Washington: Battered and Isolated

The UN General Assembly’s overwhelming condemnation of the twenty-first U.S. blockade against Cuba on November 13 was reached by the historic record of 188 of 193 “yes” votes by members of the organization. Naturally, the U.S. and Israel voted against. Palau, as well as Yankee protectorate Marshall Islands and Micronesia, abstained. One cannot expect anything else from the Zionist state due to its military nuclear-muscle and barbaric regimen of dispossession and extermination against the Palestinian people. The state’s insane warmongering depends on support and cover up by Washington.

This universal, demolishing win over the U.S. regarding the inhumane economic, commercial and financial war against Cuba for more than five decades demonstrates the fallacy and cynicism of the actor to qualify this as a bilateral relationship. To most, it means a massive and systematic violation of the human rights of the Cuban people, genocidal by nature. It affects the rights of others on a global scale, including the closest allies of the empire who cannot support a flagrant violation of the right to freedom of trade and navigation, and whose companies and banks are often subjected more and more to sanctions, fines in the millions and a sustained ban on trade with Cuba in the midst of the greatest economic crisis of the last eighty years.

Obama promised a “new beginning” with Cuba, but the reality is his government has intensified fines on companies and banks in other countries that deal with Cuba to over $2 billion, twice the amount imposed by George W. Bush in his two administrations. The most serious and deeply undemocratic aspect is that the blockade is not supported by the U.S. population, according to surveys. They reject it and favor normalization of relations with Cuba. They would like to be allowed to travel to the island, the only place on earth that is prohibited. Not to mention the Cuban community, which generally rejects the vengeful attitude of the exiled counterrevolutionary gang and the kidnapping upon which Washington bases its Cuban policy. “Anti-Castroism” is a very profitable industry but an increasingly unpopular one. The historic and interesting twist in the recent election regarding the importance of the Cuban-American vote to a Democratic candidate like Obama shows the political bankruptcy of the usufruct owners and close allies of the Republican far right.

Obama has the political capital of the presidential election and the privileges that would enable him to minimize the blockade and ease its lifting. It would have broad support in important communities of business, human and religious rights in American society. Cuba is not the aggressor but the assaulted and injured. The requests made by Washington are so arrogant, cynical and unacceptable; Cuba makes fewer demands from the U.S. and is much more democratic than the U.S.

Still, the United States declares that a regime change in Cuba is still its aim. The focus of the bilateral relationship is based on a despicably interventionist legal framework that blatantly violates Cuban sovereignty and ignores the popular roots of its institutions. Operating congruently to that is the U.S Interests Section in Havana, dedicated full time to stirring up the fifth column whose shining, bought star is blogger Yoani Sanchez. She lies, manipulates information and serves the U.S. government in exchange for money; this is abundantly documented.

The Inter American Press Association, the Pentagon’s propaganda arm, has appointed Sanchez to the role of vice-president for Cuba. Meanwhile the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights of the dying Organization of American States, chorus member slanderer of the popular and progressive governments in Latin America, stands as the lawyer for mercenaries. It would do better –if it dares– to show interest in the soldier Bradley Manning, the tortures at Guantanamo, repression and police abuses and war crimes of the United States, the country where it is based, and receives its funding sources.