Photo of people walking on a street in Cuba. Photo: EFE.
A delegation of leaders from social movements and political parties across five continents will visit Cuba and Venezuela from March 9-15 to show solidarity with the peoples of both nations. Both countries are targets of attacks by the US empire and its current president, Donald Trump.
The mission, organized by the International Peoples’ Assembly (IPA), comes amid escalating aggression from Washington against sovereign nations in Latin America and the Global South. The initiative seeks not only to assess the impact of these policies but also to establish a united front of resistance and mutual support.
The solidarity group includes representatives from Brazil’s Landless Rural Workers’ Movement (MST), the Party for Socialism and Liberation of the United States, and the Socialist Party of Zambia, among other global actors.
In Cuba, the delegation will assess the impacts of the economic blockade that has been in place for more than six decades, recently aggravated by an energy embargo that prevents the sale of fuel to the island.
This US action has caused widespread blackouts and growing food shortages. João Pedro Stédile, leader of the MST, stated that this mission does not come as observers but as partners in solidarity, noting that the aggression against these countries is an attack against those who aspire to a world free from exploitation.
Brian Becker of the Party for Socialism and Liberation emphasized the responsibility of people in the US to reject the military actions and siege carried out in their name. Becker asserted that there is “another America” that stands with the people under attack, reaffirming the solidarity among the grassroots and the resistance to interventionist policies.
The mission places the conflict within a context of resistance in the Global South. Fred M’membe, of the Socialist Party of Zambia, emphasized that the situation in Cuba and Venezuela represents a shared struggle, from Palestine to the Congo, for the right of peoples to control their own destiny.
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The international leaders emphasized that their presence in the region constitutes an act of unity against the policies of Donald Trump, reaffirming that the Americas and the world stand firm in defense of the self-determination of the Cuban and Venezuelan peoples.
The Trump administration is intensifying a genocidal policy aimed at financially crippling the island, impacting critical sectors such as healthcare and transportation, where just 14 hours of the blockade represents the cost of insulin for all diabetics in the nation. Washington’s strategy seeks to establish an ad valorem tariff system to force the submission of a people, of whom more than 80% of the population were born under the restrictions of this economic war.
Experts point out that the objective of the “Trump Corollary” is the total collapse of Cuba’s basic infrastructure, hindering international transactions and deterring foreign investment by keeping Cuba on the unilateral list of state sponsors of terrorism. Faced with this siege, the Cuban government reiterates that the blockade is the main obstacle to its development and that these measures flagrantly violate international law and the sovereignty of third countries that choose to trade freely with the island.
(Telesur)
Translation: Orinoco Tribune
OT/JB/SH
