[News] Sanctions Fuel the Fire at Cuba’s Matanzas Oil Storage
Anti-Imperialist News
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Thu Aug 11 13:24:32 EDT 2022
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*Sanctions Fuel the Fire at Cuba’s Matanzas Oil Storage*
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*By Vijay Prashad and Manolo De Los Santos*
On August 5, a major oil storage facility in Matanzas, Cuba, 65 miles
east of Havana, was hit by lightning. A tank that contained 25,000 cubic
meters of crude oil caught fire
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after being struck. Since then, an enormous fire has been raging in
Matanzas. Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Ávalos Jorge, deputy head of
Cuba’s fire department, said that it was impossible to estimate
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when the fire would be completely extinguished. This tremendous
explosion and hard-to-control fire has led to several people being
reported
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missing (including firefighters), many others injured with severe burns,
and hundreds more evacuated from their homes. Cuba’s president, Miguel
Díaz-Canel, rushed
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to Matanzas on August 6, interacted with the local officials who were
trying to get the fire under control, met residents of the town, and the
next day, interacted with the press and spoke about the heroic work done
by the firefighters and the solidarity of the Cuban people. “We are
going to overcome this adversity,” he said
<https://go.ind.media/e/546932/rk-of-firefighters-in-matanzas/qn15p5/1120439245?h=ovEYNFrH5vDYZDLOYd3UMeTqA6AlyipC9IzS8Bn__WI>.
Four
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of the eight tanks at the storage facility have been impacted
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by these fires. By August 8, Matanzas Governor Mario Sabines Lorenzo
also confirmed
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that three tanks
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had been compromised. Clouds of dust now hover over the island. Elba
Rosa Pérez Montoya, Cuba’s minister of Science, Technology, and
Environment (CITMA), said that scientists from various backgrounds were
monitoring the situation to see if the smoke resulting from the fire
will lead to any negative health effects for the residents of the
surrounding areas. As of that point, she said
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“We have no evidence that there are effects on human health.”
Nonetheless, strange substances have been detected in the water supplies
in Yumurí Valley, Matanzas. Diosdado Vera, an 89-year-old farmer, showed
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journalist Arnaldo Mirabal Hernández the unusual color and odor of the
water in an old bathtub that serves as the water source for her cows.
“There are approximately 3,200 particles in the air right now,” said
CITMA Minister Pérez Montoya. “The clouds have sulfur dioxide, nitrogen
dioxide, carbon monoxide, among other substances that are falling on
Matanzas, Mayabeque, and Havana.” Meanwhile, Pérez Montoya said
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that a team of scientists is investigating the strange substances found
in the Yumurí Valley.
This tragedy has also had immediate repercussions for the entire
population in the province of Matanzas and the whole island of Cuba
since it affects their electricity supply
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and access to health care, which already are strained under the weight
of the U.S. blockade, due to lack of availability of spare parts and
scarcity of medicines in Cuba, respectively.
The fire has already led
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to the Antonio Guiteras thermoelectric plant in Matanzas being out of
service due to a shortage
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of water and the contamination
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of the water cycle. This will likely lead to severe electricity outages
amid record heat waves this summer. Ricardo Ronquillo Bello, president
of the Union of Cuban Journalists (UPEC), tweeted
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that this tragedy will be “another test for Cuban journalism that will
know how to honor with its humanism and social responsibility.”
Ronquillo was referring to the onslaught of fake news that swept through
social media, leading to a sense of alarm during an already difficult
period.
In this dire crisis, the people of Cuba and their government have
responded immediately, and this has resulted in on-site efforts to
contain the fire, prevent a major environmental disaster, and keep the
population safe. It has also led to a call
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for international aid and solidarity. The governments of Mexico,
Venezuela, Russia, Nicaragua, Argentina, Chile and several others have
promptly offered material aid, and some countries like Mexico and
Venezuela have also sent experts and firefighters to confront this
complex situation. Cuba’s Credit and Commerce Bank (Bandec) has set
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up an account so that people in the country can donate money to the
people of Matanzas.
“Cuba is Matanzas,” said
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President Díaz-Canel, in the context of both the impact of the fire on
the entire island and the solidarity that is visible across Cuba.
*Sanctions*
The U.S. blockade of Cuba fuels the fire that rages on in the country,
despite denials by authorities in the United States. The U.S. government
has both been stiffening up the blockade of Cuba and denying that
sanctions have any impact on the functioning of the country (in fact, in
2021, then-White House press secretary Jen Psaki had said
<https://go.ind.media/e/546932/watch-v-Rn8gipIQg1k/qn15qn/1120439245?h=ovEYNFrH5vDYZDLOYd3UMeTqA6AlyipC9IzS8Bn__WI>
that the problems in Cuba are not due to the U.S. sanctions but rather
are due to “the Cuban government’s economic mismanagement”). The U.S.
Embassy in Havana has made assurances
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that the blockade authorizes U.S. entities and organizations to provide
disaster relief and response. But organizations tell us that this is not
the case, with the 243 sanctions
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imposed on Cuba working as a stranglehold against pursuing any activity
in the country. Many of these organizations say that the process to send
aid to Cuba is lengthy, with a licensing regime in place that requires
expensive lawyers. Cuba’s inclusion in the state sponsors of terrorism
list
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means that banks in both the United States and abroad are reluctant to
process humanitarian donations.
