On December 10, Fernandez will become the country’s ninth President since the 1983 return of democracy to Argentina, with the mission, as he himself stated, to get the country on its feet.

After a first round victory, the President-elect spoke to a large crowd of supporters who broke into applause when he thanked former President Nestor Kirchner, precisely on October 27, the ninth anniversary of the leader’s death.

Together with Cristina, he worked hard for the unity of the Peronist movement to achieve victory. She, who last May announced her candidacy for Vice President, has expressed confidence in her partner, describing him as a very conciliatory person who favors dialogue.

Reports indicate that more than 80% of voters participated in the election.

Argentina reached Election Day as a nation with its economy tied to the designs of the International Monetary Fund, facing an economic and social crisis which the people call “the Macri disaster.

It is difficult, mainly for poor and middle-income Argentines, to conceive that a country recognized for its production of grains and meat, could today have a poverty rate of 35.4%, 8.1 percentage points more than a year ago, while 25.4% of households cannot afford basic food, according to the National Institute of Statistics and Census (INEC).

Mauricio Macri, who promised a totally different reality, chose to request a loan of more than $50 billion from the IMF and, of course, accepted the measures that the Fund demands from its debtors, and the people have borne the consequences of this disaster.

The financial institution itself, in its latest projections for this year, asserted that Argentina is expected to become the country with the third highest inflation in the world, with a cost of living increase of 57.3%.

In recent weeks, demonstrations expressing indignation and dissatisfaction have served as a prelude to the vote.

But the intransigence of the current President is such that he insisted he was “convinced that the political course undertaken four years ago is correct,” adding, “We were never so close to changing history forever.”

For his part, Alberto Fernández, identified as the favorite early on, stated, “We are going to advance step by step so that this changes. They have left us a country in a very bad economic situation.”

Official data indicates that 15.3 million Argentines are living below the poverty line, while prices for staple foods increased 58.3%, from 2018 to 2019.

Unemployment affected 19.3% of young people and 10.6% of the general population in the second quarter of 2019, to which must be added informal workers who represent 34% of the work force, a figure which in the case of young people rises to 60%, according to INEC

As the campaign closed, the Fernandez ticket proposed “turning the shameful page that has been written since December 10, 2015, the first day of Macri’s term in office.”

Alberto Fernández, said that “between retirees and banks, we choose retirees; between public education and banks, we choose public education.” This was the model that the people chose on October 27, when choosing the Alberto-Cristina ticket.

(Granma)

The OAS, as expected, was aligned with the losers and opted to question the voting system and electoral law which states verbatim, “The candidate who surpasses the closest opponent by ten percentage points is declared the winner.”

President Evo Morales has described OAS action as an attempted coup against the Bolivian people, while the U.S. government, in addition to guiding the OAS, took direct action from its embassy in La Paz.

The Organization of American States insisted that “there is sufficient reason to suggest a second round…” and called a meeting of its Permanent Council in Washington, where the Bolivian electoral process was questioned, the possibility of fraud raised, and a call made for a second round vote, among other issues, with the sole purpose of denying Evo’s victory.

U.S. ambassador Carlos Trujillo dared to say that the delay in the vote count was due to the fact that Morales’ party was not winning.

While Nicaragua’s representative, Ruth Tapia, warned, “The OAS has no authority to intervene in the internal affairs of sovereign countries.” Similarly, Mexican ambassador Luz Elena Baños stated, “The report presented by the OAS must await the full count of electoral records.”

For its part, the Jubileo Sur Américas network has published several articles on its website recently, exposing crude U.S. interference in Bolivia’s electoral process.

Reports indicate that ships loaded with weapons have been traveling from the United States, specifically Miami, to the Chilean port of Iquique. This cargo is then shipped in containers declared as miscellanea.

Bolivian citizen Juan Carlos Rivero has also been denounced as responsible for purchasing weapons in the United States and sending them to the National Military Coordinator in Bolivia. This person has direct ties with Manfred Reyes, an opposition politician based in Miami, who is also linked to the U.S. Embassy in La Paz.

Other articles published on the Jubileo Sur Américas website indicate that U.S. diplomatic headquarters have been continuously monitoring the delivery of weapons and ammunition through secret collaborators. They have met with central leaders of the Bolivian opposition to address financing and offer advice on planned violence.

With this backing in their favor, losing opposition candidate Carlos Mesa and his closest collaborators have called for destabilizing actions, while seeking to declare themselves winners and create a kind of parallel power in the department of Santa Cruz.

