[News] FBI harasses Cuba solidarity activists, but "the empire will never block solidarity"

Thu Aug 25 01:46:46 EDT 2022

  Alert!
  FBI harasses Cuba solidarity activists, but "the empire will never
  block solidarity"

A message from the coordinator of the Cuba Solidarity Committee in 
Puerto Rico alerted our movement that the FBI visited and called recent 
travelers to Cuba with the Juan Rius Rivera Brigade. The National 
Network on Cuba condemns the U.S. intimidation tactics against the 
Puerto Rican movement struggling under the U.S. colonial administration 
and urges member organizations act in solidarity with all in the 
progressive movement who are targeted. The NNOC immediately forwarded 
the alert to the National Lawyers Guild Cuba Subcommittee to distribute.

Not a month earlier the FBI raided the African Peoples Socialist Party 
offices, the private home of its chairperson and affiliated 
organizations in St. Louis and St. Petersburg, Fla. A few days later 
Cuba-hater, right wing Senator Marco Rubio, trumpeted his letter 
requesting the FBI investigate the Puentes de Amor, its spokesperson 
Carlos Lazo and other organizations bringing food and medicine to Cuba.

Senator Marco Rubio, Senator Bob Menendez and Senator Ted Cruz do not 
reflect the opinions and desires of the people of the United States, and 
not of Cuban Americans who increasingly want normalization of relations 
with Cuba, not the incessant 60 year economic, commercial, financial and 
media war. A good way to show it is at the bike and car Caravans on 
Sunday, August 28

As Milagro River said in the CSC statement: "If they want to put on a 
media show at times like the one we are experiencing, we warn that the 
empire will never be able to block solidarity."
------------------------------------------------------------------------
*/Committee of Solidarity with Cuba denounces FBI visitation operation/*
//*/(San Juan, Puerto Rico/August 23, 2022)/*

/The president of the Committee in Solidarity with Cuba (CSC) of Puerto 
Rico, Milagros Rivera, denounces the intimidation operation unleashed by 
federal agents through calls and visits to various members of the 
Committee and members of the Juan Rius Rivera Brigade.

  Alleging that they were investigating the Committee of Solidarity with 
Cuba, they tried to find out details about the Committee's spokeswoman 
and the recent trip to Cuba made by the Brigade under the category of 
various types of support for the Cuban people.  The brigade delivered 
health donations for the control of COVID to hospitals on its tour of 
the country, as well as cultural and educational exchanges with the people.

  From the early hours of the morning of this Tuesday, August 23, agents 
who identified themselves as from the FBI visited more than a dozen 
brigade members and friends of solidarity in different parts of the 
island, alleging an investigation against the CSC, its president and the 
solidarity militancy.

  They reached the height that in the case of a family they indicated 
that they would summon their daughters for having accompanied their 
parents on the trip.

The CSC calls on the authorities to stop criminalizing the efforts made 
by the Brigade where humanitarian aid campaigns are essential and 
exchanges with the Cuban people are fundamental.  Relations between Cuba 
and Puerto Rico are more than centuries old and this operation will not 
stop them or intimidate us.

We instruct the FBI to invest its resources in persecuting the criminal 
mafia in the country, the corrupt, and investigating the political 
assassinations that they continue to cover up today, such as Carlos 
Muñiz Varela and Filiberto Ojeda Ríos, perpetrated by themselves.

The CSC expresses that no militant, brigade member or supportive friend 
has to dialogue with the FBI.  If they have any accusation, contact the 
lawyers who will be supporting us.

If they want to put on a media show at times like the one we are 
experiencing, we warn that the empire will never be able to block 
solidarity.

  We urge the press and social media to investigate this aggression by 
the FBI against our young people and people who are in solidarity with 
the Cuban people and with all just causes of humanity.

  We request friendly organizations to express themselves against this 
new abuse by the FBI.  Forbidden to forget

  Milagros Rivera,CSC President
  #Contact 787 516-1554/

*Statement by the Cuban Institute of Friendship with the Peoples (ICAP) 
in solidarity with our brothers and sisters from Puerto Rico who took 
part at the Juan Rius Rivera Work Brigade last July.* Some of them have 
been harassed by the FBI in their own homes, as if they had committed a 
crime by visiting Cuba:

"The Cuban Institute of Friendship with the Peoples, ICAP, raises its 
voice to denounce the persecution and harassment campaigns that have 
been unleashed by FBI agents against the Committee of Solidarity with 
Cuba in Puerto Rico and the members of the 31st Puerto Rican Brigade 
Juan Rius Rivera, that during the month of July they carried out an 
exchange program with the Cuban people, defying the blockade that Cuba 
has been subjected to for more than six decades and, in turn, the 
internal blockade imposed by the United States government on the Puerto 
Rican people, preventing other countries of the world know about their 
reality and their emancipatory struggles.

