Cuban independence

[Louis Proyect <lnp3@xxxxxxxxx>]

(This appeared originally at http://www.spectrezine.org/resist/Cuba.htm 
with the following note: "Translated and slightly shortened from an 
editorial published in the newspaper Granma on May 21, 2003. Spectre 
thanks the Cuban Embassy in Brussels for supplying this article.")


On Cuban Independence

Cubans who know their history could have told Iraqis what the US means 
by “liberation”. Below, Cuba’s national newspaper responds to 
“President” Bush’s provocation on “Cuban Independence Day”, May 20, when 
the island was reduced to a vassalage which would last over half a century.

We really have reasons to be happy. Yesterday, May 20, 2003 as they 
commemorated the 101st anniversary of that sad and shameful day on 
which, after the destruction of José Martí’s party and the disarming of 
the Liberation Army, they awarded us the caricature of a republic with 
the Platt Amendment and the U.S. right to intervention, we received a 
very sweet, moving message from Mr. Bush which literally read:

“Today, Cubans around the world celebrate May 20th, Cuban Independence 
Day. On behalf of the people of the United States, I send greetings to 
the Cuban community. My hope is for the Cuban people to soon enjoy the 
same freedoms and rights that we do. Dictatorships have no place in the 
Americas. May God bless the Cuban people, who are struggling for 
freedom. Thank you”.

Of course, it had to be yesterday that the subversive, perfidious radio 
station, to which they have offensively given the name of José Martí, 
went on air with four new frequencies and, under the tolerant eye of 
U.S. authorities, a notorious Miami terrorist flew off the 12 mile limit 
along the sea corridor between Boca de Jaruco and Matanzas, testing TV 
broadcasts to Cuba in shameless violation of the existing international 
regulations on such matters. Of course, an individual such as he and 
others who are in the service of the U.S. government will never do time 
in the outrageous cages where citizens from dozens of countries are 
locked up, with no regard for law or custom, in the Cuban territory of 
Guantánamo, forcibly occupied by the United States.

In addition to the above, and as a special surprise from the Bush 
administration, closely guarded as a great war secret, the TV signal 
went on air from six to eight in the evening over channels and systems 
used by Cuba in several provinces for educational, news or recreational 
programming.

On the other hand, an AFP wire datelined Washington yesterday said that 
“George W. Bush’s government had not yet completed its ongoing review of 
its Cuba policy to respond to the recent repression of dissidence, 
Republican congresspersons Lincoln and Mario Diaz Balart and Ileana Ros 
Lehtinen announced Tuesday.”

As we all remember, they were the same people who, along with the U.S. 
ambassador to the Dominican Republic are intimate friends of the 
brilliant Mr. Bush and of “Baby” Jeb Bush the governor of Florida, 
recently said that after Iraq, Cuba would be next.

Our fellow Cubans can appreciate just how extraordinarily honest and 
merciful was the U.S. government’s message to the Cuban people, how 
incredibly patriotic are those they call “dissidents” who, up to their 
necks in the empire’s dollars, struggle for Cuba’s freedom and independence.

The big bad wolves disguised as grannies are not fooling anybody nor 
will they be able to. If Mr. Bush does not know, yet, what measures to 
take, the Cuban people have absolutely no doubts about their duty. Such 
sugary and cynical maneuvers will not persuade anybody that Cuba is not 
in danger.

Nor have those who gobble up Little Red Riding Hoods abandoned the idea 
of keeping the Damocles sword of economic measures and others of a 
similar punitive nature against the Revolution hanging over our heads. 
All measures announced or foreseen as possible options to tighten the 
blockade and strangle our economy have been analyzed. None of them will 
have the success they expect.

We simply do not believe them when now, trying to make amends for their 
stupid threats, they allege that all options other than an invasion are 
being considered. They said the same thing after the mercenary invasion 
of the Bay of Pigs and before the 1962 October Crisis, while by March 
1962 they had already drawn up and approved more than 15 pretexts to 
invade. Nor do we believe them when they say they are worried about a 
possible massive exodus, something they in fact are trying to provoke.

Their economic blockade, their efforts to create additional difficulties 
of that nature, their murderous Cuban Adjustment Act and their shameful 
threats to do the same thing in Cuba as they did in Iraq only serve to 
increase the number of potential emigrants in Cuba. The aim of such 
provocations, as we know only too well from both private and public 
statements by major ringleaders of the Miami terrorist Mob and the 
extreme right, is to cause incidents that could be used as pretexts for 
an attack against our people.

