Pope Benedict XVI on the Cuba Embargo

Pope Benedict called for an end to the U.S. trade embargo against Cuba and met with revolutionary icon Fidel Castro on Wednesday.

Speaking in a departure ceremony at a rainy Havana airport, Benedict said Cuba could build "a society of broad vision, renewed and reconciled," but it was more difficult "when restrictive economic measures, imposed from outside the country, unfairly burden its people."

Source: Reuters

U.S. capitalist money managers are optimistic when it comes to finally eliminating the U.S. 50-year-old trade embargo against Cuba

Cuba could be key to Caribbean basin

Commentary: Island is a sterling example of managing scarcity

April 4, 2012, 12:01 a.m. EDT

By Patrick Burnson

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — With the Panama Canal expansion on schedule for completion in 2014, supply chain specialists are anticipating a logistical hub to surface in the Caribbean Basin.

For those investors and traders eyeing opportunities in Cuba, the timing couldn’t be better. As noted in the Wall Street Journal recently, money managers are “optimistic” when it comes to finally eliminating this nation’s 50-year-old trade embargo. And initial barriers to entry should not include logistics, say industry experts.

Furthermore, Cuba may not need outside expertise to cope with immediate supply chain problems. According to some leading scholars and practitioners, Cuba is a sterling example of how to manage “scarcity.” They note that operating under resource scarcity already exists there, with businesses facing daily lack of food, medicine, electricity, and raw materials.

Despite this, the resourcefulness of Cuba’s people has triumphed to some extent. Reverse logistics experts observe that Cuba has created supply chains that re-use and recycle almost everything, despite the lack of government-mandated recycling programs. Indeed, such adaptation may augur the type of closed loop supply chains needed by other emerging nations in the future.

The long-term challenges around opening trade with Cuba would revolve around the issues of customs and export compliance, in particular the infrastructure to support the safe and fully documented movement of those goods.

With a drive to increase levels of electronic clearance and export documentation, the lack of investment in computerized systems — and the integration of those systems into the U.S. import/export world — would represent a complication, albeit a surmountable one, say compliance experts.

This could be ameliorated, however, by leveraging systems already in place through Cuba’s trade with the EU and Latin America, since our trade embargo with Cuba is increasingly unique.

To the extent that it has the hard currency to support trade at all, Cuba gets most of its imports from the EU and its neighbors to the south. But this can change in a hurry. Automotive parts, technology and manufacturing materials, as well as luxury items particular to the U.S. market are likely to be in high demand.

That said, it is likely that over the long term, U.S.-based producers would seek to build their own infrastructure within Cuba’s boundaries in order to better embed their business into the U.S. market.

According to the World Bank’s Logistics Performance Index, Cuba already performs in the median range. Cuba’s economy is mostly state-controlled, meaning most of the means of production are owned and run by the government.

The London-based Economist Intelligence, meanwhile, ranks the Cuban business environment as one of the world’s worst. In recent years, it was placed as number 80 of 82 nations surveyed, with only Iran and Angola rated lower. However, some forms of foreign investments and private enterprise are allowed. The main sectors of the Cuban economy are industrial production and sugar cultivation. In recent years, tourism, biotechnology and pharmaceutical industry are also gaining importance.

Finally, U.S. investors might wish to look to another hemispheric partner as a model for doing business with this tiny island nation: Canada. Our northern neighbors figured out Cuba’s supply chain long ago.

Canada’s investment, trade and cultural links with Cuba are substantial. In fact, Canada is the second-largest foreign investor in Cuba (after Venezuela) and the third-ranking country in terms of joint ventures. Canada is also Cuba’s fourth-largest merchandise trade partner, behind Venezuela, China, and Spain.

Analysts in Toronto report that a discernible pattern in Canada-Cuba commercial relations to date is that trade has tended to follow investment. In other words, a significant share of Canadian exports to Cuba targets sectors with notable Canadian investments. This is typically the result of an existing synergy between traders and investors that provides clear advantages in the home country and makes commercial sense, not necessarily because of a particular preference for Canadian suppliers.

“Have a Havana?” The supply chain seems ready to oblige. But while rum supplies are likely to meet U.S. demand, tobacco growers and cigar manufacturers are likely to be overwhelmed with orders. As a consequence, industry experts are forecasting a surge in that other great Cuban export: counterfeit Figurados.

Patrick Burnson is executive editor of Supply Chain Management Review and Logistics Management .

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JG: Market Watch hits the bull's eye. The resourcefulness of Cuba’s people is UNBELIEVABLE. That it what you get when you have in power a government that truly cares about its people. The U.S. government only cares about the never ending greed and scams of its capitalists.

U.S.A. doesn't need an embargo on Cuba

Published at: National Catholic Reporter

Original Title: America doesn't need an embargo on Cuba

by Mario T. García on Apr. 02, 2012 - NCR Today

The Pope's visit to Cuba just reminds me of how retrograde U.S. policy toward the island nation remains.

Although the Vatican is critical of socialism in Cuba and of human rights there, it still has full diplomatic relations with the Cuban government. Indeed, because the Vatican has representation there, it has finally succeeded in improving the status of the church in Cuba and developing working relations with the Cuban government to influence human rights and the release of political prisoners.

The Vatican's realistic policy is paying dividends. Not so with the case of the stubborn and unrealistic U.S. policy that continues to refuse to recognize a government that has been in power for more than five decades.

Instead, we continue to have an economic embargo on Cuba that the rest of the world ignores. In fact, the rest of the world, with the exception of the United States and Israel, has diplomatic and economic relations with Cuba. Despite the American effort to isolate Cuba, we have only isolated ourselves on our Cuban policy.

It's time to change this, and it is my hope that whoever wins our presidential election will have the political courage and establish full relations with Cuba. President Richard Nixon in the early 1970s recognized what we used to call "Red China," and so too can a U.S. administration today recognize Cuba.

As I tell my students, how can we have full relations with Vietnam today, a nation that we went to war against and where we lost 60,000 American lives? Today, there are Kentucky Fried Chickens and other American corporations in Vietnam. Why can't this happen with Cuba? Our current Cuban policy does not advance our national interest, and we need to recognize this. We will have more influence on Cuba with full relations than with little or none.

Mario T. García's blog

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JG: Hear! Hear! Here is a Mario that is 100% sane. The same can not be said about the insane Maria Diaz-Balart, who belongs to the "We Hate Cuba Better Party."

I certainly hope that if Romney beats Big Ears, he will do with Cuba what Nixon did with the People's Republic of China, RECOGNIZE IT! Big Ears neither has the cojones nor the intelligence to do it.

