El bienestar de las comunidades se ve afectado por el odio desbordado desde la nación norteña. Los ejecutores y sus financistas solo dan importancia a sus ansias de violencia y destrucción. Ningún acto queda impune. La participación del pueblo y las autoridades ponen fin a cada pretensión terrorista.

También vuelve sobre un controversial tema de su anterior emisión televisiva. Los enemigos de Cuba han manipulado una de las imágenes empleadas en el material, que refleja las intenciones armamentistas y violentas de personajes radicados en Florida. En este programa ofrecemos un nuevo testimonio de Mayelín Rodríguez Prado, La Chamaca de Chamaco, donde esclarece los hechos.

Los enemigos de Cuba permanentemente incitan a cometer acciones de este tipo. Pretenden reclutar personas sin escrúpulos en territorio nacional para que, por unas pocas monedas, cometan estos delitos.

Capturados delincuentes que protagonizaron hecho vandálico en Isabela de Sagua
Con la verdad, ante todo, hemos sido testigo de la denuncia pública producto del impacto social que generó en la provincia de Villa Clara el incendio ocurrido el pasado 25 de septiembre por la madrugada en Isabela de Sagua, donde el caney de esta localidad fue incinerado en su totalidad por un elemento antisocial del poblado.

Fueron muchas las noches sin dormir para lograr dar captura a los vándalos que protagonizaron este delito, resaltando la labor de algunos vecinos y transeúntes del lugar que aportaron detalles para que el hecho no quedara impune, así fue como las fuerzas del Ministerio del Interior lograron capturar al ciudadano Nilo Christian Denis Cruz, de 22 años de edad, quien se encontraba esa noche en áreas cercanas al caney y es el autor principal del siniestro, es decir, fue quien prendió el fuego al guano del techo del caney donde en ese momento se encontraban personas, realizando esta acción sin pensar que estas pudieran sufrir lesiones e incluso fallecer.

Pero todo no termina ahí, siempre hay alguien más, por eso Nilo tenía un cómplice, el ciudadano Berto Ariel Fernández Toledo, quien lo trasladó hasta su domicilio en un triciclo eléctrico luego de materializar el hecho.

Luego del trabajo realizado por las fuerzas del Ministerio del Interior en la provincia se pudo constatar que producto de este actuar delincuente, la afectación económica por los daños materiales y de alimentación sufridos al ser quemado la totalidad del local, asciende a los 250 000 CUP.

Pues toda esta maquiavélica idea en contra de instituciones estatales de este municipio fue diseñada por Duvier Méndez Véliz cubano residente en Estados Unidos el cual financió con 75 000.00 CUP el acto de sabotaje contra el caney del pueblo. Quedando claro que todas estas acciones para crear el pánico y la incertidumbre entre los cubanos es dibujada por el enemigo creyendo que nuestro sistema policial y de justicia dejarían estos hechos impunes.

Queda claro que todos estos actos vandálicos son protagonizados desde el exterior para crear todo un andamiaje de mentiras y manipulaciones en contra de la realidad cubana, pero lo que sí es evidente que ninguno de estos hechos vandálicos ha quedado ni quedará inerte ante los ojos de la justicia.

Por eso hoy denunciamos a todos los que desde el exterior se empeñan en crear un estallido social que desencadene el pánico, el miedo, la incertidumbre y la inseguridad entre los cubanos. Pero aquí estamos los revolucionarios, los que estamos comprometidos con la Patria y con nuestro sistema socialista, dando el paso firme para demostrarle al mundo que Cuba es un país libre y soberano, que no daremos chance a que intenten apoderarse de una sola de nuestras conquistas y el esclarecimiento de este hecho lo demuestra.

Several governments around the world are interested in helping Cuba with donations of food and construction materials and with specialized technical assistance in cases like this one.

