Biden Marks Four-Year Anniversary of Parkland Shooting; Calls for End to Gun Violence

Washington — 

U.S. President Joe Biden Monday marked the fourth anniversary of the deadly school shooting in Parkland, Florida by calling on the country to uphold the “solemn obligation” to end gun violence.

“On this difficult day, we mourn with the Parkland families whose lives were upended in an instant; who had to bury a piece of their soul deep in the earth,” Biden said in a statement. “We pray too for those still grappling with wounds both visible and invisible.”

On February 14, 2018, a gunman opened fire at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, killing 17 people in the deadliest high school shooting to date. Fourteen of those killed were students, the others, educators. The gunman, Nikolas Cruz, was 19 years old at the time and a former student at the school.

Cruz pleaded guilty to the shootings last October. His sentencing trial is set to begin later this year. Jurors will decide whether he spends the rest of his life in prison or gets the death penalty.

The shooting stirred a movement, March for Our Lives, started by students advocating for stricter gun laws.

“Out of the heartbreak of Parkland a new generation of Americans all across the country marched for our lives and towards a better, safer America for us all,” Biden said, “Together, this extraordinary movement is making sure that the voices of victims and survivors and responsible gun owners are louder than the voices of gun manufacturers and the National Rifle Association.”

The NRA is America’s biggest gun rights lobby. The Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution affirms the right to bear arms. In the wake of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas shooting, Florida, a Republican-led state, imposed a three-day waiting period to purchase firearms and raised the minimum age to buy a gun from 18 to 21. The NRA argued the state law is unconstitutional.

Since the Parkland incident, school shootings have continued. Between Aug. 1 and Dec. 31, there were 136 instances of gunfire at schools, according to gun control advocacy group Everytown for Gun Safety.

Biden outlined steps that his administration is following to counteract this rise, including “curbing the proliferation of ‘ghost’ guns,” unregistered firearms that can be purchased without a background check.

He called on Congress to take action saying, “Congress must do much more — beginning with requiring background checks on all gun sales, banning assault weapons and high-capacity magazines, and eliminating immunity for gun manufacturers.”

Multiple bills to scrutinize gun buyers and restrict purchases of the deadliest weapons have been put forward in the U.S. Congress over the last decade. None became law.

Most Democratic Party lawmakers back tighter gun regulations while most Republicans oppose them, citing the Second Amendment.

Cuba Marks Six Decades Under US Sanctions

Cuba on Monday marks 60 years under a U.S. economic blockade that has deeply affected the communist nation’s fortunes and shows no signs of being lifted.

Decreed by U.S. president John F. Kennedy on February 3, 1962, the embargo on all bilateral trade came into effect four days later.

Its purpose, said Kennedy’s executive order, was to reduce the threat posed by the island nation’s “alignment with the communist powers.”

Despite failing to force a change in tack from Havana since then, the sanctions remain in place six decades later, and are blamed by Cuban authorities for damage to the country’s economy amounting to some $150 billion.

Cuba is experiencing its worst economic crisis in 30 years, with inflation at 70 percent and a severe shortage of food and medicines as the COVID-19 pandemic dealt a hefty blow to a key source of income: tourism.

Long lines for essential goods are common, as food imports have been slashed due to dwindling government reserves.

Havana blames the sanctions for all the island’s woes.

The message that “the embargo is a virus too” has been hammered home by authorities for months, as they organize caravans of cars, bikes and motorcycles to crisscross the country and denounce the sanctions.

But detractors say inefficiencies and structural problems in the economy controlled by the one-party state are also to blame.

A man rides his motorcycle near a banner reading ‘Plan vs. plan. Resistance vs. blockade. For Cuba: United’ in Havana, on Feb. 4, 2022.

‘Counterproductive’

“The real blockade was imposed by the Cuban state,” said activist Rosa Maria Paya of lobby group Cubadecide, which she directs from exile.

The embargo would only be lifted, she believes, through “a transition to representative democracy.”

Cuba has little productive capacity and relies on imports for about 80 percent of its food needs.

A monetary reform launched a year ago to try and alleviate pressures on Cubans brought about a significant wage increase in a country where most workers are employed by the government, but further fueled price inflation.

Since 2000, food has been excluded from the U.S. blockade, and between 2015 and 2000, Cuba imported some $1.5 billion worth of food from its neighbor.

But the purchases must be paid in cash and upfront, onerous conditions for a country with limited reserves.

According to Carlos Gutierrez, a Cuban American and former U.S. Secretary of Commerce, the embargo has proven to be “counterproductive.”

“Absolutely nothing has been obtained from Havana” in response, he said.

Geopolitical interests

Instead, Cuba has looked to U.S. rivals such as China and Russia for support.

Two weeks ago, Cuba’s President Miguel Diaz-Canel and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin discussed “strategic partnership” in a phone call.

And Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Riabkov recently said Moscow would not rule out a military deployment to Cuba — just a few hundred kilometers from Miami in the U.S. state of Florida — if tensions with Washington over ex-Soviet state Ukraine escalated.

For some, such posturing recalls the Cold War and the Cuban missile crisis between the United States and the former Soviet Union, which brought the world to the brink of nuclear warfare and was a major motivation for the blockade against Cuba.

Conflict was averted when Moscow agreed to remove Soviet missiles from Cuban soil.

The U.S. blockade started out as a “strategic and military instrument” in the context of war, said political scientist Rafael Hernandez.

And although the Cold War is over, it is still the United States’ “geopolitical interests” that determine its stance towards Cuba, he said.

U.S. domestic politics also play a role, with the vote of a large and vocal anti-Havana Cuban expat community holding the potential to swing battleground states such as Florida.

Somewhat relaxed under a brief period of detente under Barack Obama, sanctions were strengthened by his successor Donald Trump, who added 243 new measures.

And despite campaign promises, current President Joe Biden has done nothing to relieve the blockade, instead announcing new measures against Cuban leaders in response to a clampdown on historic anti-government protests last July.

For the U.S. administration, said James Buckwalter–Arias of the Cuban American Association for Engagement, “electoral considerations weigh heavier than humanitarian duty.”

RFE/RL’s Radio Azadi marks two decades of service – USAGM

RFE/RL’s Radio Azadi marks two decades of service

January 31, 2022

Washington, D.C./Prague — Twenty years ago, on January 30, 2002, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty’s (RFE/RL) Radio Azadi relaunched broadcasting to Afghanistan in the Dari and Pashto languages. RFE/RL’s broadcasts resumed less than five months after the September 11, 2001 attacks on the U.S. and nearly a decade after the Dari and Pashto services were closed down in 1993 as part of an overall restructuring of RFE/RL operations following the end of the Cold War. Despite last year’s withdrawal of U.S. forces from Afghanistan and return of the Taliban to power, Radio Azadi continues to serve the Afghan people as a trusted and reliable source of news, analysis, and responsible discussion – on radio and, especially, on digital platforms.

Radio Azadi’s reporting on politics, extremism, corruption, culture, and minority issues under-reported by other media, as well as its programs aimed at women and the country’s near-majority youth population, have consistently made it one of the country’s most popular and trusted media outlets. According to a December 2019 USAGM survey, 47 percent of adults in Afghanistan listen to Radio Azadi every week. Since the Taliban takeover in August 2021, Azadi has focused on how radically life has changed for ordinary Afghans, particularly women and ethnic and religious minorities. Radio Azadi’s call-in shows and roundtables also continue to give a platform for ordinary Afghans to talk about their experiences under Taliban rule.

RFE/RL President Jamie Fly congratulated Radio Azadi on the milestone. “Since its relaunch, Radio Azadi has been a trusted friend and partner to the Afghan people, in good times and bad. Today, when so many of the achievements of the past twenty years are at risk, RFE/RL is committed to maintaining Radio Azadi as the place where Afghanistan’s voiceless can be heard, and the country’s new rulers can be held accountable for their actions.”

Radio Azadi marked its anniversary by posting a special video report looking back at its twenty years of operation, a photo gallery of its journalists on assignment over the years and a video of colleagues sharing their experiences and memories of working at Radio Azadi. It also hosted a call-in show during which many listeners expressed their gratitude to Radio Azadi and spoke about the impact of Azadi on their lives. A second call-in show on January 31 focused on the impact of Radio Azadi on Afghan women’s lives. RFE/RL has also released brief interviews with Radio Azadi journalists, including Qadir Habib, Mustafa Sarwar, and Malali Bashir.

Throughout Radio Azadi’s twenty years in Afghanistan, its journalists have endured death threats and other forms of harassment from Taliban and Islamic State forces – trends that intensified prior to the Taliban takeover. The service has lost four colleagues in the past four years – Maharram Durrani, Abadullah Hananzai, and Sabawoon Kakar, who were killed along with at least 22 others on April 30, 2018 in a coordinated bomb attack in Kabul, and respected Helmand correspondent Mohammad Ilyas Dayee, who died in a targeted car bombing that also injured his younger brother.

The changing reality of producing journalism in Afghanistan forced RFE/RL to take dramatic steps to protect its staff, including the closure of its Kabul bureau, and evacuation of threatened local journalists from the country. Many former Radio Azadi staff remain in Afghanistan, ineligible for refugee status under U.S. government or international resettlement programs. Their situation remains highly tenuous.

About RFE/RL

Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty is a private, independent international news organization whose programs — radio, Internet, television, and mobile — reach influential audiences in 23 countries, including Russia, Ukraine, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, the republics of Central Asia and the Caucasus. It is funded by the U.S. Congress through USAGM.