In a video broadcast on social media, the executive director of the Interfaith Foundation for Community Organizing (IFCO)-Pastors for Peace, Gail Walker, commented that they remain firm in their intention to do everything possible to eliminate the blockade that the US has imposed for more than 60 years on Cuba. She pointed out that the blockade seriously harms Cuban families, and added that they will not cease in their efforts to remove Cuba from Washington’s State Sponsors of Terrorism list.
Earlier, in a video uploaded on her Facebook account, Walker was seen as she was taken in handcuffs by a police officer, while she explained that she only intended to speak with the senator in his office, and demanded the normalization of relations between Cuba and the United States.
“We should be able to talk about Cuba with our representatives without being arrested,” said Walker, who explained that they requested several times to meet with Menendez, but they never received a response.
Calla Walsh, co-chair of the National Network on Cuba, expressed gratitude for the messages and support after the arrest to which she was subjected along with her companions, for opposing policies that harm the Cuban people.
During her arrest, Walsh denounced how in the United States citizens are imprisoned for trying to have a conversation with a congressman, and assured that the American people do not support the blockade against Cuba.
Even if they try to scare us and even if Senator Menendez does not want to listen to us, we will raise our voices in solidarity with the Cuban people, another of the activists arrested on Thursday said.
The efforts to meet with US congressmen are part of a day that takes place in the United States to ask the Joe Biden administration to lift all coercive measures that oppress Cuba.
The peaceful demonstration in front of the White House on June 25 will be the culmination of seven days of events across the nation.
It is also part of the caravans against the US blockade against Cuba that for more than two years have been held on the last weekend of every month, inspired by the Bridges of Love movement.
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