Desde su cuenta oficial en Twitter, el movimiento Foro de los Pueblos informó sobre el comunicado urgente en la edición de este domingo del diario The New York Times para el cese de las medidas coercitivas de Washington y posibilitar la compra de suministros necesarios para la reconstrucción del país.

“La administración Biden necesita actuar ahora mismo para ayudar al pueblo caribeño”, destaca el mensaje titulado Let Cuba rebuild (Deja que Cuba se reconstruya).

El texto subraya que el bloqueo económico, comercial y financiero impide a La Habana la obtención de recursos necesarios, por lo cual insta a la Casa Blanca a permitir, aunque sea por los próximos seis meses, comprar materiales de la construcción.

Recuerda que el pueblo de la isla enfrenta un gran revés debido a Ian, que golpeó al territorio el pasado martes y dejó la red eléctrica dañada, viviendas destruidas, afectaciones a los cultivos y renglones económicos importantes como el tabaco, además de problemas en las telecomunicaciones y el abasto de agua.

“Si bien la ley autoriza a entidades y organizaciones norteamericanas a brindar ayuda y respuesta en casos de desastre, está comprobado que no es tan fácil, pues existen procesos largos y complejos para recibir licencias que a menudo requieren abogados costosos”, refiere el documento.

De igual forma, señala cómo la inclusión de Cuba en la supuesta Lista de Estados Patrocinadores del Terrorismo significa que los bancos tanto en territorio estadounidense como en el extranjero son reacios a procesar cualquier transacción, incluidas las donaciones humanitarias.

“Es inconcebible en esta hora crítica mantener el bloqueo y castigar colectivamente a todo un pueblo”, remarca el mensaje, al tiempo que insta al presidente Biden a dejar de lado la política de la Guerra Fría, “¡aunque sea por seis meses!”.

“El pueblo cubano es parte de nuestra familia, la familia humana”, agrega, e insiste en que “¡El momento de actuar es ahora!”.

Tras el paso de Ian, el Foro de los Pueblos compartió el link a un sitio para recibir donaciones y contribuir en los esfuerzos de socorro a Cuba, así como el proyecto solidario Puentes de Amor, centrado en la compra de alimentos, fármacos y equipos médicos.

A principios de septiembre pasado Biden firmó la extensión de la llamada “Ley de comercio con el enemigo”, que prorroga hasta el 14 de septiembre de 2023 el bloqueo y autoriza al mandatario a imponer restricciones económicas.

Según la cancillería de La Habana, la medida desconoce el rechazo de la comunidad mundial a esa política vigente por más de seis décadas, “recrudecida de manera oportunista en el contexto de la pandemia de Covid-19 para rendir por hambre, enfermedad y miseria al pueblo cubano”, aseveró.

If the allocation of a single dollar by the U.S. government, to finance subversive projects in Cuba, is sufficient reason for outrage, how can hundreds of thousands every day, millions over the years for such purposes escape condemnation?

The most recent, scandalous evidence indicates that the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) paid more than $400,000 to the Digital News Association (DNA), one of the many anti-Cuban organizations in Florida, which charge for everything from take-out pizza and private espionage to murder for hire. They do the job and run to knock on the door of their employer, with hands outstretched hands to collect the dollar bills.

Carlos Fernández de Cossío, director for the United States of the Cuban Ministry of Foreign Affairs, denounced orcefully on Twitter: “Usaid, a federal agency of the United States Government, pays $410,000 to hire or buy a political opposition in Cuba. This is democracy the American way. DNA, an anti-Cuba organization in Florida of the many that live off taxpayers’ money, is the beneficiary this time,” he stated.

His accusation specifies that this is only one of several payments Usaid has made in recent weeks to “institutions” that the State Department uses to spearhead its policy against the island.

The total amount distributed just recently has reached close to four million dollars, while the full bill for these services since Donald Trump assumed the Presidency is 50 million, the DeZurdaTeam tweeted.

