Despite those violent images of robbery in stores, injuries to law enforcement officers and the overturning of patrol cars, which are circulating in the media and social networks, the Chilean-born official demanded the release of all prisoners.

According to Bachelet, who was criticized for her silence in the repression of protests in Chile in 2019, those were people exercising their right to freedom of peaceful assembly or freedom of opinion and expression.

‘It is of particular concern that among them are people allegedly held incommunicado and people whose whereabouts are unknown. All persons arrested for exercising their rights must be released as a matter of urgency,’ she stated.

Likewise, she also called for an independent, transparent and effective investigation, and deeply regretted in the context of the protests in Havana the death of a protester with a criminal record compiled by local authorities.

‘I urge the government to address the demands of protesters through dialogue, and to fully respect and protect the rights of all people to peaceful assembly and freedom of opinion and expression,’ Bachelet noted.

She also called for the full restoration of access to the Internet (already restored) and social networks. In Cuba, with over 11 million inhabitants, over six million people have regular access to the Internet.

The UN High Commissioner reiterated her call for the lifting of unilateral sectoral sanctions, given their negative impact on human rights, including the right to health, in what appears to be a call for the elimination of the blockade without mentioning the United States, which has maintained that policy for over 60 years against Cuba.

Beyond the internal discontent, self-critically acknowledged by Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel, the government presented numerous proofs on the incitement to violent protests to justify a rise in the aggression of the White House against Cuba.

During the administration of Republican President Donald Trump, over 240 measures were imposed to accentuate hostility against Cuba. Some 50 of those actions were established during the Covid-19 pandemic.

(Taken from Prensa Latina)

Today the Revolution continues to be, as Fidel said on April 16, 1961, on the eve of the Playa Girón invasion (on the Bay of Pigs), “the socialist and democratic Revolution of the humble, with the humble and for the humble.” This is its indisputable essence.

With the awarding of land to campesinos, with tens of thousands of scholarships granted to their children and the extension of education to all corners of the country, with the creation of a universal and free health care system that has achieved statistics similar and some even better than those of the developed world, with the massive training of professionals in all branches of knowledge, it can be said that few countries in the world have done as much as the attacked and slandered Cuba for those Martí called “the poor of the earth.”

At the same time, in the midst of the reinforced blockade and such complex processes as the updating of our economic and social model, every measure adopted has been carefully studied to evaluate and foresee its possible effects on the vulnerable population. As Raúl has repeatedly stated, “No one will be left unprotected.” Nothing could be more alien to the Cuban Revolution than the usual “neoliberal packages” with their tragic consequences.

Cuba’s response to the pandemic has made evident the constant concern of the Party and the government, at all levels, for the health and life of each and every one of our citizens, with no distinction whatsoever. This visibly differentiates us from other rich and powerful countries, including the United States, where COVID-19 has disproportionately hurt the marginalized, Afro-descendants, Latinos, indigenous peoples, immigrants and persons living on the street.

The practice of solidarity toward those who need it most has not been limited to our borders. Africa, a brutally plundered continent, victim of racism in its most monstrous form, attacked for centuries by slave traders, colonialists and imperialists, received from the first years of the triumphant Revolution the fraternal help of Cuban doctors, teachers and soldiers.

Nelson Mandela, during his visit to our country on July 26, 1991, stated these unforgettable words:

“Africa owes a great debt to Cuba…What other country has shown a history of greater disinterest than Cuba has exhibited in its relations with Africa? …We in Africa are accustomed to being victims of other countries that want to splinter our territory and undermine our sovereignty. In the history of Africa there is no other case of a people that has risen up in our defense.”

With what moral authority does the United States presume to accuse the Revolution of racism? How can Cuba be judged under this pretext by the government of a country where hatred and racist crimes are common, where systemic racism exists?

They seek to compare racial prejudice, which we continue to debate in Cuba, with the violence of such phenomena in the United States and Europe, aggravated today by the growth of neo-fascist tendencies.

Aware that every vestige of this evil must be eradicated from our society, and inspired by discussions held in the Union of Cuban Writers and Artists (Uneac) and, especially, its Aponte Commission, in November 2019, the Council of Ministers approved the National Program against racism and racial discrimination, to periodically analyze these issues, with the participation of ministries and civil society organizations, in an effort to perfect our socialism and make it more democratic and inclusive.

Another topic raised in anti-Cuban campaigns is associated with freedom of creation in the field of culture.

The cultural work of the Revolution is a source of pride for our entire people. Fidel held the conviction, like Martí, that “without culture there is no possible freedom,” and that art and literature better the people’s quality of life.

In 1961, the first schools for art instructors were established and the foundations laid for our system of artistic education. The children of campesinos, of workers, of those who cut cane only three or four months of the year, of those who barely earned enough to survive in miserable conditions, were also granted scholarships to study art. Many of the principal creators who have emerged from these programs came from the poorest social classes and the most remote regions of Cuban territory.

Cultural institutions, guided by Advisory Councils which include members of the country’s intellectual and artistic vanguard, representatives of Uneac and the Hermanos Saíz Association of young creators, implement a cultural policy free of dogmas and sectarianism. The caricature of the “dissident artist” confronting bureaucratic entities conceived for censorship is a crude propagandistic fabrication.

There is no mention, of course, of market censorship of creators around the world. The pandemic itself has left unprotected many artists who depended on their performances for a livelihood. It has exposed the impact of ignoring the need for public policies to preserve valuable artistic expressions, unable to survive where art is treated as mere merchandise. Neoliberalism is anti-cultural by definition.

Nor does the United States – the largest producer of junk culture on the planet – have the moral authority to judge Cuba in this field.

