Artists, when they are genuine and their projects are based on popular expression, do not easily succumb to the interests of third parties who often start out disguised as authentic, to later be exposed as vile posers.

Conducting a quick review of renowned names in universal art, we will notice that the most honorable have always acted in a principled manner, paying a significant political – and economic – price in their careers, but able to sleep with a clear conscience and peace of mind. Reading classics like Shakespeare and Goethe is enough to understand much of the wickedness that permeates the human psyche which these authors only portray in the shadows of some of their works, the inherent evil of those who, like Faust, sell their souls to the devil.

But we could ask ourselves just how expensive doing so can be, or not, and why some have preferred to choose the path of no return, knowing that like Goethe’s unfortunate character, they will never again be able to look back.

On the ever-changing battlefield of virtual warfare or cultural hyperconfrontation, to which we find ourselves obliged to respond, several individuals have achieved Pyrrhic victories and celebrate among their kind. But, to be honest, the taste of success is short-lived, since even if their deeds are considered accomplishments, they do not escape the aforementioned descriptor.

The empire devotes millions of dollars on attempts to make our culture invisible, and music is a top priority. Is not this industry one of the most profitable in recent years? Is it not one they depend on to keep us mesmerized like zombies?

Thus, the creation of negative values, the denial of talent and constant attacks on strong musical expressions have been – and are – key elements of the neoliberal strategy focused on destroying anything that smells of Revolution. A society created and sustained by pseudo musical values, in which rapacious consumption and the appropriation of codes of violence are increasingly profitable, is what they want to impose on those of us who resist the cultural hegemony created in laboratories and foundations with interventionist goals.

Unfortunately, some succumb to the unbridled song of sirens, while others -most – cover their ears like the wise Ulysses, not deceived like 21st century fools. They do not care to live for crumbs, for visas or legal residence, for small change to perform in low-rent venues.

What they get in return for this honorable position is a miserable media campaign to discredit them, internet lynchings and the dramatic hysteria of the sell-outs – some of whom go so far as to join calls for an invasion of Cuba, as if this were not an act of treason, annexationism and genocide. Some have exchanged giant stages for a dive bar where they waste away singing 45 minutes, for an audience of 150. These few are, no doubt, the Fausts and Macbeths of our times, the same demons that inspired Goethe and Shakespeare, who would not hesitate to murder those they once considered family.

(Taken from Granma)

As is known, the popular vote does not decide the winner of the elections, taking into account that it is a process of indirect suffrage. Candidates must win each state to add voters and obtain at least 270 electoral college votes out of a total of 538. According to Real Clear Politics, Biden has secured 226 electoral votes so far, Trump 125 and the remaining 187 are in dispute.

Taking into account the millions of dollars in advertising investment in television by the Democratic and Republican Party, the electoral battle is concentrated in Pennsylvania, with 20 electoral votes and Florida with 29, considered the most competitive and decisive states in these elections. Several studies indicate that if President Donald Trump does not succeed in Florida, he will lose reelection.

The Democratic candidate is also leading in Florida, by an average of 2 points. According to Real Clear Politics, 47.8% of those polled indicated that they would vote for Biden, while 45.8% would vote for Trump. It is precisely in that state where 70% of the Cuban-American community resides, with more than 1,200,000 people. Around 650,000 of them are registered to vote, which represents 6% of the electorate.

Historically, Cuban-American voters have favored the Republican Party, although that trend has been weakening in recent years. That is why both parties strive to secure the largest number of votes from that community, taking into account the closeness of the contest, and that it could decide if the competition is very close.

In this context, a new survey was carried out by Florida International University on the position of Cuban Americans, which has been carried out every two years since the 1990s. The results were published this Friday and are based on a telephone survey – between the July 7 and August 17, 2020- 1002 Cuban-Americans residing in Miami-Dade County. The criteria of the interviewees are very diverse and ambivalent, although there are greater percentages of agreement on some issues such as President Trump’s handling of the economy, medical care, and policy towards the island. [1]

The study shows that 59% of the Cuban-Americans interviewed indicated that they would vote for Trump, and only 25% would vote for Biden. 68% approve the imposition of new sanctions to force a “regime change” in Cuba and 54% support the economic, commercial and financial blockade imposed by the US government against their country of origin.

However, 66% consider that the blockade has not worked or has not worked very well, and 57% support suspending sanctions against Cuba during the COVID-19 pandemic. 58% approve the resumption of the issuance of visas in the US embassy in Havana and 60% the family reunification program.

Research also shows that the community supports some of the policies implemented by then-President Barack Obama towards Cuba. 74% support the sale of medicines, 69% the sale of food, 65% the resumption of air travel to all regions of the country and 58% in maintaining diplomatic relations.

For Guillermo J. Grenier, director of the study and head of the Department of Global and Sociocultural Studies at Florida International University, the biggest surprise in the results is the progress of the Republican Party in the community, mainly among Cubans who recently arrived United States. 76% of respondents who arrived between 2010 and 2015 said they were Republicans.

This is a very complex subject to analyze and one that would require further investigation. The reality is that it is still very difficult to forecast the Cuban-American vote on November 3. It should be taken into account that these elections take place in the middle of a scenario of systemic crisis in the United States, aggravated by the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, which exceeds 208 thousand deaths and 7 million 300 thousand people infected ; the economic recession that has caused that 30 million people have had to request unemployment benefits and almost 40 million are threatened of being expelled from their homes due to accumulated defaults; and anti-racist mobilizations and police abuse.

In the past seven months, political polarization has increased and the current administration has fostered division, hatred and violence in American society. In this environment, the Cuban-American extreme right encourages the US executive to escalate hostility against the Cuban Revolution, using the alleged “communist threat” as a pretext. The unusual thing is that on this occasion they accuse the democrats of embracing socialist ideas, which has no theoretical or practical support.

It is part of his strategy to promote fear, chaos and uncertainty within the Cuban-American community. Trump uses the far-right of Cuban origin to discredit the Democrats and exacerbate the phobia against socialism. Furthermore, it is clear that there is a mutual convenience in employing Cuban Americans as a spearhead in the Latino community, which overwhelmingly rejects the tenant of the White House.

