By Laura V. Mor on May 2, 2022
Photo: Yaimi Ravelo
“When we were denied oxygen, tons of loads of solidarity came from many friends who are here today or you represent them” were the words of gratitude of Fernando González Llort, Hero of the Republic of Cuba and President of the Cuban Institute of Friendship with the Peoples (ICAP), to the friends in solidarity with Cuba during the closing of the International Solidarity Meeting.
Evoking the international campaigns for the donation of syringes and sanitary materials that gave the necessary response to the impediments generated by the extraterritoriality of the blockade during the mass vaccination against Covid-19, Fernandez Llort called for “continuing to support Cuba in its struggle against the blockade and against the defamatory media campaigns”, as well as for the return of the territory usurped in Guantanamo.
In his words, he reiterated that in spite of the blockade and the limitations it faces, the Cuban people continue to be consistent with the words of the historic leader of the Revolution, Fidel Castro Ruz, when he stated that “the world has been in solidarity with Cuba and that is why Cuba feels more and more in solidarity with the world every day”.
The Friendship Medal for Rob Miller
The director of the Cuba Solidarity Campaign in England, Rob Miller, who since 1978 when he visited Cuba for the first time during the World Youth Festival, established ties of solidarity with the Cuban Revolution, received from the hands of President Miguel Diaz-Canel Bermudez the Friendship Medal awarded to him by the Council of State at the request of ICAP through Presidential Decree No. 412.
“I feel inspired by Cuban internationalism, I am proud of this decoration and I am committed to continue working,” said Miller emotionally, thanking the “wonderful Cuban people for their work and indomitable resistance.”
Miller was one of the speakers who read the Declaration of Solidarity with Cuba issued by the meeting, which denounces the validity of the 243 coercive measures issued by Donald Trump against the country, maintained by the Biden administration and calls on “the world to mobilize in defense of the Cuban Revolution, besieged by a brutal media campaign that exacerbates lies, manipulation, disinformation and idleness, that stimulates hatred and confrontation, to confuse and try to justify new actions aimed at reversing the political, economic and social order freely and overwhelmingly chosen by the Cuban people”.
“We reject the U.S. government’s attempt to fruitlessly isolate Cuba from the IX Summit of the Americas.”
A statement rejecting the exclusion of Cuba from the preparations for the IX Summit of the Americas to be held June 6-10, 2022 in Los Angeles, which was read by the Executive Director of IFCO-Pastors for Peace, Gail Walker.
The document affirms that this decision on the part of the United States is a clear demonstration of its intention to turn a deaf ear to the international demand for the end of the blockade against Cuba, as well as to demonstrate the validity of the Monroe Doctrine in terms of foreign policy towards the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean.
Declaration on the IX Summit of the Americas
“We, representatives of trade union and social organizations of the peoples of the world, gathered at the International Meeting of Solidarity with Cuba, reiterate our joy and gratitude for the immense privilege of having participated together with the people of Cuba in the celebration of International Workers’ Day. In this context, we reaffirm the unavoidable will to continue supporting in solidarity with the heroic Cuban people and it’s Revolution.
We have learned that the government of the United States, in what constitutes a new discriminatory and politically motivated action, is attempting to exclude Cuba from the IX Summit of the Americas, to be held in the city of Los Angeles next June.
We express our firmest rejection and energetically denounce any attempt to divide our peoples, which implies the exclusion of Cuba, or any other brotherly country of Our America, from the aforementioned Summit.
The plans of the organizers of that event, aimed at preventing Cuba’s participation, come from the same people who are carrying out a political-communication war that seeks to impose lies and media manipulation against a people that is struggling and advancing in the construction of its own model of development, in the midst of the enormous difficulties resulting from the unprecedented intensification of the brutal economic, commercial and financial blockade.
Should this intention be consummated, the government of the United States, unilaterally and abusing powers not conferred on it as host country, would be arrogating to itself the right to exclude at its convenience a country that is an example of cooperation, solidarity and humanism, that practices anti-imperialism, freedom, independence and the defense of the longed-for dreams of a better future for the peoples of the world, without foreign interference or domination. This would undoubtedly constitute a serious historical setback in relation to previous summits.
If the government of the United States did not invite Cuba, it would be clear that it was clearly trying to evade the growing international demand to put an end to the unjust and criminal blockade and other additional coercive measures against Cuba, which have a high cost for the population and are the main obstacle to the development of the country and a flagrant violation of the most elementary human rights of an entire people.