(Taken from Granma)

In the statement that announced his death, the head of that court, John Roberts, said that the United States lost a jurist of historic stature and all the magistrates “have lost a dear companion.”

Today we are in mourning, but we are confident that future generations will remember Ruth Bader Ginsburg as we knew her, a tireless and determined champion of justice , added the magistrate.

Nominated by President Bill Clinton in 1993, Ginsburg was the oldest judge of the nine who make up the Supreme Court .

The judge had been in that instance for almost three decades, and became the second woman in history to hold a position in this court , after dedicating her career to the defense of women’s causes and civil rights.

Before the November 2016 presidential election, Bader Ginsburg, considered the liberal leader of the high court, called Donald Trump a “phony”, prompting the real estate mogul to demand her resignation and she was forced to recant having issued that opinion.

The Supreme Court is made up of nine judges with life positions and currently five are considered conservative and four liberal.

Experts point to the possibility that a few weeks before the general elections on November 3, President Trump will immediately appoint the replacement of Ginsburg; the Senate also in a quick move could confirm the nomination and thus the Republicans manage to maintain a conservative majority .

About an hour after a Supreme Court spokesman confirmed Ginsburg’s death from pancreatic cancer, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell promised to allow an Upper House vote to endorse his possible take over if Trump nominates another magistrate for the job .

However, the leader of the Senate Democratic minority, Charles Schumer, said that the post that Ginsburg vacated after her death should be filled with a nomination of the candidate of one or the other party that wins the November presidential elections .

In practical terms, Trump now has the opportunity to transform the Supreme Court from a fragile conservative majority of 5-4 to a dominant supermajority of 6-3, which could have long-term implications that would affect the daily life of the country, notes this Friday the newspaper The Hill.

(With information from Prensa Latina)

And when Trump hunts, no coronavirus or any other humanitarian disaster gets in the way. The only thing on his agenda on this trip was getting re-elected.

Florida, the apple of every candidate’s eye, once again served as an opportunity to trade hatred for votes. Winning here is key for anyone, since the state, plus California and Texas, constitute the famous triad of “pendulum states,” where voting patterns are not clear and, therefore provide both parties possibilities.

Thus, as in 2016, Trump has made regular visits here, aware that, over the last few years, whoever succeeds in Florida, becomes President. He knows this and has a plan to win the Latino vote.

He was not interested in the COVID-19 epidemic in the state, which has already twice broken the record for new cases reported in a single day anywhere in the United States.

He preferred to focus on satisfying the malicious passions and supporting the intrigues of ex-patriot Cubans, Venezuelans and Nicaraguans who love their homelands little and do not understand the meaning of sovereignty.

At Southern Command headquarters, he asserted that very good work has been done in the fight against drugs, and then turned his attention to the most controversial wall in the Americas, designed to cut off emigration from the South, a project without support in Florida, the country, or the world.

Covering all his bases, from the Southern Command he moved on to the Doral Jesus Worship Center for a round table chat during which, once again, the President explained his philosophy for the county’s “backyard,” that is Latin America and the Caribbean. He was accompanied by Mario Diaz-Balart, Republican Congressman from Florida, known for his hostile rhetoric against Cuba.

In the exercise of U.S. electoral politics, every word spoken and place visited reveals an intention. Confirming this U.S. administration’s ruthlessly hostile policy toward Cuba, Trump made his most aggressive statements of the day in this “religious center,” denounced by Cuban Foreign Ministry, given its links with the April 30 terrorist attack on the Cuban Embassy in Washington,.

As occurred four years ago, the President knew that he will find plenty of supporters at the Doral Jesus Worship Center, “parishioners” with a visceral hatred for progressive and leftist movements on the continent.

Thus the script was repeated; he said what they wanted to hear, talking about the lack of freedom in Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua; of alleged escapes from socialism; of sanctions against the governments of Nicolás Maduro and Daniel Ortega; and of his iron fist over Cuba.

