Kornbluh, <a href="http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=25864">Global Research</a>, 02 August 2011.
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<br />Pursuant to a FOIA lawsuit filed by the National Security Archive on the 50th anniversary of the infamous CIA-led invasion of Cuba, the CIA has released four volumes of its Official History of the Bay of Pigs Operation. The Archive today posted volume 2, "Participation in the Conduct of Foreign Policy" (Part 1 | Part 2), classified top secret, which contains detailed information on the CIA's negotiations with Guatemala, Nicaragua, and Panama on support for the invasion.
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<br />"These are among the last remaining secret records of this act of U.S. aggression against Cuba," noted Peter Kornbluh, who directs the Cuba Documentation Project at the Archive. "The CIA has finally seen the wisdom of letting the public scrutinize this major debacle in the covert history of U.S. foreign policy." Kornbluh noted that the agency was "still refusing to release volume 5 of its official history." Volume 5 is a rebuttal to the stinging CIA's Inspector General's report, done in the immediate aftermath of the paramilitary assault, which held CIA officials accountable for a wide variety of mistakes, miscalculations and deceptions that characterized the failed invasion. The National Security Archive obtained the declassification of the ultra-secret Inspector General's report in 1998.
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<br />Volume 2 provides new details on the negotiations and tensions with other countries which the CIA needed to provide logistical and infrastructure support for the invasion preparations. The volume describes Kennedy Administration efforts to sustain the cooperation of Guatemala, where the main CIA-led exile brigade force was trained, as well as the deals made with Anastacio Somoza to gain Nicaragua's support for the invasion. CIA operatives, according to the study, took over diplomatic relations with Anastacio Somoza, pressuring the State Department to agree to loans to Nicaragua as a quid pro quo for covert support of the invasion.
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<br />Volume 3 of the Official History was previously declassified under the Kennedy Assassination Record Act; and volume 4 was previously declassified to the CIA historian, Jack Pheiffer, who wrote the study in the late 1970s and early1980s. The Archive will post a detailed assessment of the declassified history, along with two other volumes tomorrow.
<br /><a href="http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=25864">
<br />Read more...</a>
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<br />
<br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">vol 1:</span>
<br /><a href="http://www.gwu.edu/%7Ensarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB355/bop-vol2-part1.pdf">http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB355/bop-vol1-part1.pdf</a>
<br /><a href="http://www.gwu.edu/%7Ensarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB355/bop-vol2-part1.pdf">http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB355/bop-vol1-part2.pdf</a>
<br /><a href="http://www.gwu.edu/%7Ensarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB355/bop-vol2-part1.pdf">http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB355/bop-vol1-part3.pdf</a>
<br />
<br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">vol 2:</span>
<br /><a href="http://www.gwu.edu/%7Ensarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB355/bop-vol2-part1.pdf">http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB355/bop-vol2-part1.pdf</a>
<br /><a href="http://www.gwu.edu/%7Ensarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB355/bop-vol2-part2.pdf">http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB355/bop-vol2-part2.pdf</a>
<br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">
<br />vol 3:</span><a href="http://www.blogger.com/%20http://www.gwu.edu/%7Ensarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB355/bop-vol3.pdf">
<br />http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB355/bop-vol3.pdf</a>
<br />
<br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">vol 4:</span>
<br /><a href="http://www.gwu.edu/%7Ensarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB355/bop-vol4.pdf">http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB355/bop-vol4.pdf</a>RATB2http://www.blogger.com/profile/09887926652700573883noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8832833749853181179.post-59274111549196904912011-08-27T14:10:00.000-07:002011-08-27T14:32:29.711-07:00Will the Real Terrorist Please Stand Up Indeed!<span style="font-weight: bold;">Source</span>: <a href="http://www.thehavananote.com/2011/04/will_real_terrorist_please_stand_indeed">The Havana Note</a>
<br />by Lawrence Wilkerson, 11 April 2011.
