Damos la bienvenida a la decisión del Presidente Obama de viajar a Cuba para mantener conversaciones con el gobierno cubano.

Nosotros, organizaciones y personalidades firmantes llamamos al Presidente Obama a tomar acciones concretas sobre dos cuestiones pendientes para restablecer las relaciones diplomáticas normales entre los dos países:

1. Poner fin al bloqueo contra Cuba

2. Devolver Guantánamo, territorio ocupado ilegalmente por los EE.UU. a Cuba

Impacto económico del bloqueo a Cuba
Cuba perdió al menos 117 mil millones de dólares entre 1960 y 2014 debido al bloqueo económico de EE.UU., según la Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe de las Naciones Unidas.[1]

El bloqueo no sólo perjudica a Cuba, sino también a los Estados Unidos. La Cámara de Comercio de EE.UU. que aboga por el levantamiento del bloqueo, afirma que los costos para la economía de EE.UU. por los 54 años de sanciones van desde 1,2 a 3,6 mil millones de dólares por año. [2]

En relación al bloqueo de Cuba, Obama puede ejercer su autoridad en las siguientes áreas:

1. autorizar el uso del dólar en transacciones internacionales
2. permitir a Cuba importar productos con más de 10% de componentes estadounidenses, de terceros países
3. permitir que entidades cubanas abran cuentas en bancos estadounidenses
4. terminar la política de persecución financiera contra Cuba 
5. no impedir la concesión de créditos u otras facilidades financieras
6. permitir la importación de productos o servicios exportables de Cuba
7. autorizar a aviones y barcos cubanos a transportar pasajeros, carga y correo entre los dos países
8. autorizar las exportaciones directas de productos estadounidenses a Cuba
9. autorizar a empresas invertir en Cuba (empresas internacionales han presentado más de 400 propuestas de inversión en la Zona Económica de Mariel)
10.  eliminar el límite de los productos cubanos que pueden ser importados por visitantes estadounidenses a Cuba
11.  autorizar a ciudadanas/os estadounidenses que puedan recibir tratamiento médico en Cuba
12.  permitir la distribución de crédito, préstamos y financiación para la adquisición de productos libremente en el mercado estadounidense. 

La Base Naval de Estados Unidos en Guantánamo
La base de Guantánamo cumplió 113 años a partir del 23 de febrero de 2016. Fue la primera base de EE.UU. en nuestro hemisferio y es la más antigua en el mundo, y la única en que el país de acogida carece de autoridad contractual para revocarla unilateralmente.

Pedimos al presidente Obama poner en práctica estas acciones para aliviar el bloqueo de EE.UU. contra Cuba y establecer un itinerario para el retorno de la base de Guantánamo a la nación cubana.

Individualidades y Organizaciones firmantes:

Noam Chomsky

Chicago ALBA Solidarity Committee

Medea Benjamin, Co-founder, Code Pink

SOA Watch

Rev. Michael Kinnamon, former General Secretary, National Council of Churches

IFCO/Pastors for Peace

Glen Ford, Executive Editor, Black Agenda Report

Tom Hayden

Carl Rosen, President of Western Region, United Electrical Workers (UE)

Chuck Kaufman, National Coordinator, Alliance for Global Justice

Eva Golinger, Journalist/writer,The Chavez Code; Bush vs Chavez

Marjorie Cohn, past President, National Lawyers Guild; Professor, Thomas Jefferson School of Law

Rev. Joan Brown Campbell, former General Secretary, National Council of Churches

Cindy Sheehan, Author/Activist

James Early, Board member, Institute for Policy Studies

Kevin Martin, Executive Director, Peace Action

Council on Hemispheric Affairs

Council on Latin American Relations

Leah Bolger, CDR, USN (Ret), former National President, Veterans For Peace

José E. López, Executive Director, Puerto Rico Cultural Center

Fred Hirsch, Delegate to the South Bay Labor Council

Cristina Vazquez, International Vice President, Workers United WSRJB 52, SEIU

Task Force on the Americas

International Leonard Peltier Defense Committee

Blasé Bonpane, Office of the Americas

Rev. Kristin Stoneking, Executive Director, Fellowship of Reconciliation

Dave Welsh, Delegate, San Francisco Labor Council

Dan Kovalik, USW Associate General Counsel

Alicia Jrapko, US Coordinator, International Committee for Peace, Justice and Dignity

