The Marxist-Leninist Daily

Christine Dandenault of the Table de concertation et de solidarité Québec-Cuba (left), Cuban doctorJorge Tomas Balsiero (centre) Estevez and Sandra Ramirez Rodriguez of the Cuban Institute for Friendship with the Peoples (right). Dr. Balsiero and Ms. Ramirez visited Montreal from October 13-18, 2011 and spoke at numerous events.

Tour Expresses Profound Respect for
Cuba's Humanitarian Internationalism in Haiti

From October 13 to November 6, Cuban doctor Jorge Tomas Balseiro Estevez toured 14 cities across Canada and Quebec informing of Cuba's humanitarian internationalism around the world and especially in Haiti, where he was posted following the January 2010 earthquake. He was accompanied by Sandra Ramirez Rodriguez, a representative of the Cuban Institute for Friendship with the Peoples (ICAP). During the tour, Dr. Balseiro spoke with people from all walks of life, including youth and students, workers and medical professionals about Cuba's work in Haiti and the spirit that guides it. Wherever he spoke, Dr. Balseiro was received with great enthusiasm and people expressed their appreciation and respect for Cuba's work internationally. He was given an especially warm reception by members of the Haitian diaspora who conveyed their profound appreciation for Cuba's assistance to their homeland.

The tour was organized by the Canadian Network on Cuba and its member organizations across Canada and in Quebec by the Table de concertation et de solidarité Québec-Cuba as part of the Cuba for Haiti Campaign. The campaign was launched after the devastating earthquake that hit Haiti January 12, 2010, expressing confidence in Cuba's mission in Haiti, which began in 1998, following Hurricane Georges. As of November 5, the Cuba for Haiti Campaign has received $398,248.42, all forwarded to the Cuban Medical Brigade's work in Haiti.

Breadth and Depth of Cuba's Selfless Humanitarianism

In his presentations, Dr. Balseiro provided the background for Cuba's presence in Haiti. He recounted how in 1960, shortly after the Revolution, Cuba sent a brigade to Chile in the aftermath of an earthquake. Building on this and each subsequent experience, Cuba sent medical missions to Africa and Central America during the 1970s and 1980s. Today, Cuba is assisting 48 countries with health projects, while more than one-fifth (22 per cent) of its doctors are posted outside the country.

Over the last 50 years, Cuba has sent 1.1 million medical personnel to 97 countries. This figure includes 375,000 personnel sent to nine European countries; 8,200 to 17 countries in Asia and Oceania; 6,500 to 37 countries in the Americas; and 3,600 to 37 African countries. All of this has been done despite the many challenges Cuba itself faces, including the U.S. attempts to isolate it and destroy its Revolution through a criminal blockade and terrorist attacks.

It is important to note that wherever Cuba sends its personnel, medical or otherwise, it always upholds the highest principles of international relations. Its missions are always conducted under the supervision of local authorities, in respect of the culture, history and thinking of the people of the countries it assists.

The Medical Mission in Haiti

As Dr. Balseiro explained, Cuba's presence in Haiti was well-established before the January 2010 earthquake as a humanitarian brigade was first sent to Haiti after Hurricane Georges, a natural disaster that resulted in 230 deaths, the destruction of 80 per cent of the crops and which left 167,000 people homeless. At that time, nothing was in place for the medical brigade and all the basic infrastructure had to be established. Cuban medical personnel have been in Haiti ever since, assisting and building the infrastructure required by the Haitian people to become self-sufficient for their health care needs.

Calgary, October 26, 2011

Less than a week after the earthquake struck, Dr. Balseiro arrived in Haiti on January 16, 2010 as part of the emergency response. In short order, the Cubans established a field hospital on the ruins of a school and soon provided emergency care, an intensive care unit, an operating theatre, outpatient care, an x-ray facility, clinical laboratory, equipment sterilization and more. Dr. Balseiro, a psychiatrist, led a team made up of a surgeon, an orthopedist, an anesthetist, a gynecologist, pediatrician, psychologist, nurses, lab technicians, an epidemiologist and a rehabilitation technician.