Culture in Cuba has always been linked to the Revolution, to the ideals of humanism and emancipation. Céspedes and many other pro-independence leaders who led the heroic insurrection that began October 10, 1868 were intellectuals. Martínez Villena, Pablo de la Torriente Brau, Raúl Roa, Marinello, Carlos Rafael Rodríguez, among many others, are part of a long tradition that inseparably fuses creative thought and revolutionary practice. Martí and Fidel are crowning examples of this history.

Our authentic intellectuals and artists reject the manipulations of the subversive apparatus financed by imperialism and the shameful actions of mercenaries who attempt to sully the transparent, productive relationships shared by institutions and creators in Cuba.

Human rights, freedom, democracy, culture, dignity, are concepts that belong to us. Our enemies have always attempted to appropriate them to use them against Cuba. It is disgraceful that the principal violators of these principles presume to judge us on the basis of a torrent of lies.

But the truth and the example of Cuba will prevail, as has been the case with the admirable work of our internationalist doctors, in spite of the slanderous media campaign unleashed against them.

As Fidel emphasized at the closing of the University Student Federation’s Fifth Congress, March 25, 1995:

“…There has never been a more humane revolution, or a more pure revolution than the Cuban Revolution. Our enemies have not been able to destroy this truth, in spite of their colossal, enormous publicity apparatus.”

And three years later, on August 1, 1998, at the inauguration of the Monument to the victims of Barbados, he would insist:

“What those who, intoxicated by their impunity and ephemeral power, commit great crimes against peoples can never imagine is that the truth, sooner or later, always prevails.”

(Taken from Granma)

“The use of regenerative medicine seeks to repair, replace and regenerate cells, tissues and organs with the aim of restoring or recovering the regular functioning of the body,” explains Dr. Manuel Antonio Arce González, researcher at the Unit of Biomedical Research in Villa Clara and head of the Regenerative Medicine Services in the territory. He also said that, given the qualities of this medicine, it is recently used to treat lung lesions in patients who recovered from COVID-19.

Related to this therapy, it is included the use of autologous stem cells in the treatment of conditions such as osteoarthrosis of the knee and the hip and pseudo arthrosis. People who suffer from herniated intervertebral discs, ischemic heart disease, Peyronie’s disease or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, have required these services as well.

Another novelty of this service is the use, for the first time in Cuba, of a fibrin biomaterial rich in platelets and leukocytes, a highly useful product in the repair of damaged tissues, whose one of its qualities is its possibility to adapt to any part of the organism, its regenerative action and its capacity to speed up the recovery of damaged tissues.

Researchers at the Unit of Biomedical Research, from the University of Villa Clara, work in new variants of tissue regeneration, such as the liquid forms, which have shown very promising results in the treatment of functional dysphonia in the field of otorhinolaryngology, something new in Cuba and the world.

(Taken from Granma)

No defense of humanity is worth much if it is only an illusion – without territory, simply “good intentions.” Territories are not only geography, they are history and have “sense,” tastes and smells… generated by the class struggle that inhabits all social relations and all emotional and symbolic planes. Human rights cannot be invoked in isolation from the territory under consideration and the semantic tensions of the “natives.” Where everything is corruption, humiliation and contempt for the peoples, the discourse of human rights is simply parlor talk or bureaucratic deception – despite the historical significance and value of the Charter of Human Rights as a tool to oppose the fascist Nazi project lying in wait at the time of its birth on December 10, 1948.

Wherever the aberrations and deprivations imposed by the national bourgeoisie bear down on native peoples, wherever fierce police, military and ideological harassment of the indigenous and peasant population is used to usurp their land, their identity and dignity… talk of human rights is paradoxically only enemy propaganda and bourgeois ideology. Territory weighs on meaning. Where workers are victims of triple extortion by employers, tax collectors and unions, where salaries weigh down on them like an alienating coffin, in which life goes by and time is consumed, in exchange for paltry wages and obscene inflation, to speak of human rights is simply grotesque, if it does not offer real instruments of concrete transformation, instead of escapist illusions. It is reality that determines awareness of human rights. Semantics in crisis.

Let us not succumb to the idealistic temptations of a Declaration of Human Rights without its “feet on the ground” and the semantics of reality. Because there is no return from ridicule. It is useless to build temples or give sermons, with pretentious fanaticism, about rights that mean nothing or which, in any case, reflect someone else’s thinking and serve as enemy ideology to defeat our hopes, struggles and programs of revolutionary transformation.

And it is essential that the entire Declaration of Human Rights be reviewed from a perspective and scrutiny that challenges the individualistic character of rights, contrasting it with their inescapable social and by definition political character. It is an obligatory debate, a pending historical subject, with decades passing in search of territorial semiotic consonance, that is, geosemiotics, in which the critical power of human rights in territories is made visible and the need for a revolutionary humanist Charter becomes apparent, one capable of revolutionizing humanism. Under these conditions, it is essential that all analyses of the issue include, in detail, the universe of semantic repercussions of any postulate which assumes to serve all human beings, address all their historical problems and the urgent need for transformative praxis.

In this context, geosemiotics means the theoretical-practical effort to characterize the complex, diverse and dynamic network of dialectical meaning, the general laws of its development, in each territory. The complex, and not infrequently interconnected, network of meanings with which the daily class behavior of peoples is organized, its philosophical foundations and its moral and ethical expressions. With the basic assumption that all action is preceded by a series of notions about reality, and what an idea implies for the future, geosemiotics is rooted in the need to also locally characterize the modes of production of meaning and the relations of production of meaning, in the concrete conditions in which they develop. This is not an esoteric effort making semiotics, and its role as an instrument in combatting the ideology of the dominant class, even more incomprehensible. On the contrary, it is a question of enriching the instruments of action, of scientific praxis, to facilitate their impact on the concrete realities of peoples.

All necessary tasks in the daily struggle for the emancipation of meaning have, in the Charter of Human Rights, a challenge of critical urgency that is the responsibility of all who, in a multidisciplinary fashion, presume to contribute to orienting emancipatory struggles in opposition to humanism in dogmatic, mechanistic or schematic forms, struggles directed toward resolving not only the human problems of our time but also the idea of a right separated from the critical principle of social justice.

