#Cuban Council of State

[minnesotafollower]

Cuba’s Worsening Economic and Political Crisis 

Emilio Morales, a Cuban who has had wide-ranging marketing experience on the island, is now the President and CEO of Havana Consulting Group, a Miami-based consulting firm specializing in market intelligence and strategy for U.S. and and non-U.S. persons doing business in Cuba.[1] Morales has provided a detailed analysis of Cuba’s worsening economic and political crisis.[2] The following is part…

[fuckyeahmarxismleninism]

Neither bombs nor permanent aggression will be enough to break hope

Havana marches for Palestine

By Carmen Maturell Senon, Granma

The lords of war, which is the horror of the peoples, are indifferent to children, women and men; the human being. It is strange for them to become sensitive and end it in the face of so many deaths; that is why they continue to agonize what is not theirs, what is alive.

The more than seven decades of the Palestinian people resisting the onslaught of Zionist colonialism are not enough; nor are the lives taken from more than 42,000 people since October 2023. The offensive continues, and it hurts.

That is why, aware that solidarity knows no decoys or borders, and that to fight for Palestine is also to fight for humanity, a representation of the Cuban people marched through the streets of Havana, from the Martí Forge to the Anti-imperialist Tribune.

"Our solidarity and sensitivity with just causes summon us to the most anti-imperialist of the tribunes, to repudiate the massacre being committed against the people of Palestine and which is also intensifying against Lebanon, Syria and Yemen," expressed Meyvis Estévez Echevarría, first secretary of the National Committee of the Union of Young Communists.

In view of the vile scenario experienced by the Palestinian people, she affirmed that it is not a question of figures, that they are entire families martyred, disappeared, and that every time a person from that land is murdered, the shame of the world also dies.

"This march of thousands of Cubans, and the rallies that have been held in the country during these days, honor each life taken by Israel; in addition, it reaffirms the political will and commitment of the Cuban State with peace, justice and respect for national sovereignty," highlighted Meyvis Estévez.

The march was led by the First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba and President of the Republic, Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, accompanied by members of the Political Bureau, Esteban Lazo Hernández, president of the National Assembly of People's Power and the Council of State, and Manuel Marrero Cruz, prime minister, as well as other leaders and representatives of political and mass organizations.

[txttletale]

hi I've been following you for a while and I had some questions about MLism. First, while I think I have a decent understanding of how it works economically, how would a ML government (after the revolution) ensure it doesn't become too powerful? like what systems would be put in place so that it hears public opinion and dissent (should there be any) and not try to maintain power through oppressive means?

Secondly, what would the aftermath of the revolution look like? once the government is overthrown, there will most likely be a period of instability where different factions trying to sieze control. How would the MLs make sure that they get seated in power?

I am genuinely trying to learn more about it, so I'm sorry if those questions are ignorant. Thanks!

i mean, that first part? i'll be completely honest with you and say that in my opinion that's a partially unsolved problem. i think that lenin's prescriptions in state & revolution, based on the actions of the paris commune--that all 'officials' should be subject to democratic recall at any time and paid no more than anyone else--would be a good start.

but of course the USSR did not ossify and see abuses of power because its leaders simply forgot about what lenin wrote--the centralization of power and limiting of worker democracy was a direct result of the newly formed state apparatus having to fight brutal years-long civil war followed as mere decade later by a brutal years-long international invasion. & this is of course a situation that will be faced by any serious socialist government & their newly formed apparatus!

however, on the other hand -- cuba has succesfully maintained an incredible system of participatory democracy. i think that mao's idea of the 'mass line' -- that theory must constantly be in dialogue with the situation on the ground and the situation of the workers -- is vital to maintaining this. in its own time of crisis, during the 90s, instead of 'pulling the ladder up' on workers' councils, cuba expanded and doubled down on its participatory democracy. i think if any nation has succesfully followed lenin's theory and example, it's cuba, and the mass workplace and municipal democracy that the cuban communist party has invited should be the model for any future socialist revolution.

and quite frankly the reason why MLs will 'take power' after the revolution is because marxism-leninism is the only revolutionary socialist ideology with a plan and ability to take and maintain power over the bourgeoisie. i think one thing reading lenin will very much clarify is that the socialist state is not something that is built after the revolution but a continuation of the revolution -- lenin explains aptly the marxist position that, having taken up arms in order to dethrone the bourgeoisie, to not establish a marxist dictatorship of the proletariat is to throw aside those arms that have already been wielded and used. 'not setting up a worker's state' isn't inaction, but a deliberate choice to be disarmed and helpless in the face of foreign intervention or counterrevolution.

and this is also why i think that while solving the (very real and dangerous!) spectres of bureaucracy, of revisionism, of socialist militias becoming police forces "special bodies of men apart from and above" the people instead of "self-acting armed organizations" of the people is a vital and pressing question for marxism-leninism to address in both theory and practice, it is just as vital to note that only marxism-leninism can succeed to the point where this becomes a problem--only marxism-leninism has shown the historical ability to put the workers in a position of political supremacy that they might risk losing to these flaws and missteps.

& seriously, don't be sorry for asking questions. any questions in good faith are welcomed on this blog, because i'm a communist and i do in fact think it is my job to explain communism to people. have a nice day & don't be so down on yourself!

[weirdestbooks]

Secrecy and Deception Chapter 24

Back on Earth (Wattpad | Ao3)

Table of Contents | Prev | Next

This chapter is dedicated to @theagenderyeehaw

Event: Khrushchev demands the withdrawal of Western Troops from Berlin.

