Black men with higher education degrees earn on average 29% less than whites, while the difference is 27% in the case of women, according to a study by the Brazilian research institute Locomotiva.

Among the 12.8 million unemployed today in the nation, 64.3% are Black or mixed race, Prensa Latina reported citing PNAD data.

The figures also show inequality in the business world: Blacks occupy only 4.7% of executive positions and 6.5% of management positions, according to a study of the 500 largest companies in Brazil, conducted by the Ethos Institute.

The 2019 Violence Atlas, published by the Institute of Applied Economic Research, in association with the National Public Security Forum, in Brazil, 65,602 intentional violent deaths were recorded in 2017. Of these, as reported by the Forum’s journal, more than 75% of the victims were Black.

The latest statistics released by the UN show that some 23,000 young Blacks die violently every year in Brazil, equivalent to one every 23 minutes.

The study also found that young Black women are more than twice as likely to be victims of homicide as young white women.

These are figures that, according to the UN, reveal “the weight of racism in the current scenario of violence in the country.” In this sense, a Black person is much more likely to be killed compared to other citizens, regardless of age, sex, schooling, or neighborhood of residence

Black youth and adolescents in Brazil are more likely today to commit suicide than whites, PL quotes from a study by the Ministry of Health, published by the G1 news site.

From 2012 to 2016, the suicide mortality rate for the Black population increased by 12%. For every ten suicides within this age group, six were of African descent.

These figures on violence in Brazil may get worse, given the more flexible regulations governing possession of weapons decreed by President Jair Bolsonaro, since more than 70% of the homicides (47,500) were carried out with firearms.

Black youth and adolescents in Brazil are more likely today to commit suicide than whites, PL quotes from a study by the Ministry of Health, published by the G1 news portal.

The national average of homicides is 31.6 deaths per 100,000 inhabitants, much higher than a rate of 10 that is considered an “epidemic of violence” by the World Health Organization (WHO), according to ABC International.

Racial discrimination and inequality faced by the Black population, and particularly young Blacks, represent a “situation of structural discrimination, in which the rights of access to higher education, health, work, decent housing, among others, have been severely affected,” the Atlas of Violence states.

The mere presence of young Blacks in certain places frightens some, who immediately seek “help” from the police, limiting access to public recreation sites, a situation that creates great pressure on these young people and adolescents, whose opportunities for socialization are restricted as a result of discrimination and prejudice.

Police interventions in many of cases are violent, as well as unnecessary. The data is especially significant in terms of the young Black population, when it comes to police action, especially in favelas and suburbs, where they are sometimes massacred with impunity, under the pretext of a drug war.

Of the 99.5% of victims recorded as “homicides resulting from police intervention”, 79% were black and 75% young, according to data released by Amnesty International Brazil, showing the seriousness of the matter.

The violence that bleeds Brazil once again sets a historical record, hopefully, as the PT governments attempted, concrete steps will be taken to resolve such a painful situation.

(Granma)

This argument, which not even the hateful John Bolton believes, is the media message they are attempting to impose, along with the supposed support of some 50 countries, and the “legitimacy” of an imposter like Juan Guaidó, who applauds the attack on his own people.

The plan is not new. The blockade of Cuba has been in place for more than 60 years. First, the sanctions were “against Castro” – they said – while clarifying that they did not intend to affect the Cuban population. The word “affect” is misused, because what has been attempted is starvation, but the verb “to surrender” is not used in our country.

Cuba has never believed these lies, or those disguised as carrots. Fidel, a loyal follower of Martí’s ideas, understood well the entrails of the beast.

The sanctions, the total blockade, suspension of purchases of our products, persecution around the world to sanction those who trade with Cuba, threats and even armed intervention, terrorist attacks of all kinds, financing of mercenaries within the country, radio and TV broadcasts directed toward our territory, among other hostile actions, ran into a wall of dignity and resistance.

Many of them, with new names and more money, are still used in the 21st century.