During the four months he was stationed in Haiti, Dr. Balseiro provided various forms of psychiatric care to Haitian children and youth suffering from the trauma and shock of the earthquake. These children and youth had severe injuries, had lost parents or other close relatives and had seen their surroundings fall around them in the earthquake. The Cuban medical personnel had to be creative, he said, to deal with a traumatized population in a situation with very limited resources. Members of the Cuban brigade undertook an extensive daily program that included games, simulation exercises, therapy groups and singing, so as to help these young people overcome their trauma and rise to meet the future. Most importantly, the team trained local Haitians, who know the children in their community, to carry out activities to assist the children in the wake of the earthquake and its related post-traumatic stress.

One of the most difficult periods Dr. Balseiro explained, was the cholera epidemic that followed a few months after the earthquake. Nevertheless, the Cuban medical brigade overcame the difficulties of their limited supplies and successfully treated thousands of people, saving an untold number of lives.

Cuba was also uniquely placed to assist Haiti because of the large number of Haitian medical students enrolled, free of charge, at the Latin American School of Medicine (ELAM) in Havana. Haitian students in their fifth year of studies at ELAM were an important component of the brigades, providing not only medical care but Creole translation and vital knowledge of the people and country.

Breaking the Silence on Cuba's Humanitarianism

Dr. Balsiero and Ms. Ramirez in Halifax, October 19, 2011, with members of the Nova Scotia Cuba Association, including Isaac Saney, Canadian Network on Cuba Co-Chair and National Spokesperson (second from right).

The important assistance Cuba renders everyday to the peoples of the world is very well-known by those who receive the assistance. However, even in the normal course of reporting on events, the monopoly media is deliberately silent on Cuba's humanitarianism. This attempt to hide or distort the profound humanitarian character of the Revolution was an issue raised at various stops during Dr. Balseiro's tour.

Dr. Balseiro's tour and the broad participation in the events are important contributions to breaking the silence on what Cuba is really like. At a time when the imperialists are committing the most heinous war crimes in Libya, Afghanistan and elsewhere in the name of "humanitarianism," Cuba's assistance to Haiti stands as a model of international relations based on the respect of sovereignty and an indictment of "humanitarian interventions" and the "responsibility to protect" doctrine.

Keith Ellis, Canadian Network on Cuba, Coordinator of Cuba for Haiti
Phone: 905 822-1972
Email: zellis@yorku.ca

Isaac Saney, Canadian Network on Cuba, Co-Chair and National Spokesperson
Phone: 902-449-4967
Email: isaney@hotmail.com

To contribute directly to the Cuba for Haiti Campaign, make cheques out to "The Mackenzie-Memorial Fund", indicating on the cheque memo line "Cuba for Haiti" and mail to:

Mackenzie-Papineau Memorial Fund & Friends of the Mac Pap Battalion (International Brigades), Attention: S. Skup, 56 Riverwood Terrace, Bolton, ON L7E 1S4.

Update on Situation in Haiti and
Cuba's Ongoing Assistance

The latest news reports inform that 13 months after the outbreak of cholera in Haiti, the disease has killed 6,700 people and infected nearly 500,000 -- about 5 per cent of the population. According to government figures cited by news agencies, in October, 202 Haitians died from cholera and nearly 22,000 new cases were reported.

Cholera is a waterborne disease and more than 3.7 million of Haiti's 10 million people do not have access to clean drinking water, while only 17 per cent of the urban and 10 per cent of rural populations have access to sanitation, according to UN figures.

"There are still 550,000 displaced people living in 802 camps where sanitation and hygiene conditions are deteriorating due [to] the withdrawal [of] humanitarian actors. The lack of drainage services, repair and maintenance of latrines provides a conducive environment for the spread of cholera," the UN's Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said in its latest update.

Meanwhile, Cuba's medical brigade continues to be an outstanding force for stability in the country. Even the New York Times in a November 8 item had to recognize that, "as the epidemic continues, the Cuban medical mission that played an important role in detecting [the epidemic] presses on in Haiti, winning accolades from donors and diplomats for staying on the front lines and undertaking a broader effort to remake this country's shattered health care system.

"Paul Farmer, the United Nations deputy special envoy to Haiti and a founder of Partners in Health, said the Cubans sounded an important early alarm about the outbreak, helping to mobilize health officials and lessen the death toll," the newspaper writes.

"Even more, while the death rate peaked last December and the world’s attention has largely moved on, 'Half of the NGOs are already gone, and the Cubans are still there,' he said [...]"

