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Come from Miami: The
Sixteenth Newsletter
(2021)</span></span></span></strong>
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<span
style="font-family:lato,helvetica
neue,helvetica,arial,sans-serif">
<div id="attachment_40430"
class="wp-caption alignnone"><img
aria-describedby="caption-attachment-40430" loading="lazy"
class="size-full
wp-image-40430
img-responsive mcRssImage"
src="https://thetricontinental.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Mohsen-Taasha-Wahidi-Afghanistan-Rebirth-of-the-Red-2017.-3.jpg"
alt="Mohsen Taasha Wahidi
(Afghanistan), Rebirth of
the Red, 2017.>"
srcset="https://thetricontinental.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Mohsen-Taasha-Wahidi-Afghanistan-Rebirth-of-the-Red-2017.-3.jpg
950w,
https://thetricontinental.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Mohsen-Taasha-Wahidi-Afghanistan-Rebirth-of-the-Red-2017.-3-300x233.jpg
300w,
https://thetricontinental.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Mohsen-Taasha-Wahidi-Afghanistan-Rebirth-of-the-Red-2017.-3-768x596.jpg
768w" sizes="(max-width:
950px) 100vw, 950px"
style="max-width:
100%;width:
100%;padding-bottom:
0;display:
inline;vertical-align:
bottom;border: 0;height:
auto;outline:
none;text-decoration:
none;-ms-interpolation-mode:
bicubic;"
moz-do-not-send="true"
width="950" border="0">
<p
id="caption-attachment-40430"
class="wp-caption-text"
style="margin: 10px
0;padding:
0;mso-line-height-rule:
exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family:
Helvetica;font-size:
16px;line-height:
150%;text-align: left;"><span
style="color: #ba2025;">Mohsen
Taasha Wahidi
(Afghanistan), <em>Rebirth
of the Red</em>, 2017.</span></p>
</div>
<p style="margin: 10px
0;padding:
0;mso-line-height-rule:
exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family:
Helvetica;font-size:
16px;line-height:
150%;text-align: left;"> </p>
<p style="margin: 10px
0;padding:
0;mso-line-height-rule:
exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family:
Helvetica;font-size:
16px;line-height:
150%;text-align: left;">Dear
friends,</p>
<p style="margin: 10px
0;padding:
0;mso-line-height-rule:
exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family:
Helvetica;font-size:
16px;line-height:
150%;text-align: left;">Greetings
from the desk of the <a
href="https://leftword.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=6a79324d3b4acfde1e7e546c6&id=f24a7ae66b&e=d206d0a40d"
style="mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust:
100%;color:
#007C89;font-weight:
normal;text-decoration:
underline;"
moz-do-not-send="true">Tricontinental:
Institute for Social
Research</a>.</p>
<p style="margin: 10px
0;padding:
0;mso-line-height-rule:
exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family:
Helvetica;font-size:
16px;line-height:
150%;text-align: left;">After
twenty years, the United
States government – and the
forces of the North Atlantic
Treaty Organisation (NATO) –
will depart from
Afghanistan. They said that
they came to do two things:
to destroy al-Qaeda, which
had launched an attack on
the United States on 11
September 2001, and to
destroy the Taliban, which
had given al-Qaeda a base.