Location: Bonn, North Rhine-Westphalia, Federal Republic of Germany

Date: November 10, 1958

“How much do you want to bet on him bluffing?” Allied Control Council asked as she recounted Khrushchev’s latest threats against the Western powers in Berlin.

Six months to withdraw from Berlin and make it a free-demilitarized city or West Germany was against the ideals of the Potsdam Agreement.

It was nothing new. Germany had been dealing with threats against his life and personhood since he was born. The Soviets and their lackeys hated him for siding with the West and had made that clear time and time again.

Their threats had started to mean nothing to Germany because he knew no matter what he did to appease them, they would always hate him and want him dead, want the other one to be the real Germany. 

Even the content of the threats wasn’t new.

The other Germany and her father wanted control over Berlin. The only thing standing in their way were the forces of his father and the other Western powers. No one wanted war. 

So they needed to do what they could to get them to leave of their own free will. Thus, the threats. 

Germany didn’t care about the accusations that he was violating the Potsdam Agreement. He knew it was just an attempt to get the other Germany some sort of moral high ground, some excuse to justify why they needed the Western powers to leave Germany’s land. Not the other Germany’s, but his land.

It was propaganda, plain and simple. Everyone knew so; Britain and his father didn’t even give it a passing glance, so used to the childlike claims coming from the Soviets in Berlin.

The only part of this current threat that was taken seriously was the Soviet claim that they would give the other German government complete control of all lines of communication into West Berlin, so the Western powers could only have communication into West Berlin with the other German government’s approval.

Germany had heard many stories of the Berlin airlift, and he knew there had to be ways of getting around a communication block without needing to involve the other German government, but it was still a very real threat.

West Berlin was an enclave. The other Germany had control of everything and everyone surrounding it. A repeat of the Berlin airlift could be costly. Germany just wanted them to leave him and his part of the city alone. 

He hoped it was all an empty threat; he really did. 

It seemed like it was just another one.

But with the threats to isolate the people in West Berlin…Germany couldn’t be confident it was.

��� ───────────────── •

Event: Cuban Revolution

Location: Havana, Republic of Cuba

Date: January 1, 1959

It was a relief to feel the weight of the dictatorship leave his mind. Cuba felt himself relax for the first time since the dictatorship came into being, a relief sigh escaping his lips.

“Thank you,” Cuba said, even though he knew that the men who freed his mind could not hear him. They still had yet to enter Havana, where Cuba was, but he knew that they would be here soon, with Batista gone.

It was a welcome relief to have his mind solely his again.

He wished he hadn’t had to deal with that. The only solace he did have was the fact that it was nothing like the military government United States had put him under, and he still remained himself through it all. 

He was glad to be freed. The fight had been going on since Batista originally took power, and Cuba had been biding his time since then, knowing it was only a matter of time before he was gone. Puerto Rico had been a firm companion through it all, always stopping by to visit Cuba to ensure he didn’t lose too much of himself.

Florida had tried, but United States kept him tied up in so many projects that his brother only stopped by once a year. Still, it was good to have friends. Cuba knew one of them would probably start planning a party to celebrate the end of the dictatorship.

Cuba was happy. Hopeful too. After sevenish years of dealing with Batista, he would now be receiving a new government, one that would, with any luck, allow Cuba to be himself, with no unrealistic expectations or forcing their will on him.

Cuba only wished that he had been allowed to fight, that he could have participated himself in removing the dictator. If there was one thing Cuba deposed more than anything, it was being controlled, being forced into the backseat like he was lesser or some sort of colony. 

He knew it was unrealistic to expect that he would have fought in a revolution against the dictatorship when they controlled him so closely, but it was nice to dream about it, about looking Batista in the eye and reclaiming his identity, his autonomy. 

Cuba had never really gotten that chance before. United States kept him out of negotiations with the Spanish Empire during his war of independence, and despite everything that United States had done to him, Cuba had never been in a position to tell him off for it. 

So many things in his life had concluded without proper justice, proper closure. 

Cuba didn’t get to shut down Batista himself, but he hoped that closure could be found.

How could one move on without it?

• ───────────────── •

Event: The Kitchen Debate

Location: Washington, District of Columbia, United States of America

Date: July 24, 1959

“Moscow and Dee should have teamed up and called them both idiots because, wow, that is one of the dumbest arguments I’ve ever heard, and I spent two hundred years listening to Britain justify his bullshit,” James deadpanned as they watched the broadcasting of the Kitchen Debate. America groaned, leaning back in his chair.

“I have never been more thankful to have missed an event ever,” he commented.

“And stuck me with the punishment of going instead,” District of Columbia joked as she sat next to America. 

“Sorry, Dee, but it was better since Krushchev brought Moscow with him and not the USSR. A capital for a capital,” America pointed out. District of Columbia rolled her eyes.

“I’m not the capital. I’m the federal district that holds the capital,” she pointed out. America shrugged.

“And Moscow is an oblast, not the capital,” he said. District of Columbia groaned. 

“Damn, we could have complained about that,” she said, causing Unorganized Territory to laugh.

“Did they even talk?” she asked. America shrugged, turning to face District of Columbia again.

“Hey, Dee, Nize wanted to know if you two even talked,” he said, passing on Unorganized Territory’s message, prompting a small thanks from the territory.

“We probably would have if we spoke more than a few phrases of each other’s language. We at least got to shoot each other the most annoyed look when we could tell one of them was saying something dumb, like that stupid ass argument from Krushchev. Even though Moscow should have been on his side, she looked like she hated that argument,” District of Columbia explained. America laughed.

“Well, yeah, it just completely ignores reality in favor of saying, ‘Oh, look how great and powerful and better we are.’ I imagine that Moscow would have preferred an argument based on reality,” James snarked, prompting a few snickers from Unorganized Territory.

