18 de jul. de 2021

"Humanitarian" Intervention ?


No thanks, we don't want "humanitarian" intervention 

Marcia Choueri  (translator: Renato Brandão) 

         I know it is early to sing victory, but I have to say: In Cuba, maggots do not thrive.

         A non-conventional war operation has been carried out by the book, down to the last detail, and failed.

         Who were the culprits? As always, the Cuban mafia in US soil, financed by Florida’s state government, and by the USAID (a North American agency whose aim is, supposedly, to help poor countries.). So, this is how it happened:

-  On June 23rd, a total of 184 countries of the UN General Assembly voted in favor or a resolution to demand the end of the US economic blockade on Cuba, for the 29th year in a row, with the United States and Israel voting against. The blockade has lasted over 60 years and is the longest in history. The US have never imposed as many sanctions and for such a long time on any other country – not on China, not on Russia, not on Iran.

- On June 15th - 8 days before the UN vote – a company called Proactive Miami Inc. got approval for an application to receive a grant from the State of Florida, where it is based. On the same day, the company launched the hashtag “SOS Cuba” on social networks, and started to organize a protest against the Cuban government to be staged outside the UN headquarters in New York on the day of the General Assembly vote. As it happened, their efforts were dwarfed by the huge international campaign against the blockade, which dominated the social networks around the world.

- On July 5th they were back on the offensive, this time asking for a humanitarian intervention and a humanitarian corridor for Cuba

       A Humanitarian Corridor is an international initiative whose aim is to allow the safe arrival of medical assistance in a war zone. It is a concept that does not apply to a country that not under war or any emergency situation, such as Cuba. Of course, the pandemic is an exceptional situation, but that is the case around the world. It is also true that the number of cases of Covid-19 and related deaths has increased after more contagious variants entered the country. But the seriousness of the situation is nowhere near that of other countries, and nobody is talking about a humanitarian corridor or intervention in Brazil, for example, where the situation is far worse in all counts: number of cases, number of deaths, public health and assistance situation, and vaccination.

         A “Humanitarian” Intervention was the name given to the military strike on Yugoslavia, in 1999, by NATO and Germany, without the consent of the UN Security Council (since it was “humanitarian”). This is what they are really talking about.

- On July 9th, the hashtag “SOS Cuba” was launched again, using the latest technology to help it go viral. One single account has posted more than a thousand tweets, at the speed of five posts per second. It is obvious that this can only be done with the help of trolls and bots. The operation was repeatedly denounced to Twitter. The company ignored its own rules and did not block any of the participating accounts. 

         Location mechanisms were altered to give the impression that the campaign had originated in Cuba, which was not true. It has been proved that many of those accounts were in Florida, Spain, and other countries where very active anti-Cuban “influencers” live.

- On Sunday, 11th July, many protests occurred in different parts of the country. The fact that those events started simultaneously shows that they were not spontaneous, as they were intended to look.

         As soon as the President and First Secretary of the Party Miguel Díaz-Canel was informed about the event, he went with other leaders to the municipality of San Antonio de los Baños, near Havana, to talk to protesters.

         Later, in a special nationwide broadcast, Díaz-Canel explained the facts and asked the revolutionaries to take the streets. He said that the streets belonged to the revolutionaries, led by the communists. He asked all of those who support the Revolution, including members of the party, to occupy the public spaces. He never suggested, as reported by some international networks, that they should confront or attack the protesters. On the contrary, the Cuban government policy is to promote dialogue and understanding.

         Everybody understands that the situation is very uncomfortable, exasperating even, for the population. There are real reasons for that: for about two weeks, some places have experienced daily blackouts due to damage in two power plants. This problem has been solved. Another corroding issue is the shortage of food and medication, which results in the lack of some items and long queues to purchase essential products. However, the vast majority of Cubans know that this is caused, above all, by the blockade itself.

         As for the demonstrations, the largest ones on Sunday were the ones in support of the Revolution, by people who answered immediately to the President’s call to take the streets. The protests against the government were neither pacific, as described by some media overseas, nor were they violently crushed by the police. Many events were, basically, vandalism, looting of some shops and aggression against police officers. They were confronted by infantry troops using only personal protection gear. No riot troops were deployed and no stun bombs, pepper sprays, rubber bullets or water cannons were used, only the strictly necessary force to prevent further damage to people and property.

         It has been proved that the leaders of those kinds of outbursts are financed by people and organizations in the United States. One wonders if they are frustrated for not achieving the results they expected. There was no social unrest. It was such a fiasco that they tried to use images of the pro-government crowds as their own. Some also used images of Argentinians celebrating their football victory and even some of protests in Egypt to try and convince the international public opinion, and also Cubans, that there were huge crowds protesting on the streets.

         As I said in the beginning, maggots do not thrive here. However, the danger for Cuba is not over, because the huge risk for the country is not of social unrest – which people here and in Miami know will not happen. The risk is that those lies and fraud might be used to justify a “humanitarian intervention”.

         That is why the best way to support Cuba now is to spread real facts. Show that we are in the middle of a war whose first victim, as it has been seen many times before, is always the truth. They look for excuses to attack the island, as 60 years of blockade have not been enough to break Cubans’ resilience. Because this is the home of brave people, led by a Revolution that strives to achieve peace and social justice.

         Here’s a hint on how to separate real and fake news: any support for Cuba must ask for, first and foremost, an end to the blockade.

#IntervençãoNão

#ForaBloqueio     #CubaNoEstaSola

#CubaSalva      #EliminaElBloqueo 

                                        


 


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