Granma International, in a September 8 item, reports on the Cuban Medical Mission's active monitoring groups (GPAs), which play an important role in preventing the spread of cholera and further casualties. After the passing of Hurricane Irene in August, the GPAs stepped up their educational and preventive activities in three of Haiti's ten departments -- the Nord, Nord-Est and Nord-Ouest. To date, the GPAs have monitored 2,920,420 people, diagnosing 5,512 cholera patients who would have died without prompt treatment.

In September, Dr. Lorenzo Somarriba López, head of the Cuban Medical Mission in Haiti, confirmed to Granma that as of the end of April the disease is now considered endemic. He noted that the number of those infected is within forecasts, although not the mortality rate, which is above predictions, due to other actors involved in the effort not taking all the preventive, diagnostic and rapid treatment measures necessary.

He explained that the Cuban medical brigade, which has now treated more than 76,300 cholera patients, has a very low cumulative mortality rate of 0.36 per cent, less than a quarter of the national rate.

A September 22 item in Granma International highlights Cuba's indispensable training of Haitians as medical professionals. It states:

"Cuban doctors and nurses are currently training Haitians in each of the country's 10 departments, according to Dr. Zoila Medina Gondres, deputy teaching coordinator of the Cuban Medical Brigade.

"She explained that this effort allows Haitian graduates from the Latin American School of Medicine in Havana (ELAM) to continue their studies and training in the country.

"She indicated that while 746 Haitians have graduated as doctors, the majority practicing in their native country, priority is also being given to the training of technicians to maintain and repair medical equipment.

"The health care reality here is grim, with Haiti's Minister of Public Health reporting that the country has an average of 5.9 doctors or nurses per 10,000 inhabitants.

"In the department of Nord-ouest, with 356,000 residents [...] health care services were a severe problem, with no ready access for those living in several communes, including those in mountainous areas such as Saint-Susanne and Dupity.

"Close to 50 Cuban health professionals are now assigned to health centers in Ferrier, Perches, Mont Organisé, Carice, Mombi Crochu and the modern community reference hospital in Trou du Nord, which opened in February 2010, the sixth of 10 planned as part of a Cuba-Venezuela collaborative project. [...]

"Nurse Yovanis Fonseca González from the Cuban province of Granma, director of the Cuban section of the hospital, stated that the staff is undertaking an ambitious teaching program, including Nursing, Comprehensive Medicine and several technical areas. [...]"

Cuban Consul General's Successful Visit to
British Columbia and Calgary

From October 10 to 17, Jorge Soberón, Consul General of Cuba in Toronto, made a tour of British Columbia and visited Calgary. The main aim of the tour was to mobilize support for the immediate freedom of the five Cuban patriots unjustly persecuted and imprisoned by the U.S. since 1998 for reporting on the activities of anti-Cuba terrorists operating on U.S. soil. The counterrevolutionary groups based primarily in Miami, Florida are part of a long history of U.S.-sponsored terrorism against Cuba which has victimized thousands in Cuba and abroad. Known as the Cuban Five, they are Gerardo Hernández, Antonio Guerrero, Ramón Labañino, Fernando González and René González.

The tour was organized by the Human Rights and International Solidarity Committees of the BC Federation of Post-Secondary Educators (FPSE) as its first educational outreach project on a major social justice issue. The FPSE represents 12,000 post-secondary teachers across BC. The tour succeeded in its aim of broadening the awareness of and support for the five Cubans so as to finally win their freedom. The meetings were well-attended and characterized by lively question and answer periods. The organizers report that the generous contributions of the audiences in each of the cities covered not only the costs of the tour, but raised a surplus amount of money which was donated to the Cuban Medical Mission in Haiti.

Activities organized for Soberón's tour included public meetings at Selkirk College in Castlegar, Thompson Rivers University in Kamloops, Langara College in Vancouver, as well as events in Nanaimo and Courtenay. The Cuban General Consul also met federal and provincial Members of Parliament, and was interviewed on two local BC radio stations.

Soberón's visit to the West concluded with an event in Calgary, organized by the Canadian-Cuban Friendship Association-Calgary.

The Cuban Consulate in Toronto reports that the tour "demonstrated the strength of the solidarity of the Canadian people towards Cuba and their support of the Cuban Five, in spite of the geographical distance."

