[GoveMoony]

Last Updated: BBC News Tuesday, 19 February 2008, 16:16 GMT

Castro steps down as Cuban leader


Fidel Castro has not been seen in public since his operation in July


Castro's career

Cuba's ailing leader Fidel Castro has announced he will not accept another term as president, ending the communist revolutionary's 49 years in power.

The 81-year-old handed over power temporarily to his brother Raul in July 2006 when he underwent surgery and has not been seen in public since then.

Cuba's new parliament will meet on Sunday to elect a new president.

Washington has called for Cuba to hold free elections, and said its decades-long embargo would remain.
This should be a period of democratic transition for the people of Cuba

US President George W Bush


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President George W Bush said the US was ready to help the "people of Cuba realise the blessings of liberty".

A senior US state department official, John Negroponte, added that the 1962 embargo would probably not be lifted "any time soon".

The European Union said it hoped to relaunch ties with Cuba that were almost completely frozen under Mr Castro, while China described Mr Castro as an old friend and said it would maintain co-operation with Cuba.
Mr Castro has ruled Cuba since leading a revolution in 1959.

The BBC's Michael Voss reports from Havana that most Cubans will be saddened by news of their leader's retirement, but many hope the political transition will bring economic improvements.

Soldiering on
Mr Castro made his announcement in a letter published on the website of the Cuban Communist Party's newspaper Granma in the middle of the night, Cuban time.

I just want to carry on fighting like a soldier of ideas

Fidel Castro
Letter published in Granma


Excerpts of Castro's letter
Castro: The great survivor
Profile: Raul Castro

He said he would not accept another five-year term as president when the National Assembly met on Sunday.

"It would betray my conscience to take up a responsibility that requires mobility and total devotion, that I am not in a physical condition to offer," he wrote.

Mr Castro said he had not stepped down after undergoing emergency intestinal surgery in 2006 because he had had a duty to the Cuban people to prepare them for his absence.
But retirement, he added, would not stop him from carrying "on fighting like a soldier of ideas", and he promised to continue writing essays entitled Reflections of Comrade Fidel.

"I will be one more weapon in the arsenal that you can count on," he said.

Search for new leader
The National Assembly is widely expected to elect Raul Castro, 76, as Fidel's successor.

FIDEL CASTRO

Born in 1926 to a wealthy, landowning family
Took up arms in 1953, six years before coming to power
Brother Raul was deputy and Che Guevara third in command
Has outlasted nine American presidents
Target of many CIA assassination plots
Daughter is a dissident exile in Miami


Castro's life in pictures

He has mooted major economic reforms and "structural changes".

But some analysts see a possible generational jump, with Vice-President Carlos Lage Davila, 56, a leading contender.
Anyone hoping that Fidel Castro's departure from the political scene would bring about the end of the communist regime was disappointed, the BBC's Nick Miles reports.

Whilst Cuban exiles celebrated in Miami, Florida, there were no protests on the streets of Havana calling for political change.

In part, our reporter says, this is because the regime does not tolerate dissent - but it is also because many in Cuba are wary of what change will probably mean: a mass influx of exiles returning from Miami.

Raul Castro has worked to ensure a smooth political transition, keeping the army loyal to the regime and strengthening the Communist Party's hold by introducing reforms and weeding out corrupt officials.

He has also had the advantage of continued economic support from Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez in the form of millions of barrels of cheap oil, our reporter adds.

Mixed legacy
It is not clear whether Mr Castro's retirement was prompted by a further decline in his health - the state of which is an official secret.

Though Fidel Castro has not been seen in public for 19 months, the government occasionally releases photographs and pre-edited video of him meeting visiting leaders from around the world.

The retiring leader will be remembered as one of the most distinctive and enduring icons from the second half of the 20th Century, the BBC's Paul Keller writes.

With his olive green fatigues, beard and Cuban cigars, Fidel Castro was the original Cold Warrior.

Under his leadership Cuba established the first Marxist-Leninist state in the Western hemisphere, almost within sight of the US coastline.

Embracing communism and the patronage of the Soviet Union, Fidel Castro transformed Cuba economically and socially but had to struggle when it collapsed.

He leaves his country with universal free healthcare and a much-admired education system, which has produced doctors for the developing world, but also a failing economy.

[hitaEtela]

A chance to be diplomatic now?

[lapInsalm]

Fidel blew Francisco Franco out of the water for persistence as head of state. Now he's challenging Franco's legacy for not efficiently leaving the planet.

