Marce Cameron
Cuban president Fidel Castro told thousands of delegates to the first World Literacy Congress in Havana on February 1 that he had closely watched the inauguration ceremony of US President George Bush on January 20 and saw "the face of a deranged person".
"If only it were just the face", he said, to roars of applause by educators from 52 countries. During his five-hour speech to the congress known as Pedagogy 2005, "Castro ... ridicul[ed] the 25-nation [EU] for temporarily suspending [diplomatic] sanctions against his communist island nation", according to an Associated Press report.
"They are going to forgive us? For what crime? For what sin?", Castro asked. "I must say in all honesty, Cuba has no need for the United States, and Cuba does not need Europe. I'm pleased to say that [Cuba] has learned to get along without them."
In March 2003, the Cuban government moved to smash a brazen attempt by the US Interests Section in Havana to recruit a network of activists to assist bringing about "regime change" through the overthrow of the Cuban revolution. In blatant violation of diplomatic protocol and Cuban laws designed to protect the country's sovereignty, US Interest Section chief James Cason handed over cash bribes and payment in kind to "journalists", "poets" and "human rights activists" to create the impression of an opposition "movement" in Cuba.
Cuban courts tried and convicted 75 Cuban citizens found guilty of accepting money and payment in kind from the US Interests Section (see GLW # 537). All 75 defendants were sentenced to jail terms ranging from six to 28 years on criminal charges brought by government prosecutrs for violations of the Act for the Protection of the National Independence and Economy of Cuba.
In response, European governments accused Havana of violating the human rights of the defendants, and some European embassies began inviting Cuban "dissidents" to their diplomatic receptions. The Cuban government retaliated by instructing Cuban diplomats and government officials to have no further contact with their European counterparts. On June 5, 2003 the European Union imposed diplomatic sanctions on the Cuban government, banning high-level governmental visits and freezing cultural exchanges.
On January 31 this year the EU announced the temporary suspension of the sanctions at the initiative of the Spanish government. The EU also agreed to stop the practice of inviting Cuban dissidents to embassy gatherings in Havana. While EU officials have pointed to the Cuban government's early release of 14 of the 75 Cubans as the justification for this, the executive director of the Washington-based Center for a Free Cuba Frank Calzon wrote in the February 1 Washington Times, "Madrid asserts that the EU policy of inviting dissidents to its Havana embassies on national days is a failure."
Washington is also deeply concerned that recent measures designed to further tighten the noose on the Cuban revolution, while hurting Cubans, are failing to halt Cuba's gradual economic recovery.
The Lexington Institute's Cuba Policy Report, published on February 3, notes that "rather than rely on expanded market-based reforms, Cuba has embarked on a series of long-term international economic initiatives geared toward strengthening the state economy... several of these initiatives have come to fruition in recent months [and] their expected revenues could easily dwarf the revenues denied to the Cuban government by the new economic sanctions applied by the United States last year."
The report cites Venezuela's ongoing commitment to supply Cuba with oil at below-market prices; the recent accord signed by Cuba and Venezuela to promote economic integration and mutually beneficial investment; the announcement of big new investments by China in Cuban nickel production, tourism and oil extraction; and the discovery in December 2004 of a new oilfield off Cuba's northern coast. The report concludes that "Washington's new economic sanctions are very unlikely to have a strong or decisive impact on the Cuban economy".
Strengthened economic cooperation with Venezuela and China has lessened Cuba's dependence on European foreign investment. Meanwhile, Cuba is less isolated and more widely respected for its courageous example of implacable resistance to US imperialism than ever before.
On February 1, Cuba was elected to the United Nations Human Rights Commission Working Group on Situations. According to the Cuban news agency AIN, "the Cuban Foreign Ministry's webpage states that Argentina submitted the proposal for Cuba to be included, noting that the motion was welcomed by a Latin America that recognizes Cuba's contribution to the United Nations in the defense of all human rights."
Even in the face of massive imperialist pressure, Cuba has shown, in the words of Fidel Castro, "how to remain the example of a revolution that does not give in, that does not sell out, that does not go down on its knees."
From Green Left Weekly, February 16, 2005.
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