By yielding to this blackmail, the Summit would ignore the legitimate aspirations of sovereignty, unity and integration of Latin America and the Caribbean. It would also favor the strengthening of the Monroe Doctrine and the Pan-Americanist vision of exclusion, discrimination and interference in the internal affairs of the countries of the region. It would be definitively equal to the discredited and moribund Organization of American States (OAS), by placing itself at the service of the hegemonic interests of the imperialist power of the North.
The reality would be different if, in an inclusive manner and on equal terms for all the countries of the hemisphere, the Summit would debate with sincere commitment the structural problems that affect our economies and societies, the true causes of the growing irregular migratory flows, the protection of the environment and confrontation of climate change and other pressing problems of the region; if it would address and seek solutions to the alarming levels of poverty in Latin America and the Caribbean, the increase in unemployment and gender inequality; if it would reject and adopt measures to prevent the use of judicial systems to persecute, imprison and weaken members of social and popular movements, the murder of social leaders in several countries in the region and the massacres, brutal repression and proscription of social protest.
It would be fair that representatives of civil organizations, trade unions and social movements, trained in the daily confrontation with the harsh realities experienced by the continent, should be heard on all these issues, and not in a selective and discriminatory manner by those who have been artificially designed as a precarious opposition, paid and manipulated, at the service of the aspirations of U.S. domination.
Gathered today in Havana, we reject the U.S. government’s attempt to fruitlessly isolate Cuba and we express our unwavering support for this island, which has always extended its hand in solidarity and has served as a tribune in defense of the noblest causes of our peoples.
We support genuine efforts to promote integration based on civilized coexistence, peace, respect for diversity and solidarity throughout the hemisphere. We recognize the position taken by organizations and governments that, honoring their peoples, have participated by raising their voices at these summits against injustice and in defense of peace, respect and civilized coexistence.
We urge the organizations and social movements of the Americas to firmly support and actively participate in the People’s Summit, to be held June 8-10 in the city of Los Angeles, as a genuine space for the civil society of the region, always excluded and silenced by the submissive OAS and its mechanisms of imperial intervention.”
“It has to be a Summit of the Americas and not a Summit of the United States.”
“If we talk about a Summit of the Americas, all the countries of Our America must be included” affirmed the First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba and President of the Republic Miguel Díaz-Canel at the closing of the Solidarity Meeting while condemning the attempts of the United States to apply tools of unconventional warfare against the countries of the region.
“Today we are living a scenario of imperial hegemony, where the United States is determined to increase economic inequalities, selfishness and depoliticization of society, increasing fascist ideas in the world,” he said; while denouncing that imperialism’s war has tried to distort the realities of the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean through media campaigns of disinformation, double standards and political and communicational manipulation.
Regarding these distortions, Díaz-Canel mentioned the defamation campaign carried out by the hegemonic media against the Cuban judicial system after the destabilization events provoked on July 11, 2021. In this regard, the Cuban leader was categorical in affirming that there are no minors detained in Cuba.
He also recalled the manipulation with respect to the migratory issue, through which an illegal and unsafe migration of Cubans is encouraged, in violation of the agreement on the granting of visas that both countries maintain.
He pointed out that as part of the U.S. policy of interference, Cuba has been included in the list of nations sponsoring terrorism, and has been denied access to fuel and other vital resources, causing greater tensions and difficulties in the midst of the confrontation with the COVID-19 pandemic.
Solidarity cannot be blocked
“On behalf of the Government and the people, I would like to thank in a special way the donations of sanitary supplies for the Health system that allowed us to successfully fulfill the vaccination plan and solve other medical needs; and the proposal to award the Nobel Peace Prize to the Henry Reeve International Contingent Brigades,” he said.
“Solidarity cannot be blocked like the supplies, food, medicines or even oxygen that the imperialists denied us at the worst moment of the pandemic. Solidarity only recognizes human needs and demands and places those who give and receive it in the highest echelon of our species” and “will continue to be an indestructible weapon of struggle, and, at the same time, a permanent and inexhaustible message of peace, impossible to silence,” he asserted.
Díaz-Canel reaffirmed that “Cuba will continue fighting for a better world to be possible, he said and praised the friendship of activists from all latitudes who could not be stopped by inflation or the difficulties generated by the current economic crisis for travel, when expressing their commitment to the Cuban socialist project”.
“Solidarity cannot be blocked, it will continue to be an indestructible weapon of struggle and a message of peace impossible to silence,” he said before the more than 1000 delegates from 219 social and trade union organizations who listened to him attentively.
“Thank you for being here, thank you for the solidarity and for moving us these days,” expressed the First Secretary of the CCPCC and President of the Republic, Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, in the final words of the International Meeting of Solidarity with Cuba, which concluded this afternoon at the Havana Convention Palace.
Source: Cuba in Resumen