Immorality in the U.S. multiplied a thousand times

Order: President John F Kennedy asked an aide to buy him 1,000 Cuban cigars - the day before he authorized the U.S. trade embargo.

How Kennedy bought 1,200 hand rolled Cuban cigars just hours before he ordered blockade of communist state 50 years ago

Source: www.dailymail.co.uk

By Lee Moran

Last updated at 10:19 AM on 8th February 2012

President John F Kennedy ordered an aide to buy him as many Cuban cigars as he could just hours before he authorised the U.S. trade embargo - which subsequently made them illegal.

Kennedy asked his head of press and fellow cigar smoker Pierre Salinger to obtain '1,000 Petit Upmanns' on February 6, 1962, so he could have them in his hands before they were deemed contraband.

Then, seconds after he was told the next morning that 1,200 of Cuba's finest export had been bought for him, he signed the decree to ban all of the communist state's products from the U.S.

The re-surfacing of the story, initially recounted by Salinger to Cigar Aficionado magazine in 1992, comes with the passing of the 50th anniversary of the embargo yesterday.

JFK, he said, called him into his office and said he needed 'some help' to find 'a lot of cigars'. He wanted '1,000 Petit Upmanns' and needed them by 'tomorrow morning'.

Salinger added: 'I walked out of the office wondering if I would succeed. But since I was a solid Cuban cigar smoker, I knew a lot of stores. I worked on the problem into the evening.

'The next morning, I walked into my White House office at about 8am, and the direct line from the President's office was already ringing. He asked me to come in immediately.

'How did you do Pierre?' he asked, as I walked through the door. 'Very well,' I answered. In fact, I'd gotten 1,200 cigars. Kennedy smiled, and opened up his desk.

'He took out a long paper which he immediately signed. It was the decree banning all Cuban products from the United States. Cuban cigars were now illegal in our country.'

When the embargo began, American teenagers were doing The Twist, the U.S. had yet to put a man into orbit around the Earth and a first-class U.S. postage stamp cost just 4 cents.

The world is much changed since the early days of 1962, but the near-total trade ban has remained the same.

Supporters say it is a justified measure against a repressive government that has never stopped being a thorn in Washington's side.

Critics call it a failed policy that has hurt ordinary Cubans instead of the government. All acknowledge that it has not accomplished its core mission of toppling Fidel and Raul Castro.

'All this time has gone by, and yet we keep it in place,' said Wayne Smith, who was a young U.S. diplomat in Havana in 1961 when relations were severed and who returned as the chief American diplomat after they were partially re-established under President Jimmy Carter.

He said: 'We talk to the Russians, we talk to the Chinese, we have normal relations even with Vietnam. We trade with all of them. So why not with Cuba?'

In the White House, the first sign of the looming embargo came when President John F Kennedy told his press secretary to go buy him as many H. Upmann Cuban cigars as he could find. The aide came back with 1,200 stogies.

Kennedy announced the embargo on February 3, 1962, citing 'the subversive offensive of Sino-Soviet communism with which the government of Cuba is publicly aligned'.

It went into effect four days later at the height of the Cold War, a year after the failed CIA-backed Bay of Pigs invasion meant to oust communism from Cuba and eight months before Soviet attempts to put nuclear missiles on the island brought the two superpowers to the brink of war.

Washington already had some limited sanctions in place, but Kennedy's decision was the beginning of a comprehensive ban on U.S. trade with the island that has remained more or less intact ever since.

Little was planned to mark Tuesday's anniversary, but Cuban-American members of Congress issued a joint statement vowing to keep the heat on Cuba.

Supporters of the policy acknowledge that many U.S. strategic concerns from the 1960s have been consigned to the dustbin of history, such as halting the spread of Soviet influence and keeping Fidel Castro from exporting revolution throughout Latin America.

But they say other justifications remain, such as the confiscation of U.S. property in Cuba and the need to press for greater political and personal freedoms on the island.

Jose Cardenas, a former National Security Council staffer on Cuba under President George W Bush, said: 'We have a hemispheric commitment to freedom and democracy and respect for human rights. I still think that those are worthy aspirations.'

With just 90 miles of sea between Florida and Cuba, the United States would be a natural key trade partner and source of tourism.

But the embargo chokes off most commerce, and the threat of stiff fines keeps most Americans from sunbathing in balmy resorts like Cayo Coco.

Cuba is free to trade with other nations, but the U.S. threatens sanctions against foreign companies that don't abide by its restrictions.

A stark example arrived off the coast of Havana last month: A massive oil exploration rig built with less than 10 per cent U.S. parts to qualify under the embargo was brought all the way from Singapore at great expense, while comparable platforms sat idle in U.S. waters just across the Gulf of Mexico.

The embargo is a constant talking point for island authorities, who blame it for shortages of everything from medical equipment to the concrete needed to complete an eight-lane highway spanning the length of the island.

Cuba frequently fulminates against the 'blockade' at the United Nations and demands the U.S. end its 'genocidal' policy.

Every autumn, like clockwork, the vast majority of nations agree, and overwhelmingly back a resolution condemning the embargo.

In November, 186 countries supported the measure, with only Israel joining the U.S. in opposition.

Also each year, Cuba updates its estimate of how much the embargo has cost it, using a complicated - and some say flawed - calculus that takes into account years of interest, the end of the gold standard and other factors.

Last year's estimate summing 49 years of sanctions was $975 billion.

Even some critics of the embargo call Havana's claims exaggerated, saying that while the sanctions had a tremendous impact when first put in place, Cuba was able to adapt and benefited from relationships with like-minded allies such as the former Soviet Union and Venezuela.

Geoff Thale, a Cuba analyst at the Washington Office on Latin America, which supports ending the policy, said: 'There's no doubt that the embargo is detrimental to the Cuban economy.

'It complicates international financial transactions, but more importantly, it limits Cuban families' access to medicine. At the same time, Cuba's economic problems go beyond the embargo.'

While 50 years of socialism have brought advancements in areas such as education and health care, even island authorities acknowledge their perennially struggling economic system must change.

President Raul Castro is in the process of allowing more private-sector activity, decentralising state-run businesses, implementing agricultural reform and slimming government payrolls.

The United States actually does have significant trade with Cuba under a clause allowing the sale of food products and some pharmaceuticals.

According to the most recent information available from Cuba's National Statistics Office, the U.S. was the island's seventh-largest trading partner in 2010, selling $410 million in mostly food products.

However, that was down from nearly $1 billion in 2008, as the island increasingly turned to other countries that don't force it to pay cash up front.

Many U.S. businesses would love to be allowed into the Cuban market, but an end to the embargo seems a long way off.