Thus, initiatives to revolutionize humanism and confront the semantic framework of human rights with a political framework of social justice – yet to be constructed – assume new meaning. It is clear that where all human hardship is exacerbated and locked in dead ends, the very notion of the human, the very idea of justice, lose meaning. In any case, this is the dream of the ideology of the ruling class, to strip us of every notion and every humanist practice that could provide concrete direction, whether in the field of philosophy or at the sites where immediate praxis is most urgently needed. The sense of the meaningless.

To revolutionize the Charter of Human Rights is no longer a utopian idea, at a time when the pandemic has laid bare the bourgeois cruelty that hoards vaccines to the tune of the market and capitalist cruelty. To revolutionize humanism implies producing tools that consistently present the face of our astonished peoples who watch, with despair and rage, the postponement of their right to vaccines; who watch the delay of their right to education, to nutrition, to work, to housing and to emancipated culture. The right to “live by living and not surviving” in the immoral conditions in which one “lives” under capitalism. To revolutionize the humanism of human rights implies fighting philanthropic illusionism with a program of concrete action against class-divided societies where the inhumanity of the dominant mode of production and alienating relations of production reign, with all their meanings. Their ways and means.

(Taken from Granma)

The text asks if the promoters of this farce would be willing to demand that the U.S. government end this aggressive policy which, through the end of March 2020, caused accumulated damages to the Cuban economy amounting to 144,413,400,000 dollars. “Are they also willing to defend European natural and legal persons affected by the increasing extraterritoriality of the blockade? Will they ask their U.S. counterparts to repeal the Helms-Burton Act? Will they demand the elimination of the 243 measures adopted by former President Donald Trump, which the current U.S. administration maintains in effect?

It is shameful that a group of representatives has promoted the inclusion of this issue as part of the agenda of the European Parliament. European voters and the international community in general would expect objectivity and impartiality from the European legislature, instead of selectivity and double standards when examining issues related to human rights, when every day events occur that touch the universal conscience, about which the European Parliament has maintained and continues to maintain a complicit, immoral silence, reads the embassy’s communiqué, published on the Cuban Foreign Ministry’s website.

This obsession with Cuba has an explanation. It reflects the agenda of the United States government which has been attempting to overthrow the Cuban Revolution for more than 60 years, unable to tolerate the existence of a people that does surrender to their designs and resists the ironclad blockade, criminally tightened in the midst of a global pandemic, the Cuban mission emphasized.

The statement pointed out that this anti-Cuban maneuver is also intended to hinder relations between Cuba, the European Union and member states, to undermine the implementation of the Political Dialogue and Cooperation Agreement, which is being implemented in a positive manner, making clearly evident the political will of the signatories to continue building bridges between our peoples and governments.

(Taken from Granma)

President of the Republic Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez defined as disgraceful, immoral and false the recent accusations made by the U.S. State Department against Cuba, in an open attempt to manipulate the human rights issue, while Cuban Minister of Foreign Affairs Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla tweeted his condemnation of the report issued March 30, which contains totally unfounded, “misleading, politicized allegations,” which he also described as “opportunistic, arbitrary and unilateral.”

The Minister also demanded in his message that the U.S government “cease its campaign of discredit and interference.”

A press release published on the Cubaminrex website additionally reported that the Foreign Ministry’s director general for the United States, Carlos Fernández de Cossío, summoned U.S. chargé d’affaires in Havana, Timothy Zúñiga-Brown, to inform him of Cuba’s rejection of his government´s statements, pointing out that they represent an opportunistic attempt to manipulate the highly sensitive issue of human rights to justify hostile U.S. policies toward countries that are not subordinate to its interests, “and defend the sovereign right of their peoples to self-determination.”

“With respect to Cuba, the report repeats slanders that political groups in the United States, with extreme positions against Cuba, have disseminated for years as pretexts for the promotion of hostile actions and the imposition of coercive economic measures meant to damage the standard of living of the Cuban population and punish them for their support of the political, economic and social system which the country has freely and sovereignly chosen,” the press release continues.

According to Cubaminrex, Fernandez de Cossio noted, “Flagrant, systematic violations of human rights in the United States by the government of that country are well known and documented. These include racism, xenophobia, police brutality, torture of prisoners, prolonged imprisonment, the use of secret prisons, anti-Semitism, McCarthyism and other forms of religious and ideological intolerance. Added to this are extrajudicial killings in various parts of the world and arbitrary and prolonged detentions of innocent people.”

The Cuban diplomat reiterated to the U.S. embassy’s chargé d’affaires that Cuba’s prestige in the field of human rights contrasts sharply with the U.S. reality, “given the results achieved in the promotion and protection of these (rights); its tradition of adherence to United Nations mechanisms that are applied on a universal and non-discriminatory basis; and the country’s solidarity offered other developing nations to protect the rights of their peoples,” and cited as an example the recent election of Cuba as a member of the Human Rights Council for the period 2021-2023, adding that our country is a party to 44 of the UN’s 61 international human rights instruments.

(Taken from Granma)

Statement of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Cuba

The Embassy of Cuba in Colombia received information -whose credibility could not be assessed- in relation to an alleged military attack by the Oriental War Front of the ELN that would take place in the course of the next few days in Bogotá.

The ELN’s Peace Delegation in Havana was immediately advised of said information.  The ELN’s Peace Delegation claimed it was completely unaware of it and provided reiterated assurances that it had absolutely no involvement in the military decisions or operations of the organization.

Given the nature of such information, related to a possible action that might jeopardize the life of innocent persons, the Cuban ambassador, José Luis Ponce, immediately received instructions.  Consequently, he requested, on Saturday, February 6, at 07:49 p.m., a meeting with the Colombian Foreign Minister, Claudia Blum, or any designated official to convey this sensitive and urgent information about a possible attack in Colombia.