In recent weeks, desperate actions have been seen in the face of a possible Republican electoral defeat. It was the panorama that was experienced in the first presidential debate, which left much to be desired due to the embarrassing performance of Trump, who in the middle of the show showed serious personality problems and used his main political weapon: the lie.

The Washington Post recently acknowledged that past presidents have lied or misrepresented the truth, but Trump’s distortions are on an epic scale. As of July, according to a database maintained by the Post, Trump had made more than 20,000 false or misleading statements in just three and a half years, including more than 1,000 exclusively about the coronavirus. The most common false claims are that you have been a participant in the best moment of the economy of all time, and that you approved the largest tax cut in history. [two]

Among these repeated lies are those dedicated to attacking Cuba and trying to distance the Cuban-American community from its homeland, sowing hatred and neglect. For these purposes they allocate millionaire sums of money and use all the methods at their disposal, including internet social networks. It was to be expected that these positions would be stoked by Trump in the next presidential debate scheduled for October 15 in Miami, but it will not be possible because, paradoxically, the US president tested positive for COVID-19 and is admitted to be cured of the disease.

More than a century ago, the most universal of Cubans, José Martí, visited several American cities to contribute to the dissemination of the work that was being carried out in the resumption of the fight for the independence of Cuba, submitted as a colony and threatened by the desires of the “ a thriving and ambitious neighbor ”. On November 26, 1891, he gave an emotional speech at the Cuban Lyceum in Tampa and is known by the phrase “With everyone and for the good of all.” Due to its validity, I share only one fragment that invites all worthy Cubans to reflect: “Enough of mere words! From the torn entrails let us raise an inextinguishable love for the Homeland without which no man lives happily, neither the good nor the bad ”. [3]

(By: Abel González Santamaría/ Cubadebate)

by: W. T. Whitney Jr.

May 17 2012

Early on April 27, fire destroyed the Coral Gables, Fla., offices of Airline Brokers, a charter flight provider servicing Cuba and other countries. The Fire Department blamed arson.

A U.S. embassy official in Spain a week later was at the Madrid airport to enforce U.S.- imposed “no-fly” rules. The two incidents point to difficulties in applying the U.S. war on terror to Cuba.

Operating for 30 years, Airline Brokers arranges for seven charter flights a week from Miami and Ft. Lauderdale to Cuba. The company limits Cuba travel to “persons who are generally or specifically licensed to travel to Cuba.” Cuban Americans last year made 400,000 trips to the island, reports Andres Gomez of Miami’s Alianza Martiana. “The criminal action that destroyed the offices of Airline Brokers is a terrorist act,” he adds, “not only against this company but even more important, it’s an act of terrorism against the right of all U.S. citizens to travel to Cuba.”

Company owner Vivian Mannerud pointed out that as of May 2 public officials in Florida hadn’t condemned the arson attack. Local observers see Airline Brokers as singled out because of its role in Cuba travel and because of arrangements it made for 340 Florida residents to be in Cuba on the occasion of Pope Benedict XV’s recent visit there.

Terror applied to Cuba and people elsewhere working for decent U.S.-Cuban relations is not new. Earlier, bombings and shoot-ups were endemic on the island. Blame fell on violent counter-revolutionaries there allied to the CIA and on Cuban-American private military groups. Perpetrator and ex-CIA operative Luis Posada found refuge in Florida. Florida bias and flawed court proceedings led to long prison terms for the Cuban Five, Cuban defenders against terror. The recent incendiary attack recalls earlier attacks on Floridians and Puerto Ricans trying to re-connect with Cuba. An atmosphere stemming from hatred and violent ideology has contributed to impunity.

A signature U.S. policy is thus marked by contradiction: war is waged on terrorism, while violence against Cuba or U.S. friends of Cuba gets a blind eye.

Journalist Hernando Calvo Ospina is familiar with this skewed approach to anti-terrorism. The Colombian native living in French exile flew from Paris to the Madrid-Barajas airport on May 5. There he learned from a U.S. embassy official that his name was “on a list of persons dangerous to the security of his country” and that his Air Europa flight to Havana would leave without him. He learned that “for a few minutes” the flight enters U.S. airspace.
In 2009, Calvo Ospina flew on Air France from Paris to Mexico City. Over the Atlantic, the plane detoured to Martinique unexpectedly to refuel. On arrival five hours late in Mexico City, he learned his presence on the plane had caused the detour. The flight was to have passed over U.S. soil, and he was “unwelcome for reasons of (U. S.) national security.”

As a Colombian journalism student in 1985, Calvo Ospina was captured and nearly killed during a joint Ecuadorian-Colombian military operation. First accused and then cleared of links to leftist Colombian insurgents, he remained imprisoned in a Ecuador prison until worldwide pressure forced his release. Reports of guerrilla associations may still resonate with the U.S. government.

His books may also be worrisome to some. In “Cuban Exile Movement, Dissidents or Mercenaries,” released in 2000, Calvo Ospina and colleague Katlijn Declercq interviewed Cuban-American leaders. They demonstrated that foreign intelligence agencies paid for anti-Cuban terror actions. The book highlights U.S.-European cooperative attempts to destabilize the Cuban government.

Two years later, in “Bacardi, The Hidden War,” Calvo Ospina accused rum company owners of funding U.S. government and Cuban-American efforts to overthrow Cuba’s government. He highlighted Barcardi payoffs to

secure passage of the 1996 U.S. Helms Burton Law and fund assassination attempts against Cuban government leaders.

In 2010 Calvo Ospina wrote “The CIA Shock Team.” According to analyst Pascual Serrano, the author surveys “crimes, coups, conspiracies, invasions, and occupations organized by the CIA [since 1954]. Its great merit is naming the criminals.”

Since 1982 the U.S. government has identified Cuba as a state sponsor of terrorism. Yet Cuban support for Colombian leftist guerrillas, as claimed, is unproven, Basque insurgents were in Cuba at the request of the Spanish government, and sanctuary for a couple of U. S. Black liberation activists from the 1970s is surely small potatoes.

