Tuesday, December 23, 2014

THE HASTY RECONCILIATION BETWEEN WASHINGTON AND HAVANA




 The longest awaited event, almost seen as the most impossible pipe dream, took place when it was least expected.
On December the 17th, a quite pointed date for the Cuban’s folklore, Barak Obama, President of the United States of America, and Raul Castro, president of the Council of State and Ministers, first secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba, and head of the Revolutionary Armed Forces, announced simultaneously from their respective capitals the resumption of diplomatic relations between both governments.
Diplomatic relations between the US and Cuba were interrupted for almost 54 years. On January 3, 1961, President Dwight D. Eisenhower had decided to close the US embassy in Havana following the signing of the trade agreement between Fidel Castro and the USSR.
The announcement came as a surprise, as the explosion of the Maine battleship, the sinking of the Lusitania, the attack on Pearl Harbor, the events of the Gulf of Tonkin, or the kamikaze style assault on the Twin Towers.
Anyway, any clever observer could have seen it coming.
During the last year and a half, since June 2013, there have been intense and not so secret negotiations between Havana and Washington. Their mediators were the Vatican -under the aegis of a Latin American pope with great affection for the Theology and Liberation- , and Canada, one of the eternal economic and political friends of the Castro’s regime.
In the meantime, the US government exempted Cuba from the list of countries sponsoring terrorism.
Last May the 20th, a letter from the most influential figures in the US asked President Obama to ease relations with Cuba. David Rockefeller -one of the most important designers of the political and economic world map- led the signatories. At his nearly 99 years, he seems to continue leading the circle of the worlds’ financial and political elite from the Council Foreign Relations -the world's most influential Think Tank-, the Federal Reserve, the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, the Bilderberg group, the Trilateral Commission and others. (In this blog, we have attempted to investigate the long and close relationship between Fidel Castro and David Rockefeller.)
Recently, several The New York Times’ editorials on Cuba predicted that something big was brewing in political backroom.
And suddenly, without Vaseline or saliva, Obama’s and Raul’s simultaneous announcement took place, with an affectionate and extensive telephone call between them.
Now, why this announcement of the restoration of diplomatic relations has been so hasty?
Everything happened as if both presidents hurried up to prevent anyone to get in the way and unsettle everyone involved historically in the Cuban question. And also, why exactly now?
From a the most immediate and superficial point of view, one of the most rational hypothesis on this hasty decision by President Obama would be, first, that he wished to overtake the first session of the 114th United States Congress next January 3, 2015, dominated by a Republican majority, which would have hampered any presidential decision.
Anyone could argue that Obama would have had sufficient time in order to make such announcement in advance. However, what both sides seem to have been waiting was the only actual event which gave the green light to the restoration of diplomatic relations. I mean the death of Fidel Castro, or at least its final fall into an irreversible coma.
I am absolutely sure that the Commander in Chief’s metagalactic ego and the hipertrascendental importance that he has always given to his "prestige", "charisma" and "intransigence" would never have allowed him to accept alive a reversal of what he have devoted his whole political career:  the perpetuation of the showdown between the small “David” island and the American global "Goliath" "Imperialism", the greatest enemy that anyone has faced ever. However, this doesn’t mean that we believe that Fidel has actually been an honest, consistent and uncompromising nationalist, revolutionary, communist and anti-imperialist to the grave, in the manner of an Amadis of Gaul, the Cid or San Jorge by the feeling of the Hispanic nobility ideal that had lived deep inside of Cubans’ spirits.
The psychology of the dictator, demonstrated throughout his long political behavior, marked by an unconscionable egomania, egocentricity and hipper-self-esteem, would never ever allow him to admit what he always was. Fidel Castro had always been a mafia thug who found a way to transcend local and national circles to become an international agent provocateur at the service of global domination powers. Consequently, Fidel Castro has been the worst traitor of everything he has pretended to defend throughout all his life.
Fidel betrayed his own political movements of the Orthodox-Cuban Revolutionary Party and the 26th of July Movement, colluding with the Popular Socialist Party agents of Moscow. Castro betrayed the Cuban revolution, aimed at the restoration of democracy and the rule of law in Cuba, by establishing the worst and longest tyranny throughout Latin America history. He betrayed his country, handing it to the Soviet Union. In behalf of all this, he destroyed his country, its nature, its infrastructure, its economy, its institutions and traditions, plunging his people into the most abject poverty and the worst state of slavery.
Now, why would Obama wanted to reestablish the relations with Cuba? What is the urgency? What lies beneath his pressing need?
Cuba is the most impoverished and unproductive country in the Western Hemisphere.
For the United States and its government, Cuba doesn’t have any economic or political or military interest. It has been long since it ceased to be the appearance of a threat to US homeland security. Perhaps now the only obstacle to a mass exodus of Cubans to the United States is the impoverished Castro regime, but this has always been so, and it is not necessary to restore diplomatic relations and lift the embargo to keep it that way.
It is true that several American presidents before Obama explored the possibility of restoring diplomatic relations with Cuba and lift the embargo. It is also true that, every time any US president has made a gesture in this direction, Fidel Castro has always done some dirty tricks to confirm the impossibility of any negotiation. Why this would not happen again?
