National Lawyers Guild Approves Resolution on Cuban Five Case

The 70th Annual Conference of the National Lawyers Guild, recently held in Washington DC, approved the following resolution:

"Resolution endorsing the call for an international investigation into the failure of the united states government to address and remedy the denial of justice in the case of the Cuban Five, and for further education and related actions."

WHEREAS: Since the triumph of the Cuban Revolution on January 1, 1959, Cuba and its people have suffered from continued terrorism including sabotage and assassinations (completed and attempted), killing over 3,000 of its citizens and maiming thousands of others;

WHEREAS: Cuba has repeatedly protested the planning, financing and launching of such attacks from the U.S., in private and public protests and requests to the U.S. government, and Cuba determined the necessity of sending its own agents to monitor continuing plots in order to deter or minimize further such attacks;

WHEREAS: These efforts have been largely but not entirely successful, such as resulting in the arrest of Luis Posada Carriles in Panama before he could carry out a likely act of mass murder in order to assassinate Cuban President Fidel Castro, but Posada and his operatives were subsequently pardoned in Panama and welcomed into the United States, where all of them are now free and out of custody, despite an extradition request from Venezuela to try Posada for a prior act of mass murder, which the U.S. government has failed to process despite the provisions of its long-standing extradition treaty with Venezuela;

WHEREAS: In September 1998, the U.S. Government arrested the Cuban Five who were in Florida to try to monitor continuing plots against Cuba in order to deter or minimize further such attacks, they were then held in solitary confinement for 17 months, and were tried and convicted in Miami (over the objections of the defendants that a fair trial could not be held there), and they were sentenced to long prison terms ranging from 15 years to more than two life terms;

WHEREAS: The United States government has repeatedly violated the rights of the five prisoners and their families to regular visitation, most severely in the cases of Gerardo Hernandez and his wife Adriana Perez, and Rene Gonzalez and his wife Olga Salanueva. Both women have requested visas on seven occasions and each time the United States government has denied their requests. Denying these families the right to see each other is according to Amnesty International, which has repeatedly raised this issue with the U.S. government since 2002, "unnecessarily punitive and contrary to standards for humane treatment of prisoners and states’ obligations to protect family life."

WHEREAS: On May 27, 2005, the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detentions under the auspices of the UN Human Rights Commission, issued its Conclusion that depriving these five Cubans of their liberty contravened Article 14 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, based on the conditions of their confinement including the long period in solitary confinement, the limitation of defense access to the potential evidence, and the conditions and location of the Miami trial, combined with "the severe sentences received";

WHEREAS: In August 2005, a unanimous panel of the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the Miami trial of the Five was unfair and their convictions should be vacated based on a "perfect storm" of intense community hostility against anyone identified with the government of Cuba, combined with prosecutorial misconduct intended to inflame such passions. That opinion was subsequently vacated by the full 11th Circuit, which issued a ruling en banc one year later upholding the venue as being proper, and on August 20, 2007, remaining issues on appeal were again argued to a three judge panel;

WHEREAS: The NLG has previously called attention to these injustices, including a 2006 Convention NEC resolution resolving "to build a strong people’s movement through advocacy and media campaigns, and to advocate for a new and fair trial for the Cuban Five," and a September 2007 request to the UN Commission on Human Rights to conduct an investigation into the failure of the U.S. government to honor the findings and conclusions of the UN Working Group;

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED: That the National Lawyers Guild’s 70th Convention reaffirms its commitment to fight for justice in this case, and specifically calls upon: A) the United States government to honor the more than two year old finding of the appropriate UN body, by either releasing these prisoners forthwith or providing them with a new trial; B) the UN and its Commission on Human Rights to investigate and publicize the lack of timely or meaningful compliance by the U.S. Government to date; C) the U.S. media to provide significant and reasonable coverage of this important case (and its implications for the so-called U.S. "war on terrorism"), which has so far been lacking; D) the U.S. government to approve visas promptly upon request of families so that they may enter the United States to visit the five prisoners on a regular basis; and E) human rights and peace organizations to review and address this case and to act appropriately in the cause of justice.

IMPLEMENTATION: This resolution is to be implemented by the NLG Cuba Subcommittee, the International Committee, and the NLG National Office, with the anticipated support of other committees and chapters to educate their members and the public about this case and its broader implications.



