Cuba in the Cross fire

Russia 'follows the development' of Cuban situation and prompts as 'unacceptable' any intent on destabilising it from the outside.

https://actualidad.rt.com/actualidad/397569-rusia-sigue-desarrollo-situacion-cuba.

Also:

Russia monitors situation in Cuba, considers outside interference inadmissible— diplomat.

Earlier, it was reported that riots had occurred in several of the republic’s cities, with a number of shops being destroyed.

MOSCOW, July 12. /TASS/. Russia is keeping a close eye on the situation in Cuba and believes that outside interference is inadmissible, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in a commentary on Monday.

"We are closely following the situation in Cuba and around it," she stressed. "We consider outside interference in the domestic affairs of a sovereign state and other destructive actions that would encourage the destabilization of the situation on the island unacceptable."

According to Zakharova, the Cuban authorities "are taking all necessary measures to restore public order in the interests of the country’s citizens within the framework of the national Constitution and the current domestic legislation."

Cuba’s state television earlier reported that riots had occurred in several of the republic’s cities, with a number of shops being destroyed. Earlier, mass demonstrations began in the city of San Antonio de los Banos located 24 kilometers south of Havana. President Miguel Diaz-Canel urged the defenders of the Cuban Revolution to take to the streets to prevent provocations against the authorities.

The president noted that "the Yankees who have always supported the blockade <...> are seeking humanitarian intervention" and also encouraging campaigns aimed at spreading the idea that the government allegedly cannot control the challenging epidemiological situation.

https://tass.com/politics/1313053.

Insurrection in Washington but "struggle for freedom" in Havana.

Shameless US Hypocrisy on Cuba, by Finian Cunningham for Sputniknews. 12.07.2021.

US corporate media are having a field day over public protests in Cuba that are being hailed as a revolt against the island’s communist government.

The protests are said to have been prompted by economic hardship which has been aggravated by the Covid-19 pandemic. Scarcely mentioned by the Western media is the proverbial elephant in the room. That is, Cuba has endured nearly 60 years of unremitting economic sanctions imposed on it by the US.

Can we please just focus on that vital background to the story and get our heads around the fact that the American government is a criminally hostile and lawless entity. The Caribbean country has been throttled and strangulated for over half a century by over a dozen American presidents whose malign conduct is no better than that of crime bosses.

Under President Trump, the economic blockade was tightened with new vindictive measures to hit the Cuban economy and population of 11 million. The new Biden administration has done nothing to reverse those harsher sanctions.

President Biden this week has the gall to say “the United States stands with the people” of Cuba in their protests. What Biden really means to say is the US is standing on the necks of Cubans.

Every year, the vast majority of countries at the United Nations general assembly make an appeal for Washington to lift its callous embargo on Cuba. Every year, Washington vetos that international call.

There is no legal justification for American sanctions on Cuba. It is an act of sheer spite because Cuba dared to have a socialist revolution in 1959 when it kicked out a US-backed dictator and American businesses that were exploiting the people to the hilt. Cuba then became the “threat of a good example” to the rest of the hemisphere also plagued by American imperialism and predation. It had to be punished and destroyed so that others would not repeat the rejection of Uncle Sam and his crime syndicate.

Amazingly, Cuba and its revolution have survived against impossible odds and brought its people many successes in social development. It also inspired other Latin American nations to follow its path despite Washington’s unforgiving barbarity. America likewise sanctions Venezuela and Nicaragua because of their socialist governments, thereby making social misery and suffering in those countries as well.

It cannot be overstated. American economic sanctions are criminal. They are nothing short of economic warfare and aimed deliberately at making life unbearable for the population in order to destabilize the government and incite revolt.

When US media blithely mention “sanctions” on Cuba that is a monstrous feat of hypocrisy. Washington should be unequivocally condemned for crimes against humanity and aggression towards a peaceful nation.

The media silence in the face of this appalling barbarity really demonstrates the cowardice and propaganda function of the US corporate media.