Vindictive Treatment of Cuban Five Continues

On October 14, Irish journalist and filmmaker Bernie Dwyer conducted an interview for Radio Havana Cuba with Richard Klugh, a member of the defence team for the five Cuban patriots unjustly imprisoned in the U.S. In the interview, Klugh explained the conditions of supervised release imposed on René Gonzalez after he was finally released from Marianna Prison in Florida on October 7, having served his full sentence of fifteen years, as well as providing an update on the situation of the four other Cuban patriots who are still imprisoned. Below is the transcript published by CubaDebate.

Bernie Dwyer: Before addressing René's probation conditions, maybe we could clear up a couple of misunderstandings. Some media reports seem to suggest that the probation period that René is serving in Florida was additional to his original sentence and that it was slapped on him without much notice. Could you clear that up, please?

Richard Klugh: The supervised release or probation term was part of the original sentence. It's part of every sentence. What was decided at the last moment was that unlike other foreign nationals whose families live outside of the United States, René would not be permitted to join his family.

RK: The explanation given -- and this is a unique case, and when I say unique it is the only time that it has ever occurred -- is that because the court has the power to keep him in the United States, the court is going to keep him in the United States. There was not a mention of his U.S. citizenship in any order, although presumably if he were not a United States citizen, the U.S. government could punish him in a different way by putting him through further and lengthy incarceration in order to process the deportation proceedings.

BD: It has also been suggested that René was sentenced to 15 years imprisonment and that he served his full term. On the other hand he was released after 13 years. Could you comment on that?

RK: The law in the United States, as I think is true generally in other countries, is that in order to provide an incentive to good conduct, prisoners are given credit towards the completion of their sentence by exhibiting good conduct. The credit in the United States is very small, slightly more than 10% but René's conduct was, of course, exemplary and he had no problems whatsoever. He completed his fifteen year sentence in just slightly more than thirteen years.

BD: The night before his release, René Gonzalez was held in the isolation cell in Marianna Prison known as "The Hole." Is this a normal procedure?

RK: To my knowledge, that is unusual, and the reasons for that have not been made clear to me. I have not previously encountered that occurring in any other situation.

RK: I don't know what we can draw from it. The truth is that René was kept in a prison setting that was too high for his status. Again, if he is being treated as a United States citizen, then of course, he should have several years ago been allowed to go to a prison camp rather than have been held in a prison. But the treatment of René was extraordinarily harsh despite his perfect conduct.

BD: Let's talk now about René's conditions of probation. Can you outline the regime he has to follow?

RK: He has to meet the standard conditions of supervised release. The purpose of supervised release is to reorient and reintegrate somebody into society and to do the normal things in society. One of the primary purposes is family support, going to work to support your family but of course in his situation, the entire function of supervised release appears to be to separate him from his family and make it even more difficult for him to support his family.

So it's very difficult to reconcile the letter of the law with what the effect of it is. But he cannot violate any laws and he must report to the probation officer once a month and he must maintain a residence. Essentially those are the standard conditions. The judge added a condition in his case that was noted from the beginning as being unusual -- that he was barred from associating with terrorist associations. Presumably that was to do with the fact that he was investigating the Brothers to the Rescue organization, that violated Cuban territory and that Cuba regarded as a terrorist organization. So it's always been perplexing as to what the meaning of that part of the order was unless it meant he was to cease investigating acts of terrorism against Cuba.

BD: Is he allowed to move outside the State of Florida or must he stay within any geographical limits?

RK: His movements outside of the Southern Florida area are regulated by the court and the probation office so that he has to obtain permission.

"Conditional Freedom"
(Olivio Martinez)

RK: He can theoretically petition to change his residence to a different area. However that is not automatically permitted and in a case of this type where supervised release is being used essentially as a means to further punish him it seems unlikely that he will be able to do that. But again, the irony of this case is that the supervised release is being used to prevent him from reuniting with his family, to prevent him from providing emotional and other support to his daughters and his wife and to continue to enforce the unnecessary separation of husband and wife, of father and daughters.

BD: Would you say that the regime that has been imposed on René Gonzalez is equal to that of most prisoners, and we are not talking about hardened criminals here, who come out of prison and are under supervised conditions? Would you say that what René is going through is more or less equal to that?