To subjugate Cuba, Washington called upon misguided Europeans, who eventually bowed down and imposed a so-called “common position” to make the blockade even more cruel.

It is no accident that U.S. governments have made economic and financial sanctions their main weapon before resorting to war, invasions, and bombings. And it is no coincidence that peoples resist, overcome, and never lower their flags.

In the case of Venezuela, as with Cuba and Nicaragua, the U.S. has used as a front for their policy the discredited Organization of American States, which after the failures, on orders from Washington, has formed the so-called Lima Group, in which representatives of some governments parrot the notion that the sanctions are not directed against the people, but against Maduro.

IN CONTEXT:

Once the U.S. blockade of Venezuela was formalized on August 5, via an Executive Order issued by President Donald Trump, the anti-Chavista media and political representatives launched a whitewashing campaign.

The assets which the measure mainly affects (the Citgo oil company) are not owned by the government, but by the state. And this means that, ultimately, they belong to the nation. To all Venezuelans.

Citgo and other properties in the United States do not “belong” to the government, although it is responsible for their administration and management.

But the story line of presenting the sanctions to the public, in this way, serves two objectives: removing Venezuelan society as a whole as the main victim of the recently declared blockade, while concealing the theft of assets that belong to all Venezuelans, valued at more than 20 billion dollars.

The Executive Order is causing a major disruption of economic and commercial relations with the Venezuelan state internationally, prohibiting any type of transaction for the import of basic goods to the country.

The desired consequences are clear: the undermining of Venezuela’s social protection system; the progressive dismantling of public services; and greater economic discomfort due to shortages and high costs of essential items like food and medicine.

But these obstacles and the impact on the population have been growing for years, under a cumulative logic … In this sense, the only feature that differentiates the scope of this Executive Order, from past efforts, is the legal seal given the economic, commercial, and financial blockade, begun in 2015.

(Granma)

Related Information: On 12 March 1996, US President William Clinton signed the Public Act No. 104-114, “Cuban Liberty and Democratic Solidarity (LIBERTAD) Act of 1996”, commonly known as the Helms-Burton Act because of the names of their Republican sponsors North Carolina Senator Jesse Helms and Indiana Representative Dan Burton.

• The Helms-Burton Act constitutes a direct attack on Cuba’s sovereignty and on its political and economic system.

Related Information: The Helms-Burton Act is composed of four Titles.

 Title I aims to internationally strengthen application of the blockade and economic sanctions against Cuba.

 Title II establishes a sort of political “transition” plan in Cuba and of US intervention in the future of our country.

 Title III proposes that persons claiming holdings that were nationalized or expropriated in Cuba, including persons who at that time were not American citizens, must be protected. Therefore, it establishes a group of rules that include the possibility of filing lawsuits in US courts on entities “trafficking” with those holdings. The possibility of suing the beneficiaries of the “trafficking” has been suspended consistently from 1996 until the present.

 Title IV prohibits the entry into the United States of executives and their families and of the owners of entities “trafficking” with nationalized or expropriated holdings.

• The Helms-Burton Act intends to internationalize the unilateral US blockade against Cuba.

Related Information: The Helms-Burton Act intends to nationalize the blockade by means of coercive measures against third countries, in order to interrupt their investment and trade relations with Cuba and to submit those sovereign States to the will of the United States.

• The Helms-Burton Act intends to cancel the sovereign rights of a country to nationalize and expropriate foreign and national assets.

• The Helms-Burton Act intends to prevent that all nations determine compensation terms in a sovereign manner and in accordance with international law.

• The aim of the Helms-Burton Act is to impose a government in Cuba, to recover US dominion over the island and to incorporate it into its geopolitical strategy.

Related Information: Those intentions trace a continuous line through the various instruments and mechanisms used by the US for this aim during 12 different administrations. The Torricelli Act of 1992 and the 2004 Bush Plan are irrefutable demonstrations of that.