Mavis Anderson, Latin America Working Group (LAWG)

National Lawyers Guild, Cuba Subcommittee

Joe Lombardo, Marilyn Levin, Co-Coordinators, United National Anti-War Coalition (UNAC)

Bill Preston, President. AFGE Local 17

David McReynolds, War Resisters League (retired)

Margaret Randall, author, Haydée Santamaría, Cuban Revolutionary (most recent)

Jane Franklin, Historian, Cuba and the United States, A Chronological History

Alex Main, Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR

Historians Against the War

Delvis Fernandez Levy, Cuban American Alliance

Walter Lippmann, CubaNews, Los Angeles

Tiana Ocasio, President, Connecticut Chapter, Labor Council for Latin American Advancement

Stephen Kimber, journalist, author, What Lies Across the Water, The Real Story of the Cuban 5

David Swanson, author, WorldBeyondWar.org, WarisaCrime.org

New Internationalism Project of Institute for Policy Studies (IPS)

Alejandro Molina, Michelle Morales, National Boricua Human Rights Network; Campaign to Free Oscar Lopez Rivera

Sara Flounders, Co-Director, International Action Center

Rabbi Brant Rosen

John McAuliff, Executive Director, Fund for Reconciliation and Development; Coordinator, Cuba-US People to People Partnership

Cherrene Horazuk, President, AFSCME 3800

RootsAction.org

Hon. Jim Ferlo, President, Pittsburgh-Matanzas-Sister Cities Association

(Former City Council President and PA State Senator 1988-2014, now retired)

Salim Lamrani, author, The Economic War Against Cuba

Tom Hansen, International Education Director, Mexico Solidarity Network

Arnold August, journalist, author, Cuba and its Neighbours: Democracy in Motion

Dan Beeton, CEPR

Reese Erlich, author, Dateline Havana

Albert A. Fox, Jr., President, Alliance for Responsible Cuba Policy Foundation

Art Heitzer, Wisconsin Coalition to Normalize Relations with Cuba

Pam Africa, Suzanne Ross, International Concerned Family and Friends of Mumia Abu-Jamal

Joe Iosbaker. Co-Chair, SEIU Local 73 Joint Bargaining Committee at UIC

Richard Berg, past President, Teamsters Local 743

Matt Meyer. War Resisters International; International Peace Research Association

Keith Bolender, author, Voices From the Other Side: An Oral History of Terrorism Against Cuba; Cuba Under Siege: American Policy, the Revolution and Its People

Bob Guild, Vice President, Marazul Charters, Inc.

Charles A. Serrano, ASG International, Inc.

Elizabeth Hill, President, Canadian-Cuban Friendship Association Toronto

Mike Beilstein, Corvallis,OR City Councilor

8th Day Center for Justice

Lisa Valanti, President US-CUBA Sister Cities Association

Church Women United, New York State

Chicago Religious Leadership Network on Latin America

St. Louis Inter-Faith Committee on Latin America

Kathy Kelly, Voices for Creative Nonviolence

The Friendship Association (formerly St. Augustine-Baracoa Friendship Association)

Minnesota Cuba Committee

Wendy Thompson. former Pres. L. 235, UAW, American Axle Detroit Gear & Axle

Felix Masud-Piloto, Professor of History, DePaul University

Alice Slater, Nuclear Age Peace Foundation

Catherine Murphy, The Literacy Project

Marcela Vásquez-León, Director, Center for Latin American Studies, University of Arizona

Dereka Rushbrook, Associate Professor, School of Geography & Development; Co-Director, Contemporary Cuba Study Abroad Program, University of Arizona

Vancouver Communities in Solidarity with Cuba

US Women and Cuba Collaboration

Let Cuba Live Committee of Maine

Heide Trampus, Coordinator, Worker to Worker, Canada-Cuba Labour Solidarity Network

Seattle/Cuba Friendship Committee

Ken Crowley, National Delegations Organizer, Witness for Peace

Portland Central America Solidarity Committee

Houston Peace and Justice Center

Rochester Committee on Latin America (ROCLA)

