Also, the brutal attack by Colombian paramilitaries and drug traffickers, equipped with weapons of war, on Cota 905 in the outskirts of Caracas and shooting at close range at residents surprised by the unusual and unexpected aggression. The offensive against Nicaragua was gaining momentum as opinion polls anticipated a resounding victory for Sandinismo in the upcoming presidential elections.
What Washington has been doing is called genocide because the blockade, condemned almost unanimously by the international community, causes enormous suffering among the population. These policies kill, make sick, cause hunger, and unspeakable deprivation. They are, in short, a crime against humanity. The United States has been preparing the ground for the current assault in recent years, with a systematic, multimillion-dollar bombardment, buying weak or ambitious wills, appealing to social networks and their fateful algorithms, the “fake news” and the chorus formed by their peon of cheap politicians and perfidious propaganda agents disguised as “serious and independent journalists.” With immeasurable evil, Washington stepped up the blockade measures when the pandemic broke out, a gesture that is enough to expose the moral infamy of the empire, its true nature.
Some current protests are understandable; others, probably the majority, are the product of money and the enormous destabilization campaign hatched by the White House. Although they have a much smaller magnitude than what the corrupt hegemonic press says, the leadership of the Revolution took charge of them and explained the genesis of those sufferings that mobilized a few hundred Cuban men and women to the streets. That there have been errors in macroeconomic management; or that the recent exchange rate unification measures were inopportune, perhaps late; or that relative prices were considerably out of square is unquestionable. But it would be absolutely wrong to try to explain these problems and the reaction of some social sectors to them without taking into account the maddening effects of a blockade that has lasted for six decades. These days I have seen and heard wise analysts speak of the problems of the Cuban economy without once saying the word “blockade.” Their anxiety to receive the affectionate pat of Uncle Sam is so great that it leads them to completely ignore the fundamental role that Uncle Sam plays in the (malfunction) of the Cuban economy.
Restrictions to import and export, to acquire food, medicine, medical supplies, spare parts for transportation or electricity; or having to pay extravagant freights for goods entering or leaving the island, with banks and commercial agents reluctant to do business with Cuba due to the sanctions that the brutal Goliath of the North promises to those who violate the blockade. If under these conditions the Cuban Revolution was the only country in the region with the capacity to produce its own vaccines to combat covid-19 (to the shame of Argentina, Brazil, Chile, or Mexico) and if during all these decades it was able to guarantee universal access and free to high standards of medical care, education, social security, sports, music, and culture is because the Revolution has been tremendously successful. Otherwise, none of this would have been achieved.
Therefore, those who become judges of Cuba and do not take into account in their explanations the decisive, unavoidable role that the American obsession to take over that island has played in their current misfortunes do not deserve more consideration than what a commentator that when talking about World War II and its ravages, he avoided mentioning the word “Hitler.” How would we rate that character? Like an immoral man, a hired charlatan, in this case from the empire that reproduces, with an air of “scientific objectivity,” the legitimizing discourse of genocide.
Throughout history, Cuba – the homeland of Martí and Fidel, of Camilo and Che – has given ample signs of patriotism. His people will be able to complain strongly about the current problems, but from there to kneel to be submitted to the yoke of the heirs of the marines who urinated on the statue of the Apostle in Central Park, or of the oligarchy that only aspires to return Cuba to its colonial condition; or from bloggers and “influencers” willing to throw their national dignity to the dogs for a handful of dollars there is a huge step. And the Cuban people will never give it, even if they have to die trying.
source Pag12
translation CubaNews