While Washington says one thing and does another, the firefighters in
Matanzas—aided by the reinforcements from Mexico and Venezuela—have been
spraying
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foam on the fire to prevent it from spreading further, and helicopters
have been pouring water on the other oil tanks to stop them from
combusting. Even after the fire settles and the ashes remain, Cuba will
struggle to rebuild these tanks and to solve its energy crisis. These
are not merely domestic problems but rather are problems created and
exaggerated by the harmful U.S.-imposed blockade that has been in
existence for the past six decades.
Not long after the lightning strike, users on social media shared the
hashtag #FuerzaMatanzas (/be strong, Matanzas/) on various platforms.
Within 24 hours, the hashtag was shared by nearly a billion users,
according
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to Dayron Avello, social media manager at Clínica Internacional Camilo
Cienfuegos. A billion people have signaled their support for Cuba, a
solidarity the U.S. blockade is unable to prevent.
/*Vijay Prashad* is an Indian historian, editor and journalist. He is a
writing fellow and chief correspondent at Globetrotter. He is an editor
of LeftWord Books
<https://go.ind.media/e/546932/2022-08-11/qn15r8/1120439245?h=ovEYNFrH5vDYZDLOYd3UMeTqA6AlyipC9IzS8Bn__WI>
and the director of Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research
<https://go.ind.media/e/546932/2022-08-11/qn15rc/1120439245?h=ovEYNFrH5vDYZDLOYd3UMeTqA6AlyipC9IzS8Bn__WI>.
He is a senior non-resident fellow at Chongyang Institute for Financial
Studies
<https://go.ind.media/e/546932/y2hdjcpo/qn15rg/1120439245?h=ovEYNFrH5vDYZDLOYd3UMeTqA6AlyipC9IzS8Bn__WI>,
Renmin University of China. He has written more than 20 books,
including/ The Darker Nations
<https://go.ind.media/e/546932/1595583424--tag-alternorg08-20/qn15rk/1120439245?h=ovEYNFrH5vDYZDLOYd3UMeTqA6AlyipC9IzS8Bn__WI>
/and/ The Poorer Nations
<https://go.ind.media/e/546932/1781681589--tag-alternorg08-20/qn15rn/1120439245?h=ovEYNFrH5vDYZDLOYd3UMeTqA6AlyipC9IzS8Bn__WI>.
/His latest books are/ Struggle Makes Us Human: Learning from Movements
for Socialism
<https://go.ind.media/e/546932/s-1869-struggle-makes-us-human/qn15rr/1120439245?h=ovEYNFrH5vDYZDLOYd3UMeTqA6AlyipC9IzS8Bn__WI>
/and (with Noam Chomsky)/ The Withdrawal: Iraq, Libya, Afghanistan, and
the Fragility of U.S. Power
<https://go.ind.media/e/546932/books-withdrawal/qn15rv/1120439245?h=ovEYNFrH5vDYZDLOYd3UMeTqA6AlyipC9IzS8Bn__WI>.
/*Manolo De Los Santos* is the co-executive director of the People’s
Forum
<https://go.ind.media/e/546932/2022-08-11/qn15ry/1120439245?h=ovEYNFrH5vDYZDLOYd3UMeTqA6AlyipC9IzS8Bn__WI>
and is a researcher at Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research
<https://go.ind.media/e/546932/2022-08-11/qn15s2/1120439245?h=ovEYNFrH5vDYZDLOYd3UMeTqA6AlyipC9IzS8Bn__WI>.
He co-edited, most recently,/ Viviremos: Venezuela vs. Hybrid War
/(LeftWord Books
<https://go.ind.media/e/546932/catalog-product-view-id-22050/qn15s5/1120439245?h=ovEYNFrH5vDYZDLOYd3UMeTqA6AlyipC9IzS8Bn__WI>/1804
Books
<https://go.ind.media/e/546932/iremos-venezuela-vs-hybrid-war/qn15s8/1120439245?h=ovEYNFrH5vDYZDLOYd3UMeTqA6AlyipC9IzS8Bn__WI>,
2020) and/ Comrade of the Revolution: Selected Speeches of Fidel Castro
/(LeftWord Books
<https://go.ind.media/e/546932/catalog-product-view-id-22524/qn15sc/1120439245?h=ovEYNFrH5vDYZDLOYd3UMeTqA6AlyipC9IzS8Bn__WI>/1804
Books
<https://go.ind.media/e/546932/ected-speeches-of-fidel-castro/qn15sg/1120439245?h=ovEYNFrH5vDYZDLOYd3UMeTqA6AlyipC9IzS8Bn__WI>,
2021). He is a co-coordinator of the People’s Summit for Democracy
<https://go.ind.media/e/546932/2022-08-11/qn15sk/1120439245?h=ovEYNFrH5vDYZDLOYd3UMeTqA6AlyipC9IzS8Bn__WI>./
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