The Cuban people have been subjected to a siege of terror for six decades. That state-sponsored terrorism by the United States has involved attempted military invasion (the Bay of Pigs in 1961), the threat of nuclear annihilation (1962 missile crisis), countless assassination plots against the late leader Fidel Castro and other government figures, biological warfare to destroy the island’s agriculture, as well as mass murder as in the CIA bombing of a Cuban civilian airliner in 1976 which killed 73 people.

The psychopathic US rulers have ratcheted up economic warfare against the people of Cuba during a worldwide pandemic, limiting Cuba’s access to medicines and other vital imports.

Not only that but there are grounds to believe that the relatively small protests that have erupted across Cuba have been instigated by Washington and its paid-for “opposition figures”.

It has all the hallmarks of a “color revolution” orchestrated by US intelligence and the ever-pliant news media who are scripting a “pro-democracy” uprising.

However, such American media claims should be disdained with contempt. Pathetically, the corporate-controlled media have never stood up during 60 years to tell the truth about the American government and its criminal covert war on the Cuban people. Whatever they “report” now about Cuba should be dismissed as yet more distortion and fabrication in the service of Uncle Sam.

https://sputniknews.com/columnists/202107121083370185-shameless-us-hypocrisy-on-cuba/

Cuba should make notes of all this propaganda bullshit coming from the US and start pumping it out the next time a black person gets shot by a cop and there are BLM protests... or maybe Cuba should demand a recount for the US 2020 elections because the numbers don't seem to add up...

I remember in the old days in Iran, yogurt was sold in reusable ceramic pots. No need to import plastics or have injection moulding machines to manufacture plastic containers. Uses existing technology.

Milk and drinks came in glass bottles too that could be cleaned and reused multiple times and then smashed up and melted and made into bottles again...

The very idea of having bottled water was absurd... now such things are everywhere... ridiculous.

Cuba copes, by Israel Shamir for Russian RT News. 13.07.2021.

Cuba has gone through - or is going through - a dire crisis, comparable to that which fell to its lot in 1994 after the collapse of the Soviet Union. The island was hit by a wave of COVID-19, a new mutation that has raised the number of sick and dead to unprecedented heights. Previous waves had little impact on Cuba, but this time the virus recovered in full, despite the active vaccination with its own vaccine and the developed health care system. Tourism has practically disappeared, and US sanctions do not allow trade. Under these conditions, a wave of unrest, caused by the American fifth column, and immediately received the support of Washington, passed through Cuba. Demonstrations of protest quickly turned into pogroms.

Finally, the end of "red" Cuba has come, they happily talked in Florida, where many immigrants from the Island of Freedom live. But it was not there. President of the Republic of Cuba Miguel Diaz-Canel addressed the people and urged people to take to the streets, not sit at home. The street cannot be surrendered to the thugs, he said. Indeed, tens of thousands of supporters of Cuban independence took to the streets and recaptured them. The rebellious youth fled. This is how the problem of “what to do with the“ Maidan ”in Cuba was solved.

Today, protests continue, although they have significantly diminished in size and scope. The President and the Minister of Foreign Affairs speak to the people, telling in every detail what, how and why happened on the island. In these conditions of publicity, we learn details that would otherwise be unknown.

There is an acute economic crisis in Cuba. The reasons are sanctions and COVID-19. COVID-19 has cut off tourism, a major source of currency. And the sanctions cut off Cuba's ability to buy and sell through the international banking system. You can't get fuel because the US is blocking both Venezuela, the main fuel supplier, and Iran, which also helped. When there is no fuel, there is no electricity, when there is no opportunity to buy food, the people are starving. Hundreds of sanctions have been imposed on Cuba. The latest package of sanctions was imposed by President Trump, who wanted the support of Cuban exiles and the mafia, Cuba's main and ardent enemies. The United States added Cuba to the list of countries supporting terror, although, of course, they do not think about any terror in Havana - just as in Russia they do not think about hacker attacks on American meat processing plants.

President Biden also added sanctions. Cuba sends teams of its doctors to the countries of Latin America and Africa - this is how they help the peoples of friendly countries and earn currency. The Biden administration equated medical travel to ... the slave trade (!) And added new restrictions. Even syringes and needles for vaccination are prohibited from being imported into Cuba. In these conditions, infectious scabies has spread, and the United States is not allowed to bring drugs.

