 Welcome to what the F is going on in Latin America and the Caribbean, CodePink's weekly YouTube program of hot news out of the region. In partnership with Friends of Latin America, Massachusetts Peace Action, and Task Force on the Americas, we broadcast every Wednesday, 4.30 p.m. Pacific, 7.30 p.m. Eastern. Today, we bring to you the very special edition of our broadcast. Today's episode will be partially in Spanish with English translation. Please join us on Zoom if you would like translation. And in a moment, I will post the Zoom link in the YouTube chat so that you can join us if you would like the Spanish to English translation. So let me do that right now before I introduce the rest of the program. Give me just a minute. I think I have the, it should be there for you. And now let me give me a minute to introduce our subject this afternoon and our wonderful guest. You're all going to be very thrilled with our speaker this afternoon. So on October 18 through 19 in Qingdao, China, Cuba was introduced as a new member of the Belt and Road Energy Initiative Partnership during the partnership's second ministerial conference. Cuba joins Bolivia, Venezuela, and Suriname as the fourth Latin American country to become a member of the energy partnership. In 2019, Cuba officially joined the then four-year-old Belt and Road Initiative, which is planning to disperse $8 trillion for infrastructure projects, mostly in developing nations around the globe. On October 20, a shipment of the Cuban abdala and soberana COVID-19 vaccines was received in Nicaragua. Health Minister Martha Reyes reported that the shipment contains 1.2 million for voluntary immunization. The minister also noted recall showing an efficacy rate of 90% in preventing severe cases. This is the first shipment of the 7 million doses purchased by Nicaragua through the Cuban organization of biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries known as Cuba Farma. In November, we are hearing threats of an opposition rally in an opposition to the Cuban community. And so we have today with Pereira, who is from Cuba, N.E.L. So welcome on hell and honor to have you with us this afternoon. Thank you very much. It is a pleasure to be with you in your program and in this Code Pink channel that so much admiration awakens from my side. And here I am willing to answer the questions that are able to answer. So, well, we know that you're a fantastic journalist. We all love you here in Mexico City. Oh, okay, well, okay, so we are all so honored to have you here with us somehow because you're such a well-known journalist here in Mexico City and throughout Mexico. So we're thrilled for you to have time to talk with us today. Let's talk just briefly before we get into some of the specific topics on Cuba. Can you give us just a brief synopsis of what progressive journalism looks like here in Mexico? And then let's talk about Cuba joining the Belt and Road Electrical Initiative or Energy Initiative. Excuse me. So the periodism in Mexico, what I can say is that there are very good journalists, but unfortunately, the vast majority of the media is in the hands of large capitalists. And therefore, they defend the interests of the capital, the interests of neoliberalism, of capitalism and give a very distorted version, very distorted, on the action of the current government of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador. In such a way that you can virtually say that you have to read the Mexican media backwards when they talk about the government of López Obrador to get an idea of what is happening here. Unfortunately, there are a series of alternative media from websites that have prestige, have many followers, but undoubtedly that this barrage of the large hegemonic media somehow makes sense, because all they do is lie about and callumize about the action of the government of López Obrador. So well, you know, the one thing that is interesting here being an extraordinary living here for a year now is that it's so the vision that the Mexican president has for Mexican foreign policy and the vision of creating a unified economic block, political block for the Americas is profoundly inspiring. And yet, you know, the contradictions with between foreign Mexican foreign policy and Mexican domestic policy are very distinct. Yes, this government has come to play a role of primordial importance in Latin American and Caribbean politics, because you know that the CELAC was a great conquest of the peoples of Latin America and the Caribbean, of progressive governments in the time when Chávez was president in Venezuela, Lula in Brazil, Neto in Argentina, Pepe Mujica in Uruguay, Evo, Correa, etc. In this time, and even in the Caribbean, you have to take into account the small states of the Caribbean that have a very progressive role in general in the politics of the region and have very brave attitudes both in the UN and in the U.S., in defense of the sovereignty of the unity of the integration of Latin America. You don't talk about those states of the Caribbean and look, in Chávez one day we can dedicate a program to the Caribbean and to the small states of the Caribbean, because really they play a very important role and no one talks about them and, for example, you don't know their leaders. So I'm not going to stop on that because I would defy the topic, but the arrival of López Obrador to Mexico meant that the cellar that was in intensive therapy there, that it was