Voice of Revolution

Contending with California Fires

Reject the Failed U.S. State and Step Up Fight for the Rights of All

Hundreds of thousands of people in southern California have been displaced by massive fires. Many thousands of homes have been lost and many people made homeless. Voice of Revolution salutes the heroic efforts of the firefighters and all those who organized to assist those impacted. It is the courageous efforts by the people themselves that brought aid and assistance to all and represented the interests of humanity. At the same time, like the government-organized disaster before, during and after Katrina, we are again witness to the inhumanity and failure of the U.S. state.

Firefighters and many others voiced their concerns long before these fires started that the government was not doing enough to prepare and prevent them. Their objections included use of the state national guard and its equipment to fight the aggressive war in Iraq. Many of the guardsmen are themselves firefighters and other first responders. So their absence was doubly felt, in their communities that had fewer firefighters to assist with evacuations, and in the lack of more forces and equipment to battle the fires themselves. Government refusal to maintain a system of firebreaks, which help contain the fires, was brought out. As well, full evacuation plans, sufficient shelters and people to man them, medical assistance for the ill, elderly and all those in need, translators and information in Spanish and other languages, were absent. People are also speaking to the need for the government to take action to contend with the broader problems that contributed to the scope and intensity of the fires, including global warming and the lack of planned and sustainable development. The San Diego region is one of the fastest growing areas as well as one of the regions most susceptible to these explosive firestorms.

And while the government did not provide for the needs of the people, they did provide a show of force, including an estimated 300 Border Patrol in a region known for its large numbers of undocumented workers and their families. Many organizations among the people denounced the presence of the Border Patrol, especially in evacuation areas, where people are -already contending with fire, losing their homes and belongings. The government racism and terrorism against undocumented workers was such that police blocked people from bringing food and clothing to these workers, checkpoints were set up to check documentation in evacuation areas, and Border Patrol at the main San Diego shelter deported at least six people from one family, including a child that is a citizen.

President George W. Bush’s visit to the area could not hide these crimes and could not eliminate the reality of the failed U.S. state and its failure to meet even the most minimum standards in emergency conditions. What again stands out, as it did in New Orleans, is the struggle of the people to themselves organize and give expression to their stand — every human being has rights as human beings, no one is illegal, and we defend our humanity by defending the rights of all.

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Another Tool for Civil Death

Reject Spitzer’s Orders for “REAL ID” Driver’s Licenses

Buffalo Forum

New York Governor Eliot Spitzer recently announced plans for a new system of New York driver’s licenses. He is going forward with this plan using executive rule.

The plan has the approval of the Department of Homeland Security and is being promoted as providing a “model” for the “most secure driver’s license system in the nation.” Spitzer himself said the plan “provides the greatest number of people with the greatest amount of security possible.” The main feature of the plan is to turn state-issued driver’s licenses into a federally determined and accepted identification — essentially a national identification system. The New York licenses must meet federal requirements for who can and cannot get a license, the documentation required for this and include biometric identifiers like fingerprints and eye-scans.

At present, each state decides licensing requirements, and most accept a wide array of documents to verify identification and residency, such as social security cards, student or work ID, utility bills, etc. Spitzer’s plan will change this. The federal standards require and accept only a passport or a certified birth certificate, along with a social security card and proof of residency. Both the state and federal government, through the office of the executive, will decide if the documentation provided meets the standards dictated.

The new licenses are referred to as a “license system” as the information secured will be made part of a nationwide databank available to all policing agencies nationwide and the military. Thus, simply getting a license makes one part of the government’s criminal and military databanks. The federal government is taking control of who can and cannot drive and also using the necessity to drive to force everyone to submit to meeting federally mandated documentation requirements. As well, part of the REAL ID law that Spitzer’s plan implements, is the ability of the federal government, as well as the state, to reject the documentation submitted.

Spitzer’s plan also adds incentives for New Yorkers who already have a driver’s license to get the new ones. One type of license issued will be acceptable for use in crossing the border. It is being promoted as an alternative to getting a passport. It has not been made clear how it will be different from the main license issued. What is clear is that it is being used as a mechanism to draw people into this scheme to ensure that the federal government has a record, complete with biometric identifiers, of everyone in New York of driving age. This is also the aim of providing licenses to undocumented workers. The government wants control and wants everyone to submit to a tiered system of who does and does not get to be part of society. Those that submit to government demands and meet not only the required documentation but the arbitrary decisions of the government concerning them, get the “top” license. Those who do not, citizen or not, get the “bottom” license or none at all. It is a set-up designed for government profiling of all and arbitrary denial of every-day life activities, like driving, traveling and receiving social services. It also provides a much broader ability for the government to criminalize people, simply for the failure to have the government mandated identification.

For those who doubt this reality, government actions to impose such civil death are already in operation in various places. Massachusetts, for example, set a similar identification standard for anyone receiving federally funded health benefits, like Medicare or Medicaid. Thousands of people, mostly citizens, were unable to meet the standard. This is due in large part to the inability to secure and pay for a certified birth certificate. So while it is well known to all that the individuals involved are citizens, they are removed from Medicare and Medicaid and even blocked from entering federal buildings, as they cannot provide the required documentation.

Spitzer’s plan is a mechanism to impose this same civil death on a much broader scale. It is also a mechanism to create broad acceptance of the federal requirements of the REAL ID Act, which mandate a system similar to Spitzer’s for every state. Up until now, many states have rejected the REAL ID requirements, considering them a hidden form of national identification as well as a huge financial burden to be born by the states, not the federal government. Seventeen states have already passed legislation against REAL ID. Spitzer, in now promoting it and accepting it for one of the most populous states, is directly contributing to it going forward nationally.

In addition to promoting the license system as one providing security, Spitzer is also trying to present himself as a friend of undocumented workers. He will provide them with a license, but one that is not acceptable for “federal government purposes.” In fact, Spitzer’s plan is directly against undocumented workers. Like the main license to be issued, it is a mechanism for the government to have a record of all these workers, their fingerprints, where they live, etc. and then make use of this record however they see fit. The license itself will be used to brand those who can and cannot enter federal buildings, use banks, fly, and more. Much like the work identification system the government is trying to impose, the whole licensing system is an attack on undocumented workers and everyone else. It is also a system directed especially against the youth, who will be forced to submit to it.

It is no accident that Spitzer, a Democrat, is the one given this leading role for securing implementation of the REAL ID Act and the federal government control over all identification it provides. He is being made to appear as a friend of the undocumented and helping everyone, when in fact he is a main force imposing a national system for government profiling and repression, based on arbitrary decisions about who can and can not have government documentation, whether it is a driver’s license or work ID. It also creates a situation where having such ID at all times and showing it whenever demanded will become a requirement — all in the name of security.

Spitzer’s plan is yet one more government mechanism for greater profiling, insecurity and even civil death for anyone who the government decides does not meet its arbitrary demands. Those people accepted by the government will be permitted, to drive, to work, to vote, to receive benefits, and those who are not, will not. It is a system of executive rule and dictate to better facilitate control and suppression of the people. All of these government identification schemes are police-state measures that must be rejected.

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No Border Patrol in Evacuation Zones

Mexicanos Unidos en Defensa del Pueblo, October 24, 2007

We have witnessed the presence of the Border Patrol in Fallbrook, California, during a brief visit we made earlier today. We witnessed them entering into Mexican neighborhoods and we believe there is absolutely no reason for the Border Patrol to be present in this time of crisis. Their presence in fact discourages people who may be in need from seeking aid.