At 08:39 p.m., the Cuban ambassador managed to contact Deputy Foreign Minister Francisco Echeverry, but since he was out of the capital he could only received advance information by phone, which he appreciated.  During that phone call, despite our express interest in having a meeting immediately, the Deputy Foreign Minister scheduled a meeting with the Cuban ambassador for Monday, February 8, at 10:00 a.m.

The meeting, due to a decision adopted by the Colombian authorities, was finally held at 05:15 pm on that same Monday, during which the Cuban ambassador handed over to the Deputy Foreign Minister a Memorandum that contained the information that had been spontaneously relayed to our embassy.

At that moment we realized, to our surprise, that a highly sensitive security issue, which was dealt with utmost discretion and urgency by our country, had been immediately disclosed to the media. Twenty five minutes after Cuba had submitted the Memorandum, the Colombian media was already using the information and had published a copy of the very document.

On Thursday, February 11, at 06:30 p.m., our ambassador in Bogotá was finally received by the Foreign Minister and other high officials of the Colombian government.

Three days before, on February 8, at 08:00 a.m. the High Commissioner for Peace, in a press release, had used this sensitive information about a security issue as a pretext to attack Cuba based on mendacious allegations, with the usual hostility and approach that only tend to kindle the differences between both governments and hamper the participation of international actors in the peace process.

Cuba ignores whether the Colombian authorities proceeded to carry out any investigation; quickly disregarded the information or already knew about it.

Cuba’s stand regarding the Colombian government demands that Cuba extradites the ELN’s Peace Delegation members who remain in Havana, of which Colombia is responsible, has been established and informed in private and also through official and public channels.

Cuba will strictly abide by its obligation, as Guarantor and venue of the Peace Dialogue, to guarantee the safe return of the ELN’s Peace Delegation, as established under the Breakup Protocol of said negotiations that was agreed upon and signed by the Colombian government, the ELN and six other States on April 5, 2016. As the Colombian government is aware of, such stand enjoys the broadest support from the international community, which has engaged in direct negotiations with the Colombian government in favor of its implementation.

Cuba is being continuously challenged to violate the agreements that were signed, and that is contrary to International Law.

Our country will invariably uphold a rigorous and discreet behavior, firmly adhering to principles, as has been demonstrated after decades of participating in efforts to bring peace to Colombia.  We reaffirm our willingness and commitment to continue cooperating with those sectors that are committed to find a negotiated solution to the Colombian armed conflict in order to achieve peace.

In this regard, we reiterate our concerns over non-compliance and unilateral attempts to modify the Peace Agreements signed with FARC-EP, as well as the increasing number of murders and massacres of ex guerrilla members, social leaders and human rights defenders in Colombia.

Cuba has been patient and prudent.  We expect that, at some point, the will for peace; the legitimate interests and free determination of the Colombian people as well as good sense and reason shall prevail.

Havana, February 13, 2021.

During his four years in office, more than 240 measures were adopted, with special emphasis on creating obstacles to sources of hard currency income and disrupting our trade relations.

State Department reports on Human Rights, Religious Freedom, Human Trafficking and Terrorism reinforced the rhetoric against Cuba and the attempt to discredit our country in these arenas. Cuba’s inclusion on arbitrary and unilateral lists served the same purpose, seeking to demonize our government and satisfy the demands of anti-Cuban sectors in the U.S.

As Cuba’s President expressed on December 17, 2020, during the closing of Sixth Ordinary Period of Sessions of the National Assembly of People’s Power 9th Legislature, “They insisted on killing us; but we insisted on living and winning. Cuba Viva rose above our own possibilities.”

TIMELINE OF TRUMP ADMINISTRATION SANCTIONS ON THE CUBAN PEOPLE

2017

- June 8, Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) levies a fine of $87,255 on the U.S. based Honda Finance Corporation for approving 13 car lease agreements between the Cuban embassy in Canada and a Honda dealership in Ottawa.

- June 16, Trump signs Presidential memorandum abrogating Obama’s agreements with Cuba.

- June 26, OFAC fines the U.S. company American International Group $148,698 for providing insurance coverage for several shipments of goods to and from Cuba.

- October 3, 15 officials from the Cuban Embassy in Washington expelled.

- September 8, Donald Trump signs a memorandum extending for one year the application of economic sanctions based on the legal framework established in the Trading with the Enemy Act.

- Septembe26, OFAC prevents a donation to an NGO in Cuba, threatening the U.S. company Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings which owned the ship scheduled to make the delivery.

- September 29, visa issuance at the U.S. consulate in Havana suspended.

- November 8, State Department announces creation of the Cuban Restricted Entities List, which initially includes 179 Cuban companies with which U.S. citizens cannot conduct direct financial transactions.

- OFAC announces regulatory changes to the Cuba sanctions program. Individual “people-to-people” educational travel is eliminated.

- The Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) establishes a general policy of denying license applications for export items that may be used by entities and their affiliates on the Cuban Restricted Entity List.

- November 17, OFAC fines the Belgian company bcc s.a. $291,825 for providing credit cards used to make purchases in Cuba.

2018

- February 22, Donald Trump issues a Presidential Proclamation extending the National Emergency through 2019, allowing the government to regulate the movement and anchoring of vessels within its territorial waters that will or are likely to travel to Cuba.

- September 10, Trump signs a memorandum extending for one year the application of economic sanctions on Cuba under the legal framework established in the Trading with the Enemy Act.

- October 5, OFAC fines the j.p. Morgan Chase bank $5,263,171 for conducting unauthorized transactions and providing unauthorized services to clients included in the Specially Designated and Blocked Persons List between 2008 and 2012.

