In Belgium, love and solidarity for Cuba
Belgium -The first activity of the First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party and President of the Republic of Cuba, Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, turned out to be warm, Cuban, familiar and very moving, a few hours after his arrival in this city, where he participated in the Third Summit of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) and the European Union (EU).

Author: Alina Perera Robbio | perera@juventudrebelde.cu

Author: Yaima Puig Meneses | informacion@granmai.cu

july 20, 2023 08:07:58

BRUSSELS, Belgium -The first activity of the First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party and President of the Republic of Cuba, Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, turned out to be warm, Cuban, familiar and very moving, a few hours after his arrival in this city, where he participated in the Third Summit of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) and the European Union (EU).
It was an exchange also marked by admiration and respect for Cuba, with a representation of Cubans living in Belgium and other European countries; friends of solidarity throughout the region, as well as members of the delegation of the Caribbean island to the Summit of the Peoples. Also present were the staff of the Cuban Embassy in this nation, several members of the European Parliament, and authorities of the Belgian Labor Party, the Party of the European Left, and the Communist Party of Spain.
As the Diaz-Canel himself said: “A Cuban ajiaco; because there are people of different creeds, origins and latitudes, who are united by friendship, love and the conviction that together we can achieve a better world. An ajiaco of love and solidarity”.
“A dream come true”, as the Cuban ambassador to Belgium, Yaira Jimenez Roig, said when welcoming the president, along with with his wife Lis Cuesta Peraza and the Cuban delegation that attended the summit.
COMPLEXITIES, HOMELAND, FRIENDS
Just over 200 people participated in the meeting, in which President Díaz-Canel explained in detail how complex the economic situation in Cuba became as of the second semester of 2019, when the United States Government “took to the maximum expression” its intention to suffocate the people and seek a social outbreak that would overthrow the Cuban Revolution.
The imperial logic that has been applied, he affirmed, has various components, among which he mentioned the media strategy to discredit the Revolution and the neocolonial and neoliberal restoration platform, aimed at “breaking the identities of our peoples, seeking to make them see their cultural and historical essences as obsolete.”
Among other tremendous acts committed against the Caribbean nation, he recalled the intensification of the economic, commercial and financial blockade on scales never seen before, and the inclusion of Cuba in the list of alleged countries that sponsor terrorism, actions that have brought with them, among other consequences, shortages of medicines, raw materials and fuel to support electricity generation at certain times.
In his words with his friends, it was inevitable to talk about those very difficult days lived during the confrontation with the COVID-19 pandemic; of the devotion of the health personnel, both in the national territory and in other parts of the world; as well as the development of our own vaccines, a fact that allowed the feat of carrying out an unprecedented vaccination campaign in the country.
And right here, in the midst of so many friends, was Belinda Sánchez Ramírez, a scientist at the Center for Molecular Immunology, who was part of the team of Cuban researchers that developed our vaccines and today is in Brussels as part of the Cuban civil society that is attending the People’s Summit. The President introduced her to the audience, and for her it was the shocking applause, the thanks and the endearing hug.