Although most people have evacuated, many still remain either to defend their homes, or to simply keep working. Unfortunately many businesses still remain open, despite the evacuation order, subjecting their workers to unhealthy breathing conditions.

Furthermore, the fact that Fallbrook is under evacuation and little to no media have been present to cover the critical situation Fallbrook faces, leads us to further question the presence of the Border Patrol in this area. They simply are not needed nor wanted. We ask everyone to call government officials and demand they be removed.

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Wildfires Engulf Southern California

Kevin Mitchell and Andrea Peters, October 24, 2007

Massive wildfires have engulfed large swaths of southern California, forcing hundreds of thousands of people to flee their homes and seek refuge in stadiums and other safe locations. State officials and news agencies estimate that between 700,000 and 1,000,000 people have been forced to evacuate as a result of fires that b egan on October 21.

The natural disaster prompted California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to declare a state of emergency in seven counties all the way from Santa Barbara, which is about 150 miles north of Los Angeles, to San Diego, about 150 miles south of LA. An estimated 500,000 acres — an area two times larger than New York City — have gone up in flames.

In San Diego County alone, which is located near the U.S. border with Mexico, officials ordered residents in approximately 346,000 homes to evacuate for their safety. The magnitude of the civilian evacuation is the largest in the United States since the Civil War. Thousands of homes and buildings have been laid waste, sending large amounts of smoke and ash into the atmosphere. [At present 14 have been killed and more than 70 injured.]

At least 16 separate fires have been reported as of Monday, with the most ferocious located in Aqua Dulce, a relatively wealthy area north of Los Angeles. Those forcing the mass evacuations in San Diego County are the Witch, McCoy, and Coronado Hills fires. Many areas have been abandoned to the flames. Some local residents have reported that fire crews have shown up only many hours after flames grew dangerously close to their residences. In other instances, no emergency services responded at all. There are simply no resources available.

It is currently the region’s traditional fire season. This typically fire-prone period has been exacerbated by unusual ecological conditions in southern California’s desert and semi-desert climate. The 2007 fire season is the driest on record. This dangerous situation has been made worse by a seasonal weather phenomenon known as the Santa Ana Winds, which can reach 75 miles per hour or more. The winds have carried hot embers across southern California, frustrating attempts by firefighters to form fire lines and limiting their ability to employ aerial methods against the flames. High temperatures and wind speeds through Tuesday fanned the flames.

Additional firefighters have been called from the Bay Area, Lake Tahoe, and Nevada. The U.S. Forest Service has mobilized 80 engines from Colorado, Wyoming, Arizona and New Mexico to aid firefighters in Southern California.

Chief Bill Metcalf, San Diego county area fire coordinator, said, “This is worse than many of us imagined. We’re seeing 100 to 200 foot flame lengths and truly explosive fire behavior.” Roads throughout southern California are shut down or clogged with fleeing residents, including many miles of the region’s major arteries such as portions of Route 1, otherwise known as the Pacific Coast Highway, and Interstates 5 and 15. This has caused a major traffic crisis throughout the area.

As with other natural disasters, the California fires are exposing the inadequate and strained character of social infrastructure in the U.S. According to an article published October 23 in the Los Angeles Times, since 2003, when the region was devastated by wildfires, only one new fire station has been built, and many of the county’s fire departments are chronically under-funded and understaffed. Aside from more air support, an automated call system, and a better communications system, little progress has been made in improving the fire-fighting infrastructure and equipment over the past four years.

Some firefighters have been diverted to deal with the social crisis the fires have caused. The Ventura County Star reported on Tuesday that an engine company from San Diego, including five fire trucks and firefighters, was recalled en route to fight a fire last Sunday in order to help with massive evacuations in the area. “Rarely do we have this much going on,” Bill Nash, a Ventura County Fire Department spokesman, told the newspaper. “Virtually the entire Southern California area is all out of firefighters,” he said.

Evacuation centers have been set up in locales across the region, although there has been no preparation to handle a “refugee” crisis, as one newspaper referred to it, of this scale. “It’s basically a mass migration here in San Diego County”, said Luis Monteagudo, a spokesman for the county’s emergency effort.

Qualcomm Stadium in San Diego has been converted into an emergency relief center, taking in 10,000 displaced people. Officials there were completely unprepared for the more than 500 elderly and sick persons transported to the evacuation center. Nursing home patients and evacuees from hospitals in the northern part of San Diego are some of the most vulnerable people arriving at the various refugee locations.

The Del Mar Fairgrounds, north of San Diego, has also turned into an evacuation center, along with many high schools and senior centers. At the Del Mar racetrack, located on the Fairgrounds, at least 2,000 people and 2,500 animals were taken in by Monday evening. Kina Paegert, public information officer for Del Mar Fairgrounds, told the Los Angeles Times, “When we started this morning we had five mattresses. We were prepared for animals. We weren’t prepared for this.” According to the newspaper report, last night the facility scrounged up only 100 mattresses for the 2,000 people staying there, leaving many elderly and ill to sleep on the floor. The Los Angeles Times further noted, “Some frail patients had bits of white masking tape on their foreheads, listing various medical conditions like ‘Depression’ and ‘Diabetes.’”

These conditions certainly recall the images of thousands of people holed up in the New Orleans Superdome in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. As of Monday, the Red Cross opened five shelters and federal and military authorities have opened another 10. Only 1,500 cots were available at the Red Cross shelters, which Mayor of San Diego Jerry Sanders said are “maxed out.” Nearly every hotel in San Diego County and other affected areas is booked and many hotels slated to serve as emergency shelters had to be evacuated because of approaching flames.

The region’s air quality has vastly deteriorated since the fires began, prompting health officials to issue a warning throughout Southern California urging the young, the elderly, and those with breathing difficulties to remain indoors. The wildfires have produced dust and particulates that are unhealthy to breathe in general and particularly dangerous for those with pre-existing medical conditions like emphysema, asthma, heart disease, and lung disease.

It can be predicted from the outset that no genuine aid or long-term relief will be offered by the government to the tens of thousands of people whose homes will be lost and lives irrevocably affected as a result of this event, and nothing will be done to address the underlying decay of social infrastructure in the US.

The tragedy unfolding in Southern California is not simply the result of natural conditions. It is also the product of a lack of preparation for an entirely foreseeable, if extraordinary, set of events. The extreme fire dangers caused by supremely dry conditions in California, which has been in the grip of a severe drought, have been known for months. The Santa Ana winds are a yearly and entirely predictable meteorological phenomenon, which contribute to the very existence of a “fire season” in Southern California.

In April of this year, San Diego County emergency services had planned optimistically to have 670 shelters established for 70,000 people in anticipation of the fire season. The paucity of this level of preparedness in the face of the current crisis is staggering. But it is not unexplainable. It is the product of a socio-economic system in which the public infrastructure—through years of budget cuts, the shedding of services, and the erosion of emergency equipment—has been abandoned in the interests of tax cuts for the wealthy and big business.

The severity of the current conditions is unusual, but even that is not something that can be considered independent of social relations. The UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, bringing together the views of scientists across the world, has warned of increased fire risks due to global warming. Parts of the southern U.S. are in the midst of the severest drought on record, compounded by a decade of record temperatures. Despite growing indications of the enormous impact of global warming, no serious measures have been implemented to halt or reverse the phenomenon—another consequence of the subordination of all social and ecological concerns to the pursuit of profit.

