HANDS OFF CUBA

Le Barry McNally
Ógra Shinn Féin

Having watched the closely the democrats race for the White House recently I would have been forgiven for mistaken that the US were about to end their decades long embargo on Cuba if Barack Obama was in charge.

In May the BBC worldwide service declared ‘Obama pledges Cuba policy change’. Could this be the end of the economic embargo aimed at strangling what is a very progressive and developing country? Of Course not, we all know too well how the BBC and indeed the US Government manipulate what we the public see and hear.


So what of the policy change being spoken of by the BBC?? This would mean that if Obama won the presidential race and was president of the United States of America ‘he will seek direct diplomacy with the communist government in Cuba’. So much for a ‘policy change’. No sooner had the words came from him that he stated that the decades old embargo would remain on Cuba. He also said his Republican rival John McCain's ‘hardline stance’ on Cuba would not advance freedom on the island- yet he believed his would. The real interests of the US and Obama were revealed when he said "I would be willing to lead that diplomacy at a time and place of my choosing, but only when we have an opportunity to advance the interests of the United States". The interests of the US are at the heart of this latest stage managed rambling from Obama.

So will Obamas stance on Cuba affect its prosperity?

I don’t believe it will, the resilience and determination of the Cuban people and government will win this battle. There is absolutely no doubt that the embargo affects Cuba hugely in terms of trade, investment and fiscal prosperity. However the Cuban people and government have shown throughout the past four decades that despite the economic embargo live will go on in Cuba. The attempts by the US to strangle Cuba will not work and they should realise this fact and cease in their attempts at doing so.

Within days Fidel Castro had responded to Obama’s remarks. In his response Castro poses a number of questions and states that he doesn’t expect a response from Obama. Amongst the questions pose Fidel asks includes:

Is it right for the president of the United States to order the assassination of any one person in the world, whatever the pretext may be?

Is it ethical for the president of the United States to order the torture of other human beings?

Should state terrorism be used by a country as powerful as the United States as an instrument to bring about peace on the planet?

I will leave the final words up to Fidel Castro:

“In his speech, Obama portrays the Cuban revolution as anti-democratic and lacking in respect for freedom and human rights. It is the exact same argument which, almost without exception, U.S. administrations have used again and again to justify their crimes against our country. The blockade, in and of itself, is an act of genocide. I don’t want to see U.S. children inculcated with those shameful values.

We have never subordinated cooperation with other countries to ideological requirements. We offered the United States our help when hurricane Katrina lashed the city of New Orleans. Our internationalist medical brigade bears the glorious name of Henry Reeve, a young man, born in the United States, who fought and died for Cuba’s sovereignty in our first war of independence.

Our revolution can mobilize tens of thousands of doctors and health technicians. It can mobilize an equally vast number of teachers and citizens, who are willing to travel to any corner of the world to fulfil any noble purpose, not to usurp people’s rights or take possession of raw materials. The good will and determination of people constitute limitless resources that cannot be kept and would not fit in a bank’s vault. They cannot spring from the hypocritical politics of an empire."