This policy, as with other regrettable consequences of the U.S. anti-terror war – civilian deaths, funds diverted from social programs, and assaults on constitutional rights – unfolds almost automatically. However the U.S. approach to Cuba is grounded upon stark contradiction, plus a pervasive spirit of vindictiveness.

Bernie Dwyer interviewed Richard Klugh, by telephone to his office in Miami on Friday, 14^th October 2011

“There is, to my knowledge, no prior case in the history of the United States in which someone who has foreign nationality, as René has, whose family lives in a foreign country and whose wife cannot travel to the United States, has been barred from re-uniting with his family -family being so important to the very purpose of supervised release”.

Bernie Dwyer (BD): Before addressing René’s probation conditions, maybe we could clear up a couple of misunderstandings. Some media reports seem to suggest that the probation period that René is serving in Florida was additional to his original sentence and that it was slapped on him without much notice. Could you clear that up, please?

Richard Klugh (RK): The supervised release or probation term was part of the original sentence. It’s part of every sentence. What was decided at the last moment was that unlike other foreign nationals whose families live outside of the United States, René would not be permitted to join his family.

BD: Is this because he is a US citizen?

RK: The explanation given — and this is a unique case, and when I say unique it is the only time that it has ever occurred — is that because the court has the power to keep him in the United States, the court is going to keep him in the United States. There was not a mention of his US citizenship in any order although presumably if he were not a United States citizen, the US government could punish him in a different way by putting him through further and lengthy incarceration in order to process the deportation proceedings.

BD: It has also been suggested that René was sentenced to 15 years imprisonment and that he served his full term. On the other hand he was released after 13 years. Could you comment on that?

RK: The law in the United States, as I think is true generally in other countries, is that in order to provide an incentive to good conduct, prisoners are given credit towards the completion of their sentence by exhibiting good conduct. The credit in the United States is very small, slightly more than 10% but René’s conduct was, of course, exemplary and he had no problems whatsoever. He completed his fifteen year sentence in just slightly more than thirteen years.

BD: The night before his release, René Gonzalez was held in the isolation cell in Marianna Prison known as “The Hole”. Is this a normal procedure?

RK: To my knowledge, that is unusual, and the reasons for that have not been made clear to me. I have not previously encountered that occurring in any other situation.

BD: Can we draw anything from that?

RK: I don’t know what we can draw from it. The truth is that René was kept in a prison setting that was too high for his status.  Again, if he is being treated as a United States citizen, then of course, he should have several years ago been allowed to go to a prison camp rather than have been held in a prison. But the treatment of René was extraordinarily harsh despite his perfect conduct.

BD: Let’s talk now about René’s conditions of probation. Can you outline the regime he has to follow?

RK: He has to meet the standard conditions of supervised release. The purpose of supervised release is to reorient and reintegrate somebody into society and to do the normal things in society. One of the primary purposes is family support, going to work to support your family but of course in his situation, the entire function of supervised release appears to be to separate him from his family and make it even more difficult for him to support his family.

So it’s very difficult to reconcile the letter of the law with what the effect of it is. But he cannot violate any laws and he must report to the probation officer once a month and he must maintain a residence. Essentially those are the standard conditions. The judge added a condition in his case that was noted from the beginning as being unusual-that he was barred from associating with terrorist associations. Presumably that was to do with the fact that he was investigating the Brothers to the Rescue organization, that violated Cuban territory and that Cuba regarded as a terrorist organization. So it’s always been perplexing as to what the meaning of that part of the order was unless it meant he was to cease investigating acts of terrorism against Cuba.

BD: Is he allowed to move outside the State of Florida or must he stay within any geographical limits?

RK: His movements outside of the Southern Florida area are regulated by the court and the probation office so that he has to obtain permission.

BD: In other words, he needs to have residence there in Miami?

RK: He can theoretically petition to change his residence to a different area. However that is not automatically permitted and in a case of this type where supervised release is being used essentially as a means to further punish him it seems unlikely that he will be able to do that. But again, the irony of this case is that the supervised release is being used to prevent him from reuniting with his family, to prevent him from providing emotional and other support to his daughters and his wife and to continue to enforce the unnecessary separation of husband and wife, of father and daughters.

BD: Would you say that the regime that has been imposed on René Gonzalez is equal to that of most prisoners, and we are not talking about hardened criminals here, who come out of prison and are under supervised conditions?  Would you say that what René is going through is more or less equal to that?

RK: The difference between what René is experiencing and what other prisoners have experienced is that in every other case the defendant is allowed to rejoin his family. So the unique harshness that has happened to Rene is this case is that the fundamental purpose of a supervised release, which is to help somebody to reestablish their connection to their family, to re-establish their lives, is being completely undermined by the supervised release itself. Hence the fact that the United States has used it as a negotiating tactic makes it quite clear that its purpose is to inflict some form of harm or punishment that is not inflicted in any other case.

So that while in a technical sense, ordinarily someone would come back to live in the district and would be subject to supervision. There is, to my knowledge, no prior case in the history of the United States in which someone who has foreign nationality, as René has, whose family lives in a foreign country and whose wife cannot travel to the United States, has been barred from re-uniting with his family -family being so important to the very purpose of supervised release.

BD: And René Gonzalez himself, what form is he in with this new imposition that he has to suffer?

RK: René is a very strong individual. Obviously he has indicated in an expressive way how strongly he feels that the mission that he was on had no intent at all to harm the United States and that he harbors no ill-will towards the United States in that regard. So he’s a strong individual who will be able to withstand whatever form of punishment he faces. And it’s unfortunate that processes that are meant for other purposes are being used to serve political ends in a completely disproportionate and unjust way.

BD: Will the other four, Gerardo Hernandez, Fernando Gonzalez, Antonio Guerrero and Ramon Labanino, who are still serving out their long, long sentences, have to do their probation in the United States?

RK: Theoretically by having United States citizenship another of the Five could face the same possibilities. One would hope that when they are released they would face a more reasonable government approach.

BD: So we are talking about Antonio here. This won’t apply to Gerardo, Ramon and Fernando?

RK: That’s correct.

BD: What is the current legal position at present of the other four?

