Category Archives: Government Oppression

Chennai: CPM general secretary Sitaram Yechury alleged on Monday that the "distractions", including the latest "imposition" of Hindi in states where the language was not widely spoken, were the "essence" of the three-year rule of the Narendra Modi-led BJP government at the Centre.

CPM general secretary Sitaram Yechury. PTI

Flaying the Centre for "not honouring" the promises made to the people, he said here, "Everyday, you will have some sort of a distraction brought in (by the government).

"The latest one is that of language imposition. All the senior ministers are suddenly talking about Hindi being the national language and that it should be promoted. These distractions are the essence of the three-year rule of the Modi government."

The Left leader was speaking at a seminar, jointly organised by the Students' Federation of India and the Tamil Nadu Progressive Writers' Association.

Recalling that the people of Tamil Nadu had a "big history" of fighting "caste-based oppression", he said they needed to carry it forward to strengthen the "idea of India" and stop the country from being reduced to the "narrow confines" of the "Hindi, Hindu and Hindutva" slogan.

"That is the larger battle we are facing today," said Yechury.

"The promises made to our farmers are not being honoured. Nothing of what was told to the people of this country is being honoured by this government," he alleged.

Noting that the imposition of a language was an "imposition of a certain ideological condition", the Rajya Sabha member said, "That ideological condition is a prerequisite project for converting the secular, democratic republic of India into their (BJP's) version of a Hindu Rashtra.

"That is why, I think the seminar you have organised against the imposition of Hindi and the excavation project in Keezhadi (near Madurai in Tamil Nadu) must be seen as a path towards the larger battle which is taking place in the country right now."

Visit link:

'Distractions' like Hindi imposition are 'essence' of Narendra Modi government, says CPM - Firstpost

Darjeeling, June 27 (IANS) In a bid to cut all ties with the West Bengal government and to protest the development board of the North Bengal hills, the Gorkha Janamukti Morcha (GJM) on Tuesday burnt documents of the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA) agreement.

The GTA activists gathered at Chowk Bazar and publicly set fire to the documents.

They announced more rallies would be held and warned all other parties against taking part in any fresh elections to the GTA in the hills.

The scheduled demonstration drew a huge crowd from all across the North Bengal hill town. The demonstrators carried the Tricolor along with the GJM party flag and raised pro-Gorkhaland slogans, demanding statehood.

The GJM leadership present at the Chowk Bazar said similar demonstrations would be held at 45 other places in Darjeeling, Kalimpong and the Dooars region.

They said the burning of the GTA documents officially marked the end of the developmental board in the hills.

Today (Tuesday) we are burning the GTA memorandum agreement and the GTA Act that was signed in August 2011. From today, GTA would be a non-entity in the hills. We do not want the GTA anymore. The only thing we want now is Gorkhaland, Binay Tamang, GJMs Assistant General Secretary, said.

None of the political parties in the hills would participate in any form of GTA election. But if the state government tries to impose the election here and anyone tries to fight the election even as an independent candidate, they would have to do that at their own risk, Tamang warned.

Similar demonstrations were observed in the plains of North Bengal as the GJM supporters gathered in large numbers at various places in Siliguri.

The local Morcha leadership blamed Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee of trying to polarise the people in the hills and pledged to continue their fight till their demand for a separate Gorkhaland is fulfilled.

Mamata Banerjee has repeatedly come to the hills and tried to polarise us. We are protesting against that by burning these documents. Our fight for Gorkhaland would continue till it is achieved, GJM leader Vishal Chettri said.

Earlier in the day, in a unique form of protest against the state government and police actions, several activists of Yuba Morcha the youth wing of GJM conducted a tubelight rally and broke the tubelight rods on their back.

This is a protest against Bengals constant oppression of the Nepali community. We have different cultures, different language. We should have a different state, said an activist who participated in the demonstration.

On Monday, Prakash Gurung, President of the Gorkha Janmukti Yuva Morcha (GJYM), vowed to resort to hunger-strike and self-immolation and urged the Centre to start a dialogue on the issue of separate Gorkhaland.

We will intensify our agitation for Gorkhaland by taking the path of self-sacrifice and fasting unto death from now on, he said.

The picturesque Darjeeling district in northern West Bengal is on the boil for more than two weeks now over the demand for a separate Gorkhaland.

The GJM, which is spearheading the movement for Gorkhaland, has repeatedly rejected any possibility of talks with the Mamata Banerjee government, accusing it of oppression and high-handedness.