“James isn’t a fan of it either. He’s been mocking it since we first heard it.” America deadpanned, slightly annoyed. 

“Oh, come on, how can I not?”

“In his defense, arguing that the USSR is better because they have made more technical advancements since their creation, ignoring that some of that stuff is based on the work of Russian Empire and that they inherited their country from Russian Empire. Meanwhile, you had to build your nation out of nothing, ignoring that you were born before the Industrial Revolution, that you contributed to the Industrial Revolution, and that a lot of their ‘new’ technology is just based on your work…it deserves to be mocked,” District of Columbia pointed out, raising her eyebrow.

“I never said it wasn’t stupid,” America responded. 

“It’s so stupid it’s almost funny,” Unorganized Territory said. America nodded in agreement.

“Yeah, you’re right. I don’t know what anyone expected this ‘debate’ to do. It’s just…kinda petty and dumb,” he said before turning off the TV. “I have more important things to do than learn that Khrushchev doesn’t know how the passage of time works.”

District of Columbia snorted in amusement as America left the room.

He needed a nap.

[lgbtpopcult]

Best WLW News Stories of 2022

The state of Tamaulipas voted to recognise same-sex marriage, making it legal in all 32 states.

Jean-Pierre will formally begin following Psaki's last day, which will be May 13. President Joe Biden announced in a statement Thursday, becoming the first Black and out LGBTQ person to hold the position.

The Church of Scotland has voted to allow same-sex marriages, after fresh warnings that its historical opposition had increased the church’s decline towards irrelevance.

The church’s general assembly, its decision-making body, voted by 274 to 136 on Monday to allow its ministers and deacons to opt in to officiate at same-sex weddings, ending a centuries-old prohibition.

The church’s legislation will be updated to remove references to a marriage taking place between a husband and wife, and refer instead to “parties”.

Some ministers said within minutes of the vote that they had immediately applied to be registered to carry out same-sex weddings, including the Rev James Bissett, a chaplain to the Royal Air Force’s air cadets.

Cuba has legalized same-sex marriage after Cubans voted in favor of a family code that increased protections for minorities on the island, the country’s National Electoral Council announced on Monday.

The Electoral Council said 74.1% of those eligible to vote in Sunday’s national referendum had turned out to cast their ballot.

With 94% of the votes counted as of 9am ET on Monday morning, 3,936,790 had voted in favor and 1,950,090 against – signaling an overwhelming support for the new law.

The new family code extends greater protection to women, children and the elderly, as well as allowing LGBTQ couples to marry and adopt children.

Lawmakers in the tiny nation – which has a population of about 77,000 and is smaller than the city of Chicago in land mass – voted unanimously to allow same-sex couples access to civil marriage.

“Today we vote for a law for all, which includes us all, a law of a modern country that ensures the free development of citizenship and bases its success on the most important nucleus of organization, the family, with all its diversity,” said Carles Enseñat, president of the Democratic Parliamentary Group.

The models Fabiola Valentín, Miss Grand Puerto Rico 2020, and Mariana Varela, Miss Grand Argentina 2020, thrilled the world of beauty pageants by not only confirming their relationship, but also revealing that they joined their lives in marriage, on October 28, in an intimate celebration.

Slovenia is the first country in the region that gives same-sex couples the same rights as heterosexual couples. The Parliament passed the amendment with 48 MPs in favour, 29 who voted against and one blank vote, Euronews reports.

The status does not carry the same rights as marriage, but allows LGBTQ partners to be treated as married couples for some public services in areas such as housing, health and welfare.

The Senate passed bipartisan legislation Tuesday to protect same-sex marriages, an extraordinary sign of shifting national politics on the issue and a measure of relief for the hundreds of thousands of same-sex couples who have married since the Supreme Court’s 2015 decision that legalized gay marriage nationwide.

[lboogie1906]

Ambassador Carl Thomas Rowan (August 11, 1925 – September 23, 2000) was a prominent journalist, author, and government official who published columns syndicated across the US and was at one point the highest-ranking African American in the US government.

He was born in Ravenscroft, Tennessee, the son of Johnnie, a cook and cleaner, and Thomas Rowan, who stacked lumber. He was raised in McMinnville, Tennessee.

He worked cleaning porches at a tuberculosis hospital to attend Tennessee State University and Washburn University. He was one of the first African Americans to serve as a commissioned officer in the Navy. He was a member of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity. He graduated from Oberlin College and was awarded an MA in journalism from the University of Minnesota. He began his career in journalism writing for the African-American newspapers Minneapolis Spokesman and St. Paul Recorder. He went on to be a copywriter for The Minneapolis Tribune and became a staff writer reporting extensively on the Civil Rights Movement.

He was denied membership in a club because it was racially segregated.

He was appointed Deputy Assistant Secretary of State by President John F. Kennedy. He served as a delegate to the UN during the Cuban Missile Crisis. He became the Ambassador to Finland. He was appointed director of the US Information Agency by President Lyndon B. Johnson. He became the first African American to hold a seat on the National Security Council. #africanhistory365 #africanexcellence #omegapsiphi

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Patricia Torres at The Guardian:

Nicolás Maduro has been declared the winner of Venezuela’s presidential election by the government-controlled electoral authority – a result that appeared to dash opposition hopes of ending 25 years of socialist rule and was immediately contested by his rivals and several governments in the region.