not gathered like that for five years, for the first time it would be gathered again with an agenda to face the COVID in the continent. Mexico has pushed a lot the production of vaccines, it has made very important gestures not only for Mexico, but for all Latin America, joining forces with the Argentine government. Now it's also been approved by one of the Cuban vaccines, ABDALA, it has already approved by the scientific committee, which is the first instance. Now the second step is missing, but I suppose that within a few weeks we will have the news of the approval of the ABDALA vaccine in Mexico and for its use in the Mexican population against the COVID-19, I think that's going to be a very important step. Andres Manuel López Obrador's speech also in Chapultepec Castle in front of the cellar where he said that he considered that Cuba, due to its resistance, could be called as the nuance of the 21st century, referring to that Spanish city that made so much resistance to the Romans, the legendary for its resistance, that Cuba should receive the award of dignity and also that he proposed that Cuba be considered as the heritage of humanity. These are statements that almost no state leaders have made, neither in Latin America nor in any part. It really was a huge valentine, extraordinary, but ABDALA Obrador strongly condemned the blockade of the United States against Cuba, he considered it an indomitable, repudiable thing. He said in another later speech that if the United States carried out, managed to carry out, the surrender of the Cuban people for hunger, that he thought it would not be like that, but that if he got it, it would be a channel of such nature that he would not reach the water of all the oceans to wash that stain in the history of the United States. That's how he said to President López Obrador, but apart from that, he said that the government should not be limited to vote against the blockade in the United States, but that they should take concrete action and he was saying that and at that moment he was reaching Cuba a Mexican boat loaded with oxygen. In a moment when Cuba was lacking oxygen and Cuba was at the peak of the pandemic, there was a huge number of thousands of cases and at that moment the Obrador was talking at the port of Veracruz, and this was not in the Jopultepec castle, it was two days later at the port of Veracruz, it was one of the morning calls, which are those press conferences that the president does every day in the morning, or at least on Monday to Friday. And when he said that, he was reaching the port with oxygen, but they were also loading in the port of Veracruz two ports with sanitary material, medicines and food for Cuba, which quickly arrived and were distributed to the Cuban people. In Cuba there is a huge gratitude. There has always been a great love, a great sympathy for Mexico, because the ties that join the two peoples in the cultural order, in the political order, in the order of ideas, in all the fields practically of life, there is a huge interrelation between Cuba and Mexico, well, from the conquest itself, because unfortunately Cortés left Cuba and since then this relationship began, although it had been documented, previously it has a relationship between the original peoples of Cuba and Mexico, that is to say, there were boats from Yucatán that arrived to the west of Cuba and vice versa, but in the contemporary era it is from the conquest that a great relationship began, where well, just to tell you, for example, the bolero and the danzón are two musical manifestations, Cuban, Mexican, because they have developed, they have created and have evolved, nourished by the creativity of the Cuban composers and Mexican composers, of the Cuban orchestras and of the Mexican orchestras, and so, if you were seeing in each of the fields of life, well, there are tremendous relationships, and to close this part I am going to say that, look, only the presence of Mexican revolutionary military in the wars of independence of Cuba and Cuban revolutionary military in the war against Texas, in the war against annexation, when the United States brought half of Mexico with the aggression of 1848, in the war against the French there were generals and coronels and Cuban officers, in the same way that the Mexican Jews in Cuba in the wars of independence, it is really a very beautiful story, of solidarity, that is why I tell you that something comes from behind. Well, I have to say this is really wonderful, I'm really learning something, listening to you today, it's really exciting. I have to say when, as you know, you're here in Mexico City when President Diaz-Canal arrived for the select summit in September, the city was just very welcome, the city and the country of Mexico just welcomed him with open arms, it was a really beautiful thing to see, and I love your anecdote about the music between Cuba and Mexico, because I have to tell you one of the greatest, this is going to sound maybe sort of, you know, corny to you on him, but for me one of the biggest influences in my youth growing up in San Francisco was in the 60s and 70s was the influence of Carlos Santana's music, which of course, when you meet him, talk to him or listen to an interview of him, he will say, he grew up here simultaneously, Cuban music, Mexican music, jazz, all in the community of the San Francisco Mission District in which he grew up, he was born here in Mexico, but grew up there, and so the music