Maduro Meets with Community Leaders in the Bronx, Invites Puerto Rico to join ALBA

Source: venezuelanalysis.com

Yesterday evening after presenting at the United Nations Summit on Climate Change, Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro seized the opportunity to visit community leaders, local activists and grassroots groups in an event hosted by Hostos Community College of the South Bronx, in New York City.

Around 1,000 people attended the event, which was organized by Citgo, and many arrived early to wait outside for good seats and to hold signs welcoming Maduro as “president of the people.”

The Bronx community

The atmosphere was festive, Gabriela Sierra Alonso, a journalism student in attendance, told venezuelanalysis.com. “People were carrying messages of solidarity, chanting, and handing out fliers. Because it was at Hostos, a big part of the Puerto Rican community was there, particularly those fighting for the release of political prisoner Oscar Lopez Rivera.”

Largest butterfly in Western Hemisphere needs help to avoid extinction

August 2007.
Source: wildlifeextra.com

The Homerus swallowtail, found only in two areas of Jamaica, is the Western Hemisphere’s largest butterfly, but scientists say that its numbers are so small that conservation and captive breeding efforts are needed to save the insect.

A University of Florida study was the first to estimate the population found in western Jamaica’s remote ‘Cockpit Country.’ Author Matt Lehnert, a graduate student at the University found about 50 adults in the area. The good news is the population was larger than expected, according to Tom Emmel, a UF entomology professor who has helped rescue the endangered Schaus swallowtail and Miami blue butterflies native to Florida.

Read more at: http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/news/homerus-swallowtail.html#cr
See also: http://dearkitty1.wordpress.com/2007/08/16/help-the-largest-butterfly-of-the-western-hemisphere-survive/

History Will Absolve Me…Fidel, 1953

The following is the reconstruction of Fidel’s four-hour speech made on 16 October 1953 in his own defense in court against the charges brought against him after he led the attack on the Moncada Barracks.

Source: http://www.marxists.org/history/cuba/archive/castro/1953/10/16.htm

HONORABLE JUDGES:

Never has a lawyer had to practice his profession under such difficult conditions; never has such a number of overwhelming irregularities been committed against an accused man. In this case, counsel and defendant are one and the same. As attorney he has not even been able to take a look at the indictment. As accused, for the past seventy-six days he has been locked away in solitary confinement, held totally and absolutely incommunicado, in violation of every human and legal right.

He who speaks to you hates vanity with all his being, nor are his temperament or frame of mind inclined towards courtroom poses or sensationalism of any kind. If I have had to assume my own defense before this Court it is for two reasons. First: because I have been denied legal aid almost entirely, and second: only one who has been so deeply wounded, who has seen his country so forsaken and its justice trampled so, can speak at a moment like this with words that spring from the blood of his heart and the truth of his very gut.

There was no lack of generous comrades who wished to defend me, and the Havana Bar Association appointed a courageous and competent jurist, Dr. Jorge Pagliery, Dean of the Bar in this city, to represent me in this case. However, he was not permitted to carry out

AfricanYouth Nominate the Five Cuban Heroes for Nobel Peace Prize

An Open Letter to the Norwegian Prize Committee

By Benedict Wachira
Nairobi, Kenya
10 October 2010

Norwegian Nobel Committee

Thorbjørn Jagland
Kaci Kullmann Five
Sissel Marie Rønbeck
Inger-Marie Ytterhorn
Henrik Ibsens gate 51
NO-0255 Oslo, Norway

Dear all,

Request to you, to nominate the Cuban Five for the Nobel Peace Prize year 2011

                         The Five Cuban Heroes

I am Wachira, a 25 year old Youth from Nairobi, Kenya’s capital city, and I am writing this letter first to congratulate you for your bold step in selecting Liu Xiaobo as this year’s Nobel Peace Prize winner, a step which has led to international awareness about his case, and a step which will lead to a bigger space in the freedom of expression in China, and the world at large.

Secondly, I am writing to inform you of the case of the world’s most famous innocent prisoners today, Gerardo Hernandez, Rene Gonzalez, Antonio Guerrero, Ramon Labanino

René González, one of theCuban Five, freed but not free

René González — one of the Miami Five — was released from prison on 7 October 2011 following 13 years of unjust incarceration. This film is René’s first English-language interview since his release.

Published on Mar 18, 2012 by CubaSolidarity 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XX-0Cc2TrLc&feature=related

UN Recognizes Cuba’s Struggle Against Racism

by Joel Michel Varona

United Nations bodies have acknowledged here Cuban advances in fighting racial discrimination, thanks to a state policy directed at benefiting all sectors of society.

Rolando García, auxiliary representative of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), stressed that the country’s achievements are an example to the world and currently head Latin American efforts in relation to equality of opportunities for citizens.

These advances are the result of inclusive policies of citizens’ participation promoted by the national leadership, which is now involved in consolidating those policies, said García, who is taking part in the Cuba and peoples of African descent in the Americas seminar.

In the case of Cuba, we could say that it has solved the principal problems of discrimination and has largely succeeded in incorporating African descendants into society, García noted, speaking at the Juan Marinello Cultural Research Institute in the capital.

Havana. June 17, 2011

Granma International