Title III of the Helms-Burton Act

• On 16 January 2019, the US State Department announced its decision to suspend application of Title III of the Helms-Burton Act for just 45 days, contrary to the practice assumed since 1996 by US presidents who had made use of their executive prerogative to suspend application of said title every six months.

• On 4 March 2019, the US State Department announced it would extend suspension of the application of legal actions conceived by Title III of the Helms-Burton Act for 30 days. It also overstepped the decision to permit lawsuits to be filed in US courts against companies included on the List of Restricted Cuban Entities, under this chapter; this constituted an escalation of the aggressive behavior of the current Administration against Cuba.

• The measure directly attacks Cuban entities, seeking to put a stranglehold on the country’s economy and to impose additional roadblocks to its development. For the time being, the interests of important US trading partners who at the same time maintain a presence in Cuba are not being affected.

• Last March 4th’s announcement does not exactly mean that this is a final decision in regards to application of Title III for Cuba. The term of the 30 days of its suspension will be used to evaluate new alternatives, in such a way that this chapter can continue to be applied partially, even totally.

• The announcement of broadening the List of Restricted Cuban Entities seeks to have a twofold negative impact, given the implications inclusion on the List would generate per se and by the increase in lawsuits that could be produced in US courts under Title III.

• We cannot rule out that the legal actions conceived by Title III are activated to do damage to foreign investors in Cuba; this would reinforce the blockade, flagrantly violate international law and would directly attack the sovereignty and interests of third countries.

• The aim of suffocating the Cuban Revolution and wiping our socialism has been common to all US governments.

• If Title III of the Helms-Burton Act would be applied, any Cuban man and woman and every community in the country would see how lawsuits would be filed in US courts for ownership of the homes they are occupying, the schools attended by their children, the polyclinics where they get medical care and the land on which they built their neighborhoods.

• Title III of the Helms-Burton Act intends to seize the wealth of the country from Cuba, the infrastructure, the agricultural land, the industries, the mining resources, the energy potential and the bases upon which science and technology is developed and services are provided to the population.

The Bush Plan and the Helms-Burton Act

• The Bush Plan was the implementation of the basic ideas of the Helms-Burton Act.

Related Information: The Bush Plan constituted the official policy of the US government during the presidency of George W. Bush.

It was an interventionist plan destined to overthrow the Revolution and to dismantle the Cuban constitutional system, openly contemptuous of the principles enshrined in International law and the UN Charter.

It did not limit itself to recommending the measures considered to be necessary to overthrow the Cuban revolutionary government but it describes the plan that has to be applied in order to erase every last vestige of socialism, reinstall the capitalist system in Cuba and create conditions to encourage the country’s annexation to the United States.

It constituted the legitimization of the so-called Bush doctrine of “change of regime” for the case of Cuba and it represented the escalated aggressiveness of the US government against Cuba. It was issued in May of 2004 and updated in July of 2006.

• Both the implementation of the Bush Plan and the activation of Title III of the Helms-Burton Act are violations of International Law and have as their objective the overthrow of the Cuban Revolution.

• Just like the current policy of President Trump, the Bush Plan involved an even greater strengthening of the blockade, intensification of subversion and the propaganda warfare, and total reinforcement of the US offensive to internationalize its policy against Cuba.

• One of the fundamental measures proposed by the Bush Plan was the total or selective application of Title II of the Helms-Burton Act. But Bush suspended its application every six months.

• The Bush Plan envisaged privatization of health services and education as measures of the “transition government”; the elimination of the social security system; returning nationalized holdings to US citizens and to the Cubans who subsequently acquired US citizenship, among other actions, which would obliterate all the social achievements of our system.

• With the Bush Plan the US reinforced its offensive to promote its policy against Cuba and to try to achieve international support, just as the senior officials of the trump administration are trying to do today.

• The hostile rhetoric of the US government towards Cuba tends to take up again the aggressive attitude of the Bush Plan and the Helms-Burton Act: both of these are documents counter to all the rules of international law and of relations between nations.