is such a huge cultural fusion, yes, it's such a, so I'm so happy to hear you share that with us today. So we all saw the opening of SELAC after a four-year pause, we were thrilled that Amlo invited Cuba, insisted Cuba attend and gave your president such a wonderful welcome, the whole country gave him such a wonderful welcome. Can we talk a little bit, we've talked a little bit about the vaccines, let's talk a little bit about Cuba's biopharma industry, because a very large shipment of Cuban vaccines arrived Nicaragua on the 20th of October. Well, you know that Cuba was left without the immunity of the doctors after the revolution, because the doctors were very close to the Cuban bourgeoisie, even many doctors were part of the bourgeoisie, for example, there were very good pediatrics of the bourgeoisie, by putting only an example that most of them emigrated to the United States and Cuba suddenly has a shortage of doctors and Fidel Castro had a huge vision because he created a system of medical training that quickly not only achieved in a record time and by the way with participation of professors from Latin America and Mexican, I know Mexicans who had a series of professors when this situation occurred in Cuba and it is added to the formation of Cuban doctors, that is also a very beautiful page of international solidarity from Latin America with Cuba and Mexico with Cuba, note that in Cuba there is a hospital that has the name of a great Mexican doctor Enrique Cabrera who was exercising his profession and forming doctors in Cuba, cardiologists in the first years of the revolution, so that Fidel had the vision to promote this program and soon Cuba rebelled the number of doctors he had before the triumph of the revolution and with the passage of a few years it was already in conditions of creating a robust system of primary medical attention and also you have to say also because it is a very important part of this story that although it is not the topic of today that Cuba even in that situation began very early after the triumph of the revolution to send doctors to countries that needed them the first contingent of Cuban doctors goes to Chile for a remote reason the second bargelia recently released from the colonialism of French and with a great caretaker of doctors that Cuba had sent his first medical brigade already to station there for a long time I I was visiting that brigade on an occasion years after this because that brigade went to Argelia in the early 60s 63 64 the independence of Argelia was in 62 more to give in 65 66 must have gone that brigade after that cuba as you know has medical brigades in many other countries and right now in the fight against the cuba state present in 50 countries in the world including countries from Europe like italy in nothing less than in the north of italy in veneto and in Lombardy there have been two cuba brigades at a time of great danger for the Italian population in the north for the spread of the covid and also in andorra there was a cuba brigade who by the way is very grateful just like in Lombardy and in veneto for the extraordinary work that the Cuban doctors did but hey all this is part of that great effort that even Fidel and who believes in the 1960s the national research center of science and from that center they begin to develop a whole series of other research centers and when cuba enters what is what is called a special period that was the economic and social crisis that occurs in cuba as a consequence of the disappearance of the Soviet Union, that is, when the Soviet Union disappears, cuba lost its main market, lost its source of financing and main technology and entered a very difficult situation that could only be faced by the strength of Cuban socialism by the high political conscience of the Cuban people and by all the structures of masses and of democratic participation that the cuban system has and that it keeps, by the way, with a tremendous freshness and in a constant process of renovation and in that moment that cuba is in an economic crisis that we are talking about in 1994-1995 Fidel gives him a new impulse to research and sends a group of cuban doctors to study to study not properly to make a visit to a texas hospital where it was being produced interferon and when they return Fidel finds out that where there really is more information and more possibilities to develop in the production of interferon is in Finland and sends a number of doctors to Finland and when they return in four months they already start producing interferon cuba was the first developed country that produces interferon and the first to use it against viral diseases had a huge experience and there is a cuban pharmacy from interferon that has been very important to prevent death in cuba, look at what cuba has a rate of 0.85 percent in the pandemic and the average of latin america is two and a half so look at how it has much less deaths cuba with regard to the number of patients sick than the other countries of latin america and the Caribbean and it is also below the average worldwide very low and this is a result of this development of interferon but from the interferon it begins to develop all biotechnology and it is first created a modest center and then the genetic engineering and biotechnology center that has a production of drugs not vaccines drugs against cancer drugs against infectious diseases diseases of the skin that is to say there are more and more and