After a six-hour delay in releasing the results of Sunday’s election sparked an outpouring of concern from South American governments, the national electoral council claimed Maduro had won with 51.21% of votes compared with 44.2% for his rival, the former diplomat Edmundo González Urrutia. The council said with about 80% of votes counted, Maduro had secured more than 5m compared with González’s 4.4m. “I am Nicolás Maduro Moros – the re-elected president of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela … and I will defend our democracy, our law and our people,” the 61-year-old proclaimed as he addressed supporters in the capital, Caracas. Independent observers had described this election as the most arbitrary in recent years, even by the standards of an authoritarian regime that started with Maduro’s predecessor, Hugo Chávez. Maduro dedicated his win to Chávez, his late mentor, who anointed Maduro as his successor shortly before his death in 2013. “Long live Chávez. Chávez is alive!” Maduro shouted.

The result was celebrated by Maduro’s allies including the Cuban leader Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, who hailed a “historic victory” and called it a triumph of “the dignity and courage of the Venezuelan people”. “The people spoke and the revolution won,” he tweeted. Bolivia’s leftwing leader, Luis Arce, also celebrated the result of an election that was held on what would have been Chávez’s 70th birthday. “What a great way to remember the Comandante Hugo Chávez,” Arce tweeted. There was condemnation and questioning from elsewhere in the region, with many convinced the election had been stolen. The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, said his government had “serious concerns that the result announced does not reflect the will or the votes of the Venezuelan people”.

“It’s critical that every vote be counted fairly and transparently, that election officials immediately share information with the opposition and independent observers without delay, and that the electoral authorities publish the detailed tabulation of votes. The international community is watching this very closely and will respond accordingly,” Blinken added. Chile’s president, Gabriel Boric, tweeted: “Maduro’s regime must understand that the results it has published are hard to believe … Chile will not recognise any result that is not verifiable.” Peru’s foreign minister, Javier González-Olaechea, said his government also rejected the result. “Peru will not accept the violation of the popular will of the Venezuelan people,” he tweeted. The government of Costa Rica said it categorically rejected what it considered a “fraudulent” result, while the president of Uruguay, Luis Lacalle Pou, said the count had been “clearly flawed”. “You cannot recognise a triumph if you do not trust the form and mechanisms used to achieve it,” Pou said.

The Venezuelan opposition leader, María Corina Machado – who had thrown her weight behind González’s campaign after being banned from running herself – rejected the result, claiming the opposition had won in every single state. “We won and everybody knows it,” she said. “We haven’t just defeated them politically and morally, today we defeated them with votes,” Machado told journalists, claiming González had in fact won the contest and should be considered the country’s president-elect. The result was a bitter blow to Venezuela’s notoriously fractured opposition, which had united around the unlikely candidacy of González – a 74-year-old former ambassador and political neophyte - hoping he could help lead the country out of one of the worst peacetime economic collapses in modern history.

Incumbent autocratic Venezuelan “President” Nicolás Maduro coronated himself as the fraudulent winner of the 2024 Venezuelan elections over Edmundo González Urrutia (who is running in María Corina Machado’s stead).

[valkyries-things]

CELIA SANCHEZ // REVOLUTIONARY

“She was a Cuban revolutionary, politician, researcher and archivist. She was a key member of the Cuban Revolution and a close colleague of Fidel Castro. She started as an arms runner, later as a combatant in the Revolution, considered the first female guerilla of the Sierra Maestra. She would place telegrams inside a butterfly flower, so the messages remained secret. She later on served in office as secretary to the presidency of the Council of Ministers and in the Department of Services of the Council of State.”

[workersolidarity]

🇷🇺🇺🇲 🚨 DMITRY MEDVEDEV, FORMER RUSSIAN PRESIDENT SLAMS ZELENSKY VISIT WITH BIDEN

Dmitry Medvedev, the former Russian President and current Deputy Chair of the Russian Security Council slammed Zelensky's visit with U.S. President Joe Biden yesterday, and accused the Biden Administration of blackmailing the U.S. Congress.

Medvedev wrote on the Social Media platform X:

The primitive blackmailing that Biden Administration has unleashed against the Congress is not new and has historical precedents. “Give money to our guy (insert the necessary surname), otherwise we’ll have to go to war against the Russians,” said various American presidents in various times, extorting money from lawmakers.

The point of today is different:

1. Never have they clamoured for that much for a second-rate state in the stage of decay.

2. Never have they demanded the money, so brazenly and aggressively, for the country that has openly corrupted the acting US president and his family members.

3. Since the Cuban Missile Crisis, never has been the threat of direct confrontation between Russia and NATO, turning into WWIII, so real.

This is a new phenomenon in the US political discourse, created by the “Joe, Hunter & Partners” joint-stock company. They have impeachment prospect looming ahead (which is unlikely), and losing the election (which is quite likely). This is where this boorish blackmailing, unending hysteria and outrageous hints against us are coming from.

The Administration and their scared fosterling are sure to get the money. If not now, then in the coming year, to go on with their war business at all costs. And for this dough, new rivers of blood will flow, for which Biden family and their banderite scum are responsible.

#source

@WorkerSolidarityNews

[beardedmrbean]

A top American diplomat who used to be the US ambassador to Bolivia has been arrested for allegedly secretly working as a Cuban spy.

Manuel Rocha, 73, was taken into custody in Miami on Friday in what marked the culmination of a long-running FBI counterintelligence investigation, according to the Associated Press.

Two sources told the agency that Mr Rocha is accused of secretly working to promote the Cuban government’s interests.

Investigators allege that this is a violation of the Foreign Agents Registration Act – a law which requires any individual lobbying and doing the political bidding of a foreign government on US soil to register with the Justice Department.

Further details about the 73-year-old’s alleged work as a Cuban government agent are expected to be revealed on Monday when he appears in federal court.

