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Hands Off Cuba
- swapna

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VIVA CUBA Cuba, a little country 90 miles from the US has been under a US trade and travel embargo since Fidel Castro defeated a CIA-backed assault at the Bay of Pigs in 1961. REASON FOR THE EMBARGO Cuban revolution succeeded against the US backed Dictator Batista in 1959 under the leadership of Fidel Castro. Cuba was a lousy country with a majority of the people illiterate, without any health care or permanent home or food. 1)Castro imposed a land cieling act according to which no person can have more than 400 acres of land.All the American corporations had thousands of acres of land and constantly exploited the poor. He offered to pay the Americans over a period in 20 yrs with interst for a fair price. 2)He nationalized the communication and electric sectors which were monopolized by a single American corporation. 3)Gambling was a major source of income for Americans in Cuba. He banned gambling. 4)He drastically improved the literacy rate and living conditions in a very very short period of time. I think these were enough reasons for US to brand Fidel a Communist (which he wasnt at the time he came to power) while he was just trying to improve the conditions of the poor. US then tried sabotaging and arsoning the sugarcane fields which was Cuba's only source of income.Cuba is too weak a country militarily to fight the US. They did nothing but prove with evidence of the US involvement in the sabotage. Next came the 'Bay of Pigs' attack which was a military attack sponsored by Kennedy. Kennedy underestimated the intelligence of Castro. Castro reacted almost immediately by misleading them to bomb abandoned and useless military aircrafts.All of the people were caught red handed. total 1200 people who attacked. Kennedy was embarrased with the fact that Castro proved to the world with evidence the US planned coup. Unable to bear the embrassment, he braded Castro as a dictator. Well, US is very good at inventing reasons.Castro didnt even kill the 1200 people who were caught as prisoners of war and he released them for an amount from US govt. He wasnt acting as the puppette os US govt which made them call him a dictator. UN AND THE EMBARGO For the fourth year running the United Nations has voted for the motion condemning the U.S. embargo of Cuba, this time by 137 votes (including Great Britain) to 3. The countries against the motion were the U.S., Israel, and Usbekistan. The European Union is taking the U.S. to the World Trade Organization panel, arguing that the Helms/Burton bill is illegal. Fourteen out of fifteen members of the Security Council (including Great Britain) voted against the U.S. veto of Boutros-Boutros-Ghali. Even the US senate voted for a lift of travel ban on Cuba. Ofcouse, US never respected the UN. IT continues its terrorist activities in Cuba like trying to assasinate Castro, arsoning the fields. It is time US should take its Hands off Cuba. US bullying Cuba is like a 300 pound man bullying an infant. CONSEQUENCES OF THE EMBARGO From an official Cuban source , the direct economic damages caused to Cuba by the U.S. embargo since its institution would exceed 70 billion dollars. The damages include : i) the loss of earnings due to the obstacles to the development of services and exportations (tourism, air transport, sugar, nickel) ii) the losses registered as a result of the geographic reorientation of the commercial flows, (additional costs of freight, stocking and commercialization at the purchasing of the goods…) iii) the impact of the limitation imposed on the growth of the national production of goods and services (limited access to technologies, lack of access to spare parts and hence early retirement of equipment, forced restructuring of firms, serious difficulties sustained by the sectors of sugar, electricity, transportation, agriculture…) iv) the monetary and financial restrictions (impossibility to renegotiate the external debt, interdiction of access to the dollar, unfavourable impact of the variation of the exchange rates on trade, risk-country, additional cost of financing due to U.S. opposition to the integration of Cuba into the international financial institutions…) v) the pernicious effects of the incentive to emigration, including illegal emigration (loss of human resources and talents generated by the Cuban educational system…) ; vi) social damages affecting the population (concerning food, health, education, culture, sport…) ACHIEVEMENTS IN CUBA: Inspite of the Embargo and USSR not supplying Cuba with oil after the USSR collapse, Cuba is the only nation which stood strong against the Yankee imperialism in the world. 1) there is less than 5% poverty rate in Cuba. (it is 12% in US and 25 % in India) 2) Unemployment rate is 3.3%. If it is less than 3%, it is considered a fully employed country. By Jan 2004 Cuba is going to be fully employed country 3)Cuba has the best health care system extended to even rural areas and they have free health care. 4) It always stood around 5th position in the olympics inpite of the population being just a 11 million. The villages are given equal importancein providing sports facilities 5)They have good education system with full literacy and right to study. 6)They have the basic amenities like food clothing and shelter for everyone Way to go Cuba VIVA CUBA VIVA CASTRO

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