many are drugs that do not exist in another country in the world trust me that the genetic engineering center and biotechnology created the first vaccine in the world against meningitis meningococcus there are several vaccines that are cuban authority there is a contra influenza in children that is a type of influenza that kills many children is also a vaccine of cuban production means that there is a tradition in that sense thanks to this huge initiative that Fidel developed and that cuba already has thousands of women and scientific men and I say women and men not only for being please be the equity of the genre is that there are more women than scientific men in cuba and the most part of those who direct the research projects related to covid vaccines in cuba are women that is very important and the director of science and technology at the public health ministry is a woman when you get to see a program of cuban television where there is a group of scientists discussing these issues you realize that women are majority very interesting and this is because cuba was seen in the middle of the pandemic and in the middle of a blockade rescue by the trump administration that took 243 measures to reinforce the blockade that they remain in combat and by the way that the campaign promises that he made in relation to the blockade and in this situation in which cuba did not enter because the pandemic also made that tourism is the main source of income from cuba with axara, that is, the tourist seized that source of income, the United States suppressed the family income, which is a criminal act of a terrible cruelty, imagine that tomorrow the family income was suppressed in Mexico, you can you can assume the social and economic consequences because hundreds of families hundreds of thousands of Mexican families depend on large measures of remit to survive depend on them to capitalize on their small businesses to feed for medical attention, that is, it is a coup d'etat, in addition, remittances grow every year and they also grew in cuba until the moment in which trump prevents remittances and in the middle of this situation cuba is seeing the problem of what with what money we are going to buy the vaccines you know how much it would have needed to buy the vaccines for at least 300 million dollars that cuba did not have the president of canel called the scientists and the task was to create the vaccines and cuba created five vaccine candidates of which three are already approved abdala sovereign 0 2 and sovereign plus that sovereign plus is a vaccine conceived as a reinforcement now that it begins to talk about no cuba conceived the reinforcement from the beginning and the cuban scientists have already realized that a reinforcement was going to be necessary for the characteristics of this virus and you have to say that today 90 percent of the cuban population has at least one dose because there are three cuban vaccines have three doses because it was planned that it was necessary to reinforce the immunological system more instead of with two doses with three and trust me in cuba the use of a fourth dose is already being discussed with the vulnerable people and with the health staff total that you talked about that cuba sent vaccines to nicaragua has also sent to venezuela has signed a contract with vietnam to sell them 100 million doses of vaccines but also gave vietnam a million doses of vaccines also in iran 100,000 people have already been vaccinated with cuban vaccines and the vaccine one of the cuban vaccines sovereign 0 2 is already being produced in iran and also vietnam is going to produce the cuban vaccine abdala that is to say that not only is the sale and the delivery of vaccines in solidarity as in the case of nicaragua but it is also the transference of technology so that countries that are able to produce it as is the case of vietnam or the case of iran will quickly start producing it and they will no longer need that cuba sends them the vaccines because they are going to have the technology and they are going to have cuban scientists there supervising in the first time how they are going to develop it because they are countries that have enough scientific development to later do it by themselves I think that this is a look at this is an extraordinary feat that is why the cuban scientists more distinguished in the production of vaccines received the condition of heroes of the work and yesterday the national assembly of the popular power made a tribute to all the scientists who participated in the creation and production of the cuban vaccines you know i have to say boy i have like half a dozen things i want to comment on given your one of the things that's really clear i think to me at least is this technology advancement and transfer of technology that you mentioned particularly to countries like venezuela nicaragua vietnam on the 25th of october the biden administration changed the entry requirements to the united states and those new requirements go into into effect the eighth of november and those requirements state that even as a us citizen if you are vaccinated to you can enter the united states with a 72 hour pcr test if you are unvaccinated it has to be a 24 hour pcr test and then there's a list of vaccines that go with this this order this new re-entry this immigration order and none of the vaccines on that list have been manufactured have been developed and manufactured in russia china or