Neither the DOJ or Mr Rocha has yet publicly commented on his arrest.

Mr Rocha’s wife Karla Wittkop Rocha refused to comment and hung up the phone when reached for comment by the AP.

The bombshell arrest comes after Mr Rocha has spent 25 years working as a top US diplomat in several Latin American countries.

His diplomatic postings included a stint at the US Interests Section in Cuba during a time when the US lacked full diplomatic relations with Fidel Castro’s communist government.

Born in Colombia, Mr Rocha was raised in a working-class home in New York City and went on to obtain a succession of liberal arts degrees from Yale, Harvard and Georgetown before joining the foreign service in 1981.

He was the top US diplomat in Argentina between 1997 and 2000 as a decade-long currency stabilisation program backed by Washington was unraveling under the weight of huge foreign debt and stagnant growth, triggering a political crisis that would see the South American country cycle through five presidents in two weeks.

At his next post as ambassador to Bolivia, he intervened directly into the 2002 presidential race, warning weeks ahead of the vote that the US would cut off assistance to the poor South American country if it were to elect former coca grower Evo Morales.

“I want to remind the Bolivian electorate that if they vote for those who want Bolivia to return to exporting cocaine, that will seriously jeopardise any future aid to Bolivia from the United States,” Mr Rocha said in a speech that was widely interpreted as a an attempt to sustain US dominance in the region.

The gambit worked but three years later Bolivians elected Morales anyway and the leftist leader would expel Rocha’s successor as chief of the diplomatic mission for inciting “civil war”.

Mr Rocha also served in Italy, Honduras, Mexico and the Dominican Republic, and worked as a Latin America expert for the National Security Council.

Following his retirement from the State Department, Mr Rocha began a second career in business, serving as the president of a gold mine in the Dominican Republic partly owned by Canada’s Barrick Gold.

More recently, he’s held senior roles at XCoal, a Pennsylvania-based coal exporter; Clover Leaf Capital, a company formed to facilitate mergers in the cannabis industry; law firm Foley & Lardner and Spanish public relations firm Llorente & Cuenca.

[mariacallous]

Is the Cuban government on the verge of collapse? Has the moment that Washington has waited for, hoped for, and worked toward for 65 years finally arrived? Some U.S. officials seem to think so. But so eager are they to see the dream of regime change finally come true that they underestimate the Cuban regime’s resilience, skewing U.S. policy to the detriment of the Cuban people that they purport to support.

At a recent conference in Madrid, Brian Nichols—the assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere affairs—gave a glimpse into how the Biden administration views Cuba’s current crisis. “Cuba is at a key moment,” he said, referring to recent protests over shortages of food and electricity in Santiago, the symbolic birthplace of Cuban revolutions. “And the solution is democracy.”

In a similar vein, U.S. President Joe Biden previously called Cuba a “failed state” following an unprecedented spate of nationwide protests that began on July 11, 2021. In normal usage, a failed state is one that has lost the capacity to govern its national territory. Haiti is a failed state; Cuba is certainly not. Nevertheless, the possibility that the protests marked the onset of a “people’s power” revolution caused Biden to freeze plans for relaxing some of former President Donald Trump’s draconian economic sanctions.

“After July 11, we hit the pause button,” said Juan Gonzalez, Biden’s National Security Council advisor for Latin America, in an interview with NBC.

Cuba was not a failed state in 2021, nor is it now—but its economy is failing under the combined weight of U.S. sanctions, misguided government policies, and the aftereffects of the COVID-19 pandemic. Trump’s policy of “maximum pressure” was designed to starve the economy of foreign exchange currency by curtailing travel, limiting remittances, impeding energy supplies, and coercing other countries into canceling medical services contracts with Cuba.

Just as these sanctions were taking effect, COVID-19 closed the tourist industry, the centerpiece of the Cuban economy, resulting in a loss of as much as $3 billion annually. When Trump blocked the wire service transfers of remittances and the pandemic prevented Cuban Americans from hand-carrying cash to help their families, annual remittances fell from more than $3 billion to just $1.9 billion in 2021. All in all, foreign exchange earnings dropped by some 40 percent.

With the economy under this severe stress, the government decided to undertake a long awaited currency and exchange rate reform that was poorly implemented, touching off runaway inflation that has eroded the real purchasing power of the Cuban peso by as much as 90 percent in certain informal markets.

As a result, Cubans are suffering critical shortages of basic necessities—food, fuel, and medicine. Electrical blackouts lasting half a day are common. Life has become so hard that more than 5 percent of the population has emigrated over the past two years, exacerbating the migration problem on the U.S. southern border.

On top of the economic crisis, Cuba’s leaders face unprecedented political challenges. Fidel Castro, whose prestige and charisma held the regime together through past hardships, is gone. His brother Raúl and the rest of the “historic generation” that brought about the revolution have stepped back from the helm, and their successors lack the credibility of the founders. The internet, and especially social media, have awakened Cuban civil society, confronting leaders with demands from below that they have no experience managing. Rising inequality, produced by the very market reforms that the government introduced to stimulate the economy, is exacerbating popular frustration.

The depth of people’s desperation and discontent is why some U.S. officials think the denouement of the Cuba regime may finally be at hand. U.S. analysts made that same mistake in the early 1990s, when the Cuban economy suffered a similar meltdown after the collapse of the Soviet Union. In 1993, a CIA National Intelligence Estimate predicted “a better than even chance” of regime collapse “within the next few years.”