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<br />Several nights ago (6 April), I watched “<a href="http://realterrorist.wordpress.com/about/">Will the Real Terrorist Please Stand Up</a>” at the West End Cinema in Washington. Six months ago, Saul Landau, the filmmaker, had given me an earlier rough-cut version on DVD that I had watched, but I was not prepared for the final version with all of the added footage gained by Saul’s recent sojourn in Cuba itself and the slap-in-the-face showing on the large screen.
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<br />But the added footage from the island and the bigger screen were not all that made the final version more electrifying. It was, all in all, the pro-Cuba aspect of the film that stunned me.
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<br />And it was clear that this pro-Cuba aspect was not conjured by the filmmaker but by history. Perhaps, I told myself, I knew much of this history, intellectually, academically. But I had never seen it so graphically put before me, in such a tight, cinematic package that seemed to leap off the screen almost in synch with the beating of my pulse.
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<br />The backdrop of the film was the U.S.-Cuba relationship from the 1959 revolution to the present. That relationship was portrayed quite accurately, leaving no doubt why Theodore Roosevelt referred to the island as “that infernal little Cuban Republic” even though TR pre-dated the revolution by a generation-plus. That is chiefly because the one-sided nature of U.S. policy has been the same from 1823 to the present. TR’s remark demonstrated well before the Cuban revolution, well before the dictator Fulgencio Batista, well before the U.S. mob took over Havana, well before Fidel Castro shouted “<span style="font-style: italic;">¡Bastante!</span>” from the Sierra Maestra, well before Jesse Helms displayed his latent racism toward Cubans, just how badly the U.S. had treated its island neighbor since the beginning of our republic. So badly, in fact, that the portrayal of it, however evanescently, by a master filmmaker made one want to weep for his country and its policies. I doubt there was a single person in the audience that night who felt any differently, except perhaps the several Cubans who were present who, indeed, probably wept for el coloso del norte as well but for different reasons.
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<br />And then there was the main point, the point embodied in the film’s title.
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<br />Clearly shown and vividly documented was the fact that the United States sponsors terrorism. In Posada Carriles and Orlando Bosch alone, there are overtones of Osama bin Laden and Aman al-Zawahiri, the nefarious leadership of al-Qa’ida. In the film, Carriles and Bosch as much as tell us this in their own words. Moreover, they seem to rejoice in it, as they live today undisturbed and unmolested in Miami; indeed, as heroes among the ignorant Batista-like refuse whose mother’s milk sustains them. Neither man has even the redeeming feature of religious asceticism that some would argue gives bin Laden and Zawahiri a grudging respect; instead these two terrorists seem precisely what the film depicts, criminal thugs.
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<br />Whether it is bringing down a Cuban airliner with more than 70 people on board—including the young people on the Cuban fencing team—or murdering a young Italian man in a Havana hotel, these terrorists appear to take joy in what they have done, declaring in so many words and facial expressions that such deaths are the collateral damage of war. War? Yes, a war waged from the territory of the United States—the state of Florida primarily—and against another sovereign country. A war that continues to this day with the United States doing almost nothing to stop it and, as the film depicts in subtle ways, from time to time even aiding and abetting the terrorists who are waging it.
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<br />Once, of course, the dictates and fears of the Cold War afforded a patina of credibility to this war waged from our own shores and against the laws of our own land. As a U.S. soldier for 31 years, I participated in that twilight struggle most of my professional life, so I understood its demands however imperfectly they were sometimes met. But the Cold War ended almost 20 years ago. Not the case, however, with the undeclared war against Cuba.
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<br />Perhaps the best cinematic summary of this reality was rendered in the film by none other than the current chairman of the U.S. House of Representative’s Committee on Foreign Affairs, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, who declared for all to see and hear that she would welcome the assassination of Fidel Castro. No matter how cynical one may have become, that is an astonishing scene. A U.S. Congresswoman asking for the murder of another country’s leader—a most egregious, unbelievable demonstration of this undeclared war with Cuba.
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<br />Most vividly and disconcertingly, however, the film goes on to portray this continuing illegal war through the case of the Cuban Five. These are the five Cuban intelligence agents who, in the 1990s, were dispatched to Florida to help the government in Havana defend itself better in this undeclared war.