cuba and so it's very very clear right you're laughing i mean it's really obvious this technology war and this this corporate pharmaceutical war that's going on across the globe i mean cuba's biotechnology industry is a real threat to us pharmaceutical to the us pharmaceutical industry and not that i would argue is the real reason for the for the change in in immigration regulations going into effect the eighth of november and it's uh it's a new it's it's a it's a form of warfare and it's a form of border border control as well i would argue but it is definitely we're definitely seeing a technology war going on here i also just to share with the audience and correct me if i'm wrong and hell i believe cuba was the second had the second biotechnology industry in the world the first being genentech in the united states the second being cuba and the third years later being amgen so cuba was like number two in the world in the late 70s early 80s right after genentech so that so there's a real uh a war going on here i i don't and they and the cuban people are right in the middle of it quite dramatically in the middle of it now you mentioned that um with the expansion of the trump era sanctions and on cuba or unilateral coercive measures against cuba and the biden administration doing nothing at all to alleviate those sanctions it's really hurt the tourism industry to cuba and we are hearing now that the cuban government is getting ready to reopen its borders on the 7th of november um once the majority of the cuban population is vaccinated and then more flights being permitted to arrive to havana specifically other destinations as well starting on the 15th of november and so now of course we're hearing these pro-us movements in in cuba wanting to have a protest on the 15th the day the government is planning to reopen to tourism and rebuild the cuban economy for the benefit of all cubans and now you have this small segment of us back uh people in cuba wanting to um protest on that specific day what is what's that all about or maybe i said what it's about well you asked me several questions i'm going to try to answer them very quickly to go to the last last question uh that seems to me the most important at this moment uh without a doubt cuba is the vanguard in biotechnology in the world only recognize revista científics los reconocer propio new york times new week hace poco dedicó un articulo a bueno a lo que es extraordinario que cuba es el primer país no fiser mentira como dijo cn que fiser era la primera vacuna para niños mentira la primera vacuna para niños en la vacuna producida por cuba y aplicada por cuba en niños toda la población infantil cubano mayor de dos años ya está vacunado con la vacuna plada o con la vacuna soberana cero dos de modo que es mentira lo que dicen cn y otro medio de que la vacuna de fiser es la primera para niños segundo hay una guerra alrededor de este tema porque las transnacionales farmacéuticas el big pharma que principalmente se concentra en estados unidos tiene intereses muy bastardo una gran avaricia un gran egoismo fíjate que estados unidos a pesar de su enorme desarrollo científico y tecnológico tiene dos contradicciones tremenda primero hay una gran cantidad de su población que no se ha vacunado porque su nivel cultural es tan bajo que no se atreve a vacunarse eso por una parte y por otra la otra contradicción es que no es capaz de dotar de vacuna ni siquiera los países más pobres y tenemos la situación de que en áfrica ni el 3 por ciento de la población se ha vacunado en Haití es insignificante la cantidad de vacunado y así en muchos otros países el personal sanitario en áfrica la última vez que leí andaba por el cinco por ciento vacunado increíble estados unidos y las grandes potencias capitalistas tienen una gran responsabilidad en esto porque no quieren transferir tecnologías como hace cubo no quieren además donar vacuna no quieren poner vacunas a precios razonable por eso se puede decir que ese mecanismo tiene de covac que creo la once es un total fracas un desastre porque no ha sido capaz de darle vacuna ni a a países por ejemplo como Haití es vergonzoso numerosos países de áfrica países de américa latina y el caribe ni siquiera de eso ha sido capaz y lo que hay detrás es lo que tú dices es esa guerra pero es una guerra que lo que defiende es la muerte que lo que defiende es la salud privada que lo que defiende es que solamente los que tienen dinero puedan tener salud lo cual además es una estupidez porque en el caso de un virus como este mientras no haya una vacunación masiva a escala universal el peligro de que surjan nuevas mutaciones contra las que las vacunas no tengan efectividad es enorme y ese peligro la única manera de terminarlo es vacunando a toda la humanidad pero eso las transnacionales del big pharma no lo entiende ni al gobierno de estados unidos entiende ni los gobiernos de las grandes potencias aliadas de estados unidos entonces claro no reconoce cada vacuna china rusa y la cubana ni se diga no quieren hablar de eso hay un silencio total sobre la mira es que además yo estoy convencido que el gobierno de estados unidos le molesta extraordinariamente que a pesar de toda su crueldad del esmero que ha puesto para que a cuba no entre un dólar para que a cuba no entre un medicamento no entre alimentos no entre nada para que el pueblo de cuba se muera de hambre porque ese es el objetivo como lo decía que el famoso memorando de Mallory del ester Mallory el