[onlyfun_biziness]

^^Speaking of Franco, Is he still dead??

[Turbo-ip]

(It would be much appreciated if in future the subject were somewhere in the thread's title for this type of "hard news" topic. )




Americas
Castro Stepping Down as Cuba’s Leader
By ANTHONY DePALMA and JAMES C. McKINLEY Jr.

Published: February 20, 2008

(Anthony DePalma reported from Havana, and James C. McKinley Jr. from Mexico City. Graham Bowley contributed reporting from New York)


In Havana, posters of Fidel Castro and Che Guevara adorned a home
HAVANA — Fidel Castro said Tuesday he would step down as the president of Cuba after a long illness, opening the way for his brother Raúl Castro or another member of his inner circle to become Cuba’s president when Parliament chooses a new leader this weekend.

The announcement was made in a letter to the nation under Mr. Castro’s name, which was read on radio and television programs that many Cubans heard as they headed to work.

Under the Cuban Constitution, a newly chosen Parliament will choose a 31-member council of state on Sunday, which in turn will chose the next president. Though Cuban officials say the process is democratic, experts on Cuban politics say the decision on a successor remains in the hands of Fidel Castro, his brother and his inner circle, many of whom hold positions in the cabinet.

There seemed to be little if any outward reaction to the news, which many Cubans had been expecting for months. Schools remained open, garbage continued to be collected, and clusters of ordinary people waiting for buses or trucks to take them to work seemed as large and numerous as ever.

State-owned networks did not interrupt regular schedules, but read the announcement as part of the morning news, then returned to the usual mix of music and children’s broadcasting. Radio Rebelde, the radio service started by Mr. Castro in the mountains of the Sierra Maestra during the rebel uprising he led 50 years ago, broadcast popular music and a discussion of the roots of the Afro-Cuban sound, and mentioned his resignation only briefly during regularly scheduled newscasts, along with information about statements from the Venezuelan oil minister.

Despite the relative calm with which Tuesday morning’s announcement was received, the resignation signifies a monumental change on the island of some 11 million people. Mr. Castro’s decision to give up the presidency ends one of the longest tenures of a communist head of state, whose authority was among the most absolute.

In late July 2006, Mr. Castro, who is 81, handed over power temporarily to his brother, Raúl Castro, 76, and a few younger cabinet ministers, after he underwent emergency abdominal surgery. Despite many operations, he has never fully recovered, but has remained active in running government affairs from behind the scenes.

Now, just days before the National Assembly is to meet to select a new head of state, Mr. Castro has resigned permanently, and signaled his willingness to let a younger generation assume power, a proposition he first stated late last year. In the open letter to the Cuban people, he said his failing health made it impossible to return as president.

“I will not aspire to neither will I accept — I repeat I will not aspire to neither will I accept — the position of president of the Council of State and commander in chief,” he wrote in the letter, which was posted on the Web site of the state-run Granma newspaper in the early hours of Tuesday.

He added, “It would betray my conscience to occupy a responsibility that requires mobility and the total commitment that I am not in the physical condition to offer.”

President Bush, traveling in Rwanda on a tour of African nations, greeted the news by saying that the resignation should be the beginning of a democratic transition in Cuba leading to free elections. “The United States will help the people of Cuba realize the blessings of liberty,” he said.

Mr. Bush called for Cuba to release political prisoners and to begin building “institutions necessary for democracy that eventually will lead to free and fair elections.”

But the announcement puts Raúl Castro in the position to be anointed as the Cuban head of state when the National Assembly meets on Sunday, prolonging the power structure that has run the country since Mr. Castro became ill.

Mr. Castro’s announcement left unclear the roles that other high-level government ministers — including Vice President Carlos Lage Dávila, and Foreign Minister Felipe Pérez Roque — would play in the new government.

Mr. Castro also made it clear he was not fading into the sunset, but pledged to continue to be a force in Cuban politics through his writings, just as he had over the last year and a half. “I am not saying goodbye to you,” he wrote. “I only wish to fight as a soldier of ideas.”

That statement raised the possibility that little would change after Sunday’s vote, that Cuba would continue to be ruled in essence by two presidents, with Raúl Castro on stage while Fidel Castro lurked in the wings. At times over the last year and a half, the current government has seemed paralyzed when the two men disagree. In Washington, John D. Negroponte, deputy secretary of state, said it was unlikely that the United States would lift its trade embargo on Cuba, Reuters reported.

Mr. Castro has sent several signals in recent months that it was time for a younger generation to take the helm. For example, he said in December, “My primary duty is not to weld myself to offices, much less obstruct the path of younger people.”