The issue is seen as a political nonstarter in the United States, where every four years, presidential candidates take turns courting the Cuban-American vote in Florida, a key swing state.

President Barack Obama has said Raul Castro's economic openings are insufficient, and it's unlikely he would do anything in an election year to risk losing support in Florida, which he won in 2008.

Even if he wanted to lift the embargo, the Helms-Burton Act of 1996 stipulates that it would have to be approved by Congress.

Raul Castro, for his part, says recent changes in the U.S. such as allowing Cuban-Americans to visit relatives more often and send them more money are merely cosmetic.

Backers of the sanctions say it is as important as ever to maintain what they call the moral high ground, saying islanders will be grateful whenever change does come.

Critics cite the annual U.N. votes to argue that times have changed and the embargo is a Cold War relic that ought to be thrown onto the scrap heap.

'It's no longer a matter of the United States leading a movement to isolate Cuba in the hemisphere,' said Smith, a staunch opponent of the embargo. 'Quite the contrary: If anyone's isolated, on this issue anyway, it's us.'

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JG: I urge Cuba Journal readers to do three things:

1) Read the original article at the source, because it has many more historical and interesting photos.

2) Do not vote for Barack H. Obama this coming November. He has continued the immorality of J.F.K. He supports and continues the Cuba embargo/blockade. Romney, Gingrich, and Santorum also support the Cuba embargo/blockade.

3) There may be a third candidate in the ballot in November who opposes the failed embargo and who is in favor of the re-establishment of normal diplomatic relations with Cuba, an island that does not threaten the United States. Cast your vote for him. Do not reward the mediocrity of Barack H. Obama.

Mr. President, you are supporting a 50 year failure. I will not vote for you in November.

No cigar: Economic embargo on Cuba turns 50

By PETER ORSI, Associated Press – 2 minutes ago

HAVANA (AP) — When it started, American teenagers were doing "The Twist." The United States had yet to put a man into orbit around the Earth. And a first-class U.S. postage stamp cost 4 cents.

The world is much changed since the early days of 1962, but one thing has remained constant: The U.S. economic embargo on communist-run Cuba, a near-total trade ban that turned 50 on Tuesday.

Supporters say it is a justified measure against a repressive government that has never stopped being a thorn in Washington's side. Critics call it a failed policy that has hurt ordinary Cubans instead of the government.

All acknowledge that it has not accomplished its core mission of toppling Fidel and Raul Castro.

"All this time has gone by, and yet we keep it in place," said Wayne Smith, who was a young U.S. diplomat in Havana in 1961 when relations were severed and who returned as the chief American diplomat after they were partially re-established under President Jimmy Carter.

"We talk to the Russians, we talk to the Chinese, we have normal relations even with Vietnam. We trade with all of them," Smith said. "So why not with Cuba?"

In the White House, the first sign of the looming embargo came when President John F. Kennedy told his press secretary to go buy him as many H. Upmann Cuban cigars as he could find. The aide came back with 1,200 stogies.

Kennedy announced the embargo on Feb. 3, 1962, citing "the subversive offensive of Sino-Soviet communism with which the government of Cuba is publicly aligned."

It went into effect four days later at the height of the Cold War, a year removed from the failed CIA-backed Bay of Pigs invasion meant to oust communism from Cuba and eight months before Soviet attempts to put nuclear missiles on the island brought the two superpowers to the brink of war.

Washington already had some limited sanctions in place, but Kennedy's decision was the beginning of a comprehensive ban on U.S. trade with the island that has remained more or less intact ever since.

Little was planned to mark Tuesday's anniversary, but Cuban-American members of Congress issued a joint statement vowing to keep the heat on Cuba.

Supporters of the policy acknowledge that many U.S. strategic concerns from the 1960s have been consigned to the dustbin of history, such as halting the spread of Soviet influence and keeping Fidel Castro from exporting revolution throughout Latin America. But they say other justifications remain, such as the confiscation of U.S. property in Cuba and the need to press for greater political and personal freedoms on the island.

"We have a hemispheric commitment to freedom and democracy and respect for human rights," said Jose Cardenas, a former National Security Council staffer on Cuba under President George W. Bush. "I still think that those are worthy aspirations."

With just 90 miles (145 kilometers) of sea between Florida and Cuba, the United States would be a natural No. 1 trade partner and source of tourism. But the embargo chokes off most commerce, and the threat of stiff fines keeps most Americans from sunbathing in balmy resorts like Cayo Coco.

Cuba is free to trade with other nations, but the U.S. threatens sanctions against foreign companies that don't abide by its restrictions. A stark example arrived off the coast of Havana last month: A massive oil exploration rig built with less than 10 percent U.S. parts to qualify under the embargo was brought all the way from Singapore at great expense, while comparable platforms sat idle in U.S. waters just across the Gulf of Mexico.

The embargo is a constant talking point for island authorities, who blame it for shortages of everything from medical equipment to the concrete needed to complete an eight-lane highway spanning the length of the island. Cuba frequently fulminates against the "blockade" at the United Nations and demands the U.S. end its "genocidal" policy.

Every fall, like clockwork, the vast majority of nations agree, and overwhelmingly back a resolution condemning the embargo. In November, 186 countries supported the measure, with only Israel joining the U.S. in opposition.

Also each year, Cuba updates its estimate of how much the embargo has cost it, using a complicated — and some say flawed — calculus that takes into account years of interest, the end of the gold standard and other factors. Last year's estimate summing 49 years of sanctions was $975 billion.

Even some critics of the embargo call Havana's claims exaggerated, saying that while the sanctions had a tremendous impact when first put in place, Cuba was able to adapt and benefited from relationships with like-minded allies such as the former Soviet Union and Venezuela.

"There's no doubt that the embargo is detrimental to the Cuban economy. It complicates international financial transactions, but more importantly, it limits Cuban families' access to medicine," said Geoff Thale, a Cuba analyst at the Washington Office on Latin America, which supports ending the policy. "At the same time, Cuba's economic problems go beyond the embargo."

While 50 years of socialism have brought advancements in areas such as education and health care, even island authorities acknowledge their perennially struggling economic system must change. President Raul Castro is in the process of allowing more private-sector activity, decentralizing state-run businesses, implementing agricultural reform and slimming government payrolls.

The United States actually does have significant trade with Cuba under a clause allowing the sale of food products and some pharmaceuticals.

According to the most recent information available from Cuba's National Statistics Office, the U.S. was the island's seventh-largest trading partner in 2010, selling $410 million in mostly food products. However, that was down from nearly $1 billion in 2008, as the island increasingly turned to other countries that don't force it to pay cash up front.