He linked the names of Joe Biden, Bernie Sanders and Barack Obama to distorted, pro-communist positions. Dismissive rejections of reality, accusations, lies… everything goes in U.S. electoral contests.

At his side, a Cuban annexationist thanked the President “for his historic actions to support democracy in Cuba,” expressing agreement with the closure of consular services at the U.S. embassy in Havana, regardless of what that has meant in the development of migratory relations between the two countries; the persecution of shipping companies transporting oil to the island, in an attempt to make the daily lives of millions of Cubans unbearable; and the attack on everything that benefits the tourism sector, key to the national economy, which has been hit hard by the reduction of flights and the suspension of cruise ship travel to the island.

Referring to the process of re-establishing diplomatic relations begun in 2014, Trump stated, “The deal we made with Cuba was ridiculous. That’s why the Cubans gave me the Bay of Pigs award, just before the last election. It was a great honor. I have it in my office.”

In 2016, the Miami Herald called Trump’s catering to Brigade 2506 mercenaries “a desperate, last-minute attempt to reach out to Miami’s influential Cuban-American voters,” and criticized the magnate’s support as a mistake, later describing him as “a boastful, self-centered egomaniac who lacks a record of public service or familiarity with the issues.”

But a newspaper column can do nothing to deter those who invaded Playa Girón in April of 1961, and have accumulated a vicious record of attacks on Cuba since then. For decades, they have supported any politician that followed a hard line against Cuba.

There must be some kind of agreement on the issue among these old mercenaries; they have no qualms about being used, time and time again.

Although the reality has varied, this spiteful group still presumes to exercise leadership over the large community of Cuban residents in Florida, who in their majority reject Trump’s aggressive policy, supporting the reestablishment of diplomatic relations and the normalization of relations between Havana and Washington.

Donald Trump approached the Miami-based Cuban counterrevolution back in 1999. He was dreaming of becoming President and, at that time, announced that he was considering seeking the nomination of the Reform Party, a minority organization.

He changed his mind shortly thereafter, and went back to business.

This 2020, needing his puppets, as usual, Trump returned. Mario Díaz-Balart, congratulated the magnate, saying that he will be remembered as “the President who freed this hemisphere from Communism and Socialism.”

“They won’t last another four years of President Trump,” Díaz-Balart added, but as the bad advisor he is, he has forgotten that a U.S. President said the same thing in 1959, when the Revolution led by Fidel Castro triumphed; in 1961, when the Bay of Pigs attack failed so miserably; in 1962, during the October Crisis; in the 1990s during the special period through 2014, when Obama initiated a new strategy; and in 2019, when “They threw us to our deaths,” as Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel said.

And here we are.

“It’s gratifying to be in this country, which has so much history in sports.” (Shaquille O’Neal, June 2016)

The first, a left-handed pitcher who is a major league baseball star, with three Cy Young awards ,the highest distinction for a pitcher, and seven consecutive appearances in All-Star Games. The other, a dominant center in U.S. professional basketball (NBA) for 19 seasons.

They came to share their skills with Cubans, in an unprejudiced atmosphere, amid smiles and jokes like those O’Neal played on the court located at 23rd and “B” in the Havana neighborhood of Vedado. Kershaw’s joy and ability were evident during children’s clinics at the Victoria de Girón and Latinoamericano stadium.

They and others, like basketball players Steve Nash and Dikembe Mutombo, have come, regardless of the pressure. All those who came to the island’s to work with young athletes returned to the United States satisfied with having contributed to a rapprochement that had been denied for decades, and were grateful for the kind treatment received by the delegation that included baseball players who had left Cuba and were playing in the U.S. major leagues.

Who was harmed by this exchange? Was Cuba hoping to gain some advantage? These were encounters to which our country opened its doors, as a way to get to know each other better, to show that, even when there are differences, it is possible to establish a respectful relationship between two neighboring peoples.