The Trinamool Congress government in the state maintains that it is ready for a discussion after the situation in the area becomes normal.

This is published unedited from the IANS feed.

Originally posted here:

Morcha holds rally in Darjeeling, burns GTA accord papers - India.com

The Nordic speculative-fiction scene has become increasingly prominent in the past few years, with authors such Leena Krohn and Johanna Sinisalo, both from Finland, garnering fresh attention and translations in the United States. In Sweden, one of the most promising authors of science fiction and fantasy in recent years has been Karin Tidbeck.

Her 2012 short story collection, Jagganath, showcased her knack for sharp yet dreamlike tale-spinning. Tidbeck's debut novel Amatka came out the same year, in Swedish only and it's seeing its first English translation now. Not a moment too soon, either: Despite being originally published five years ago, its surreal vision of deadly conspiracies, political oppression, and curtailed freedom couldn't be more eerily timely.

Amatka takes place in one of the most audacious science-fiction settings since Besel/Ul Qoma from China Miville's The City and The City. In Miville's book, two fictional European city-states are superimposed upon each other, with residents of each forbidden to acknowledge the existence of the other. In Tidbeck's agricultural colony of Amatka, a totalitarian government rules over a deprived and economically depressed population. But this is no run-of-the-mill dystopia. One of Amatka's many repressive rules is the requirement that citizens routinely repeat the names of certain marked objects in the colony. If they don't, those objects will dissolve into what the main character Vanja, calls "gloop" a formless substance that feels uncannily like living tissue.

Despite being originally published five years ago, [Tidbeck's] surreal vision of deadly conspiracies, political oppression, and curtailed freedom couldn't be more eerily timely.

The strangeness does not come anywhere close to ending there. Vanja is from another colony, Essre, and she travels to Amatka for a work assignment to assess the marketing possibilities there for the hygiene-product company she works for. This world's level of technology is woefully backward, and Vanja struggles to acclimate to Amatka's coldness and remoteness. It's a place of underground mushroom farms and impossible lakes that freeze and thaw of their own volition, a nowhere-land with a gray and featureless sky. The more she settles into life in Amatka, though, the more the colony's oddness intensifies. Objects begin to dissolve at an increasing rate, and conspiracies start to appear some of them connected to a fomenting rebellion, and some of them regarding the government's apparent cover-up of the true reason behind its draconian laws. Not to mention the reality-melting secret of the gloop.

Tidbeck's premise is almost comical, but her execution is anything but. Amatka teems with mysteries, and almost every innocuous detail like the fact that the colony's residents are vegan winds up having head-spinning ramifications later on. As exquisitely constructed as her enigmas are, however, they're atmospheric and deeply moving. Vanja is not an easy character to latch onto, but that sense of distance makes her ultimate choices and sacrifices and what they say about loneliness and freedom so much more poignant.

Amatka does not wrap up as conclusively as many readers may like, but then it's nowhere near being a conventional sci-fi novel. Tidbeck triumphs at crafting an ending that's both unsettingly vague and unerringly true to the warped internal logic of her world. Amatka is so disorienting that it makes the otherwise generic elements of her political dystopia including crippling procedures and secret camps for dissidents feel almost comfortingly familiar. It's an unnerving trick, and one Tidbeck pulls off to effect: She paints the moral ambiguities of a repressive society in the same gray tones as the sky above Amatka. Most of all, her meditation on the power of names and how language can be used to control both perception and substance resonates chillingly in our post-truth reality.

Jason Heller is a senior writer at The A.V. Club, a Hugo Award-winning editor and author of the novel Taft 2012.

See original here:

In 'Amatka,' A Warped And Chilling Portrait Of Post-Truth Reality - NPR

Two protests were stagedoutside Beijings office in Hong Kong on Tuesday in support of Chinese activist and Nobel laureate Liu Xiaobo.

Around 20 people joined a march led by political parties Demosisto and the League of Social Democrats to demand Lius unconditional release.

Photo: HKFP/Catherine Lai.

Two hours later, around 30 people from the Democratic Party, the Civic Party andthe Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements in China also held a march from Western Police Station to the China Liaison Office.

Photo: Supplied.

Liuwas sentenced to 11 years in 2008 afterwriting a manifesto called Charter 08 calling for democratic reform in China. Hewas released on medical parole on Mondayafter being diagnosed with terminal liver cancer.

Chinese authorities said Liu is being treated byeight renowned Chinese oncologists in a hospital inthe northeastern city of Shenyang.