Many U.S. businesses would love to be allowed into the Cuban market, but an end to the embargo seems a long way off.

The issue is seen as a political nonstarter in the United States, where every four years, presidential candidates take turns courting the Cuban-American vote in Florida, a key swing state.

President Barack Obama has said Raul Castro's economic openings are insufficient, and it's unlikely he would do anything in an election year to risk losing support in Florida, which he won in 2008. Even if he wanted to lift the embargo, the Helms-Burton Act of 1996 stipulates that it would have to be approved by Congress.

Raul Castro, for his part, says recent changes in the U.S. such as allowing Cuban-Americans to visit relatives more often and send them more money are merely cosmetic.

Backers of the sanctions say it's as important as ever to maintain what they call the moral high ground, saying islanders will be grateful whenever change does come.

Critics cite the annual U.N. votes to argue that times have changed and the embargo is a Cold War relic that ought to be thrown onto the scrap heap.

"It's no longer a matter of the United States leading a movement to isolate Cuba in the hemisphere," said Smith, a staunch opponent of the embargo. "Quite the contrary: If anyone's isolated, on this issue anyway, it's us."

Follow Peter Orsi on Twitter at www.twitter.com/Peter(underscore)Orsi.

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Related article from Albor Ruiz at the N.Y. Daily News:

U.S. economic embargo of Cuba marks its half-century of failed foreign policy

New Hampshire & Florida Primaries. SEND THEM A MESSAGE!

The Democratic and Republican parties in the states of New Hampshire and Florida will soon hold their Presidential Preference Primaries on January 10th and 31st respectively.

If you are a regular visitor to our blog, you probably already know that we are 100% opposed to continuing the failed economic embargo against Cuba. There is only one candidate that has publicly expressed his opposition to what Cuba calls a blockade, and they are correct in calling it that. It is a genocidal U.S. policy which seeks to asphyxiate the Cuban people. It does not hurt the Cuban government. The embargo/blockade has been overwhelmingly condemned, for twenty years in a row, by the General Assembly of the United Nations.

Barack H. Obama, like George W. Bush before him, has continued the Cuba embargo. Just on the Cuba issue alone, he does not deserve to be re-elected. On other national issues, the United States has gone steadily downhill since we put him in the Oval Office.

Only one candidate for POTUS has publicly opposed the Cuba embargo, and that person is Libertarian Ron Paul. See his video.

I urge the voters in New Hampshire and Florida to vote for U.S. Representative Ron Paul, as the only way that we have of protesting the continuation of the genocidal Cuba embargo.

SEND THEM A MESSAGE! The Cuba embargo has to be stopped and repealed!

Opponent of the Cuba Embargo Finishes a Strong Third in Iowa Caucuses

December 4, 2012

U.S. Representative Ron Paul, who is the only candidate for President of the United States in the 2012 presidential election who has publicly expressed his opposition to the failed Cuba embargo, and who is also a very strong anti-war candidate, finished as a third place winner in the Iowa caucuses last night.

The American electorate is ready for BIG CHANGE. Barack H. Obama has followed in the footsteps of George W. Bush. The guy who promised us hope, change, and “a new beginning with Cuba” has been a huge fraud. He is the standard bearer of the status quo and the capitalist establishment. He leads the anti-Cuba hate partisans, and keeps on sending millions of U.S. taxpayer money to the anti-Cuba Cuban-American National Foundation, which is funded and directed by the United States government.

There will be many more primary elections or caucuses during the rest of this year. Florida will hold its Presidential Preference Primary on January 31st. I urge you to do what I did: change your party registration (temporarily, of course!) to Republican and cast your vote of support for Representative Ron Paul in the coming last Tuesday of this month. Send them a strong message that you oppose the Cuba embargo. Then on February first you can always change your voter registration back to what it was before.

A vote for Romney, Gingrich or Obama is a vote to continue the failed policies of the empire in regards to Cuba.

Ron Paul in New Hampshire - Does He Have Enough Momentum to Win There?

Ron Paul: Lift Cuba Embargo, Boost U.S. Economy

I am a registered Independent, so I can not vote in the Republican Presidential Preference Primary, but I am considering registering temporarily that way, so I can express my repudiation of Barack Obama, Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney, who are Capitalist Establishment Candidates, who are pledged to continue this 50 year monumental failure.

END THE CUBA EMBARGO!

U.S. churches will continue to press for Cuba-U.S. normalization, Kinnamon says

U.S. National Council of Churches News

After 53-year embargo, NCC churches ‘live in hope’ of reconciliation

by Jerry L. Van Marter

Presbyterian News Service

HAVANA, Cuba ― The National Council of Churches in the U.S.A. (NCC) will continue to press for normalization of relations between the U.S. and Cuba, an end to the 53-year-old U.S. embargo of Cuba and release of the “Cuban Five” held in U.S. prisons, NCC General Secretary Michael Kinnamon told a packed press conference here Dec. 2.

Kinnamon, speaking at the conclusion of a week-long visit by 15 U.S. religious leaders, told the crowd of Cuban and international journalists “we come not as politicians or diplomats but as religious leaders. Our first responsibility is to pray for the leaders of both countries and we will … but our churches represent 50 million Christians, so we believe we have some influence and we’ll use it.”

Everyone the delegation spoke with ― from Cuban President Raul Castro to the head of the U.S. government’s Cuban Interest Section here, John Caulfield ― expressed the desire to end the embargo. “The question,” Kinnamon said, “is how to get there.”

Castro, Kinnamon said, “insisted that everything is on the table. All the Cubans require, he told me, is that talks be held in an atmosphere of mutual respect.”

Kinnamon said he and Castro discussed “small steps” that can be taken: cooperation on drug and human trafficking in the Caribbean, coordinated air traffic control (communication about the 50 weekly flights currently operating between the U.S. and Cuba is done by telephone, not electronic tracking), weather monitoring and improved telecommunications.

The chances of even small steps to improve Cuba-U.S. relations “are complicated in an election year,” Kinnamon conceded, “but I am a person of faith so I always live in hope,” adding that “since 1968 the position of the NCC (on normalization) has been strong and consistent, taken out of our faith position of reconciliation.”

The NCC will continue to press for a review of the sentences ― anywhere from 20 years to life ― levied against the Cuban Five, who were convicted of espionage in the U.S. even though they were monitoring the activities of Cuban expatriate counterrevolutionaries plotting against the Cuban government.

Numerous international human rights organizations have branded the sentences ― four of the five have been imprisoned for 13 years; the fifth, Rene Gonzalez, was “freed” this fall to stringent “supervised release” and is not allowed to leave Florida ― unjust. Kinnamon said “they should not have been tried.”