After great loss of life and
the further destruction of
Afghan society, the US
departs – as it did from
Vietnam in 1975 – in defeat:
al-Qaeda has regrouped in
different parts of the
world, and the Taliban is
set to return to the
capital, Kabul.</p>
<p style="margin: 10px
0;padding:
0;mso-line-height-rule:
exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family:
Helvetica;font-size:
16px;line-height:
150%;text-align: left;">The
speaker of Afghanistan’s
parliament, Mir Rahman
Rahmani, <a
href="https://leftword.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=6a79324d3b4acfde1e7e546c6&id=12a714cd7d&e=d206d0a40d"
style="mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust:
100%;color:
#007C89;font-weight:
normal;text-decoration:
underline;"
moz-do-not-send="true">warns</a>
that the country is poised
to enter a new period of
civil war, a repeat of the
terrible civil war that ran
from 1992 to 2001. The
United Nations <a
href="https://leftword.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=6a79324d3b4acfde1e7e546c6&id=4ed87d85e6&e=d206d0a40d"
style="mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust:
100%;color:
#007C89;font-weight:
normal;text-decoration:
underline;"
moz-do-not-send="true">calculates</a>
that in the first quarter of
2021, civilian casualties
rose by 29% compared to last
year, while the number of
women casualties increased
by 37%. It is unclear if
there will be further talks
between the Taliban, the
Afghan government of
President Ashraf Ghani, the
Turks, the Qataris, the
United States, and the
United Nations. Afghanistan
sits on the brink of further
violence, whose impact can
so aptly be described by the
words of the poet Zarlasht
Hafeez:</p>
<p style="padding-left:
40px;margin: 10px 0;padding:
0;mso-line-height-rule:
exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family:
Helvetica;font-size:
16px;line-height:
150%;text-align: left;">The
sorrow and grief, these
black evenings,<br>
Eyes full of tears and times
full of sadness,<br>
These burnt hearts, the
killing of youths,<br>
These unfulfilled
expectations and unmet hopes
of brides</p>
<p style="margin: 10px
0;padding:
0;mso-line-height-rule:
exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family:
Helvetica;font-size:
16px;line-height:
150%;text-align: left;">‘Saving’
Afghan women, advancing the
cause of human rights: these
words have lost meaning
after two decades. As
Eduardo Galeano put it,
‘Every time the US “saves” a
country, it converts it
either into a madhouse or a
cemetery’.</p>
<p style="margin: 10px
0;padding:
0;mso-line-height-rule:
exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family:
Helvetica;font-size:
16px;line-height:
150%;text-align: left;"> </p>
<div id="attachment_40397"
class="wp-caption alignnone"><img
aria-describedby="caption-attachment-40397" loading="lazy"
class="size-full
wp-image-40397
img-responsive mcRssImage"
src="https://thetricontinental.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Alicia-Leal-Cuba-Un-soldado-de-America-1997.-4.jpg"
alt="Alicia Leal (Cuba),
Un soldado de América,
1997."
srcset="https://thetricontinental.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Alicia-Leal-Cuba-Un-soldado-de-America-1997.-4.jpg
950w,
https://thetricontinental.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Alicia-Leal-Cuba-Un-soldado-de-America-1997.-4-300x239.jpg
300w,
https://thetricontinental.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Alicia-Leal-Cuba-Un-soldado-de-America-1997.-4-768x612.jpg
768w" sizes="(max-width:
950px) 100vw, 950px"
style="max-width:
100%;width:
100%;padding-bottom:
0;display:
inline;vertical-align:
bottom;border: 0;height:
auto;outline:
none;text-decoration:
none;-ms-interpolation-mode:
bicubic;"
moz-do-not-send="true"
width="950" border="0">
<p
id="caption-attachment-40397"
class="wp-caption-text"
style="margin: 10px
0;padding:
0;mso-line-height-rule:
exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family:
Helvetica;font-size:
16px;line-height:
150%;text-align: left;"><span
style="color: #ba2025;">Alicia
Leal (Cuba), <i>Un
soldado de América</i>,
1997.</span></p>
</div>
<p style="margin: 10px
0;padding:
0;mso-line-height-rule:
exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family:
Helvetica;font-size:
16px;line-height:
150%;text-align: left;"> </p>
<p style="margin: 10px
0;padding:
0;mso-line-height-rule:
exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family:
Helvetica;font-size:
16px;line-height:
150%;text-align: left;">The
US government calculates
that this war, which would
enter its twentieth year, is
the longest US war in the
modern period (the US
engagement in Vietnam lasted
for fourteen years, from
1961 to 1975). But this war
in Afghanistan is not the
longest war prosecuted by
the United States
government. There are two US
wars that continue: a war
against the Democratic
People’s Republic of Korea
or DPRK (since August 1950)
and against Cuba (since
September 1959). Neither of
these conflicts have ended,
with the US continuing to
execute hybrid wars against
both the DPRK and Cuba. A <a
href="https://leftword.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=6a79324d3b4acfde1e7e546c6&id=4c479087d1&e=d206d0a40d"
style="mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust:
100%;color:
#007C89;font-weight:
normal;text-decoration:
underline;"
moz-do-not-send="true">hybrid
war</a> does not
necessarily require the full
arsenal of a military to
come into force; it is a war
fought through the control
of information and financial
flows as well as the use of
economic sanctions and
illicit means such as
sabotage. There is no
question that the longest
and unfinished US wars have
been against Korea and Cuba.</p>
<p style="margin: 10px
0;padding:
0;mso-line-height-rule:
exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family:
Helvetica;font-size:
16px;line-height:
150%;text-align: left;">Sixty
years ago, on 17 April 1961,
the CIA’s Brigade 2506
landed at Cuba’s Playa Girón
(‘Bay of Pigs’). The Cuban
people resisted this
invasion as they would six
decades of hybrid war
against their sovereign
revolutionary processes.
Cuba has never threatened
the United States; it never
has violated the UN Charter
of 1945. The United States,
on the other hand, has
routinely threatened the
Cuban people. In October
1962, when the Soviets sent
a missile cover to protect
Cuba, General Maxwell
Taylor, the head of the US
Joint Chiefs of Staff, <a
href="https://leftword.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=6a79324d3b4acfde1e7e546c6&id=da46234fca&e=d206d0a40d"
style="mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust:
100%;color:
#007C89;font-weight:
normal;text-decoration:
underline;"
moz-do-not-send="true">planned</a>
for a full-scale invasion.
In this now-declassified
memorandum, Taylor pointed
out that such a military
venture might result in
18,500 casualties on the US
side because of the
determination of the Cubans
to protect their land and
their political project. The
plot was to reinstate the
old Cuban oligarchy that had
sought refuge in Miami and
turn Cuba back into a
gangster’s paradise.</p>
<p style="margin: 10px
0;padding:
0;mso-line-height-rule:
exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family:
Helvetica;font-size:
16px;line-height:
150%;text-align: left;">After
the Cuban government sent
troops to assist the
national liberation project
in Angola in November 1975,
US Secretary of State Henry
Kissinger <a
href="https://leftword.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=6a79324d3b4acfde1e7e546c6&id=bb78a5d3b0&e=d206d0a40d"
style="mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust:
100%;color:
#007C89;font-weight:
normal;text-decoration:
underline;"
moz-do-not-send="true">told</a>
his team on 24 March 1976,
‘if we decide to use
military power, it must
succeed. There should be no
halfway measures – we would
get no award for using
military power in
moderation. If we decide on
a blockade, it must be
ruthless, rapid, and
efficient’. The US planned
to mine Havana’s harbour and
bomb Cuba’s cities. ‘I think
we are going to have to
smash Castro’, Kissinger <a
href="https://leftword.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=6a79324d3b4acfde1e7e546c6&id=99e2316d24&e=d206d0a40d"
style="mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust:
100%;color:
#007C89;font-weight:
normal;text-decoration:
underline;"
moz-do-not-send="true">told</a>
US President Gerald Ford.
Ford replied, ‘I agree’.