RK: The difference between what René is experiencing and what other prisoners have experienced is that in every other case the defendant is allowed to rejoin his family. So the unique harshness that has happened to Rene in this case is that the fundamental purpose of a supervised release, which is to help somebody to re-establish their connection to their family, to re-establish their lives, is being completely undermined by the supervised release itself. Hence the fact that the United States has used it as a negotiating tactic makes it quite clear that its purpose is to inflict some form of harm or punishment that is not inflicted in any other case.

So that while in a technical sense, ordinarily someone would come back to live in the district and would be subject to supervision. There is, to my knowledge, no prior case in the history of the United States in which someone who has foreign nationality, as René has, whose family lives in a foreign country and whose wife cannot travel to the United States, has been barred from re-uniting with his family -- family being so important to the very purpose of supervised release.

BD: And René Gonzalez himself, what form is he in with this new imposition that he has to suffer?

RK: René is a very strong individual. Obviously he has indicated in an expressive way how strongly he feels that the mission that he was on had no intent at all to harm the United States and that he harbors no ill-will towards the United States in that regard. So he's a strong individual who will be able to withstand whatever form of punishment he faces. And it's unfortunate that processes that are meant for other purposes are being used to serve political ends in a completely disproportionate and unjust way.

BD: Will the other four, Gerardo Hernandez, Fernando Gonzalez, Antonio Guerrero and Ramon Labanino, who are still serving out their long, long sentences, have to do their probation in the United States?

RK: Theoretically by having United States citizenship another of the Five could face the same possibilities. One would hope that when they are released they would face a more reasonable government approach.

BD: So we are talking about Antonio here. This won't apply to Gerardo, Ramon and Fernando?

RK: They are all pursuing relief from extraordinary violations of fundamental rights to a fair trial. They are pursuing what every day is revealed more clearly to have been an illegitimate effort by the United States to create an environment that was so hostile and prejudicial to the Five that they could not possibly receive a fair trial. We are litigating point by point the fallacy of the government arguments, the presentation of false evidence, and the misuse of evidence in order to convict not just Gerardo but all of the Five, further pointing out how coordinated an effort the political and prosecutorial misconduct was in this case -- again, an extraordinary and unjust way to gain these unjust convictions and sentences.

RK: We are waiting a further response by the United States regarding the petitions filed by Ramon and Fernando and it is anticipated that they will file their response at the end of November.

Nicaraguan People Prevail in Presidential and Legislative Elections

President Daniel Ortega and First Lady Rosario Murillo on Election Day, Managua, Nicaragua.

On Sunday, November 6, the Nicaraguan people won a triple victory with the re-election of Daniel Ortega as president, the election of a majority of seats in the national Parliament for the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN), and a majority for the 20 deputies running for the Central American Parliament.

In a communique issued at midday on Monday, November 7, the Supreme Electoral Council (CSE) of Nicaragua announced that, with 85.8 per cent of the ballots counted, the FSLN had 62.75 per cent of the votes cast, winning the presidential election. The communique noted that the FSLN also won a majority in the Parliament, as 59 of the 91 candidates elected work with the FSLN. The CSE announced as well that the candidates of the political alliance running for the Central American Parliament won a majority with 62.63 per cent of the votes.

Victory celebration in Managua.

With the announcement of the FSLN victory, Rosario Murillo, First Lady and co-ordinator of the Communication and Citizenship Council declared, "Today everybody has handed Nicaragua a victory. Now Nicaraguans are more united than ever. We have been called upon to live together in unity...."

The FSLN website "La Voz del Sandinismo" declared the electoral victory as also a triumph for the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our Americas (ALBA) and "the victorious revolutions in Latin America." Nicaragua is a member of this regional association originally founded by Cuba and Venezuela to uphold relations of mutual benefit between nations, in opposition to the hegemony of the U.S. empire, especially its imposition of anti-national free trade agreements and the brutal embargo and blockade of Cuba.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez was the first foreign dignitary to extend congratulations. This victory "strengthens hope of a future of dignity and sovereignty for the region," he said. "This victory consolidates the project of integration of the peoples of America," he affirmed.

A message from Cuban President Raul Castro followed immediately. It stated, "In the name of our people and its leaders, please accept our warmest congratulations for the important victory in the presidential elections of the Republic of Nicaragua. I reiterate our desire to continue deepening our close relations of friendship and cooperation between our two sister nations."

Nidia Diaz, Secretary for International Relations of El Salvador's governing party Farabundo Marti Liberation Front (FMLN) and a deputy in the Central American Parliament, said in her message to the FSLN that "Nicaragua's victory is our victory and that of Central and Latin Americans."

