With various initiatives that include mobilizations, messages in alternative and, where possible, more traditional media outlets, concerts and other cultural activities, activists will seek to call public attention to the issue, especially in the United States.

One of the actions will be to use Twitter to share clear messages under the hashtags: #ReturnGuantanamotoCubaNow; #USOutofGuanatamo; #EEUUFueradeGuantanamo; #DevuelvanGuantanamoaCubaYa!; including tagging the twitter account of President Donald Trump @POTUS.

This forms part of the agreements taken at the conference organized by the Coalition Against U.S. Foreign Military Bases, held at the University of Baltimore in the U.S. state of Maryland, January 12-14, which addressed the need to close U.S. military bases located throughout the world.

The final resolution on the Guantánamo Naval Base concludes: “the Coalition Against U.S. Foreign Bases unanimously calls upon the global peace movement to organize, on or around February 23, 2018, Actions calling for the United States to promptly withdraw all its forces and personnel from Guantánamo Bay and immediately declare ALL agreements ceding Cuban control of Guantánamo Bay to the U.S. to be null and void.”

The Cuban chapter of the International Committee for Peace, Justice and the Dignity published its January 27 bulletin, in Spanish and English, on these issues, which already has the support of valuable intellectuals and artists, among whom is Argentine Nobel Peace laureate Adolfo Pérez Esquivel.

The Committee also asked other organizations around the world to screen the documentary All Guantánamo is Ours, by filmmaker Hernando Calvo Ospina, which has been translated into numerous languages, to serve to spark a debate.

The audiovisual material explains how the Guantánamo Naval Base is a permanent source of threat, provocation and a violation of Cuban national sovereignty.

The activities will continue throughout the year as outlined on the Coalition website: www.NoForeignBases.org; with important events scheduled for April 14 and 15, to commemorate Earth Day (April 22), and May Day.

The U.S. has 860 military bases in 144 countries around the world. These facilities were created under the pretext of guaranteeing security in the face of armed groups, and to combat drug and human trafficking.

In fact, they have been very effective in quelling attempts at social change in countries that distance themselves from capitalism and the interests of the White House. Today our peoples need a change in the political and hegemonic vision of the United States to achieve higher rates of human development. As long as investments are made for war and not peace, we face the imminent danger of having the means to make the planet earth disappear in seconds.

(Granma)

Dr. Noralis Palomo Díaz, president of the province’s José Martí Cultural Society, spoke about the anti-imperialist legacy of Cuba’s National Hero, Fidel Castro and the Cuban people; while Guantánamo City Historian, José Sánchez Guerra with a Sciences Masters degree, described the dire state of Caimanera before the triumph of the Revolution.

He recalled that up until January 1, 1959, there were practically no doctors, schools or jobs in the town, which was instead full of brothels and the streets were ruled by the U.S. marines, who did as they liked, protected by local authorities and a series of submissive governments. This was the “well-being” that the empire offered residents of Caimanera, he noted.

Elementary school children from the municipality and across the entire island demand the U.S. government lift the blockade and return the territory illegally occupied by the Naval Base in Guantánamo, stated Linka Dailiana Matos Pupo, seventh grade student at the town’s Pavel Rojo High School, during her speech. Meanwhile, Dr. Humberto Hodelín Mainart highlighted the work of the Revolution in the healthcare sector and the example of Cuban doctors renowned for their altruistic collaboration efforts worldwide. In contrast, he highlighted how the U.S. government undertakes numerous actions, such as the Parole program, which attempt to encourage Cuban medical professionals to abandon their missions in other countries.

Obama called on us to forget the past, which is the same as asking us to betray our principles and homeland, stated Orestes Yánez Mestre, national CDR deputy coordinator, who also reported that neighborhood debates will be held in country’s over 18,000 CDR zones.

He stressed that today, imperialism is changing its methods but not its objective to destroy the Revolution, thus we must think of Martí when he said that if the war we are undertaking is one of thought then we must prepare ourselves to win it by thought; also citing Che, when he said that imperialism can not be trusted, not even one iota.

Zones undertaking outstanding work in the formation of values were recognized at end of the neighborhood debate, held in José Martí Park.

(Granma)

The 2nd Peace Seminar for the Abolition of Foreign Military Bases begins Wednesday in the eastern province of Guantanamo with a call for peaceful coexistence worldwide.

Sponsored by the World Peace Council and the Cuban Movement for Peace and Sovereignty of the Peoples, the forum will analyze the disastrous consequences of military bases for the sovereignty of the peoples.

The meeting brings together representatives from 36 nations, included Cuba, which for more than a century has repudiated the U.S. military presence in the Guantanamo region of Caimanera.

The event, which concludes Thursday, will advocate world peace and oppose the military invasions of Libya, Afghanistan and Iraq.

Delegates will gather today in the Mariana Grajales Revolution Square in Guantanamo to receive information about life in Cuba’s easternmost province.

Thursday’s agenda will take place in the town of Caimanera, which borders the military base imposed on Cuba since 1903 by the United States against the will of the island’s people and government.

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Military Base. Stock Photo

Douglas M. Fraser, Commander of the U.S. Southern Command met Honduran Minister of Defense Marlon Pascua and agreed that the United States will increase its military bases in Honduran northern coast.

Fraser is visiting Honduras, according to him, for concreting cooperation agreements to fight drug trafficking and for a better regional security.

El Heraldo newspaper posted that a new base will be open in Islas de Bahia with the assessment of U.S. Southern Command.

The U.S. Southern Command is assessing another base since 2010 in Gracias a Dios department, in the border with Nicaragua with the pretext of fighting drug trafficking.

Fraser will meet President Porfirio Lobo, U.S ambassador Hugo Llorens and several Honduran ministers.

This is the second time Fraser visits Honduras, a country he considers is located in the deadly area in the world, like Iraq and Afghanistan.

(Prensa Latina)