Translated "Avante!" article by Angelo Alves, Member of the Political Committee of the CC and inenber of the International Department
The news is spreading fast. Barack Obama, the president of the USA ,ought to visit Cuba in March 21, 22nd, next. The news was confirmed by the Cuban Foreign Affairs Ministry and the White House, on February 19th. Obama’s Press Secretary’s cabinet, released a written communiqué, stating the visit will serve to “ensure the progress developed towards the normalization concerning the relations with Cuba”. The note insists in some of the USA rhetoric’s, namely when referring to “ the support of Human Rights” and underlines that Barack Obama ought to meet , beyond all the official occasions, - “with members of the civil society, business entrepreneurs and Cubans belonging to all society spheres”.
In Cuba, the news was released during a press conference, by Josefina Vidal Ferreiro, the director-general for the USA, from Minrex, with the right and time of posing questions. The initial affirmation was peremptory and unequivocal: “The USA president will be welcomed by the government of Cuba and its people, with its well-known hospitality and is “to be addressed with all respect and consideration”. Words, with a huge historical and political meaning. As a president of the USA has not stepped on the Cuban land, for almost a century. Calvin Coolidge, was the last one to come, in 1928. The Platt Amendment was in force and the people of Cuba lived in poverty and oppression under the Gerardo Machado dictatorship, at the USA service. But, the political and historical weight of these statements go far ahead, if one considers they regard the visit of the highest representative of a nation which the successive governments are responsible for endless pressures and interferences, unquestionable defamatory campaigns, numerous conspiracy plans and hundreds of crimes against Cuba, its people, leaders and Revolution.
The dignity and security with which Cuba announces the president of the USA’s visit, is notable. As well as the objectivity and transparency it defines its limits, by affirming that “ it ought to represent another step towards the improvement of the Cuba and the United States relations”; that” in order to achieve the normality of those bilateral relations, delayed key-matters ought to be resolved , including the blockade lifting and the devolution of the illegally occupied territory by the Guantanamo naval base”; and that, the desire of the Cuban government to build that new relationship ought to be “based on the United Nations Charter principles and purposes, as well as the Latin America and the Caribbean proclamation principles as a Peace Zone “, “built upon the respect for differences and mutual benefits”.
Obama’s visit takes place during a specially important period of the Cuban political life and is , in itself, a victory for Cuba. A victory that brings to an end, numerous myths and facts, and firstly, by the presence of the USA president tearing apart the blockade his own government imposes on Cuba, or instead the myth of the “communist dictatorship” diplomatically isolated from the whole world , and where its people live in poverty and oppressed.
The moment is unique and symbolic. It takes place three weeks away from the VII Congress of the Communist Party of Cuba (16 to 19th April), a date that celebrates the proclamation of the 55th anniversary of the socialist nature Cuban Revolution, and besides, a few weeks from Pope Francis and Cyril I having chosen Havana to the taking place of their first meeting in almost a thousand years, between the Catholic and Orthodox churches’ leaders.
When the world runs, under the action of powers such as the USA, towards a crisis abyss, war and fascist drifts , Obama’s visit to Cuba is good news. One has no illusions about the USA’s objectives on Cuba, which carry on in the essential, and ought not to change with this visit, but this historical fact is positive and is a victory, in itself, of those who have resisted for over half a century, insisting in the path towards socialism, peace and friendship among peoples.