These have been extremely complex years, recalled Díaz-Canel, in which, in addition to the many obstacles and adversities brought by the virus, Cuba had to face a deficit in the supply of medical oxygen; the Saratoga Hotel explosion; the fire at the Matanzas Supertanker base; as well as the passage of Hurricane Ian through the west of the island. The help of solidarity countries was essential to deal with each of these complex scenarios.
The Cuban President spoke to his friends about creative resistance, that concept that has been put into practice in Cuba in recent years, and that is not only resisting the blockade, but, in the midst of that resistance, doing things that develop the country. It is to create with our own talent and with our own efforts, the president emphasized, and to take these ideas to all areas of life in society.
You, he told them, are also part of that creative resistance of our people: the residents abroad who have not broken with Cuba or with their families; our diplomats, who not only assume the challenge of defending the Homeland in the political arena, but also looking for ways to strengthen ties that will improve the economic situation; and who are going to defend us at the People’s Summit.
As part of that creative resistance, he also recognized the comrades in solidarity with Cuba in Europe, “who every day give us encouragement, give us strength and commit us a lot, because knowing that you are seeing a light in the Cuban position for the world to improve, that also commits us to doing things better.”
Regarding the principles that Cuba went to defend at this III Celac-EU Summit, the president assured that “we are not going to admit interference in our internal affairs, nor are we going to allow singularization of our realities or those of any country, and we are going to defend our convictions”.
Rest assured, he concluded, that Cuba and the Cuban Revolution will always win.
FRIENDLY VOICES IN EUROPE
Emotions and experiences were shared in Brussels, where friendly voices demonstrated, once again, that Cuba is not alone and will never be alone in its fight against the unfair blockade imposed by the United States Government.
Right here, in the heart of Europe, the vice president of Los Amigos de Cuba, Freddy Tack, recognized that the Island is “an example of international solidarity, a small Caribbean country that stands as an example for all the peoples of the world.”
Loraine González Arroyo, a Cuban resident in this European nation, spoke about the honor that participating in this meeting means for her. We are thousands of Cubans in this country, she assured her, that we remain committed to the Homeland, as a united and supportive community that continues to support our Island despite the more than 7,600 kilometers that separate us from it.
Our duty, she said, is to support and preserve sovereignty, regardless of how far away we are physically, and to keep alive that feeling of love, solidarity and humanism that identifies us as Cubans.
“What else can we do for Cuba?” Raoul Hedebouw, president of the Belgian Labor Party, asked himself during the meeting, who is also in charge of the Parliamentary Friendship Group with Cuba, a position from which, he said, he has “the opportunity to also take the diplomatic platform to do more for Cuba from the standpoint of solidarity.”
We are here, he emphasized, “to testify to the support of our Party for Cuba at a time that is not easy, because for us Cuba represents the flame, the hope, the proof that a different world is possible, that a better world is possible.”
Of strengths, love, commitment, support… hopes, they spoke in Belgium. And as a sign of gratitude to Cuba and its heroic people, President Díaz-Canel received, from the hands of the Cuban resident in Belgium, Menia Martínez, prima ballerina of the National Ballet of Cuba and artistic director of the Brussels Dance Conservatory, a replica of the only bust of José Martí that stands in this city; a place, say friends, that has become a must for Cubans who come to Belgium. The bust is the work of the artist José Villa Soberón, National Prize for Plastic Arts.
The meeting closed at the most joyful Cuban rhythm, marked by the love and familiarity of the children of Cuba and her friends, who, no matter how far away they are from her, always find reasons to continue singing to the Homeland. •