Such is the attitude of the
US government, from 1961 to
the present.</p>
<p style="margin: 10px
0;padding:
0;mso-line-height-rule:
exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family:
Helvetica;font-size:
16px;line-height:
150%;text-align: left;"> </p>
<div id="attachment_40408"
class="wp-caption
aligncenter"><img
aria-describedby="caption-attachment-40408"
loading="lazy"
class="size-full
wp-image-40408
img-responsive mcRssImage"
src="https://thetricontinental.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Carlos-Garaicoa-Cuba-Puzzle-la-Malenka-2009.-1.jpg"
alt="Carlos Garaicoa
(Cuba), Puzzle la Malenka,
2009."
srcset="https://thetricontinental.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Carlos-Garaicoa-Cuba-Puzzle-la-Malenka-2009.-1.jpg
635w,
https://thetricontinental.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Carlos-Garaicoa-Cuba-Puzzle-la-Malenka-2009.-1-201x300.jpg
201w" sizes="(max-width:
635px) 100vw, 635px"
style="max-width:
100%;width:
100%;padding-bottom:
0;display:
inline;vertical-align:
bottom;border: 0;height:
auto;outline:
none;text-decoration:
none;-ms-interpolation-mode:
bicubic;"
moz-do-not-send="true"
width="635" border="0">
<p
id="caption-attachment-40408"
class="wp-caption-text"
style="margin: 10px
0;padding:
0;mso-line-height-rule:
exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family:
Helvetica;font-size:
16px;line-height:
150%;text-align: left;"><span
style="color: #ba2025;">Carlos
Garaicoa (Cuba), <em>Puzzle
la Malenka</em>, 2009.</span></p>
</div>
<p style="margin: 10px
0;padding:
0;mso-line-height-rule:
exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family:
Helvetica;font-size:
16px;line-height:
150%;text-align: left;"> </p>
<p style="margin: 10px
0;padding:
0;mso-line-height-rule:
exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family:
Helvetica;font-size:
16px;line-height:
150%;text-align: left;">Before
he left office in January
2021, US President Donald
Trump <a
href="https://leftword.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=6a79324d3b4acfde1e7e546c6&id=1fbf65a30b&e=d206d0a40d"
style="mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust:
100%;color:
#007C89;font-weight:
normal;text-decoration:
underline;"
moz-do-not-send="true">placed</a>
Cuba on the US government’s
‘state sponsors of
terrorism’ list.
Seventy-five US lawmakers <a
href="https://leftword.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=6a79324d3b4acfde1e7e546c6&id=a31aad4139&e=d206d0a40d"
style="mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust:
100%;color:
#007C89;font-weight:
normal;text-decoration:
underline;"
moz-do-not-send="true">asked</a>
his successor, President Joe
Biden, to reverse this
decision. On 16 April,
Biden’s press secretary Jen
Psaki <a
href="https://leftword.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=6a79324d3b4acfde1e7e546c6&id=ba190b4ef7&e=d206d0a40d"
style="mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust:
100%;color:
#007C89;font-weight:
normal;text-decoration:
underline;"
moz-do-not-send="true">told</a>
the briefing room that ‘A
Cuba policy shift or
additional steps is
currently not among the
President’s top foreign
policy priorities’. Biden,
in other words, has decided
to passively continue
Trump’s policy, dictated to
him by the likes of
Republican Senators Marco
Rubio and Rick Scott from
Florida and Senator Ted Cruz
from Texas (as well as
Democratic Senator Robert
Menendez from New Jersey).
