25 truths of Robert Kennedy Jr. on Cuba and the United States

The nephew of President John F. Kennedy and son of his attorney Robert F. Kennedy recalls some truths about the conflict between Cuba and the United States.

1. President Obama decided to restore diplomatic relations with Cuba “after five decades of misguided policy which my uncle John F. Kennedy and Robert F. Kennedy my father are responsible and strengthened after the establishment of an American embargo by the 1960 Eisenhower administration. ”

2. The pretext of democracy and human rights to justify hostility toward Cuba is not credible. Indeed, “there are real tyrants in the world and many countries with a situation worse than Cuba human rights [...] where torture, enforced disappearances, religious intolerance, suppression of freedom of speech and assembly The medieval oppression of women, fraudulent elections and extrajudicial executions are government practices, and yet are US allies. “3. “While we accuse Cuba of imprisoning and mistreating political prisoners, we subjected to torture prisoners, many of whom were innocent according to the Pentagon’s own confessions, including waterboarding, illegal arrests and imprisonment without trial in Guantánamo cells. ”

4. “It is ironic that policymakers who claim that Castro must punish violations of human rights and abuse in Cuban prisons say, moreover, that the United States has reason to mistreat our own prisoners in Cuban jails” in Guantánamo.

5. “While we accuse Cuba of not allowing its citizens to travel freely to the United States, we prevent our own citizens travel freely to Cuba”.6. “It seems absurd to pursue a foreign policy repeating a strategy that has been a monumental failure for six decades.”

7. “The definition of insanity is repeating the same action over and over again and expecting different results. In this sense, the embargo is crazy. ”

8. “It is clear to everyone that the embargo [...] unfairly punishes ordinary Cubans.”

9. The sanctions against Cuba are the main obstacle “to economic development to make all goods and all kinds of equipment are the astronomically expensive and hard to come again.”10. Economic sanctions are responsible for the current situation in Cuba.

11. The economic sanctions “constantly remind the brave Cuban people that our mighty nation, who organized an invasion of his island, he conspired for decades to assassinate its leaders, who sabotaged his industry maintains its aggressive campaign to ruin their economy.”

12. The sanctions policy, which aims to overthrow the established order in Cuba, is a total failure. It is “the longest history and the Castro regime is still in power.”

13. “The embargo clearly discredits the foreign policy of the United States, not only in Latin America but also in Europe and other regions.”14. The international community unanimously condemned the siege against Cuba, as did the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and the African Union.

15. The sanctions against Cuba hurt “our global prestige and moral authority” and make “the world deems hypocritical to America”.

16. If President Kennedy not been assassinated, would have ended sanctions against Cuba.

17. “President Kennedy told Castro, through intermediaries, that the United States would end the embargo” if Cuba stopped exporting revolution in Latin America.18. The Soviets left Cuba in 1991 “but the American embargo is still hitting the Cuban economy.”

19. “If the goal of our foreign policy in Cuba is to promote freedom for the oppressed citizens, we should be open to them and no lock”.

20. The economic sanctions against the Cuban people are condemned to “disappear”.

21.”Imagine that a president of the United States, as in the case of Castro, had had to face more than 400 assassination attempts, thousands of acts of sabotage organized by a foreign power against our people, our factories, our bridges, an armed invasion supported by foreign and fifty years of economic war that our citizens have deprived of the most basic supplies and have strangled our economy. ”

22. Despite its limited resources and economic siege imposed by Washington, Cuba has achieved “impressive results” with the highest literacy rate in the continent, universal and free access to health and “more doctors per capita than any other nation in the Americas. ”

23. The Cuban doctors have an excellent level of training.

24.”Contrary to other Caribbean islands where poverty is synonymous with famine, all Cubans receive a food book that allows them to meet their needs.”

25. “We have much to learn from Cuba”.

* PhD in Iberian and Latin American Studies at the University Paris Sorbonne-Paris IV, SalimLamrani is professor at the University of Reunion and journalist specializing in relations between Cuba and the United States. His latest book is titled Cuba, the Media, and the Challenge of Impartiality, New York, Monthly Review Press, 2014, with a foreword by Eduardo Galeano.