By Hedelberto López Blanch* / Special Collaboration for Resumen Latinoamericano.
Since 1959, successive US administrations have launched numerous terrorist actions that have resulted in the deaths of more than 3,400 Cubans, while simultaneously imposing arbitrary economic, commercial, and financial extortion in an attempt to overthrow their legitimate government.
Nevertheless, the convicted president and imperial dictator Donald Trump and his subservient foreign minister Marco Rubio continue to tighten the noose around Cuba by prohibiting oil shipments to the island, imposing a new Executive Order that further tightens the blockade, and constantly threatening military aggression.
Since the beginning of the Revolution, Cuba has suffered countless terrorist acts, including the explosion of the steamship La Coubre; Operation Mongoose, which lasted from 1961 to 1965, involved acts of sabotage including arson, explosions, and the use of biological weapons to damage crops and livestock; the Bay of Pigs invasion in 1961 resulted in the deaths of 176 Cubans and injuries to more than 300.
Also included the bombing of a Cubana de Aviación plane in 1976, which killed 73 people; the more than 600 assassination attempts against Commander-in-Chief Fidel Castro Ruz; the introduction of the Dengue Hemorrhagic Fever epidemic in 1981, which caused the deaths of 158 people, including 101 children; and attacks on Havana hotels and other locations.
The list is endless, and those who committed these terrorist acts were not, and still are not, convicted, such as Luis Posada Carriles and Orlando Bosch, who died of natural causes in the United States.
The Cuban government has identified 20 organizations and 62 individuals responsible for numerous terrorist acts and has handed over the list to Washington, but Havana’s demands to bring them to justice have been ignored, constituting a violation of international law.
Now, the obsession of pedophile President Donald Trump to reimpose the Monroe Doctrine in Latin America has led him to the extreme of declaring that if a legitimately elected government opposes his interests, it will be declared a terrorist or drug-trafficking state.
In his sick fanaticism to destroy Cuba, he asserted on May 1st: “I will take control of the Island almost immediately after I finish in Iran, and I could put the aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln about 100 meters from the coast.”
Subsequently, he signed an Executive Order that tightens the noose around the Caribbean island, with its extortion measures specifically targeting foreign banks that cooperate with the Cuban government and imposing further immigration restrictions. It also blocks those who operate or have operated in Cuba’s energy, mining, defense, and security sectors, as well as those who have provided material, financial, or technological support to Havana and other individuals already “sanctioned.”
In a recent Solidarity Meeting with hundreds of foreign and Cuban delegates who participated in the May Day celebrations, Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, in an immediate response to such egregious and inhumane aggression, declared: “There is no surrender or capitulation possible, nor any kind of agreement based on coercion or intimidation.”
He pointed out that “when capitalism and empire are in crisis, that is when the most ultraconservative ideas, the extreme right-wing ideas, resurface. That is why fascism is resurging at this time; and the current US government is a fascist government.”
He then asked, “How long will the world tolerate this abuse? How long will the world allow innocent children and innocent people to be killed, as in Gaza, Lebanon, or Iran? How long will the world tolerate this policy of maximum pressure by the United States against the heroic Cuban people? Because the world must be aware that what is done against Cuba, what is done against Palestine, what is done against Iran, will later be done to anyone.”
Elsewhere in his speech, he emphasized: “We do not want war! We have always maintained that bilateral differences with the United States can be resolved through dialogue; But there must be a willingness, there must be seriousness to find areas of cooperation that allow us to understand each other and move away from confrontation. But I also reiterate what we have said on other occasions: we are not afraid of war. And here there will be neither surprise nor defeat!
The Cuban people, he said, offered broad support with over 80% of signatures from the population over 17 years of age, in favor of the Revolution; against the intensified blockade, against the energy blockade, and against the threat of military aggression against Cuba. It was a signature for the Homeland, for the Revolution, and for socialism, President Díaz-Canel added.
This was followed by a May Day parade in which more than five million Cubans participated, ready to defend their sovereignty and independence, achieved through a long struggle against colonizers, neo-colonizers, and imperialists.
As has been recorded in the history of the Revolution: Whoever tries to seize Cuba will reap the dust of its soil soaked in blood if they do not perish in the fight.
IMAGE CREDIT: Cover image: Adán Iglesias Toledo
(*) Hedelberto López Blanch is a renowned Cuban journalist. He writes for the newspaper Juventud Rebelde and the weekly Opciones. He is the author of “Cuban Emigration to the United States,” “Secret Stories of Cuban Doctors in Africa,” and “Miami, Dirty Money,” among others.
SPECIAL THANKS TO THE AUTHOR: Hedelberto López Blanch
[ SOURCE: RESUMEN LATINOAMERICANO Y DEL TERCER MUNDO CUBA / EN RESUMEN ]