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<br />We know a little of their story. After infiltrating the Cuban-American terrorists ranks in Florida, they accumulated information about planned terrorist activities against Cuba. Alarmed at what they learned, they informed their government in Havana. That government, itself now alarmed, confided in the FBI, hoping that that law enforcement organization would act on the evidence thus accumulated and break up the terrorists ranks in Florida. Instead, the FBI—no doubt at the prompting of the White House—used the information to identify the five Cuban agents, then arrested them. Afterward they were tried in a Miami Court—like trying an Israeli spy apprehended in Iran in a Tehran court. Surprise, surprise, the Cuban Five were not only convicted, twelve years later they are still rotting in U.S. federal prison with the “worst” of them having been awarded two life sentences-plus.
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<br />At the very worst, these five Cubans were “foreign agents operating on U.S. soil”, an offense warranting 18 months in jail under U.S. law. As the film makes quite clear, however, usual U.S. practice—for Russians like Anna Chapman, e.g.—is deportation. Instead, these men still languish in jail. Perhaps had they been sexy, provocative women...?
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<br />When the film ended and the short, crisp vignettes came on, interspersed among the film’s credits, the main points were hammered home adroitly by some of the film’s principal characters.
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<br />As these characters summed up from the screen, I don’t believe there was any doubt in anyone’s mind in that audience—Cuban or American—who the “real terrorist” in the U.S.-Cuba relationship actually is.
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<br />The question that had to be buzzing around in everyone’s mind, however, as they walked out of the theater—again, Cuban and American—was what to do about it?
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<br />Just like the failure to close the U.S. prison at Guantánamo Bay, the extension of the draconian provisions of “the national security cover-up” methodology in courtroom after courtroom across America, the civil liberties-usurping parts of the Patriot Act, the military tribunals for the likes of Khaled sheik-Mohammad, and on and on in the litany of dangerous and illegal acts by the U.S. Government in the name of perfect security and corrupt, special interest politics, the affair of the Cuban Five, and all it represents about the U.S.-Cuba relationship, stains the very fabric of our democratic republic.
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<br />Recently, a long-serving veteran of the CIA wrote a heavily-redacted yet still extremely eloquent and convincing memoir of his days in that agency, days that included the most intense period of our so-called Global War on Terror during the George W. Bush administrations. Here is one of his final conclusions in that memoir:
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<br />“I saw that a few of our leaders, in their insularity and sanctimonious certainty, corrupted the laws and started to corrode our social compact. We can take actions, however, to diminish such men, and that reaffirm our society’s commitment to our principles, our institutions, and the rule of law.”
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<br />That is the answer to our question and Saul Landau has taken a powerful action.
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<br /><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:85%;" >Colonel, US Army (Retired) </span><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:85%;" >Lawrence Wilkerson is the Visiting Pamela C. Harriman Professor of Government at the College of William Mary, as well as Professorial Lecturer in the Honors Program at the George Washington University. His last positions in government were as Secretary of State Colin Powell's Chief of Staff (2002-05), Associate Director of the State Department's Policy Planning staff under the directorship of Ambassador Richard N. Haass, and member of that staff responsible for East Asia and the Pacific, political-military and legislative affairs (2001-02). Before serving at the State Department, Wilkerson served 31 years in the U.S. Army, including as Deputy Executive Officer to then-General Colin Powell when he commanded the U.S. Army Forces Command (1989), Special Assistant to General Powell when he was Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (1989-93), and as Director and Deputy Director of the U.S. Marine Corps War College at Quantico, Virginia (1993-97). Wilkerson retired from active service in 1997 and then worked as an advisor to General Powell.</span>RATB2http://www.blogger.com/profile/09887926652700573883noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8832833749853181179.post-50018477459736845382011-08-25T05:21:00.000-07:002011-08-25T05:34:45.975-07:00Chávez nationalises gold industry<strong>Venezuela Tackles Illegal Gold Mafias as Chávez Nationalises Gold Industry</strong>
<br /><strong>Source</strong>: <a href="http://venezuelanalysis.com/news/6441">Venezuelanalysis.c</a>om
<br />by Rachael Boothroyd, 23 August 2011.