RK: They are all pursuing relief from extraordinary violations of fundamental rights to a fair trial. They are pursuing what every day is revealed more clearly to have been an illegitimate effort by the United States to create an environment that was so hostile and prejudicial to the Five that they could not possibly receive a fair trial. We are litigating point by point the fallacy of the government arguments, the presentation of false evidence, and the misuse of evidence in order to convict not just Gerardo but all of the Five, further pointing out how coordinated an effort the political and prosecutorial misconduct was in this case – again, an extraordinary and unjust way to gain these unjust convictions and sentences.

BD: Has there been any response from the US legal system?

RK: We are waiting a further response by the United States regarding the petitions filed by Ramon and Fernando and it is anticipated that they will file their response at the end of November.

This interview was broadcast by radio Havana Cuba on the 17^th October 2011

On Friday, October 7, René González will become the first member of the Cuban Five to be released from an American prison. In 2001, the Five were convicted in Miami of spying for Cuba. Cuba insists they were—justifiably—trying to prevent anti-Castro exiles from launching terrorist attacks against their homeland. The Five have since become heroes in Cuba, and their case has sparked international controversy—as has González’s pending release. Last week, the same Florida judge who originally sentenced him decided González must remain in Florida during his parole rather than granting his request to return home to his family in Havana. Why?

René González and his daughter Irma Gonzalez

On the eve of René González’s release Friday from an American prison—but not his prison America will now become—it’s worth reminding ourselves what terrible crimes he committed.

Why was he sentenced to 15 years in jail? And why do American officials now insist he serve his post-prison parole in Florida instead of in Cuba?

In 1998, González—a member of the Cuban Five spy ring— was charged with failing to formally register as an agent of a foreign government.

Guilty as charged.

In December 1990, González “stole” a small plane from a Havana airfield and “defected” to Florida. Not surprisingly, he didn’t tell authorities he was a Cuban intelligence agent whose mission was to infiltrate militant Miami exile groups.

The reason he didn’t—the reason he’d been sent to Florida in the first place—was that U.S. authorities rarely charged Cuban exiles, even those clearly violating American Neutrality Act prohibitions against launching armed attacks on another country from U.S. soil.

Cuba certainly isn’t the only country to dispatch clandestine agents to other countries in order to protect its homeland from attack. Consider… well how about post-9/11 America? How many American agents are currently operating secretly inside Pakistan because the U.S. government believes Pakistan is unable or unwilling to deal with terrorist threats there? How many of those agents registered with Pakistani authorities?

It’s also worth noting how the U.S. has dealt with other unregistered foreign agents. Last year, 10 Russians pled guilty to being long-term Moscow agents inside the United States. Instead of sending them to prison, Americans authorities sent them home in a swap for four foreign nationals the Russians had convicted of spying on them.

The Cold War was over. Except, of course, when that hot-cold war involved Cuba. Welcome to America’s war on terrorism (fighters).

In addition to feloniously failing to tell American authorities he was not an anti-Castro “freedom fighter,” René González also stood accused of… “general conspiracy”?

General what?

Despite thousands of seized documents and two years’ of pre-arrest surveillance, prosecutors couldn’t produce a shred of evidence González had ever stolen—or tried to steal, or even thought about stealing—any of America’s state secrets.

So they charged him with… general conspiracy. Which apparently means if they can’t arrest you for what you’re doing, they’ll get you for what you’re thinking… or what they think you’re thinking.

What did González really do?

While researching a book on the Five, I spent months poring over 20,000+ pages of their trial transcript and other evidence.

Here’s what the record shows René González  did.

He infiltrated—and reported back to Havana on—a militant Cuban exile organization called Partido Unidad Nacional Democracia, or PUND.

PUND trained in Florida for armed attacks against Cuba. They did so openly. In 1995, the FBI questioned members of the group in connection with one plot—but released them without charges.

González also infiltrated Brothers to the Rescue, a supposedly humanitarian group that boasted of illegal incursions into Cuban air space. Thanks to González and other agents, Havana learned:

• Brothers’ founder José Basulto inquired about purchasing a used Czech fighter jet;
• Exile militants wanted to use a Brothers’ planes for a mid-air attack on an aircraft carrying Fidel Castro to the United Nations;
• Brothers to the Rescue members test-fired anti-personnel weapons for possible use in Cuba.

And González infiltrated another supposedly peaceful group— Movimiento Democracia—whose members openly violated Cuban territorial waters.

During his time as an agent in Florida, González even served briefly as an FBI informant. A PUND member had enlisted him to ferry cocaine from Puerto Rico to Florida to raise money to buy more weapons to attack Cuba. González tipped off the FBI.

Based on the evidence, that is the sum of René González’s “general conspiracy.”

U.S. prosecutors were so unsure of their conspiracy case they offered González ever sweeter—and more sour—inducements to cop a plea before his trial.

At one point, they dangled the carrot of avoiding trial by pleading guilty to a single count of being an unregistered agent. But “the last paragraph of the plea agreement draft,” González recalls, included “a not-so-veiled invitation to consider my wife’s resident status is at stake.”

González drew a middle finger in the space left for his signature.

The next day, August 16, 2000, immigration officials arrested his wife. In one final effort to change his mind, they brought her—now dressed in orange prison jumpsuit—to visit him in jail. When he didn’t relent, they deported her. He has not been allowed to see her since..

René González has now done his time. He’s been in jail since his arrest in 1998. He spent his first 17 months in solitary confinement. He has been, by all accounts, a model prisoner. He’s studied economics, taken up running, even completed a few half-marathons in his medium security prison. As required by Florida law, he will have served 85 per cent of his sentence inside prison before being paroled.

Now he wants to go home to Havana to see his family.

There’s no public benefit to forcing him to serve his parole in hostile Florida. He is not about to be “reintegrated” into American society, and he could be in physical danger from vengeful exiles. Still U.S. prosecutors opposed his application. The same judge who originally sentenced him sided with prosecutors.

The issue is that González continues to defend what he did.

“I have no reason to be remorseful,” González told his original sentencing hearing. He condemned the hypocrisy of the American justice system for charging him and his fellow defendants for the non-crime of trying to protect their country from terrorist attack while ignoring the real crimes of exile terrorists like Luis Posada Carriles and Orlando Bosch who stood accused of the 1976 mid-air bombing of a Cubana Airlines flight that killed 73 people, and a string of 1997 attacks on Cuban tourist hotels that killed a Canadian.