(Reprinted from wsws.org)

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Council of American Indian Organizations Joins Work to Aid Fire Survivors

In response to the wild fires, the Council of American Indian Organizations, San Diego asks for your help in assisting affected reservation and urban Indians and many others with a wide variety of needs. These include: saline eye wash, non-perishable food, cleaning items, toiletries, sleeping cots, Chapstick, water, particle masks, generators, animal food, towels, blankets, cots, tarps, air purifiers, clothes, work gloves and volunteers for clean-up, etc.

Drop off locations:

• Santa Ysabel Gym: as of 10/29/07, items listed above urgently needed for distribution to the hard hit North County reservations

• Indian Human Resource Center – North County Office, 649 N. Escondido Blvd., Escondido, CA 92025 760-745-2110

• Indian Human Resource Center, 4265 Fairmount Ave., Ste. 140, San Diego, CA 92105, 619-281-5964

• Trail of Hope, 1068 E. Bradley Ave., El Cajon, CA 92021; 619-258-5471

• General Information: 619-281-5964

Monetary Donations:

• Indian Human Resource Center – memo to fire relief

• San Diego Foundation – www.sdfoundation.com/fire2007

• American Indian Chamber of -Commerce, W. 5th St. 31st Floor, Los Angeles 90013, call: 213 440-3232

Ongoing efforts are being organized by: American Indian Chamber of Commerce of CA, American Indian Community Foundation, American Indian Health Center American Indian Movement, American Indian Recruitment Program, American Indian Source, American Indian Studies – SDSU, American Indian Warriors Association, California Indian Environmentalists, Explorers Club, Grossmont College Cross Cultural Studies, Hummingbird Consulting, Indian Education Program – SDUSD, Indian Human Resource Center, Indian Training Trust Fund, Indian Voices, Institute for American Indian Life, Kid Korps Native American Chapter, Kumeyaay Community College, Leonard Peltier Defense Committee, Tonkawa Seniors, MS Choctaw of California, Native American Ministries, Native Americans Council, Peace and Dignity Project, Native American Women’s Intertribal Circle, Santa Ysabel Band of Diegueno Indians, Society for the Advancement of Chicanos and Native Americans in Science - Mesa College, Southern Indian Health Council, Sycuan Intertribal Vocational Rehabilitation, Tribal Indian Nurses Association.

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Native Americans Provide Shelter for Migrant Workers

Native Americans in the San Diego region are providing shelter and assistance to many undocumented workers and their families. This is consistent with their long tradition of providing shelter and assistance to all those facing oppression by the government, a tradition dating from the days of slavery and on going today. The Rincon Reservation is one such example. The band opened the doors of its casino hotel for migrant families shortly after the fire began. About 400 people used the hotel and casino as a shelter, including fellow Indians from the Lo Jolla Reservation.

Many undocumented workers have lived in trailers on the reserve for years. About a dozen trailers were destroyed by the fires, forcing families to evacuate and leaving them homeless. These undocumented workers are not able to receive government aid, as the government does not recognize them as human beings. Indeed, many documented immigrants and citizens will find it difficult to receive aid if their identification and citizenship papers were lost in the fires. The Indians demand no such documentation and are assisting all those in need as they are able.

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Harassed and Blocked from Relief Centers in San Diego

Immigrants Denied Relief During Fire Evacuations

American Civil Liberties Union, San Diego

Since Monday, October 22, 2007, staff and volunteers working with the San Diego Immigrants’ Rights Consortium, of which the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of San Diego is a key member, have witnessed and received reports that immigrant evacuees have been forced to work through the evacuations, been ejected from and denied entrance to evacuation centers, been intimidated by law enforcement and minutemen while attempting to access much needed relief supplies and services, been threatened with immigration enforcement, and in at least one instance been apprehended and deported.

In addition, we continue to hear from immigrant evacuees who are afraid of going to evacuation or service centers for assistance and who are afraid to travel home out of fear that they will be inspected or intimidated by law enforcement.

We are very concerned about the apparent lack of Spanish speaking representatives from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and Red Cross and the related lack of information in Spanish about the documents required and the process for accessing assistance. Officials estimate that there are over 40,000 displaced persons. Many of them are low-income and many are immigrants. Some have lost their homes, some have lost their jobs, and some are in dire need of food, clothing and shelter for their families.

We call on FEMA, Red Cross, and city and county officials to commit the resources available to extend the maximum possible assistance to all the families in need, including immigrant families regardless of their status.

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Activists Reach People Abandoned by Government

Peace Resource Center of San Diego

Just three weeks ago many of us traveled out to Potrero to support them in their efforts to keep the Blackwater mercenaries [known for their civilian massacres in Iraq and brutality and killings after Katrina] from building a training facility in their community. The first fire we heard about last Sunday, was the Harris fire that started in Potrero, which is near the border, east of San Diego. The first death occurring from the fires was in Potrero. Meeting the people in the community and seeing the beauty of the area has made the events of the last week even more horrific, if that is possible.

Approximately 300 people did not evacuate from Potrero, including immigrant families who never got the notice to evacuate. They have been without electricity, phone service in many cases and beginning to run out of supplies. Water has been an issue because many people are on wells, and no electricity means no water. While some have backup generators, fuel supplies have been running low. Efforts by volunteers to get relief into their area have been hampered by law enforcement and other agencies. Several of us have had very frustrating experiences trying to get help for the trapped citizens. Volunteers from the Chicano Park collection effort were asked by a sheriff at the road blockade into the area, “Why do you want to go into Potrero? There’s nothing but drug dealers there.” They were finally able to take in supplies under escort from fire fighters, as entrance was refused by the sheriffs.

Some aid is now reaching Potrero, but the need for that community and other back country communities who have been ignored is great. Blackwater, on the other hand, has easily made three deliveries of food, water, and generator fuel.

Brian Bonfiglio, project manager for Blackwater West, states in a Virginia-Pilot article that the in spite of the fires, the project is on track and that “the proposed facility would benefit the community if it is threatened by fire again. He said it could be used as a ‘command center’ with bunkhouses for evacuees and water tanks with a 35,000-gallon capacity.” To the contrary, these fires show just how easily another fire could start from operations Blackwater proposes to conduct.

In the meantime while our attention is focused on getting needed aid to those neglected in our community by the powers-that-be, Blackwater is conducting an aggressive campaign on the national level. We need to keep the struggle against Blackwater active at all levels. We all have plenty to do right now, but one way we can help the people in Potrero who are busy rebuilding their lives is to take this opportunity to write to our congresspeople countering Blackwater’s aggressive public relations campaign and also to local officials reminding them of the fire hazards the Blackwater West facility will create.

We urge everyone to help provide aid; the collection point at Chicano Park has sent out an urgent request today for supplies. The most urgent need is for food, water and clothing.

Contact for Donations: Joni K. Craig, 619-549-8082 (English)

Contact for Displaced Farm Workers: Enrique Morones, 619-269-7865 (English & Spanish)

Peace Resource Center of San Diego, www.prcsd.org

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Government Checks for Documentation at Evacuation Centers

Families Fleeing Fires Profiled and Deported

Democracy Now, October 29th, 2007

T housands of people are beginning to return home as the wildfires across Southern California slowly die out. But for the thousands of undocumented migrant workers in San Diego’s lucrative agriculture industry, the process is fraught with the threat of harassment and deportation.

