Search Results
1 Documents Found
![Speech by Jose Ponce, 1st Secretary of the Cuban Interest Section](images/fileicons/nodigital.png)
Date: 10/21/1994Call Number: JG/ 089AFormat: Cass AProducers: Judy GerberProgram: A Defiant HeartCollection: Programs produced by Judy Gerber and Laurie Simms
Jose Ponce, 1st Secretary of the Cuban Interest Section in the U.S. (the only formal forum of Cuba/U.S. diplomatic contact) speaks at Emory University, GA, October 5, 1994. Ponce summarizes the history of Cuba following the Spanish-American War. He glorifies the achievements of the Cuban communist system: full literacy, power, free education, universal healthcare, antiracism efforts, advances for women, Cuban aide to needy foreign countries. He decries U.S. attempts to sabotage Cuba, specifically the trade embargo which has cost $40 billion dollars, restrictions on remittances, travel bans, and assassination attempts. He argues that the embargo and subsequent loss of infrastructure gave Cuba with no other choice but to ally itself with COMECON and copy the Soviet model. He explains how the 1989 USSR collapse and subsequent loss of 85% of its national trade greatly diminished the Cuban standard of living. He discounts the Cuban pro-democracy protests because he argues Cuba is already a democracy with a rich grassroots political life and elected parliament, just not a multiparty system. He discusses how Cuba is currently debating the first tax in its post-revolutionary history to help revive the declining economic infrastructure.
1 Documents Found