- November 15, The State Department updates the List of Restricted Cuban Entities, with the incorporation of 27 new companies, for a total of 206.

- November 19, The French banking-financial entity Société Générale s.a agrees to pay a fine of $1,340,231,916.05 to OFAC for processing 796 transactions involving Cuba.

2019

- January 16, State Department announces its decision to suspend for 45 days the application of Title III of the Helms-Burton Act, beginning February 1, in order to, during that period, study in detail whether or not to implement Chapter III going forward.

- February 14, OFAC imposes a $5,512,564 sanction on Germany-based AppliChem GmbH for 304 violations of Cuban Assets Control Regulations.

- March 11, State Department announces an update of the Restricted List of Cuban Entities, with the incorporation of five new sub-entities (Gaviota Hoteles Cuba, Hoteles Habaguanex, Hoteles Playa Gaviota, Marinas Gaviota Cuba and Fiesta Club Adults Only), bringing the total number of entities to 211.

- April 5, OFAC includes 34 vessels owned by the Venezuelan oil company PDVSA, as well as two other foreign companies (Ballito Shipping Incorporated and ProPer Management Inc.) in its sanctioned list, alleging that they provided services to PDVSA, shipping crude oil to Cuba.

- April 8, Trump administration vacated the agreement signed in January between Major League Baseball (MLB) and the Cuban Baseball Federation, which would have allowed Cuban baseball players to play at that level.

- April 9, OFAC imposes a sanction on Standard Chartered Bank, a banking-financial entity based in England, due to violations of the Cuban Assets Control Regulations.

- April 11, OFAC imposes fines on the English companies Acteon Group Ltd. and 2h Offshore, for the amount of 227 500 and 213 866 USD, respectively.

- April 12, OFAC sanctions four companies operating in the Venezuelan oil sector and nine vessels used to transport Venezuelan crude, including several which allegedly transported oil to Cuba.

- April 15, OFAC imposes sanctions on UniCredit Bank Austria and the Italian UniCredit Bank SpA.

- April 17, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo offers statements to the press announcing the full activation of Title III of the Helms-Burton Act, effective May 2, 2019.

- April 24, State Department updates the Cuban Restricted Entity List, adding five new entities, for a total of 216.

- June 4, OFAC announces a license denial policy for passenger transportation travel (cruise ships), recreational vessels, and private aircraft.

- OFAC rules that U.S. travelers arriving in Cuba in any of the 12 accepted categories may not engage in direct financial transactions with companies on the Cuban Restricted Entity List.

- June 13, OFAC sanctions U.S. companies Expedia Group Inc, Hotelbeds usa Inc and Cubasphere Inc. for alleged violations of Cuban Assets Control Regulations.

- July 3, Treasury Department places Cubametales on the Specially Designated Nationals (SDN) List.

- June 20, State Department includes Cuba in the worst category (level three) in a report on Trafficking in Persons.

- July 25, State Department adds two new institutions to the Cuban Restricted Entity List, for a total of 218.

- September 6, OFAC updates Cuban Assets Control Regulations imposing a limit of $1,000 per quarter on family remittances and suspending gift (non-family) remittances, as well as Cuba-related transfers to and from outside the U.S. (U-turns).

- September 13, Donald Trump extends for another year the Trading with the Enemy Act, used to back anti-Cuba sanctions.

- September 17, OFAC places three individuals (two Colombians and one Italian) and 17 companies (12 based in Colombia, four in Panama and one in Italy) on the Specially Designated Nationals (SDN) List, alleging they were involved in transporting oil to Cuba.

- September 19, two officials at the Cuban mission to the UN in New York expelled.

- September 26, Army General Raúl Castro and family included on the immoral list of sanctioned persons.

- September 30, visa restrictions imposed on Cuban officials associated with international medical cooperation programs under Section 212 (a)(3)(c) of the Immigration and Nationality Act.

- October 1, OFAC fines General Electric Company $2,718,581, for 289 apparent violations of the Cuban Assets Control Regulations.

- October 18, Bureau of Industries and Security (BIS) announces new amendments to Export Administration Regulations and a general policy of denial of aircraft leasing licenses to Cuban state-owned airlines.

- BIS prevents re-export to Cuba of foreign goods containing more than 10% U.S. components.

- BIS announces the revision of the “Support for the Cuban People” travel license, ruling out certain donations to the government and Communist Party of Cuba.

- BIS limits the export of goods intended to improve telecommunications infrastructure to those that facilitate the “free flow of information” among the Cuban people.

- October 25, Transportation Department announces the suspension of U.S. airline flights to and from Cuba, with the exception of those to and from Havana’s José Martí International Airport.

- November 15, State Department updates the Cuban Restricted Entity List by adding five new entities, for a total of 223.

- November 26, OFAC announces the inclusion of the company Corporación Panamericana s.a. on the List of Specially Designated Nationals.

- December 3, OFAC announces the inclusion of six vessels (one Panamanian and the rest Venezuelan) on the SDN for transporting crude oil to Cuba.

- December 9, OFAC announces a settlement, to avoid a civil lawsuit, with Chicago-based Allianz Global Risks Insurance Company in the amount of $170,535.

- OFAC announces the settlement of a civil lawsuit with the Swiss company Chubb Limited in the amount of $66,212 for conducting transactions and other operations related to travel insurance to Cuba.

- December 20, Cuba is placed on a Special Watch List under the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998.

- December 31, yielding to U.S. pressure, the Caribbean Confederation of Professional Baseball (CBPC) informs the Cuban Baseball Federation that it will not be able to guarantee Cuba’s presence at the Caribbean Series.

2020

- January 2, Revolutionary Armed Forces Minister, Army Corps General Leopoldo Cintra Frias, absurdly added to sanctioned list.

- January 10, Department of Transportation suspends charter flights between the U.S. and Cuba, excepting those to Havana’s José Martí International Airport.