La factura petrolera y el desarrollo

Chávez lo dijo con toda claridad en Riad: la factura de petróleo y gas de los países en desarrollo alcanza el millón de millones de dólares. Propuso a la OPEP, que estuvo a punto de ser disuelta antes de la llegada al poder del gobierno bolivariano —que la presidió y preservó a lo largo de 8 años—, asumir el papel para el cual fue creado el Fondo Monetario Internacional y nunca cumplió.El dólar está en caída libre, expresó. Nos pagan con papeles. Podemos y debemos garantizar el combustible tanto a los países desarrollados como a los que luchan por desarrollarse y necesitan importarlo. La OPEP puede dar créditos para el desarrollo con largo periodo de gracia y solo el 1 por ciento de interés anual, de modo que los países pobres paguen con los bienes y servicios que sean capaces de producir. Mencionó la cifra de 5 mil millones de dólares como ayuda al desarrollo que Venezuela presta a los países caribeños que necesitan desesperadamente importar esa esencial materia prima.Chávez puede añadir un ejemplo ilustrativo que Cuba conoce bien: con lo que cuesta a fines del año 2007 importar un barril, en 1960 se podían adquirir 13,52 toneladas de petróleo ligero, incluido transporte, es decir, casi 50 veces más que ahora. En tales condiciones, un país como la República Bolivariana de Venezuela continuaría siendo un suministrador de combustible, un recurso no renovable, casi regalado a Estados Unidos. La tierra continuaría hundiéndose en algunas cuencas al faltar el subsuelo petrolero.Comprendo cuánto tiene que romperse la cabeza sacando cuentas y cuán justos y nobles son sus sentimientos de igualdad y justicia para los pueblos de la que Martí llamó nuestra América y Bolívar, en la lucha contra el imperio español, calificó de una sola nación.En aquella época se mantenía todavía el equilibrio. No existía la diabólica idea imperial de convertir los alimentos en combustible ni los cambios climáticos descubiertos y comprobados por las ciencias.
Fidel Castro Ruz , Noviembre 19 del 2007

THE CONVERSATION WITH CHÁVEZ

Last November 15, I referred to a third reflection on the Latin American Summit which, as I then wrote, "I have yet to publish". It strikes me as timely, however, to do so before the referendum of December 2.In this reflection, written on the 13th, I pointed out the following:Yesterday, the Cuban people had the opportunity to hear Chávez speak on the Round Table program. I phoned him when he said that Fidel was a man who was out of this world, that, on April 11, 2002, he spoke with him, when all official lines of communication were tapped, over a phone located in his kitchen.I was at a meeting with the President of the Basque Country the day of the coup. Events succeeded each other restlessly. That fateful afternoon, several of the people there, who were willing to die next to Chávez, had used the same phone to say goodbye. I remember exactly what I told him that night when I asked him not sacrifice himself: that Allende could not rely on a single soldier to fight back and that he, on the other hand, could rely on thousands.In our telephone conversation during the Peoples’ Summit function, I tried to add that to sacrifice oneself so as not to fall prisoner ―a choice I once faced and something I nearly decided, again, before reaching the mountains― was a way of dying with dignity. I had said the same thing he had: that Allende had died fighting.Calixto García Íñiguez, one of the most glorious generals of our wars of independence, survived a gunshot to his chin, aimed at his head. His mother, who had refused to believe her son had been taken prisoner, on finding out the whole truth, exclaimed with pride: that’s my boy!That was what I wanted to convey to him over the cell phone without amplifier, held, this time, by Lage, Secretary of the Executive Committee of Cuba’s Council of Ministers. Chávez could barely hear what I was saying, the same as when the King of Spain abruptly ordered him to keep quiet.It was at that moment that Evo arrived at the function. He is a genuine Aymara native, who also spoke there, as Daniel did, and in whose face Chávez wisely discerned Maya features.I agree with what he said, that I am a strange blend of races. I have Taino, Canary Island, Celtic and who knows what other bloods in me.I was anxious to hear the three of them speak again. Before they spoke, I said: "I salute the thousands of Chileans who died fighting the dictatorship imperialism imposed on them!" And I concluded my remarks proclaiming, next to Chávez, Bolivar’s, Che Guvera’s and Cuba’s slogan of: "Homeland, socialism or death! We shall overcome!"Yesterday, Monday the 12th, over a notorious private Venezuelan television station at the empire’s service, I heard a declaration and speech which had been prepared, from beginning to end, by the US embassy. How empty and ridiculous it all sounded in comparison to Chávez’s vibrant speech at the Summit debate!Long live the courageous people who cast off the oppressor’s yoke!Long live Hugo Rafael Chávez!
Fidel Castro Ruz , November 18, 2007

