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INTERNET FORUM WITH
THE CUBAN FOREIGN MINISTER
"The blockade is not
an invention or
a euphemism"
BY JEAN-GUY
ALLARD—Special for
Granma International—
"THE
U.S. blockade is not an invention or a
euphemism. It is a reality that has brought about losses of $72 billion to
Cuba and continues to cost it," emphasized Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe
Pérez Roque during
an interesting forum on the cubadebate.cu
website this Thursday.
Responding to questions from a large
number of participants, the minister affirmed: "You can be absolutely sure
that despite this or other blockades,
Cuba will forge ahead with its dreams of
social freedom and justice."
He added: "The blockade must be lifted.
It is illegal and in violation of elemental principles of ethics and morals.
The truth must be known and defended."
To Frank, who asked him about the
European Union (EU) position on Cuba, the foreign minister explained that
the island "only rejected the EU attempt to dictate interfering conditions"
and that the European stand was "unjust and hypocritical."
"The EU has stated its condemnation of
the arrest of mercenaries in
Cuba," he noted, going on to ask: "Why
doesn’t it demonstrate the same strength to condemn the situation of
prisoners – some of them European – detained by the United States on the
Guantánamo naval base, another illegality
imposed on Cuba?"
The EU condemned the imposition of the
death sentence in
Cuba on three terrorists who hijacked a
ferry," he recalled. "Why doesn’t it show the same energy against the
80-plus executions that took place in the United States in 2002, including
those of women, minors and the mentally ill?"
Pérez
Roque had to clarify certain things for
Mercedes, a Venezuelan: "Your president does not give us oil as a present.
We buy it from PDVSA. Mercedes, we wouldn’t like it if Venezuelans
interfered in Cuban affairs. For that reason we don’t meddle in Venezuelan
affairs."
The minister affirmed: "when they ask us,
we try to help," and gave a brief account of Cuban contributions to
cooperation between the two nations.
"We have 1,300 doctors working free of
charge with poor Venezuelans who never had doctors before. There are 1,000
Cuban sports trainers in
Venezuela. There are 1,000 poor young
Venezuelans studying on scholarships here in, 600 of them in medicine, and
7,000 Venezuelans have received complex medical treatment without payment on
the island."
And he added: "Do you think that is
interfering or helping? What do poor people in
Venezuela think?"
To Daniel Aguila,
who pointed out that it would seem to be a contradiction that we are
fighting for
U.S. citizens to travel freely to the
island while Cuban citizens resident abroad cannot do so, the foreign
minister explained: "We are obliged to protect our borders. Remember that
individuals posing as tourists but really terrorists recruited by the
Cuban-American National Foundation, placed
explosive devices in Havana hotels and killed a young Italian tourist.
Remember also that we have the multi-entry travel document that allows
Cubans resident abroad to freely enter and leave the country as many times
as they like. Almost 20,000 Cubans living abroad now have that visa…"
He noted: "When the blockade and
aggressions against
Cuba are over, those defensive
regulations won’t be necessary."
Answering another
participant, José Carlos, Pérez
Roque said: "This is a long battle that we will
win on the plane of ideas. They can do a lot for our cause, which is that of
the dispossessed of this world. Help us to circulate the report on the
blockade. Promote the following websites:
www.cubadebate.cu ,
www.cubavsbloqueo.cu,
www.lajiribilla.cu and
www.antiterrorista.cu
To Orain, who
spoke on an "internal blockade," the minister explained: "It’s a phrase
coined by the
U.S. government to justify its blockade
of Cuba. Of course, we commit errors, we don’t do things as well as we’d
like. To err is human. But there is no comparison with what is signified by
the blockade. There’s every possibility of advancing after the blockade."
On the possible lifting of travel
restrictions to
Cuba imposed on U.S. citizens, he
explained: "If Cuba was to receive five million U.S. tourists per
year, that would mean an additional income of no
less than $7 billion per year. How about that?"
But he showed little optimism in terms of
the Senate vote: "Unfortunately, and despite the fact that these actions in
Congress represent the sentiments of the majority of the
U.S. population, we are not optimistic
about the future of the amendments. In former years, the Republican
leadership has fixed things by using shady and anti-democratic procedures to
eliminate similar amendments.
"In addition, the Bush administration has
already threatened to veto the Treasury and Transport Departments Budget
bill if it is passed by Congress with those amendments in favor of a change
in the illegal and irrational policy on
Cuba."
Various people participating in the forum
expressed solidarity with the island.
Carlos Patricio wrote: "Cuba
is much more than an island in the Caribbean, Cuba represents a bastion of
dignity hard to find in these times and the Cuban people’s commitment to
just causes in the world has no parallel in the history of humanity…"
In Cuba, he says, "I have never seen
repression, what I have seen is movie theaters full of happy people,
solidarity marches with thousands of people, happy and clean children,
grandparents doing exercises in the parks and the proud demeanor of Cubans
in having a president like Fidel."
The cubadebate.cu
website organizes weekly forums on current issues in
Cuba and the world.
The exchange among surfers took place a
few hours after the publication by the Cuban government of a report to the
UN secretary general on General Assembly Resolution 57/11 on the blockade of
Cuba |