Round Table Guest Daniel Ortega: "In Cuba Democracy Does Not Divide the People"

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"Daniel Ortega: In Cuba Democracy does not divide the People

HAVANA, Cuba, Apr 23 (acn) There’s democracy in Cuba and it doesn’t divide the people, affirmed Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega, during his appearance on the Special Round Table aired on Wednesday by Cuban radio and television.

AIN Photo/Marcelino Vazquez Hernandez

He indicated that is necessary to know Cuban democracy and compared it to that imposed on other peoples, which creates division and even wars; these are the Empire’s guidelines. However, the Caribbean archipelago has a model that doesn’t divide its citizens.

The multiparty system, said the Nicaraguan head of state, is nothing but a way of disintegrating and dividing nations and peoples. It’s in these campaigns, he emphasized, where big money plays a predominant role and the campaigns imposed by the West.

Special Round TableWhile talking about the Summit of The Americas, Ortega made reference to the address of Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa, who was very profound in his analysis when emphasizing that elections are not democracy.

Then he spoke about the “censored” Summit, where photographs made the headlines. He told how journalists kept abreast of presidential greetings, far from what the 5th Summit of The Americas actually represented.

In this regard, he clarified that shaking hands is nothing but a gesture of politeness, and that politeness can’t erase reality or ideologies. I explain this, he said, so this is not taken the wrong way -the fact that presidents had to shake Obama’s hand, I mean.

That was the atmosphere at the censored meetings. It was a relaxed environment, there were no tensions. Obama was intelligent enough and realized the correlation of forces that prevailed.

President Ortega defended the criterion that the United States hasn’t changed, that Barack Obama is trapped in the past, in the model of an Empire that is expansionist by nature, and that also defends the policies of hegemony.

We’re in the presence of a US President that maintains troops in Iraq and is strengthening the forces in Afghanistan. We have a US President trapped in the past, when Washington’s economic, financial and commercial blockade of Cuba is almost fifty years old.

Ortega pointed out that it was clear to him that Obama’s response is that of a person is still trapped in the past, in the way he explains why the blockade of Cuba can’t be lifted and that the archipelago should be grateful for certain concessions he has been approving.

They want to make people see it as something new amid a media war; they want to show that they are being generous with the sending of remittances, and we shouldn’t forget that other US presidents, like Carter and Clinton, approved even broader measures 30 and 10 years ago, respectively.

Latin America and the Caribbean are not trapped in the past, Ortega stressed, where important changes have taken place in support of self-determination and independence, with programs like that of the Bolivarian Alternative for The Americas (ALBA), one of the greatest and most noble initiatives mankind has ever known.

If all of us were to assume this program, poverty and exclusion would disappear, declared the Nicaraguan leader sententiously, adding that, in this way, progress would continue to expand until the deterioration of the environment disappeared.

He stated that new opportunities have been opened with the triumph of the Bolivarian Revolution and that he thought it was reasonable for the Summit to devote time to the Haitian people. We shouldn’t forget the solidarity and cooperation of ALBA countries with other nations, he added.

In another moment of his analysis, Daniel Ortega explained that Obama didn’t focus on the economic crisis and that he realized that the Latin American and Caribbean agenda dominated the meeting.

The Nicaraguan leader underlined that, every day, there are more possibilities to organize a great unity, the unity of the Latin American and Caribbean peoples.

I don’t know what name it would have, but union is the most adequate word, since it goes beyond integration, stated the Central American statesman, for whom organizing the Latin American and Caribbean peoples is increasingly urgent.

Later, Daniel Ortega underlined that the OAS is an unburied corpse. We’re having a battle, because the Empire wants to revitalize the OAS.

He highlighted that some Latin American brothers and sisters think that the OAS can be saved with the US, while others think that the Inter-American body, with the United States, continues to be an instrument to be used against the peoples south of the Rio Grande.

He announced that the next battle to be waged in this regard will take place within a few weeks in Honduras, the venue of an OAS meeting.

He said that in view of the impetus given to the Cuba issue at the ill-defined Summit of The Americas, the General Secretary of the inter-American institution, José Miguel Insulza, is already referring to the need to introduce the subject and find a way to eliminate the suspension of Cuba.

Ortega explained that ALBA is already working in that direction and clarified that Cuba, Fidel and Raúl have not requested that, since the archipelago is not interested in returning to the OAS.

He said that it was a topic of shame for the Latin American and Caribbean countries that are members of this inter-American organization. How can we be in an organization where sanctions against Cuba are maintained? We would become accomplices, he added.

The Nicaraguan President pointed out that the intention is to propose that sanctions against Cuba should be suspended, recognizing the damage caused to Cuba as a result of these sanctions, the injustice and suffering it has meant for the people of Cuba.

I have asked Fidel and Raúl for understanding to get away from that complicity, because Cuba has nothing to do with this battle to be waged. Our sin is to be in the OAS, sharing an unjust sanction, a brutal sanction against the people of Cuba, stressed Ortega.

When asked about celebrations to mark the 30th anniversary of the Sandinista Revolution, Daniel Ortega commented that also celebrated this year will be the 50th anniversary of the triumph of the Cuban Revolution, without which the Sandinista Revolution wouldn’t have been possible.

It’s a process, and other anniversaries will also be celebrated, like the 10th of the Bolivarian Revolution and the 30th of the Iranian Revolution. We have many important dates this year, which we’re proud of, said Ortega, and we’ll also be celebrating this 30th anniversary with the eradication of illiteracy in our country.

We’re waging this battle with the support of Cuba and the cooperation of other parts of the world; we managed to reduce illiteracy to 12%. It wasn’t possible to take it to zero, he said, because the war didn’t allow us to do so.

Now, we’ll wage this new battle also with the support of Cuba and its ‘Yes I Can’ Literacy Teaching Method, and also with the help of the Venezuelan people.

The name of the Literacy Campaign is ‘From Martí to Fidel’, he emphasized, and we’re planning to have a good part of the Pacific area free of illiteracy by July 19 –part of the central population.

Ortega also added that the Misquitos will also be taught how to read and write; the people native to the area of South Atlantic and others, although he said that an extraordinary effort is being made. Another great battle for the health of the people is being waged, by way of Operation Miracle, a Venezuelan-Cuban project aimed at helping people of scant resources recover their vision, said Ortega.

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http://www.cubanews.ain.cu/2009/0423danielortega.htm