ALBA Leaders Back Venezuela against US Threats

I am glad that the governments of the ALBA nations realize that unity and solidarity is more important now than ever.

I just hope that Raul Castro understands the risk he takes in letting the USA back into the door.

Why is he taking the risk? Two reasons. First, because of the depressed oil prices (they are falling yet again) Cuba cannot rely on Venezuela for help. Second, socialist nations (like Cuba) usually become crippled by bureaucracy. Eventually the only work that people do is to hold on to their little place in the bureaucracy. The economy slows down, and eventually dies.

However, when you address the problem of bureaucracy by opening the door to “market reforms,” your nation quickly reverts to a plutocracy with a huge and ever-widening gap between rich and poor. No more free education or free medical care for the 99%. No more food or fuel subsidies. No more help with housing. Rich people rule everything. Unemployment takes off. The masses are put under financial stress. People stop talking to their neighbors. In Honduras (a paradise of “market reforms”) the rich live in fortified palaces, while local “government” takes the form of gangs of killers and thieves.

I fear that this could happen to Cuba.

From the article above…

”Ecuador’s Foreign Minister criticized the U.S. during his intervention: ‘what can the U.S. teach us about human rights…(it) imposes lifetime jail sentences against children and teenagers …the country that has made torture legal and …developed the most powerful mass surveillance system.”

Yes. Just to be clear, the USA is the only country in the world that sentences juveniles to life without possibility of parole. Around 2,500 people in the US are now serving life sentences without parole for crimes committed when they were children. 60 percent of these are Black, even though Blacks make up only 12.6% of the US population. (Incidentally, only one in five food stamp recipients are Black.)

In 2012 the US Supreme Court outlawed mandatory sentencing of children to life without parole, but judges still have discretionary power to sentence kids to life without parole.

Regardless of your feeling in this matter, you must admit that the US is hypocritical when it mentions the term “human rights.” Life sentences for children are banned under many international standards, including the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the Convention Against Torture, and the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child – tenets of which the US and South Sudan have signed but not ratified, the only two nations not to do so.

South Sudan Is the country that, under US sponsorship, broke away from Sudan in July 2011 and became a separate country. Sudan itself, to the north, is an enemy of US imperialism. Although it does not recognize South Sudan’s independence, it has cut off South Sudan, casing famine and war in the latter. (Welcome to US-sponsored independence, suckers.)

@ LASILENCIA: I mentioned Blacks above.

This is an unrelated topic, but I wish to share my feelings, because I think you will understand.

I deplore racism, but my sympathy for Blacks, for example, ends at the point where they start preying on each other. Below are some photos from Ferguson Missouri.

Blacks don’t like racist cops, so what do blacks do? They attack each other. I have no patience with this.
https://quatloosx.files.wordpress.com/2014/07/ferguson_01.jpg
https://quatloosx.files.wordpress.com/2014/07/ferguson_02.jpg
https://quatloosx.files.wordpress.com/2014/07/ferguson_03.jpg
https://quatloosx.files.wordpress.com/2014/07/ferguson_04.jpg

In fairness to the black rioters, most of them are young, bored, and anxious, with a lot of energy and pent up anger. They’re like children who destroy their own bedrooms in order to “punish” their parents. That said, I don’t want to listen to their whining when they wake up the next morning and realize that they have destroyed their own nest.

On a different note, the only nations in Latin America that I would call “leftist” are the ALBA nations.

The rest are plutocracies, and their governments are (to varying extents) US allies. That includes Brazil and Argentina.

Peru’s government is radically pro-USA. Last month the Peruvian congress passed its own Enabling Act to crush poor people who rebel. This year, 3,500 US Marines will be stationed on US military bases in Peru. Fifty-eight Marines arrived on 1 Feb 2015. Two weeks later, 67 more marines arrived. On 1 Sep 2015, another 3,200 Marines will embark from the amphibious assault vessel “America.” Simultaneously the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS George Washington will dock at Puerto Callao in Peru. The U. S. Fourth Fleet, reactivated in 2008 to support missions in Latin America, has operational control of both vessels.

Source (in Spanish):
http://www.defensa.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=14742:arribo-al-peru-el-segundo-contingente-de-soldados-de-eeuu&catid=55:latinoamerica&Itemid=163

The growing military occupation is part of the US effort to recapture the ALBA nations, and assert financial dominance over all of Latin America.

That’s 588 million people waiting to be re-enslaved by the IMF and World Bank.

Heaven help us. I like to believe there is a growing awareness amongst the Hispanic population.

On the riot situation, may I add that like Latin America, I am sure there are students or young adults that are paid to cause riots and distractions in this country too. I’m not excusing this behavior, just saying….there are many ways to look at this, but not in a positive view.