The decisive victory of the revolutionary forces in the presidential and legislative elections shows the people's confidence in the FSLN's pro-social nation-building project, and the extent to which the people themselves are involved in the political life of the nation.

El Salvador Celebrates Bicentenary of
Its First Call for Independence

Performance by the Nicaraguan Folkloric Ballet, San Salvador, El Salvador, November 6, 2011.

Several political and cultural events in El Salvador, from November 3-5, marked the bicentenary of its first Call for Independence.

On November 5, 1811 throughout the San Salvador administrative area of the Kingdom of Guatemala, an intense popular revolt developed against the authorities on the peninsula. It was a response to the call of the priest, Jose Matias Delgado, who rang the bells at the Church of La Merced in San Salvador to announce the beginning of the movement for emancipation and liberty of the Salvadoran people. This movement against the domination of the Spanish Empire culminated with the signing of the Act of Independence from the Spanish Throne on September 15, 1821.

Minister of External Affairs Hugo Martinez and Presidential Culture Secretary Hector Samour Canan were appointed as directors of the Bicentenary Commission, charged with organizing the commemorative activities and directed by the Legislative Assembly to reinforce patriotic values and revive the Central American integration process. In this spirit, on November 4, the Legislative Assembly created a new award of distinction to honour national and international personalities for services to the nation. Minister Martinez said, "The commemoration has become an opportunity for us to reconcile ourselves with our past, revive our civic values and strengthen our national identity."

Colombian Guerilla Leader Killed by Army

On November 4, the Colombian government announced that the Colombian army had killed the leader of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), Guillermo Leon Saenz "Alfonso Cano."

The Colombian state presented Cano's death as a consequence of a military battle between the Colombian army and forces of the FARC. However, indicating that the killing of Cano was a planned targeted assassination by the Colombian state, it is reported that for more than two months the Colombian army, trained and supplied by the U.S. imperialists with the most sophisticated technological equipment, had been encircling a group of 15 FARC fighters, among them Cano. The final attack by the Colombian army and air force began on Friday, November 4 at 8:30 am in the tiny community of Chirriadero in the Department of Cauca. During the attack over a ton of explosives was dropped on the group, killing Cano, along with several others.

Guillermo Leon Saenz
"Alfonso Cano"

Alfonso Cano was a long-time militant of the FARC who took up the responsibilities to lead the FARC in 2008 after the death of Manuel Marulanda and the assassination of Raul Reyes by the Colombian state in Ecuador. Born in 1948, Cano was a leader of the student movement in the 1960s, who joined the FARC as a full-time guerrilla alongside others working to build a new Colombia in the face of vicious state-organized violence against the progressive movement.

For a long time the FARC has been trying to work towards a political settlement to the civil conflict in Colombia through the establishment of a negotiated peace. However the government of President Juan Manuel Santos, in power since August 2010, refuses any negotiations of that nature and insists that it will continue its predecessor's policies of using force, assassinations, imprisonment and repression against the guerrillas and the progressive and democratic forces in Colombia. Following the killing of Cano, Santos issued more threats to all those who refuse to submit: "Disband or you'll end up in prison or a tomb," he said.

The main cause of the civil war and state violence against the people is the Colombian government's subservience to U.S. imperialism which is totally at odds with the people's aspirations. The violent repression is meant to deprive the people of control over their own destiny and turn the entire country into a base of reaction and counterrevolution against the peoples of the region and block them from taking a path independent of the U.S. imperialists' strategic interests. It must not pass!

Consolidation of Union of South American Nations

There have been several developments over the past few weeks in the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR) with the creation of new entities in the fields of regional autonomy, defence and the economy. These advances permit a greater consolidation of the overall organization.

Originally called the South American Community of Nations when it was formed in 2004, UNASUR comprises all 12 nations of South America. It is one of the mechanisms through which the peoples of Latin America and the Caribbean are strengthening their ties and assisting one another with relations of mutual benefit and working together on issues of common interest.

The UNASUR Defence Council was created to ensure that South America remains a zone at peace, within which regional conflicts can be resolved through diplomacy and non-invasive mechanisms. The UNASUR Defence Ministers, meeting in Caracas last September, made progress in the organization and decision-making process of the Council. During this meeting, Nicolas Maduro, Foreign Affairs Minister of Venezuela, announced that in the near future the members of UNASUR will sign a declaration of peace, rejecting the use of force and military power against the governments and peoples of South America.