In Tuesday’s letter, he expressed confidence that the country would be in good hands with a government composed of elements of “the old guard” and “others who were very young when the first stage of the revolution began.”

Mr. Castro said he had declined to step down earlier to avoid dealing a blow to the Cuban government before the people were ready for a traumatic change “in the middle of the battle” with the United States over control of the country’s future.

“To prepare the people for my absence, psychologically and politically, was my first obligation after so many years of struggle,” he said.

That strategy appeared to have been successful. After decades in which Mr. Castro seemed omnipresent, making endless speeches and appearing at rallies and ceremonies all over the island, he has not been seen in public since July 2006. No details of his illness or condition have ever been released. Many Cubans long ago accepted the fact that he must be seriously ill and would never be able to return to power.

“We are all born and we all die, and ever if we wished that the commandante could be with us forever, it could not be,” said Eliana López, a state worker in the city of Matanzas who has lived nearly all of her 55 years with Mr. Castro as president. She said that his resignation was inevitable, as would be the total assumption of power by Raúl Castro. But she said she was convinced that although the change itself was monumental, the society built over the last 50 years would not undergo a drastic transformation.

“Under Raúl we will continue developing the same system that we’ve had over all these years,” Ms. Lopez said.

Mr. Castro seized power in January 1959 after waging a guerrilla war against the dictator Fulgencio Batista, promising to restore the Cuban Constitution and hold elections.

But he soon turned his back on those democratic ideals, embraced a totalitarian brand of communism and allied the island with the Soviet Union. He played a role in taking the world to the brink of nuclear war in the fall of 1962, when he allowed Russia to build missile-launching sites just 90 miles off the American shores. He weathered an American-backed invasion in 1961 and used Cuban troops to stir up revolutions in Africa and Latin America.

Those actions earned him the permanent enmity of Washington and led the United States to impose decades of economic sanctions that Mr. Castro and his followers maintain have crippled Cuba’s economy and kept their socialist experiment from succeeding completely.

The sanctions also proved handy to Mr. Castro politically. He cast every problem that Cuba faced as part of a larger struggle against the United States and blamed the “imperialists” to the north for the island’s abject poverty. A billboard on the so-called Monumental Highway leading to Havana declares that 70 percent of the Cuban population has lived under the embargo, which Cubans refer to as the blockade.

For good or ill, Mr. Castro is one of the most influential and controversial leaders to rise in Latin America since the wars of independence in the early 19th century, not only reshaping Cuban society, but providing inspiration for leftists across Latin America and in other parts of the world.

His record has been a mix of great social achievements and dismal economic performance that has mired most Cubans in poverty. He succeeded in providing universal health care and free education through college and made inroads in rooting out racism.

But he never broke the island’s dependence on commodities like sugar, tobacco and nickel, nor did he succeed in industrializing the nation so that Cuba could compete in the world market with durable goods.

Since the fall of the Soviet Union and the end of its aid to the island, Cuba has limped along economically, relying mostly on tourism and money sent home from exiles to get hard currency.

Yet Mr. Castro’s willingness to stand up to the United States and break free of American influence, even if it meant allying Cuba with another superpower, has been an inspiration to many Latin Americans, among them the new crop of left-leaning heads of state like Hugo Chávez of Venezuela, Evo Morales of Bolivia, and Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of Brazil.

Though he never restored democracy or the Cuban Constitution as he had promised, and has ruled with absolute — and at times ruthless — power.

In the minds of many Latin Americans, he stood in stark contrast to right-wing dictators like the one he overthrew, who often put the interests of business leaders and the foreign policy goals of Washington above the interests of their poorest constituents. Whether Mr. Castro’s remaking of Cuban society will survive the current transition remains to be seen. Some experts note that Raúl Castro is more pragmatic and willing to admit mistakes than his brother. He has given signals he may try to follow the Chinese example of state-sponsored capitalism.

Others predict that, without Fidel Castro’s charismatic leadership, the government will have to make fundamental changes to the economy or face a rising tide of unrest among rank-and-file Cubans.

Copyright 2008 The New York Times Company

Source

[harriettvanders]

The blockade has proved ineffectual and has helped to justify the most brutal aspects of the Castro regime to the Cuban people. When I visited Cuba a couple of years back I was rather surprised by the large number of Americans who had come via Mexico or Canada... Whilst I can't McCain re-engaging anytime soon, I think Obama or Clinton would prove more open to restablishing links to incentivise tentative steps towards democracy. It's going to be very interesting to see what happens when Raul dies.