Of more immediate concern to the churches, Kinnamon said, is the ability of family members to visit the imprisoned Cubans, at least two of whom are U.S. citizens. Two of the wives and all of the men’s children have never been allowed to visit them in prison. “We ache with them for this situation that weighs so heavily,” he said.

Kinnamon said he also raised with Castro the situation of American Alan Gross, who has been held in a Cuban prison for more than a year for allegedly smuggling illegal telecommunications equipment onto the island. “[Members of the NCC delegation] met with Alan Gross and talked about his sense of being unjustly accused and about his concern for his family, several members of which are seriously ill, including his daughter with cancer,” Kinnamon said.

“I raised the Alan Gross case with President Castro,” Kinnamon said. “I am not here to pass judgment but I care about him as a person ― the humanitarian issue.”

Kinnamon said that while political and human rights discussions occupied some of the delegation’s time, “the primary purpose of our visit has been to be in communion and conversation with our church partners here in Cuba.” Kinnamon praised the Cuban Council of Churches, saying that “U.S. churches need the Cuban churches in order to feel whole and complete.”

In times of economic transition in Cuba and “economic tensions” in the U.S., “it is the call to the churches of both countries to offer a word of hope in response to the anxiety and fear in both countries.”

Since its founding in 1950, the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA has been the leading force for shared ecumenical witness among Christians in the United States. The NCC's 37 member communions -- from a wide spectrum of Protestant, Anglican, Orthodox, Evangelical, historic African American and Living Peace churches -- include 45 million persons in more than 100,000 local congregations in communities across the nation.

NCC News contact: Philip E. Jenks, 212-870-2228 (office), 646-853-4212 (cell), pjenks@ncccusa.org

The U.N. Adopts Republic of Cuba Resolution Against the U.S. Blockade by a Vote of 186-2

For the twentieh year in a row, the General Assembly of the United Nations approved by a vote of 186-2, the resoluiton of the Republic of Cuba which calls on the United States to put an end to the blockade/embargo against Cuba.

Only the United States and Zionist Israel voted against it.

Since 2009, the new emperor of the United States, Barack H. Obama, has been repudiated and condemned for three years in a row by a total majority of the civilized nations of the world.

He should also be condemned for his Mafia-like executions in Pakistan and Lybia.

He has never told the world how he feels being totally alone, like his buddy George W. Bush.

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Washington Post:
UN member states condemn US embargo of Cuba for 20th consecutive year

Bruno Rodriguez quote: "Why doesn’t President Obama’s administration take care of the U.S. problems and leave us Cubans alone to solve ours in peace?"
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DECLARACIÓN DEL MINISTRO DE RELACIONES EXTERIORES DE LA REPÚBLICA DE CUBA, BRUNO RODRÍGUEZ PARRILLA, SOBRE EL TEMA "NECESIDAD DE PONER FIN AL BLOQUEO ECONÓMICO, COMERCIAL Y FINANCIERO IMPUESTO POR LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA CONTRA CUBA". NUEVA YORK, 25 DE OCTUBRE DE 2011.

Señor Presidente:

El 13 de noviembre de 1991, esta Asamblea General tomó la decisión de incluir en el programa de su siguiente período de sesiones, el examen del tema titulado "Necesidad de poner fin al bloqueo económico, comercial y financiero impuesto por los Estados Unidos de América contra Cuba".

Eran los momentos en que Estados Unidos se disponía, con cruel oportunismo, a apretar el cerco contra la isla que luchaba sola, mediante la llamada Ley Torricelli, la cual cercenó nuestro comercio de medicinas y alimentos con las subsidiarias de compañías norteamericanas asentadas en terceros países. Fue ese el acto oficial que hizo notoria y pública la aplicación extraterritorial de las leyes del bloqueo contra terceros Estados.

Hubiera parecido imposible entonces que, 20 años después, esta Asamblea estaría hoy considerando el mismo asunto, tan estrechamente vinculado al derecho de los pueblos a la autodeterminación, al Derecho Internacional, a las reglas internacionales del comercio, a las razones por las cuales existe esta Organización.

Se trata ya de uno de los temas tradicionales de la Asamblea General, que convoca los pronunciamientos más reiterados, con el apoyo más categórico y abrumador, y que muestra con mayor nitidez el aislamiento incómodo del país agresor y la resistencia heroica de un pueblo negado a ceder sus derechos soberanos.

Durante dos décadas, la comunidad internacional ha reclamado invariable y sostenidamente que se ponga fin al bloqueo económico, comercial y financiero de los Estados Unidos contra Cuba. Lo ha hecho por medio de las resoluciones que cada año se aprueban casi unánimemente, de las decenas de apelaciones de Jefes de Estado y de Delegaciones que se refieren al tema en el Debate General de alto nivel de esta Asamblea, y de los pronunciamientos de casi todos los organismos internacionales y agrupaciones de Estados, en particular los de América Latina y el Caribe.

En 1996, la Ley Helms-Burton amplió de manera inédita las dimensiones extraterritoriales del bloqueo y codificó integralmente el "cambio de régimen" y la ulterior intervención directa en Cuba. Nadie conoce que el "Plan Bush para Cuba", del año 2004, haya sido dejado sin efecto.

El Informe del Secretario General dedicado a este tema, que recoge los pronunciamientos de más de 160 países y organismos especializados del sistema de las Naciones Unidas, ilustra con abundantes datos la persistencia de esta política criminal y sus efectos directos sobre la población y la economía cubanas.

El daño económico directo ocasionado al pueblo cubano por la aplicación del bloqueo supera ya los 975 mil millones de dólares, calculado al depreciado valor del dólar frente al oro.

La Convención contra el Genocidio de 1948, en su artículo 2 inciso b tipifica como acto de genocidio y cito "la lesión grave a la integridad física o mental de los miembros del grupo" y en su inciso c, y cito "el sometimiento intencional del grupo a condiciones de existencia que hayan de acarrear su destrucción física, total o parcial".

Los objetivos del bloqueo han sido, según el memorando del Gobierno de los Estados Unidos del 6 de abril de 1960 "provocar el desengaño y el desaliento mediante la insatisfacción económica y la penuria [...] debilitar la vida económica de Cuba negándole dinero y suministros con el fin de reducir los salarios nominales y reales, provocar hambre, desesperación y el derrocamiento del gobierno".

Estados Unidos nunca ha ocultado que su objetivo es derrocar al gobierno revolucionario y destruir el orden constitucional que el pueblo soberanamente defiende, lo que el ex Presidente George W. Bush llamó "cambio de régimen" y que ahora alcanza nuevas dimensiones.