Nothing was more alien to that intention than the abrupt rupture imposed by the Donald Trump administration, with the approval of then-National Security Advisor, John Bolton. In the book about his time in the White House, released recently in the United States, he wrote about the Treasury Department revoking the license that allowed for an Agreement between the Cuban Baseball Federation and the MLB:

“This action did not win us the affection of owners (of MLB teams), but they were mistaken if they did not understand that the participation of Cuban baseball players in professional baseball meant sleeping with the enemy. Thus Bolton supported his master and revealed his true self, a character who, although “scared off” from the White House, remains an unrepentant hawk.

The agreement not only included the proposal that Cuban players could prove themselves in major league baseball, where, during the decades preceding the Revolution, others, like Orestes Miñoso, brought what Kershaw himself recognized as passionate baseball. He added: “Passion can make a difference on the field, and that’s where Latinos are very intense.”

Just as important, if not more so, than the interest in playing in the MLB, was the determination to end human trafficking, to banish, once and for all, incitement of our players to leave the country where they studied and developed, prospects who on more than one occasion faced extortion on the part of unscrupulous “agents,” active to the lucrative business of illegally moving human beings, even at the risk of their lives.

In his text, Bolton shows the pragmatism of U.S. magnates and politicians, only endorsing what is useful for their businesses. Thus, he confesses that he was supportive of Trump’s obsession with undoing everything that the previous administration had proposed with respect to relations with Cuba, after recognizing that the blockade has not subdued its people, and is repudiated by the entire world as an example of obsolete and failed use of force.

With his phrase “sleeping with the enemy,” Bolton is ignoring the nobility of Cuban sports, which considers the U.S. people and athletes our friends. That barb can be chalked up as a wild pitch for Bolton.

(Source: Granma)

“It is an uncomfortable truth that our nation and city owes much of its wealth to its role in the slave trade,” said London’s Mayor Sadiq Khan, amidst debate over the anti-racist movement taking direct action to eliminate icons of colonial barbarism.

On June 7, in Bristol, a city in southwest England, the statue of slave trader Edward Colston was pulled down and thrown into the Avon River.

The likenesses of Robert Milligan and Cecil Rhodes, colonists and slave traders, were defaced. “Son of slavery” and “colonialist profiteer,” were the labels added by protesters to a statue in Edinburgh of Robert Dundas, second Viscount of Melville.

In London, near Parliament, the phrase “He was a racist” appeared on the statue of Winston Churchill, so idealized for his role in World War II. On another Churchill monument in Prague, the same uncomfortable truth was noted.

Boris Johnson accused “violent extremists” of lashing out at time-honored figures. “We cannot now try to edit or censor our past,” he said, “We cannot pretend to have a different history.”

British Interior Minister Priti Patel stated that these acts of “vandalism” were “a distraction from the issues that people are protesting. While Montserrat Alvarez rightly retorted: “The exact opposite is true: this reflects conscious awareness of the real historical reasons” for the events.

In Brussels, Leopold II, majestic on horseback, in Trône Place, greeted the dawn with anti-racist graffiti added: “BLM” (Black Lives Matter) and a denunciation: “This man killed 15 million people,” referring to genocide in the so-called Belgian Congo. In Antwerp and other cities, Leopold II was covered with paint and humiliated.

The U.S. is once again divided, as if a new Civil War had broken out, this time in the symbolic field.

Trump has rejected an initiative to rename military bases named after Southern officers who fought ruthlessly in defense of slavery.

But the statues of Generals Wickham (Richmond, Virginia) and Lee (Montgomery, Alabama), Jefferson Davis, president of the Confederate States during the Civil War (Durham, North Carolina), and racist journalist and politician Carmack (Nashville, Tennessee) were toppled. In Portland, Oregon, the bronze image of Thomas Jefferson, who signed the U.S. Declaration of Independence and was the country’s third President, fell to the ground, its base spray-painted with the epitaph: “Slave Owner.” Several local authorities in the South have proposed removing provocative racist monuments.

