Grassroots organizations meeting to disavow Washington's continuation of a criminal policy of more than six decades of economic, commercial, and financial blockade. Photo: institutosimonbolivar_ve.
The Coordinating Council of Social Movements and Communes of the Simón Bolívar Institute for Peace and Solidarity among Peoples, together with Venezuelan grassroots organizations, held a solidarity event, An Embrace for Cuba, at the Embassy of the Republic of Cuba in Caracas.
During the event, the movements expressed their unconditional support for Cuba in the face of mounting international pressure, affirming that Cuba has the active backing of the Venezuelan people—in the streets and in any scenario—in defense of sovereignty from US imperialism.
They also delivered a document condemning the recent threats of direct military intervention by US president Trump and his Secretary of State Marco Rubio as a warmongering escalation aimed at sowing terror in Cuba in complicity with far-right sectors based in Miami.
The grassroots organizations also warned that Washington’s current aims represent the continuation of a criminal policy of more than six decades of economic, commercial, and financial blockade.
They underlined that the current situation carries an even more dangerous quality given the open proposition of armed aggression, which would cause a bloodbath and unleash a large-scale conflict with unpredictable consequences for regional peace.
In this regard, the declaration described the economic strangulation and energy asphyxiation of Cuba as a planned genocide explicitly designed to inflict severe harm on the civilian population by restricting access to medicines, food, and basic resources.
The text by Venezuelan communal organizations praised the creative resistance of the Cuban people in the face of coercive measures imposed through US executive orders and repudiated the bogus legal charges against Army General Raúl Castro Ruz and members of the Cuban military, describing such actions as the criminalization of the defense of territorial integrity.
Finally, the social movements issued an urgent international call to halt the White House’s policy of hostility, demanding the immediate lifting of the criminal US blockade, Cuba’s removal from the US list of state sponsors of terrorism, and the dropping of unfounded legal charges against Army General Raúl Castro Ruz and the Cuban military leadership.
They also reaffirmed their historic gratitude to Cuba for its social cooperation in health and education programs. The grassroots organizations concluded the gathering with an urgent call to defend Cuba’s right to develop in peace, independently, and free from foreign interference.
They called for a massive mobilization of the Venezuelan people and the international community to demand the immediate end of the economic blockade and the cessation of coercive measures aimed at cutting off the energy supply of Cuba.
(Telesur) via Simón Bolívar Institute
Translation: Orinoco Tribune
OT/CB/SL
Cameron Baillie is an award-winning journalist, editor, and researcher. He won and was shortlisted for awards across Britain and Ireland. He is Editor-in-Chief of New Sociological Perspectives graduate journal and Commissioning Editor at The Student Intifada newsletter. He spent the first half of 2025 living, working, and writing in Ecuador. He does news translation and proofreading work with The Orinoco Tribune.