Nothing has changed in Cuba, especially under the "mandate" of Raul Castro.
The so-called "reforms" of the "government" of Raul Castro have not gone beyond reviving the old "openings" from his Big Brother from the eighties and the nineties, when he allowed a limited self-employment, and the so called "free" farmers’ and artisans' markets as the one at the Cathedral Square and elsewhere. The only “extraordinary” thing has been the alleged authorization of sales of houses and cars. However, this is not a reform itself but another dirty trick play. In Cuba, only the government has all the resources to legally restore large mansions and collection cars. Thus, the government itself can sell expensive buildings and cars through its undercover agents who pretend be "private owners", giving an appearance of openness.
Although Cuba has been deleted from the list of countries sponsoring terrorism and diminished its influence in Africa and the Middle East, the Castro’s’ government continues destabilizing countries in Latin America. He still influences governments as the ones of Nicaragua, Honduras, Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador, Argentina, not only against its own people, but especially against the United States. The Castro regime has not stopped supporting Colombia's narco-terrorist groups and, no doubt, in other countries, like when it was the guideline head for Latin America, Africa and the Middle East terrorist movements.
Moreover, they same people that currently govern Cuba have always represented a greater threat to America than Vietnam, Iraq, Iran, North Korea, Al Qaeda and the so-called Islamic State all together. Cuba was the only country that actually has threatened the US with a nuclear attack and helped destabilize Latin America and much of Africa and the Middle East. The Cuban regime also flooded US of spies at the service of all enemies of this country.
The Cuban regime remains being a strictly designed government to avoid the establishment of democracy, the rule of law and civil society, and against the individual, civil and human rights. The only way to do this was through erasing all the country’s economic, social, democratic and non-governmental institutions. This has led to the total destruction of the economy, the natural resources, the technology, the infrastructure, the national traditions, etc. The centralized economy has led to the disappearance of all industrial, agricultural and commercial activity of the island, something that the US embargo hasn’t anything to do with.
Contrary to those who believe that the everlasting economic crisis of the Island is the largest "failure" of the regime, in fact, it is his highest achievement.
The Castro government has strictly followed the Stalinist basic guidelines to keep the population in the most impoverished situation in order to ensure their full economic, political and ideological dependence from the state. Thanks to the national economic and social disaster, the Castro’s regime could impose a state of a perfected widespread slavery in Cuba, in the same fashion of the Stalin's Soviet Union, the Mao Zedong’s Communist China, the Kim Il Sun’s North Korea, the Ho Chi Min’s Viet Nam and the Khmer Rouge’s Cambodia.
The alleged American commercial "embargo" or "blockade" has not influenced the industrial and infrastructural collapse of Cuba. Since 1961, when the Soviet Union subsidy to the Castro government began, until 1991, when the communist bloc disappeared, colossal amounts of financial and technology aid were sent to the Island in behalf of its industrial and infrastructural development. Fidel Castro's government squandered all those resources in terrorist propaganda and adventures worldwide, leaving huge industrial complexes to disintegrate in wastelands where they were left to rot when they were not resold to countries led by their accomplices.
Today, since its sugar industry was dismantled, Cuba has become a country that produces almost nothing. It only produces negligible amounts of citrus, tobacco and rum that the country exports thanks to its former prestige but its quality has decayed totally with respect to the times of his old world glory.
Tourism has depressed significantly since its heyday in the nineties, when almost two million of low budget tourists visited the island annually.
Castro’s government survives thanks to the subsidies from Venezuela -re-selling great deal of the oil that the semi-colonial government of Maduro sends to Cuba-, Brazil, China, Spain, Russia and the food bought directly in the US, where agriculture is generally highly subsidized by the American taxpayer. But this is nothing new, since Castro's government has survived historically squeezing his cronies as it did with the Soviet Union, Angola, Chile, Nicaragua, Canada, Venezuela, Spain, every Latin American and African narco-terrorist group, and the unwary investors who had the brilliant idea to do business with Castro in the 90s.
The restoration of relationships comes in one of the most difficult times for the Cuban dictatorship.
The welfare-protector state had already collapsed after the fall of the USSR. For the last twenty years, the Castro government has been unable to even offer the usual rationed products and the most basic utilities, medical attention, education, etc. to the Cuban population.
The fall in oil prices has strained one of his props, the Maduro's dictatorship in Venezuela, a situation reflected roughly in the Cuban economy.
The misery and despair of the Cuban people have reached its limits. Every day, the population has reached the point of not having anything to lose and shows its open rejection of the Castro government.
The struggle of dissidents has intensified and repression has worsened significantly.
Illegal migration have increased, compelling the government to resume the old methods of attacking the fragile rafts at sea at the expense of the lives of migrants, so that the US government don't get the idea that a new mass exodus is taking place.
It seems as the Obama administration wanted to give a hand to the suffocated Castro regime in the very moments of the disappearance of its fossilized leader, the only actual mainstay of the Cuban regime.
In the end, if the restoration of diplomatic relations between the US and Cuba has been a hasty and pointless act, the news just makes me think -rather confirms- that the story of the dispute between the US and Cuba has been a major political farces in history.

