Raul Castro Calls for a New Financial Order, Blasts USA
HAVANA TIMES — Cuban President Raúl Castro took to task the world’s largest financial institutions for not doing enough to help the developing countries and urged the creation of regional banks that may best deal with regional problems.
Addressing the Summit of the G-77+China being held in Santa Cruz, Bolivia, Castro said:
“As comrade Fidel Castro has said: ‘The resources exist to finance development. What’s lacking is the political will of the governments of the developed countries.’
“It is necessary to demand a new international financial and monetary order and fair commercial conditions for producers and importers from the guardians of capital, centered in the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, and from the defenders of neoliberalism, grouped in the World Trade Organization, which are attempting to divide us.
“Only unity will allow us to make our ample majority prevail.
“That’s what we’ll have to do if we want the Agenda for Development, after 2015, which will have to include the Objectives of Sustainable Development, to offer answers to the structural problems of the economies of our countries, generate changes that allow a sustainable development, be universal, and respond to the different levels of development.”
The nations that constitute the ALBA [Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America] — Cuba, Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador, Nicaragua, St. Vincent & the Grenadines, Antigua & Barbuda, St. Lucia and Dominica — created the Caracas-based Banco del Alba in 2008.
The subject of regional trade and financial cooperation was also discussed at the 2014 Summit of CELAC, the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States, held in Havana.
Castro went on to denounce the United States with the following statements:
“At present, the sovereignty of the states is transgressed, the principles of International Law and the postulates of the New International Economic Order are brazenly violated, concepts that attempt to legalize meddling are imposed, force is used and threats of force are made with impunity, the media are used to promote division.
“Still ringing in our ears is that threat against ’60 or more obscure corners of the world’ made by U.S. President George W. Bush obviously against all the member countries of the Group of 77.
“We must exercise our solidarity with those who are threatened with aggression. Today, the clearest case is the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, against which are used the most sophisticated means of subversion and destabilization, including attempted coups d’état, according to the concepts of unconventional warfare that the United States today applies to overthrow governments, subvert and destabilize societies.
“For more than 50 years, we have been the victims of a genocidal U.S. blockade, of terrorist actions that have taken the lives of thousands of our citizens and provoked costly material damage. The absurd inclusion of Cuba on the list of State Sponsors of International Terrorism is an insult to our people.
“As we have denounced, there is a growing promotion of illegal, covert and subversive actions, as well as the use of cyberspace to attempt to destabilize us, not only Cuba but also countries whose governments do not accept meddling or tutelage. This way, any nation can become the target of computerized attacks aimed at fomenting mistrust, destabilization and potential conflict.”
Castro ended by asking the Group of 77 members “to renew our common commitment to join efforts and close ranks to build a more just world.”
Really? So if you loan me some money, I don’t have to pay you back since the money is not backed by gold? Where do I sign up?
Careful tossing that bucket of stupid. Some of it seems to have splashed back on you.
I guess you think you can teach me something I didn’t learn while getting my MBA. Your comment, like FIAT banking, has nothing to do with the ‘deadbeat’ reputation of the Castros.
Called an embargo. Do you people read? And money debt is created out of nothing by bankers. Not such a sin to not pay it back. Learn about your monetary system. Learn how you are a slave via your monetary system.
dont opinion ate in ignorance.
Learn about FIAT banking before you babble bullshit about nations you know nothing about.
“Wait…aren’t these the same Castros that for years considered the IMF and World Bank to be imperialist tools? ”
They are stupid. Wake up…
And before the communists were mobilising latin america and asking them
not to pay the external debt. Not only they failed, now all of the sudden Cuba
has as priority to pay its debt.
Griffin, the Government of Canada has maintained good relations with Cuba throughout the fifty five years of the Castro regime. It is correct that Trudeau visited the island in 1976 when he gave $2 million to the country and lent it a further $8 million interest free – all Canadian taxpayers money. It is significant that both Trudeau and Fidel Castro were Jesuits, a bacground they share with Stalin who trained for the Jesuit priesthood. When in Cuba Trudeau in a public speech said: “”Long live President Castro, long live Cuba.” In 1998 Prime Minister Jean Chretian visited Cuba and with Fidel Castro opened the new terminal at Jose Marti Airport in Havana. You will find the plaque in the departure lounge of the airport.
The government of Canada has maintained good relations with Cuba ever since our Prime Minister Trudeau visited the island in 1976. Today there are several aid programs in Cuba funded by the Canadian government. The Canadian firm, Sherritt International is one of the largest foreign investors in Cuba.
If you can identify any act by the Canadian government which has been hostile to the Cuban government, please post it here. Otherwise, you will have to accept the fact that the Cuban government has been notorious for not paying their bills for decades.
Scotiabank is not even a United States bank – it is Canadian and in consequence Obama has nothing to do with it. A Visa card with Scotia bank is valid in Cuba because it is based upon Visa in Vancouver not in the US. When Castro came into power (despite his speech at Santiiago de Cuba on January 2, 1959 in which he said “I do not seek power and I will not accept it.”) only two countries in the Americas continued to recognise Cuba diplomatically, Canada and Mexico. Venezuela, Equador, Bolivia, Brazil, Argentina all cut diplomatic relations.
Nope, that’s not it. The Castros lost the trust of Scotiabank because they failed to honor returns on faulty merchandise as approved for credit cardholders. Nothing to do with other governments. Yours is the typical pro-Castro comment. You don’t know the real answer so you blame someone else.
Chicken or the egg? Actions of these governments solicit reprisals, one of those reprisals is late transfer of funds.
The decisions of these banks is not dependent on their government policy. The more likely explantation is the is that Cuba’s poor credit rating and poor record of making cash transfers on time is why banks are freezing their credit cards in Cuba.
He is correct! So called soverign nations,like Jamaica,Panama,Canada have sucked up to the evil Obama.Scotiabank and now Banesco Panama block their VISA cards for use in Cuba!
Wait…aren’t these the same Castros that for years considered the IMF and World Bank to be imperialist tools? The same Castros that are well known for being financial deadbeats. At the close of 2010, the Paris Club reported that Cuba owed its members $30.5 billion. He must be nuts to think that the world’s banks would be willing to lend money to tyrants who don’t pay the money back. One wonders why even the Castros neighbors aren’t rushing to loan money to Cuba. The regional Andean Development Corp. as well as the IDB, not to mention the 15-member Caribbean Community (Caricom) have made no serious efforts to invest in Cuba. The Castros have survived on the handouts of other countries without significantly reforming internal policy to raise productivity and export revenues. Raul’s most recent rant to the G-77 audience reflects the time-worn anti-US rhetoric without presenting new ideas for self-help.