So on Friday René González will be released from his physical prison but only into another, psychic one.

Welcome to America’s continuing war on terrorism (fighters)…. Continued.

Stephen Kimber is a Canadian journalist currently writing a book on the Cuban Five. You can read more at his website: cubanfive.ca

After a cruel and undeserved 13-year prison sentence, the United States government – that gave birth to monsters such as Posada Carriles and Orlando Bosch who, as CIA agents had a hand in the exploding of a Cuban airliner full of passengers in mid-flight – forces René to remain in that nation, where he shall be at the mercy of unpunished murderers for three long years, under a regime described as supervised “freedom”.  Still unfairly and vengefully imprisoned for long terms of confinement, are another three Cuban heroes, and another one sentenced to two life terms.  That is how the empire responds to the growing world clamour for the freedom of these men.

If that were not the case, then the empire would cease to be an empire; and Obama would cease to be a fool.

Of course the Cuban heroes shall not be there forever. On the foundations of the unequalled example of dignity and steadfastness, solidarity in the world and in the very heart of the American people shall grow, and it shall put an end to the stupid and unsustainable injustice.

The uncouth decision was made when the UN General Assembly was in the midst of developing a profound debate on the necessity of re-founding that institution. Never have we heard such solid and energetic criticisms.

The Bolivarian leader Hugo Chávez opened it up with his first message to the General Assembly published on the evening of September 21st.  Chávez’ second letter, transmitted in an energetic and vibrant tone by Chancellor Nicolás Maduro, was lapidary. In that message, he also denounced the criminal imperialist blockade against our Homeland and the scandalous and cruel vengeance against the 5 Cuban anti-terrorist Heroes.

Such circumstances have forced me to write a third Reflection. I shall transmit the essential ideas of that forceful message, using the very words of the author:

“[…] We do not look for the peace of the cemetery, as said Kant ironically, but a peace based on the most zealous respect for international law. Unfortunately, the UN, through all its history, instead of adding and multiplying efforts in favor of peace among nations, ends up supporting, sometimes through its actions and other times by omission, the most ruthless injustices.”

“From 1945 on, wars have done nothing but inexorably increase and multiply themselves.”

“I want to call on the governments of the world to reflect: since September 11th, 2001, a new and unprecedented imperialist war began, a permanent war, in perpetuity.

“We have to look directly at the terrifying reality of the world we live in. […] Why is the United States the only country that scatters the planet with military bases? What is it afraid of to allocate such a staggering budget for increasing its military power? Why has it unleashed so many wars, violating the sovereignty of other nations which have the same rights on their own fates? How can international law be enforced against its insensible aspiration to militarily hegemonizing the world in order to ensure energy sources to sustain their predatory and consumer model? Why does the UN do nothing to stop Washington? […] the empire has awarded itself the role of judge of the world, without being granted this responsibility […] therefore, imperialist war threatens us all.

“Washington knows that a multi-polar world is already an irreversible reality. Its strategy consists of stopping, at any price, the sustained rise of a group of emerging countries […] the goal is to reconfigure the world so it is based on Yankee military hegemony.”

“What is behind this new Armageddon?: the absolute power of the military-financial leadership which is destroying the world in order to accumulate ever more profits; the military-financial leadership which is subordinated, de facto, to an increasingly larger group of States. Keep in mind that war is capital’s modus operandi: the war that ruins the majority and makes richer, up to the unthinkable, a few people.

“Right now, there is a very serious threat to global peace: a new cycle of colonial wars, which started in Libya, with the sinister objective of refreshing the capitalist global system, within a structural crisis today, but without any limit to its consumerist and destructive voracity.”

“Humanity is on the brink of an unimaginable catastrophe: the world is marching inexorably toward the most devastating ecocide; global warming and its frightening consequences are announcing it, but their perspective on the ecosystem, which resembles the ideology of the conquistadors Cortés and Pizarro , as the influential French thinker Edgar Morin rightly pointed out […] The energy and food crises are sharpening, but capitalism continues to trespass all the limits with impunity.

“…the great U.S. scientist Linus Pauling, awarded the Nobel Prize on two occasions, continues enlightening our path: “I believe that there is a greater power in the world than the evil power of military force, of nuclear bombs — there is the power of good, of morality, of humanitarianism. I believe in the power of the human spirit”. Let us mobilize all the power of the human spirit: it is time now. It is imperative that we unleash a great political counter-offensive in order to prevent the powers of darkness from finding justifications for going to war, from unleashing a widespread global war through which they attempt to save the western capital.”

“The warmongers, and especially the military-financial leadership that sponsors and leads them, must be defeated.

“Let’s build the balance of the universe foreseen by the Liberator, Simón Bolívar – the balance that, according to his words, cannot be found within war; the balance that is born out of peace.”

“…Venezuela, alongside the member countries of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America (ALBA), was actively advocating for a peaceful and negotiated solution to the Libyan conflict. That is also what the African Union did. However, in the end, the logic of war decreed by the UN Security Council and put into practice by NATO, the armed wing of the Yankee empire, was imposed. […]  the “Libyan Case” was brought before the Security Council on the basis of an intense propaganda by the western mass media, who lied about the alleged bombing of innocent civilians by the Libyan Air Force, not to mention the grotesque media setting of the Green Square of Tripoli. This premeditated bunch of lies was used to justify irresponsible and hasty decisions by the Security Council, which paved the way for NATO’s military regime change policy in Libya.”

“… What has the no-fly zone established by Security Council resolution 1973 become? How could NATO perform more than 20,000 missions against the Libyan people if there was a no-fly zone? After the Libyan Air Force was completely annihilated, the continued “humanitarian” bombing shows that the West, through NATO, intends to impose their interests in North Africa, turning Libya into a colonial protectorate.”

“What is the real reason for this military intervention?: Recolonizing Libya in order to capture its wealth. Everything else is related to this goal.

“…the Residence of the Venezuelan Ambassador in Tripoli was invaded and looted, and the UN kept it to itself, remaining ignominiously silent.”

