By José Manzaneda on December 28, 2024
Blackmailing Mexico to sink Cuba amid blackouts
In recent years, the Mexican government has come to the aid of the Cuban people on several occasions[i]. A month ago, it sent 400,000 barrels of oil to alleviate the acute electricity crisis on the island[ii].
Investments
Pressure from the political and media establishment was not long in coming. An editorial in The Wall Street Journal, the newspaper with the largest print circulation in the U.S., condemned this shipment of oil to Cuba and issued a clear threat: this is “another reason why companies are doubting Mexico as a place to invest”[iii]. The Mexican mainstream press, in the hands of the right wing, disseminated this message of business panic: we live in “uncertainty as to whether the President’s domestic policy will drive investments away from Mexico”[iv].
The Wall Street Journal repeated the usual lies of the Miami mafia, such as that in Cuba “there is no blockade” and that the “aid” from the countries only serves “to finance its military forces, intelligence agents and secret police”[v].
Loans
But the threats to Mexico are not only in the field of investments. Also in the field of finances. “The US cancels a loan to Pemex of 800 million dollars for giving oil to Cuba”[vi] was the alleged news – flatly denied by the Government of Claudia Sheinbaum[vii]– published by several Mexican media[viii] [ ix].
Whistleblowers
Each line of attack in the US government’s economic war against Cuba has its collaborating organizations and agents. In the field of energy, there is a key character: his name is Jorge Piñón, he is a former executive of several US oil companies, and today he works at the Energy Institute of the University of Texas[x]. From there, he acts as an expert analyst on Cuba’s energy situation for numerous media outlets, be they anti-Castro, agencies such as Reuters[xi] and Efe[xii], newspapers such as El Financiero[xiii], El Mundo[xiv], El País[xv] and El Miami Herald[xvi], or the BBC itself[xvii].
Through the Marine Vessel Traffic[xviii] ship locator platform, Piñón provides detailed data on the number of oil shipments to Cuba, the location of the ports, the routes or the names of shipping companies and ships used, both from Mexico and from Venezuela, Russia and other countries[xix]. This precise work is undoubtedly used by the US Treasury Department to circumvent the justified secrecy of Cuba’s and its allies’ operations and to impose sanctions on shipping companies[xx].
Jorge Piñón, born in Cuba, arrived in the U.S. at the age of 12 in the so-called Operation Peter Pan[xxi], a plan for the evacuation of minors, after the triumph of the Revolution, organized by the CIA and the Catholic Church[xxii].
Far from presenting a technical and neutral profile, his analyses have an absolutely politicized bias. “There is no change in the Cuban electricity sector until the Government changes its economic model”, he repeats over and over again[xxiii]. Because the problem “is not the embargo” (of the U.S.), but the “bad management” of Cuba[xxiv]. Unbelievable. Because any minimally serious analyst knows that the U.S. war against all sources of foreign currency in Cuba has left this country without capital, provoked an acute fuel deficit and the breakdown, due to lack of resources, of its electrical system[xxv]. Not to mention the specific and systematic persecution and fines to shipping companies and ships, with the purpose of preventing, delaying or making the entry of oil into the island more expensive[xxvi].
Piñón declared to the newspaper El País that “Cuba needs 8 (…) billion dollars” to “recapitalize the electro-energy sector”[xxvii]. And how is it going to get them if its trade and investments are persecuted and, due to its inclusion in the list of “terrorist countries”, it lacks bank credit? Piñón assures us that Cuba should imitate Vietnam in “changing its economic model” and thus “attract foreign investors”[xxviii]. And what Helms-Burton Law, which persecutes all foreign investment, does Vietnam have, Mr. Piñón[xxix]?
The U.S. Government is the cause of Cuba’s energy crisis. And this is so obvious that it needs an army of informers and collaborating agents to justify its genocidal policy[xxx].
Source: Cubainformacion. tv, translation Resumen Latinoamericano – English
====