(Granma)

Faced with this situation, Evo issued a call: “To my colleagues and the Bolivian people, to my sisters and brothers, to organize, prepare, and we will defend democracy,” PL reported.

The President stressed that he is confidently waiting for the Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE) to issue its final report.

Meanwhile, the opposition called a civic strike in Santa Cruz, and stated that they will ignore the constitutional government of Morales and install what they called “a new constitutional President.”

For her part, the president of the Supreme Electoral Tribunal, María Eugenia Choque, insisted that she “has nothing to hide” and guaranteed the transparency of the vote, rejecting allegations of fraud by candidate Carlos Mesa and sectors that support him.

The transparency of the elections was highlighted by the Cuban Foreign Minister, Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla, in his remarks at the preparatory ministerial meeting for the 18th Summit of the Non-Aligned Movement: “We congratulate the people and government of Bolivia for the transparency of the electoral process they have conducted. We congratulate President Evo Morales for the preliminary results obtained, which confirm decisive popular support for his government, results that we expect to be confirmed.”He denounced the campaign of misinformation, destabilization, and violence underway, staged by sectors of the opposition and instigated by the United States, threatening the peace and security of citizens in Bolivia.

(Granma)

On his official Twitter account, Díaz-Canel commented that Bolivia continues left on the Latin American political map. “Despite the continental right’s media war, Evo won for the fourth time. Congratulations brother President,” he wrote.

Evo Morales won the elections held October 20 with 46.86 percent of the vote, a difference of ten percentage points over Carlos Mesa, thus avoiding a second round, according to preliminary results, as reported by teleSUR.

(Granma)

Although all ballots, including those from isolated rural areas traditionally favorable to Evo, were yet to be counted, the opponent Carlos Mesa began to celebrate the need for a second round, which no one had confirmed. Mesa told the media that, if Evo won, he would not be recognized by opponents and a call would be made to not accept the popular verdict.The governments of Brazil, Argentina, the United States, and the OAS quickly agreed with Mesa and began to question the Electoral Court and the vote counting system.The uncertainty created as to whether there would be a second round was fueled by the fact that the Electoral Court has not provided new reports, due to the remoteness of several rural areas and the difficulty involved in transporting ballots to the counting and verification centers.

(Granma)

(Council of State transcript – GI translation)

Dear Army General Raúl Castro Ruz, first secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba Central Committee;

Dear comrades of the historic generation;

Compañero Esteban Lazo, President of the National Assembly of People’s Power and the Council of State; members of the Council of State;

Deputies;

Today is October 10 and we Cubans must congratulate each other. “…the first day of Cuba’s freedom and independence,” as Carlos Manuel de Céspedes said, is by all rights one of the most celebrated on our national calendar, given its powerful resonances, from that minute in 1868 until this one, as we have reaffirmed our oath of unconditional service to the homeland.

Although the nation would later go on to experience legendary episodes, the first inspiration came from that day, when the shackles were broken and the flag made by a woman waved in new hands.

Together embracing an ideal, for the first time, blacks and whites, women and men, almost all young people, and as the protagonists, the youngest Cubans. This was the first October 10, full of transcendental meaning.

They say that a 20-year-old boy named Emilio Tamayo was the first to wave the flag made by Cambula, in the camp erected at La Demajagua. And that the Father of the Homeland said, as he admired it unfolding, “Die before you see her dishonored.” It is also said that the plantation’s bell was rung by another very young man from Bayamo, Manuel García Pavón, who would be the last survivor of the historic uprising.

What do I intend by evoking these memories? In the first place, of course, to pay due tribute to history and its eternal links with the present, challenging and full of threats and risks, like that first day at La Demajagua, and every day in Cuba’s 151 years of struggle to maintain our independence.

I am especially interested today in highlighting the episodes that place Cuban youth at the center of these struggles for something that, almost a century after October 10, 1868, in July 1962, in Santiago de Cuba, Fidel told students and professors at the University of Oriente:

“The Revolution is not a struggle for the present, the Revolution is a struggle for the future; the Revolution always has its sights set on the future and the homeland of which we are thinking, the society we conceive as a just society, worthy of men, the homeland of tomorrow…”

The Revolution is a struggle for the future. It has always been and is now.

For the Council of State, its President, Vice President, and the remaining 19 members who have just been reelected or elected this October 10; for the Vice President of the Republic and for its President, the number one task must be the future. We appreciate your confidence in choosing us for these responsibilities, which, united together, we will perform in the name of this future.