subsecretario de estados escrito en el año 1960 que el objetivo del bloqueo sería causar hambre y desesperación en cuba para que la población se revelara contra casto porque castro tenía el apoyo de la mayoría de la población bueno pues eso que decía lester mallory en el 60 es lo que está aplicando el señor biden en este momento lo que aplicó trump y lo que aplicaron sus antecesores y eso que decía mallory también de que el gobierno cubano tiene el apoyo de la población sigue siendo cierto y por eso no pueden encontrar la revolución cubana y por eso mira esa marcha del 15 de noviembre es una vacilada tiene el 15 de noviembre lo que va a ocurrir es que se van a abrir los aeropuertos de cuba que van a empezar a llegar miles de turistas que van a llegar las niñas y los niños a las escuelas primarias vacunados primer país que empieza curso escolar con todos los niños vacunados primer país en el mundo te aseguro que no lo va a decir cnn ni lo va a decir fox ni lo va a decir a veces ninguna de las grandes cadenas de estado y but we're going to say it we're saying right here eso no me cabe duda eso no me cabe duda que habrá muchos que lo digan pero estos medios corporativos de estados unidos no lo van a decir y en relación con con tu pregunta si debo añadir que nunca ha sido tan escandalosa la cantidad de dinero del contribuyente estadounidense que está fluyendo hacia la actividad subversiva hacia la actividad del golpe blando en cuba para derrocar al gobierno el regime change el famoso regime change que estados unidos mantiene ahí y esta convocatoria a la marcha no la podemos ver como un hecho aislado esto forma parte de una de las campañas políticas y mediáticas más grandes que ha realizado estados unidos contra ningún país fíjate que hay un experto que acaba de publicar un libro que estudia todo este fenómeno comunicacional y particularmente se detiene en las semanas que precedieron a las protestas en cuba del 11 de julio de este año y todo la actividad de destruir propiedad pública propiedad privada de destruir mobiliario urbano de atacar a las fuerzas del orden porque la policía cubana enfrentó esta situación tiene sin ningún arma ni gases lacrimógeno ni toletes y mucho menos armas de fuego la policía fue totalmente desarmada a enfrentar estos brotes de protesta que además tienen detrás de ellos todo este esfuerzo de estados unidos por producir el hambre y la desesperación en cuba que tienen detrás de ellos décadas de bloqueo que tienen detrás de ellos que tenemos zonas de la población en cuba que como consecuencia de estas medidas han ido sufriendo marginalidad y ahora hay uno una ofensiva en cuba sobre estos barrios que se llaman vulnerables para abrazarlo para darle todo el amor y además de eso unir toda la fuerza para hacer todos los las inversiones posibles para el desarrollo social de esas comunidades y el presidente de acá él personalmente está visitando la comunidad y gerardo hernández el uno de los cinco héroes como tú sabes tú un papel muy protagónico en la red avispa en estados unidos por cierto a la que netflix dedicó una película y bastante objetivo debo decir y bueno general el líder de los comunidades de defensa de la revolución y en este momento está haciendo un trabajo en las comunidades tremendo porque además una persona muy querida así como diaz canela es tremendamente querido por los cubanos también gerardo es una persona muy querida donde quiera que llega cualquiera de los dos es una fiesta de la gente verdaderamente oye mira el barrio ahora no recuerdo el nombre de ese barrio de la banda no es la timba no me viene a la mente en este momento pero bueno el hecho es el barrio que fue el epicentro de las protestas no estamos hablando de protestas de cientos de miles ni de decenas de miles como dijeron ni ni siquiera de miles como dijeron los medios hegemónico no estamos hablando de eso pero bueno si hubo protestas y te voy a decir algunas de las demandas eran legítimas y esos días que a él lo dijo desde el primer día te acuerdas que mi escenario fue a san Antonio de los baños donde había un foco de protección y se reunió ahí con los que estaban protestando y tuvo un diálogo con ellos y en las cosas que tenían razón les dio la razón y luego cuando regresó a la barra y fue a la televisión lo dijo muy claro porque la revolución cubana nunca tenido ningún reparo para reconocer lo que está mal o lo que no se ha podido hacer porque mira desgraciadamente es verdad que cuba hay deficiencia y hay errores pero desgraciadamente detrás de cada problema en cuba está el bloqueo incluso cuando es culpa de las autoridades cuban porque además como ha dicho silvio rodríguez cuando estados unidos va a darle a cuba la oportunidad de medirse a sí misma de saber cuánto podemos hacer porque que en realidad el bloqueo es una medida de asfixia es una medida que hablando metafóricamente reduce la cantidad de oxígeno que permanente fluyasemente hacia la economía y la sociedad cubana es un tremendo obstáculo al desarrollo del país y tienen el descaro y el silencio de negar que existe el bloqueo marco rubio incluso escribió un artículo bueno se lo debe haber escrito otro porque no es capaz de escribir ni que trae líneas es el que decía que no que no existe bloque es verdaderamente muy cine en fin te repito esta marcha que están convocando no va a tener ningún éxito además desde que arranca es anticonstitucional porque en cuba hay una constitución votada por más del 85 por ciento de los electores el 24 de febrero de 