In fact, official Washington has been predicting the Cuban regime’s imminent demise ever since 1959, when the Eisenhower administration expected to overthrow Fidel Castro’s revolutionary government before leaving office. When U.S. Ambassador to Cuba Philip Bonsal proposed offering Castro an olive branch to counter the rising influence of the Soviet Union, Assistant Secretary for Inter-American Affairs Thomas Mann replied, “Our best bet is to wait for a successor regime.” Subsequent U.S. administrations thought the Cuban regime would be toppled by exile paramilitary attacks, a comprehensive economic embargo, the collapse of the Soviet Union, and, finally, Castro’s death.

These predictions have been consistently wrong because they focused on the Cuban government’s vulnerabilities, neglecting its sources of resilience. First, despite widespread and deep popular discontent, there is no organized opposition able to mobilize and channel that discontent into a movement for political change. The one major attempt, in November 2021, to organize a nationwide “Civic March for Change” demanding political reform was a total failure. Today, most leading dissident activists are either in jail or in exile. The protests on July 11, 2021, and the recent ones in Santiago de Cuba were spontaneous outbursts of frustration over the hardships of everyday life, not the result of an organized opposition movement with staying power.

Second, although the Cuban political elite is clearly divided over economic policy, there is no evidence of any split over the fundamental structure of the political system. That is a critical difference from Eastern Europe in 1989. Ironically, U.S. hostility has strengthened elite unity, since Cuba’s leaders know that if they don’t hang together, they will surely hang separately.

Finally, there is no sign of disloyalty within the armed forces. On the contrary, the military enjoys exceptionally strong influence within the upper echelons of the Communist Party, and it manages key sectors of the economy. Its interests are well protected by the status quo.

With a cohesive elite, a loyal military, and no effective organized opposition, there is no plausible path to sudden regime transition in Cuba in the foreseeable future. Change will only come through evolution, not cataclysmic collapse. And regimes under siege are rarely disposed to embark on significant reforms. Former U.S. President Barack Obama recognized the futility of pursuing regime collapse, and he instead sought to engage with Cuba to shape its evolutionary change in a positive direction. But a normalization agreement reached a decade ago was quickly rolled back by the Trump administration.

Biden and his foreign-policy team are holding on to a Cuba policy inherited from Trump, built on the premise that there is no point engaging with a dead man walking. But the real zombie is U.S. policy, an “outdated approach that, for decades, has failed to advance our interests,” as Obama put it.

Even though the current U.S. approach has no prospect of producing regime change, it is impoverishing the Cuban people who Biden claims to support, deepening the humanitarian crisis on the island and accelerating uncontrolled migration—none of which serves the interests of the United States, let alone the Cuban people.

[minnesotafollower]

Once Again, U.N. General Assembly Condemns U.S. Embargo of Cuba

On November 2, 2023, the U.N. General Assembly again condemned for the 31st time, the U.S. embargo of Cuba. This time the vote was 187-2 with one abstention. The negative votes were cast by the U.S. and Israel; the abstention by Ukraine. Three other countries did not vote on the resolution: Somalia, Venezuela and Moldova.[1] U.S. Deputy Ambassador Paul Flambee, after the vote, told the Assembly…

[eaglesnick]

“The bedrock of our democracy is the rule of law and that means we have to have an independent judiciary, judges who can make decisions independent of the political winds that are blowing.”   Caroline Kennedy

Spot the difference.

1. “RUSSIA’S upper house of parliament has approved a plan to grant President Putin new powers over the judiciary, despite growing international outcry over the Kremlin’s efforts to re-establish central government control.”  (The Times: 01/10/04)

2. “In November 2016, The Daily Mail ran a cover story with the now infamous title “Enemies of the People” attacking the three judges of the High Court of England and Wales who had ruled that the UK Government needed Parliament’s consent to give notice of Brexit.” (Springer Link: (05/02/21)

3. “Tens of thousands of Israelis have rallied in Jerusalem in support of controversial plans by the far-right government to reform the judiciary. It was the biggest demonstration of its kind yet. Plans include curbing the Supreme Court and giving the government control over the appointment of judges.”

4. “Home Office accused of pressurising judiciary over immigration    decisions…That the Home Office has sought to pressure the immigration tribunal over its bail decisions during a global pandemic shows alarming disrespect for the right to liberty, the rule of law and the separation of powers.” (Guardian: 06/05/20)

5. According to the (Cuban) constitution, the National Assembly controls judicial appointments and suspensions, and the Council of State exercises these powers when the assembly is not in session. The Council of State is also empowered to issue “instructions of a general character” to the courts, whose rulings typically conform to the interests of the PCC in practice. Judges are tasked with enforcing laws on vaguely defined offences such as “public disorder,” “contempt,” “disrespect for authority,” “precriminal dangerousness,” and “aggression,” which are used to prosecute the regime’s political opponents.”  (Freedom House; Cuba: 2021)

6.” Erdogan criticises top court, stoking judicial crisis in Turkey Main opposition party calls it president’s ‘attempt to eliminate the constitutional order…’ The latest crisis showed that Erdogan wants “more control over what happens in Turkey, including a judicial system that does what he wants, such as prosecuting and imprisoning his critics and opponents”, according to analyst Gareth Jenkins." (Aljazeera: 10/11/23)

7. “Supreme Court Judges branded 'enemies of the people’ after blocking Rwanda plan. Philip Davies MP told the Express that the ruling had sparked a “constitutional crisis”. He said: “I think we have a constitutional crisis on our hands. It is clear that Parliament has passed all the necessary legislation for this to happen, and the job of judges is to implement the laws passed by Parliament, not to rule on whether or not they like the policy.” (Express: 15/11/23)

Did you spot the difference? No, of course not as there are no differences. Dictators,  far-right and far-left governments across the world try - and often succeed - in controlling their   judiciary in order to minimise any legal opposition to their policies. That this is now happening in our country, a country that once prided itself on its democracy and the rule of law is a worrying, dangerous and unwelcome development in UK politics and must be vigorously resisted.

