WHY GAY MARRIAGE, VISITING CUBA, AND POT MAY SOON BE LEGAL

... and he [Obama] has moved to reopen dialogue with the Cuban government that predecessor George W. Bush shut down.

http://www.reuters.com/article/politicsNews/idUSN1614194320090916

CUBA SAYS EMBARGO COST IT $223 BILLION

Rodriguez put the blame for Cuba's ongoing economic woes squarely on the embargo, saying it was the "primary obstacle to development" and had cost the country $223 billion over the years.

[Ibid]

The US should only be allowed back into Cuba after they have paid their debt, in full, with interest, to Cuba and they have gotten their military out of Cuba, with all necessary steps taken to ensure that the military doesn't leave Guantanamo a toxic waste dump like they left Clark in the Philippines.

HOW THE US STOLE GUANTANAMO BAY

...

Actions like those listed above show that the Guantanamo Naval base has been an expression of the United States’ unsatisfied geopolitical ambitions for Cuba. The cause of the dispute between the two states, has been the US authorities’ resistance to seeing Cuba become a free and sovereign nation, breaking away from plans for US control over the Cuban people that have spanned three centuries. Which is why the US has never even entered into any discussions over a possible eventual handover, despite repeated requests from the Cuban government.

Even during the Missile Crisis in 1962 the US administration was not prepared to talk about handing back Guantanamo, but was prepared to take the world to the brink of nuclear war. Yet, according to international law, the United States has no right to still be at the base. International law establishes consent as the basis for any legal obligation resulting from an agreement, where is the consent in any of the agreements concerning Guantanamo?


The lease was forced onto a government that had been installed as puppets of the American regime and remained there under threat of military intervention.

International law also consecrates the precept of basic change of circumstance, which should have led to a US departure as soon as they broke off diplomatic relations in 1961 and the base was no longer a show of “friendship” but a tool of US aggression.

And finally, quite simply it is absurd to think that the owner of anything that is leased cannot recover it at a given time, as any lease is per se, temporary.

http://www.cuba-solidarity.org.uk/cubasi_article.asp?ArticleID=27

The people are still totally repressed by the communist regime.

U.S. POLICY TOWARD CUBA: FROM NEOCOLONY TO STATE OF SIEGE

by Jane Franklin

In 1898, Cubans, waging their Second War of Independence, were
close to driving out the colonists from Spain. The U.S. government
decided the fruit was ripe. Congress declared war against Spain,
ostensibly to help free Cuba. In U.S. history, this is known as
the Spanish-American War; the United States emerged with four new
ports--the Philippines and Guam in the Pacific and Puerto Rico and
Cuba in the Atlantic.
But Cuban history calls it the U.S. Intervention in Cuba's War
of Independence. U.S. troops occupied Cuba for four years. In
exchange for removal of the occupation army, Cuba attached the
Platt Amendment, a U.S. law, to their Constitution, granting
control of Cuba to the U.S. government. Cuba converted from a
colony of Spain to a neocolony of the United States.
Among its dictates, the Platt Amendment provided that the
United States could intervene militarily at any time and could
maintain ports on the island. This amendment was abrogated in 1934
except for the U.S. naval station at Guant namo, which remains.
U.S.-approved elections led to U.S.-approved repression. U.S.
troops occupied Cuba again from 1906 until 1909 and periodically
sent troops to help quell rebellion. In 1940 the Cuban people
created a new Constitution, along with hopes for a peaceful
transition to democracy.
BATISTA DICTATORSHIP AND REVOLUTION
In 1952, a young lawyer was running for Congress when General
Fulgencio Batista returned from Florida to stage a coup financed
and supported by the U.S. government. Batista suspended the
Constitution and canceled elections. That young man, Fidel Castro,
was not allowed to win or lose an election. The Helms-Burton Act,
signed into law by President Clinton in 1996, specifies that
neither Fidel Castro nor Raul Castro will be allowed to run in a
"free election" that would be certified by Washington.

So it's easy to comprehend why U.S. talk of "free elections" sounds hollow
to Cuban ears. Besides, the United States does not have a record
of supporting elections won by somebody not stamped with approval
in Washington; note Guatemala in 1954 and Chile in 1973.
Under Batista, about 85 percent of Cuba's trade was with the
United States. Foreigners, mainly from the United States, owned 75
percent of arable land; 90 percent of services like water,
electricity, phones; and 40 percent of the sugar industry. Super
exploitation and Batista's dictatorship incited the revolution, led
by Fidel Castro, that finally triumphed on January 1, 1959.

http://andromeda.rutgers.edu/~hbf/resist.htm

The US Attack on Cuba's Health

Anthony F Kirkpatrick
College of Medicine
University of South Florida
Tampa, FL

...