Tuesday, May 20, 2014




 

 

LAST MINUTE: ROCKEFELLER TO THE RESCUE OF CASTRO (AGAIN)

Today, May 20, we celebrate 112 years since the proclamation of the independence of Cuba, issued by the U.S. government after ruling the island for four years after the withdrawal of the Spanish colonial government in 1898.

Taking advantage of the event and giving it a more emotional ideological character, a group of “private” individuals " (as it says on the tagline of the document signed by them), published an open letter to President Barack Obama in which they requested his personal support and influence as chief executive in favor of what they call "civil society" in Cuba.1

The definition of "civil society” is somewhat elusive. Many legal scholars and academic, financial and governmental organizations and institutions have struggled with the definition since Aristotle.

Civil society generally is distinguished as one that is established without any commercial purpose, or at least not purely commercial.

Alexis de Tocqueville identified "civil society" as the set of voluntary social organizations and civic institutions which act as mediators between individuals and the state. This definition therefore includes both, non-profit organizations or non-governmental organizations, associations and foundations. The nineteenth-century concept also included universities, professional associations and religious communities.

The World Bank has adopted a definition of civil society developed by a number of leading research centers: “the term civil society to refer to the wide array of non-governmental and not-for-profit organizations that have a presence in public life, expressing the interests and values of their members or others, based on ethical, cultural, political, scientific, religious or philanthropic considerations. Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) therefore refer to a wide of array of organizations: community groups, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), labor unions, indigenous groups, charitable organizations, faith-based organizations, professional associations, and foundations”.2

For the United Nations, civil society organizations are non-governmental organizations or NGOs . 3

John A. Hall , James McGill Professor of Comparative Historical Sociology at McGill University, Montreal, distinguishes five enemies of civil society :

1. Despotism : State terror that discourages the formation of any group between society and government.

2. Revival of the tradition of republican civic virtues:. Qualities of moral value or principle established by a number of rules to obey.