The brigade members have been subjected to interrogations, intimidation 
and telephone calls, seeking information on the activities of the 
Brigade and its Solidarity Committee.

We urge the international community to support and disseminate the 
messages of solidarity with the members of the 31st Juan Rius Rivera 
Brigade, which from the Latin American and Caribbean Continental Network 
and its member associations have been issued condemning this abominable 
act, denouncing this outrageous act, violating of the most basic human 
rights, which is also an act against the Cuban Revolution, to unmask the 
true intentions of this new and aggressive campaign and to demand that 
the US administration apply United Nations Resolution 1514 (XV) to put 
an end to 124 years of colonialism in this territory, disguised as a 
Commonwealth.

ICAP reaffirms its unwavering solidarity with the brother Puerto Rican, 
Caribbean and Latin American people in their own right. As the poet and 
activist Lola Rodríguez de Tió emphasized in her verses, Cuba and Puerto 
Rico «are as two wings of them same bird...».

SOLIDARITY CANNOT BE BLOCKED!

PUERTO RICO IS NOT ALONE!
https://www.facebook.com/291077424940270/posts/pfbid0GTQAE6iV6zjRVvjSeQtkFcxBb1AsqwCR9RWCRjFjzudqVbYHRX3jK6DYrJHF3iyVl/ 

<https://ORG.us6.list-manage.com/track/click?u=6d8991244730209b3779aa6ae&id=f30bf58409&e=e0105fb008> 

Please watch this video. Then, on Sunday, August 28, take action. Please 
hold a car/bike caravan through your city, or other event uplifting the 
call to end the U.S. blockade on Cuba: A film showing, a leaflet 
distribution, a letter writing party, a banner drop ... and tell us. 
United we are stronger and show that Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz, Bob Menendez 
do not represnt the majority here and should not control US Cuba policy. 
Don't know where to start? We can help. Contact us at: unblockCuba at nnoc.org

  Why Sunday, August 28?

For more than two years Cuban-American led car and bike caravans take to 
the streets of Miami on the last Sunday of every month to build bridges 
of love #PuentesDeAmor between the people of the U.S. and Cuba

Yes, in Miami. Bridges of Love caravans roll in Miami, and also cities 
across the U.S., in Canada, Quebec and around the world -- every month. 
But your support and action is needed like this July 31 report from Los 
Angeles Click here to watch ABC news report July 31 from Los Angeles 
<https://ORG.us6.list-manage.com/track/click?u=6d8991244730209b3779aa6ae&id=35e6e66e7e&e=e0105fb008>

  Please read this message from Miami

*Please join us!
JOIN THE MIAMI CARAVAN AGAINST THE U.S. BLOCKADE OF CUBA
10:30 am, SUNDAY, AUGUST 28*

*999 PONCE DE LEON BOULEVARD, CORAL GABLES *

The last month has revealed once again the callous disregard for the 
Cuban family on both sides of the Florida Straits embodied in the U.S. 
Blockade of Cuba and the 243 additional sanctions imposed by President 
Trump and for the most part continued by the current administration.

Even in the face of the tragic fire that swept through the oil storage 
facilities in the port of Matanzas, a fire that took five days to 
extinguish, that claimed 16 lives and injured 146 people, 17 of whom are 
still hospitalized, that destroyed some 40 percent of Cuba’s main fuel 
supply depot, Washington offered only empty expressions of concern and 
offers of “advice.” The U.S. refused to relax even temporarily 
restrictions on the availability of critical firefighting chemicals and 
equipment. This underscores the inhumane results and the hollowness of 
U.S. claims that the blockade promotes in any way the well-being of the 
Cuban people.

Our caravan is a peaceful, legal action offering the growing numbers of 
Cubans and non-Cubans in this city an opportunity to join us in 
constructive action seeking a reversal of these cruel measures that 
weigh so heavily on the Cuban family. We want to build bridges of love 
between the people of Cuba and the United States instead!

In a headline grabbing move aimed at bolstering his faltering campaign, 
U.S. Senator Marco Rubio called this month for the FBI to investigate us 
as agents of the Cuban government. We denounce these McCarthyite 
tactics. It is aberrant and absurd for a senator to slander, to 
intimidate, citizens and civil society organizations that seek the 
lifting of the sanctions that punish the Cuban family.

We ask you to join us in repudiating this attack on freedom of 
expression in Miami. Our caravan takes no position on the Cuban 
government, this is exclusively the business of the people of Cuba. We 
simply call on all those who oppose the blockade, whatever other 
political views or candidates they support, to set those differences 
aside and, with dignity, unite in action on the last Sunday of every month.

Please join us!

On July 31, returning participants in IFCO/Pastors for Peace 30th 
Anniversary Friendshipment Caravanistas joined the Miami gathering along 
with members of the Venceremos Brigade and Party for Socialism and 
Liberation delegations joined in, too.

*Our mailing address is:*
National Network on Cuba
PO Box 22455
Oakland, California 94609

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