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<br />This Tuesday military chief Henry Rangel Silva revealed that over 40,000 hectares of land had been recovered and 15,000 people freed from conditions of “slavery” as part of Plan Caura, the Venezuelan government’s anti-illegal mining project.
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<br />Silva, Chief of Venezuela’s Operational Strategic Command, is currently head of the anti-illegal mining initiative, formed in 2010 when the Bolivarian Armed Forces (FANB) were given the task of stemming Venezuela’s growing problem with illegal mining activities in the south eastern part of Bolivar state.
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<br />In an interview with state television station VTV, Silva condemned the clandestine mining mafias operating in the region for creating a “system of exploitation” which destroyed the environment and subjected miners to dehumanising conditions, including human trafficking and prostitution.
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<br />“Man believed in the legend of El Dorado... delving into the jungle in search of that fortune, an enormous quantity of gold that never turns up for them because although they work their whole lives extracting the mineral and destroying the natural environment, they are also exploited by a system, by mafias which build themselves up around that system, moulding an important and solid structure,” he said.
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<br />During the interview the military chief remarked that dealing with the Venezuelan mining problem was no easy task and that it had become a “way of life” for a lot of people who lived in the jungle. Despite this, Silva stated that the FANB had managed to reduce illegal mining activities by 85% in the state of Bolivar, where the practice had existed for 50 to 60 years.
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<br />Silva elaborated that mining activity had been particularly harmful to the nation’s river beds and estuaries, as the power of the water had been used to erode the river banks in order to search for gold, leaving the ground totally “destroyed.” This had also had a negative impact on the country’s electricity supply, which is 70% based in hydro-power, said Silva.
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<br />Most of the miners that the armed forces found were from Venezuela, Colombia, and Brazil and had been enticed by the idea of finding an “El Dorado”. In reality, the miners were being heavily exploited by the mining mafias, who provided the workers with equipment and financing, but who then took the gold and legalised it in neighbouring countries abroad.
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<br />“We broached the issue with intelligence work, and we arrived at a military strategy of dialogue, of interaction with the miners, because we were sure that the miner that was in the jungle was not an enemy of the armed forces,” he continued.
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<br />“But if the mafias arrive in a particular place, we get there immediately to stop their activities.”
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<br /><strong>Nationalisation of the Gold Industry</strong>
<br />Following his <a href="http://venezuelanalysis.com/news/6433">announcement last week that his government planned to “bring its gold reserves home”</a> and to nationalise the Venezuelan gold industry, president Hugo Chávez today officially signed a decree nationalising the industry. The Venezuelan mandate stated that this was the first step in “putting an end to illegal mining activities.”
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<br />Chávez also signed a document allowing for the formation of majority state-owned “mixed businesses” for mining exploration and exploitation. These businesses, formed between the state and private enterprise, will “undo the serious effects of the capitalist mining model, characterised by the degradation of the environment, irrespective of national laws, and the attack on the dignity and health of the miners and neighbouring communities,” said the president.
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<br />During this week’s ministerial meeting at the Miraflores Palace, Chávez urged the Bolivarian armed forces, miners, and the Venezuelan people to organise in order to make nationalisation “a reality.”
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<br />“Without you this would be impossible. I’m calling on the workers in the mining industry to join. This is for you, for the motherland. To fight against old vices,” said Chávez, speaking directly to the workers at Minerven, Venezuela’s General Mining Company.
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<br />Following the announcement workers at the company classified the day as “historic” and confirmed that they would set up committees for the defence of the nationalisation process in response to Chavez’s appeal. José Khan, Minister of Mining and Basic Industries, stated that these committees would unify the workers collective efforts and create “new forms of organization.”
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<br />“We have to say with pride that this is the rescue of sovereignty. Guayana is a town with more than 300 years of historical experience in gold exploitation, and in those 300 years, we cannot say that the gold was reinvested for the benefit of those who mined it. Each day, it has been an impoverished town, whilst only a few benefited from that exploitation,” concluded Khan.