The one-party state kills people without a weapon. Photo: HKFP/Catherine Lai.

On Tuesday, protesters held placards sayingThe one-party state kills people without weapons and Political oppression is unacceptable.

Lawmaker Long Hair Leung Kwok-hung called the Chinese government shameless for putting Liu under surveillance even ashe is receiving medical treatment.

Photo: HKFP/Catherine Lai.

Liu should be freed. He should enjoy the same rights as everyone, including the freedom to getmedical treatment and see hisfamily, Leung said.

He expressed sadness over the news and said he hoped thediagnosis was wrong,as he had hoped to see Liu when he has servedhis time.

Photo: HKFP/Catherine Lai.

Some protesters wore masks of Lius face and carried signs that said: We are all Liu Xiaobo.

See also:How Chinese intellectual Liu Xiaobo spoke up for change, only to be jailed by Beijing

Demosisto activist Joshua Wong said Liu was only transferred from one prison to another. He asked all lawmakers and activists to demand Chinese President Xi Jinping release Liu during the leaders visit to Hong Kong this week.

Photo: HKFP/Catherine Lai.

It istime for Hong Kong people to ask for democratisation [of] Hong Kong and mainland China, he added.

The group also urged Beijingtofree Lius wife, Liu Xia, who has beenunder house arrestsince 2010.

Photo: HKFP/Catherine Lai.

The China Liaison Office did not send a representative to take the petition letter from the group.

Photo: HKFP/Catherine Lai.

In response, protestersposted pictures of Liu Xiaobo and Liu Xia on the offices wall, with messages calling for their release and criticising Beijing for its political and unjust imprisonment of Liu.

Release Liu Xiaobo and Liu Xia unconditionally now. Photo: HKFP/Catherine Lai.

Police officers blocked off part of the sidewalk with tape and took personal information of protesters as they turned up to the rally.

See also: 12 reactions from NGOs, China and the intl community as Beijing releases Nobel winner Liu Xiaobo

The Charter 08 is not criminal. Shame on political prosecution. Photo: HKFP/Catherine Lai.

The international community has united in a chorus of condemnation in response to the news. NGO Human Rights Watch called for Lius immediate release, while Amnesty International Hong Kongsaid the diagnosis adds injury to insult to Liu.

The Norwegian Nobel Committee invited Liu to visit Oslo to receive his Nobel Peace Prize. It said it strongly regrets that it took serious illness before Chinese authorities were willing to release him from jail.

Comments

Read the original here:

In Pictures: 'Political oppression' Hong Kong activists call for release of Nobel winner Liu Xiaobo - Hong Kong Free Press

WASHINGTON, D.C. U.S. Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) led a bipartisan group of Senators in sending a letter to President Donald Trump, June 23, ahead of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modis visit to Washington D.C. The letter implores President Trump to use his meeting with the prime minister as an opportunity to discuss Indias discriminatory policies against foreign religious and humanitarian organizations.

Sens. Blunt, Crapo, Lankford, and Klobuchar signed on to Sen. Kennedys letter encouraging the president to make it clear to Prime Minister Modi that human rights and religious liberty remain a top priority.

Over the past few years, the Indian government has made it difficult if not impossible for religious and humanitarian organizations to get funding to their charitable operations in India. Many of these organizations are simply trying to meet the basic needs of the citizens of India. Compassion International even had to leave India. This humanitarian aid organization had helped feed and provide health care to children in India for nearly 50 years. Now thousands of innocent children will be left without this critical support, said Sen. Kennedy. Discriminating against foreign organizations that help the citizens of India is counterproductive, and it needs to change. I ask that President Trump address this serious issue with Prime Minister Modi during his upcoming trip to Washington.

Below is the text of the letter.

_____________________________

June 23, 2017

The Honorable Donald J. Trump

President of the United States

The White House

Washington, DC 20500

Dear Mr. President:

Thank you for your commitment to protecting and advancing religious liberty around the world. You have made it clear that protecting religious freedom deserves our constant vigilance. We agree that our support for democracy requires persistent efforts to support and advocate for religious liberty around the world.

We are particularly concerned about violations of religious liberty in India. India is the worlds largest democracy and therefore holds a position of importance on the world stage, making the ongoing violations even more disturbing. Despite Indias size and religious diversity, violations of religious liberty have existed for years.

Every year, the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) releases a report outlining the state of religious freedom across the world. India has consistently remained a Tier 2 country, meaning that USCIRF believes it requires close monitoring based on evidence of violations of religious freedom. These include violence, discrimination, and forced conversions, as well as harassment and intimidation.

