More than 400 voices clamor for the lifting of the blockade against Cuba, among them a significant part of the signatories of the document are US citizens, which shows the rejection of the unjustified punitive measures that seek to alienate the Cuban people from their self-determination, to render hunger and hamper their economic and social development
Author: Pedro de la Hoz | pedro@granma.cu
July 23, 2021 9:07:32 PM
Voices flow from the four cardinal points and knock on the door of the oval office of the White House so that its current occupant hears a just demand: put an end to the long and cruel blockade against Cuba.
Let Cuba Live (Let Cuba Live!) Reads the sentence at the top of the petition formulated in a full-page letter this Friday in the influential American newspaper The New York Times.
More than 400 signatures, individually and on behalf of institutions and civil society organizations, initially initialed the letter that in just a few hours added new dozens of subscribers.
In respectful and firm terms, the president is called upon to "immediately sign an executive order and annul Trump's 243 coercive measures."
In this way it alludes to the tightening of the blockade by the administration of President Donald Trump. The commercial, economic and financial siege imposed by the United States on Cuba since February 7, 1962, took on greater proportions during the mandate of the Republican magnate, which intensified the persecution of financial entities, ship owners and companies in the United States. other parts of the world; eliminated the island as a destination for tourist cruises; it registered Cuban organizations and individuals on black lists, and cut off the sending of family remittances destined for Cuba.
Trump, with the co-patronage of the extreme right based in South Florida, encouraged feverish anti-Cuban hostility, reflected in the inclusion of Cuba among the countries sponsoring terrorism and the criminalization of noble Cuban medical aid to dozens of nations.
“There is no reason - says one of his paragraphs - to maintain the Cold War policy that required the United States to treat Cuba as an existential enemy rather than a neighbor. Rather than stick to Trump's path in his efforts to undo President Obama's openness to Cuba, we ask him to move forward. Resume opening and begin the process of ending the embargo. Ending the severe shortage of food and medicine must be the top priority.
"It seems inconceivable to us," he points out, "especially during a pandemic, to intentionally block remittances and the use of global financial institutions by Cuba, given that access to dollars is necessary for the importation of food and medicine."
The letter recalls that on June 23, most of the United Nations member states voted to ask the United States to end the blockade. For the past 30 years, this has been the constant position of the majority of the international community in the UN forum.
THE SIGNATORIES
A significant part of the signatories of the document are United States citizens, which demonstrates the rejection of the unjustified punitive measures that seek to alienate the Cuban people from their self-determination, render them starving and hinder their economic and social development.
Organizations committed to the fight for peace and human rights stand out, such as the women's group Codepink, the Answer coalition (created after the 9/11 attacks), Pastors for Peace (recognized in Cuba for its actions against the blockade) , The People's Forum (which gives a platform to the unemployed, marginalized and exploited minorities), and Black Lives Matter, the formidable movement against racism and anti-black police brutality), who found correspondence on the Island with the Memorial Center Martin Luther King Jr.
Among renowned artists and intellectuals, the request has enormous resonance, such as the popular actresses Susan Sarandon, Jane Fonda, Marisa Tomei, the British Emma Thompson; actors Danny Glover, Peter Coyote and Mark Ruffalo, film director Oliver Stone, filmmaker and singer Boots Riley, rapper Noname and playwright Eve Ensler, author of the globally famous piece The Vagina Monologues.
Academics include linguist and political scientist Noam Chomsky, military affairs analyst Daniel Ellsberg, historian Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, philosopher Cornel West, and activist and intellectual James Counts Early.
GLOBAL RESPONSE
The initiative has been endorsed by political and intellectual personalities from several countries, such as former presidents Luiz Inácio Lula, from Brazil; and Rafael Correa, from Ecuador. From this last country also who was a candidate in the last presidential elections, Andrés Arauz. Among the Brazilians are the signatures of the composer and novelist Chico Buarque de Hollanda, the actor Wagner Moura, the writer Fernando Morais, the theologian Leonardo Boff, the writer and religious Frei Betto, the president of the Workers' Party, Gleisi Hoffmann and the Movement without land.
The Nobel Peace Prize, Adolfo Pérez Esquivel, from Argentina; the economist Yanis Varoufakis, who held the Finance portfolio in the Tsipras Government; Indian philosophers and activists Gayatri Spivak and Vijay Prashad, French-Brazilian sociologist Michael Löwy, and British politician Jeremy Corbyn endorsed the document.
Video: https://youtu.be/Kw-bAHQXiwc