According to the Los Angeles Times, more than 100 Border Patrol agents have been redeployed to evacuation centers and neighborhood checkpoints for returning residents. At least one undocumented family was deported to Mexico Wednesday after local law enforcement arrested them for allegedly stealing food. [They had actually simply gotten supplies from an evacuation center.] Immigrant rights groups claim that local law enforcement is racially profiling immigrants. They say there is no need for them to involve Border Patrol agents.

Andrea Guerrero is the Chair of the San Diego Immigrant Rights Consortium and Field and Policy Director of the ACLU in San Diego. Below is the transcript of her talk with Amy Goodman.

AMY GOODMAN: Andrea, can you begin by just laying out the problem for us?

ANDREA GUERRERO: Well, the problem began when city officials at San Diego’s Qualcomm Stadium invited Border Patrol to set up a tent for informational purposes about the fire locations, and this created immediate apprehension among both the documented and undocumented immigrants at Qualcomm Stadium.

The situation was exacerbated when, around midnight on early Wednesday morning, San Diego city police walked around the stadium, waking up families and checking for identification both to ascertain the identity of individuals and to ascertain that they were in fact evacuees from evacuated zones. Anyone who did not have identification that corresponded to an evacuation zone were asked to leave. This adversely impacted homeless people, those without proper documents and those who did not have documents that corresponded to the correct address. So this affected mostly undocumented individuals, but it also affected other individuals, as well.

This was further exacerbated, as you pointed out, by the deportation of a family of evacuees that had been encouraged to take supplies back home, because they did not know what they would find back home. And upon exiting the evacuation center, they were apprehended by city police. They were alleged to be looting and were not formally charged. Border Patrol was called in. Border Patrol undertook an immigration inspection and then ultimately deported them. This created even more apprehension among the documented and undocumented immigrants at Qualcomm Stadium and has led to an overall climate of fear and apprehension. In certain instances, there were families inside Qualcomm Stadium who were afraid to leave, and there were those who left and did not take any supplies, much-needed supplies, because they were afraid that they also would be subject to an immigration inspection. There are many more who never came to an evacuation center, because of what they were hearing about the Border Patrol at the centers

And so, we are very concerned about the sensitivity to this vulnerable population and the climate that was created at Qualcomm in particular, by the presence of Border Patrol, by the document inspection conducted by city police, and by the inspection of evacuees who were leaving and of the goods that they were encouraged to take. The city police, in some instances, rounded up people, surrounded their cars, had them count heads to blankets. All of this was uncalled for. There were mountains and mountains of donated items at Qualcomm Stadium. And it seemed to be simply a matter of inspecting people to harass them, to intimidate them. It is not clear what the purpose of those inspections were.

AMY GOODMAN: Andrea, do you know if the four people found burned to death along the border by Border Patrol, have been identified?

ANDREA GUERRERO: They have been identified by the Mexican consulate. I don’t know their names exactly, but they were four individuals. The are Mexican nationals, and the Mexican consulate is still trying to ascertain where the family members of those individuals may be.

AMY GOODMAN: And, overall, the death toll — do you have any sense of immigrants who were caught in the fires?

ANDREA GUERRERO: My understanding is that there were only seven deaths in this fire, and that in itself is remarkable. That’s a credit to the first responders, the firefighters, etc., given the scope of this fire. However, four of those were immigrants. We do not know if they were documented or undocumented. We do not know the circumstances of their death. But that is over half.

We do know that a great number of migrant farm workers were too afraid to come out of danger zones. In some instances, they were forced to continue working in the fields through the evacuations in danger zones, and they had to be drawn out by immigrant advocates. They were too afraid to come out on their own. So we are very concerned that this was not an appropriate response. This was not a humanitarian response, by our law enforcement officials and others who were in charge of handling the evacuations.

AMY GOODMAN: Can you tell us about the family that was deported on Wednesday?

ANDREA GUERRERO: This was a family of seven individuals, including one two-year-old U.S. citizen. And they were part of a larger extended family that was at Qualcomm Stadium. There were initially more than a dozen family members detained by San Diego city police. When Border Patrol undertook its immigration inspection, they found these six adults to be without proper documentation, and they deported them, as well as the two-year-old citizen child.

AMY GOODMAN: What are you calling for now, Andrea Guerrero?

ANDREA GUERRERO: Well, the fires have ceased, and we’re grateful for that. There are tens of thousands of evacuees who are displaced. They either cannot go back to their homes because they have no homes, or they do not have enough resources back at home in order to survive. They cannot care for their young children or their needy.

We are very concerned at this moment about the response from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and from Red Cross and from city and county officials in providing for these individuals who may not all have legal documentation. We are concerned about the ability of the emergency officials to reach out to this population, given their lack of language capacity. The Immigrant Rights Consortium has been serving as interpreters for FEMA, Red Cross, city and county officials at the evacuation centers and at other locations. They have not come equipped with the language capacity that they need. They are not resourced to assist the Spanish-speaking community. That is a grave concern of ours. They have not distributed information in Spanish. The Spanish information that is available has been translated by us or by news agencies. It has not been made publicly available by the emergency response agencies themselves. We are meeting with those agencies today. We hope to express our concern and make a change immediately, get something out in the media and have these agencies commit their resources to reaching this population, which we believe is still very much in dire need of emergency supplies and support.

AMY GOODMAN: The Los Angeles Times is also reporting that Tijuana firefighters were allowed over the border to help fight the fires.

ANDREA GUERRERO: That is right. There are a lot of hero stories in this fire, and they included Tijuana firefighters who came across and were not paid. They came over as volunteer firefighters and fought those fires day and night alongside U.S. firefighters. We are also aware of immigrants who stayed behind to save houses.

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Union Members Assist Victims of California Fires

James Parks, October 26, 2007

Throughout Southern California, central labor councils and union locals are mobilizing to make sure their brothers and sisters affected by the devastating fires receive all the help they need to get back on their feet. At least 18,000 homes have been destroyed and 14 people killed in the 16 blazes that have ravaged 500,000 acres — an area about twice the size of New York City — over the past six days.

More than 6,000 firefighters are working around the clock, trying to contain the firestorm in Southern California, where wildfires forced nearly 1 million residents from their homes and destroyed 1,300 homes in four days. Alongside the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, members of Fire Fighters (IAFF) Local 2881 firefighters were members of dozens of other locals of the California Professional Firefighters (CPF/IAFF), and firefighters from neighboring states. They battled fires stretching from Santa Barbara County in the north to San Diego and the Mexican border in the south.

Now many are joining efforts to assist those forced out of their homes. Hundreds of volunteers from the AFL-CIO Community Services Network are fanning out throughout the affected area and seeking out union members and other workers in need of help. Volunteers from the San Diego-Imperial Counties Labor Council distributed thousands of fliers at evacuation shelters asking workers to contact their unions or the labor council for information on assistance, including lodging and cash vouchers. The Council is giving fire victims VISA cards and food vouchers and putting those that need lodging in hotels. Those affected by the fires or that want to donate supplies or money to help the victims, call the San Diego-Imperial Counties Labor Council at 619-641-0074 or 619-641-0095. While thousands of people are now returning home, many still need assistance.

Activists in the area brought out that a recent study shows that chronic and systematic underfunding of public safety services left the San Diego area vulnerable to the devastation. The report by the Center on Policy Initiatives (CPI), a nonprofit research organization based in San Diego, says the city failed to implement many of the recommendations made for increased funding following the 2003 fires by both the city’s own staff and a state commission.