Biden has opted to persist
in this cruel six-decade
long policy to suffocate the
Cuban people.</p>
<p style="margin: 10px
0;padding:
0;mso-line-height-rule:
exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family:
Helvetica;font-size:
16px;line-height:
150%;text-align: left;">Just
after the 1959 Cuban
Revolution, the US
government made it clear
that it would not tolerate a
sovereign Cuba only 145
kilometres from Florida’s
coast. Cuba’s commitment to
people over profit is a
standing rebuke of the
hypocrisies of the United
States rulers. This has been
clarified once more during
this pandemic, during which
the infection and death
rates per million are
strikingly higher in the US
than in Cuba (recent figures
<a
href="https://leftword.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=6a79324d3b4acfde1e7e546c6&id=b5edf76471&e=d206d0a40d"
style="mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust:
100%;color:
#007C89;font-weight:
normal;text-decoration:
underline;"
moz-do-not-send="true">indicate</a>
the US has recorded 1,724
deaths per million, whereas
Cuba stands at 47 deaths per
million). While the US
locked itself into vaccine
nationalism, Cuba’s Henry
Reeve Brigade of doctors
continued with their work
amongst the world’s poorest
people (for this, of course,
they <a
href="https://leftword.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=6a79324d3b4acfde1e7e546c6&id=91adbc1281&e=d206d0a40d"
style="mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust:
100%;color:
#007C89;font-weight:
normal;text-decoration:
underline;"
moz-do-not-send="true">deserve</a>
the Nobel Prize for Peace).</p>
<p style="margin: 10px
0;padding:
0;mso-line-height-rule:
exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family:
Helvetica;font-size:
16px;line-height:
150%;text-align: left;">Unable
to successfully invade Cuba,
the US has persisted with a
tight blockade of the
island. After the fall of
the USSR, which had provided
Cuba with ways to circumvent
the blockade, the US
attempted to tighten its
grip on the island. US
lawmakers then attacked
Cuba’s economy through the
Cuban Democracy Act (1992)
and the Cuban Liberty and
Democratic Solidarity Act
(1996) – both laws with
names that demean the words
in them. From 1992 onwards,
the UN General Assembly has
<a
href="https://leftword.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=6a79324d3b4acfde1e7e546c6&id=aae4dde931&e=d206d0a40d"
style="mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust:
100%;color:
#007C89;font-weight:
normal;text-decoration:
underline;"
moz-do-not-send="true">voted</a>
overwhelmingly for the
United States to end this
blockade. A group of UN
Human Rights Council Special
Rapporteurs wrote a <a
href="https://leftword.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=6a79324d3b4acfde1e7e546c6&id=09c810de51&e=d206d0a40d"
style="mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust:
100%;color:
#007C89;font-weight:
normal;text-decoration:
underline;"
moz-do-not-send="true">statement</a>
calling on the US to
withdraw these measures,
which have only made Cuba’s
attempt to fight the
pandemic harder.</p>
<p style="margin: 10px
0;padding:
0;mso-line-height-rule:
exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family:
Helvetica;font-size:
16px;line-height:
150%;text-align: left;">The
Cuban government <a
href="https://leftword.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=6a79324d3b4acfde1e7e546c6&id=d77ff2ec65&e=d206d0a40d"
style="mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust:
100%;color:
#007C89;font-weight:
normal;text-decoration:
underline;"
moz-do-not-send="true">reported</a>
that between April 2019 and
March 2020, Cuba lost $5
billion in potential trade
due to the blockade; over
the past almost six decades,
it has lost the equivalent
of $144 billion. Now the US
government has deepened the
sanctions against shipping
companies that bring oil to
the island. The head of US
Southern Command, Admiral
Craig Faller, <a
href="https://leftword.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=6a79324d3b4acfde1e7e546c6&id=fcf0bd3203&e=d206d0a40d"
style="mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust:
100%;color:
#007C89;font-weight:
normal;text-decoration:
underline;"
moz-do-not-send="true">described</a>