That is why we have put defense and the economy in the first place and at the same level. We have not forgotten, for a second, that a Revolution is worth defending and those who forget this lesson do not live to talk about it. The economy, as the basis and sustenance of the social superstructure, is the great determinant of the future.

Recently on the Presidency’s website, we made the call to “Think as a country,” and after carefully reading the more than 1,200 responses, we found a great deal of optimism and confidence in the future, although also, in some cases, expressions of concern.

Logical and revolutionary concern that we share, facing a world crippled by imbalanced economic relations, without “buffers” in less developed nations, and in which global financial institutions have made a practice of bailing out banks, but never peoples.

A world dominated by disrespect for international legality, led by a hegemonic power and the imposition of its demands through threats and sanctions.

A world manipulated by pernicious media campaigns against a solidary and peaceful nation like Venezuela, while insisting on legitimizing as “President” an imposter without any popular support.

A world in which the podium of the United Nations General Assembly has been used to dismiss, belittle, threaten, and deny social systems and sovereign governments and lie shamelessly in an attempt to promote interventions of all kinds, including military.

A world in which global agreements, cooperation projects, and health programs, that brought hope to excluded majorities, are broken.

A world in which the judiciary is used to imprison progressive leaders and persecute and murder social activists with impunity.
Photo: Jose M. Correa

A world in which those who build walls, separate families, imprison migrant children, prohibit exchanges between peoples, and block access to development of other nations, putting the human species in danger when they ignore climate change and dismiss scientific warnings, while the Amazon and other lungs of the planet burn.

Such a world really alarms us all. At the First Earth Summit, in 1992, Fidel delivered his jarring speech warning of “an endangered species.”

Thus no one should be surprised that a teenager cries in front of those responsible for the disaster. The tears of Greta Thunberg are the tears of the future.

“To govern is to foresee,” Martí said. And the Cuban Revolution owes much to the brilliant foresight of Fidel and Raúl. This is our political school.

Those who doubt it, can just look at 60 years of revolutionary history: beginning with the literacy campaign and education of our people, the basis for forging the valuable human capital that distinguishes us, and promoting the development of science and medicine to international cutting-edge levels, even the early warnings and preparations that have now allowed us to confront the brutal tightening of the blockade by this U.S. administration, with less damage than our adversaries had calculated.

The commitment we make before you today is to maintain and strengthen this practice, take advantage of the invaluable human capital that we have trained and the contributions of academia and science to increase the efficiency of government management, as a result of the foresight generated by knowledge.

The country has the commitment to nurture the talent developed by the Revolution, produce and contribute internally without closing the door to cooperation and learning beyond our borders. The export of Cuban products and services must be expanded and diversified.

When we decide to increase salaries in the budgeted sector, three to five times over; when we promote accelerated computerization of society; when, despite the limitations imposed by the blockade, we defend the strengthening of education and ties between universities and production at all levels, we are working for the future.

This year and, in particular, the last few months have tested our ability to resist without foregoing development. And more has been demanded from the people, but also from ministers and state administration cadres. The requirements of the days and months to come will be no less demanding. Under the conditions of a prolonged and total blockade, it is up to us to combine efforts and support each other in existing structures and the new responsibilities we have acquired.

The Council of State, for example, will function more regularly and with greater impact between sessions of the Assembly. There are many laws, essential to improving government efficiency, which require more expedited ways to review, approve, and implement. This is a commitment we made upon approving the new Constitution.

Municipalities must learn to manage available resources with greater authority, but with greater responsibility, as well.

We are already at the gates of 2020, during which we intend to continue consolidating our economy. Without ever giving up our greatest dreams, which by elementary logic require more resources, we will strengthen areas of work and programs that during 2019 we proposed as priorities, including exports, foreign investment, housing construction, food production, tourism, transportation, and renewable energy.

As we have stated on previous occasions, after the fuel shortage, generated by the intransigence of the United States government, the country will return to normal, but it will not be with the same ways of working. If something good has come from these days of tension, it is that Cuba’s enormous potential for greater efficiency was brought to the fore.

That is why we will place greater emphasis on reducing expenses and saving more; on generalizing the useful solutions that emerged during the toughest years of the Special Period, adjusted to our reality, that is, taking into account technological advances and greater knowledge that can make a working principle, such as conservation, an engine of development.

We insist on the need to work for the good of all, on the political and ideological preparation of cadres, on the involvement of young people who always give us so much energy, and in the participation of the people, in the search for the best solutions, with the certainty that collective intelligence is inexhaustible, as well as the potential of resistance and creativity that the hostility of the adversary always awakens in Cubans.