• The group of measures gathered together in the Bush Plan and in Title III of the Helms-Burton Act sketch out what would constitute an open interventionist action in the affairs of Cuba and the encouragement of counterrevolutionary subversion.

• The contents of the Bush Plan and Title III of the Helms-Burton Act openly signal the interest of the United States to promote so-called dissidents, to increase illegal radio and television broadcasts to Cuba, to suffocate the national economy, to spread propaganda about the supposed military threat of Cuba and to increase international campaigns to shatter the prestige of the Cuban government.

• The creation of a Taskforce by the current US government to broaden internet access for Cuba seeks to subvert internal order and to encourage a channel for destabilization, just as the designs of the documents of past administrations (the Bush Plan or Title III of the Helms-Burton Act) tried to do.

• The US government materializes its interventionist aims in documents such as the Bush Plan or Title III of the Helms-Burton Act by maintaining illegal radio and television broadcasts, as well as million-dollar funds destined for these and other projects that violate Cuban constitutional order and attack our sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity.

• The plans of the US government to promote a transition government in Cuba found in the Bush Plan or Title III of the Helms-Burton Act seem to reappear in the current context in order to be applied in Cuba and in Venezuela.

According to a press release issued by the department, private and corporate planes, cruise ships, sailboats, fishing boats, and similar vessels will be prohibited from traveling to Cuba, although an “exemption” is available for certain previously authorized group educational visits, for which at least one transaction related to the trip, such as the purchase of a ticket or reservation, was completed before June 5. Civil aircraft that operate under Air Carrier Certificates or other specifications of the Federal Aviation Administration will be authorized to travel to the island.

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin stated that the restrictions are meant to put a brake on “the destabilizing role of Cuba in Latin America,” and that he is “worried” about Cuban support to Venezuela and Nicaragua.
What should worry him is the example of Cuba before the world, a small island that for more than 60 years has resisted the attacks of the greatest empire history has known, and extends its solidarity to all peoples in need, sharing not what we have left over, but even what we lack, as Army General Raul Castro Ruz said.

Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla tweeted on Tuesday that differences must be resolved on the basis of dialogue and cooperation, adhering strictly to international law, and strongly denounced the new sanctions, saying “They intend to strangle the economy and damage Cubans’ standard of living, to wrest political concessions from us. They will fail once again. ”

President Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez insisted that Cuba will not be intimidated or distracted by new threats or restrictions. “Work, creativity, effort, and resistance is our answer. They have not been able to asphyxiate us. They cannot stop us. We will live and we will triumph,” he said.

(Granma)

Yesterday, both countries held in Washington the fourth meeting dedicated to addressing issues of enforcement and compliance with the law, meeting in which the Cuban delegation urged the hostess to desist from the continued political manipulation of the issue of US officials.

According to the State Department press release on yesterday’s meeting, the parties ‘also discussed the health attacks against diplomatic personnel of the US embassy in Havana, including two recent cases.’

‘The US delegation reminded Cubans of their responsibility to protect officials from harm,’ it continued, in a language that is far from the spirit of a bilateral mechanism created to coordinate the fight against illicit crimes of concern to the world community, such as drug and human trafficking.

According to the statement from the Cuban side, issued as a result of the meeting, the alleged health cases served the White House as a pretext for the adoption of new unilateral measures that affect the functioning of the respective embassies, in particular, the provision of consular services on which hundreds of thousands of people depend.

Donald Trump, since his arrival in the presidency, in January 2017, has escalated in the aggressive posture towards Cuba, without hiding his determination to dismantle the approach initiated by his predecessor, Barack Obama, which led to the reestablishment of relations, the reopening of the embassies and the signing of twenty agreements.

(Prensa Latina)

The most recent ruling was made by Judge André Nabarrete Neto, who indicated in his statement that former Brazilian heads of state are awarded “rights and prerogatives (not benefits) in consonance with the assumption of the Republic’s highest office, and have no legal limitations.”

