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<a class="gmail-domain gmail-reader-domain" href="https://resumen-english.org/2023/06/us-policy-towards-cuba-being-challenged-this-week-in-the-streets-of-over-30-cities/">resumen-english.org</a>
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<h1 class="gmail-reader-title">US Policy Towards Cuba Being Challenged this Week in the Streets of Over 30 Cities</h1>
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<div class="gmail-reader-estimated-time" dir="ltr">June 23, 2023<br></div>
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<p>By Bill Hackwell in Washington DC on June 23, 2023</p>
<div id="gmail-attachment_23797" class="gmail-wp-caption"><p><a href="https://i0.wp.com/resumen-english.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/IMG_3734.jpg?ssl=1"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-23797" src="https://i0.wp.com/resumen-english.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/IMG_3734.jpg?resize=300%2C225&ssl=1" alt="" class="gmail-moz-reader-block-img" width="300" height="225"></a></p><p id="gmail-caption-attachment-23797" class="gmail-wp-caption-text">photo: Ford F.</p></div>
<p>In a growing mosaic of solidarity across the US, people are taking to
the streets to say no to the way their government is punishing Cuba for
their example of humanity in these precarious times. This weekend in
over 30 cities there will be protests to visibly express it.<span id="gmail-more-23791"></span></p>
<p>In Washington DC there will be a national focus with a march on the
White House to bring attention to a callous foreign policy that has
endured through democratic and republican administrations generating an
ever turning multi-million dollar industry based on hatred guided by
greedy corrupt politicians with no regard to the consequences for the
Cuban people.</p>
<p><strong>Cuban Solidarity Activists Occupy Right Wing Cuba Hater Bob Menendez’s office – 3 arrested</strong></p>
<div id="gmail-attachment_23805" class="gmail-wp-caption"><p><a href="https://i0.wp.com/resumen-english.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/IMG_3802.jpg?ssl=1"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-23805" src="https://i0.wp.com/resumen-english.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/IMG_3802.jpg?resize=300%2C225&ssl=1" alt="" class="gmail-moz-reader-block-img" width="300" height="225"></a></p><p id="gmail-caption-attachment-23805" class="gmail-wp-caption-text">photo: Bill hackwell</p></div>
<p>Today one of those politicians, Senator Bob Menendez from New Jersey,
a man of Cuban descent who lurks in the shadows as chair of the Senate
Foreign Affairs Committee, while capitalizing on his heritage and
bludgeoning to death any steps on Capitol Hill to improve relations with
the island, was called out in his office by a team of 13 Cuban
solidarity activists from the National Network on Cuba, Pastors for
Peace and Code Pink who insisted on talking to Menendez about his
positions and pending corruption charges against him. After they were
refused a meeting by his staff the group decided to sit in until he
came. For the next hour the team read letters from small business owners
in Cuba, who Menendez is fond of speaking for, singing popular Cuban
songs and talking to his less than interested staff about the lethal
impact that the policy of the blockade is having on the Cuban family. At
one point, with people filling the halls with interest about what was
going on, the Capitol Police were summoned in force with over 20
officers showing up – 3 of the team were arrested, after 3 hours in jail
they were released with a citation for a July 12 court date.</p>
<p>(see arrests: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TSK8QQYEmUM">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TSK8QQYEmUM</a>)</p>
<p><strong>Resolutions Reflect Deep Support for Improving Relations with Cuba</strong></p>
<p>Over the past several years, in a slow but steady campaign, people
who support Cuba and their right to exist on their own terms have been
passing resolutions in City Councils, County Boards, State Legislatures,
School Boards, Labor Councils, Labor Unions and other organizations,
have passed resolutions, from coast to coast, which have addressed:</p>
<ul><li>Ending the blockade</li><li>Saving Lives through scientific collaboration</li><li>Urging that Cuba be removed from the US List of State Sponsors of Terrorism (SSOT)</li></ul>
<p>In a moment of coincidence we learned today that the New York City
Council passed Resolution 0285 that calls for the end of the Blockade,
that Cuba be removed from the SSOT and the freedom to travel to the
island. What this resolution marks is that these 93 popular resolutions
represent over 50 million people that are part of their represented
populations.</p>
<p>The US government is at odds with the growing sentiment of the
American people when it comes to the cruel and criminal blockade of Cuba
that has gone on now for 61 years bringing unnecessary hardship to the
Cuban people. The island’s original crime was to struggle for its
independence and to choose a path of sovereignty not aligned with the
pre-ordained Monroe Doctrine of 1823 that claimed all of Latin America
was under the tutelage of the US.</p>
<p>Since the 1959 Revolution the US has thrown everything at Cuba to try
and bring down their impressive list of social achievements under the
longest blockade in modern history that has stolen $144 billion from the
Cuban economy and now has an additional 243 harsh sanctions on top of
that (levied by Trump and dutifully continued by Biden despite his
campaign promises to the contrary) that affects every aspect of the
lives of the Cuban people.<br>
Cuba has never invaded or threatened the US or any other country for
that matter but was added to the State Sponsors of Terrorism (SSOT) by
Reagan in 1982 which has made it impossible for Cuba to conduct normal
international trade. Obama took Cuba off in 2015 but Trump reinstated it
for no reason connected to reality and Biden doubled down on it despite
no evidence and with no one in the US thinking Cuba is a threat of any
kind.<br>
For the last 20 years with nearly every country in the United Nations
has voted, year after year, to condemn the unilateral blockade. They
have stood with Cuba because of the injustice of it all and how Cuba
shows the possibility of a better world that isn’t based on the obscene
accumulation of wealth of a few with the downward spiraling of the
ability of many to stay housed and fed.</p>
<p>The people of the US are saying no to the draconian policies its
government has towards the island and meanwhile we are deprived of
normal people to people interaction that we have with just about any
other country; along with gaining access to many health treatments not
available here, or cultural and educational exchange and trade
opportunities. But all of that is starting to change and with conditions
deteriorating here the way they are and confidence in the government at
an all-time low; why should we believe what they tell us about Cuba?
You can’t fool the people forever and the time is up on the lies about
Cuba.</p>
<p>Source: Resumen Latinoamericano – English</p>
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