Of significant concern is Indias recent use of its Foreign Contributions Regulations Act (FCRA) to target humanitarian and religious organizations. Any foreign religious organizations, including missionaries, working in India must comply with this law. In 2011, the Indian Parliament amended FCRA to allow the government to block funds for foreign organizations that conduct any activities detrimental to the national interest.

The Indian government has since used this broad provision to target foreign humanitarian and religious organizations that serve the Indian people, such as Compassion International that was forced to leave India and the 145,000 Indian children it served. Other organizations that have come under scrutiny include the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Ford Foundation, Amnesty International, and Greenpeace. Other evangelical Christian organizations, such as the Southern Baptist Convention, have also faced discrimination of various kinds. The number of organizations that have lost their licenses has exceeded 10,000 since Prime Minister Modi took office.

Based on these troubling developments, we ask that you make religious liberty a top priority when Prime Minister Narendra Modi visits the United States this month. We request that you use the United States strong, longstanding relationship with India to encourage Prime Minister Modi to alleviate the discrimination against these organizations, particularly religious-based aid groups, and to take steps to advance religious liberty for all of Indias citizens.

The United States has served as an example of religious liberty for the entire world ever since its founding. These principles underlie the essence of what it means to be American. Even more importantly, the freedom to practice ones own religious beliefs underlies the essence of what it means to be human and live in a democracy. We encourage you to bring these violations to Prime Minister Modis attention and continue to work to protect religious liberty across the globe.

Sincerely,

John Kennedy

United States Senator

Roy Blunt

United States Senator

Mike Crapo

United States Senator

James Lankford

United States Senator

Amy Klobuchar

United States Senator

Read more from the original source:

Louisiana's John Kennedy leads US Senate effort against oppression in India - The Baptist Message

NEW DELHI: Have you heard of the Gadia lohars who fought in the army of Maharana Pratap and several other Rajput rulers against the Mughals or the Maravars of Tamil Nadu who protected the kingdoms of the chola emperors and resisted the British for many years?

Notified as criminal tribes by the British in the nineteenth century largely as a price for their resistance to oppression and then denotifed by the Indian government but never really classified or given their due, the Modi government has decided to assess and improve the living conditions of 10 crore people belonging to nomadic and denotified tribes of the country whose contribution to the freedom struggle has never been popularised.

Last week, the National Commission for Denotified, Nomadic and Seminomadic Tribes (NCDNT) that comes under the ministry of Social Justice presented an interim report to the centre charting out a roadmap to improve the lives of these communities, bring out their long forgotten history and make them an important part of the electorate by ensuring government schemes such as Mudra and Jan Dhan Yojna reached them.

An exhaustive household survey for the first time has been launched across the county to study the living conditions of these tribes and document their histories. Secretary of the commission B K Prasad said the history of denotified and nomadic tribes was one of suppression and exploitation that they have faced persecution for more than 150 years. This report and the steps we take based on our interactions is an attempt to reverse this injustice.

Agencies Karvy in the nothern zone, Vimarsh in the western zone, Academy of Management Studies, Life Academy of Vocational Studies in the Eastern zone, Karvy in the North Eastern zone and Vimarsh in the southern zone have been picked to conduct this survey.

These agencies starting June 1 are compiling data about each of these communities, taking a sample size of 9000. They will assess the socio economic conditions and submit a report to us in six months, Prasad added. He added that the commission is now working on a deadline and findings of the survey - first in independent India will help it further in its intervention.

The researchers have studied the history and living conditions of over 200 such communities. For instance, the gadia lohar community found in five north states were blacksmiths in the army of Maharana Pratap. They live under self-imposed taboos not to return to Chittorgarh fort, not to use ropes to draw water or use candles at home as a protest for freedom. Today, due to mechanisation, they work as labourers or sell iron scraps, said Siddharth M, researcher, who added that stories collected from all these communities are being documented.

Similar the maravars, glorifed in the ancient text Thirukkurral, were protectors of Tamil emperors and worked as as Kudikaval (traditional policing communities). But they resisted the British who suppressed them. During our interactions they told us the story of Rani Velu Nachiyar who fought the british but was never given the same importance as Rani Laxmibai. Today the community members work in matchbox factories with bare minimum facilities, the report said.