It is worth recalling that these rights were withdrawn earlier by Judge Haroldo Nader, who justified the move saying that as long as Lula remained imprisoned, he was unable to make use of the prerogatives, teleSUR reported.

Nonetheless, the law stipulates that these rights are awarded to former Presidents for life, given the high ranking position they held.

“The explicit legal norms guarantee former Presidents not only security personnel, but also personal support and security for their property, since assistants of their confidence are needed to maintain their dignity and subsistence,” Judge Nabarrete explained in his ruling.

Thus this second level of the Brazilian court system reversed the May 17 decision by Judge Nader, describing as misguided the order to withdraw services to which Lula is entitled.

It is worth mentioning that all former Brazilian Presidents are entitled, by law and for life, to a team of eight people paid through the Cabinet budget.

Lula has been in prison since April 7, at the Federal Police headquarters in Curitiba, where he is serving a sentence of 12 years and one month for alleged corruption and money laundering, charges which have not been proven.

Beyond the restitution of his rights, the Brazilian Workers’ Party (PT) presidential candidate for the general elections of October, for which he is the favourite, remains in prison as a result of a rigged process.

WHAT WAS LULA’S CRIME?
÷÷ Helping to provide a platform that has given union movements and their struggles a voice.

÷÷ Winning the presidential elections in 2002 representing the PT, with the largest number of votes in the history of Brazil.

÷÷ An 80% approval rate in his second term, economic growth of 7.5%, and a minimum salary 54% higher than in his first term in government.

÷÷ Lifting more than 30 million Brazilians out of poverty, reducing the unemployment rate and placing the country on the map of emerging powers.

÷÷ Inspiring the largest country in Latin America and the Caribbean, and projecting an image of order and progress, just as is inscribed on its flag.

TIMELINE OF A WRONGFUL CONVICTION

2014

÷÷ The Petrobras scandal emerges.

÷÷ José Dirceu, former government minister under Lula, is detained.

÷÷ Lula and Dilma Rousseff are implicated in the corruption case.

2016

÷÷ The police begin to investigate Lula for influence peddling.

÷÷ Da Silva presents his written defense.

÷÷ Lula is accused of enriching himself through corruption.

÷÷ Public Prosecutor’s Office denounces the former Brazilian President for the first time.

÷÷ Lula goes from being a minister to a former minister in just one day.

÷÷ A judge in Brasilia accuses Lula of trying to bribe a defendant in the Petrobras case.

÷÷ Accept another indictment against Lula (now totaling five).

2017

÷÷ Lula testifies before Judge Sergio Moro.

÷÷ New accusation from the Public Prosecutor’s Office.

÷÷ Lula is sentenced to nine years in prison.

2018

÷÷ Appeals court upholds Lula’s conviction and increases his sentence.

÷÷ Go ahead given for Lula’s imprisonment.

÷÷ The Supreme Court rejects Lula’s final appeal.

BRAZIL DURING THE SAME PERIOD

2016

÷÷ President Dilma Rousseff is ousted from office.

÷÷ Michel Temer becomes President.

2017

÷÷ Da Silva doesn’t rule out running as a presidential candidate in 2018.

÷÷ In polls, support soars for the former president, while the process to prevent his candidacy advances.

÷÷ Political tensions led to an escalation of violence in the country’s streets.

2018

÷÷ Trucker drivers and oil workers strikes paralyze the nation.

÷÷ An increase in political violence, including the assassination of Marielle Franco.

÷÷ Lula put in isolation.

÷÷ Lula denied visits in Curitiba prison. Dilma Rousseff, Gleisi Hoffmann (PT president), Carlos Lupi (president of the Democratic Labor Party), Nobel Peace Prize winner Adolfo Pérez Esquivel, and intellectual Leonardo Boff are prevented from seeing him.

÷÷ Deputy Paulo Pimenta visits Lula and assures that he is aware of what is happening.

÷÷ Pimenta notes that Lula will be registered on August 15 as PT presidential candidate, and remains the favorite to win.

(Granma)