by Her Excellency Ismara Mercedes Vargas Walter, Ambassador of the Republic of Cuba to the United Kingdom
WHEN incoming US president Joe Biden took to the podium following the violent and illegal January 6 insurrection at the US Capitol, he reiterated what he and most US citizens believe the country represents: a “beacon of light and hope for democracy.”
Biden declared that the US’s reputation as the apotheosis of freedom had been besmirched by the actions of outgoing US President Donald Trump’s supporters, who, incited by the president himself, stormed the US Capitol.
This deep-rooted mythology, effectively US exceptionalism, stakes a place for the US in the world as the bearer of freedom and liberty, and as morally superior to other countries.
A six minute animation that conveys the horror of atomic war A Short Vision, made in 1956, is more effective than any drama, writes LINDA PENTZ GUNTER
The real ‘humanitarian threat’ isn’t Cuba but the United States, where poverty, lack of healthcare and illiteracy abound, writes LINDA PENTZ GUNTER
Mask-off outbursts by Maga insiders and most strikingly, the destruction and reconstruction of the presidential seat, with a huge new $300m ballroom, means Trump isn’t planning to leave the White House when his term ends, writes LINDA PENTZ GUNTER
From terrifying the children of immigrants to pepper-spraying frogs, the US under Trump is rapidly descending into mayhem, writes Linda Pentz Gunter



