End Cuba blockade now, urges Alba summit

[Mika]

Interesting that a majority of Americans want to end the standoff, a majority of both left and right view it as ineffective if not counter productive, but yet the US "democratic" process prevents it.

End Cuba blockade now, urges Alba summit
http://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/index.php/news/content/view/full/89392?

Latin America's left-wing leaders have demanded the "immediate and unconditional end" to the US blockade of Cuba and slated international media corporations for distorting the truth about the continent's progressive governments.

Heads of state of the member nations of the Bolivarian Alternative for the Peoples of our America (Alba) meeting in Caracas tore into the unilateral US embargo and declared that President Barack Obama's policies on Cuba were "continuing the imperialism that promotes war."

Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez was joined by Cuba's President Raul Castro and the leaders of Ecuador, Bolivia, Nicaragua and several Caribbean island states in declaring a "manifesto of independence" that calls on the US government to accept "the will of the peoples of Latin America."

The manifesto, which celebrates the 200th anniversary of the beginning of Latin America's fight for independence from the Spanish empire, also demanded the immediate release of the Cuban Miami five "anti-terrorist heroes who are unjustly imprisoned in US jails."

Mr Chavez pointed out that as well as blockading Cuba, the US still maintained a colonial grip" on Puerto Rico, whose fight for "independence and national sovereignty from US imperialism must be supported."

The joint communique from the Alba summit also criticised multinational media corporations controlled by wealthy individuals which "serve the interests of imperialism and are against the interests and aspirations of social movements and peoples of Latin America."

It declared: "We condemn the lies, distortion, slander and deliberate omission used by media corporations that monopolise communication channels with their large financial resources.

"We assert our right to reject the hypocrisy and double standards of the American media, whose editorial policies target the revolutionary and progressive governments in Latin America and the Caribbean and the peoples of the region."

The Latin American and Caribbean leaders also pledged to continue towards their goal of uniting their countries "politically, economically and socially, with the fullest integration possible between our peoples."

A further international summit gathering representatives of the indigenous and Afro-American peoples of Latin America will take place in Ecuador in June.

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[subsuelo]

1. Their cause is our cause, and it is just. n/t

[Judi Lynn]

2. Thanks for the article. Viva Alba. n/t