“…Why is the Libyan seat in the UN granted to the “national transitional council,” while the admission of Palestine is blocked by ignoring, not only its lawful aspiration, but also the existing will of the majority of the General Assembly? Venezuela hereby ratifies its unconditional solidarity with the Palestinian people and its total support for the Palestinian national cause, which naturally includes the immediate admission of Palestine as a full member state within the United Nations.

“And the same imperialist pattern is being repeated regarding Syria.”

“It is intolerable that the powerful of this world intend to claim for themselves the right to order legitimate and sovereign governments rulers to step down. This was the case in Libya, and they want to do the same in Syria. Such are the existing asymmetries in the international setting and such are the abuses against the weakest nations.”

“If we direct our eyes to the Horn of Africa we will witness a heartbreaking example of the UN’s historical failure: most serious news agencies report that 20-29,000 children under the age of 5 have died in the last three months.”

“What is needed to face this situation is $400 million, not to solve the problem, but just to address the emergency that Somalia, Kenya, Djibouti and Ethiopia are going through. According to all sources, the next two months will be crucial to prevent more than 12 million people from dying, and the worst situation is that of Somalia.

“This reality could not be more atrocious, especially if, at the same time, we ask ourselves how much is being spent to destroy Libya. This is the answer of U.S. congressman Dennis Kucinich, who said: “This new War will cost us $500 million during its first week alone. Obviously, we do not have financial resources for that and we will end up cutting off other important domestic programs’ funding.” According to Kucinich himself, with the amount spent during the first three weeks in Northern Africa to massacre the Libyan people, much could have been done to help the entire region of the Horn of Africa, saving tens of thousands of lives.”

“…it is frankly regrettable that in the opening address of the 66th General Assembly of the UN, an immediate appeal to solve humanitarian crisis in the Horn of Africa was not made, while instead we were assured that “the time has come to act” on Syria.”

“We are also crying out for the end to the shameful and criminal blockade of our sister Republic of Cuba: a blockade that, for more than fifty years, is being exercised by the empire with cruelty and brutality, against the heroic peoples of José Martí.

“As of 2010, 19 UN General Assembly votes confirm the universal will demanding that the United States stop the economic and trade blockade against Cuba. Since all sensible international arguments have been exhausted, we have no choice but to believe that such cruel actions against the Cuban Revolution result from imperial arrogance in view of the dignity and courage shown by the unsubmissive Cuban people in their sovereign decision to determine their own fate and fight for their happiness.

“From Venezuela, we believe it is time to demand of the U.S. not only an immediate and unconditional end to the criminal blockade imposed against the Cuban people, but also the release of the five Cuban antiterrorist fighters held hostage in the prisons of the American Empire for the sole reason of seeking to prevent the illegal actions of terrorist groups against Cuba, under the shelter of the U.S. government.”

“For us, it is obvious that the UN is not improving, nor will it improve from the inside. If the Secretary General, along with the President of the International Criminal Court, take part in an act of war, as in the case of Libya, nothing can be expected from the current structure of this organization and there is no longer time for reform.”

“It is unbearable that there is a Security Council that turns its back, whenever it wants to, on the clamor of the majority of nations by deliberately failing to acknowledge the will of the General Assembly. If the Security Council is some sort of club with privileged members, what can the General Assembly do? Where is its room for maneuver, when Security Council members violate international law?

“Paraphrasing Bolívar when he spoke of nascent Yankee imperialism in 1818, we have had enough of the weak following the law while the strong commit abuses. It cannot be us, the peoples of the South, who respect international law while the North violates it, destroying and plundering us.

“If we do not make a commitment, once and for all, to rebuilding the United Nations, this organization will lose its remaining credibility. Its crisis of legitimacy will be accelerated until it finally implodes. In fact, that is what happened to its immediate predecessor: the League of Nations.”

“The future of a multi-polar world in peace lies with us.  In the articulation of the majority peoples on the planet to defend ourselves from the new colonialism and to attain balance in the universe that neutralizes imperialism and arrogance.

“This broad, generous, respectful call with no exclusions is addressed to all the peoples of the world, but especially to the emerging powers of The South that must take on with courage the role they are being called upon to play in the immediate future.

“From Latin America and the Caribbean, powerful and dynamic regional alliances have arisen, seeking to configure a democratic regional space, respectful of special characteristics and wishing to accentuate solidarity and complementariness, fostering what unites us and politically resolving whatever divides us.  And this new regionalism admits diversity and respects the rhythms of all. […] the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America (ALBA) moves forward as an experiment of the vanguard of progressive and anti-imperialist governments, seeking formulas to break with the governing international order and strengthening the capacity of the peoples to collectively face the factual powers. But this does not impede our members from making a decisive and enthusiastic thrust for the strengthening of the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR), a political bloc confederating the 12 sovereign states of South America with the aim of grouping them in what The Liberator Simón Bolívar called “a Nation of Republics”. And further along down the road, we the 33 countries of Latin America and the Caribbean are getting ready to take that historic step and found a great regional entity that will group us all together, with no exclusions, where we may jointly design the policies that must guarantee our well-being, our independence, our sovereignty, on the basis of equality, solidarity and complementariness. Caracas, capital of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, is now swelling with pride to host the Summit of the Heads of State and Government next December 2nd and 3rd, an event that shall definitively found our Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC).”

With these profound ideas, thus concludes the second message of the Bolivarian President Hugo Chávez to the UN General Assembly.

According to the AFP dispatch dated today in Washington:  US President Barack Obama declared this Wednesday that while he is president he shall be willing to change the policy with Cuba, as long as significant political and social changes are produced.

What a nice man! How smart he is! So much virtue has not allowed him to understand yet that 50 years of blockade and the crimes against our Homeland have not been able to bring our people to their knees.  Many things shall change in Cuba, but they shall change because of our efforts and despite the United States. Perhaps that empire shall crumble first.

The unyielding resistance of the Cuban patriots is symbolized by our 5 Heroes. They shall never back down! They shall never surrender! As Martí proclaimed, and I have mentioned on other occasions: “Before continuous efforts to free and prosperous country, will join the South Sea to the North Sea and a snake will hatch from an eagle’s egg.”