CUBA: Popular Education Transforms Women’s Lives
By Dalia Acosta (IPS) - "I have the spirit of a 15-year-old girl, and the wisdom of a 66-year-old woman," says Felicia Pérez, who recovered her joie de vivre after attending a handicrafts course, and became a promoter of urban values and the creator of a crafts workshop in her own neighbourhood.http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=40124,

Cuba, in a campaign against blindness, uses doctors to bolster its imagehttp://www.iht.com/articles/2007/11/19/america/havana.php,

Cuban Biotechnology Spreads All Over the World
Cuba's biotechnological industry has made major achievements, including 38 products that are being commercialized in 40 countries. The most relevant products are the vaccine against meningococcal meningitis, interferon and streptokinase. Cuba's biotechnological industry has made major achievements, including 38 products that are being commercialized in 40 countries.The most relevant products are the vaccine against meningococcal meningitis, interferon and streptokinase.As a result of the development of Cuba's biotechnological industry, 140 products have been patented in more than 40 countries, and they may increase to 216 in 2008.In addition, Cuba's public health system has been supplied with important products such as the vaccine against hepatitis B and recombinant streptokinase to treat patients suffering from acute myocardial infarctions.Other products are the Heberpenta vaccine, which immunizes children against diphtheria, whooping cough, tetanus, hepatitis B and Haemophilus influenzae, and Heberprot-P, the only medication in the world to treat ulcers caused by diabetic foot.Scientists are also working on vaccines against hepatitis B and C, prostate cancer, AIDS and dengue fever.(DTCNews)

SOCIEDAD-CUBA: Red de educación popular escruta el socialismo
Por Dalia Acosta LA HABANA (IPS) - La creciente presencia de la educación popular en experiencias locales de transformación social estimula el debate en torno a la necesaria participación activa de la población en los cambios que deberá enfrentar la sociedad cubana si pretende mantener el socialismo como sistema. La Red de educadoras y educadores populares existente en el país, con el respaldo del no gubernamental Centro Memorial Martin Luther King Jr. (CMMLK), ha materializado ya aportes a la discusión en áreas como el trabajo comunitario, el gobierno local, la agro-ecología y la saludhttp://www.ipsnoticias.net/nota.asp?idnews=86647,

La hegemonía del socialismo
http://www.rebelion.org/noticia.php?id=59253,

El Caribe y el ALBA salvadora
http://www.rebelion.org/noticia.php?id=59285,

Acerca del libro "Conflicto y cultura política Cuba 1878-1898" http://www.cubarte.cult.cu/global/loader.php?cat=actualidad&cont=showitem.php&tabla=entrevista&id=5718&seccion=Opini%C3%B3n&tipo=,

Artistas en EE.UU exigen normalizar nexos culturales con Cuba
Washington (PL) Más de dos centenas de personalidades norteamericanas de las artes y los espectáculos firmaron hasta hoy una carta abierta, dirigida al presidente George W. Bush, para respaldar las relaciones culturales de Estados Unidos y Cuba.http://www.prensa-latina.cu/article.asp?ID=%7BD2A03D29-8002-433B-8155-DD35DA28E9AA%7D),



Cuba, Octubre, jóvenes y futuro
http://www.rebelion.org/noticia.php?id=59261,

El 57% de los latinoamericanos considera que las inversiones españolas han sido menos beneficiosas de lo esperado
América Latina se rebela contra un nuevo colonialismo http://www.rebelion.org/noticia.php?id=59271,



El vergonzoso silencio de la prensa española ante las hazañas de Aznar por Latinoamérica
¿Es legítimo ir conspirando por países para intentar cambiar el camino que legítimamente están tomando los pueblos? Por el derecho de los pueblos a decidir libremente su futuro. Por el derecho a la información. http://www.kaosenlared.net/noticia.php?id_noticia=45497,



OPOSICION RECHAZO A PROCESO ELECTORAL
LA HABANA (ANSA)- Una alianza opositora en Cuba apoyó hoy "iniciativas de agrupaciones de la sociedad" que rechazan por considerar "totalitario" el proceso electoral en curso en el país. Una primera etapa de esos comicios se celebró en octubre con la selección de los órganos bases del sistema gubernamental y concluirá a inicios de 2008, cuando sean elegidos los Consejos de Estado y de Ministros, ambos encabezados por el presidente Fidel Castro. Una nota distribuida a la prensa extranjera en La Habana por Vladimiro Roca, coordinador y portavoz de la alianza Todos Unidos, calificó esos comicios de "farsa electoral" y expresó su respaldo a "todas las iniciativas de agrupaciones de la sociedad civil que están llamando a protestar pacíficamente contra tales supuestas elecciones mediante la anulación de las boletas, la abstención u otros medios".



