Havana: Cuba’s sovereignty is not up for negotiation
In the last three months President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio have been either talking about a “friendly takeover” of Cuba, or that they’re “ready to bomb and destroy” it, Ernesto Soberón Guzmán, Cuba’s ambassador to the United Nations, told Bloomberg News March 19.
He was commenting on speculations by U.S. officials and the capitalist media that promote the imperialist rulers’ stepped-up campaign of threats against the Cuban people and their socialist revolution.
Making clear that Havana is open to talks with Washington, “about everything,” Cuban government officials have rejected these threats and said what they won’t give up is the country’s sovereignty and independence. “This is not a new position” for Cuba, said Soberón. This means that “friendly takeover,” “regime change,” or “removal” of Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel “are completely out of any talks.”
The U.S. rulers and their mouthpieces have been working overtime to paint a picture of an imminent collapse of Cuba’s economy and the death agony of its socialist revolution. They rarely report on organized efforts by working people in Cuba and their government to defend their social and political gains as they protect the population — especially the most vulnerable — from the brutal toll of Washington’s escalating economic war.
Cuba’s power grid collapsed March 21 for the third time this month, leaving the entire country without electricity after months of Washington choking off oil shipments to the island, threatening to impose punishing tariffs on any country that dares to sell or provide oil to Cuba. A ship carrying Russian fuel on its way to Cuba changed course March 20. A second ship, a Russian tanker, is expected to arrive in Cuba by April 4. This could become the first test of how far Moscow is willing to go to aid Cuba and how far the U.S. rulers are willing to go to prevent it.
‘Answering U.S. rulers’ lies’
“Cuba is going to fall on its own volition,” said President Trump Jan. 3 after the U.S. military assault on Venezuela and kidnapping of President Nicolás Maduro — and his wife, Cilia Flores. “It is a very bizarre statement,” said Deputy Foreign Minister Carlos Fernández de Cossío in an interview with NBC’s Meet the Press March 22. “What does on its own mean?” when the U.S. economic assaults are being imposed on us, he said.
The capitalist media’s reports of piles of garbage accumulating in city streets, long widespread blackouts severely affecting economic production and the operation of hospitals, schools and basic services put the blame almost exclusively on the Cuban government or its socialist economy, hiding the brutal effects of the U.S. blockade.
“Imagine, which country in this world could work without receiving a single liter of oil in the last three months?” said Soberón. There are some 96,000 patients waiting for surgery because there is no electricity or oil to provide electricity in the hospitals, the Cuban ambassador said. “We have more than 30,000 pregnant women waiting for an ultrasound, also because of lack of electricity.”
The Cuban diplomat described the escalating measures the U.S. rulers have used — under both Democratic and Republican administrations — to suffocate the Cuban people. Washington’s stated aim is to destroy the socialist revolution. Imagine running a country blocked from having access to international credits; your tourist industry choked off by threats of canceling U.S. visas to European tourists if they visit Cuba; or strong-arming third countries to end crucial health cooperation programs with Cuba that also bring much needed revenue, he said.
“What developing country has been submitted to such an onslaught from the most powerful nation in the world, and yet been able to carry solidarity to over 100 countries” around the world, said Fernández de Cossío. We are fighting to save “our people from being overtaken by a foreign power” that wants to take us “back decades to a Cuba that we overcame a long time ago.” The Cuban people are fighting to protect the peace, tranquility, social justice and sense of solidarity that exist among our people, he said.