<br />RATB2http://www.blogger.com/profile/09887926652700573883noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8832833749853181179.post-14559382629726153832011-08-25T05:14:00.002-07:002011-08-25T05:20:46.039-07:00Venezuela’s Chávez condemns NATO “massacre” in Tripoli, warns of opposition destabilisation plans<strong>Source</strong>: <a href="http://venezuelanalysis.com/news/6439">Venezuelanalysis.com</a>
<br />by Rachael Boothroyd, 22 August 2011.
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<br />This Sunday, Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez reiterated his condemnation of NATO’s bombing of Libya, amidst international media reports that the Libyan rebels were advancing on the city of Tripoli.
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<br />During a press conference, Chávez, who had recently returned from chemotherapy treatment in Cuba, described the actions of the U.S. and certain European governments as a “massacre” and repeated his call for peace for the people of the world.
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<br />“The democratic European governments, not all of them, but we know which ones, are practically <a href="http://www.voltairenet.org/NATO-carnage-in-Tripoli">demolishing Tripoli with their bombs</a>; the supposedly Democrat and democratic U.S. government as well, because they feel like it, simply because they feel like it,” said the Venezuelan president.
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<br />Chávez has continuously denounced the NATO-backed intervention in Libya since it began in March, and maintains that the U.S., France, and Great Britain are involved for cynical and strategic reasons, as well as to take advantage of Libya’s oil and extensive gold reserves.
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<br />“Today they dropped I don’t know how many bombs, and they are falling in a totally shameless and open way, they no longer even bother to explain anything, falling on schools, hospitals, homes, places of work, factories, agricultural farms, right now at this very moment” continued the president.
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<br />For his part, PSUV (United Socialist Party of Venezuela) representative Rodrigo Cabezas, denounced the use of ‘criminal force’ by NATO in what he described as a an act of “territorial aggression”. The PSUV legislator also claimed that 5,000 civilians had been killed since the beginning of the conflict and that a similar number had been seriously injured.
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<br /><strong>Venezuelan Opposition Seeks to “Unleash Violence”</strong>
<br />In further statements, Chávez urged the Venezuelan people to ‘neutralise’ the Venezuelan opposition’s plans to destabilise the country, and stated that members of the opposition political forces were trying to unleash violence in Venezuela.
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<br />Members of the National Assembly convened a special meeting this Monday to discuss concerns of an opposition attack on the Venezuelan state. PSUV representatives claim that the opposition is trying to “create panic and promote an international intervention” within the South American nation.
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<br />Santos Amaral, PSUV representative, remarked that the opposition and their media were currently creating a political climate in Venezuela similar to that of the days preceding the April 2002 coup, during which democratically elected Chávez was temporarily ousted and more than 50 Venezuelans died at the hands of the interim government.
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<br />“We (the PSUV) hope that nobody is wishing for, is asking for a Libyan solution to life in Venezuela, one that entails a military attack, that entails death” said PSUV representative Rodrigo Cabezas.
<br />RATB2http://www.blogger.com/profile/09887926652700573883noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8832833749853181179.post-82603863649160003142011-08-25T05:14:00.001-07:002011-08-27T14:09:33.165-07:00Cuba adopts new economic guidelines to raise production<span style="font-weight: bold;">Source</span>: <a href="http://www.pslweb.org/liberationnews/news/cuba-adopts-new-economic.html">PSLWeb.org</a>
<br />by Gloria La Riva, 15 August 2011.
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<br /><font style="font-style:italic;">Millions participated in meetings to debate policy changes</font>
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<br />Cuba’s parliament—the National Assembly of People’s Power—concluded its session in Havana on Aug. 2. The economy was the centerpiece of deliberations. Delegates approved an extensive series of economic and accompanying political measures that have been discussed throughout Cuba since November 2010.
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<br />In November, the “Project of Guidelines on the Economic and Social Policy of the Party and Revolution” was published for national debate before its formal presentation at the Sixth Congress of Cuba’s Communist Party (PCC) in April 2011. The consultative process has continued since then.
