Pastors for Peace Caravan in Bloomington May 21

Join Cubamistad at Cascades Inn on SundayMay 21st.

5 PM there will be a pitch-in meal followed by a fundraiser for the IFCO Friendshipment Caravan. Caravanistas will share information on Cuba’s need as the USA continues to enforce economic sanctions intended to stifle the Cuban economy.

Featured Caravanista for our midwest route is Gail Walker:

Gail Walker worked with IFCO [Interreligious Foundation for Community Organization ]from 1987 to 2002 as the Communications Director and co-led the 1988 IFCO delegation to Nicaragua that resulted in the formation of the Pastors for Peace project. Through Pastors for Peace, citizens are offered the opportunity to enact an alternative people-to-people foreign policy rooted in justice and mutual respect. During her early years at IFCO she led a number of delegations to Central America and Cuba and staffed a number of Cuba Friendshipment Caravans. After years of working as a journalist and communications professional in print, video and radio, Gail returned to IFCO as Director in 2011. Under her direction IFCO staff have organized several Cuba Friendshipment Caravans and educational delegations to Cuba

These caravans have taken valuable humanitarian aid to Cuba but more importantly have helped demonstrate to the Cuban people that they are not alone and that they have allies even in the ‘belly of the beast’ in the US. Friendshipment Caravans have also played an important role in making dents in the blockade. We successfully resisted the Bush administration’s attempts to fully criminalize travel to Cuba, and our work was part of the backdrop to the Obama administration’s partial normalization of relations with Cuba.

https://ifconews.org/our-work/pastors-for-peace/friendshipment-caravans/

Advertisement

Join us: Stand out at Monroe Courthouse Noon April 30

Cascades Inn at 5pm May 21 for the Pastors for Peace Caravan Fundraiser! Pitch-in meal. Appeal and update from Caravanista on Midwest route.

End the Blockade

Cubamistad joins Puentes de Amor, NNOC, MAPA, FCABVancouver, ICAP and multitudes more to take a stand against the illegal unjust blockade/ embargo. We also call for removal of Cuba from the US list of state sponsors of terrorism.

Sept 26, 2023. Cuba Votes.

“These elections are unique in that candidates are not nominated by the Communist Party or are elected to represent it. In fact, membership in the party is not a requirement. Also unique is that candidates are prohibited from receiving funding or spending $ on campaigns.”

Candidates will seek solutions to many of Cuba’s challenges and are accountable by the people. Voters have the right to recall them. They have a high rate of participation.

US-Cuba Normalization Conference

Resolution on Cuba adopted by Bloomington, Indiana City Council

Resolution 23-01- Resolution Seeking an End to the United States’ Economic, Commercial and Financial Embargo Against Cuba. Accepted by unanimous vote January 18, 2023.

See copy in pages ( above)

Internet Expansion in Cuba

US Recommens denial of permission to install the first submarine cable that would connect the U.S. with Cuba.
Washington’s usual double standard in its relations with the island is exposed once again with this recommendation, which carries as a touchstone of cynicism, the statement that the U.S., however, “supports the existence of a secure, reliable and open Internet network around the world, including Cuba”

Author: Raúl Antonio Capote |

December 1, 2022 23:12:29 PM

Translated by Walter Lippmann for CubaNews.
If we were guided by the industrial-scale smear campaign that US administration carries out against Cuba, we would believe that the Cuban Government “limits Internet access in the country to its citizens.”

However, nothing could be further from the truth: Cuba, which has been blockaded for more than 60 years, is making a great effort to connect all Cubans to the Internet, an effort that has been crowned with success, placing the country among the fastest growing in terms of access to the network of networks in recent years.

An example of those who do everything possible, even to the point of absurdity, to isolate the island from submarine telecommunications networks, is the recent recommendation of the U.S. Department of Justice to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to deny a permit for the installation of the first submarine telecommunications cable that would connect the U.S. with Cuba.

“As long as the Government of Cuba remains a counterintelligence threat to the U.S., and is allied with others who do the same, the risks to our infrastructure are simply too great,” sentenced Deputy Attorney General for National Security Matthew G. Olsen in a statement, according to Deutsche Welle.

Washington’s usual double standard in its relations with the island is exposed once again with this recommendation, which carries as a touchstone of cynicism the statement that the US nevertheless “supports the existence of a secure, reliable and open Internet network around the world, including Cuba”.

The Arcos-1 USA Inc. underwater cable system applied to the FCC for what would be the first and only connection of its kind between the U.S. and Cuba.

https://www.granma.cu/mundo/2022-12-01/recomiendan-negar-permiso-para-instalar-primer-cable-submarino-que-conectaria-a-ee-uu-con-cuba-01-12-2022-23-12-29

Electoral Process in Cuba

https://www.soyvillaclara.gob.cu/es/actualidad/noticias/7747-cuales-son-las-caracteristicas-del-sistema-electoral-cubano

From: Juventud Rebelde 

15 November 2022.

The will to choose: It forges our country’s present and future.       

The electoral system, by its nature and essence, exemplifies Cuban socialist democracy. It permits all citizens with legal standing who meet the established requirements to participate in the leadership of the state, directly or indirectly through their elected representatives, to integrate the organs of popular power and to take part in its intended purpose as foreseen in law, in elections, referenda or popular plebiscites by means of free, equal, direct and secret vote; [they are] permitted to nominate [someone] and be nominated to candidacy, and also to elect and be elected to hold positions in the Organs of Popular Power.

It also assures equality of opportunity for all the candidates, who receive equal treatment and consideration in their relations with the electoral authorities, with state electors, organs and institutions by means of mass communication and with the population in general; it emphasizes the capacity, the values, the merits and the prestige of the candidates, to be taken into account as unique elements by the electors in casting their votes. To that end, they publish their biographies in public places, with ample advance notice prior to the elections; this is founded in the strictest honesty of action by the electoral authorizes.

Translation Cubamistad member JC.

Did you know that Cuba has a lung cancer vaccine? The medical advancements in Cuba have been done despite the blockade because Cuba values the health of its people over everything else. The blockade affects all of us, imagine what Cuba could do if given access to normal trade. pic.twitter.com/EbhvnoYGd0

— IFCO/PastorsforPeace (@ifcop4p) October 14, 2022

Cuban hurricane recovery