Pro-Cuba winds blow in Southern USA

HAVANA, August 3 (ACN) Regardless of creed and united around one goal―the end of the blockade―the Jacksonville branch of the US "Hands Off Cuba" Committee was born, the first in Florida's most populous city.

"The Jacksonville community is gathering to bring down the blockade and support Cuba, and far from being a one-time thing, this event marked the beginning of a new chapter for solidarity with Cuba in the Deep South," Hakim Jihad, the group's coordinator, told Prensa Latina.

During the inaugural meeting, held at the Yellow House Art Gallery in Jacksonville, the delegation that recently traveled to the May Day celebration in Havana presented its report.

“The energy in the room was electric and brimming with curiosity, enthusiasm, and a deep desire to know the truth about Cuba beyond the lies of US imperialist propaganda,” he stressed. “Florida, often considered a hostile territory for solidarity with Cuba for being home to some of the harshest US anti-Cuban policies, has just witnessed something different, which proves that the situation is changing”.

According to a Prensa Latina reported in a dispatch from Washington, the delegation delivered $200,000 worth of medical aid to the Calixto García Hospital in Havana and, earlier this year, the Committee put together a donation worth $517,000 of supplies, including 500,000 painkillers, in coordination with Not Just Tourists, Pan-American Medical Group, the Hands Off Cuba Committee of Los Angeles, and Global Health Partners.

The participants also learned about the growing national movement and the support provided by both the AFL-CIO in California, which represents 2.3 million workers, and the International Longshoremen's Union.

“The establishment of a Hands Off Cuba chapter in Northeast Florida is already underway as part of an organized base of resistance in one of the most strategically important states for the fight against the embargo”, Jihad emphasized.

“However, this is just the beginning of a larger effort to extend the initiative of the L.A. Hands Off Cuba Committee, founded in 2019, to the rest of the U.S.”, said the activist Brenda López. “The Jacksonville chapter emerges at a time when our fundamental rights are being seriously attacked by the current administration, as such is the reality of a system that prioritizes profit over people. And that's where Cuba comes in with its nationally and internationally proven humanistic and preventative approach to people’s fundamental rights”.

Other activists remarked that the New Orleans chapter is also in the making, as many people in that city would like to see better relations with Cuba and the end of sanctions against the island, and highlighted the importance of engaging young people in the Cuba solidarity effort.

She also denounced the 60-plus year-old blockade of Cuba and the inclusion of the island on the list of state sponsors of terrorism.

“Fighting for the elimination of all these coercive and hostile measures is something we owe to the Cuban people, who have been resilient for so long, but also to ourselves," she concluded.