- February 26, new regulations affecting the U.S. company Western Union, eliminate the sending remittances to Cuba from third countries.

- May 6, OFAC announces a settlement with Biomin America of $257,862, to avoid civil litigation, due to apparent violations of Cuban Assets Control Regulations.

- May 13, State Department notifies U.S. Congress of Cuba’s designation as a country that “does not fully cooperate” with U.S. anti-terrorism efforts, under Section 40A of the Arms Export Control Act.

- June 3, State Department announces the addition of seven more entities on the Cuban Restricted Entity List, including the company Fincimex.

- June 5, Treasury Department denies Marriott International the renewal of its license to operate a hotel in Cuba, while prohibiting the company from developing future businesses in the country.

- July 8, OFAC announces that, to avoid a civil lawsuit, a settlement of $134,523 had been reached with the U.S. company Amazon, sanctioned for accepting and processing orders on its websites from persons located in or employed by foreign missions of Cuba.

- Inclusion of Cuba on the list of “foreign adversaries” allegedly engaged in conduct that undermines U.S. national security.

- August 6, Cuba is added to the State Department’s Level 4 Travel Alert System.

- August 13, Department of Transportation announces the suspension of private charter flights between that country and Cuba, except those to Havana, those authorized for medical emergencies or search and rescue, and those deemed to be in the interest of the U.S.

- September 9, Donald Trump extends for one year blockade restrictions imposed on Cuba under the Trading with the Enemy Act.

- September 24, The List of Prohibited Accommodations in Cuba is announced, including entities under the ownership or control of the government, a government official, a member of the Communist Party, or their close relatives.

- The importing of alcohol and tobacco products of Cuban origin to the U.S. is restricted.

- The authorization of persons subject to U.S. jurisdiction to attend or organize professional meetings or conferences in Cuba is eliminated.

- General license authorization is eliminated for transactions related to public performances, clinics, workshops, sporting and other competitions and exhibitions.

- September 28, a new update of the State Department’s Cuban Restricted Entity List is announced with the addition of American International Services (AIS), bringing the total to 230 entities.

- September 30, OFAC includes Luis Alberto Rodríguez López-Calleja on the List of Specially Designated Nationals. With this inclusion, there are now 112 entries and individuals related to Cuba on the list.

- October 1, OFAC announces an agreement to avoid a civil lawsuit with the travel services company registered in New York, Generali Global Assistance, Inc (GGA), for the amount of $5,864,860 to be paid by GGA

- Presidential directive issued to extend for one year restrictions on the granting of federal funds for cultural and educational exchanges with Cuba.

- October 23, OFAC prevents persons subject to U.S. jurisdiction from sending remittances to Cuba via companies included in the State Department’s Restricted Cuban Entities List. As a result of these changes, remittances processed by Fincimex and AIS were ended.

- November 18, Department of Transportation denied a request by charter airlines Skyway Enterprises, Inc. and IBC to operate flights to Cuba to deliver humanitarian cargo.

- December 7, Cuba’s placement on the Special Watch List under the International Religious Freedom Act is renewed, a designation that allows the Secretary of State to annually designate governments that have “engaged in or tolerated systematic, ongoing, and egregious violations of religious freedom.”

- December 21, OFAC placed the entities Fincimex, Gaesa and Kave Coffee on the Specially Designated Nationals List.

- December 31, OFAC sanctions the U.S. company BitGo.

- During 2019 and 2020 Cuba suffered the greatest impact ever from the blockade, with losses estimated at more than 5 billion dollars. The Trump administration also allocated more than $50 million to finance subversion in Cuba, and created an Internet Task Force for this same purpose.

2021

- January 1, State Department includes the International Financial Bank on the Cuban Restricted Entity List.

- January 11, Cuba is added to the List of State Sponsors of Terrorism.

- January 14, Cuba is included on the Department of Commerce’s Foreign Adversaries List, pursuant to an executive order signed by Trump.

- The U.S. Department of Commerce announces new export regulations related to specific technologies and activities that could serve military intelligence in China, Cuba, Russia, Venezuela and other countries that allegedly support terrorism and are subject to U.S. unilateral measures.

- Export Control Regulations are amended to prohibit certain transactions that pose an undue or unacceptable risk to U.S. national security in information and communications technology.

- January 15, OFAC announces the inclusion of Cuba’s Ministry of the Interior and minister, Brigadier General Lazaro Alberto Alvarez Casas, on the Specially Designated Nationals List.

(Taken from Granma)

PARTICIPATING IN PUBLIC AFFAIRS

Cuban laws outline the mechanisms and ways in which popular participation in public affairs is made effective.
All citizens have equal opportunities of access to the highest public positions, based on their abilities and merits, not based on their economic or financial capacity.
Mechanisms such as accountability meetings are effective ways to promote the population’s active participation in controlling the government’s management and the work of the elected representatives.

ATTENTION TO THE CITIZENRY

The rights to complaint and petition have a higher priority in the legal system, and are complemented by the right of citizens to receive attention or answers from the authorities, within an appropriate timeframe and in accordance with the law.
The mechanisms used to attend citizens, channel their concerns, complaints or demands, and to offer advice in protecting their rights, were improved and enhanced.

ACCESS TO JUSTICE

Accessible, efficient, transparent, and law-abiding system of justice administration.
Humanism, the respect for due process, for guarantees and for human rights, the quality improvement and agility in the procedure to achieve just decisions, to avoid impunity and judicial mistakes are fundamental principles adopted by Cuban judges.

RULE OF LAW AND CONTROL OF LEGALITY

Cuba is a socialist law state where the law prevails. Complying strictly with socialist legality is an obligation of everyone.
The legality principle is comprehensively protected. The rights and responsibilities of citizens, the powers and obligations of the State, and the functioning of the state and government system are all enshrined in legislative norms.
Law enforcement authorities proceed with rigorous compliance with the law.