SHARE facebook twitter

Gail Walker arrested after trying to meet Senator Bob Menendez
Several activists with the National Network on Cuba, CODEPINK, and IFCO/Pastors for Peace were arrested on Thursday after trying to have a meeting with New Jersey Senator Bob Menendez in his office in Washington, DC. Activists were attempting to meet with Menendez to urge him to lift the US blockade against Cuba and take Cuba off the US’s State Sponsors of Terrorism list.

Author: Radio Habana Cuba | internet@granma.cu

june 23, 2023 09:06:36

Photo: Radio Rebelde
Washington, Jun 22 (RHC) Several activists with the National Network on Cuba, CODEPINK, and IFCO/Pastors for Peace were arrested on Thursday after trying to have a meeting with New Jersey Senator Bob Menendez in his office in Washington, DC. Activists were attempting to meet with Menendez to urge him to lift the US blockade against Cuba and take Cuba off the US’s State Sponsors of Terrorism list.
In a video uploaded to her Facebook account,Ct and executive director of IFCO/Pastors for Peace Movement- is seen being led away in handcuffs by a police officer, while she explained that she only intended to speak with the senator at his office and call for the end to Cuba’s inclusion on the list of states sponsoring terrorism, as well as the normalization of U.S. relations with Cuba.
“We should be able to talk about Cuba with our representatives without being arrested,” Gail Walker says in the video, where she also explained they requested several times to meet with Menendez, but never received a response.
“We are in defense of our Cuban family because we believe this policy is unjust,” she added.
“I think it’s funny that we are always told Cuba’s a repressive dictatorship, a police state when we are getting arrested just for trying to have a conversation,” Walsh said as she was being escorted by police officers onto an elevator.
According to Walker, once activists arrived at Menendez’s office, he was out but they were told by a staffer that he would be coming back. They were later told by the chief of staff that they needed to leave and that they would be arrested. “We wanted to talk to Menendez about his policy toward Cuba, his policy of keeping Cuba unjustly on the State Sponsors of Terrorism list,” she said as she was hustled through hallways and into the elevator beside Menendez’s office.
The NNOC, IFCO, and CODEPINK are mobilizing a march, alongside other solidarity and anti-war organizations, in Washington DC this Sunday, June 25 to take Cuba off of the US State Sponsors of Terrorism list, an extreme designation that Menendez supports. (Source: Prensa Latina)

CUBANEW/ACN
10 JUNE 2023
FacebookTwitteryoutubeShare

Havana, June 9 (ACN) First Secretary of Cuba’s Communist Party and Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel Bermudez called on the people in the island’s eastern territories to reinforce all protection measures in the face of the difficult weather condition affecting the region for days now.
Local forces with the civil defense, the interior ministry and the armed forces are already implementing protection measures, said the President on Twitter.

Diaz-Canel previously tweeted about his talks with the Communist Party leaders in each province, while a working team led by Deputy Prime Minister Jorge Luis Tapia and several ministers are on their way to the hard hit territories.

Very heavy rains have been affecting the island’s central and eastern territories leading to significant rainwater accumulates in the area, according to the National Water Resources and the Meteorology Institute.

In the province of Granma, for instance, authorities reported property damage inflicted by flooding, overflowing rivers and landslides. Similar events occurred in areas of Las Tunas, Santiago de Cuba and Camaguey provinces.

How little the United States respects the world by maintaining the blockade against Cuba!
For 30 years, the UN General Assembly votes in favor of the need to end the U.S. blockade against Cuba and this is reinforced, as a sign of little respect for the international community, Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez said on Twitter.

Author: Granma | internet@granma.cu
november 2, 2022 11:11:39

Photo: José Manuel Correa
The First Secretary of the Communist Party and President of the Republic, Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, wrote on Twitter that it has been 30 years since Cuba presented before the UN the detailed report of the crime constituted by the U.S. blockade against the Island.

“The General Assembly condemns it almost unanimously. And the blockade is intensified. How little the United States respects the international community. How little it respects the rest of the world,” the Head of State pointed out.

In recent days, Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla presented a report of the main damages caused by this unilateral policy between 2021 and 2022 before the diplomatic corps and the press media accredited in Cuba.

The report Necessity of ending the U.S. economic, commercial and financial blockade against Cuba covers the period between August 2021 and February 2022, and will be presented for the thirtieth time before the United Nations General Assembly on November 2 and 3.

He assured that, in the analyzed period, that policy originated losses in the order of 3,806.5 million dollars, a figure 49% higher than that reported in the previous period (January-July 2021). “This is a record amount in just seven months, and is a reflection of the intensified impact of the blockade,” he said, while denouncing how this siege violates the most sensitive economic and social sectors of national life, and impacts Cubans, both inside and outside the country.

But, in spite of this unilateral and aggressive policy that seeks to undermine the Cuban social project, Cuba does not stop and renews itself all the time.

In order to measure the effects of the blockade against Cuba, it is essential to take into account the very serious human damage caused by this policy, aimed at denting the conscience of Cubans, frustrating their paradigm of development and inducing them to discontent.

Taking into account the behavior of the dollar against the value of gold in the international market, the blockade has caused losses of more than one trillion 391 111 million dollars.

“Cuba has the right to live without the blockade, it has the right to live in peace, everyone would be better off without the blockade, the United States would be a better country without blockading us, the world would be better off without the blockade against Cuba,” the Cuban Foreign Minister stressed at the time.

Translated by ESTI