Kentucky Interfaith on Latin America and the Caribbean

Graciela Sanchez, Executive Director Esperanza Peace and Justice Center (Texas)

Carl Gentile, President and Director of Litigation, Labor Union Advocates

Sacramento Action for Latin America

H. Bruce Franklin, Author

Pedro Cabán, Professor and Chair, Latin American, Caribbean and U.S. Latino Studies

University at Albany, SUNY

Charlotte Koons, co-founder, Code Pink-Long Island, Women for Peace

CUBAmistad (Bloomington, IN)

Leslie Salgado, Chair, Howard County Friends of Latin America

Friends of Cuba Against the Blockade – Vancouver

Nino Pagliccia, activist, author, Cuba Solidarity in Canada

John Laun, Colombia Support Network

Gabriel Hetland, Assistant Professor, Latin American, Caribbean and U.S. Latino Studies, University at Albany, SUNY

Latin American and Caribbean Solidarity Committee, DC Metropolitan Area

Rebecca Navarrete-Davis, President Berkeley-Palma Soriano Sister City Association

Kathryn Albrecht, journalist/writer, Nueva Mexico

Shirley Warren, New Paltz Women In Black

Laurence H. Shoup, author, Wall Street’s Think Tank: the Council on Foreign Relations and the Empire of Neoliberal Geopolitics 1976-2014

Nebraskans for Peace

Corinne Willinger, Granny Peace Brigade, NYC Metro Raging Grannies

Lee Robinson, African Awareness Association

Rockford Peace and Justice Action Committee

All-African People’s Revolutionary Party (GC)

Meredith Aby, Miinnesota Anti-War Committee

LELO (Legacy of Leadership, Equality and Organizing)

Carl Finamore, Machinist Lodge 1781 delegate, San Francisco Labor Council, AFL-CIO

Kait McIntyre, Chicago Anti-War Committee

Rev. Mother Marcy, founder, Public Intellectuals for Social and Spare Change

Charles Newlin, Coordinating Committee Linn-Benton Pacific Green Party (Oregon)

Bert Hestroffer, International Brotherhood of Teamsters

Marcela Vásquez-León, Director, Center for Latin American Studies, Associate Professor, Univ. of Arizona

Dianne Post, International Human Rights Attorney, Phoenix, AZ

Marc Becker, Professor of Latin American History, Truman State UniversityÇ

Christine Preble, Ass. Professor and Undergraduate Program Director Department of Latin American, Caribbean, and U.S. Latino Studies, University at Albany, SUNY

Barbara G. Harris, Granny Peace Brigade

Michael Martin, Professor, Media School, Indiana UniversityGreater Hartford Coalition on Cuba

Sarah Blue, Assistant Professor of Geography, Texas State University

United States Palestinian Community Network (USPCN)

Ann Eagan, Treasurer, Manhattan Green Party

Francis Shor, Professor Emeritus, History, Wayne State University

Sherry Millner, Professor, CUNY, College of Staten Island.

Lucille Roussin, Prof., Dir. Holocaust Restitution Claims Practicum, Cardozo School of Law(NYC)

Cole Harrison, Executive Director, Massachusetts Peace Action

William H. Slavick, Professor of English, University of Southern Maine (retired)

Alberto N Jones, President Caribbean American Children Foundation, Palm Coast, Florida

Hermann Engelhardt, Senior Research Associate in Geophysics, Emeritus, California Institute of Technology (Cal Tech)

Ken Hayes SOAW-Austin, TX

Mary Ann Jones, Southern Oregon Friends of Cuba

Rob Kall, Publisher, OpEdNews.com

Kim Scipes, Editor of Building Global Labor Solidarity in a Time of Accelerating Globalization

Notas:

1.- http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/US-Blockade-Cost-Cuba-117-Billion-UN-Reports-20150805-0013.html

2.- Hanson Daniel, Dayne Batten & Harrison Ealey. “It’s Time For The U.S. To End Its Senseless Embargo Of Cuba,” Forbes Magazine.  http://www.forbes.com/sites/realspin/2013/01/16/its-time-for-the-u-s-to-end-its-senseless-embargo-of-cuba/