3. Specific Forms of nationalism: the triumph of the rule of the majority and the total assimilation in order to form an ideal society.

4. Totalizing ideologies

5. Essentialist cultural ideals: social cells that determine the function and value of each individual in society.4

Such list should sound very well known by Cubans, especially those who live or have lived most of their lives on the Island.

In summary, in Cuba since Fidel Castro took power, there is simply impossible the existence of a civil society.

Communism is a perfect society. It is perfectly designed to eliminate any possibility of democracy, rule of law, civil rights and civil society,

Since its complete creation in the USSR by Stalin, all institutions, organizations, or item and each of the individuals under the communist empire, are state property.

Communism is the perfect modern system of total slavery. Other ancient societies with features of total slavery had no such perfection. Ancient Egypt, Babylon, ancient China, India Persia allowed trade and partnership between individuals and some economic, and informational independence. However, the communism designed by Stalin (and applied by Mao Zedong, Kim Il Sung, Ho Chi Minh and Pol Pot in its most brutal form) leaves no window to independence and personal initiative of any kind.

The Case of Castro's Cuba is no exception.

The Communist Party and its repressive institutions keep tight control on each activity, group and individual.

All the so called NGOs in Cuba are directly or indirectly controlled by the Communist Party: cultural, religious, sports, hobbies organizations, and even animal breeding groups, whatever. Even the dissident and opposition groups are particularly penetrated and organized secretly from institutions in the Central Committee of the party and the state security.

Even it is sad to say that most, if not all , the opposition groups in exile have been penetrated at some point and are constantly penetrated by Castro's intelligence covertly, pushing many of its actions in support of communist government propaganda.

Those who do not want to recognize this does not understand the nature of the communist regime installed by Castro in Cuba.

I do not mind that Cuban exiles help their families on the island. In fact, is a way to save their lives given the critical shortage of food, hygiene products, clothing, appliances, medicines, medical services and the most basic construction, infrastructure, sanitary and social security of any type.

Sending remittances to relatives in Cuba and, above all, bring them to the U.S. is the way of saving their lives.

However, remittances are not the main Castro’s profits, but his huge family business that he has secretly developed in the United States and the rest of the world under enormous overlapping network of shell companies, sheltered under the protection of international financial organizations.

The profits of these companies are great support of Castro, along with subsidies from his allies such as Russia and China, and its semi-colonies as Venezuela, Bolivia, Nicaragua, etc.

The letter to Obama is a desperate call to save the suffocated Cuban government.

Its "signers" ask the U.S. President to use the powers at his disposal in order to evade the law of Cuban embargo, so hard to repeal in Congress, as they recognized though.

They ask Obama to allow organizations and entrepreneurs to travel to Cuba in order to develop commercial and financial activities with micro-entrepreneurs and "independent” farmers, and to give licenses to certain high-tech products so they can be exported to Cuba as it is done now with agricultural goods. They also ask allow unlimited remittances of money to non-family members.

These gentlemen are well aware that not one of these financial and technological resources will never reach the Cuban people and will remain with the government, which uses them for its survival, especially now that the country has reduced to total dependence on subsidies from its allies.

Cuba has been reduced to a country without economic means, like sugar citrus, tobacco, nickel or other. Even tourism. Cuba does not produce any goods or services at all. Its only means came from the exportation of terrorism specialists and political interference in other countries such as Venezuela, Nicaragua, Bolivia, Ecuador , etc. .

Giving a break to Castro’s government right now is criminal and genocidal.

And who are the signatories and promoters of this letter?

There are not representatives of the opposition in the country or in exile, or democratic or human rights organizations.

Tucked amid the multitude of signatories, it is no less than David Rockefeller.

The patriarch of the Rockefeller clan, ninety- nine years old, still comes out of his retirement of years to rescue his best friend Fidel Castro (see article in this blog " CUBAN CONSPIRACY ( DOS) : CASTRO AND ROCKEFELLER " in http://havanaschool.blogspot.com/2010/09/la-conspiracion-cubana-dos-castro-y-los.html).