SEXUAL AND REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH

Women have the right for a free and responsible decision on fertility, number of children and when to have them, and abortion. The latter one is carried out in Health institutions, completely free of charge and staffed by highly qualified professionals, always respecting the woman’s consent.
We offer family planning services from the primary health care level and specialized gynecological services for teenagers.

CAMPAIGN AGAINST IMPUNITY

The procedures, functions, obligation, and rules of conduct by which authorities or their officials must perform their duties, are provided, and enacted by law.
The legislation establishes the resources, means and procedures for protecting individuals from infringements incurred by authorities or their officials while exercising their duties, for rectifying such infringements and for demanding responsibility, including criminal responsibility, to whomever it may correspond.
There is no margin for impunity.

RIGHTS OF GIRLS, BOYS AND ADOLESCENTS

Protecting children and adolescents is a first-order task based on the Convention on the Rights of the Child’s postulates.
There are no children or adolescents forced to work, nor children abandoned without protection. Physical abuse is not allowed, nor is it tolerated.
The protection of children and adolescents is implemented by public policies, social programs, and community projects of great impact.

PROTECTION OF YOUTH

Youth care is developed by means of universal and free public policies and social programs.
Youth policies are characterized by a comprehensive approach and by the social equity promotion, with young people’s high participation and decision-making capacity in the political, economic, social, and cultural fields.
Priority has been given to the employment sector, focusing on developing the skills needed for young people who begin their professional life and enhance their potential.

PROTECTION OF THE ELDERLY

The new Constitution strengthened the recognition and protection the elderly’s rights, based on the principle of co-responsibility.
There are 293 senior citizen centers, with capacity for 10,023, and 155 nursing home, with 12,346 beds and 3,400 places for day care.
More than 300 doctors are specialized in Geriatrics and Gerontology.

RIGHTS OF PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES

The protection and care of this population group is fully in accordance with the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
The new Constitution ratifies and strengthens the legal protection of the rights of people with disabilities.
Persons with disabilities have access to the National Education System, which is universal and free.
The employment policy prioritizes individuals with disabilities to access regular work.

LGBTIQ PEOPLE

The new Constitution strictly prohibits discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. It also acknowledges the existence of different types of families.
Spaces for dialogue, analysis and reflection on these issues were extended, and with governmental support, activities to raise awareness and dissemination of this topic were diversified.

LABOR RIGHTS

The Constitution recognizes the right to work. Also, every person fit to work has the right to obtain a decent occupation, depending on personal preference, skills, abilities, and the economy’s and society’s demands.
Those employed individuals have the right to take a time off work, which is guaranteed by the eight-hour day, weekly rest and paid annual vacation.
The State guarantees the right to safety and health at the workplace.

RIGHT TO HEALTH

The State has the responsibility to guarantee access, cost-free status and quality of care, protection, and recovery services.
The National Health System is based on a unique model of provision of public service, free, which provides services to the 100% of the population in a comprehensive manner, without discrimination.
Cuba is, according to WHO, the best equipped nation in this sector having one doctor per every 122 inhabitants.
Life expectancy is 78,45 years as average.

FREEDOM OF OPINION, EXPRESSION AND PRESS

As in other countries, it is not possible to use the exercise of these rights to violate the law.
The material conditions for the exercise of these rights are also made easier by the fact that the essential means of social communication cannot be subject to private property, which ensures its sole use for the benefit of the people and the interests of the nation.

TRADE UNION FREEDOMS

Workers have the right to voluntarily associate and form labor organizations.
Cuban trade union organizations defend and represent the interests and rights of workers.
The trade union organizations’ leaders have the necessary guarantees in exercising their functions.

ACCESS TO INFORMATION

The Constitution establishes that all persons have the right to request and receive truthful, objective, and prompt information from the State, and to access information provided by State bodies and entities.
The country’s efforts to continue advancing in the electronic government and the informatization of society constitute an additional guarantee to facilitate access to information.

RIGHT TO SECURITY AND ASSISTANCE

The Cuban State guarantees appropriate protection for workers, their families, and the population in general by means of the Social Security System, which includes a general system, a social security system, a social assistance system, as well as special systems.
More than 1 billion pesos was spent to cover the pandemic costs, including salary support to more than 100,000 parents who focused on their children’s care during the COVID-19 pandemic.

CUBAN POLITICAL SYSTEM

The existence of a single party in the Cuban system is the result of historical and contemporary factors. As opposed to other countries, the Communist Party of Cuba (PCC by its Spanish abbreviation) does not constitute an electoral party.
The political plurality of a country is not determined by the number of parties, but by the level of participation and real representation reached by the most diverse sectors of society in managing the most important issues.

CUBAN ELECTORAL SYSTEM

The vote is free, voluntary, and secret.
All citizens have the right to choose and be chosen.
The members’ mandates of the representative organizations of the state power are eligible, renewable, and revocable.
Periodic elections are held, having a high level of popular participation.

RACIAL DISCRIMINATION

Discrimination on the race and skin color is prohibited.
There is no racial segregation or racial patterns in law enforcement institutions.
The fight against any forms of racial discrimination and its elimination is a permanent objective.

CULTURAL RIGHTS AND ACCESS TO ART AND CULTURE

Cultural rights in Cuba are widely protected. Art and culture are encouraged and promoted for all persons, without discrimination.
The cultural institutions system is extended, with the aim of bringing cultural services closer to the average citizen, and to encourage access to culture, the exercise of freedom in artistic production and the right of each person to enjoy art and culture.
Cuban cultural policy strongly supports artistic creativity.

ARTISTIC CREATION FREEDOM

No Cuban artist is pursued for his/her thoughts or expressions.
As in other countries, it is not possible to use the exercise of this right to violate the law.
Culture and freedom of artistic expression must not be manipulated to disguise foreign-financed and organized agendas.

