Cuba solidarity activists are arrested inside Senator Bob Menéndez's office in Washington, DC, June 22, 2023. Photo: Bill Hackwell.
Several activists with the National Network on Cuba (NNOC), CODEPINK, and IFCO/Pastors for Peace, including IFO executive director Gail Walker, were arrested after they tried to meet New Jersey Senator Bob Menéndez in his office in Washington, DC. The activists were attempting to meet with Menéndez on Thursday, June 22, in order to urge him to use his powers as a senator to lift the US blockade against Cuba and take Cuba off the United States’ State Sponsors of Terrorism list.
In a video uploaded to her Facebook account, longtime Cuba solidarity activist Walker is seen being led away in handcuffs by a police officer, while she was explaining that she only intended to speak with the senator at his office and call for taking Cuba off the list of state sponsors of terrorism, as well as the normalization of US relations with Cuba.
ANOTHER ARREST
"We're standing in the defense of our Cuban family because we believe it's unjust, this policy."
– Gail of @ifcop4p#LetCubaLive #OffTheList pic.twitter.com/TKHZzROLL2— CODEPINK (@codepink) June 22, 2023
“We should be able to talk about Cuba with our representatives without being arrested,” Gail Walker says in the video. She added that the activists had requested for a meeting with Menéndez several times, but never received a response.
“We’re standing in defense of our Cuban family because we believe it’s unjust, this policy,” Walker said.
Calla Walsh, co-chair of the NNOC, said as she was forced out of MenĂ©ndez’s office in handcuffs. “[MenĂ©ndez’s staff] didn’t want to have a conversation with us about how MenĂ©ndez’s policy is killing the Cuban people,” she said. “We need to end the blockade, take Cuba off the State Sponsors of Terrorism list, end US terrorism against Cuba!”
“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 added as she was being escorted by police officers on to an elevator.
According to Walker, when the activists arrived at the senator’s office, he was out, but they were told by a staffer that he would return soon. They were later told by the chief of staff that they should leave, otherwise they would be arrested. “We wanted to talk to [MenĂ©ndez] 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 MenĂ©ndez’s office.
On Sunday, June 25, the NNOC, IFCO, and CODEPINK mobilized a march, alongside other solidarity and anti-war organizations in Washington DC, calling for an end to the US blockade against Cuba and to take Cuba off of the State Sponsors of Terrorism list, an extreme designation that Senator Menéndez supports.
(Granma English) with Orinoco Tribune content