[SpyRemo]

^
Clinton the First didn't. Why would Clinton the Second? The Communist apparatus in Cuba goes beyond the Castros. It will perpetuate itself in there absence (or at least try).

However, given the fact that communism isn't the threat that it once was, I would be okay with easing the embargo. It's more likely that the communists will get buried under the tide of capitalism that will wash onto their shore than be helped by it.

[Anteneprorid]

Bill Clinton relaxed tensions initially but after the Cubans shot down two American planes introduced the Helms-Burton Act. Raul doesn't symbolise a Cold War threat in the same way Fidel did.

[Creelaleps]

Symbolically? No.

In reality? Yes.

But Cuba does not have the backing and the muscle it originally had. It is also starving for capital. Sometimes even the most rigid of bureaucracies soften under the burden of debt and temptation of affluence. (Tropical? Casinos? Family connections? No brainer! $$)

[traithJah]

European companies are building resorts in Cuba.

The Italians love it there.

[Thigmaswams]

^for the hot inexpensive sex on sale.

[Daleman1984]

Will Meyer Lansky's "friends" now be able to get his Riviera hotel back?

[67Irralphaisa]

Symbolically? No.

In reality? Yes.

But Cuba does not have the backing and the muscle it originally had. It is also starving for capital. Sometimes even the most rigid of bureaucracies soften under the burden of debt and temptation of affluence. (Tropical? Casinos? Family connections? No brainer! $$)

I don't think that's true. Certainly in the post-'89 "special period" the country went through a period of terrible decay without USSR backing and some economic liberation took place, including allowing tourism. Although to a lesser extent, Venezuela now appears to be taking that role and funds Cuba more than America funds Israel.

[Flankrene]

Bill Clinton relaxed tensions initially but after the Cubans shot down two American planes introduced the Helms-Burton Act. A misleading and inaccurate statement... THE HELMS BURTON ACT (in my opinion, a criminal shame) WAS ACTUALLY ALREADY INTRODUCED IN 1995, and tabled after Democratic filibusters could not be overcome. After the shoot downs, it was RE-introduced in 1996. Then it was passed, accompanied by loud international opposition. This is very different than your bogus assertion.
Of course, these were the same planes that were repeatedly invading Cuban airspace. We would have certainly done the same thing if Soviet planes were heading toward Washington or Miami after being told not to. Of course, that would never happen since the United States is the real aggressor here.
Something from The Militant, just to balance all of the imperialist assertions.

Cuban Foreign Minister Blasts U.S. Aggression
At UN, Robaina defends shootdown of intruder planes
BY LAURA GARZA AND MARTÕN KOPPEL

UNITED NATIONS - "The government of Cuba takes full responsibility for the patriotic action that was carried out in legitimate defense of the country's sovereignty and security," stated Cuban foreign minister Roberto Robaina, addressing a March 6 session of the United Nations General Assembly.

Robaina was referring to the events of February 24, when Cuba's Revolutionary Armed Forces shot down two Cessna aircraft from Opa-locka, Florida, that, defying explicit warnings from Cuban air controllers, were violating the Caribbean nation's airspace. The planes, flown by members of Brothers to the Rescue, a Miami-based group led by Cuban- American counterrevolutionaries, were on a hostile mission headed toward the Havana area.

Robaina placed the blame for these provocations squarely on Washington.

"Many people, including our own friends in the United States, ask us: `Why did you shoot down those planes right at this time?' That is, `Why does this occur at such a delicate and dangerous moment during the nasty and unscrupulous electoral fights in the United States, on the eve of the November elections?' " Robaina said.

"This incident was not the consequence of a deliberate act by Cuba," the Cuban foreign minister stated. "It was not we who could prevent these violations from continuing. The U.S. government, from whose territory the acts of aggression were launched, was the only one that had this opportunity in its hands." He documented the years-long pattern of violations of Cuban territorial waters and airspace as well as terrorist attacks by U.S.-based counterrevolutionaries.

The Cuban foreign minister also denounced Washington's recent moves to tighten the U.S. economic embargo against Cuba, particularly what he termed the "criminal Helms-Burton bill," which was being passed at that time by the U.S. House of Representatives, a day after its approval by the Senate.

U.S. president Bill Clinton has vowed to sign the measure. Reiterating his opposition to Cuba's revolutionary government, he said the sanctions will "send Cuba a powerful message that the United States will not tolerate further loss of American life."