The 2005 study, The Bottom Line, found San Diego’s per capita spending on fire protection is the third-lowest among large California cities, and the number of firefighters per 1,000 residents is the lowest. The city budget in 2005 called for a long-term increase of $478 million in new funding for public safety services — a need that remains unfilled. In fact, only one station and seven firefighters were added to the city budget this year. Earlier this year, San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders refused to give firefighters a pay raise while giving all other city employees cost-of-living increases.

CPI President Donald Cohen said, “Although this is a region with extreme natural fire hazards, anti-tax politics have led to an undersupply of fire stations, equipment and personnel to adequately fight fires.”

San Diego firefighters were beginning to look for jobs elsewhere because of low morale and inadequate resources. They have performed heroically despite repeated failures by the city to invest in public safety. At a recent press conference IAFF President Harold Schaitberger said, “Our fire fighters have performed valiantly to save lives and homes and contain the fires. The devastating string of fires that began Sunday has left them battered and bruised. Some are in the hospital with critical injuries, and we are praying for their recovery. Dozens have lost homes in the fire and have been unable to get back to their families.

“While the wildfires may be seasonal, the need for a well-trained, year-round, fulltime fire department is evident. We cannot lose sight of the resources needed for local fire fighters and their communities up and down the state. With resources already running thin in many communities, fire fighters were being deployed to fight the wildfires, leaving their own cities and communities at serious risk.”

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National Latino Research Center Providing Aid

As members and allies of the Farmworker CARE Coalition we ask that you join our efforts to ensure that nobody impacted by this disaster falls through rescue relief safety nets. We have already coordinating collection of clothes, food, and bedding for affected families, as well as aid in efforts to secure housing for families who have had their homes destroyed. Farmworker families affected most likely will not receive aid that other insured San Diego residents do, so it is up to us to provide support as they begin recover from this horrific tragedy. We are mainly focused on evacuees and displaced farmworker and immigrant families in the Pala/Pauma Valley, Rice Canyon, Rincon and Fallbrook communities.

We just heard word from the Pala Mission that a trailer park near Harrah’s casino has burned down, leaving over 30 trailers destroyed. Each trailer housed multiple families. Two lideres comunitarios (community leaders) from Poder Popular were affected. In Rice Canyon, three Poder Popular lideres comunitarios have lost their trailers and we have not heard from them since Monday. Families on the reservations were also being evacuated. Lideres comunitarios from the Fallbrook area were evacuated through Camp Pendleton and relocated to Oceanside and Carlsbad.

We will be in touch when we have more information about exact needs and how this effort will be coordinated. In the meantime, please begin to activate your networks.

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Demand Rights of Migrant Workers be Upheld

Civilian Relief Groups Target Government Racism, Human Rights Abuses

A number of immigration and human rights organizations working with farmworkers and other Latino and poor people forced to flee the fires, recently issued a report on treatment of these workers and their families. They found numerous examples of government racism and crimes against workers, women and children, refusing to provide relief supplies, discriminating against undocumented workers, and detaining splitting up and deporting a family at the main evacuation center for San Diego, Qualcomm Stadium. The organizations specifically opposed having the 300 Border Patrol agents present in evacuation areas and at the stadium, stating that everyone facing the fires had the right to government assistance and that government officials had no business even asking anyone about their immigration status in the midst of the disaster. They also condemn the failure of the government to provide emergency evacuation orders and information in Spanish and other languages needed, and their failure to have translators at evacuation sites. They also documented the fact that many workers were forced to remain working, on the farms and nurseries in the region, despite evacuation orders. Many are suffering respiratory and eye problems as a result of the toxic and polluted air in the area. It is estimated that there are at least 15,000 undocumented migrants living in the area, most of them farmworkers.

The organizations involved continue to organize to defend rights as the rebuilding in the region begins. They include the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), along with Coalition for Justice, Peace, and Dignity (Vista, California), Comité de Derechos Humanos de City Heights (City Heights, San Diego, CA), Comité de Derechos Humanos Digna Ochoa (Barrio Logan, San Diego, CA), Escondido Human Rights Committee (Escondido, CA), Frente Indígena de Organizaciones Binacionales (Northern San Diego County), Mexicanos en Defensa del Pueblo Mexicano (Fallbrook, CA), Raza Rights Coalition (San Diego, CA)

Among the specific recommendations made in the report are:

• Immigration enforcement authorities should not be involved in relief efforts

• Law enforcement agencies countywide should develop a clear policy whereby it will be forbidden for law enforcement officers to collaborate with immigration authorities during natural or environmental disasters.

• Consular officials should advocate for the ratification of international human rights conventions and other resolutions to ensure basic protections for all.

• Immediate medical attention be provided free-of-charge by San Diego County Health and Human Services to migrant farm workers to diagnose, monitor and treat farm workers found to be ill or suffering from residual pollutants caused by the wildfires.

• Relief organizations, law enforcement and governmental agencies charged with providing humanitarian and relief aid during disasters must provide information in multiple languages, including providing an adequate number of translators.

• State (California Department of Industrial Relations, Cal OSHA) and Federal

authorities (OSHA) should investigate growers’ labor practices during the week of San Diego wild fires to ensure farm worker health and safety.

• Local, state and federal agencies must contact civil liberties and human rights organizations during disasters in order to set up informational booths in shelter areas, evacuee centers and relief sites in order to field complaints from evacuees and those impacted by disasters who have been mistreated by relief workers and local, state and federal agencies. (See afsc.org for full report.)

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Hands Off Cuba! End the Blockade and Sanctions!

Voice of Revolution calls on everyone to reject the brutal blockade and sanctions imposed on Cuba and demand that U.S. imperialism keep its bloody hands off Cuba! President George W. Bush, speaking at the State Department October 24, made clear that U.S. imperialism is stepping up its efforts to overthrow the Cuban government, using the blackmail of both U.S.-backed efforts to create instability inside the country and the possibility of U.S. nuclear war. Referring to President John F. Kennedy, and the embargo Kennedy imposed on Cuba, Bush said, “It was here that Kennedy announced the end of the missile crisis that almost plunged the world into nuclear war.” Few hearing Bush and knowing the U.S. policy of pre-emptive war and aggression, could fail to get the message. Cuba is to submit or be unjustly blamed, again, for a U.S.-made nuclear crisis. This is the second time in the past weeks that Bush has spoken of the possibility of a nuclear war launched by the U.S., the previous being a threat against Iran to “avoid World War III.”

Bush then went on to try more blackmail against the Cuban people. He said the genocidal U.S. blockade would continue as long as the existing political and economic system now in place in Cuba remains. He referred to the hundreds of millions the U.S. spends to bring about “regime change,” and made clear that the only acceptable choice for Cubans is U.S.-style democracy, with its “open markets” and “free elections.” Given Bush was brought to without free and fair elections, his comments would be laughable if they were not so criminal. The government has no business and no legitimacy talking about democracy!

