Sydney, 7 April 2024. Cuban resident Edelmira Palacios Hernández, a member of the Australia-Cuba Friendship Society (ACFS), shared her views on the National Consultation, the most important annual meeting of the Movement for Solidarity with Cuba in Australia.
Full text of Edelmira's speech, whom we thank for her constant support and commitment to the Cuban Revolution, is as follows:
At the headquarters of the Maritime Union of Australia in Sydney, the National Consultation of the Australian-Cuban Friendship Society is being held. It is attended by delegates from the different states of the southern country, who are developing an intense work to help the Cuban people and its revolution.
The Cuban Ambassador, Dra. Tanieris Diéguez La O, in her speech, thanked the work carried out for decades by men and women in defence of the Cuban Revolution. She also paid tribute to the Australian Southern Cross Brigade, a volunteer brigade that has travelled to Cuba every December for 40 years to support the Cuban people.
An important moment in Dra. Diéguez's speech at the National Consultation was the condemnation of Israel's genocide against Palestine, which has already claimed more than 32 thousand lives since the beginning of Israel's war actions in the Gaza Strip.
The effects of the economic, commercial and financial blockade imposed on Cuba by the United States government were another important issue raised by the Cuban Ambassador to Australia. This causes the difficult situation that the Cuban people is experiencing in terms of shortages of electricity, food and medical supplies, as well as other aspects that impede social, intellectual and economic life. All of this is a consequence of the implementation of the genocidal blockade that has been suffocating the Cuban people for more than six decades and that must be lifted now.
Edelmira M. Palacios Hernández