Señor Presidente:

A pesar de la falsa imagen de flexibilidad que pretende trasladar el actual gobierno de los Estados Unidos, el bloqueo y las sanciones permanecen intactos, en completa aplicación y se ha acentuado en los años más recientes su carácter extraterritorial. Como rasgo distintivo del período del presidente Obama, se refuerza la persecución a las transacciones financieras cubanas en todo el mundo, sin respeto a las leyes de terceros países ni a la oposición de sus gobiernos.

Cuba continúa sin poder exportar e importar libremente productos y servicios de tipo alguno hacia o desde los Estados Unidos. No puede utilizar el dólar norteamericano en sus transacciones, incluidos los pagos a la Organización de las Naciones Unidas y otros organismos internacionales. Tampoco puede tener cuentas en esa moneda en bancos de terceros países o acceso a créditos de bancos en Estados Unidos, de sus filiales en terceros países y de instituciones internacionales como el Banco Mundial o el Banco Interamericano de Desarrollo.

La prohibición de comerciar con subsidiarias de empresas estadounidenses en terceros países permanece inalterable. Los empresarios de otras naciones interesados en invertir en mi país continúan siendo sancionados, amenazados o incluidos en listas negras.

Los organismos internacionales, los programas y agencias del sistema de la ONU no escapan a esta política, al obstaculizar el gobierno de los Estados Unidos la cooperación que estas entidades prestan a Cuba, incluida la destinada a áreas de sensibilidad extrema.

La incautación, en enero de 2011, de 4 millones 207 mil dólares del financiamiento del Fondo Mundial de Lucha Contra el SIDA, la Tuberculosis y la Malaria, para la ejecución de proyectos de cooperación con Cuba destinados a combatir el síndrome de la inmunodeficiencia adquirida (SIDA) y la tuberculosis, así lo demuestra.

Como resultado de la denuncia de Cuba, el Departamento del Tesoro estadounidense emitió una licencia general en mayo de este año para liberar dichos fondos, la cual vencerá el 30 de junio de 2015. Pero, el hecho mismo de que los recursos de esta organización humanitaria requieran, para llegar a Cuba, de una licencia del gobierno de los Estados Unidos muestra, además del designio de utilizar a estos programas tan sensibles como rehenes de su política de agresión contra mi país, un flagrante irrespeto a las Naciones Unidas y a las instituciones que la integran.

Varios proyectos de cooperación ejecutados por el Organismo Internacional de Energía Atómica también han sido víctimas del bloqueo.

En medio de la supuesta flexibilización para que viajen a Cuba algunos grupos de norteamericanos, en fecha muy reciente el Departamento del Tesoro denegó también licencias de viajes a Cuba a dos importantes organizaciones no gubernamentales estadounidenses que durante varios años han cooperado con instituciones cubanas en la esfera de la salud. Esta decisión podría impedir que lleguen a su destino donaciones de medicamentos a los que nuestro país no tiene acceso producto del bloqueo.

La verdad es que la libertad de viajar de los norteamericanos sigue cercenada y que Cuba sigue siendo el único destino prohibido.

Señor Presidente:

En repetidas oportunidades los representantes de los Estados Unidos han señalado aquí que el tema que hoy discutimos es una cuestión bilateral y que, por tanto, no debe ser tratada en este foro. Probablemente repitan hoy este falaz argumento.

Los hechos demuestran su inconsistencia. Ciudadanos y compañías de numerosos Estados miembros aquí representados han sido objeto de sanciones por establecer relaciones económicas con Cuba.

¿Qué son, si no, muestra de la extraterritorialidad de dicha política, las multas impuestas el 18 de agosto de 2011 a la subsidiaria de la empresa naviera y de transporte francesa CMA CGM por ofrecer servicios de contenedores a Cuba? ¿Cómo pudieran calificarse las exigencias de la sucursal europea PayPal, empresa encargada de facilitar las transacciones electrónicas por Internet, a la firma alemana Rum Co para que sacara de su página web el ron y el tabaco cubanos?

Los ejemplos sobre la extraterritorialidad, como se aprecia en la respuesta de Cuba contenida en el mencionado informe del Secretario General, son innumerables.

Señor Presidente:

Las declaraciones más recientes sobre Cuba del Presidente Obama han dejado anonadados a no pocos observadores, pero no nos sorprenden. Al ofrecimiento del gobierno de Cuba de establecer un diálogo sobre todos los temas de interés de la agenda bilateral, la respuesta del Presidente Obama ha sido, nuevamente, el rechazo solapado, bajo argumentos absurdos y condicionamientos inaceptables que nunca han funcionado. Su postura es vieja, repetitiva, anclada al pasado, es como si, en vez del Presidente elegido para el cambio, hablaran sus predecesores, incluso republicanos. Parecería desinformado, desconocedor totalmente de lo que hoy sucede en nuestro país, de nuestra historia y cultura.

Cuba hizo el gran cambio en 1959. Al precio de 20 mil vidas, barrió a la dictadura de Batista, el hombre fuerte de los Estados Unidos. Después ha seguido cambiando cada día y debido a su capacidad de permanente renovación es que ha resistido. Otros no resistieron porque no cambiaron y se anquilosaron o porque se desviaron. Ahora, Cuba cambia y cambiará resueltamente todo lo que deba ser cambiado dentro de la Revolución y dentro del socialismo. Más Revolución y mejor socialismo.

Lo que no ha cambiado durante 50 años, Mr. President, es el bloqueo y la política de hostilidad y agresión de Estados Unidos, a pesar de que no han funcionado, ni van a funcionar.

Pero lo que el gobierno de Estados Unidos quiere que cambie, no va a cambiar. El gobierno de Cuba seguirá siendo "el gobierno del pueblo, por el pueblo y para el pueblo". Nuestras elecciones no serán subastas. No habrá campañas electorales de 4 mil millones de dólares ni un Parlamento con un 13% de apoyo de los electores. No tendremos élites políticas corruptas separadas de la gente. Continuaremos siendo una democracia verdadera y no una plutocracia. Defenderemos el derecho a la información veraz y objetiva.

Seguiremos conquistando "toda la justicia". Protegeremos la igualdad de oportunidades de cada niño y no abandonaremos a nadie. No renunciaremos a nuestras políticas sociales. La salud y la educación seguirán siendo universales y gratuitas. Aseguraremos el derecho al trabajo y a la jubilación digna y la seguridad social. Seguirá habiendo salario igual a trabajo igual. Protegeremos a la maternidad y a la discapacidad. El ser humano seguirá siendo lo primero y más importante. Defenderemos nuestra cultura. Continuaremos creyendo en los valores humanos. Será garantizado el ejercicio de los derechos humanos a todos los cubanos.