It is obvious that the judge from the South Florida District has put the spotlight on “Obama’s supervised shame”.

Fidel Castro Ruz

September 28, 2011

7:37 p.m.

(Translated by Granma Internacional)

Giustino Di Celmo father of the young Italian Fabio Di Celmo, killed September 4, 1997

EVERY year since September 4, 1997, Giustino Di Celmo returns to Havana’s Copacabana Hotel, walks through its halls, greets the employees, embraces the workers. In the lobby, he places a kiss on his hand and caresses the bronze plaque engraved with the face of Fabio, his son and the innocent victim of a crime. The grief-stricken Di Celmo family have never ceased demanding justice and an end to acts terrorism against Cuba.

On this occasion, family members of the five anti-terrorist Cubans incarcerated in the United States; the leadership of the Cuban Institute of Friendship with the Peoples (ICAP); and the Copacabana workers filled the hotel to honor Fabio Di Celmo and his father, an untiring fighter for the liberation of the Five.

Act in the Hotel Copacabana

Magaly Llort, Fernando González’ mother, was the bearer of a wooden plaque for Fabio’s father containing an inscribed message signed by Gerardo Fernández Nordelo, Ramón Labañino Salazar, René González Schwerert, Fernando González Llort and Antonio Guerrero Rodríguez.

In her words, Magaly Llort emphasized that, at the very beginning of the movement for the return of the Five, Giustino Di Celmo promised that his family members would take up the cause of these unjustly imprisoned men as if it were theirs. And Fabio’s father and brother Livio have fulfilled that promise.

Despite his advanced age, Giustino has undertaken many actions to make people aware of the interconnected events concerning the death of Fabio Di Celmo, as irrefutable evidence of the State of Necessity which the Cuban people have to seek information within terrorist groups in order to avert further crimes.

An Italian Member of the AAIC expresses Militant Solidarity Giustino

Finally, Magaly Llort read the text engraved on the plaque:

“For Giustino Di Celmo, with profound gratitude for your support of our struggle for justice.”

Di Celmo expressed his thanks for the gift. “No pain can be greater than that of the death of a son and even more so when it is caused by a violent and cruel act. It pains me to think about all the acts of terrorist against Cuba. It pains me to think that Luis Posada Carriles, the confirmed and self-confessed murderer of my son and of multiple crimes, is freely walking the streets of Miami while these young men who were fighting to stop any more acts of terrorism in Cuba are confined in prison cells.

“I want to ask all people of good will to divulge this great truth and to write to the President of the United States asking him to release the five Cuban anti-terrorists. They are just men and justice cannot be incarcerated. If my Fabio were alive, I know that he would have written a letter to Obama advocating their immediate liberation.”

Magalis Llort delivery Giustino Di Celmo message

Giustino Di Celmo receives message from Cuban Five

Message of the five Cubans Giustino Di Celmo

p>(Published Reporters For Hire)

In 1998, five Cuban men were arrested by the U.S. government and tried in Miami on charges of conspiring to commit espionage on the United States.

The five men’s mission was to stop terrorism, keeping watch on Miami’s ultra-right extremists to prevent their violent attacks against Cuba. “The Cuban Five,” as they are now known, were convicted after repeated denials by the judge to move the trial venue out of Miami. The U.S. government insisted that they be tried in Miami.

What the Cuban Five and their attorneys did not know during trial was that the U.S. government—through its official propaganda agency, the Broadcasting Board of Governors—was covertly paying prominent Miami journalists who, at the same time as the government conducted its prosecution, saturated the Miami media with reports that were highly inflammatory and prejudicial to the Cuban Five.

The presence of Miami journalists on the U.S. government payroll, who purported to report as “independent” press, goes to the heart of the unjust conviction of the Five. The Five were not only victims of a politically-motivated prosecution, but a government-funded propaganda operation as well.

A multi-year effort by the National Committee to Free the Cuban Five, the civil rights legal organization the Partnership for Civil Justice Fund and, most recently, Liberation newspaper, has uncovered thousands of pages of previously unreleased materials exposing this government operation.

More than 2,200 pages of contracts between Miami journalists and Radio and TV Martí—released thus far to Liberation newspaper through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) petition—expose the fallacy of an independent press in Miami.

Click here to read the first in a series of articles about the U.S. government’s illegal propaganda operation.

Click here to see the first set of a series of documents obtained from the BBG exposing this government operation, as well as partial collection of articles written by the reporters on the government payroll.

When the U.S. Government rejected Gerardo Hernández Nordelo’s Habeas Corpus petition on April 25, it did so very categorically, without leaving any margin of doubt. Washington wants the court in Miami to declare his petition inadmissible and to do so summarily, without holding a hearing to examine its merits, without hearing Gerardo, without presenting the evidence it is hiding. This is how it responded to the last legal recourse of a human being sentenced to two life terms plus 15 years.

Washington asked for the appeals for Antonio Guerrero and René González to be dismissed in a similar manner.

These are three practically simultaneous actions that reveal the profoundly arbitrary and unjust nature of the U.S. system. They took place one week ago but have not become news, save for the mentions in our media.

The media dictatorship is probably currently the most efficient instrument in imperialism’s political hegemony. It largely dominates information on a global scale, determining what people are allowed to know and blocking whatever it wishes to conceal, with an iron fist.

The battle for the freedom of our Five compatriots can only be won if we understand this essential fact in today’s world, and are capable of acting accordingly.

Such iron-clad censorship is not accidental. Part of Gerardo’s appeal is based precisely on the concealment of evidence and the perverse function of the so-called information media.

It has to do with a case that practically no-one outside of Miami is aware of. The great media corporations imposed total silence toward the outside world while their correspondents in that city joined with the local media with their dubious reputation, in order to unleash a virulent campaign against the accused which contributed to creating what three judges from the Court of Appeals described as a “perfect storm” of prejudice and hostility, on which basis they decided to dismiss the trial.

Judge Lenard herself repeatedly protested the provocative actions that these supposed journalists were carrying out which created fear among the jurors who felt threatened.