A few days earlier, on March 2, the Clinton administration mobilized U.S. Coast Guard and Navy ships, along with fighter jets, in a show of force directed against Cuba. This armada accompanied a few dozen Cuban-American counterrevolutionaries who staged a boat flotilla in the Florida Straits, provocatively approaching Cuba's territorial waters.

The Cuban government issued a firm warning that it would defend the country against any violation of its airspace and waters. The rightists turned back well before their intended destination, stating that bad weather and seasickness made them cut the operation short.



Pattern of U.S. provocations, attacks
In his UN speech, Robaina explained, "The history of aggression against Cuba and violations of its sovereignty and territorial integrity did not begin February 24, but rather 37 years ago. On Oct. 21, 1959, one of the first violent actions against the Cuban revolution was launched, just as today, from southern Florida, when pirate planes dropped subversive propaganda and bombed the country's capital, an attack that cost our people valuable lives.

"The Opa-locka base itself, under the cover of a civilian agency, was used to train and prepare part of the air force that took part in the Bay of Pigs invasion in April 1961," the Cuban official said.

"Since 1990, 14 infiltrations and armed pirate attacks have been carried out against our country by vessels from the southern United States, and dozens of terrorist plans have been aborted by us." Robaina added that Brothers to the Rescue had carried out 25 incursions into Cuban airspace in the past year and a half, including two in January.

"The Cuban population reacted with indignation and concern at such flagrant violations of our airspace," the foreign minister reported. The downing of the two invading planes has been highly popular among Cuban working people. Rallies protesting the U.S. plane provocations and hailing the shootdown have been held in factories, farms, and other workplaces throughout the island.

Brothers to the Rescue leaders portray themselves as a humanitarian group founded in 1991 to spot people leaving Cuba by raft and deliver them to safety. Despite their professed charitable goals, they have charged Cuban-Americans between $2,000 and $4,000 to "rescue" family members, according to Juan Pablo Roque. A former Cuban air force pilot, Roque went to Miami in 1992, where he joined Brothers to the Rescue. He returned to Cuba in mid-February.

The organization's stated cause has become harder to sustain as the number of rafters has dwindled since the signing of a U.S.-Cuba immigration agreement in September 1994. Since then, its "actions turned more provocative," according to an article in the February 25 Miami Herald.

The claims by leaders of Brothers to the Rescue of being "nonviolent" are belied by their records. Robaina noted that "Cuba is very familiar with the main leader of the organization, JosÈ Basulto. Recruited by the Central Intelligence Agency, he received training in Panama and Guatemala, and was surreptitiously sent into Cuba before and after the Playa GirÛn [Bay of Pigs] invasion. In 1963 he was sent in again as a radio operator for a terrorist commando. And in 1966 he worked for the CIA in Brazil."

On February 24 Basulto piloted a third Cessna plane that was out of Cuban airspace at the time the other two were intercepted and shot down.

Armando Alejandre, one of the four Brothers to the Rescue members aboard the two planes shot down over Cuban waters, had been arrested in Washington, D.C., in February 1994 for trying to jump the fence at the Cuban Interests Section. Last October, Alejandre, a volunteer Vietnam War veteran who stood six feet, seven inches tall, smashed the glass front door to the San Carlos Institute, a historic landmark in Key West, in another right-wing assault.

When Cuban air force pilots downed the aircraft flown by Brothers to the Rescue, Washington and the capitalist media launched an intense propaganda campaign against Cuba, claiming "civilian" planes had been shot down in international waters. Authorities in Havana have maintained from the beginning that the planes had penetrated the country's airspace and had been warned, a notice the intruders explicitly defied.

On March 3, Cuban television displayed several objects from the plane debris that Cuban helicopters and coast guard vessels had recovered 9.3 miles north of Cuba's coast - inside the country's 12-mile territorial limit - the day after the shooting. These were a black satchel with the letters "Solidex Performance Video" printed on it, navigation charts, and a plug-in battery charger.

The Noticiero Nacional de TelevisiÛn program also provided a detailed chronology of the February 24 events, quoting the exchanges between the air traffic controllers and the U.S. pilots.

As Washington launched a new round of hostile measures against Cuba, U.S. State Department officials met with Basulto for three hours on the night of February 26. The following day he announced, together with representatives of other Cuban- American right-wing groups, plans to send planes and a boat flotilla to the place - 21 miles from Cuban shores - where they said the Brothers to the Rescue aircraft had been shot down, and to drop flowers and wreaths there.

"America will protect its citizens in international waters and international skies," declared Madeleine Albright, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, to justify the military move.