Rockefeller is followed by a number of his old comrades of the Council on Foreign Relations, which, despite being general and senior U.S. government officials, they have responded to the call from his boss in aid of the only man who has threatened to drop the bomb atomic in the U.S. territory, has promoted terrorism and interventionism throughout the world, supports all hostile governments to the United States and has filled his northern neighbor with spies.

To leave no doubt about it, you can read the letter below.

http://www.supportcubancivilsociety.org/
 

Open Letter to President Obama:

Support

Civil Society

in Cuba




Dear Mr. President,

Your administration has taken several important steps to support the Cuban people by opening travel for Cuban-American families, expanding remittances, and enabling purposeful travel for more Americans. Those policies have fostered direct contacts between the United States and the Cuban people, provided a lifeline for average Cubans, and empowered Cuban civil society. As a result, Cuban society and U.S. society are sharing more information and are more connected today than in the past fifty years.

Now more than ever the United States can help the Cuban people determine their own destiny by building on the U.S. policy reforms that have already been started. Such efforts would seek to provide openings and opportunities to support the Cuban people in their day-to-day economic activities, and in their desire to connect openly with each other and the outside world and to support the broad spectrum of civil society, independent, non-state organizations created to further individual economic and social needs irrespective of political orientation. Doing so not only promises to deepen the contacts between the U.S. and Cuban society, it will also help Cubans increase their self-reliance and independence. But timing matters and this window of opportunity may not remain open indefinitely. At the same time, the U.S. is finding itself increasingly isolated internationally in its Cuba policy. In the current political climate little can be done legislatively, but the Obama Administration has an unprecedented opportunity to usher in significant progress using its executive authority at a time when public opinion on Cuba policy has shifted toward greater engagement with the Cuban people while continuing to pressure the Cuban government on human rights.

The undersigned members-individuals from the private sector, think tanks, non-governmental organizations, and foundations- acknowledge and appreciate the steps you have taken to improve U.S. - Cuban relations.

We further propose the following recommendations that you, Mr. President, can take through executive authority to deepen the changes already underway by giving greater freedom to private organizations and individuals to directly and indirectly serve as catalysts for meaningful change in Cuba.

1.      Expand and safeguard travel to Cuba for all Americans

1.      Expand general licensed travel to include exchanges by professional organizations, including those specializing in law, real estate and land titling, financial services and credit, hospitality, and any area defined as supporting independent economic activity.

2.      Expand travel by general license for NGOs and academic institutions and allow them to open Cuban bank accounts with funds to support their educational programs in Cuba.

3.      Authorize U.S. travelers to Cuba to have access to U.S.-issued pre-paid cards and other financial services-including travelers' insurance-to expand possibilities for commerce with independent entrepreneurs and safeguard people-to-people travel.

2.      Increase support for Cuban civil society

1.      Allow unlimited remittances to non-family members for the purpose of supporting independent activity in Cuba and expand the types of goods that travelers may legally take to the Island to support micro-entrepreneurs.

2.      Establish new licenses for the provision of professional services to independent Cuban entrepreneurs.

3.      Authorize the import and export of certain goods and services between the U.S. private sector and independent Cuban entrepreneurs.

4.      Allow U.S. NGOs and other organizations to lend directly to small farmers, cooperatives, self-employed individuals, and micro-enterprises in Cuba.

5.      Permit family remittances to be used as credits or equities in Cuban micro-enterprises and small farms.

6.      Allow U.S. academic institutions to issue scholarships for exceptional Cuban students.

7.      Allow for Cuban entrepreneurs to participate in internships in U.S. corporations and NGOs.

8.      Promote agricultural exchange studies between U.S. based NGOs and private cooperative farms in Cuba.

9.      Authorize the sale of telecommunications hardware in Cuba, including cell towers, satellite dishes, and handsets.

10. Authorize general travel licenses for the research, marketing and sale of telecommunications equipment.

11. Authorize telecommunications hardware transactions to be conducted through general license in the same manner as existing transactions for agricultural products.