2019 es una constitución que da mucha garantía entre ella el derecho a la protesta y a la manifestación pacífica pero lo que sí no puede convocarse una protesta en contra del socialismo porque la constitución cubana es socialista y la voluntad del pueblo es que cuba sea socialista entonces usted no puede salir a ser eso a ver que alguien convoque una marcha en estados unidos para derrocar al régimen existen para derrocar el capitalismo a ver si le vaya cómo le va a ir a los que hagan una marcha de ese tipo en estados unidos bueno ya tuviste como han reprimido a black lives matter como han reprimido todas las protestas como reprimieron a wall occupy wall street de modo que allí no van a tolerar nunca una manifestación en contra del régimen social imperante y político bueno pues cuba tampoco y por cierto te voy a decir una cosa la embajada de estados unidos en cuba realiza una actividad subversiva contraria a la convención de vienna que estados unidos no le permitiría ninguna representación diplomática acreditada en ese país ya el canciller le hizo una pertencia y el presidente y a canal le ha hecho dos advertencia lo dijo en el discurso que pronunció ayer rendiendo cuentas de su labor al asamblea nacional y lo dijo días antes en otro discurso muy importante que pronunció en el pleno del comité central del partido comunista de cuba so this is really um i mean it's fascinating to me and i guess but not surprising that the the small u.s. backed demographic in cuba would want to destroy this reopening of the economy for all of their fellow countrymen that's just so selfish and so you know it's really obvious who they are and what they want to achieve you also mentioned that the the protest this summer in cuba were not suppressed by this by the state in terms of the use of tear gas and firearms and that was so antithetical to what i saw i was in in colombia during the national paro may i was there for the first month anniversary of the national paro in colombia of course is a u.s. backed government and the state repression in colombia to peaceful protests what what what we would call you know uh an affair affairia perhaps of you know peaceful art gathering of art and music even peaceful gatherings when they got to a certain size were were disrupted by smog teams and they were quite quite aggressive right very the tactics were very military and the use of tear gas was extraordinarily aggressive and um so it's it's just so you know what we hear in the news in the u.s. what we hear about colombia is very little and what we do here is very positive and of course what we hear about cuba is more than than anything we're hearing out of i would add honduras to the case too and yet it's just so antithetical to the reality the narrative the manipulation of the narrative by the united states corporate media is profound and it's really something we talk about this a lot on this program and that's one of the reasons we do this program is to break through that that manipulation of the narrative coming out of the united states because it's the reality is so different so on hell what should we talk about before i let you go you know i lost i and i say this to our fabulous interpreter today to carmel obalesco as i i lost the audience for a few minutes because i lost electricity wi-fi everything and um did we touch on the belt and road initiative with china while i was absent yeah okay i'm sorry everyone i just wanted to make sure we did talk about that because that's a profound um project as well and four countries in latin america are now part of that project so um so i have to say thank you so much and i want you to come back every week and give us an update because i know it's not possible but oh my gosh it's such a pleasure to meet you and talk with you it's just really been been delightful and so informative and i want to remind our audience that you've been watching what the f is going on in latin america and the caribbean codepinx weekly youtube program we typically broadcast every wednesday 4 30 p.m pacific 7 30 p.m eastern we've been honored today by this special broadcast with journalist on her together cabrera and i should also tell you about codepinx radio which broadcasts every thursday morning 11 a.m eastern out of new york city on wba i and out of washington dc w pf w both pacifica radio stations and um both programs are now available on apple podcast and spotify so that's my little promotional spiel um i also i guess i should also tell all of you before uh and on hell i don't think i shared this with you that codepink has a delegation going to cuba uh four through seven december of this year there are there is a some space available we are so excited to go and so for our audience there are a few there are still a few spaces available and you can uh take a look at the trip description and application form at codepink.org uh slash travel and it's uh the codepink delegations on that travel page so yeah we are very excited and um we so want to come celebrate the opening of the cuba economy with all of you and um and just be there and um and and share in the moment and and bring your stories back home so so okay thank you i'm i'm i so want you to come back and there's so much more to talk about so so we'll do this again and thank you to our audience today okay so wonderful thank you everyone but i got a man yes thank you carmel you're just wonderful he's very good yeah we're so thankful for him okay everyone bye bye