La economía tendrá que ser eficiente pero seguirá al servicio del hombre. La vida de la gente es y será más importante que los datos macroeconómicos. Las políticas económicas continuarán siendo consultadas al pueblo. Las consecuencias de la crisis económica global se compartirán entre todos. Seguiremos redistribuyendo la riqueza para que no haya ricos ni pobres. No admitiremos la corrupción, la especulación, ni quitaremos el dinero a los trabajadores para salvar bancos. Continuaremos buscando la participación en nuestra economía de compañías extranjeras sin exclusión alguna.

Señor Presidente:

Bastaría revisar lo recientemente divulgado por Wikileaks sobre el trabajo del Departamento de Estado y las Embajadas estadounidenses en todos los países, orientado a entorpecer las relaciones políticas, diplomáticas, económicas, comerciales y de cooperación con Cuba. Resultan vergonzosas por su contenido, las informaciones que revelan la preocupación, interés y persecución a la humanitaria labor de las brigadas médicas de Cuba que prestan su noble y desinteresado servicio a millones de personas en decenas de pueblos hermanos.

Los vínculos familiares y el limitado intercambio cultural, académico y científico que existen entre Estados Unidos y Cuba, demuestran hoy cuán positiva sería la expansión de estos vínculos para beneficio de ambos pueblos, sin las trabas y condicionamientos impuestos por Washington. La propuesta de Cuba para avanzar hacia la normalización de las relaciones y expandir la cooperación bilateral en diversas esferas sigue en pie. Estaría igual en el interés común la solución recíproca de asuntos humanitarios pendientes.

¿Por qué el gobierno del presidente Obama mejor no se ocupa de los problemas de los Estados Unidos y nos deja a los cubanos resolver en paz y tranquilos los nuestros?

Uno de los Cinco luchadores antiterroristas cubanos acaba de cumplir, hasta el último minuto, los 13 años de su injusta condena, pero se le impide ahora regresar a Cuba a unirse con su familia, mientras los otros cuatro permanecen bajo cruel e injusta prisión política. La burda corrupción del proceso legal y la conducta ilegal del gobierno, en relación con este, es ampliamente conocida y ha sido bien documentada. ¿Por qué no los liberan en un acto de justicia o, al menos, humanitario?

Señor Presidente:

Debo trasmitir la profunda gratitud del pueblo de Cuba a todos los países que durante 20 años han expresado con su voz y su voto la necesidad de poner fin a las sanciones unilaterales más injustas, prolongadas y abarcadoras de la historia, que tanto han afectado a millones de cubanos.

En nombre de Guillermo Domínguez Díaz (16 años), de Ivis Palacio Terry (18), de Randy Barroso Torres (17) y de Adrián Izquierdo Cabrera (12), que han sufrido cirugías conservadoras y pasado meses enyesados en sus camas por no disponer de prótesis extensibles pediátricas, las cuales se producen en los Estados Unidos o bajo sus patentes, y en nombre de María Amelia Alonso Valdés (2), Damián Hernández Valdés (4) y Dayán Romayena Lorente (12), quienes padecen de tumores del sistema nervioso central y necesitan tratamiento con Temodal que es norteamericano y está protegido por su patente;

En nombre de mi pueblo abnegado, generoso, optimista y heroico, y para bien de la comunidad de naciones y del "equilibrio del mundo", les solicito apoyar el proyecto de resolución L.4 titulado: "Necesidad de poner fin al bloqueo económico, comercial y financiero impuesto por los Estados Unidos de América contra Cuba".

Muchas gracias

Today, the U.N. General Assembly will condemn again the U.S. for its Cuba blockade/embargo

Today, for the 20th year in a row, the United Nations General Assembly will vote on a resolution presented by the Republic of Cuba titled "The Necessity to Put an End to the Economic, Commecial and Financial Blockade Imposed by The United States Against Cuba."

Last year the vote was 187 nations in favor, and only two nations, the United States and Israel, voting against it.

There are more civilized countries in the world. There are only two nations that are immoral, unethical and uncivilized. The Yankee empire will receive the condemnation and repudiation that it so richly deserves. Barack H. Obama is as dishonest as his predecessor, George W. Bush.

Come back later today to this post to find out what the final vote was. (186-2)

LONG LIVE CUBA!

Juventud Rebelde: G-77 condena en la ONU bloqueo de EE.UU. a Cuba

Very Funny Cartoon From Cuba

Click on the graphic to enlarge it
Translation of the four scene squares:

#1: The emblem at the top left states: Cuba Blockade, followed by the Uncle Sam character who is saying: "The vote [at the United Nations General Assembly] regarding the embargo says: "In relation to the Cuba Blockade..."

#2: "... this year, will be as always..."

#3: "... it will be a tie..."

#4: "... on one side, it will be me [Uncle Sam]; on the other side will be the rest of the world."

------

JG: Uncle Sam knows very well, that tomorrow, at the United Nations General Assembly, when Cuba's resolution proposal is put to a vote, Uncle Sam will be left probably alone, with only the support and vote of the genocidal Israeli Zionists. Barack H. Obama will be, one more time, naked before the world. THE EMPEROR HAS NO CLOTHES!

... AND CUBA WILL NEVER KNEEL BEFORE THE EMPEROR!

Cuba seeks UN help to end US economic blockade

MmegiOnline

EPHRAIM KEORENG
Staff Writer

Cuba will next Tuesday request the United Nations (UN) General Assembly to intervene so the United States of America (US) can lift the economic blockade it has imposed on the Caribbean island nation.

Addressing a press conference in Gaborone yesterday, Cuban ambassador to Botswana Ramon Medina said the economic blockade against Cuba is intensified despite repeated demands by the international community, especially the UN General Assembly, that it be stopped.

He said last year, 187 member states voted in favour of the resolution entitled "Necessity of ending the economic, commercial and financial blockade imposed by the United States of America against Cuba". Ambassador Medina said measures taken by President Barack Obama on the travel and remittances by Cuban imigrant's do not change the complex framework of laws, regulations and provisions of the blockade policy against Cuba. He said US citizens are still prohibited from traveling to Cuba, save for a few exceptions.

"As a result of the strict and fierce enforcement of these laws and other normative provisions, Cuba continues to be unable to: freely export or import goods and services to or from the United States, use the US dollar in its international financial transactions and have bank accounts in US dollars in banks from third countries," he said.