U.S. military moves
The Cuban government responded that it would "act with the utmost restraint to avoid new incidents," Robaina stated. "If they go to international waters, really there will be no provocation," he said. But "provocations of Cuba will not remain without a response."

A U.S. State Department spokesperson asserted that Washington had previously repeatedly "warned" Brothers to the Rescue about entering Cuban territory. When the flotilla was announced, the Clinton administration organized a military escort for it, asserting that its purpose was to prevent any boats or planes from "straying" inside Cuba's 12-mile limit.

Clinton declared a national emergency in south Florida, authorizing the U.S. Coast Guard to board or seize any vessel in U.S. waters. He justified this move by charging Havana with "reckless willingness to use excessive force, including deadly force, in the ostensible enforcement of its sovereignty."

The U.S. Coast guard deployed 11 cutters armed with machine guns, 6 helicopters, and 8 planes. The Air Force sent a squadron of F15 and F16 fighter jets into the region. In addition, the Navy sent the guided-missile cruiser Ticonderoga toward the Florida Straits to join the U.S. missile cruiser Mississippi and the missile frigate John Hall.

On March 2, a 35-boat flotilla left Key West along with 14 small planes led by Basulto, heading in the direction of Cuba. Choppy waters, however, proved stronger than the counterrevolutionaries' stomachs and convictions. Most of the boats turned back early. The remaining 14 vessels ventured about 43 miles north of Havana, where they dropped their wreaths and returned home. The planes flew over the announced site, dropped some flowers, and sped back to Florida.

"The counterrevolutionary show was a failure," declared Cuba's Radio Rebelde. "The show did not achieve its objectives."

Meanwhile, opponents of the Cuban revolution organized a rally and memorial service in Miami for the four pilots shot down over Cuban waters. Some 60,000 people, mostly Cuban- Americans, attended the event, held at the Orange Bowl.

Albright, the featured speaker, hailed the four counterrevolutionaries as "martyrs." As demonstrators chanted her name repeatedly, she declared, "We will tighten sanctions against the government of Cuba." Jorge Mas Canosa, head of the rightist Cuban American National Foundation, stated the White House moves against Cuba marked "a new reconciliation...a turning point between the exile community and the Clinton administration."



New U.S. measures against Cuba
A few days earlier Clinton announced a series of new attacks on Cuba, including further restrictions on travel by Cuban diplomats in the United States, the indefinite suspension of all charter flights to the island, and the expansion of Washington's Radio MartÌ propaganda station.

The U.S. president also said he would sign the so-called Cuban Liberty and Democratic Solidarity Act, known as the Helms-Burton bill after its sponsors, Sen. Jesse Helms and Rep. Dan Burton. The measure would codify as law the current executive orders imposing economic sanctions against Cuba, meaning the U.S. trade embargo could not be eased without Congressional approval.

The Helms-Burton bill would restrict entry to the United States for non-U.S. residents who "traffic" in Cuban property that was expropriated from U.S. capitalists in the early 1960s. It would also allow U.S. citizens to sue companies based outside the United States that invest in such nationalized property.

The bill tightens the ban on sugar products of Cuban origin. Another provision, which the Russian government has particularly objected to, links U.S. aid to cutting off trade and military ties to the Cuban government.

Both houses of Congress had passed the measure in late 1995, but the White House had opposed the provision allowing lawsuits against foreign companies. On February 28, however, Clinton dropped his veto threat. The Senate and House then passed a compromise version of the bill, modifying the disputed clause. Clinton is expected to sign the measure rapidly.

The governments of Canada, the European Union, Mexico, and the Caribbean Community have all vigorously objected to features of the Helms-Burton bill that affect their trade. In a statement, the European Union said the measure constituted "an extraterritorial application of U.S. jurisdiction." Ottawa, like other U.S. imperialist rivals, has vocally expressed its opposition to the Cuban revolution, and joined the chorus denouncing the Cuban government's recent downing of the U.S. planes.

"If the intent is to try to pressure or threaten Cuba with statements of condemnation or sanctions, it is worth confirming here too that we have never given in to pressures or threats," stated Robaina at the United Nations. "We did not do so even when our people faced the concrete threat of nuclear annihilation during the October 1962 [missile] crisis. We will not do so now."

CNN reporters interviewed people in Havana the day the House passed the Helms-Burton bill. "It's a criminal law," commented one man. "They want to scare us, but they won't," said a woman on the street.

http://www.themilitant.com/1996/6011/6011_1.html