Cuba’s medical
internationalism as a
‘regional corrosive
influence’. There is cruelty
in Washington.</p>
<p style="margin: 10px
0;padding:
0;mso-line-height-rule:
exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family:
Helvetica;font-size:
16px;line-height:
150%;text-align: left;"> </p>
<p style="margin: 10px
0;padding:
0;mso-line-height-rule:
exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family:
Helvetica;font-size:
16px;line-height:
150%;text-align: left;"><img
loading="lazy"
class="aligncenter
size-full wp-image-40441
img-responsive mcRssImage"
src="https://thetricontinental.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/20210421_Raúl-Castro_Square-e1619034121465.jpg"
alt="" style="max-width:
100%;width:
100%;padding-bottom:
0;display:
inline;vertical-align:
bottom;border: 0;height:
auto;outline:
none;text-decoration:
none;-ms-interpolation-mode:
bicubic;"
moz-do-not-send="true"
width="700" border="0"></p>
<p style="margin: 10px
0;padding:
0;mso-line-height-rule:
exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family:
Helvetica;font-size:
16px;line-height:
150%;text-align: left;"> </p>
<p style="margin: 10px
0;padding:
0;mso-line-height-rule:
exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family:
Helvetica;font-size:
16px;line-height:
150%;text-align: left;">Far
from the bitterness of the
US government, the Cuban
communists held their eighth
Party Congress, where the <a
href="https://leftword.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=6a79324d3b4acfde1e7e546c6&id=050b451603&e=d206d0a40d"
style="mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust:
100%;color:
#007C89;font-weight:
normal;text-decoration:
underline;"
moz-do-not-send="true">discussion</a>
was on how to improve the
state enterprises and how to
innovate to meet the
aspirations of the Cuban
people. Deputy Prime
Minister Inés María Chapman
said that the party members
must be active in their
communities to build and
defend socialism. Rafael
Santiesteban Pozo, president
of the National Association
of Small Farmers, said that
working people must produce
more with what resources are
available. Minister of
Economy and Planning
Alejandro Gil pointed to the
need for greater efficiency
in the state enterprise
system, the expansion of
self-employment, and the
expansion of cooperatives.</p>
<p style="margin: 10px
0;padding:
0;mso-line-height-rule:
exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family:
Helvetica;font-size:
16px;line-height:
150%;text-align: left;">These
are serious people who
recognise the problems but
are not overwhelmed by them;
they are part of a project
that has fought to defend
its sovereignty against
enormous odds since 1959.
Defeat is not in their
vocabulary. Their agenda is
hopeful, unlike the bilious
agenda that comes from the
US government and the
Miami-based Cuban oligarchy.</p>
<p style="margin: 10px
0;padding:
0;mso-line-height-rule:
exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family:
Helvetica;font-size:
16px;line-height:
150%;text-align: left;">At
this Congress, Raúl Castro
stepped down from his post.
Castro, one of the original
Cuban revolutionaries, had
been imprisoned for his role
in the Moncada uprising of
1953. Upon his release, he
went to Mexico with his
brother Fidel and then
returned on the <em>Granma</em>
to lead the rebellion
against the US-backed
dictator Fulgencio Batista.
After the victory of the
Revolution, Castro served in
the government and as a
leader in the Communist
Party, guiding it alongside
Fidel and others through the
difficult Special Period
(1991-2000) and then
continuing to lead it after
Fidel’s death in 2016. His
quiet role in defending and
elaborating the Cuban
Revolution has been immense.</p>
<p style="margin: 10px
0;padding:
0;mso-line-height-rule:
exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family:
Helvetica;font-size:
16px;line-height:
150%;text-align: left;"> </p>
<div id="attachment_40419"
class="wp-caption alignnone"><img
aria-describedby="caption-attachment-40419" loading="lazy"
class="size-full
wp-image-40419
img-responsive mcRssImage"
src="https://thetricontinental.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/José-Rodríguez-Fuster-Cuba-Granma-2013.-2.jpg"
alt="José Rodríguez Fuster
(Cuba), Granma, 2013."
