US activist notes push of movement against blockade against Cuba

Washington, Jul 23 (Prensa Latina) An advertisement in The New York Times and the campaign to buy six million syringes are examples of the growing movement against the United States blockade against Cuba, activist Medea Benjamin said on Friday.

July 23, 2021
16:50

Co-founder of the pacifist organization CodePink (Pink Code), Benjamin expressed to Prensa Latina her satisfaction with the publication in the New York-based newspaper of an open letter to President Joe Biden signed by more than 400 personalities from inside and outside the United States.

A paid advertisement that required the effort of not only her group, but also the Answer Coalition and The People’s Forum, the initiative was coordinated in just three days, she said.

People responded immediately, she said, and they were very happy to have a way of showing their displeasure with Biden’s policy on Cuba.

Now we are going to raise funds to buy medicines and we are working with our friends in Congress to introduce a legislative bill to lift restrictions on sending remittances, Benjamin said.

For his part, Manolo de los Santos (The People’s Forum) previously told Prensa Latina about the urgent need to raise their voice with actions that denounce the blockade and the position of Binden, who maintains in force the 243 coercive measures adopted by his predecessor, Donald Trump.

The open letter was published on Friday on page 5 of the newspaper’s print edition. Among its signatories are US artists Danny Glover, Susan Sarandon, Jane Fonda and Mark Ruffalo, and Reverend Jim Winkler, of the Council of Churches of the United States.

The text was also penned by former Presidents Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva (Brazil) and Rafael Correa (Ecuador), British MP Jeremy Corbyn, Brazilian theologian Frei Beto, and Argentine Nobel Peace Prize winner Adolfo Perez Esquivel, among others.

In the letter they reiterate that, if the Democratic president really has an interest in helping the Cuban people, ‘if that is the case, we ask him to immediately sign an executive order and annul Trump’s 243 coercive measures.’

On July 20, the Cuba Solidarity Movement in the United States ratified in Havana its commitment to Cuba and has intensified its actions against the blockade.

At the Cuban port of Mariel, some 45 kilometers west of Havana, two containers have already arrived with part of a shipment of six million syringes for vaccination against Covid-19.

The purchase was possible thanks to the recollection of about 500,000 dollars nationwide.

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