The Empire’s Blogger
By Stella Calloni for CubaDebate – Español: La “bloguera” del imperio
Translated and edited by Machetera
During the most recent years and now too, like a cursed inheritance, the White House image has begun to deteriorate further – if such a thing were possible – around the world; as it resorts to the use of crude and unsustainable people in brutal coups d’etat such as that of the putschist Roberto Micheletti in Honduras, and employing other people in the same way, for deadly or silly operettas directed toward the same end, masked as “humanitarian” actions.
Although on the one hand, it played at fake “negotiations” in order to gain time in Honduras, a country occupied by the U.S. military through its bases and troops, when it comes to actions against Cuba or Venezuela and other countries, the U.S. has used such discredited people that its strategy ends up boomeranging.
Washington’s over-acting is evident when it comes to Cuba, through the support that President Barack Obama gave to Yoani Sánchez, a woman whose name was until now absolutely unknown, and who acts just like those who seek quick money and recognition by helping the CIA in its work to destroy the Cuban revolution no matter what.
Apparently, Sánchez’s job is to call attention and provide sustenance to an absolutely impoverished international press, which forces its journalists to submit to the humiliation of swallowing whole, stories that are patently contradictory, false, and unverifiable.
But since the role that has been assigned to them is to report as much news as might be useful for the insistent dirty or psychological war, no matter that in certain cases it still has nothing to show for it – look at the latest U.N. vote against the blockade of Cuba – they have to accept the situation for what it is. Business pays, business calls the shots. That’s the extent of their phony “independence.”
Neither Obama nor his advisers have had the same attitude toward other young Cuban “bloggers,” who attempted to uncover the reason for the long blockade, which has caused an astonishing level of human and economic damage, and has hugely violated the human rights of the Cuban people. Instead the White House moved to “protect” a “blogger” whose only objective is to win for herself the support of the enemies that threaten Cuba, among them the Miami terrorists sheltered by the United States government.
This, despite a bloody history of crimes, first, against the Cuban people but also against Latin Americans, Africans and North Americans, as shown by the hundreds of unpunished terrorist actions that these people have carried out against U.S. society. There’s nothing more awful than terrorism exercised against the people to force them into submission, such as with these actions and the blockade itself, going on now nearly 50 years, something this unusual “blogger” does not protest.
Only state terrorism that prides itself as such, conceals the crimes of terrorist groups. The image of Luis Posada Carriles and his buddies, wandering freely in the United States, after the variety of crimes against humanity which they have committed with impunity, is a symbol of the terrorist hypocrisy of a state.
The Cuban journalist Norelys Morales Aguilera tells how last June 17, 2009, a group of Cuban journalism students studying for their Masters’ degrees in Sancti Spíritus, Cuba, “addressed President Barack Obama, sending him a questionnaire, equally deserving of a response such as that which he granted the mercenary Yoani Sánchez.” They wrote to President Obama: “…taking into account that the White House website has as its mission the highlighting of current government initiatives that benefit the Hispanic community and enhance the quality of information and services in Spanish.”
They continued, “We know that you are an admirer of new technologies – it was mentioned in our class today. It’s regrettable that you can’t receive us at the White House, because we’d like to ask you a number of questions, although this would surely bother the ultra-rightwing in the U.S. Since you are the president of a completely free country, just like ours, we are attaching the following questionnaire.”
The questionnaire asked what the president thought of the five Cubans, prisoners serving stunning sentences for simply having gathered information, not about the United States, but about the terrorists in Miami who’ve plagued Cuba throughout its history and who were making new criminal plans.
They also suggested that being an “extremely humane person, [Obama should] examine the case of the Five, following the Supreme Court decision not to hear their case, despite the numerous requests that came from all over the world. “Could you look over this case and do it real justice?” the young students asked, reminding him that while running for the U.S. presidency, he’d announced that if he won, he would bring about changes in relations with Cuba.
The text was signed by Carlos Rafael Diéguez in the name of all his fellow students, from the network of “Revolutionary Bloggers and Correspondents.”
They added: “When will the people of the United States be able to visit Cuba, and when will the blockade, or so-called embargo, of our country end? (…) When can journalists such as myself and other colleagues from the Cuban media be able to conduct an interview to talk about the Five Heroes and the blockade? (…) Do the Cuban people have the right to choose the social system we desire, or is the U.S. model the only right that exists? Posada Carriles was proven at trial to be the intellectual author of the monstrous crime of bringing down a Cuban airplane mid-flight (1976). This killer escaped from prison in Venezuela and today wanders freely through the streets of the United States. What do you think, Mr. President? Is this case comparable to that of the Five Cuban Heroes?”
They received an automated response suggesting that they should call the White House by telephone. Basically a mockery.
What Washington needs to remember is that one of Cuba’s serious problems is that the blockade itself impedes the speed of communication, keeping the Cuban people incommunicado, while their government has to perform a juggling act to deal with it. Of course the empire’s “blogger” has no such problems. She writes, and the president answers, something that has not happened with the urgent requests from the neediest sectors of U.S. society.
I agree with the Cuban journalist mentioned above, that it is seriously doubtful that Yoani Sánchez could have “reached” President Obama while the young students who sent this serious questionnaire, seeking an explanation about whatever is making a change in U.S. policy toward Cuba impossible were ignored, in the face of the abundant evidence that the world is demanding a change from Washington.
It occurs to me that governments in Washington are already not the decisive force, that U.S. presidents perform with their hands tied, or are simply complicit with the mandates of the mafias of imperial power, which as in all imperial schemes do not rely on reason, but force.
These questions sent by the Cuban students are not the only messages that President Obama has received, after creating such great expectations surrounding his arrival to the presidency, and the symbolism this arrival had for blacks and Hispanics in the United States, who’ve suffered such discrimination and persecution. It’s vital that the President abandon once and for all the old exercise of U.S. double standards that have sown so much damage, death and violence throughout the world.
Machetera is a member of Tlaxcala, the network of translators for linguistic diversity. This translation may be reprinted as long as the content remains unaltered, and the source, author, and translator are cited.