I said, about a year ago, when I assumed the tasks of the Presidency of what was at that time the Councils of State and Ministers: We did not come to make promises. We come to fulfill the mandate of the revolutionary people.

Today a new stage of work begins for those of us who represent the state and government, which will demand from every leader, cadre, and official at all levels, the willingness to set aside the heavy burden of obsolete practices and cumbersome mechanisms, which delay processes and weaken national self-esteem.

The times in which we live are new, in many ways, and demand different thinking. Change everything that needs to be changed, as Fidel told us, as Raúl showed us during his years at the helm of the Presidency and as our first Party secretary.

When I think of them, I am also thinking about the future, because their generation was a generation of the future, leaving home, studies, and comfort to change this land once and for all. Their hands did not tremble when fighting the worst scourges that sucked the blood of the Republic, or challenging the threatening enemy by raising a new nation from the roots, from the scrub, from the Sierra.

Just as they did not tremble when it came to facing a dirty war that lasted for years, with mercenaries destroying and killing practically all over the island, they did not hesitate to give support to sister peoples who fought against hateful Latin American dictatorships, sustained and supported by the same empire that now labels progressive leaders of the region as dictators.

Of course, this is making the empire look bad, old and demoralized, with its troop of mediocre and duplicitous politicians pulled together in the OAS.

Where are those who continue giving advice on the fate of Venezuela and at the same time take no responsibility for the enormous conflicts and social problems that afflict their peoples? How do you intend to cover up their bungling conspiracies with paramilitary mafias, with their hostility against Venezuela?

If something was never lost on the leadership of the Cuban Revolution, it was the role of morality in history. There they are, undefeated, with no other monument than their own work, to which we have the duty to pay the most just tribute: ensure that it grows and prospers, without fear of threats or danger.

The poor of the earth cannot lose their dignity or give in to threats. This is a conviction made evident many times throughout history, from October 10 in La Demajagua until April 1961, when Fidel on mercenary ships fired from a tank.

In these times, when we have returned to join Comandante Almeida in his cry of principles at the toughest moment, we firmly insist that the Cuban Revolution will preserve intact all our convictions, those that cost the blood of the country’s best sons and daughters. (Applause)

When you have a people of such traditions, like the Cuban, you do not doubt for a second to face the future, aware that you will triumph. Today we repeat the expression we have often heard from the Army General, and that we have learned to value in hard times: What a people we have! (Applause)

Those who create and construct have defeated those who hate and destroy.

The blood of our noble indigenous people, our European, African and Asian grandparents, and that of all men and women of immense courage, who over the centuries created our national being, seethes with rebellion in the face of every threat, and with rage upon every aggression.

The more they attack us, the more they try to intimidate us, the more our national will and strength grows: Unity! (Applause)

October 10 will always inspire us! Like the Mambises, an honorable name for our Creole rebels, we will not hesitate to use a machete if there are no guns. And we will always have dignity as our banner and moral shield.

This people, which has more than once, been the capital of world solidarity, welcoming those who offer it to us and offering it around the world to those who need it most, is now awaiting in Havana, for its 500th anniversary, the arrival of a supportive, anti-imperialist wave, like a cannon shot against the blows of the imperial beast.

In the land of Céspedes, Mariana, Gómez, Maceo, Martí, Mella, Guiteras, Rubén, Camilo, Che, Almeida, Ramiro, Guillermo, Vilma, Celia, Haydée, Melba, in the land of Raúl and Fidel, the Bronze Titan’s warning has not changed a millimeter: “Whoever attempts to take Cuba will collect only the dust from its blood-soaked soil, if he does not perish in the fight.” (Applause)

Compañeras and compañeros:

Intense and challenging days await us, but no one is going to take from us the confidence in the future which we owe our children, in the homeland our parents won by standing firm.

Long live free Cuba! (Shouts of: Viva!)

Socialism or death!

Country or Death!

Venceremos!

(Ovation)

Now, the deputy is surprised that, as a result of negotiations with the opposition and the Bolivarian government’s goodwill, President Maduro has agreed to early elections for the National Assembly.

The poorly advised, improvised figure, anxious to play a leading role and make money, has faithfully followed orders from the U.S. government and won the support of the worse elements in Trump’s neo-fascist retinue, including Pompeo, Bolton, Rubio, Abrams, and Mike Pence.