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<br />The objectives of the sweeping proposals are to stimulate the economy and raise production. Some measures are already under way: distributing unused lands for cultivation; decentralizing some state services (beauty parlors, barbershops, tire repair, taxis, and more); reassigning thousands of state workers to jobs in construction, teaching and agriculture and reducing the state work force by tens of thousands more. Opportunities for self-employment and small-scale enterprise have been expanded. Payroll and income taxes will be paid by those engaged in this activity.
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<br />Debating the changes were 8,913,838 Cubans—out of a population of 11.5 million—who participated in work and neighborhood meetings to discuss the Guidelines. More than 3 million Cubans commented during the meetings.
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<br />Of the original 291 guidelines in the document, 181 were modified and 36 new ones accepted, making a total of 313 guidelines.
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<br />Cuban President Raúl Castro said at the National Assembly session, “[W]e can characterize with total certainty the Guidelines as an expression of the will of the people, contained in the policy of the Party, the Government and the State, to update the Social and Economic Model, with the objective of guaranteeing the irreversibility of socialism, as well as the economic development of the country, together with the necessary formation of ethical and political values of our citizens.”
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<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Economic situation requires action</span>
<br />External and internal factors have placed Cuba in a precarious economic situation that requires the government and Communist Party to make major changes to grow the economy. The U.S. economic blockade, hurricanes and drought, the volatility of capitalist markets and prices, as well as domestic inefficiencies, have severely impacted Cuba’s economy.
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<br />From 1998 to 2008, according to the Guidelines report, 16 hurricanes caused $20.5 billion in damages. Cuba is still recovering from three major hurricanes in 2008 that caused more than $10 billion in damages.
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<br />Between 1997 and 2009, changes in export and import prices cost the country $10.9 billion. With nickel ore for example, Cuba’s second major source of export income, the international price dropped from $50,000 per ton to only $9,000 to $10,000 per ton in 2008.
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<br />Rising food prices worldwide have created a huge problem for Cuba, which buys up to 80 percent of its food from abroad. Cuba’s plan to spend $1.2 billion on imports for the year 2011 had to be revised up to $1.5 billion for the same quantity of food, due to price increases alone. This year’s economy is expected to grow 2.9 percent overall, and 6 percent in agriculture.
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<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">The Special Period</span>
<br />The new economic strategy is not a sudden change in the direction of the Cuban socialist revolution. It is a continuation of the process—although more far-reaching today—that Cuba undertook at the cusp of the “Special Period,” starting in the 1990s.
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<br />At the start of that decade, Cuba’s main trading partner, the Soviet Union, canceled overnight all trade with the island nation, just before the USSR’s demise. Almost 85 percent of Cuba’s trade had been with the USSR and socialist Eastern Europe.
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<br />Plunged into the realities of an imperialist-dominated world, Cuba urgently needed new sources of income. Severe shortages in fuel, raw materials and spare parts caused the country’s production to drop 34.5 percent between 1989 and 1994. Aggressive U.S. laws were passed against Cuba in 1992 and 1996, tightening the U.S. blockade.
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<br />The new shortages forced Cuba to adopt major economic reforms. Before the Special Period, most Cuban agriculture was organized in state farms, which require the large-scale use of machinery, fuel and other inputs to be efficient and productive. Most state farms were converted to cooperatives, where the land remained state-owned, but the product was owned cooperatively by the farm workers. The aim was to spur production through private incentive. This was a step back from a higher form of socialist property, which was the state farm where both the land, product and “profit” (which in a planned economy is transformed into social or collective surplus) from agriculture belonged to society through the medium of the workers' state.
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<br />Opening up to capitalist foreign investment was another step accepted by the Cuban leadership as necessary to bring more resources into the country. So, too, was a major expansion of tourism. Many new hotels took the form of joint ventures with foreign corporations. The legalization of self-employment was needed to absorb workers laid-off in state industries.
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<br />Cuban leaders forthrightly explained that these measures did not represent further steps forward in building socialism, but rather a tactical retreat aimed at preserving the fundamental achievements of the revolution.
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<br />On July 26, 1993, Fidel Castro explained Cuba’s situation in the midst of the Special Period: “Today we have to save the homeland, the Revolution and the gains of socialism, which is the same as defending the right to continue building it in the future. We will never resign ourselves to renouncing that. This is what we mean when we say 'Socialism or Death.'
