Raúl Castro demands that US return Guantánamo

[outsider]

Raúl Castro demands that US return Guantánamo base to Cuba:
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jan/28/raul-castro-return-guanta namo-cuba-us?CMP=share_btn_fb

'Cuba’s President Raúl Castro has demanded that the United States return the US base at Guantánamo 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 US are working toward full diplomatic relations but “if these problems aren’t resolved, this diplomatic rapprochement wouldn’t make any sense”.

Castro and the US president, Barack Obama, announced on 17 December that they would move towards 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 US 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 US to a set of longstanding demands that include an end to US support for Cuban dissidents and Cuba’s removal from the US list of state sponsors of terrorism.

On Wednesday, Castro emphasised an even broader list of Cuban demands, saying that while diplomatic ties may be re-established, normal relations with the US depend on a series of concessions that appear highly unlikely in the near future.

“The re-establishment of diplomatic relations is the start of a process of normalising 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 Guantánamo naval base,” Castro said.

He demanded that the US 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 US State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Castro’s remarks.'

[outsider]

Landslide Cuban victory at UN voting against US blockade:
http://www.cubanews.ain.cu/cuba/3986-landslide-cuban-victory-at-un-vot ing-against-us-blockade

'HAVANA, Cuba, Oct 27 (acn) Cuba enjoyed a landslide victory in the United Nations when 191 out of 193 member states voted in favor of a resolution against the US blockade of Cuba that has lasted over 50 years.

As usual, the United States and Israel voted nay but this time isolation was complete, when Marshal Islands, Micronesia and Palau, that abstained last year, voted in favor of Cuban proposal......'

'Cuban kids await 'do or die' cancer drug blocked by US trade ban':
http://news.yahoo.com/cuban-cancer-children-die-side-us-sanctions-0003 50511.html

'Havana (AFP) - The US embargo on Cuba, which the UN General Assembly formally condemned Tuesday, is not about international politics for Elizabeth Navarro. As far as she's concerned, it's just what keeps her daughter from getting the cancer drug she needs.





Navarro's daughter Noemi Bernardez, seven, had a brain tumor removed in September. Now, her doctors say she needs a US-made chemotherapy drug -- temozolomide.

That sounds easy enough. But sadly, it isn't, family and doctors say.

Close neighbors but long-time Cold War foes, the United States and Cuba restored diplomatic ties in July after a five-decade standoff, and now are trying to ease economic relations.

The two countries have reopened their embassies in each other's capitals and are engaged in a dialogue to resolve their remaining political differences, but the US trade sanctions in place since 1960 remain.

US President Barack Obama's White House wants to lift the embargo, which prevents almost all trade across the Florida Straits, but conservatives in the US Congress are not ready to forgive the communist island.




.. View gallery
Elizabeth Navarro (R) with her daughter Noemi Bernardez, …
Elizabeth Navarro (R) with her daughter Noemi Bernardez, seven, who had a brain tumor removed in Sep …

The upshot is that the Cuban health ministry has to try to find Noemi -- who has an aggressive form of cancer -- her drug in a third country to get around the sanctions.

- 'Do or die' -

"Right now, my daughter is getting radiation therapy. She has had to go through about 27 sessions," said Navarro, 28, drying her tears at her daughter's bedside.

Noemi has been in hospital for two months.

And after a two-week rest following the radiation, she is scheduled for chemotherapy, Navarro explained.




.. View gallery
Cuban Elizabeth Navarro takes care of her seven-year-old …
Cuban Elizabeth Navarro takes care of her seven-year-old daughter Noemi Bernardez at the Cancer Hosp …

"For us, this is do or die," said her doctor, Migdalia Perez.

"In (Noemi) and other patients with similar microscopic-level tissue conditions, the medication that has managed to boost survival rates in them is temozolomide," said Perez, who has worked for 15 years in pediatric oncology in Cuba, where health care is free of charge.

The girl, whose family is from the south-central province of Cienfuegos, for now is far from home in Havana's Pediatric Oncology Hospital. She spends her days watching videos and playing with a doll, her mother always at her side. She only cries when nurses give her a shot.

About 300 children are treated each year at six cancer facilities around Cuba, a country of 11 million people.

While survival rates for cases like Noemi's are almost 70 percent with the drug she needs, they are not quite 20 percent without it, her doctor stressed.




.. View gallery
Marlene Diaz (L) plays with her granddaughter, seven-year-old …
Marlene Diaz (L) plays with her granddaughter, seven-year-old cancer patient Noemi Bernardez, at the …

"Unfortunately, due to the US sanctions in place, as we all know, we have not been able to buy it directly from where it is produced," said Perez, noting that third-party purchases become a must for these kids' care.


- 'Hands tied' -

The UN General Assembly voted overwhelmingly Tuesday to adopt a non-binding resolution calling for the end of the embargo.

The assembly has adopted a similar resolution each year since 1992, highlighting Washington's isolation over its Cuba policy.

The United States and Israel were the only countries to vote against this year's text, which received a resounding 191 votes in the 193-member assembly.

The government of the Americas' only one-party Communist country blames the sanctions for most of the island's economic woes.

The Cuban government calls the US embargo a "blockade" and estimates it has caused damages of more than $830 billion.

Exceptions in the policy allow US food exports to Cuba, but the island nation struggles to obtain medicines and medical machinery and supplies.

Cuban companies make about 65 percent of the medicines the country needs. But that leaves out many Cubans.

"It is truly tough to treat disease when you have your hands tied," said Dr. Perez.'