3.      Prioritize principled engagement in areas of mutual interest

1.      The Obama Administration should engage in serious discussions with Cuban counterparts on mutual security and humanitarian concerns, such as national security, migration, drug interdiction, and the environment, among others. The United States should leverage these talks to press Cuban officials on matters such as the release of Alan Gross and on-going human rights concerns.

4.      The Obama Administration should take steps to assure financial institutions that they are authorized to process all financial transactions necessary and incident to all licensed activities.

John Adams, Brigadier General, U.S. Army (Retired); former Deputy U.S. Military Representative to NATO; former Assistant Deputy Chief of Staff for Intelligence, U.S. Army

Ricky Arriola, CEO of Inktel

Joe Arriola, former Manager of the City of Miami

Bruce Babbitt, former Governor of Arizona; former Secretary of the Interior

Harriet Babbitt, former U.S. Ambassador to the Organization of American States

Carol Browner, former EPA Administrator; former Director of White House Office of Climate Change and Energy Policy

Diana Campoamor, President, Hispanics in Philanthropy

Paul Cejas, former U.S. Ambassador; President and CEO, PLC Investments, Inc.

Gustavo A. Cisneros, Chairman , Cisneros Group of Companies

Jeffrey Davidow, former Assistant Secretary of State for the Western Hemisphere

Byron Dorgan, former U.S. Senator

Andres Fanjul, Fanjul Group

Richard Feinberg, former Latin American Advisor to the White House; Professor, University of California, San Diego

Christopher Findlater

Mike Fernandez, Chairman of MBF Healthcare Partners

The Right Reverend Leo Frade, Episcopal Bishop of Southeast Florida

Pedro A. Freyre, Partner, Akerman LLP

Dan Glickman, former Secretary of Agriculture; former Congressman from Kansas

Lee Hamilton, former U.S. House Chairman of the Committee on Foreign Affairs and the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence

Jane Harman, Former Congresswoman

David Hernandez, Co-Founder and CEO of Liberty Power

Vicki Huddleston, U.S. Ambassador (retired); former Chief of the U.S. Interests Section; former Director of Cuban Affairs at Department of State

Peter J. Johnson, Associate to David Rockefeller

Eduardo Mestre, Senior Advisor at Evercore; Board member of Avis Budget and Comcast Corporation

Marcelino Miyares, President MM Communications Inc.

Moises Naím, Senior Associate, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace

John Negroponte, former Deputy Secretary of State; former Director of National Intelligence

Michael Parmly, former Chief of U.S. Interest Section, Havana

Ralph Patino, Civil Trial Attorney; Futuro Fund Board Member

Jorge Pérez, Chairman, CEO and Founder, The Related Group

Ambassador Thomas Pickering, former Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs

David Rockefeller, Honorary Chairman, Americas Society/Council of the Americas

Christopher Sabatini, Senior Director of Policy, Americas Society/Council of the Americas; Editor-in-Chief, Americas Quarterly

Carlos Saladrigas, Chairman of Regis HR; Chairman of the Cuba Study Group; member of the board of Duke Energy Corporation and Advance Auto Parts, Inc.

Ken Salazar, former U.S. Secretary of the Interior; former U.S. Senator; former Colorado Attorney General

Susan Segal, President and CEO, Americas Society/Council of the Americas

Ambassador Charles Shapiro, former U.S. Ambassador to Venezuela; President, Institute of the Americas

Anne-Marie Slaughter, President and CEO of the New America Foundation; former Director of Policy Planning for the U.S. Department of State

Hilda L. Solis, former U.S. Secretary of Labor; former Member of Congress

Enrique Sosa, former President of Dow Chemical North America

Admiral James Stavridis, Commander of U.S. Southern Command 2006–2009; Supreme Allied Commander NATO 2009–2013; Dean of The Fletcher School at Tufts University

Alan Stoga, President/Founder, Zemi Communications; Vice Chairman, Americas Society

Strobe Talbott, former Deputy Secretary of State

Arturo Valenzuela, former Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs; Professor of Government and International Affairs, Georgetown University

Alexander Watson, former Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs

George Weiksner, Vice Chairman, Credit Suisse

The above signatories have signed this letter in their personal capacities; they do not reflect the views of their company, organization or university, current or past.