Ten keys to Donald #Trump’s policy toward #Cuba

Published by Alma

By Sergio Alejandro Gómez | internet@granma.cu

The change in policy toward Cuba, announced June 16 in Miami by U.S. President Donald Trump, implies a setback in several aspects of bilateral relations, while remaining in place are a portion of the modest advances made under the Obama administration, since December 17, 2014.

Granma shares the opinions and analysis of important academics, politicians, and media on both sides of the Florida Straits, with the goal of providing context to Trump’s statements and clarifying their possible impact on the future of relations between the two countries.

1. THE PRESIDENT WAS REPAYING A DEBT TO THE RIGHT WING IN MIAMI

The content of his statement, the place chosen to make it, and the audience joining the President in a Miami theater that bears the name of a Playa Girón mercenary, Manuel Artime, confirm the suppositions of many analysts that the head of state took the advice of a handful of individuals who do not represent majority public opinion in the U.S., or the Cuban emigre community there.

U.S. attorney Robert Muse, who has much experience studying relations between Washington and Havana, told Granma, “I believe the President is repaying political debts to Senator Marco Rubio and Representative Mario Díaz-Balart.”

Thanks to their proximity to Trump, their regular political maneuvering and use of their positions on important Congressional bodies as bargaining chips, the two Republican legislators have become key White House advisors.

“Trump’s new policy toward Cuba is dictated by domestic political considerations, not foreign policy interests,” noted William Leogrande, professor of Government at American University, adding, “The President himself said he was repaying a political debt he owes conservative Cuban-Americans for their support during the election campaign.”

Cuban vaccine shows promise against lung #cancer

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By  Mimi Whitefield/http://www.yorkdispatch.com

BUFFALO, N.Y. — The first patients in a clinical trial at Roswell Park Cancer Institute have begun receiving monthly doses of CIMAvax-EGF, a Cuban lung cancer vaccine that U.S. researchers say shows promise in preventing the recurrence of lung cancer — the leading cause of cancer deaths in the United States.

The Roswell trial, which was authorized by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration last fall, is the first time a Cuban-made therapy has been tested on U.S. patients. CIMAvax has undergone extensive clinical trials in Cuba and around the world and is an approved therapy for treatment of lung cancer not only on the island but also in Colombia, Peru, Paraguay and Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The unique partnership between Roswell Park researchers and Havana’s Center of Molecular Immunology began in 2011, well before the Obama administration’s rapprochement with Cuba, and had its genesis in a cold call from Gisela Gonzalez, a Cuban researcher who was visiting her family in Pittsburgh.

Dr. Kelvin Lee and Dr. Grace Dy discuss their work at Roswell Park Cancer Institute. The Buffalo research center is testing a lung cancer vaccine developed in Cuba (Photo: Roswell Park Cancer Institute)

Statement by the Revolutionary Government of #Cuba

Published by Alma

By Cubaminrex

US President Donald Trump delivered a speech full of hostile anti-Cuban rhetoric reminiscent of the times of open confrontation with our country in a Miami theater. He announced his government’s Cuba policy, which rolls back the progress achieved over the last two years since December 17, 2014, when Presidents Raúl Castro and Barack Obama announced the decision to re-establish diplomatic relations and engage in a process towards the normalization of bilateral relations.

In what constitutes a setback in the relations between both countries, President Trump, gave a speech and signed a policy directive titled “National Security Presidential Memorandum”, which provides the elimination of private educational “people-to-people” exchanges and greater control over all travelers to Cuba, as well as the prohibition of business, trade and financial transactions between US companies and certain Cuban companies linked to the Armed Revolutionary Forces and the intelligence and security services, under the alleged objective of depriving us from income. The US president  justified this policy with alleged concerns over the human rights situation in Cuba and the need to rigorously enforce the US blockade laws, conditioning its lifting, as well as any improvements in US-Cuba bilateral relations to our country’s making  changes inherent to its constitutional order.

Trump also abrogated Presidential Policy Directive “Normalization of Relations between the United States and Cuba”, issued by President Obama on October 14, 2016.  Although said Directive did not conceal the interventionist character of the US policy nor the fact that its main purpose was to advance US interests in order to bring about changes in the economic, political and social systems of our country, it did recognize Cuba’s independence, sovereignty and self-determination and the Cuban government as a legitimate  and equal interlocutor, as well as the benefits that a civilized coexistence  would have for  both countries and peoples despite the great differences that exist between both governments.  The Directive also conceded that the blockade is an obsolete policy and that it should be lifted.

#US Lawmakers will Try to Mitigate Damage from #Cuba Policy

Published by Alma

By Prensa Latina 

The Cuba Working Group (CWG) in the U.S. Congress said on Friday that in the next few days, it will get deeply involved with federal agencies to mitigate the harmful consequences of the new policy on the Caribbean island.

Shortly after President Donald Trump announced in Miami his decision to reverse the rapprochement with Cuba that the previous administration had started, the bipartisan body issued a communiqué criticizing that measure.

The co-presidents of that group, the Democratic representatives Barbara Lee and Kathy Castor, and the Republican Congressmen Rick Crawford and Tom Emmer, pointed out that Trump’s announcement is bad for U.S. business and an unjustifiable risk for national security.

#Trump’s #Cuba Policy to Affect #US Travelers and Companies

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By Prensa Latina

The Engage Cuba coalition noted today that the changes announced by President Donald Trump regarding his Cuba policy will affect U.S. citizens interested in traveling to the neighboring island.

The confusion that will surround this policy will undoubtedly reduce the demand, as by demanding that U.S. citizens travel to Cuba in groups, the administration will make those visits more expensive, Engage Cuba President James Williams said in a communiqué.

At the same time, opening to trade with Cuba has allowed U.S. companies to establish themselves in a growing market that is 90 miles away and to create jobs nationwide.

Given the interrelation of the Cuban economy, these new restrictions to U.S. companies might hinder a progress that would account for billions of dollars for the U.S. economy, added the press release.

#US: A Pariah Country After Withdrawing From #ParisAgreement

Published by Alma

Fuente: Analítica

By Waldo Mendiluza/Prensa Latina

The term pariah state given by the Irish ex-president and former United Nations special envoy for climate change, Mary Robinson, summarizes in a great extent the world condemnation of the U.S. government”s decision to withdraw from the Paris Agreement on Climate Change.

On Thursday, U.S. President Donald Trump announced his country’s withdrawal from the pact, signed in December 2015 by 195 countries and already ratified by 147 nations, including the United States, to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and to keep the increase in temperature under two degrees Celsius, 1.5 degrees if possible, compared to pre-industrial levels.

According to most scientists specialized on the subject, that limit might make a difference between the survival and the destruction of humans.

A pariah state is the one whose conduct does not follow international standards, a term used by Robinson in the response to Trump’s announcement by The Elders, a group of political veterans founded a decade ago by the late South African leader Nelson Mandela to promote world peace.

The decision has raised immediate reactions in all five continents and within the United Nations, the organization that facilitated the agreement in the French capital, undoubtedly one of the most important achievements of multilateralism.

#US Vs #Venezuela: 7 Steps to Kill a #Revolution (Video)

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By teleSUR English

The same plan used in the 1970s to overthrow Salvador Allende in Chile, is being used by the U.S. today in Venezuela against the Bolivarian Revolution. These are the steps to kill a revolution.