[yatescountyhistorycenter]

From Penn  Yan, with love

By Jonathan Monfiletto

Depending on how you look at it, it was either the height of the Cold War or the early days of this standoff between the United States of America and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. Fourteen years after World War II ended, the Iron Curtain had indeed descended as Russia wrestled Eastern European countries into its orbit, and the Space Race was on after Sputnik and Sputnik II were launched. Still, the Cuban Missile Crisis had not yet unfolded, the Vietnam War had not yet erupted, and there were still more than 30 years before the USSR fell along with the Berlin Wall.

Amid this period of tension – sometimes with sharp words, other times with nuclear threats – as the world’s two superpowers stared each other down, a dozen Soviet graduate students – with an average age of 27 – spent a week in Penn Yan in November 1959, during a monthlong tour of the United States. They visited various businesses and industries and other establishments, and they learned about what life is like in a democratic, capitalist society during what was billed as an activity to build better international cooperation and understanding.

The group, which also included three American guides, arrived in Penn Yan on Wednesday, November 4 from the Boston, Massachusetts area – having visited Harvard University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, WGBH Educational Television, and the like – and then departed Penn Yan one week later for a two-day visit to Washington, D.C. and a weeklong stay in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. One of these things is not like the others, as the old Muppets song goes, but it seems Penn Yan got the nod for a tour stop because of its prior connections to the Experiment in International Living, one of the entities that organized the experience.

But unlike the group’s other stops, Yates County could offer a look into life in a rural, agrarian community. While six local families each housed two of the Soviet group members during their weeklong stay, the activities during the day kept the Soviet students learning about the agricultural and industrial components of the area and enjoying the recreation offered by the Finger Lakes region. Following a reception at the Oliver House on Thursday, November 5, the group took a walking tour of downtown Penn Yan and later visited three local farms – the Loomis poultry farm, the Miller dairy farm, and the Emerson poultry processing plant. The next day took them to Cornell University to tour the campus as a whole and then visit the animal husbandry, agricultural engineering, and home economics schools.

Other notable activities included attending classes and an assembly at Penn Yan Academy, touring Penn Yan Boat Company and Urbana Wine Cellar, and being feted at a dinner held by the Penn Yan Central School District Adult Education Advisory Council on the final night in the village. There was plenty of time in the itinerary for fun, however – group rides on Keuka Lake and even group flights over the lake as well as the senior play, a high school football game, a bowling outing, free time with their host families, and more. Civic organizations from the Chamber of Commerce to the Rotary Club to the American Legion and other groups hosted the visitors at different points in time.

The group included a medical student, a correspondent for a youth newspaper, a post-graduate agricultural student, a pianist, and even an actress, who was the only member of the group to be singled out in a newspaper headline. None of them had visited the United States before, but all of them seemed to leave with a good impression, especially of the Penn Yan and Yates County community. The goodwill extended to their hosts as well, as the families who hosted the Soviet students wrote letters – now contained within the subject files of the Yates County History Center – commenting on their positive interactions and experiences with their foreign guests. The local American Legion, seemingly contrary to its tenets, even allowed the students to use its facilities to celebrate the 42nd anniversary of the Russian Revolution – an event compared to the Fourth of July in an editorial in The Chronicle-Express.

Generally, the Penn Yan families who hosted the Soviet students had good things to say about their guests and the visit, noting the students were well mannered and well educated and the families and their visitors enjoyed discussing their respective lifestyles without getting into politics. Two main criticisms of the weeklong tour were the television coverage that distracted the Soviet students from the task at hand and the lack of free time in the schedule with which the students could have spent more time with their host families. Overall, it seems as if everyone – the Soviet students and their American hosts alike – believed the experience was a pleasant and worthwhile undertaking.

The words of one of the Soviet students, Vadim Loginov, as quoted in a newspaper article, might sum up the feelings of goodwill on both sides of this moment of U.S.-Soviet cooperation: “We know we have a different approach to things, and a different philosophy of life, but we did not come here to look for the differences, but rather want to see the many things we share alike.”

[brookstonalmanac]

Events 11.25 (after 1920)

