US
Embassy in Havana – The Cuba Caper
By Peter Koenig
December 23, 2014 "ICH"
-The lame duck, Obama, extending a
conciliatory hand to Cuba by opening an
embassy in Havana, by reopening, after 54
years of a criminal and crippling embargo,
diplomatic relations? – At the same time
Obama is making not a single concession in
terms of lifting the blockade. This smells
like a trap. Cuba beware!
Imagine – a US Embassy in Havana – it would
open the floodgates for US NED (National
Endowment for Democracy) funded ‘NGOs’, for
Washington’s spies and anti-Castro
propaganda machine; it would have free hand
to destabilize the country. And what would
Cuba gain? – Zilch, zero, nothing. Not even
a gradual lifting of the embargo had been
announced. To the contrary, it would open
Cuba’s borders to the vultures of Florida
Cubans, eventually to theirs and other
foreign investments, subjugating the
country’s huge social gains over the last
half a century – universal free education
and health services, by far the best social
system of the Americas – to the sledgehammer
of neoliberal privatization.
Why would Cuba now need a US Embassy? After
54 years of struggling and surviving against
Washington’s nod? – In fact, nobody needs
the empire – the empire’s consent to
financially and economically survive.
Suffice it to look at the ‘engineered’ decay
of the Russian ruble which eventually will
leave Russia better off than before the
downward slide of its currency and the
likewise ‘engineered’ downward spin of the
price of petrol. Everybody knows that the
Middle Eastern oil producers, Obama’s
stooges, will not forever shoot themselves
in the foot by flooding the petrol market
and foregoing their oil revenues.
What Cuba needs is free access to
international markets – outside and
independent of the United States. Cuba needs
to integrate into an independent financial
and monetary system, detached from the
corrupt casino dollar. Solidarity by the
rest of the world which has already helped
Cuba survive the illegal, inhuman US embargo
is now more than ever of the order. The
support of a unity of nations must now help
stem the temptation to bend to Washington’s
offer of ‘diplomacy’.
With the establishment of diplomatic
relations, Cuba would be condemned to adopt
the dollar as trading currency – no escaping
the dollar, if ever Cuba wanted to hope for
the good deeds of the empire – the lifting
of the blockade.
Look what happened in Bolivia, Venezuela and
Ecuador – once a US Embassy is established,
all the nefarious destabilizing elements
could sneak in, willy-nilly. Plus, economic
‘sanctions’, would be nearer than ever, if
Cuba doesn’t behave. Both Bolivia and
Venezuela have learned their lessons the
hard way. After they closed the US Embassy
and sent US organizations and NGOs home,
they could breathe again. Though Venezuela
is still suffering from Washington’s
diabolical arm of propaganda and direct
interference in domestic affairs, she has no
longer the burden of maintaining a
‘diplomatic’ tie with the northern
aggressor.
Most importantly, however – the US is vying
for Cuban hydrocarbons, estimated today at
20 billion barrels of offshore oil reserves.
Cuba, like Venezuela, is close to US Mexican
Gulf shores, where the major refineries are
waiting for the crude. During his tour of
South America in July 2014, President Putin
in a meeting with Cuban President, Raul
Castro, signed an agreement whereby the
Russian oil company, Rosneft, will assist
the Cuban oil producer, Cupet, exploring and
exploiting the island’s offshore petrol.
Is it coincidence or sheer self-interest,
that just now, when Russia is digging for
oil in Obama’s backyard that he is offering
diplomatic ties with the 54 years embargoed
Caribbean island? – Your guess.
Venezuela has the world’s largest remaining
hydrocarbon reserves, about 300 billion
barrels. They are close to the US shores and
would be the best bet for US mega-oil. But
the White House’s destabilizing efforts in
Venezuela seem to fail. These efforts and
other State Department blunders have helped
increase US isolation in Latin America.
Why not trying another approach? – A well
disguised lie; insinuating with the opening
of an embassy in Havana that the deadly
embargo might ease in some undefined future
between the brutal Goliath of the north and
castigated, downtrodden David of the
Caribbean. An embassy in Cuba may also earn
some much needed kudos with other Latin
American neighbors which have been upset for
years about the criminal strangulation by
the empire of one of their brothers.
In fact, first reactions from Latin America
to Obama’s diplomatic initiative were
positive. But more than caution is in order.
– The establishment of a US embassy in
Havana might be more than just a floodgate
for US secret service agents and anti-Cuba
propaganda. A US Embassy in Havana might
begin breaking down US isolation in South
America, especially in Brazil and Argentina.
It might become a backdoor for Washington to
gain access to these countries huge natural
resources.
Knowing about Washington’s agenda of world
dominance, it would be difficult to imagine
that there is even a shred of goodwill
behind Obama’s move to ‘normalize’ relations
with Cuba. – Havana beware!
Peter Koenig is an
economist and geopolitical analyst. He is
also a former World Bank staff and worked
extensively around the world in the fields
of environment and water resources. He is
the author of Implosion – An Economic
Thriller about War, Environmental
Destruction and Corporate Greed – fiction
based on facts and on 30 years of World Bank
experience around the globe.
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