All posts by JaimeM

Brazil

Rousseff: Vote against impeachment, vote for democracy

Rousseff: Vote against impeachment, vote for democracy
Brazil’s suspended president Dilma Rousseff told the country’s Federal Senate on August 29 that they were one step away from a true coup which would result in the indirect election of a government of usurpers
Author: Prensa Latina(PL) | internet@granma.cu
august 31, 2016 10:08:50
f0012023

 

 

 

 

Brasilia.— Brazil’s suspended president Dilma Rousseff told the country’s Federal Senate on August 29 that they were one step away from a true coup which would result in the indirect election of a government of usurpers.
Testifying in her own defense in the impeachment trial for alleged violation of the Fiscal Responsibility Law, Rousseff stressed that the country is on the brink of a serious institutional breakdown, as the impeachment process to which she is being subjected is unlawful.
She noted that the evidence produced during the process clearly and indisputably demonstrates the fact that the accusations against her are mere pretexts supported by fragile legal rhetoric.
Rousseff described the accusations against her as “a pretext for a constitutional coup,” which, should it be successful, would result in “the indirect election of a government of usurpers,” according to Prensa Latina.
The suspended head of state recalled that the military coups of the past have been replaced by parliamentary coups, on which there exists a vast literature.
She added that today, the breakdown of democracy is achieved through moral violence and constitutional pretexts to provide an appearance of legitimacy to governments that assume power without support at the polls. She noted that in these cases, the Constitution is invoked “so that the world of appearances may hypocritically conceal the world of facts.”

Continue reading Rousseff: Vote against impeachment, vote for democracy →

Cuba / US Relations

Regular commercial flights between Cuba and the U.S. officially resume

Regular commercial flights between Cuba and the U.S. officially resume
JetBlue airline flight 387 landed at Santa Clara’s Abel Santamaría International Airport at 10:56am, today August 31, thus marking the official resumption of regular commercial flights between Cuba and the U.S., suspended for over half a century

th-22

 

 

 

 

Author: Sergio Alejandro Gómez | informacion@granma.cu
Author: Ángel Freddy Pérez Cabrera | freddy@granma.cu
august 31, 2016 13:08:12

JetBlue airline flight 387 landed at Santa Clara’s Abel Santamaría International Airport at 10:56am, today August 31, thus marking the official resumption of regular commercial flights between Cuba and the U.S., suspended for over half a century.
U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx was among the 150 passengers onboard the Airbus A320 which flew the route between Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and Santa Clara.
During his visit to Cuba, the U.S. official is scheduled to hold meetings with his Cuban counterpart and other authorities of the island, in Havana.
In addition to JetBlue, American Airlines, Frontier Airlines, Airways, Silver Airways, Southwest Airlines, and Sun Country Airlines, also received licenses to operate flights from six U.S. cities (Miami, Fort Lauderdale, Chicago, Minneapolis and Philadelphia) to nine destinations on the island: Camagüey, Cayo Coco, Cayo Largo, Cienfuegos, Holguín, Manzanillo, Matanzas, Santa Clara and Santiago de Cuba.
Beginning in September, JetBlue will fly Monday, Wednesday and Friday between Fort Lauderdale and Santa Clara, with the schedule set to increase to daily flights from October.
The first flight from Fort Lauderdale to Camagüey is scheduled to depart on November 3 and to Holguín on November 10.

Syria

First shipment of Cuban vaccines arrives in Syria

First shipment of Cuban vaccines arrives in Syria
As part of a comprehensive agreement underway, the first two-ton shipment of Cuban-manufactured pentavalent vaccines for the Syrian people, subjected to a harsh trade blockade, arrived at Damascus airport on August 29
Author: Prensa Latina | internet@granma.cu
august 29, 2016 16:08:04
close story-meta-footer
close story-meta
DAMASCUS, August 29.— As part of a comprehensive agreement underway, the first two-ton shipment of Cuban-manufactured pentavalent vaccines for the Syrian people, subjected to a harsh trade blockade, arrived at Damascus airport today.
Syrian Transport Minister, Ali Hamud, along with Deputy Health Minister, Huda al Saied, and Cuban Ambassador to that country, Rogerio Santana, among others, received the shipment which included vaccines against diphtheria, tetanus, whooping cough, Hepatitis B and influenza.
During a press conference Hamud stressed that the shipment comes as a result of cooperation between Cuban authorities and the Syrian ministries of Transport and Health.
Both Hamud and Santana noted that the initiative represents a clear demonstration of solidarity and support between the two nations, which must continue and be intensified amid the unjustified boycott by Western powers against Syria, imposed for over four years.

Pastors for Peace

IRS attacks Pastors for Peace

IRS attacks Pastors for Peace
After over seven years of harassment and intimidation by the IRS (U.S. Internal Revenue Service), the Interreligious Foundation for Community Organization (IFCO)/ Pastors for Peace has been informed that its status as a non-profit organization will be revoked due to its humanitarian work in Cuba
Author: Cubadebate | internet@granma.cu
august 25, 2016 18:08:34
close story-meta-footer
close story-meta

f0013671

 

 

 

 

 

 

The IRS is attempting to revoke the IFCO’s non-profit tax exempt status. Photo: Cubadebate
After over seven years of harassment and intimidation by the IRS (U.S. Internal Revenue Service), the Interreligious Foundation for Community Organization (IFCO)/ Pastors for Peace has been informed that its status as a non-profit organization will be revoked due to its humanitarian work in Cuba.
The IRS audit began in 2009 citing the IFCO’s humanitarian aid to Cuba and fiscal sponsorship of a humanitarian flotilla that delivered aid to Palestine. According to a statement published on the organization’s website, “the IRS claimed that our work to bring humanitarian aid and build friendship with the Cuban people was done in violation of the Treasury Department’s ‘Trading with the Enemy Act’.”
The IRS’ decision comes in the context of a process of rapprochement and normalization of relations between Cuba and the U.S., announced on December 17, 2014, by Cuban and U.S. Presidents Raúl Castro and Barack Obama, respectively.
Since 1992, the IFCO, through the Pastors for Peace project, has organized friendship caravans to Cuba, bringing over 4,000 tons of humanitarian aid in the form of school supplies, medicines and 300 buses.
In 2009 alone, when the audit began, the organization had donated eight school buses, two trucks and 100 tons of medical supplies to churches, schools, hospitals and NGOs across the island.
In the same statement the IFCO also noted that “We challenge the ability of the IRS to make this claim…OFAC, fully aware of our annual caravans not accepting government licenses, has never prosecuted us. How is it that IRS now has the right to strip us of our tax-exempt status?”
The IFCO is a multi-issue national ecumenical agency founded in 1967 by progressive church leaders and activists. It has been working for almost five decades to support oppressed peoples around the world and struggles for justice and self-determination. As such it promotes, funds and coordinates domestic and international community development efforts and administers the scholarship program for students from underprivileged communities in the U.S. to study medicine at Cuba’s Latin American School of Medicine.