In 2006 it was revealed that these provocateurs had received payments from the U.S. government to perform their dirty work. Since that date, various organizations in the United States have called on Washington to turn over the data it is hiding regarding the reach of the conspiracy whose existence is more than sufficient to prove the scandalous prevarication of the authorities.

For five years, those friends in the U.S. have engaged in efforts as noble as they are lonely, which have been completely unreported by the corporate media and very little has filtered out through those who consider themselves their alternative.

And so it has not been difficult for the U.S. government to maintain its obstinate position and continue imposing secrecy.

Nor has it found it particularly difficult to keep the satellite imagery it jealously guards from public view about the incident of February 24, 1996. Fifteen years ago it did not allow the investigators from the International Civil Aviation Organization to view them, it refused to present them to the court in Miami, and now it has reiterated its refusal. Its attitude of impeding others from seeing the proof that only Washington can access is so obvious and suspicious that in its lengthy 123 page argument with three appendices against Gerardo, it barely alludes to the matter in a twisted five line paragraph.

Allow me a brief review. Gerardo Hernández Nordelo had absolutely nothing to do with the downing of the aircraft on February 24, 1996. The U.S. government itself, that of W. Bush, acknowledged the lack of proof to sustain its accusation against Gerardo and asked to withdraw it at the last minute. It did so in an official document, titled “Emergency Petition” and which, according to they themselves, constituted an unprecedented action in the history of that country.

Here is the document, dated May 25, 2001, soon it will be ten years old, but as far as those who call themselves “information media” it does not exist. I have inherited a certain tendency toward obstinacy from my Andalucian ancestors, and that’s why I carry it with me from time to time, because even gypsies believe in chance. You never know. Maybe one day someone will discover that this document exists.

Returning to the event of February 24, 1996.  No U.S. court had jurisdiction over the matter, unless it had occurred in international airspace. The investigation performed by the ICAO revealed something surprising. Despite being warned beforehand by their government, the U.S. radar stations either did not register the event or offered contradictory data or destroyed the data. The only proof supplied by U.S. authorities is the testimony from the captain of a boat that operated – by coincidence? – out of Miami.

And so, the interest, first by the ICAO and later by Gerardo’s defense team, in the satellite imagery. The U.S. government never denied the existence of these images, it admitted having them, but it put a fifteen year prohibition on allowing anyone else to see them.

How can it be explained that they have successfully managed to hide them for such a long time? Simply because their revealing conduct has never become news, because they have been able to count on the complicity of the enormous media corporations, but also, it must be said, on our own laziness.

The worst enemy of press freedom is the media dictatorship exercised by the huge corporations which manipulate information and substitute an industry of deceit.

This dictatorship imposes the news menu that circulates through our newsrooms, its codes of language and interpretation circulating along with it. If we wish to develop truthful journalism, capable of transforming itself into a real alternative, it’s essential to go beyond the menu and find the truth in other sources. It is a professional necessity but also a duty of solidarity with those who, lacking resources, are waging hard battles alone. Assisting in the articulation of their scattered efforts is the obligation of a revolutionary press. It’s also the best recipe for curing the infection from those codes that circulate, often inadvertently, among ourselves.

Acting this way, we can also make news. Without inventing it or fabricating it, like the inventions and fabrications that are so abundant on the menu we are served day and night. By breaking the chains that lock up the truths such as those I’ve allowed myself to mention here. We ought to be, finally, like Julio Antonio Mella wanted us to be: “Thinking beings not driven ones.”

Text read as part of a speech given on May 3, 2011, in an event held jointly by the FELAP (Latin American Federation of Journalists) and the UPEC (Cuban Association of Journalists) for Día de la Libertad de Prensa [Press Freedom Day].

A CubaNews translation. Edited by Walter Lippmann

The Cuban American extreme right in Miami is happy these days because they have had a few victories in the city. Of course, these are so decadent that in fact they are pyrrhic victories. The segment of Cuban society living here cannot tell a victory from a defeat. This is no news, just more of the same. As I have said before, these people have no sense of ridicule.

A few days ago, there was a vote in one of the cities of Miami-Dade County to elect its mayor. With majority support from Cuban voters, James Cason was elected.  This is the guy, ill-remembered by Cubans in the Island, the man who was appointed Chief of the US Interests Section in Havana with the main objective of orchestrating confrontations with the Revolutionary Government.

It is a well-known fact that Mr. Cason, rather than a career diplomat, was a professional provocateur. His appointment had, among other purposes, the aim of provoking the Cuban Government to expel him from the country and therefore create conditions for a confrontation between both governments which would lead to a severing of the existing fragile relations.  That was the mission that today’s mayor of Coral Gables had;  and it was precisely by those provocative actions in Havana that the gentleman won the support of the Cuban American right wingers.

Cason is like the proverbial elephant in the glass menagerie and, consequently, can bring nothing good to Coral Gables. After his failure in Havana, he was sent to Paraguay and managed to earn the hatred of the Paraguayans. He had to end up in Washington in the arms of Frank Calzon, a savvy Cuban American, who has lived selling the snake oil of human rights, travelling around the world, and grabbing hundreds of thousands US dollars from the American Government. The anti-diplomatic ambassador moved to South Florida and now represents the right wing voters in one of its cities. The Cuban millionaires who live there are joyful. Let’s see what happens when this backfires.

Also, a few days ago in triumphant march by road – he has been forbidden to travel by plane – entered the hero of Miami’s Calle Ocho, Luis Posada Carriles. He got a champion’s welcome: press conference in a law firm in the morning, a red carpet reception in a private club, dinner there, and half a page of photos in El Nuevo Herald. He thanked the American justice system that acquitted him and the Miami extreme right which provided the money to pay the lawyers.

The Posada Carriles case is peculiar. The people who support him say that he is innocent of the crimes he is accused of committing; that he had nothing to do with the in-flight explosion of the Cubana de Aviación aircraft; that he had nothing to do with the bombs placed in Cuba at the end of the 90′s; that he did not torture anyone when he was a commissar of the political police in Venezuela; that he did not lie when he said he had crossed the Mexican border to enter the US.

In conclusion, for these people, Posada is a sort of saint