Bush offered yet new U.S. bribes. He said the U.S. will provide scholarships for “Cuban young people whose families suffer oppression,” but only if “the Cuban rulers” get out of the way. He said the U.S. will license “non-governmental organizations and faith-based groups to provide computers and Internet access to Cuban people,” but again, only “if the Cuban regime, the ruling class, gets out of the way.” Then he demanded that the rest of the world support and pay for this blackmail and interference, by introducing a “Freedom Fund for Cuba.” Again, Cuba must demonstrate that it has adopted U.S.-style democracy and only then will this Fund provide “Cuban entrepreneurs,” access to grants, loans and debt relief. And, in case anyone missed this message of aggression and U.S. plans to decide the Cuban government and its leaders, Bush emphasized, “Life will not improve for Cubans under their current system of government. It will not improve by exchanging one dictator for another. …The operative word in our future dealings with Cuba is not ‘stability.’ The operative word is ‘freedom.’” In his desperation, Bush then specifically calls on the Cuban military and police, which has disrupted every U.S. attempt at assassination and overthrow of the Cuban government, to side with the U.S.

It is no accident that Bush is speaking in class terms. As representative and guardian of the world system of imperialism, he recognizes well that Cuba represents for its people and the world a path that stands against the U.S. ruling class and for the working class. It is an independent socialist path. He also recognizes that Cuba stands as part of the bulwark against U.S. imperialism in Latin America, blocking the U.S. from achieving its aims of controlling the human and natural resources of all the Americas.

Despite the lessons of Iraq, Vietnam, Korea, and the Cuban revolution, Bush seems to think U.S. threats of instability and even nuclear war will force peoples to submit to a rotten imperialist system that is indeed tyrannical and dying. The Cuban people have shown their firm resistance to U.S. imperialism and their ability to chart their own course and will no doubt continue to do so.

Bush’s lies and threats have no place in this world and it is the U.S. rulers and their imperialist system that belong on the garbage heap. Let the American working class and people step up efforts to put it there and join the Cubans and all those worldwide charting a course for another world that serves humanity. Hands Off Cuba!

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16th Consecutive Year

Overwhelming United Nations Vote Condemns U.S. Blockade of Cuba

On October 30 the United Nations General Assembly debated the theme of the United States blockade against Cuba, culminating with a repeat of the severe international condemnation of the U.S. government for its punitive measures against the island.

For the 16th consecutive year, the United Nations General Assembly analyzed the vote on the resolution entitled “Necessity to Put an End to the United States Commercial, Financial and Economic Blockade against Cuba.” This year, the assembly voted a record-setting 184 in favor and 4 against out of 192 UN members. The U.S. was once again joined by Israel, its protectorates the Marshall Islands and Palau with Micronesia once again abstaining.

One year ago, the United Nations voted 183-4 in favor of the resolution that criticizes the United States policy towards Cuba. This year’s record vote is the result of Nicaragua adding its vote in favor of the resolution, marking the first time it has not absented itself from the process.

According to Nicaraguan Ambassador to the UN, Maria Rubiales de Chamorro, “it is a motive for Nicaragua to be proud, having become the 184th vote.” “This is also due to the iron will of the Nicaraguan people and Ruben Dario y Sandino’s legacy,” he said.

De Chamorro said this unity of Latin America and the Caribbean in favor of the resolution against the U.S. blockade on Cuba occurred “after almost 16 years of shameful withdrawal from the voting.”

The resolution was backed by an annual report to the UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon, containing 120 statements from countries and institutions that oppose the blockade, up from the 98 registered in 2006.

Voice of Revolution warmly congratulates the Cuban people on the results of the vote. This result once again underscores the problem facing the UN where the will of the General Assembly is not recognized in the Security Council and thus the Assembly is blocked from holding the U.S. to account for its crimes.

On October 24, prior to the discussion on the U.S. blockade, Cuba called for “a conscious and profound reflection” on the situation of the underdeveloped nations due to the current world economic order.

The Cuban ambassador to the UN, Rodrigo Malmierca sharply criticized the growing military expenditures of the wealthy powers.

“With only 10 percent of the military expenditures the [UN] Millennium Development Goals could be reached,” he noted. This is indeed an important issue. Talk about mustering the political will to fulfill the millennium goals while not holding the U.S. and others accountable for their violations of international law, wars of aggression and genocidal blockades is not acceptable.

Down with the U.S. Blockade of Cuba! Long Live Cuba!

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Final Declaration Approved by 400 Delegates of 202 Organizations

Fifth Forum of Cuban Civil Society Against Blockade and Annexation

We, the participants at the 5th Forum of Cuban Civil Society against Blockade and Annexation, meeting in Havana on October 18, 2007, representing a broad spectrum of Cuban civil organizations and associations active in the different sectors of our national life:

1. Express our most energetic condemnation of the intensification of the acts of aggression by the government of the United States of America, particularly the genocidal policy of economic, trade and financial war against our nation, directed to “create hunger, desperation and the overthrow of the government in Cuba” in order to return our country to its neo-colonial subservient status in which it was maintained for more than half a century.

2. Reiterate that the Blockade blatantly violates international law and the will of the community of nations, as expressed in the UN General Assembly in fifteen condemnatory resolutions since 1992. We demand the immediate and unconditional end of that genocidal war against our people, described as such by the Geneva Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (1948), and as an act of economic war, as established at the London Naval Conference (1909).

3. Also denounce the permanent interference of the United States government, with the complicity of the Miami anti-Cuban mafia, on our institutions and their representatives, in their attempts to present the mercenary groups funded by them for encouraging subversion in Cuba as bona fide elements of Cuban civil society.

4. Once again repudiate the appointment of a salaried imperial agent who will coordinate the so-called “transition” to capitalism in Cuba. Our resistance will make all these cunning plans fail.

5. Accuse the fascist and genocidal United States government of being responsible for committing serious crimes against humanity. In its zeal for power and domination, it attacks and occupies nations, exterminates innocent civilians, violates international instruments, supports an unjust and criminal international order, impoverishes entire continents, endangers environmental sustainability, disregards lives and blocks the desire for development, justice and peace in the world, all the while fabricating the worst of lies as justification for its cunning plans.

6. Agree that the main victim of the blockade is the Cuban people. Two thirds of our populace were born and have lived under the effects of this criminal policy. All sectors of national life are being affected by the impact on the country’s economy: especially in matters of health, education, food security, sports, culture, transportation, housing and the environment. Washington’s loathsome actions affect most seriously our children, senior citizens and pensioners, women and incapacitated persons. In spite of such difficult conditions, the determined will of the people in defense of our -revolutionary project and its determination to move forward, has permitted us to reach high levels in various aspects of our social development, as many specialized agencies of the UN have recognized.

7. Demand respect for the right of Cuban families to decide how and when to maintain and develop their relationships, no matter where they may be living. Not the White House, nor the Miami counter-revolutionary annexationists can tell us who is considered to be family or who is not, nor can they dictate to us how frequently family contacts may be made.

8. Claim full respect for the right of organizations in Cuban civil society to sustain and develop relations and exchanges of cooperation with those of all other countries, without the hostility and interference of the Washington government. We demand the end of denials of visas and other restrictions for the cultural and academic exchanges between people, scientists and representatives of women’s, trade union, student, religious, sports and other organizations, of the United States or of any other country. The limitations placed by the United States government on the development of these relations express their fear that the citizens of that country will come to know the truth about Cuba and will moreover constitute a violation of their constitutional rights.

9. Emphasize that the application of this insane policy of blockade and total economic war constitutes an obvious and inadmissible violation of basic rights and freedoms of the Cuban people, and it likewise damages the interests, rights and freedoms of the people of the United States, and of Cubans residing in that country. It even affects citizens of third countries because of the extraterritorial effects of said policy and the “laws” which presume to hold them up.

