Cuba Friday slammed US plans to tighten sanctions on the cash-strapped communist country as "cruel and cowardly," with the Communist Party insisting it will stand strong against US President George W. Bush's "putrid ideology."
"His cruel and cowardly measures surely will impose some sacrifices on our people, but they will not stop for a single second its strides toward human and social goals" a Cuban Communist Party statement said.
PHOTO: AFP
The US is determined to push to get "the Cuban example ... wiped off the map," the party statement charged in its official newspaper, Granma.
"All of the craziness of the maniacal and insane Cuba transition program of a fraudulently elected president [Bush] is geared to that end," it said, calling the US plan unveiled Thursday a hodgepodge of "lies, rancor, frustrations and meddling in the domestic affairs of a country" in line with an "imperialist plan to annex Cuba."
"Cuba shall never return to the horrible, savage and inhuman condition of being a colony of the United States," said the party document, one of its harshest against Bush since he took office in 2001.
A US military plane will broadcast pro-democracy messages into Cuba as part of a plan Bush endorsed in Washington to "hasten" Castro's departure.
Washington will also tighten restrictions on Cuban-Americans' cash remittances to relatives on the island and limit family visits between the US and Cuba to one every three years, officials said in Washington.
And US funds will be used to spread information worldwide about Washington's accusations that Havana harbors terrorists; foments subversion in Latin America; and has at least a limited developmental offensive biological weapons research capability, according to the report.
Cuba denies these charges and has urged Bush's administration to substantiate them.
Goals of the US initiative are to undermine Castro's plans that his brother, Raul Castro, succeed him; speed up Cuba's "transition to democracy"; and put in place US programs and policies in anticipation of what Washington sees as the eventual defeat of Cuban communism, US officials said.
This "is a strategy that says we're not waiting for the day of Cuban freedom, we are working for the day of freedom in Cuba," Bush said after meeting with the panel, which he created to recommend a tougher line on Havana, as the November US presidential election looms. Florida, home to some 800,000 Cuban-Americans, is considered likely to be a key state in the election.
The US plan also recommends the spending of up to US$18 million between now and 2006 to deploy "Commando Solo," a specially outfitted C-130 transport plane that has beamed US messages into Afghanistan and Iraq over the past three years.
That money would eventually purchase and refit a dedicated "airborne platform" over international waters for Radio and TV Marti, which Cubans often miss because Havana jams them, the panel's report said.
Cuban dissidents welcomed the plan with skepticism.
Elizardo Sanchez, who heads the Cuban Commission for Human Rights and National Reconciliation, said the was "very skeptical" and saw "few practical results" in the plan.
Vladimiro Roca, Todos Unidos coordinator, said the plan was "a show of solidarity with the Cuban people and democratization," but he added that there were "questionable" measures in the plan.
On Feb. 24, 1996, the Cuban air force shot down civilian aircraft with the Florida-based Cuban exile group Brothers to the Rescue, killing all four men on board and sharply raising tensions between the neighboring countries, which do not maintain full diplomatic relations.
Cuba said the planes were in its airspace though a UN body found they were not.
The US has had a comprehensive economic embargo clamped on Cuba, the Americas' only one-party communist state, since 1962.
Gaza is rapidly running out of its limited fuel supply and stocks of food staples might become tight, officials said, after Israel blocked the entry of fuel and goods into the war-shattered territory, citing fighting with Iran. The Israeli military closed all Gaza border crossings on Saturday after announcing airstrikes on Iran carried out jointly with the US. Israeli authorities late on Monday night said that they would reopen the Kerem Shalom crossing from Israel to Gaza yesterday, for “gradual entry of humanitarian aid” into the strip, without saying how much. Israeli authorities previously said the crossings could not be operated safely during
Hungarian authorities temporarily detained seven Ukrainian citizens and seized two armored cars carrying tens of millions of euros in cash across Hungary on suspicion of money laundering, officials said on Friday. The Ukrainians were released on Friday, following their detention on Thursday, but Hungarian officials held onto the cash, prompting Ukraine to accuse Hungary’s Russia-friendly government of illegally seizing the money. “We will not tolerate this state banditism,” Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs Andrii Sybiha said. The seven detained Ukrainians were employees of the Ukrainian state-owned Oschadbank, who were traveling in the two armored cars that were carrying the money between Austria and
Kosovar President Vjosa Osmani on Friday after dissolving the Kosovar parliament said a snap election should be held as soon as possible to avoid another prolonged political crisis in the Balkan country at a time of global turmoil. Osmani said it is important for Kosovo to wrap up the upcoming election process and form functional institutions for political stability as the war rages in the Middle East. “Precisely because the geopolitical situation is that complex, it is important to finish this electoral process which is coming up,” she said. “It is very hard now to imagine what will happen next.” Kosovo, which declared
Counting was under way in Nepal yesterday, after a high-stakes parliamentary election to reshape the country’s leadership following protests last year that toppled the government. Key figures vying for power include former Nepalese prime minister K. P. Sharma Oli, rapper-turned-mayor Balendra Shah, who is bidding for the youth vote, and newly elected Nepali Congress party leader Gagan Thapa. In Kathmandu’s tea shops and city squares, people were glued to their phones, checking results as early trends flashed up — suggesting Shah’s centrist Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) was ahead. Nepalese Election Commission spokesman Prakash Nyupane said the counting was ongoing “in a peaceful manner”
RSS