Conclusion

The American public deserve the facts from their government, not blatant propaganda based on cooked statistics. Honest government and informed decision making require the truthful presentation of relevant data. To do less not only further isolates the US in its Cuban policy,but also undermines the very foundations of democracy.The US State Department is promulgating informationabout the US embargo that is demonstrably false. But there is more at stake here than the truth. By blocking access to the basic necessities of life in the midst of a severe economic depression, the US government is contributing directly to a significant increase in suffering and premature death within a civilian population just 90 miles south of its border.

http://74.125.155.132/scholar?q=cache:y022AZEEcGQJ:scholar.google.com/&hl=en

Why have you people allowed such completely "un-American" things to happen to people all over the world? Why, in your name, have you allowed your government to steal the riches of countries and peoples the world over?

That quote from the Cuban Ministry of Propaganda (or whatever the hell they call themslves) is a bit misleading. Granted that President McKinley was an asshole, one of the worst we've had.

UN Vote Condemns US Blockade 187-3
The U.N. General Assembly on Wednesday overwhelmingly condemned the 47-year U.S. trade embargo on Cuba, an annual ritual that serves to highlight global opposition to America's hard-line policy toward the communist island, but which has done little to change Washington's stance, ...

The Platt Amendment was introduced to assure that we kept the promise we had made to the Cuban people in 1898, that if we took Cuba from Spain we would grant it independence, not add it on as a US colony. Not everyone in Washington was happy with this, certainly not McKinley and his cohorts. Congress felt that if it did nothing, the McKinley administration would attempt to hold onto Cuba and the results could have been disastrous. Elquent patriots, such as poet Jose Marti, had fired up the Cubans for violent action against foreign domination, be it Spanish or American or anyone else non-Cuban.

But, of course, there were strings attached to this independence. One was the granting of a naval base at Guantanamo Bay to the USA. Another was that the Cubans would need to get our approval of their constitution and election procedures before we'd withdraw the Rough Riders and other ground troops from the island.

there is no good reason for us to get out of Guantanamo.

Renowned anti-Cuban terrorist freed in the US
26 October 2009

Renowned anti-Cuba terrorist Santiago Alvarez Fernandez-Magriña was released on Wednesday from an Immigration prison in the US state of Georgia, where he was serving a sentence for stockpiling weapons and obstruction of justice.

With a long terrorist record against Cuba, Alvarez Fernandez-Magriña is one of the closest collaborators of self-confessed criminal Luis Posada Carriles, and operates with total impunity in Miami under the façade of a businessman from a development company, underscored the Cubadebate web site.

Imprisoned since November 2005 along with an unpatriotic person, Osvaldo Mitat, Alvarez Fernandez-Magriña pleaded guilty of conspiracy to have illegal weaponry, and admitted his aggressive purposes against Cuba.

Even with this evidence, the US District Attorney’s Office didn’t press charges on terrorism, and the two criminals were sentenced to 4 years in jail, reduced to 11 months in exchange for the voluntary return of an arms cache that was hidden, the Notimex news agency recalls.

The sentence was reduced despite the fact that the authorities seized the largest arms cache in the history of south Florida, made up by 30 automatic rifles, a rocket launcher, several grenades, over 200 pounds of dynamite, and 14 pounds of C-4 explosives.

At the end of 2007, Alvarez and Mitat pleaded guilty of obstructing justice in an investigation linked to charges of migratory fraud against Posada Carriles and they refused to testify before a federal grand jury on the illegal entry of this terrorist to the United States, who is claimed by Venezuelan justice.

Counsel Jose Pertierra, Venezuela’s representative in the extradition case against Posada Carriles told Cubadebate from Washington that Alvarez Fernandez-Magriña “is not a US citizen.

He’s only a permanent resident and his criminal record works against his residency”.

Alvarez Fernandez-Magriña enlisted as a mercenary in the 2506 Brigade (which participated in the Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba) and maintained close ties with Florida-based paramilitary organizations, like Alpha 66 and Comandos L, under the supervision of the Central Intelligence Agency (the CIA).

http://www.cuba-solidarity.org.uk/news.asp?ItemID=1724