Of the select group of 11 who were invited to celebrate the ill-fated 
and shameful date of May 20 at the White House, three are well-known 
terrorists:

Eusebio de Jesús Peñalver Mazorra. U.S. authorities in California 
arrested him on December 12, 1995 —in Clinton’s days—when he was 
involved in preparations for an armed raid against Cuba and a cachet of 
weapons in his possession was seized. He is linked to terrorist Luis 
Posada Carriles who is in jail in Panama for his plan to explode 48 
kilograms of dynamite in a students’ meeting which the President of the 
Cuban Council of State was scheduled to attend.

Ernesto Díaz Rodríguez. In 1999, he was involved in a plan to 
assassinate President of Venezuela Hugo Chávez. He traveled to Venezuela 
during the 7th Ibero-American Summit on Margarita Island to try and 
carry out actions against the Cuban delegation. On the same occasion, 
close to Puerto Rico, the U.S. Coastguard seized a boat headed for 
Margarita Island carrying two .50 caliber rifles with telescopic sights, 
which were to be used to assassinate the head of the delegation, Comrade 
Fidel. Leaders of the Cuban-American National Foundation were the owners 
of both the rifles and the boat.  Despite this being a proven fact, 
those involved were acquitted thanks to the leverage of and pressure 
from the Miami terrorist Mob.

Ángel Francisco D’fana Serrano. A counterrevolutionary, who served a 
prison sentence in Cuba for his direct participation in terrorist actions.

Although these men spoke very confidentially with Mr. Bush, you can be 
sure that, given the composition of the group, he did not tell them 
anything about his intimate plans and his commitment to get rid of the 
Cuban head of state, which he made with the leaders of the 
Cuban-American Mob that so diligently and through fraud raised him to 
the presidency of the United States.

However, they should be in no hurry to believe that the dangers lying in 
wait and their sinister plans could keep the Cuban people and their 
leaders sleepless. Cuba’s fundamental concern does not stem from 
problems associated with its own security. At the Bay of Pigs, during 
the 1962 October Crisis, when the European socialist camp and the USSR 
itself were falling to pieces and in the last 20 months since the 
atrocious attack on the American people in New York —which was turned 
into a source of hysteria, a pretext to threaten 60 or more nations with 
pre-emptive attacks and to strike remote and dark corners of the world 
with weapons of mass destruction, as sworn before a God who, according 
to the creator of this fundamentalist fantasy is not neutral— the world 
has been witness to the dignity and bravery of the Cuban people; a truly 
heroic people that, when many cowardly, mediocre and ignorant 
politicians were incapable of seeing that the terrifying reality of a 
Nazi-fascist tyranny was haunting the world, did not hesitate to 
denounce it. Those governments or individuals that keep a disgraceful 
silence in the face of such events fail to have the slightest moral 
authority to criticize a country like Cuba, which defends its most 
sacred rights. History will bury them along with their cowardice, their 
complicity and their lies!

The pictures of millions of men and women demanding their independence, 
freedom, respect for their religious and ethical values and the return 
of their resources conquered by force in a country invaded without any 
legal or moral justification, should be reasons enough to make sane 
political leaders come to their senses. Such problems will never be 
solved with bombing and missiles, tanks and guns, nuclear, biological or 
chemical weapons.

Mr. Bush, the man behind the bombings of cities that when shown on 
television moved and shocked the world, leaving traces indelibly etched 
on the lives of millions of children, mothers and elders who suffered 
those attacks worthy of Dante’s inferno, promises that Cubans will soon 
be free and says that “dictatorships have no place in the Americas.” 
This, fortunately, is absolutely true.

The American people will grow tired of his ridiculous ideas and his 
bigotry, which can lead, among other things, to economic and ecological 
catastrophes. Latin America and the Caribbean will never tolerate his 
plundering FTAA, which he wants to use to snatch their sovereignty and 
their resources away from them, and much less will they resign 
themselves to his world tyranny.

Mr. Bush: we extend our deepest gratitude to you for your amazing 
kindness and your infinite generosity to Cubans on this May 20, 2003. 
You will see the deep emotion and affection we shall display to welcome 
you to the land of Martí and Maceo, of Camilo and Che!


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