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Title: Raul Castro demands return of the base at Guantanamo Bay before relations normalize
Source:
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URL Source: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art ... antanamo-normal-relations.html
Published: Jan 29, 2015
Author: Staff
Post Date: 2015-01-29 04:48:00 by out damned spot
Keywords: Obama, Castro, Guantanamo
Views: 7643
Comments: 24
*The Cuban president had previously welcomed Obama's normalization efforts but now says Gitmo must go *Both leaders announced December 17 they would move toward renewing full diplomatic relations by reopening embassies in each other's countries *Castro also demanded Obama lift the embargo and compensate his country for damages before the two nations re-establish normal relations Cuban President Raul Castro demanded on Wednesday that the United States return the U.S. base at Guantanamo Bay, lift the half-century trade embargo on Cuba and compensate his country for damages before the two nations re-establish normal relations. Castro told a summit of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States that Cuba and the U.S. are working toward full diplomatic relations but 'if these problems aren't resolved, this diplomatic rapprochement wouldn't make any sense.' Castro and U.S. President Barack Obama announced on December 17 that they would move toward renewing full diplomatic relations by reopening embassies in each other's countries. The two governments held negotiations in Havana last week to discuss both the reopening of embassies and the broader agenda of re- establishing normal relations. Obama has loosened the trade embargo with a range of measures designed to increase economic ties with Cuba and increase the number of Cubans who don't depend on the communist state for their livelihoods. The Obama administration says removing barriers to U.S. travel, remittances and exports to Cuba is a tactical change that supports the United States' unaltered goal of reforming Cuba's single-party political system and centrally planned economy. Cuba has said it welcomes the measures but has no intention of changing its system. Without establishing specific conditions, Castro's government has increasingly linked the negotiations with the U.S. to a set of longstanding demands that include an end to U.S. support for Cuban dissidents and Cuba's removal from the U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism. On Wednesday, Castro emphasized an even broader list of Cuban demands, saying that while diplomatic ties may be re-established, normal relations with the U.S. depend on a series of concessions that appear highly unlikely in the near future. The U.S. established the military base in 1903, and the current Cuban government has been demanding the land's return since the 1959 revolution that brought it to power. Cuba also wants the U.S. to pay hundreds of millions of dollars in damages for losses caused by the embargo. 'The re-establishment of diplomatic relations is the start of a process of normalizing bilateral relations, but this will not be possible while the blockade still exists, while they don't give back the territory illegally occupied by the Guantanamo naval base,' Castro said. He demanded that the U.S. end the transmission of anti-Castro radio and television broadcasts and deliver 'just compensation to our people for the human and economic damage that they're suffered.' The U.S. State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Castro's remarks. Castro's call for an end to the U.S. embargo drew support at the summit from the presidents of Brazil, Ecuador, El Salvador, Nicaragua and Venezuela. Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff also praised the effort by the leaders of Cuba and the U.S. to improve relations. 'The two heads of state deserve our recognition for the decision they made — beneficial for Cubans and Americans, but, most of all, for the entire continent,' she said. John Caulfield, who led the U.S. Interests Section in Havana until last year, said that the tone of Cuba's recent remarks didn't mean it would be harder than expected to reach a deal on short-term goals like reopening full embassies in Havana and Washington. In fact, he said, the comments by Castro and high-ranking diplomats may indicate the pressure Cuba's government is feeling to strike a deal as Cubans' hopes for better living conditions rise in the wake of Obama's outreach. 'There is this huge expectation of change and this expectation has been set off by the president's announcement,' Caulfield said. The Cuban government feels 'the constant need to tell their people nothing's going to change ... the more the Cubans feel obligated to defend the status quo and to say that's nothing going to change, the more pressure it indicates to me is on them to make these changes, partly on the economic side but I would also say on the political side.'
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Begin Trace Mode for Comment # 22.
#1. To: out damned spot (#0)
I don't care for Castro. But they do kind of have a point about us on their territory.
If we normalize relations, we will have to eventually give back Guantanamo. And that will be a blessing, because it will give us an "out" on the perpetual prison there. Paying reparations is out of the question. We can establish an aid package, as with any other friendly, impoverished nation, but it cannot be reparations. So is ceasing to politically support dissident voices. However, we must cease to seek to covertly overthrow the government. That has to end.
"Guantanamera" (Spanish: "from Guantánamo, feminine", thus "she from Guantánamo") is perhaps the best known Cuban song and that country's most noted patriotic song. In 1966, a version by American vocal group The Sandpipers, based on an arrangement by Pete Seeger, became an international hit.
Seeger did indeed join the Young Communist League in 1936, when he was 17 years old, at the height of it's popularity and influence during the Great Depression. And '42 he joined the Communist Party USA itself, but left in 1949 with the ever-growing revelations of Stalin's atrocities. In many ways, it is intellectually dishonest to associate Seeger with Stalinism. Seeger is actually much more "libertarian." When hauled before Congress, he refused to name personal and political associations on the grounds that this would violate his First Amendment rights:
No,it's not. Communism is against human nature,and the ONLY way a communist country can exist is as a police state where a master like Stalin is at the top to crack the whip. Seeger is actually much more "libertarian." There is no such critter as a libertarian communist. That's the equivalent of a virgin whore. When hauled before Congress, he refused to name personal and political associations on the grounds that this would violate his First Amendment rights: Doesn't sound to me like he was all that horrified at the brutality of communism.
Manifesto of Libertarian Communism
WHOA! I guess if it is printed in a book or heard on teebee,it must be true,huh? I'm guessing you believe everything in Goober Gore's books on the environment is true,too?
#23. To: sneakypete (#22)
Years before the Libertarian Party even existed. "The 'Manifesto of Libertarian Communism' was written in 1953 by Georges Fontenis for the Federation Communiste Libertaire of France. It is one of the key texts of the anarchist-communist current."
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#2. To: A K A Stone (#1)
#3. To: Vicomte13, *Music* (#2)
If we normalize relations, we will have to eventually give back Guantanamo. And that will be a blessing, because it will give us an "out" on the perpetual prison there.
#4. To: Willie Green (#3)
#6. To: Palmdale (#4)
"I am not going to answer any questions as to my association, my philosophical or religious beliefs or my political beliefs, or how I voted in any election, or any of these private affairs. I think these are very improper questions for any American to be asked, especially under such compulsion as this."
#13. To: Willie Green (#6)
In many ways, it is intellectually dishonest to associate Seeger with Stalinism.
#17. To: sneakypete (#13)
#22. To: Palmdale (#17)
Manifesto of Libertarian Communism
Replies to Comment # 22. I guess if it is printed in a book
End Trace Mode for Comment # 22.
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