Strangling Cuba: Biden Retains Trump’s Disastrous Policy w/ Manolo de los Santos
The Socialist Program with Brian Becker
The Socialist Program
4.7 • 587 Ratings
🗓️ 11 August 2022
⏱️ 52 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
A massive fire in Matanzas, Cuba, is coming under control after five days due to tireless efforts by firefighters and specialist crews. But the U.S. blockade, which worsened under Trump with 243 additional coercive measures, and which Biden has largely kept in place, has deprived Cuba of the equipment and resources necessary to handle this disaster.
Brian is joined by Manolo De Los Santos, a central organizer of the Let Cuba Live campaign and the co-executive director of The People’s Forum in New York.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | A massive lightning strike ignited a huge fire in Cuba on August 5th. |
| 0:08.7 | The fire is still burning. |
| 0:11.2 | At the same time, Cuba is suffering from 243 additional coercive measures imposed by Donald Trump |
| 0:20.3 | on the already existing U.S. blockade of Cuba. |
| 0:24.6 | We need a new system. We need a new society. We need to demand that which may have sounded |
| 0:31.6 | impossible even a few weeks ago, but is not only realizable, but anist Program. I'm your host, Ryan Becker. Today we'll be talking again to Manolo |
| 1:07.1 | De Los Santos. Manolo is a central organizer of the Let Cuba Live campaign. |
| 1:13.2 | He's also the executive director of the People's Forum in New York City. |
| 1:18.0 | Manolo, welcome. |
| 1:19.3 | It's a pleasure to be back with you. |
| 1:21.4 | A grave moment for Cuba. |
| 1:23.3 | Huge fire. |
| 1:24.7 | Why is it burning? |
| 1:25.9 | Why is it burning so long? |
| 1:29.9 | And let's talk about it in the context of the Trump-imposed economic measures, which we can now call the Trump-Biden economic coercive |
| 1:37.0 | measures because, in fact, the Biden administration has stayed with Donald Trump's policy, |
| 1:42.5 | not Barack Obama's policy, even though Joe Biden had been vice president during the two terms of Barack Obama. |
| 1:49.6 | Anyway, let's fill the audience in about the fire, what caused it, why it's so big, and its impact. |
| 1:56.3 | Well, right now we're looking at two disasters. |
| 1:59.7 | One is a natural disaster, which is the fact that this lightning hit this important oil storage facility that Cuba has in the province of Matanzas, which is about 65 miles east of Havana. |
| 2:12.3 | It's one of its most recent actual facilities. |
| 2:15.3 | Many people have been saying that it's had aging infrastructure and that's the reason |
... |
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