Operation Peter Pan in the Poor Memory of Miami
Although it may seem incredible, it is absolutely true: the right wing sector of Miami will dedicate Thanksgiving Day to parties, dinners and dancing, to Operation Peter Pan, which began in Havana 47 years ago. http://www.cubanews.ain.cu/2007/1119operacionpeterpan.htm,

La operación Peter Pan en la mala memoria de Miami
Por Ángel Rodríguez Álvarez
Servicio Especial de la AIN
Aunque parezca increíble, es absolutamente cierto: en Miami dedicarán el Día de Acción de Gracias a festejar, cena y baile incluidos, la Operación Peter Pan, iniciada en La Habana hace 47 años.La medida del grado de irrealidad y engaño en que viven no pocos de los cubanos escapados hacia Estados Unidos en los primeros años posteriores al triunfo de la Revolución en 1959, la ofrece uno de los organizadores de la fiesta, cuando califica esa acción contrarrevolucionaria como "sinónimo de libertad, sacrificio, perseverancia y amor."Para una caracterización objetiva de la Operación Pedro Pan, para decirlo en español, basta con exponer los hechos tal cual ocurrieron. Los adjetivos justos brotan a borbotones.Entre 1960 y 1962, 14 mil niños cubanos fueron entregados por sus padres a organizaciones " caritativas " creadas al efecto, para ser trasladados a EE.UU., donde serían albergados por tiempo indeterminado en hogares de desconocidos y en orfelinatos.No constituye nada difícil entonces imaginar el calvario de aquellos infantes, separados abruptamente de padres y otros familiares, llegados a un país desconocido, en manos igualmente extrañas y sin la menor idea del momento en que volverían a encontrarse con los suyos.Muchos de aquellos muchachos han narrado y hasta plasmado en libros y filmes esos amargos recuerdos, la interminable angustia y la infinita soledad que los embargó, al verse colocados en el centro de un episodio totalmente fuera del alcance de su comprensión.Aquel drama, de cuyas secuelas sicológicas muchos no se recuperaron jamás, formó parte de una de las tantas patrañas urdidas contra la Revolución cubana, mediante la acción concertada de criminales y ladrones vinculados a la tiranía derrocada, elementos del clero católico, explotadores criollos que habían perdido sus privilegios, y todos, bajo el auspicio de la Embajada norteamericana en La Habana.El coordinador de la Operación fue monseñor Bryan O. Walsh, sacerdote de origen irlandés perteneciente a la Diócesis de Miami, estrechamente vinculado a la Agencia Central de Inteligencia, como se ha comprobado fehacientemente. Quienes concibieron este engendro tuvieron en cuenta el lógico clima de incertidumbre existente entre burgueses y pequeño burgueses, provocado por el proceso de cambios socio-económicos iniciado en la Isla, al que añadieron fuego mediante una colosal campaña mediática orquestada desde el Norte, y cuyo objetivo era crear condiciones para hacer creíble cualquier falsedad entre ese segmento poblacional.La campaña de terror fue iniciada el 26 de octubre de 1960, a través de trasmisiones de radio Swan, en las cuales se daban a conocer fragmentos de una falsa y nunca concebida Ley de la Patria Potestad, en virtud de la cual los niños serían separados de sus progenitores y enviados a Rusia para lavarles el cerebro y convertirlos al comunismo.En esa escalada llegaron al extremo de imprimir la ley y distribuirla entre aquellos proclives a creer la más fantasiosa y colosal mentira.Los primeros cinco niños llegaron a Miami el 26 de diciembre de 1960. Empezó así un lastimoso éxodo infantil, agravado en octubre de 1962 cuando el gobierno norteamericano suprimió unilateralmente los vuelos directos desde Cuba. Atrás quedaron miles de padres a quienes se les había prometido visas y esperaban ansiosos, cada día, por un pronto reencuentro, que en algunos casos demoró varios años.Peter Pan merece ser recordado, pero como un acto de extrema crueldad, y un ejemplo de la capacidad, vigente aún, para mentir, manipular y explotar los sentimientos de amor de los semejantes, en interés de recuperar privilegios y mezquinos intereses.