Obama’s Cuba Visit Illustrates US Arrogance

[Mika]

Obama’s Cuba Visit Illustrates US Arrogance

In his speech to the Cuban people in Havana, President Barack Obama declared, “I have come here to bury the last remnant of the Cold War in the Americas. … I’ve urged the people of the Americas to leave behind the ideological battles of the past.” But Obama made clear that his desire to end the decades-long US economic blockade of the island is not based on the fact that it constitutes the bullying of a small country by the world’s most powerful capitalist nation, nor is it a response to the sheer inhumanity of the blockade, it is simply an acknowledgement that the policy has failed to bring down Cuba’s socialist system and return the country to capitalism. Obama then proceeded to spend much of his speech telling Cubans that they should live under a US-style democracy and a capitalist economy. In other words, he has no intention of leaving behind “the ideological battles of the past.” He is simply shifting strategy.

.... {snip} ....

Media coverage of Obama’s visit has repeatedly focused on the Ladies in White organization, which protests weekly in Havana in support of so-called political prisoners in Cuba. The US media highlighted the fact that the Ladies in White protesters were rounded up by police during a demonstration on the day Obama arrived in Havana. These arrests have been repeatedly pointed to by the media and pundits as a graphic example of how Cuba violates the human rights of peaceful political protesters. As such, it would appear that arrested members of the Ladies in White constitute prisoners of conscience. But these analysts have conspicuously ignored an important component of Amnesty International’s definition of “prisoner of conscience,” which states, “We also exclude those people who have conspired with a foreign government to overthrow their own.”

Last August, Wikileaks published a memo dispatched from the US Special Interests Section in Havana to the State Department requesting $5,000 in funding for the Ladies in White. The memo also revealed that the US government had previously funded the group. It is illegal under Cuban law for Cuban organizations to receive funding from the US government, which is not surprising given that Washington’s stated objective for decades has been the overthrow of the Cuban government and socialism. Consequently, imprisoned members of the Ladies in White cannot be considered prisoners of conscience but they could be considered political prisoners that broke the law by receiving funding from the US government.

The Ladies in White are not unique, the US government has supported and funded many anti-government groups in Cuba in its efforts to replace socialism with capitalism in that country. americanleechConsequently, the Cuban government claims that many of the so-called political prisoners in its jails are Cubans who have received funding from a foreign government that is intent on achieving regime change. One such foreign program was conducted by the US Agency for International Development (USAID) which, under the guise of “democracy promotion,” distributed Internet and satellite communications equipment to Cuban opposition groups in direct violation of Cuban law. The project came to light when US aid worker Alan Gross, under contract to USAID, was arrested by the Cuban government in 2009. Such activities make it clear that it is the United States that has failed “to leave behind the ideological battles of the past.”

Much much more ...
Entire article --> here.

[yourpaljoey]

1. Just as we expected

[Judi Lynn]

2. Mika, this is outstanding information. I filed it away immediately for future reference.

As many people as possible should read this article. Would you mind cross-posting it also in "Good Reads?"

It would be a shame if it doesn't get widely read. It's something people need to know, and we don't get the truth too often in the U.S., do we?

Thank you!

[Mika]

3. Please do.

I'm crunched for time this week, so feel free to do so w/any of my posts.

[Judi Lynn]

4. Just posted it over there a moment ago. Hope it will get a lot of reads.

Good Reads:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/1016148971

Thanks.

[Donald Ian Rankin]

5. "So-called political prisoners"? Shame on you.

This is a truly disgusting article.

[Mika]

6. So, what do you call people in the employ of a foreign nation that sought to overthrow the gov't?

Unbeknownst to many Americans (fed on the corporate pablum that poses as news) Cuba has plenty of domestic groups and political parties that represent the wide-ranging domestic spectrum of political discourse, which is very diverse.

The "so-called political prisoners" this article is referring to are the foreign funded astro-turf "dissidents" who "dissent" for money from US gov't agencies and Miami based hard line exiles - including funding from exiles with terrorist pasts and supporters of exile terrorist groups.

What would you call unregistered foreign agents working for foreign entities with long histories of seeking the violent overthrow of the gov't?

[Judi Lynn]

7. People doing the same thing here are ALSO operating illegally. Very old story, isn't it?

How can people be so happy hovering up all the half and outright lies fed to us by our corporate propagandists? They're ready to go to war, too, over their misperceptions.