The genocide of indigenous peoples following the supposed “discovery” rests on the shoulders of Christopher Columbus. His effigies rolled to the ground in Richmond and St. Paul, Minnesota. One of his statues was decapitated in Boston, Massachusetts, while another in Houston, Texas, was covered in red paint. In Miami, Columbus and Ponce de Leon, the “discoverer” of Florida, were labeled with slogans denouncing racism.

HBO Max withdrew from its schedule the famous and racist 1939 film, Gone with the Wind. Paramount studios cancelled the television show Cops, featuring U.S. police.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat, called for the removal from the Capitol of 11 statues honoring Confederate military leaders.

At the same time, white supremacist groups are mobilizing to defend the Confederate flag, their idols of this era, and the primitive machismo of their armed heroes.

The entire phenomenon is worth studying. Monuments and symbols have been destroyed before in different countries, associated with different historical periods, but never before has an assault on the past been seen on such a scale.

It has been said that statues become invisible with time; that people get used to their presence and stop wondering about their meaning. But anti-racist protesters have seen them and interpreted their message. One certainty stands out: the current capitalist system is built on centuries of colonialism, discrimination, abuse and millions of dead.

Those who attacked these symbols understood this, as Umair Haque says, “Just as white Americans today are rich because their ancestors enslaved blacks, so too today white nations are rich because their ancestors conquered and enslaved a world.”

(Source: Granma)

Cubans, and in particular residents of the Havana neighborhood of Marianao, will never forget what happened on May 8, 1980, when counterrevolutionary elements set fire to the Le Van Tam preschool. The rapid intervention of students, residents and firefighters prevented a tragedy from occurring.

The fire began at 4:45 p.m., from the theater on the ground floor of the ten-story building. The flames quickly blocked the central stairwell and the two elevators. At that time there were 570 children in the building, including 177 boarded on site, and many of the 156 workers and assistants who worked at the center.

A group of students from the nearby José Aguilera Maceiras Secondary School, were among the first to offer help. A soon as they saw the flames, without thinking twice, they ran to enter the building.

This is how Etián Nodarse Chirino, then 14 years of age, tells it: “I quickly jumped over the wall, and went into the bank, which faced one side of the preschool, and through it to get to the stairs. The smoke was already thick. I went up to the first floor and with the firemen and other people, started to take the children out into a courtyard, since they were already beginning to smell the smoke coming through the doors. We started to go down, with the little ones, only months old, who could not walk, tied with rope and sheets. One by one we lowered them carefully, and they were taken away from the building.

“Then we went up to the fourth floor, because help was needed there, and we carried them down the stairs in our arms. I could see how those who took part in the rescue were determined and courageous. The danger was no obstacle to saving everyone.

Alfredo Garcia Tarajano had not taken his daughter to the preschool that day, since she was sick. As he was preparing to head to the pharmacy, a neighbor knocked loudly on his door, shouting that there was a fire in the building.

A volunteer firefighter at his workplace, he immediately joined the rescue effort, and amidst the frantic effort, he was stopped short by an impressive figure: “I found Fidel standing in front of me at the back of the building. I didn’t know what to do. He held out his hand to me and I said my hand was muddy. He said, ‘What mud, what mud,’ and shook my hand firmly.

“The first thing Fidel asked was if there were any children injured or burned. He asked everyone who came by the same question. When he was convinced that the children were not in danger, he asked my opinion of the event. I replied that it was clearly sabotage, the evidence was there. The fire was premeditated.”

Jesús Fernández, an electrician at the preschool, agreed: “There was no electrical installation where the fire started, plus the electricity to light the theater was off. I had personally shut it off hours before.

“I have no doubt that this fire was coldly calculated sabotage; but once again, we stopped the macabre plans of imperialism. What monsters!”

(Source: Granma)