Minister Maduro also reported that UNASUR now has a Ministerial Energy Council whose responsibility it will be to prepare an Energy Plan, an agreement that will guarantee energy stability and security in the region for this century. He said that a meeting of the organization in the coming months could ratify the treaty, which would be a major advance, for both the present and the future.

As well, Minister Maduro declared that "There are solid signs indicating that the treaty creating the Bank of the South will come into force this year." Speaking of the establishment of the Finance and Economy Council of UNASUR in Buenos Aires, Argentina, he noted that the Council "had as its key mandate, the development of a monetary and commerce system for South America." The UNASUR ministers of Finance and Economy met in Buenos Aires to assess how to increase the capacity of the central banks in the region in order to protect themselves from speculative attacks on their currencies. The ministers will also deal with the theme of dedollarization of inter-regional commercial exchanges.

In October, Venezuela's permanent mission to the UN announced that UNASUR has been given a seat at the UN as an observer, which will permit it to participate in the workings of that body. UNASUR's observer status was adopted by the Legal Affairs Bureau of the UN and unanimously by the 193 member states. The approval is to be ratified by a General Assembly resolution in November.

Arms Sales to Honduran Drug Traffickers by
U.S. Government Agents

As part of a concerted policy of the U.S. imperialists to maintain a high level of violence, fear and instability in the countries south of the U.S. border, U.S. agents have sold thousands of stolen weapons to drug traffickers, it has been revealed. Besides the recent example of Mexico, now the same activity has been revealed in Honduras. In fact, various media sources say that the majority of stolen arms entering Central and South America do so through "Operation Castaway," which operates out of the state of Florida.

The Florida section of the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) is responsible for developing Operation Castaway. Its goal is to facilitate the sale of stolen arms to Honduran drug traffickers, with the alleged objective of arresting Vietnam war veteran Hugh Crumpler for illegal arms trafficking. ATF agents participating in the operation have confirmed that under this hoax, thousands of guns have been sold in Central and South America to the Mara and Pandilla gangs that are among the most violent in the region. The U.S. Attorney-General will be investigating the complaints against the ATF that it sold arms to the drug traffickers and simply abandoned surveillance to the point of losing any track of them.

It is the second operation of this kind for which the ATF is under investigation. The first was known as "Operation Fast and Furious" and involved ATF agents selling thousands of weapons to the Mexican criminal organization the Zetas.

The fact that the ATF's policy is to abandon surveillance once the sale of weapons has taken place shows the hypocrisy of the so-called tactic of infiltrating criminal gangs in order to carry out arrests. This has everything to do with the method of maintaining a high level of violence and a climate of terror and instability. Such an atmosphere keeps the people of Mexico and Honduras under constant threat of an imperialist military intervention. It also prevents the peoples from having governments that defend national sovereignty and blocks the peoples' aspiration to decide their own future free from foreign interference.

Tour Expresses Profound Respect for Cuba's Humanitarian Internationalism in Haiti

Tour Expresses Profound Respect for Cuba's Humanitarian Internationalism in Haiti

Breadth and Depth of Cuba's Selfless Humanitarianism

The Medical Mission in Haiti

Breaking the Silence on Cuba's Humanitarianism

Update on Situation in Haiti and Cuba's Ongoing Assistance

Cuban Consul General's Successful Visit to British Columbia and Calgary

Vindictive Treatment of Cuban Five Continues

Nicaraguan People Prevail in Presidential and Legislative Elections

El Salvador Celebrates Bicentenary of Its First Call for Independence

Colombian Guerilla Leader Killed by Army

Consolidation of Union of South American Nations

Arms Sales to Honduran Drug Traffickers by U.S. Government Agents

Tour Expresses Profound Respect for
Cuba's Humanitarian Internationalism in Haiti

Tour Expresses Profound Respect for
Cuba's Humanitarian Internationalism in Haiti

Update on Situation in Haiti and
Cuba's Ongoing Assistance

Cuban Consul General's Successful Visit to
British Columbia and Calgary

El Salvador Celebrates Bicentenary of
Its First Call for Independence

Arms Sales to Honduran Drug Traffickers by
U.S. Government Agents