Experts said the colonial category of criminal tribes may have been denotified but many communities remain unclassified. The Ayyangar Committees recommendations led to the repeal of the CTA in August 1952. In 2008, the National Commission for Denotified, Nomadic and Semi-Nomadic Tribes (NCDNT) produced a report where it said, But, to keep effective control over the so-called hardened criminals, the Habitual Offenders Act was placed in the statute book.

To address that, besides listing of ways to make schooling and medical care accessible to these nomadic groups and recommending grazing rights in forests, specific training, scholarship and housing benefits, the commission has sought for a review of the Habitual Offenders Act 1952 which has come provisions from the erstwhile Criminal Tribes Act that add to the harassment faced by these communities.

See original here:

Government tries to right the wrongs against persecuted tribes - Economic Times

BBC News

UKIP should not become anti-Islam, party's Welsh MEP warns BBC News Mr Gill told BBC Wales, government should not dictate what "you can and can't wear" and said he did not want to associate himself with the campaign. UKIP said the veil was an "instrument of oppression", adding it sought to "lift the veil" on "that ... and more »

Read the rest here:

UKIP should not become anti-Islam, party's Welsh MEP warns - BBC News

On 11 June Avigdor Lieberman proudly announced that Israel was planning its greatest expansion of settlement homes since 1992. Ramot in the occupied West Bank. Photograph: Ronen Zvulun/Reuters

Two weeks ago I found myself in a sweaty room in the Royal Courts of Justice, packed with fellow Palestine activists, listening to detailed and sometimes arcane legal arguments about pension law. The journey that ended in that courtroom began in September last year when the government announced new guidance intended to prohibit local government pension schemes from pursuing divestment and sanctions against foreign nations and UK defence industries other than where formal legal sanctions, embargoes and restrictions have been put in place by the government.

The key target of these new rules was made clear in the government press release about the decision. This was the government acting to place a ban on boycotting Israel. The regulations were introduced in November 2016 despite a public consultation indicating that 98% of respondents thought this was the wrong thing to do, and a wider public outcry.

The Palestine Solidarity Campaign, of which Im the director, decided to take the government on. We launched a judicial review supported with witness statements from War on Want, Campaign Against the Arms Trade and the Quakers. Finally, on 22 June, we got the verdict we won! Judge Sir Ross Cranston ruled the guidance was unlawful and that the government had acted for an improper purpose.

This is a victory for the rule of law, for local democracy and for freedom of expression. But it is also a crucial moment in the campaign for Boycott Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against Israel until it complies with international law. This campaign emerged in 2005 in answer to a call from 170 Palestinian civil society organisations, frustrated by the decades in which international governments and bodies had issued condemnations of Israels oppression of the Palestinian people but refused to impose meaningful pressure.

The consequences of this failed policy were underlined in the last month, during which Israels illegal occupation of East Jerusalem, the West bank and Gaza entered its 50th year. On 11 June the countrys foreign minister, Avigdor Lieberman, proudly announced that Israel was planning its greatest expansion of settlement homes since 1992, one year before the Oslo accords launched the so-called peace process. During that time the number of illegal settlers occupying the West Bank and East Jerusalem has grown by nearly half a million. On 20 June ,as work started on the first illegal settlement to be built outside the existing settlement blocks in 25 years, Benjamin Netanyahu tweeted After decades, I have the privilege to be the prime minister who is building a new community in Judea and Samaria. Or to put it in clearer language , here is a prime minster who feels privileged to be violating international law.

The BDS movement is a response to Israels confidence that it can act with impunity. Modelled on the same tactics used so successfully against apartheid South Africa, it calls on all actors to end economic support for Israels illegal actions.

The UK governments attempts to force though the pension regulations were part and parcel of a wider attempt by Israel and its supporters to push back against the growing success of the BDS campaign. In April a leaked joint report from the Israeli thinktank the Reut Institute and the US Anti-Defamation League boasted of the success since 2010 in establishing a global pro-Israel network to suppress BDS activity, and the use of anti-BDS laws as a key tactic: 14 US states have introduced such legislation.

Theresa May must listen to the growing chorus of voices calling for an approach that truly holds Israel to account

Sir Ross Cranstons judgment last week draws a line in the sand against the attempts to introduce such measures in the UK. It upholds the basic right to invest money on ethical principles.

For BDS campaigners in the UK this gives a huge boost to our work. A recent YouGov poll showed that public opinion is on our side with 43% of the public seeing BDS as a reasonable response to Israels policies and only 13% opposed. This judgment tells us that the law is with us as well. With this legal impediment removed, we will take forward the campaign to persuade all relevant bodies, including pension-fund holders, not to invest money in supporting activities that are illegal and violate human rights.