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<br />"Today we have to make concessions. … We have had to divide the island on the map and accept international bids so that foreign companies can explore and drill. … We would have to share with them a part of the petroleum that is found. When the USSR existed, we conducted the exploration ourselves, we did the drilling, the petroleum was all ours.
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<br />"Today life, reality, the dramatic situation in which the world is living, this unipolar world forces us to do what we would never have done if we had capital and if we had the technology to do it.”
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<br />Some “left” enemies of the Cuban Revolution claimed that these steps signaled the “restoration of capitalism.” Washington harbored no such illusions, and has not let up for a moment in its drive for “regime change.”
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<br />By 1996, the economy began a slow but steady climb upward. And Cuba marked many milestones along the way: constantly improving indices of health, tens of thousands of doctors serving abroad, health care and education remaining universal and free, energy policies saving more than $1 billion , an impressive sustainable-agriculture model, the Latin American ALBA alliance.
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<br />The economic strategy of the Special Period was not imposed on the population by President Fidel Castro or the National Assembly. In 1993, much like today, 83,000 “workers’ parliaments” were held with 3,000,000 workers as well as debates in the mass organizations. The people had a real say on where to cut back and what to preserve. Cuba’s survival and economic recovery was only possible with socialist consciousness, a strong will to sacrifice, and the unity of the Cuban people.
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<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">The process is underway</span>
<br />A Permanent Commission for the Implementation and Development of the Guidelines has been formed in the National Assembly. It will be responsible for controlling, verifying and coordinating activities of all entities involved, as well as to evaluate and adjust where necessary.
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<br />For example, on Aug. 5, in response to farmers’ complaints that farm tools were too expensive to buy, it was announced that all 1,200 farm-supply stores would lower the prices of 93 items, including machetes, hoes, plows and milking cans, by 60 percent.
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<br />Much of Cuba’s arable land has been unused or underutilized, while up to 80 percent of Cuba’s food is still imported. Replacing imports with domestic production through wider use of the land is crucial.
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<br />In July 2008, the agricultural Law Decree 259 was approved for the free transfer of land to current and new farmers, with renewable 10-year terms for individuals and 25 years for cooperatives.
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<br />For first-time users, the land parcel will be up to 13.42 hectares (31.8 acres). For existing entities, 40.26 hectares will be granted (95.4 acres). The practice is “usufruct”: the land held by the state but production belonging to the producer.
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<br />So far, about 2.5 million acres of land has been granted to 143,000 people, out of 171,000 who applied.
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<br />One major challenge for growers is the pervasive and hated “marabú” weed. An estimated 50 percent of the land is covered with this deep-rooted and fast-growing thorny plant, which renders the land useless. This reporter can attest to the challenge of marabú, having spent exhausting hours chopping marabú with others.
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<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Expansion of private employment</span>
<br />Before the new economic reforms, the granting of private employment licenses had been suspended, with only 174,000 people working as “cuenta-propistas.” Now licenses have been dramatically expanded to an estimated 325,000 people. A total of 178 types of small-scale self-employment have been legalized.
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<br />The license holders are required to pay payroll taxes if employing others, and taxes on their profits. Some feedback from the people indicates that many are struggling to break even. So a moratorium on payroll taxes has been declared through the rest of 2011. Other taxes have been lowered.
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<br />Before the new policy, the self-employed were legally limited to hiring family members only. This has now been expanded to include the hiring of other workers. This is seen as necessary because up to 1 million workers may be laid off from state employment and cannot be absorbed completely through other state employment.
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<br />When this reporter traveled to Cuba in May, she spoke with people engaged in private restaurants, room rentals and private taxis, including some who had not been working before. Now it takes as little as a week to receive a license.
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<br />Walking down central 23rd Street and other roads in Havana, one can see people with small stands of home-produced CDs and DVDs, movies and music, handicrafts, as well as a sprouting of more food operations in people’s homes. Many activities were already operating “underground” without a license. Now they can operate legally and contribute to the economy.
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<br />Many state enterprises became unsustainable for the state to run. Barbershops, beauty salons, tire repair, taxis and other services operated at a loss for too long.