After the country was cornered, put on starvation rations and the lights were turned off, the United States demanded: open a humanitarian corridor for the free import of humanitarian aid to the population. Help - without government involvement. Give us a free port and airport, they say, we will sail, arrive and feed. This is a traditional American trick. They tried it both in Venezuela and in Yugoslavia. The humanitarian aid came in conjunction with American marines, PMC fighters, specialists in inciting civil wars and organizing coups.

This technique - first to bring down the economy, bring the country to starvation, and then send humanitarian aid as a cover for the landing - was also used by the United States in Vietnam in the 60s of the last century.

Then, as we know today from the Pentagon Papers, the US military decided, instead of bombing the cities of Hanoi and Haiphong, to bomb dams to disrupt rice production and cause widespread famine. Millions of Vietnamese will starve to death, Pentagon specialists designed, and we, the United States, will deliver food and save the survivors. So the whole world will praise us, and the Vietnamese will humble themselves.

For me, a young man who grew up in an anti-Soviet and pro-Western environment, these documents became a means of sobering up. I read for the first time how the military - not just some Nazis, but cultured Americans - are planning to kill millions of civilians in order to earn propaganda capital to save the survivors. Then the Soviet Union, its air defense, its combat aircraft were able to thwart the American plan to kill millions of Vietnamese. But now there is no Soviet Union. And the strength of Russia, although her heart is in the right place and she supports Cuba, are limited.

We need to remember that the United States is treating Cuba the way it would like to deal with Russia. They are stifling Russia with sanctions. Only Russia is much larger, it is not easy to strangle it. Things are getting easier with Cuba. Since the famous Cuban Missile Crisis, Cuba has been under sanctions. Although all the countries of the world at the UN General Assemblies from year to year demand that the United States lift sanctions against Cuba and give the Cuban people a peaceful life, the United States refuses to comply with these UN resolutions. (Only Israel has consistently supported the United States in the Cuban vote, and the United States has responded by blocking resolutions condemning the Israeli blockade and occupation of Palestine.)

It cannot be ruled out that the outbreak of COVID-19 on the island, where it has so far been fairly painless and where its vaccines have been developed, was caused by a biological attack, which was undoubtedly the outbreak of COVID-19 in the Iranian city of Qom at the end of last winter. Then many leaders of the Iranian republic fell ill and died. At that time, COVID-19 was not met anywhere except Wuhan, and the United States and Israel, and then waged an active secret war against Iran.

Vaccination is actively underway in Cuba, but it takes time - the vaccine must be produced in large volumes, electricity is needed to store it, syringes are needed for vaccinations, and all this has become a shortage under the conditions of the American blockade.

We can see from Cuba what the Americans were planning for Russia , if Russia did not have its own vaccine - their fifth column would have raised protests in Moscow demanding the opening of airports for American aid and their life-saving means. But Cuba, like Russia, is holding on. As Russia coped with riots on Bolotnaya in 2012 - a rally on Poklonnaya, so now Cuba is coping with rioters - a popular appeal, demonstrations in defense of Cuban independence and, if necessary, baseball bats in the hands of free Cubans.

And the organizer of the nightmare, the United States, stands up for the protesters and calls for support and assistance. But Cubans are in no hurry to surrender their newfound freedom in battle and return to the state of a floating casino and a brothel near Miami, the property of the Meyer Lansky mafia. There are no protests in Cuba, the Cuban president said, there are riots raised by American agents. And agents of the same mafia, we add.

https://russian.rt.com/opinion/884907-shamir-kuba-oppoziciya-protest

miketheterrible wrote:Since Russia's food program is going so well and they are overproducing now of everything from pork to grains, why not start a massive donation program to Cuba along with China?

Great way to gain browny points.

But I figure Russians are more interested in money than good will.

I'd be wary of simply donating foodstuffs, if just thinking ahead on second order effects. Cuban farmers would still have to sell their produce, no?

This "demonstrators" didn´t look as if they were starving. Such cubans are only found in Miami.