Guaidó doesn’t want elections because he knows he’s lost. And the time will soon come for him to answer to the people of his country, and be held accountable before the law for attempting to usurp a position to which he has no right; for proposing a foreign military intervention; encouraging an economic war that has already left children dead, as a result of the blockade of food, medicine, and other vital resources; and for taking possession of diplomatic offices abroad in violation of international laws and conventions.

Doesn’t Guaidó know that he is legally responsible for the violations he has committed? Or does he think that Venezuela is a failed state with no laws or bodies to enforce them?

Guaidó wants Maduro to leave the Presidency and hand it over to him. He wants the 6,190,612 votes cast for the legitimate President in 2018, recognized by international authorities, to be given to him for his “noble” efforts to destabilize the country, even though U.S. sanctions have caused hunger and a military intervention could have incalculable consequences.

Juan Guaidó does not want elections, and moreover expresses himself with a vulgarity indicative of his frustration, describing President Maduro as “increasingly disjointed,” dismissing early legislative elections outright.

It remains to be seen what opinion of early elections his U.S. masters may have, those who have repeatedly called for “restoring democracy” and were sorely disappointed by the self-proclamation show.

In a brief statement, it explains with the change the authorities seek to facilitate the work of the legislative body in such a relevant session in which the new president of Cuba will be elected.

The inauguration of the new Parliament will take place at Havana’s Convention Center, session in which its 605 newly-elected lawmakers will take the oath and elect the 31 members of the Council of State, its president and vice presidents.

It will also be the culmination of the Cuban electoral process that began late last year.

After a first vote on November 26 with its second round on December 3, the Municipal Assemblies of the People Power were inaugurated on December 17.

On March 11, 7,399,891 citizens -out of 8,639,989- went to the polls to elect the 605 legislators to the National Parliament and 1,265 delegates to the Provincial Assemblies.

According to the National Electoral Commission (CEN), 85.65 percent of Cubans exercised their right to vote as a sign of the popular and inclusive nature of this process.

CEN President Alina Balseiro pointed out 47.44 percent of newly-elected MPs comes from the grass root, while women make up 53.22 percent and lawmakers under 35 years make up 13.22 percent of the total.

(Prensa Latina)

The position of Vice President of the Administration Body was created following the approval of Agreement 8,223 of September 2017, by the Executive Committee of the Council of Ministers of Cuba.

Last December the vice presidents of provincial administration bodies were assigned (not elected), while the same process will be undertaken at a municipal level this February, according to Miriam Brito Sarroca, Secretary of the National Assembly of People’s Power (ANPP).

This decision “is an important step toward guaranteeing the quality and efficiency of our work in every territory,” she stated.

According to the Agreement, the presidents of provincial and municipal assemblies, who also function as the heads of the Provincial and Municipal Administration Boards (except in the provinces of Artemisa and Mayabeque), can delegate some of their responsibilities to the vice president, such as convoking and presiding meetings, as well as organizing, managing and overseeing the work of the Administration Board.

Delegating responsibilities to vice presidents allows for more specialized and professional attention and management of Assemblies and their administration bodies in every territory, stated Carlos Rafael Fuentes León, head of attention to local People’s Power bodies.

“The new vice presidents in municipalities and provinces will help manage and supervise administrative tasks, and in so doing protect the current constitutional order,” stated Fuentes.

(Granma)

In a press conference offered Thursday,February 15, from the Miraflores Presidential Palace, the Head of State ratified the decision to hold the elections on April 22, stressing: “If the opposition does not register, what will happen in Venezuela? There will be elections and there will be a legitimate President-elect who will govern the country until 2025.”

“What will happen to the opposition? Only they in Washington know,” Maduro noted.

This would not be the first time that the Venezuelan right has withdrawn from an election.“We have had an opposition that improvises and it goes badly for them when they do; when they lose the election, they scream fraud; when they know they are going to lose elections, they withdraw,” he added, as reported by AVN.

The Venezuelan president also explained that the April 22 elections have the broadest guarantees, as had been agreed with opposition sectors at the negotiating table in Santo Domingo. The opposition party refused at the last minute to sign the peace agreement.

Meanwhile, the Head of State announced that his government and that of Colombia are planning a ministerial meeting on border security, whose date will be defined next weekend.

The objective, he said, will be “to establish a peace and security plan for the entire border area,” especially on the border between Táchira state (Venezuela) and the department of Norte de Santander (Colombia).

Regarding the United States threat to impose an oil embargo on the South American nation, Maduro assured that there are other markets where Venezuela can trade its crude oil and derivatives.

(Granma)