Fidel Tells Obama: 'We Don't Need the Empire to Give us Anything.'
http://www.commondreams.org/news/2016/03/28/fidel-tells-obama-we-dont-need-empire-give-us-anythingCastro warns against the likely tide of tourism, which is expected to rise under the new diplomatic agreements, saying it "in large part, consists of viewing the delights of our landscapes and tasting exquisite delicacies from our seas, and is always shared with the private capital of large foreign corporations, whose earnings, if they don’t reach billions of dollars, are not worthy of any attention whatsoever."
"Obama made a speech in which he uses the most sweetened words to express: 'It is time, now, to forget the past, leave the past behind,'" writes the aging Cuban leader. But, he adds, after half a century of U.S. efforts to overthrow Cuba's Communist leadership, "I suppose all of us were at risk of a heart attack upon hearing these words from the President of the United States."
"After a ruthless blockade that has lasted almost 60 years, and what about those who have died in the mercenary attacks on Cuban ships and ports, an airliner full of passengers blown up in midair, mercenary invasions, multiple acts of violence and coercion?" he continues. "Nobody should be under the illusion that the people of this dignified and selfless country will renounce the glory, the rights, or the spiritual wealth they have gained with the development of education, science and culture."
Promising "legal and peaceful" efforts, Castro concludes that the Cuban people "are capable of producing the food and material riches we need with the efforts and intelligence of our people. We do not need the empire to give us anything."
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Of course the former President had to mention it, as did his brother. As do the people of Cuba.
The U.S. should most clearly, as pointed out yearly in the autumn, when the UN General Assembly votes almost unanimously, usually with the US & Israel as the hold-outs, that the US should terminate the embargo IMMEDIATELY.
Longest embargo, longest form of economic warfare on another nation in the world's history.
Also, remove the meddling in Cuba's internal affairs, paying bribe-able Cubans like the US-employed "dissidents" tons of money, as budgeted by the US Congress, to make them very well off in the economy everyone else there shares. Cubans know who they are, Cubans have never liked them, taking money to turn against their country, coming and going to the US Interests Section, getting all the latest electronics, all kinds of trinkets, luxuries, while the heavy burden of the embargo drags everyone else down.
When the embargo is dropped, these clowns are going to be so out of luck, standing around with their new phones, laptops, unbelievable items like Godiva chocolate, cashmere sweaters, leather jackets, etc., etc., etc., sent to them by the U.S., as they get stomped flat like dimes by mini-mobs of US tourists galloping in every direction. They will truly arrive at the end of their turncoats' roads. Nowhere to go. Unloved at home, no one to impress anywhere else, their services, trying to create dissonance, or far worse trouble, making up bogus stories to sell to US media will not have a market any longer.
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You had a long life of deceit, Martha Beatriz Roque.
Time to greet your neighbors, if you dare.
Martha, with US Interests Section head
James Cason, standing behind her. [/center]
Another thing the US could remove is the endless attempt to kill Cuba's leaders, and take over its government.
638 ways to kill Castro
The CIA's outlandish plots to bump off the Cuban dictator would put 007 to shame ... poison pills, toxic cigars and exploding molluscs. Once he even offered to shoot himself, reports Duncan Campbell
Duncan Campbell
Wednesday 2 August 2006 19.09 EDT
For nearly half a century, the CIA and Cuban exiles have been trying to devise ways to assassinate Fidel Castro, who is currently laid low in Cuba following an operation for intestinal bleeding. None of the plots, of course, succeeded, but, then, many of them would probably be rejected as too fanciful for a James Bond novel.
Fabian Escalante, who, for a time, had the job of keeping El Commandante alive, has calculated that there have been a total of 638 attempts on Castro's life. That may sound like a staggeringly high figure, but then the CIA were pretty keen on killing him. As Wayne Smith, former head of the US interests section in Havana, pointed out recently, Cuba had the effect on the US that a full moon has on a werewolf. It seems highly likely that if the CIA had had access to a werewolf, it would have tried smuggling it into the Sierra Maestra at some point over the past 40-odd years.
The most spectacular of the plots against Castro will be examined in a Channel 4 documentary entitled 638 Ways to Kill Castro, as well as in a companion book of the same name written by the now-retired Escalante - a man who, while in his post as head of the Cuban secret service, played a personal part in heading off a number of the plots. While the exploding cigar that was intended to blow up in Castro's face is perhaps the best-known of the attempts on his life, others have been equally bizarre.
Knowing his fascination for scuba-diving off the coast of Cuba, the CIA at one time invested in a large volume of Caribbean molluscs. The idea was to find a shell big enough to contain a lethal quantity of explosives, which would then be painted in colours lurid and bright enough to attract Castro's attention when he was underwater. Documents released under the Clinton administration confirm that this plan was considered but, like many others, did not make it far from the drawing-board. Another aborted plot related to Castro's underwater activities was for a diving-suit to be prepared for him that would be infected with a fungus that would cause a chronic and debilitating skin disease.
More:
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2006/aug/03/cuba.duncancampbell2
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