Obama gives important opinions about today's news from Cuba
- Submitted by: admin
- Caribbean
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- 02 / 20 / 2008
Castro's resignation, said the senator, "should mark the end of a dark era in Cuba's history. ... Fidel Castro's stepping down is an essential first step, but it is sadly insufficient in bringing freedom to Cuba."
"Cuba's future should be determined by the Cuban people and not by an anti-democratic successor regime," Obama said. "The prompt release of all prisoners of conscience wrongly jailed for standing up for the basic freedoms too long denied to the Cuban people would mark an important break with the past. It's time for these heroes to be released."
Senator Obama also urged that the United State be prepared to take steps to normalize relations with Cuba and to ease the trade embargo of the last five decades if the Cuban leadership "begins opening Cuba to meaningful democratic change."
I have areas of agreement and disagreement with the senator:
1) The talk about the "dark era in Cuba's history" sounds to me like typical campaign rhetoric of a candidate trying to obtain votes from right wing Cubans in South Florida.
2) Cuba became truly free on January 1, 1959, and, in my opinion, does not want to go back to the corrupt capitalist "democracy" imposed by Batista and some other corrupt presidents before him (Machado, Grau, Prio, etc.)
3) If any of the current political prisoners in Cuba, who the senator calls heroes, received money payments from the United States Interests Section (USIS) in Havana, then they should serve their sentences, because every country in the world has the right to protect and defend its sovereignty from subversion directed and financed by a foreign power. If they received no payments from USIS, they should be freed.
4) I agree that Cuba's future needs to be decided by the Cuban people. If the United States truly wants that, they should not INTERFERE in the internal affairs of the island. Cubans do not want Americanos to tell them how to run the island.
5) I totally agree with the senator in the need to normalize diplomatic relations with the island and ease the embargo. I would go further: TOTALLY LIFT THE EMBARGO. Do not impose conditions or ill-conceived plans written in Washington, D.C. They will be rejected by the Cuban people, unless they are realistic and do not impinge on Cuba's national sovereignty and independence.
6) Last, but not least, the Cuban nation has incurred huge financial losses due to the actions of the United States government: an illegal invasion by CIA trained mercenaries, acts of sabotage and terrorism, biological warfare against Cuban agriculture, an embargo that last year was condemned by a 184-4 vote at the General Assembly of the United Nations. Reparations for these acts are owed to the Cuban people.
I believe that Senator Obama would be a great improvement over the current occupant of the White House, or the front runner and likely GOP presidential nominee.
(AP)
"Cuba's future should be determined by the Cuban people and not by an anti-democratic successor regime," Obama said. "The prompt release of all prisoners of conscience wrongly jailed for standing up for the basic freedoms too long denied to the Cuban people would mark an important break with the past. It's time for these heroes to be released."
Senator Obama also urged that the United State be prepared to take steps to normalize relations with Cuba and to ease the trade embargo of the last five decades if the Cuban leadership "begins opening Cuba to meaningful democratic change."
I have areas of agreement and disagreement with the senator:
1) The talk about the "dark era in Cuba's history" sounds to me like typical campaign rhetoric of a candidate trying to obtain votes from right wing Cubans in South Florida.
2) Cuba became truly free on January 1, 1959, and, in my opinion, does not want to go back to the corrupt capitalist "democracy" imposed by Batista and some other corrupt presidents before him (Machado, Grau, Prio, etc.)
3) If any of the current political prisoners in Cuba, who the senator calls heroes, received money payments from the United States Interests Section (USIS) in Havana, then they should serve their sentences, because every country in the world has the right to protect and defend its sovereignty from subversion directed and financed by a foreign power. If they received no payments from USIS, they should be freed.
4) I agree that Cuba's future needs to be decided by the Cuban people. If the United States truly wants that, they should not INTERFERE in the internal affairs of the island. Cubans do not want Americanos to tell them how to run the island.
5) I totally agree with the senator in the need to normalize diplomatic relations with the island and ease the embargo. I would go further: TOTALLY LIFT THE EMBARGO. Do not impose conditions or ill-conceived plans written in Washington, D.C. They will be rejected by the Cuban people, unless they are realistic and do not impinge on Cuba's national sovereignty and independence.
6) Last, but not least, the Cuban nation has incurred huge financial losses due to the actions of the United States government: an illegal invasion by CIA trained mercenaries, acts of sabotage and terrorism, biological warfare against Cuban agriculture, an embargo that last year was condemned by a 184-4 vote at the General Assembly of the United Nations. Reparations for these acts are owed to the Cuban people.
I believe that Senator Obama would be a great improvement over the current occupant of the White House, or the front runner and likely GOP presidential nominee.
(AP)
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