Cuba: the new Constitution

Over 6.8 million Cubans voted Yes last Sunday, thus ratifying the new Constitution of the Republic of Cuba, according to preliminary information offered Monday afternoon in Havana by Alina Balseiro, president of the National Electoral Commission.

That number of votes represents 86.85 percent of support with respect to the total votes cast, which were 7,848,343, which in turn represents 84.41 percent of the updated list of voters.

Of the total number of ballots cast, 7,522,569 (95.85 percent) were valid, 198,674 (2.53 percent) were blank, and 127,100 (1.62 percent) were annulled.

The NO option received 706,400 votes, equivalent to nine percent of the total votes cast.

A total of 9,298,277 voters were called to vote this Sunday, according to the updated list, which includes more than 634,000 inclusions that respond to the possibility given by Cuban law that voters may exercise their right to vote in a polling station different from the one that corresponds to their place of residence.

Balseiro recalled that for this reason these are preliminary figures and in the next few days the official results will be reported, including the vote abroad, after the process of validation and compatibility of the list of voters, said the official during a press conference in front of Cuban and foreign media.

She affirmed that the day passed in a very satisfactory and favorable way with a high attendance to the citizen's colleges and the electoral authorities fulfilled the role that corresponded to them.

The Magna Carta that was submitted for consultation this Sunday was approved by the National Assembly of People's Power on December 22 after 60 percent of its content was modified based on the proposals emanating from the process of popular consultation that took place from August 13 to November 15, 2018.

This Sunday Cubans went to the polls in a day characterized by the transparency in the process and the massiveness of the voters who had to answer the question: Do you ratify the new Constitution of the Republic?

From: http://www.radiorebelde.cu/english/news/cubans-ratify-new-constitution-of-the-republic-20190226/

CANADA MUST UPHOLD  THE RIGHT TO  SELF-DETERMINATION! -Statement of the CNC  Canadian Network On Cuba, January 27, 2019 - The Canadian Network On Cuba (CNC) denounces Washington’s campaign of destabilization against the sovereign and legitimate government of Venezuela.

The efforts to overthrow the government of President Nicolas Maduro is a flagrant, blatant and unconscionable violation of the right of self-determination of the people of Venezuela.

Ottawa has not been a disinterested party, an innocent bystander. Canada's shameful hand has also been revealed. Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland has thrown the weight of the Canadian state behind the Trump scheme to re-impose U.S. imperial dominion. The shameful and naked alignment of the Canadian state with the criminal policy of the U.S. is deeply disturbing and alarming. By playing a leading role in orchestrating subversion, Ottawa has become an unapologetic extension of the U.S.State Department, engaged in open collusion and collaboration in the violation of fundamental principles of international law.

A core guiding principle of the CNC and and the Canada-Cuba solidarity movement is the affirmation of the inalienable right of all peoples and countries to determine their future and their political, economic and social system without external interference. This right is enshrined in the United Nations Charter, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Declaration on Principles of International Law Concerning Friendly Relations and Co-Operation Among States in Accordance with the Charter of the United Nations.

Washington's frenzied efforts to organize a coup has nothing to do with genuine solidarity with the Venezuelan people or democracy, but all to do with negating Venezuela's right to self-determination. The Trump regime's objective is to turn back the wheel of history by reasserting U.S. control and tutelage over that proud South American nation.

Canada's relations with all countries, especially those of the Americas, should be based on mutual respect and equality, not on outmoded colonialist ideas and practices. It is the right and only the right of the people and country of Venezuela - as for any other people and country - to determine without foreign intervention or the threat of foreign intervention what political and economic system they wish to live under.

The Canadian Network on Cuba calls on Canadians to reject the policy of subversion and economic aggression that Ottawa is pursuing. Please write to your member of parliament to urge Canada to reject any interference in Venezuela and an end to economic and political interference. We call for respect for the Maduro government democratically elected in May 2018. The Canadian people must stand with those countries who resolutely defend their sovereignty and independence rather than submit to imperial diktat and return to imperial dominion.