10. Condemn the United States policy that is dedicated to promote forums, institutions and declarations against Cuba with the intent of encouraging its international isolation. This aim is seen to be supported by the existence of an 80 million dollar budget, coming within the poorly named “Assistance Plan for a Free Cuba”, which funds the declarations of corrupt former leaders and politicians who are against our country, thus promoting hatred and interference in our internal affairs.

11. Repudiate the actions that increase media aggression against our country, particularly through the unsuitably named Martí Radio and Television. We support the full exercise of Cuba’s sovereign right and freedom to demand respect for our radio-electronic space and the valid international norms in this matter, as established by the International Telecommunications Union.

12. Condemn the acts of State terrorism that have historically been committed and are still being committed against our people. We demand that the United States government ceases sheltering the criminal Luis Posada Carriles and that it proceeds in his immediate extradition to Venezuela in order to be put on trial for his despicable terrorist acts. The hypocritical attitude assumed by the government of President Bush is shameful, since it refers to itself as the paladin of anti-terrorism and at the same time it keeps five Cuban anti-terrorist champions sequestered in the empire’s maximum security prisons. We demand the immediate release of these five heroes.

13. Recognize and offer thanks for the widespread and effective solidarity for our country coming from thousands of civil society organizations throughout the world, especially those who represent the noblest of feelings of the people of the United States and we greatly esteem the positions they have taken, that governments and international organizations who have not succumbed to the growing United States government pressure have taken. We affirm the necessity for continuing to denounce the United States maneuvers which are directed to putting up obstacles and preventing relations of any kind with Cuba, with the purpose of isolating and asphyxiating out people.

14. Exhort the civil society organizations of many countries to make public their solidarity and support for this resolution project, in the manner that they deem most effective within their respective countries. Next October 30th, the UN General Assembly will debate and again submit to the vote, for the sixteenth time, the Resolution Project named “The Need to End the Economic, Trade and Financial Blockade Imposed by the United States of America Against Cuba”, which last year expressed one more time the overwhelming repudiation of the international community of this genocidal policy.

15. Faced with the increase of aggression by the government of the United States and their accomplices, we ratify our determination to deepen the work of the Revolution and to continue the construction of an independent Homeland, full of solidarity and justice, which will preserve all the conquests achieved, strengthen our humanitarian labors with other peoples of the world and defend, to the final consequences, our Socialist Revolution, and the unity of the people together with Fidel, Raúl and the Communist Party.

Forever Onward to Victory!

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A Message from Fidel to Bush

Bush is obsessed with Cuba. Yesterday, the news was received that a White House spokesman announced the president would present new initiatives for the transition period now begun. Another spokesman from the State Department later confirmed the statement, reiterating Bush’s demanding and threatening tone.

As affirmed by Ricardo Alarcón, the president of our National Assembly, a comrade who is well-informed about Bush’s scheming and intentions, after that would come the firing squads of the Cuban-American mafia, with permission to kill everyone suspected of being a faithful member of the Party, the Youth or the mass organizations.

Mr. Bush: Your genocidal blockade, your support for terrorism, your murderous Cuban Adjustment Act, your wet-foot/dry-foot policy, your protection of the worst terrorists in this hemisphere, your unjust punishment of the five Cuban heroes who exposed the danger posed to U.S. citizens and those of other countries of dying in mid-flight, must all end.

Sovereignty is non-negotiable.

Likewise, the shameful torture being carried out in the occupied territory of Guantánamo must also end. We were never intimidated by your threats of preemptive and surprise attacks on the 60 or more dark corners of the Earth. The outcome of that has now been seen in a single country: Iraq.

Do not attack others; do not threaten humanity with a nuclear war. The peoples will defend themselves, and all would perish in that inferno.

Thank you for your attention.

Fidel Castro Ruz, October 21, 2007

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Bush, Hunger and Death

For the first time, just before the UN discusses, as it does every year, the project of the Cuban resolution condemning the blockade, the President of the United States announces that he will adopt new measures to accelerate the “transition period” in our country, equivalent to a new conquest of Cuba by force.

On the other hand, the danger of a massive world famine is aggravated by Mr. Bush’s recent initiative to transform foods into fuel while, calling on strategic security principles, he threatens humanity with World War III, this time using atomic weapons.

Such crucially important issues are the ones attracting the attention of the representatives of the countries that will be meeting on Tuesday, October 30, to discuss the Cuban project condemning the blockade.

In elections where voting is not mandatory, our people have just given their verdict, with more than 95 percent of the electorate casting their vote at 37,749 polling stations, in ballot boxes guarded by school children. That is the example provided by Cuba.

Fidel Castro Ruz, October 22, 2007

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More Than Eight Million Cubans Cast Their Vote in Municipal Elections

Over 8,174,350 Cubans voted in last Sunday’s elections to choose delegates to municipal government assemblies, a figure that represents 95.44 percent of all eligible voters, according to preliminary information released by the National Electoral Commission (CEN).

During a press conference on Monday, CEN president Maria Esther Reuz said that preliminary figures may increase, since a second round of vote is scheduled for next Sunday in some 2,971 districts where none of the candidates reached the stipulated amount of votes.

As a result 12,265 delegates were elected, out of which 3,288 are women (26.81 percent); 2,053 are young people (16.74 percent); while 5,776 were re-elected.

Reuz, who is also Cuba’s Minister of Justice, described the Cuban electoral process as a massive event due the population’s active, enthusiastic and disciplined participation.

The minister said final results of the first round will be available over the next 72 hours, after all statistics are concluded.

In reply to questions by reporters, Maria Esther Reuz recalled that one third of the candidates are not members of the Cuban Communist Party, since being a party member is not a requirement to be nominated, only to have the merits and capacity to fulfill the responsibility.

Reuz said that the dates for the election of provincial assemblies and the deputies to the Cuban parliament will be announced in due course.

(Agencia Cubana de Noticias, October 23, 2007)

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For Your Information

Report by Cuba on Resolution 61/11 of the UN General Assembly

Executive Summary of the Report by Cuba on Resolution 61/11 of the United Nations General Assembly, “Necessity of Ending the Economic, Commercial and Financial Blockade Imposed by the United States of America Against Cuba” July 2007

The economic war unleashed by the U.S. against Cuba, the longest and most ruthless ever known, qualifies as an act of genocide and constitutes a flagrant violation of International Law and the Charter of the United Nations. Throughout these 48 years, the U.S. blockade has caused economic damage to Cuba of more than 86 billion. Seven in every 10 Cubans have lived, right from their birth, suffering from and enduring the effects of the blockade, which attempts to defeat us through hunger and disease.

The blockade prevents Cuba from trading with the U.S. and receiving tourism from this country. It prevents Cuba from using the U.S. dollar in its external transactions and receiving credits or engaging in operations with U.S. banks or their subsidiaries in other countries. The blockade does not allow the World Bank or the Inter-American Development Bank to even give modest credit to Cuba. But more serious than all that is that the U.S. blockade imposes its criminal provisions on Cuba’s relations with other countries that make up this General Assembly.

The blockade prevents Cuba’s trade with companies based in your countries, delegates, not only U.S. companies but also companies from the countries that you represent in this Assembly and which are subsidiaries of U.S. corporations. Nor can vessels with flags from your countries call at U.S. ports, delegates, if they previously carried goods from or towards Cuba. That is the Torricelli Act, signed by President Bush Senior in 1992.