Medina said that the extra-territorial application of the blockade has been extraordinarily reinforced as shown by the strengthening of the sanctions and persecution against third countries' citizens, institutions and companies to establish economic, commercial, financial or scientific and technical relations with Cuba.

"Thus, the US government arrogates itself the right to decide on matters that relate to the sovereignty of other states," he charged.The Cuban envoy said Cuba cannot access bank credits from banks in the US and their subsidiaries in third countries. He added that they are unable to also get credit from international financials institutions like the World Bank, International Monetary Fund (IMF) and other financial institutions.

"From March 2010 to April 2011, there were significant multi-million fines imposed to US and foreign banking institutions for engaging in operations connected in one way or the other with our country. These kinds of sanctions have a dissuasive effect and in the case of banks in particular, entail breaking relations with Cuba and or forcing Cuban transactions to be made under more precarious conditions," he said.

He also complained that the blockade violates human rights of US citizens who are not allowed to travel to Cuba.Medina said the direct damage to the Cuban people by the implementation of the economic, commercial and financial blockade of the US against Cuba until December 2010 based on the current prices and calculated in a very conservative way, amount to over 104 billion US dollars.

The Cuban ambassador said his country is requesting governments committed to "the norms of the multilateral trading system, to the freedom of trade and navigation and to the rejection of extra-territorial application of a national law to vote on Tuesday, October 25, in favour of the draft resolution at the UN General Assembly which demands the lifting of the blockade".

Cuba and the United States have been at loggerheads since the 1961 Bay of Pigs when the US tried to invade Cuba, accusing president Fidel Castro of bringing Socialism to its doorstep.

2011 - PDF File (Spanish) “Necesidad de poner fin al bloqueo económico, comercial y financiero impuesto por los Estados Unidos de América contra Cuba"

Click here to download the file.

Cuba: U.S. embargo causes $1 trillion in losses

CBS News

September 14, 2011 1:50 PM

Related News (in Spanish):
Cuba afirma que las medidas de Obama son “insuficientes” y mantienen el bloqueo

Cuba blames the U.S. embargo for nearly a trillion dollars in losses to the island's economy since it was imposed by President Kennedy in 1962.

Vice Foreign Minister Abelardo Moreno said that at current prices a conservative estimate of economic damages to the island up until December 2010 would be more than $104 billion. However, he added, if you take into consideration the extreme devaluation of the dollar against the price of gold on the international financial market during 2010, they would add up to nearly a trillion dollars.

Cuba will be presenting a resolution at the current U.N. General Assembly on the "Necessity of ending the economic, commercial and financial blockade imposed by the United States of America against Cuba."

This will be the 20th time the same resolution is put to a vote there. It has repeatedly been approved by the international community. Last year's vote was: 185 countries in favor to 2 -- the United States and Israel -- against.

Speaking to journalists in Havana, Moreno insisted the embargo violates international law and the U.N. Charter, and constitutes genocide according to the 1948 Geneva Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.

Yesterday President Obama authorized the continuation of the embargo for another year under the Trading with the Enemy Act, stating that it is in "the national interest of the United States" to do so.

Moreno particularly attacked the extra-territoriality of the embargo listing various fines imposed by the U.S. on third country entities such as a $500 million fine against the Dutch Bank ABN Amro last year for "having carried out unauthorized financial transactions in which Cuba or Cuban Nationals had interests."

The vice foreign minister noted that in all from March 2010 to April 2011 there were several multimillion dollar fines levied against U.S. and foreign banking institutions for having conducted operations with Cuba.

He also noted the embargo interfered with Cuba's cooperation with international agencies giving the example of how in January 2011, the U.S. Government seized over $4.2 million of funding from the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria because they were earmarked for the implementation of cooperation projects with Cuba.

The Cuban Democracy Act of 1992 further codified the original embargo into law so as to maintain sanctions on Cuba until Havana takes steps toward "democratization and greater respect for human rights." The Helms-Burton Act passed by Congress in 1996 added yet further restrictions to prevent U.S. citizens from doing business in or with Cuba.

In 1999, President Bill Clinton expanded the embargo even more by prohibiting foreign subsidiaries of U.S. companies from trading with Cuba. This led among more serious moves to the removal of Cuban-made pajamas from shelves in Wal-Mart in Canada.

Clinton did authorize the sale of certain humanitarian products to Cuba in 2000 only on a cash basis with no credit permitted.

The policy has pitted pro-embargo Cuban-American exiles against many business leaders and agricultural producers who insist trade with Cuba would benefit American farmers, port workers and others. The U.S. Rice Federation has lobbied hard in Washington believing that Cuba could once again become the largest foreign market for American grown rice, a position currently held by Mexico.

At present the U.S. State Department says the biggest obstacle to improving relations between the two countries is the imprisonment of an American aid worker Alan Gross.

Gross was arrested in December 2009 and sentenced last March to 15 years in prison for bringing illegal communications equipment into Cuba as part of a program subcontracted to his employer by USAID. The Cubans say this program and others like it are intended to overthrow throw their government.

Moreno refused at this morning's press conference to respond to a question on Gross.

Former New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson left Havana this morning after a week's efforts to see the American who is being held in a Havana military hospital. Yesterday Richardson told foreign journalists in Havana that the Cuban Government had rebuffed all his appeals.

Nevertheless, President Obama said yesterday in Washington that his administration's relaxation of the travel ban that now allows more Americans to visit Cuba on educational, religious, cultural or people-to-people group trips would remain in effect as would the loosening of restrictions on the amount and frequency with which Cubans in the U.S. could send money to relatives on the island.

Obama continues with his head stuck in the sand while three newspaper columns/editorials call for the end to the U.S. embargo against Cuba

Barack Obama continues to show that he lacks the leadership skills which are necessary to run a great nation.

U.S. embargo against Cuba? ME TOO! says this weak understudy of George W. Bush who is currently sitting in the Oval Office. The U.S. economy continues to go downhill? Everything is fine, he says.

Three different journalistic outfits have called today for an end to the Cuba embargo, which the Caribbean nation calls a blockade.

The Syndey Morning Herald in Australia says that "The ending of the embargo is long overdue and the economic crisis provides a useful rationale for doing so.

The Province of Canada reproduces the same column.

The Register Guard states in an editorial that "U.S. sanctions have failed to topple the Castro regime."

Apparently the 187-2 vote last year at the United Nations is not democratic enough. All the NATO allies rebuffed the U.S. That vote will most likely be replicated this year.

It took a Republican president to reverse the policies regarding China. Mitt Romney, did you hear that?

Arrogance, thy name is United States!