By Angel Guerra Cabrera on April 18, 2019
Photo: Bill Hackwell
On April 17, 1961 Cuba was invaded by a counter-revolutionary brigade made up of Cuban Americans that had been organized, trained and equipped by the United States’ CIA and the Pentagon. The day before, they had bombed airports but failed to destroy the small revolutionary air force. Most of the invaders were defeated and imprisoned in less than 72 hours of continuous and bloody battles, that included heroic feats of the Revolutionary Air Force. Hundreds of thousands of Cubans, full of patriotic and political awareness, were under arms and, as Fidel Castro said one day, we could have simultaneously defeated several landings like that one.
By April 1961, we were already better human beings thanks to revolutionary practices and readings, especially due to the teaching of Fidel’s outstanding speeches.
The White House chose the anniversary of its failed invasion of the island for a futile Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and a wicked National Security Advisor John Bolton to announce new sanctions against Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua. They do not want one single independent government in Our America. Pompeo informed everyone that according to Title III of the Helms-Burton Act, U.S. citizens will be allowed to file lawsuits in U.S. federal courts to demand compensation for properties appropriated by Cuba after the 1959 Revolution. In an exceedingly illegal event within an already colonialist act such as the 1996 Helms-Burton, contrary to international law, they will now also allow Cubans to file lawsuits even if they did not have the U.S. citizenship when nationalization took place.
From Clinton to Obama, the non-activation of lawsuits was renewed by every president in office. It was a practice not out of good will but rather due to protests by the governments of the European Union and Canada because such lawsuits could affect their companies on the island. President Donald Trump has apparently decided to ignore that agreement.
He is so used to treating the Europeans with contempt and viewing them as useless except when he needs to demand more contributions for NATO or to make them accept actions from Washington that could be negative for them. But beyond what appears to be another diplomatic failure on behalf of the United States, they are just trying to frighten foreign capital away from Cuba. Nothing new here since their blockade has been based on that logic for six decades; attacking Cubans’ revenues so that the people rebel against the Government.
U.S. citizens and businesses could have reached compensation agreements with Cuban authorities but Washington refused to deal with it. They were already preparing an invasion of Cuba and expecting to set up a puppet government on the island again a couple months later, which would return all their belongings. 58 years of continuous and failed attempts to end the Revolution through a range of tactics have passed since that moment, from terrorism to the always tightening blockade. The best proof that compensation would have been feasible lies on successful agreements reached between the Cuban Government and businesses and citizens from Spain, Canada, Germany and the United Kingdom, who received their compensations years ago.
Bolton chose Miami to make his announcement, together with veterans of the crushing Playa Giron defeat in a city where for decades most of the terrorist actions against Cuba have come from. What a curious defeatist vocation the Yankee imperialist policy towards Cuba has been. By the way, Bolton was able to count on that hall of defeated Bay of Pigs veterans thanks to Havana, which respected the physical and psychological integrity of the imprisoned invaders and reached an agreement with Washington to allow their quick return to Miami in exchange of several tons of food and medicine for kids.
Bolton was also “pleased to announce” that they will enforce the implementation of Title IV of the Helms-Burton Act. This means that fewer U.S. citizens will receive visas to travel to Cuba. It also means that Cuban Americans, who did not have a limit to remit allowances to their families on the island since Obama, will now be able to send only $ 1000 every two months. Interestingly, this measure impacts a lot the emerging businesses in the private sector of the island. Altogether, between these measures and others previously adopted by Trump, Cuba will be deprived of billions of dollars in revenues, essential to food imports, raw material and medicines. They take these measures at the time the so-called Lima Group maliciously spreads lies about Havana for sharing its fraternal solidarity with Venezuela.
In the face of these criminal actions from Washington, the response of Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel was fast. “No one is going to take away from us, either by allurement or by force, the Homeland that our forefathers won for us standing. The attitude against those who hold the sword against us will not change… We Cubans are not surrendering.”
Source: La Pupila Insomne, translation, Resumen Latinoamericano, North America bureau