The U.S. blockade also prevents the companies from the rest of the world, those of your countries, delegates, from exporting to the U.S. any products containing Cuban raw materials; and it also prevents those companies from exporting to Cuba products or equipment containing more than 10 percent of American components.

The blockade, delegates, chases after the businesspeople from other countries, not only those from the U.S. but also those from other countries, your fellow countrymen and women, who intend to make investments in Cuba. They and their families are threatened with the refusal of entry into the United States and they can even be taken to trial in U.S. courts. That is the Helms-Burton Act of 1996.

We find it important, to inform the General Assembly on the plan for Cuba’s recolonization approved by President Bush in May 2004 and updated in July 2006. It clearly recognizes what the U.S. Government would do in our country if it ever had it under its control.

According to the President of the United States, what is most important is to return all of the properties in Cuba to their former owners. That would include, for example, taking away the land from the hundreds of thousands of farmers who now own in Cuba their land either individually or in cooperatives, in order to reinstate the landowners’ system. That would also imply evicting millions of Cuban proprietors from their homes in order to return their properties or plots of land to their former claimants.

President Bush described it as an accelerated process and under the complete control of the U.S. Government — which, for those purposes, would set up the so-called Commission for the Restitution of Property Rights. Another structure would also be put in place, the Permanent Committee of the U.S. Government for Cuba’s Economic Reconstruction, which would run the process of implementing in Cuba a very harsh neoliberal adjustment program, including the unbridled privatization of education and health services and the elimination of social security and welfare. Retirements and pensions would be removed and retirees would be offered the chance to do construction work as part of a so-called Body of Cuban Retirees.

President Bush recognizes in his plan that “it will not be easy” to apply this plan in Cuba. Therefore, he instructs the State Department to create a repressive apparatus “as an immediate priority,” which we imagine will be trained in the brutal techniques of asphyxiation that Vice-President Cheney does not consider as torture, in order to stifle the unrelenting endurance of the Cuban people. It is even recognized that “there will be a long” list of Cubans to be persecuted, tortured and massacred.

In the plan, they are even thinking of a Central Child Adoption Center to hand over to families in the United States and in other countries the children whose parents will lay down their lives fighting or become victims of repression.

All this cynical and brutal recolonization program for a country, after destroying and invading it, would be run by a character who has already been appointed and whose ridiculous post, reminiscent of Paul Bremer, is “Cuba Transition Coordinator.” A man named Caleb McCarry, whose only record of note is his close friendship with the terrorist groups of Cuban origin that are still masterminding and executing from Miami, with complete impunity, new assassination plots and acts of sabotage against Cuba. These are the same groups that are asking President Bush to release terrorist Luis Posada Carriles, the brains behind the explosion of a Cuban commercial airplane, while five courageous Cuban anti-terrorist fighters have been subjected to a ruthless and prolonged imprisonment in the United States since 1998.

Two years after its enactment, delegates, most of the plan has already been implemented. New and greater restrictions were imposed on the family-related visits to Cuba by the Cuban residents in the United States. The Americans who traveled to Cuba were viciously persecuted. In the course of the last two years, more than 800 people have been fined for traveling to our country. Additional constraints were imposed on the sending of remittances to Cuba. Academic, cultural, scientific and sports exchanges have been virtually eliminated. Since 2004, 85 companies have been penalized for allegedly violating the blockade against Cuba. The fierce persecution against our country’s financial transactions and trade has been further intensified. And there are tangible results of the demented worldwide tracking conducted by the so-called Group for the Identification of Cuban Assets on everything that appears to be a payment from and towards Cuba.

Along with the strengthening of the blockade, in May 2004 President Bush approved another U.S. $59 million to pay his scarce and disheartened mercenaries in Cuba with a view to fabricating a non-existing internal opposition and defraying propaganda campaigns and illegal radio and television broadcasts against Cuba.

But it was all in vain. President Bush realized that time was running out and he could not keep his promise to the extremist Cuban groups in Florida. His domestic and foreign woes were growing and are still growing and socialist Cuba was still there, upright and unrelenting. Then, on July 10 2006, President Bush added new measures.

A significant aspect of this new 93-page concoction is that it contains a secret annex, with actions against Cuba that are not made public and which, as they explain, would not be revealed, “in order to achieve their effective realization” and “for national security reasons.” Will these be new assassination plots against Cuban leaders, more terrorist acts, a military aggression? From this rostrum at the UN General Assembly, we challenge President George W. Bush today to publicly disclose the content of that document, which until today he has not been bold enough to reveal.

The plan includes the allocation of more money, of course. This time around, it is U.S. $80 million in two years and no less than U.S. 01$20 million per year until the Cuban Revolution is defeated. In other words, forever. There is also an increase in the radio and television broadcasts against Cuba, overtly violating the standards of the International Telecommunications Union. On the other hand, renewed efforts are being made to create a so-called “coalition” of countries to support the alleged “regime change” in Cuba.

The Bush plan is particularly emphatic on the extraterritorial implementation of the economic war against Cuba. Thus, new mechanisms are established to improve the machinery that enforces the blockade regulations and new sanctions are being adopted. One that stands out for its novelty is the prosecution against the violators.

Under Title III of the Helms-Burton Act, the authorization has been announced to file lawsuits in U.S. courts against the foreign investors in Cuba, particularly those from those countries supporting the continuity of the Cuban Revolution. A more stringent enforcement of Title IV is also envisaged, denying entry into the U.S. to the investors in Cuba and to their families, but aiming the persecution particularly at those investing in oil prospecting and extraction, tourism, nickel, rum and tobacco. As a tool to track down the sales of Cuban nickel to other markets — not to the American market, but to track down the Cuban sales to companies based in the countries that you represent here in this Assembly — the so-called “Cuban Nickel Inter-Agency Task Force” was created. Also tightened is the siege on the exchange between American and Cuban churches — and there is a ban on humanitarian donations sent to Cuban religious organizations.

But there is a new blockade measure approved by President Bush that deserves elaboration. The document sets forth that the U.S. will deny all exports of medical equipment that can be used in healthcare programs for foreign patients. That is, the U.S. Government, which has always gone out of its way to cause the failure of the international medical cooperation programs that Cuba is implementing, now recognizes that its persecution can even get to the point of trying to hamper Cuba’s purchase of necessary equipment around the world. […]

The blockade tries to prevent Cuba’s purchase of medical equipment for international medical cooperation programs. If President Bush succeeded in his cynical plan, Cuba would be prevented from offering to other peoples, many of which you represent here, delegates, its modest and generous effort in a field where nobody questions our development and experience. If the American offensive managed to curtail this endeavor, an equivalent number of people suffering from more than 20 eye diseases would lose their eyesight. The U.S. Government knows it, but it does not give up on its morbid plan to stifle Cuba. This is just to mention those whose eyesight is taken care of and not the hundreds of millions of people benefiting from the comprehensive healthcare programs conducted by the Cuban internationalist doctors.

The Cuban people will not give up its sovereignty or its right to self determination and, despite the sanctions, will continue to maintain the efforts begun 49 years ago to build a society based on justice and solidarity that disinterestedly offers aid in a spirit of solidarity to other nations, including the United Sates. Neither will it renounce its right to economic development, whose advances have been appreciable despite the repercussions of the economic, trade and financial sanctions. Cuba hopes to enjoy once again the support of the international community in its legitimate demand for an end to the economic, trade and financial blockade imposed on it by the government of the United States of America.

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