FREEDOM OF RELIGION

Religious freedom is recognized, respected, and guaranteed.
Every person has the right to profess and practice religious beliefs or not.
Religious institutions freely nominate and position their consecrated staff.

WOMEN’S RIGHTS AND GENDER EQUALITY

The new Constitution establishes equal rights and responsibilities between women and men in the economic, political, cultural, labor, social, family, and other spheres.
In the People’ s Power National Assembly, which is the highest authority of the State, 53,2 % of the deputies are women.
Women constitute 45,8% of the workforce in the state civil sector.

GUARANTEES OF DUE PROCESS

The regulations and limits of action by which the authorities must proceed in the detention, investigation, prosecution, and trial of a person are provided for and recognized by law.
No person may be detained unless in the circumstances, in the manner, and with the guarantees determined by law; nor accused or convicted but by a competent court by virtue of laws prior to the alleged crime.
There is a proceeding of habeas corpus, to challenge the legality of an arrest.

RIGHT TO EDUCATION

Education is a right of all people, and it constitutes a responsibility of the State, which guarantees free, affordable, and quality education services for comprehensive training, from early childhood to postgraduate university education.
We have a quality education system, with universal coverage, and free at all levels of education, which is accessible without discrimination.
About 21.5% of the current expenditures of the National Budget and more than 11% of the GDP is assigned to Education.

DEMOCRACY

Democracy in Cuba is not limited to election period. It is a continuous participation exercise, support, and active control of the population over the government.
The most recent example of democracy in Cuba is the new Constitution of the Republic, ratified in a popular referendum by the approval of 86,85% of the voters.

ARBITRARY DETENTIONS AND POLITICAL PRISONERS

In Cuba, there are no arbitrary detentions or political prisoners.
Detentions are carried out in accordance with criminal procedure, for committing crimes foreseen in our laws, and complying with the broad guarantees of due process.
It is unfortunate that common criminals are presented as “political prisoners” or “human rights defenders”.

PROTECTION IN THE PENAL SYSTEM

The Cuban Penal System guarantees impartial treatment and humane living conditions for persons imprisoned.
There are facilities, specialized staff, and resources to ensure quality health care.
There is no forced labor in correctional facilities. Those voluntarily incorporated into the workforce receive economic retribution.

FREEDOM OF ASSOCIATION

Active participation of civil society organizations is promoted.
Associations created under the law freely exercise their functions, elect their leaders and representatives, and carry out their activities without state intervention.

(Taken from Granma)

If we make a moderately responsible research on the reality after that date, it immediately comes to light, that the United States has appropriated those two words –right and human– and turned them into political instruments to impose sanctionsandcarry out military aggressions, a practice it has maintained until the present day.

However, it is easy to laid bare such conception, as it has been nothing but a facade dressed with cheap sequins, hung with pins that tears apart in front of the truth during these 72 years.

I confess that I don’t know if the Universal Declaration of 1948 can justify what is happening today in that powerful northern empire.Which paragraph establishes that Donald Trump is upholding a human right by setting up cages and detention centers for immigrant minors on the border with Mexico? Where does it place the numbers of Afro-Americans killed by the police in that country whose perpetrators are unpunished? How to understand that around 11,000 people die annually by firearms in the United States?

According to numbers by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), by 2016, 73,3% of murders, 47% of robberies and 31,8% of serious assaults involved weapons. In that country, shootings in public places such as universities, cinemas, squares, hospitals, among others, are very common due to, among other reasons,the easy access to weaponry.

Who then guarantees the human rights, or better said, the lives of the children who died in a school because of the authorized use of a firearm in the hands of anyone, including minors? Who is supposed to control –but doesn’t– the purchase and use of a weapon?What interpretation should be given to the concept of human rights, when precisely on the eve of December10, the United States had almost 15 million people infected by COVID-19, and reported more than 280,000 deaths to the disease, according to WHO?

And we must associate the issue with human rights, since the President of that country bears a great responsibility –or rather, irresponsibility– for the lack of control and for having ignored the pandemic.

The violation of human rights by the United States not only takes place in its territory but it has also spread beyond its borders.

In 2001, the United States invaded Afghanistan, with the knowledge that this Asian country was one of the poorest in the world. Many years later, there are still military deployed by the Pentagon in that nation, while the number of citizens killed by US airstrikes increased by almost 330 % between 2016 and 2019, according to a study published by Brown UniversityCostsof War Project last Monday.

Moreover, the intervention has left nearly 5,000 dead soldiers, of whom 3,356 are US citizens, tens of thousands of civilians killed and more than 50,536 injured since the UN began collecting statistics on the issue.

The United States invaded Iraq under a crude lie regarding weapons of mass destruction that never existed. They did it to enforce human rights in that nation, according to the then-president George W. Bush

In these 17 years, more than 600,000 people have died, most of them civilians, victims of bombs, rockets, and depleted uranium, according to British magazineThe Lancet.

The same has happened in Libya and Syria, where even today, they kill civilians and then call them “collateral damage”, they publicly steal oil and hinder the fight against terrorism bylocal forces.

Another US-led war, which is as cruel as the military one, is the use of economic, financial, and commercial sanctions against countries whose governments don’t align with the imperial policy and choose to defend their independence and sovereignty.

Countries such as Cuba, which has endured a financial, commercial and economic blockade imposed by the US for more than 60 years, the Bolivarian Venezuela and Sandinista Nicaragua are examples of the above. They also use sanctions against the Islamic Republic of Iran, North Korea, Syria, and the impoverished Yemen, among other countries.

Besides, they have added to this shameful list, sanctions against Russia and China, challenging world’s balance and peace.

The United States isa country whose government claims to be the example for guaranteeing human rights.Why are they allowed to present themselves as defender of human rights when there are plenty of examples of their foolishness and hypocrisy?

(Taken from Granma)