On behalf of the Canadian Network on Cuba Isaac Saney, CNC Co-Chair & National Spokesperson

 US State Department Reviewing Application of  

      Title III Helms-Burton Act

On January 16, 2019, the U.S. State Department announced a decision to suspend for only 45 days the application of Title III of the Helms-Burton Act, "to conduct a careful review ... in light of U.S. national interests and efforts to accelerate a transition to democracy in Cuba, and to include such elements as the regime's brutal oppression of human rights and fundamental freedoms and its inexcusable support for the increasingly authoritarian and corrupt regimes of Venezuela and Nicaragua.

The government of President Donald Trump threatens to take a new step that would dangerously reinforce the blockade against Cuba, flagrantly violate international law, and directly attack the sovereignty and interests of third countries.

Cuba rejects that threat in the strongest, strongest and most categorical manner.  It assumes it as a hostile act of extreme arrogance and irresponsibility, while repudiating the disrespectful and slanderous language of the State Department's public message.

The Helms-Burton Act went into effect in 1996. It was conceived to codify and harden the policy of economic, commercial and financial blockade officially imposed in 1962, with the objective of subverting and overthrowing the government of Cuba and imposing a regime to the liking of the government of the United States.

It consists of four titles and has been applied since its promulgation. It is characterized by its extreme extraterritorial scope, for violating the norms and principles of International Law, for contravening the rules of trade and international economic relations and for being harmful to the sovereignty of other States, mainly by the application of its provisions against companies and persons established in their territory.

It has been rejected by the international community almost unanimously in the United Nations, in specialized international organizations and in regional organizations such as the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States and the African Union. Several countries have national laws to deal with the extraterritorial effects of this law.

Among the central objectives of the Helms-Burton Act has been to hinder Cuba's economic, commercial and financial relations with third countries and to affect its ability to attract direct foreign capital investment for its development. Titles III and IV of the law are expressly devoted to this purpose.

Title III authorizes U.S. nationals to file lawsuits before U.S. courts against any foreigner who "traffics" in U.S. property that was nationalized in Cuba in the 1960s, in a legitimate process, as recognized by the U.S. Supreme Court, carried out by the Cuban government in full compliance with national law and international law.

Among the most significant aberrations, this title extends this authorization to owners who were not U.S. citizens at the time of the nationalizations and whose alleged properties no one has certified.

By virtue of the provisions of the Helms-Burton Act itself, all U.S. Presidents since 1996, including Trump in 2017 and 2018, have made consecutive use of the executive power to suspend the application of Title III every six months in order to recognize that it consists of the grossest and most unacceptable aspect of this against international law and the sovereignty of other states. Also because it understands that its application would cause insurmountable obstacles to any prospect of settlement of claims and compensation to legitimate U.S. owners.

For its part, the Provincial People's Court of Havana, on November 2, 1999, declared the Lawsuit against the Government of the United States of America for Human Damages Waived and sanctioned it to repair and compensate the Cuban people in the amount of $181.1 billion dollars and, on May 5, 2000, also for Economic Damages caused to Cuba and sentenced it in the amount of $121 billion dollars.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has reiterated Cuba's willingness to find a solution to mutual claims and compensation.

This decision, which the U.S. government threatens to adopt, would imply that, contrary to international law and the practice of international relations, foreign individuals and entities with legitimate business in Cuba may be faced with the threat of facing unfounded and illegitimate claims before U.S. courts. The politically motivated and venal conduct of some Florida courts, frequently used as a weapon against Cuba, is well known.

For our people, it means facing once again, in a firm, conscious and forceful manner, the determination of U.S. imperialism to subdue the United States.

Translated from Granma with www.DeepL.com/Translator

Elizabeth Hill

elizzhill@gmail.com