Margaret Thatcher found herself on the wrong side of history in the 1980s when she tried to prevent boycotts of apartheid South Africa. Last week, Theresa May told us that her government recognised the need to be humble, to listen to public opinion and rethink its approach to a range of issues. Its time for her to acknowledge that current policy in the Middle East has failed and to listen to the growing chorus of voices calling for an approach that truly holds Israel to account.

View post:

This ruling allows councils to boycott Israel. It's a crucial victory - The Guardian

NewsBusters (press release) (blog)

Nets Ignore India's Recent Spike in Christian Persecution NewsBusters (press release) (blog) According to Open Doors President David Curry, the Indian government is actually supportive of Christian oppression. Also, it has become increasingly hostile to American NGOs, including Christian ministry Compassion International, which was forced to ... and more »

Go here to see the original:

Nets Ignore India's Recent Spike in Christian Persecution - NewsBusters (press release) (blog)

Natalia Castro Guest Columnist In December of 2014, President Obama announced that the U.S. and Cuba would restore diplomatic relations, and by March 2016 promised the removal of the U.S. trade embargo on Cuba; allowing American money to fund the undemocratic government in power in Havana. After Obama met the Cuban leader, Raul Castro, brother of former dictator Fidel Castro, Obama vowed that change would happen in Cuba and that Castro understood that. Now, at the call of millions of Cuban-Americans and to fulfill a critical campaign promise, the only thing that has changed is President Donald Trump who has now reversed the Obama policies on Havana, calling for a free Cuba in his June 16 speech announcing the new U.S. policy. What you have built here a vibrant culture, a thriving neighborhood, the spirit of adventure is a testament to what a free Cuba could be. And with Gods help, a free Cuba is what we will soon achieve, Trump said. Cubas 2016 Human Right Watch report painted a damning picture of the nation Obama was convinced change was approaching. Despite lifting the sanctions, the report concluded, The Cuban government continues to repress dissent and punish public criticism Short-term arbitrary arrests of human rights defenders, independent journalists, and others have increased dramatically in recent years. Other repressive tactics employed by the government include beatings, public shaming, and termination of employment. Obama opened the doors to U.S. trade with corporations, not run by the Cuban people, but run by the Cuban military to fuel this oppressive government. Now, President Trumps policy change will assist both Cuban Americans and the Cuban people by once again attempting to persuade the government there to stand for the values of liberty and justice in order to have a relationship with the United States. In Trumps address in Miami on the issue, Trump made clear that U.S. cash will no longer flow to the Cuban military monopoly, Grupo de Administracin Empresarial (GAESA) but can be used to develop economic ties with the small, private business sector. With the military run GAESA acting as one of the largest barriers to private entrepreneurship in Cuba, this will urge the Cuban government to finally provide economic liberty to the people. In order to ensure that human rights progress is made, Trumps policy change will mandate regular reporting on Cubas progress toward greater political and economic freedom. Trump has made clear Cubas relationship with the United States will depend entirely on their willingness to improve the heinous acts their government has committed. Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning affirmed in a statement that, The decision to stop rewarding the communist dictator has reaffirmed the United States position as a global leader in the pursuit of individual liberty for all. By refusing to fund a government that continues to jail and torture political dissidents, President Trump sent the clear message that the U.S. does not only spread wealth, it also spread the values of our country; individual liberty, justice, and democracy. To ensure this, person to person travel between the two countries will once again be halted. For a nation which relies on a state-run tourism industry to fuel their government, this will stop U.S. travelers from fueling the Cuban governments oppression. While preventing ordinary citizens from traveling, Trump will still allow direct relatives to travel to and from the island. Son of Cuban immigrants, Marco Rubio assisted with the policy change and summed up the Trump Administrations aim at the Miami event in noting that, Less than a year and a half ago an American president landed in Havana to outstretch his hand to a regime. Today, a new president lands in Miami to reach out his hands to the people of Cubamore than anything else this change empowers the people of Cuba, not the government, not the regime, but the people; so that they can enjoy the freedom and liberty with the very clear message that America is ready to outstretch its hand. The United States has been a defender of freedom in Cuba before, and with President Trumps action, is finally reclaiming that status. Trump vowed to put America first, and on Cuba, he has proved that that also sometimes means putting American values first. Natalia Castro is a contributing editor for Americans for Limited Government.

Read more here:

Trump reinstates sanctions on Havana, calls for 'a free Cuba' - Gardnernews.com