1926 – The deadliest November tornado outbreak in U.S. history kills 76 people and injures more than 400. 1936 – In Berlin, Germany and Japan sign the Anti-Comintern Pact, agreeing to consult on measures "to safeguard their common interests" in the case of an unprovoked attack by the Soviet Union against either nation. 1941 – HMS Barham is sunk by a German torpedo during World War II. 1943 – World War II: Statehood of Bosnia and Herzegovina is re-established at the State Anti-fascist Council for the National Liberation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. 1947 – Red Scare: The "Hollywood Ten" are blacklisted by Hollywood movie studios. 1947 – New Zealand ratifies the Statute of Westminster and thus becomes independent of legislative control by the United Kingdom. 1950 – The Great Appalachian Storm of 1950 impacts 22 American states, killing 353 people, injuring over 160, and causing US$66.7 million in damages (1950 dollars). 1952 – Agatha Christie's murder-mystery play The Mousetrap opens at the Ambassadors Theatre in London's West End after a premiere in Nottingham, UK. It will become the longest continuously running play in history. 1952 – Korean War: After 42 days of fighting, the Battle of Triangle Hill ends in a Chinese victory. American and South Korean units abandon their attempt to capture the "Iron Triangle". 1958 – French Sudan gains autonomy as a self-governing member of the French Community. 1960 – The Mirabal sisters of the Dominican Republic are assassinated. 1963 – State funeral of John F. Kennedy; after lying in state at the United States Capitol, a Requiem Mass takes place at Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle and the President is buried at Arlington National Cemetery. 1968 – The Old Student House in Helsinki, Finland is occupied by a large group of University of Helsinki students. 1970 – In Japan, author Yukio Mishima and one compatriot commit ritualistic seppuku after an unsuccessful coup attempt. 1973 – Georgios Papadopoulos, head of the military Regime of the Colonels in Greece, is ousted in a hardliners' coup led by Brigadier General Dimitrios Ioannidis. 1975 – Coup of 25 November 1975, a failed military coup d'état carried out by Portuguese far-left activists, who hoped to hijack the Portuguese transition to democracy in favor of the establishment of a communist dictatorship. 1975 – Suriname gains independence from the Netherlands. 1977 – Former Senator Benigno Aquino Jr., is found guilty by the Philippine Military Commission No. 2 and is sentenced to death by firing squad. He is later assassinated in 1983. 1980 – Sangoulé Lamizana, president of Upper Volta, is ousted from power in a coup d'état led by Colonel Saye Zerbo. 1981 – Pope John Paul II appoints Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger (the future Pope Benedict XVI) Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. 1984 – Thirty-six top musicians gather in a Notting Hill studio and record Band Aid's "Do They Know It's Christmas?" in order to raise money for famine relief in Ethiopia. 1985 – A Soviet Air Force Antonov An-12 is shot down near Menongue in Angola's Cuando Cubango Province, killing 21. 1986 – Iran–Contra affair: U.S. Attorney General Edwin Meese announces that profits from covert weapons sales to Iran were illegally diverted to the anti-communist Contra rebels in Nicaragua. 1986 – The King Fahd Causeway is officially opened in the Persian Gulf. 1987 – Typhoon Nina pummels the Philippines with category 5 winds of 265 km/h (165 mph) and a surge that destroys entire villages. At least 1,036 deaths are attributed to the storm. 1992 – The Federal Assembly of Czechoslovakia votes to split the country into the Czech Republic and Slovakia, with effect from January 1, 1993. 1999 – A five-year-old Cuban boy, Elián González, is rescued by fishermen while floating in an inner tube off the Florida coast.

[history-matters]

What were the prerequisites for the first immigration of Rubio's ancestors to Cuba can be traced using the example of a man named Blas Roca. After which the mechanism of the second emigration of the same ancestors will become clear.

Blas Roca (real name - Francisco Wilfredo Calderío, July 24, 1908, Manzanillo, Granma - April 26, 1987, Havana) - Cuban politician. Staunch supporter of Fuljencio Batista. Hero of Labor of the Republic of Cuba (1983).  

In 1934-1939 - General Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba, in 1939-1944 - General Secretary of the Revolutionary Communist Union, created as a result of the unification of the Communist Party and the Revolutionary Union; after the renaming of the Revolutionary Communist Union into the People's Socialist Party (1944) in 1944-1961 - General Secretary of the People's Socialist Party. In 1935 - delegate to the VII Congress of the Comintern , in 1935-1943 - candidate for membership in the ECCI . In 1940-1948 and 1950-1954 - deputy of the Congress of Cuba.

In 1961 he was forced to abandon CP and join Castro's United Revolutionary Organizations of Cuba (ORO). Since 1962 - member of the Secretariat of the National Leadership of the ORO and director of the newspaper "Noticias de Hoy". When Castro reinstated CP in 1965 - he became member of the Secretariat of the Central Committee and chairman of the Constitutional Commission of the Central Committee of the CPC. In 1965-1981 - chairman of the National Assembly of People's Power, deputy chairman of the State Council since 1976. Since 1975 - member of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba.

An alliance with the Batista forces led to the legalization of the communist-led Confederation of Cuban Workers (CTC), the party daily newspaper Hoy and the party itself, then known as the Unión Revolucionaria Comunista (Revolutionary Communist Union). The alliance continued into the Constituent Assembly elections of 1939 in which the communists elected 6 delegates, led by Roca and Juan Marinello. Roca would serve 12 years in the legislature. The resulting Cuban Constitution of 1940, with Blas Roca as one of the signers, embodied many progressive and socialist provisions. In the following presidential election, the communists supported Batista's candidacy as part of his Democratic Socialist Coalition. Years later, when Batista accused Fidel Castro's revolutionaries of being communist-led, Castro reminded readers of the magazine Bohemia that Batista had been endorsed by the communists in 1940 and that former party members were then serving in the Batista government.

During World War II, two communists served in Batista's war-time cabinet as ministers without portfolio, Carlos Rafael Rodriguez and Juan Marinello, both of whom would later serve in top positions under Fidel Castro. The party operated a popular radio station, Radio Mil Diez, and membership was in the tens of thousands.

After Fidel Castro's July 26, 1953 attack on the Moncada army barracks, the Cuban communists condemned the attack as a "putsch" which did not involve mass struggle. 

At the time of the Moncada attack, party leaders were involved in a clandestine conference in Santiago and were also celebrating Roca's birthday (July 24). Batista quickly blamed the communist party for the "criminal incident."

As the party's ability to operate openly was blocked, key leaders began to rethink their attitude towards Fidel Castro's 26th of July Movement and the strategy of armed struggle. During the 1950s, the party went underground, and Blas Roca spent a year living in China in 1955-1956. Returning to Cuba with the victory of the revolution, Roca reorganized the party and firmly reoriented it under the leadership of Castro.