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is a blog to give a fresh angle on a fascinating and beautiful Caribbean Island country that, despite being relatively small and with only 11 million people, has been a major player in American and world politics for a half century. I also suggest you try www.havanatimes.org

Tuesday, December 27, 2005

Reverting Cuba to 1958 to be Studied at US Law School

By Circles Robinson*
November, 2005

In another action against Cuba, the Bush administration has channeled taxpayer money to a US university to come up with a plan on how to revert the island to its 1958 status.

The US government has granted the Creighton University School of Law in Omaha, Nebraska, 750,000 dollars to draft a plan to manage Cuba’s urban and rural property if the Bush administration is successful in its die-hard attempt to topple the island’s revolution.

The moneys come from the Cuba transition program for a two-year grant to design a tribunal that would confiscate properties on the island and deliver them to the US corporations and rightwing Cuban-Americans who abandoned their properties after they left the island on the heels of the 1959 revolution.

The Miami Herald estimates that claims of 6 billion dollars have been filed since Cuban President Fidel Castro nationalized thousands of properties of corporations ranging from Texaco to United Fruit, which have attempted to sabotage the islands post-revolution economy.

The Cuban government has reached agreements with companies from other countries whose properties were nationalized, but the fierce US blockade of the island bars American enterprises from doing business and least striking deals on this issue with Havana.

The policy detailed in the US Plan for Assistance to a Free Cuba seeks to erase all social and economic gains of the Cuban Revolution in the shortest time period, while installing a market economy dependent on the US.
“These are events that took place over 40 years ago. That’s going to be a big project,” law school dean Patrick Borchers told the Miami daily.

The US-AID funding will pay for six salaries as well as computer software and travel expenses.
“One of the major issues at the time of transition will be property confiscations,” US-AID’s David Mutchler told the Herald.

The US has maintained an economic, commercial and financial blockade against Cuba for nearly half a century. The Cuban Foreign Ministry states the subsequent damage to the Cuban economy is over 82 billion dollars.
On November 8, the UN General Assembly voted for the 14th consecutive year to request Washington end its blockade of Cuba. This year’s record vote was 182-4 with only Israel, the Marshall Islands and Palau supporting the US policy.

US ambassador to the UN, John Bolton walked out of the General Assembly session to avoid listening to the overwhelming support for Cuba on the issue.

* Mr. Robinson is an American writer and translator currently based in Havana.

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