By Alejandra Garcia on July 13, 2023 in Havana
It is no coincidence that just days before Cuba marked two years since the July 11 riots, a nuclear-powered US submarine crossed Cuban waters and docked at the illegal base at Guantanamo Bay. From July 5-8, it remained afloat in that Cuban territory usurped and illegally occupied by Washington 121 years ago as a clear threat to peace in the region.
On July 11, the Cuban Foreign Ministry formally denounced this provocative escalation by the United States, “whose political or strategic motives are unknown. The presence of a nuclear submarine at this time forces us to question what military reasons are behind this act, why is it that the US tries to disturb this peaceful region of the world, against what objective it is directed, and what strategic purpose it is pursuing.”
According to the ministry, its permanence in Cuba responds to political objectives. The US is trying to challenge and question Cuba’s sovereign rights. Its practical utility in recent decades has been reduced to serving as a center for detention, torture, and systematic violation of the human rights of dozens of citizens from various countries.
The Cuban government insisted on the danger posed by the presence and circulation of nuclear submarines of the US armed forces in the nearby Caribbean region, and they demanded the restitution to Cuba of the illegally occupied territory in the province of Guantanamo.
The illegal base has housed a prison since January 11, 2002, when the first prisoners arrived from Afghanistan. People “accused of terrorism” remain to this day, many of whom have never been tried or even charged but yet have been subjected to some form of physical or psychological torture, such as sleep deprivation, sexual harassment, force-feeding hunger strikers, and a long roster of physical abuse. The very nature of this base flies in the face of everything we Cubans stand for.
“The United States occupies that territory of 117 square kilometers against the will of the Cuban people and as a colonial remnant of the illegitimate military occupation of our country initiated in 1898, after the expansionist intervention in the war of independence of the Cubans against the Spanish colonial power,” the Ministry charged.
“The United States has established more than 70 military bases in the region, posing a threat to the sovereignty and interests of the Latin American and Caribbean peoples. Recently, the US Military Southern Command senior military commander Laura Richardson made public references to the US intentions of using its military force to get advantages of the natural resources of Latin America and the Caribbean,” it warned. In a reminder of the 200 year old Monroe Doctrine Richardson even referenced these natural resources as “ours”.
The timing of the nuclear submarine arrival in our sovereign country also comes just before the EU – CELAC meeting on July 17 and 18 in Brussels where the the European Parliament will present a resolution which strongly condemns the Cuban government for a wide range of alleged human rights violations and calls for the European Union to impose sanctions on Cuban officials, “starting with Miguel Díaz-Canel.”
Despite provocations and failed attempts of media campaigns to unleash a resurrection in Cuba in the “honor” of July 11, nothing really happened here. Hospitals kept saving lives, factories did not stop, and life went on as usual. Cuba lives in peace, although with the well-known effects of an invisible but latent blockade, which affects everyone equally on a daily basis.
Source: Resumen Latinoamercano in English