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<br />With extremely limited resources, the government must prioritize its expenditures in order to guarantee the most vital needs for the population: health care, education, food, industrial production for consumer goods and hard currency income.
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<br />By converting services workplaces to “usufruct,” where the workers own the production and the property remains in state hands, what was a drain can now render an income to the state.
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<br />A Communist Party member explained to this reporter, “For a long time, although the price for a haircut in state-run barbershops was officially 20 centavos, the actual price that the workers charged was higher, sometimes 5 pesos [there are 100 centavos to a peso.]
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<br />"The state’s income was only 20 cents, yet as owner of production and property, the state provided electricity and other utilities, the barbershop and supplies.
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<br />Now,” the PCC member said, “those workers are responsible for the operation. They have to pay rent, utilities, and taxes. They are invested in the operation’s success and contribute to the government budget.
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<br />"Although the workers hold power and the wealth is owned in common, sometimes an individual worker doesn’t feel that responsibility.”
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<br />He added, “But accumulation of capital, the combining of shops into a larger operation, will not be allowed. This is true of all the self-employment enterprises.”
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<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Sale of houses</span>
<br />Much has been made in the U.S. media about the announced change allowing for house sales. Up to now, selling one’s home was prohibited. The most that could be done was to swap a house or apartment for another dwelling, or “permuta” as they say in Cuba.
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<br />Most Cuban families are owners of their own home. This did not come about from a successful real estate market, but resulted from revolutionary decrees in 1961 and 1962, which converted all the housing stock into a right, a home for each family.
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<br />But in the five decades since the 1959 Revolution, some families ended up with more than one house through marriage, death or other circumstances. House swaps are sometimes difficult to resolve through a one-for-one trade; a payment will now be allowed to achieve more equitable exchanges, as well as sale of one’s house. But home ownership will still be limited to one dwelling.
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<br />With the new regulations, Cubans who live abroad for long periods of time can now rent their home out. This is expected to help solve the severe housing shortage.
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<br />The house sales are still restricted. There is little danger of the new home sale policy turning homes into “investments” or leading to a huge disaster of foreclosures as in the United States,
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<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Social security and the ration book</span>
<br />The law on social security was modified in 2008 and took effect in 2009 to change requirements for retirement. Because of the aging of the working population, the legislature approved an increase in the retirement age—to be phased in over five years—to 65 from the previous age of 60 for men, and to 60 from the previous age of 55 for women. Without this change, the system’s finances would be heavily strained for future retirees.
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<br />Every Cuban has been entitled to the rationing system since the early days of the Revolution. It has guaranteed a food basket of basic items at a price that has remained unchanged throughout the years. But it has been heavily subsidized by the government and can no longer be sustained economically. Some items have been phased out, and at some point in the future the whole program will be ended.
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<br />The announced phasing out of the rationing system evoked the most responses in the debates, with pro and con opinions.
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<br />At the PCC Congress, President Raúl Castro stated: “The problem is not the concept, it is in how, when and how to phase it in. Ending the ration book is not an end in itself, it cannot be seen as an isolated decision, but as one of the main measures that will be essential to apply to eradicate the existing deep distortions in the functioning of the economy and society as a whole.
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<br />“It would not occur to anyone in the leadership of this country to suddenly decide the end of that system, without first creating the conditions for that. This means carrying out other transformations in the Economic Model with the aim of increasing efficiency and work productivity, in a way that can guarantee with stability the levels of production and supply of products and basic services at non-subsidized prices and at the same time accessible to all citizens. …In Cuba, under socialism there will never be room for ‘shock therapies...’”
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<br />While millions of people in the world are suffering from starvation, while the growth of billionaires multiplies, Cuba’s planned and rational economy is able to channel its resources for the benefit of all the people.
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<br />In the United States, genocidal wars continue unabated and millions lose their jobs and homes, and the billionaire bankers make the real decisions to assure their profits. In contrast, it is clear from the debates and process over the Cuban economy and society that the Cuban people are in power.RATB2http://www.blogger.com/profile/09887926652700573883noreply@blogger.com