srcset="https://thetricontinental.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/José-Rodríguez-Fuster-Cuba-Granma-2013.-2.jpg
950w,
https://thetricontinental.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/José-Rodríguez-Fuster-Cuba-Granma-2013.-2-300x256.jpg
300w,
https://thetricontinental.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/José-Rodríguez-Fuster-Cuba-Granma-2013.-2-768x655.jpg
768w" sizes="(max-width:
950px) 100vw, 950px"
style="max-width:
100%;width:
100%;padding-bottom:
0;display:
inline;vertical-align:
bottom;border: 0;height:
auto;outline:
none;text-decoration:
none;-ms-interpolation-mode:
bicubic;"
moz-do-not-send="true"
width="950" border="0">
<p
id="caption-attachment-40419"
class="wp-caption-text"
style="margin: 10px
0;padding:
0;mso-line-height-rule:
exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family:
Helvetica;font-size:
16px;line-height:
150%;text-align: left;"><span
style="color: #ba2025;">José
Rodríguez Fuster (Cuba),
<em>Granma</em>, 2013.</span></p>
</div>
<p style="margin: 10px
0;padding:
0;mso-line-height-rule:
exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family:
Helvetica;font-size:
16px;line-height:
150%;text-align: left;"> </p>
<p style="margin: 10px
0;padding:
0;mso-line-height-rule:
exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family:
Helvetica;font-size:
16px;line-height:
150%;text-align: left;">After
the Playa Girón attack by
the CIA, the Spanish poet
Jaime Gil de Biedma wrote a
poem about Cuba called
‘During the Invasion’
(collected in <em>Moralidades</em>,
1966). The Venezuelan poet
Diego Sequera translated
this poem for us as we
celebrate the 60<sup>th</sup>
anniversary of the defeat of
the US on those beaches:</p>
<p style="padding-left:
40px;margin: 10px 0;padding:
0;mso-line-height-rule:
exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family:
Helvetica;font-size:
16px;line-height:
150%;text-align: left;">The
morning newspaper is open on<br>
the tablecloth. The sun
glows in the glasses.<br>
Lunch at the small
restaurant,<br>
a working day.</p>
<p style="padding-left:
40px;margin: 10px 0;padding:
0;mso-line-height-rule:
exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family:
Helvetica;font-size:
16px;line-height:
150%;text-align: left;">Most
of us remain silent. Someone
speaks with an elusive
voice;<br>
these are conversations with
special sorrow<br>
about the things that always
happen and<br>
that never end, or that end
in disgrace.</p>
<p style="padding-left:
40px;margin: 10px 0;padding:
0;mso-line-height-rule:
exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family:
Helvetica;font-size:
16px;line-height:
150%;text-align: left;">I
think that at this time of
day, the sun rises in
Ciénaga;<br>
nothing is yet decided,
combat doesn’t stop,<br>
and I look in the news for
some hope<br>
that doesn’t come from
Miami.</p>
<p style="padding-left:
40px;margin: 10px 0;padding:
0;mso-line-height-rule:
exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family:
Helvetica;font-size:
16px;line-height:
150%;text-align: left;">Oh,
Cuba in the distant dawn of
the tropics,<br>
when the sun is simmering,
and the air is clear:<br>
may your land sow tanks and
your broken sky<br>
be grey from the wings of
airplanes.</p>
<p style="padding-left:
40px;margin: 10px 0;padding:
0;mso-line-height-rule:
exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family:
Helvetica;font-size:
16px;line-height:
150%;text-align: left;">With
you are the people of sugar
cane,<br>
the man of the streetcar,
those from the restaurants,<br>
the thousands of us that
today search in the world<br>
for a bit of hope that
doesn’t come from Miami.</p>
<p style="margin: 10px
0;padding:
0;mso-line-height-rule:
exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family:
Helvetica;font-size:
16px;line-height:
150%;text-align: left;"> </p>
<p style="margin: 10px
0;padding:
0;mso-line-height-rule:
exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family:
Helvetica;font-size:
16px;line-height:
150%;text-align: left;">Hope
comes from the warm sun of
Cuba.</p>
<p style="margin: 10px
0;padding:
0;mso-line-height-rule:
exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family:
Helvetica;font-size:
16px;line-height:
150%;text-align: left;">Warmly,</p>
<p style="margin: 10px
0;padding:
0;mso-line-height-rule:
exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family:
Helvetica;font-size:
16px;line-height:
150%;text-align: left;">Vijay</p>
<p style="margin: 10px
0;padding:
0;mso-line-height-rule:
exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family:
Helvetica;font-size:
16px;line-height:
150%;text-align: left;"> </p>
<p style="margin: 10px
0;padding:
0;mso-line-height-rule:
exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family:
Helvetica;font-size:
16px;line-height:
150%;text-align: left;"><br>
</p>
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