As reported earlier the House of Representatives approved a bill entitled “Cuban Airport Security Act of 2017.” The bill instructs the Administrator of the Transportation and Security Administration to submit a report to the Congress assessing “the ability of known or suspected terrorists to use Cuba as a gateway of entry into the United States,” and “the vetting practices and procedures for airport employees,” as well as “any other information determined relevant to the security practices, procedures and equipment at such airports.”
Panampost just published an article: “Castro Regime Sends Scarce Items to Dominica while Cubans Struggle to Recover from Hurricane.” Unfortunately, not only is General Raul Castro sending elsewhere tons of assistance that are urgently needed by Cubans after the havoc of Hurricane Irma, but assistance donated to Cuba by several countries is not distributed but sold by the government to desperate families. Cuban customs continues to place obstacles on the importation of food and medicine needed by thousands of homeless Cubans.
The St. Kitts & Nevis Observer published on the Eastern Caribbean island of the same name runs today [October 23, 2017] an article: " Cuba, Caribbean ties to U. of Miami in New Online Report.” U.M. president Julio Frenk says “We look forward to more opportunities to strengthen academic bonds, increase research and welcome diverse discourse on the humanities, politics and culture.”
The drama on the sonic attacks on American diplomats continues. Congressman Wilson (R. SC) calls for the State Department to investigate. The Associated Press has just reported that there are two more cases.
The University of Miami Miller School of Medicine lecture by Dr. Roberto Villafranca [University of Medical Sciences, Cuba] was advertised to be heldtomorrow, October 18th. According to the UM announcement, Dr. Villafranca was to speak on “[t]he Cuban National Health System [which] is highly structured, prevention-oriented, and gives special attention to continuing medical education.”
Your editorial “Cuba’s Sonic Attacks” (Sept. 26) quotes Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, “It’s a very serious issue with respect to the harm that certain individuals have suffered.” Cuba is a totalitarian state and very little happens on the island that escapes Raúl Castro’s security police. International law requires governments to provide protection to foreign diplomats. Unquestionably Cuba failed to protect U.S. diplomats.
The same regime that in June of 2013 told the Panamanian government that a North Korean cargo vessel approaching the Panama Canal contained only a shipment of sugar for the people of North Korea, had little to say when warplanes, thousands of projectiles, and missiles were found under tons of sugar. Press forward to recent statements by Cuba’s Foreign Minister questioning whether the brain trauma, dizziness, and permanent hearing loss of American diplomats in Cuba is real.
A Quebec man who simply wanted to help the people of Cuba in the wake of the devastation caused by Hurricane Irma says he'll never go back, even though his wife is from there and they have strong ties to the island.
Now in The Washington Post online. Tomorrow in the paper edition. "U.S. will expel 15 Cuban diplomats, escalating tensions over mystery illnesses"
The Hill reports that Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) wants reciprocity in U.S. Cuba relations: "I just think it is fair and, and reciprocal for us to require a proportional drawdown of the Cuban Embassy and the Cuban diplomatic presence in the United States," he said. ABC News reports that Tour companies, airlines, cruises and others in the travel industry will continue taking Americans to Cuba despite a dramatic safety warning issued Friday by the U.S. State Department.
When Raul Castro attempted to smuggle war planes to North Korea during the Obama Administration, the State Department response was that it was really not that significant. Ibid. for other anti-American actions carried out by the regime including Russian spy ships back in Havana. There are still Obama holdovers in the foreign policy machinery of the United States, but the sonic attacks on American diplomats in Cuba could not be swept under the rug after CBS Radio reported the story and the Department of State was forced to acknowledge it.
Fox says Trump’s Cuba policy stalls perhaps due to lack of resources and staff at Treasury. Why not reassign whatever federal funds are required? If the holdovers from the previous Administration remain in control, President Trump could issue an Executive Order, just like he did on Venezuela recently.
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson told CBS ’s “Face the Nation” recently that the U.S. is thinking about closing its Embassy in Havana in response to mysterious acoustic attacks on U.S. personnel that have injured at least 21 Americans.
More than a week after the hurricane caused havoc in Cuba, despite pleas from many for the regime to relax custom fees so that the much needed food, medicine, clothing, foot wear, and supplies to rebuild the country would come in much larger quantities, the government has yet to respond. What the government has done is to sell food to some of the families impacted by the hurricane. There have been protests. We publish here an article "Cubans Hope For Customs Moratorium After Irma" published on the 19th by 14ymedio.
It had both striking rhetoric and a sound argument. In his speech to the United Nations, President Trump very successfully met the political and intellectual challenge he faced. He reminded the delegates that the United Nations was never meant to be a gigantic bureaucracy that would steadily become a world government. Rather, he said, it is an association of sovereign states whose strength depends “on the independent strength of its members.” Its success, he argued, depends on their success at governing well as “strong, sovereign, and independent nations.”
The strange case of U.S. diplomats in Cuba who suffered hearing loss and brain injury from mysterious sound waves emitted as they worked at the U.S. embassy in Havana seriously tests the emerging relations between the two countries.
“The State Department did not talk publicly about the incident until August, months after the problems were uncovered,” according to The Washington Post.
Five Republican senators are urging Secretary of State Rex Tillerson to punish Cuba after U.S. diplomats stationed in the island nation were harassed and injured under mysterious circumstances.
The State Department reported Tuesday that it has catalogued additional recent incidents involving harm to American diplomats in Cuba but said that the cause remains unknown.
