Cubans numbering in the hundreds of thousands marched on Dec. 20 along Havana’s emblematic Malecon roadway fronting the Florida Straits. (See photos and video here.) President Miguel Díaz Canel and former President Raul Castro took the lead in a massive protest against stepped-up U.S. efforts to immiserate Cubans and bring down their socialist government.
Earlier that day, Díaz-Canel addressed 2024’s closing session of Cuba’s National Assembly. He advised:
“We will be marching to the North American embassy. We are fortified by our unity, our independence, and our socialism…. We march to demand an end to the blockade and so that we are no longer labeled, spuriously and absurdly, as a terrorist-sponsoring nation…. With history accompanying us and with people we love, the only way for us is, as always, to fight until we win.”
Díaz-Canel denounced the “very aggressive intentions toward Cuba” of the incoming Trump administration. He also condemned the Biden administration for refusing to ease economic aggression against Cuba, especially “during the COVID pandemic and after natural disasters.”
Díaz-Canel spoke of heroes: Cuba’s independence fighters in the 19th century, heroes today “of every color and age…our children…their teachers…our workers…our doctors, nurses, and scientists…[and] our young people who are the soul of our country.”
These heroes, he claimed, “don’t believe in defeat…[neither from] war and death visited upon us by the empire…[nor] from hurricanes and earthquakes.”
Hours later, standing on the “José Martí Anti-Imperialist Platform” located in front of the U.S. Embassy, Díaz-Canel spoke to the crowd preparing to march.
“The current U.S. administration,” he insisted, “…has done nothing to back off from the reinforced blockade and economic asphyxiation of Cuba, leftover as the legacy of the Republican administration that will return to the Oval Office in January.”
Because of U.S. impediments to Cuba’s international trade and financial transactions, Cubans “are being denied food, medicine, fuel, goods, supplies and merchandise essential for their survival.” Cuba lacks “the foreign currency that is essential for developing and financing our project of social justice,” the president said.
He charged that “paramilitaries are now being trained in Southern Florida for organizing, financing, and promoting terrorist actions” against Cuba.
Díaz-Canel warned that “if the United States persists in its determination to break our sovereignty, our independence, our socialism, it will only find rebellion and intransigence.…
“With this rally and this march of combatants, their attempt at using a club against the dignity of our people fizzles out…. Against U.S. imperialism and its pretension to impose itself on Cuba by force or seduction, we will march now and always! We are marching to tell the U.S. Government: Let the Cuban people live in peace!”
The march epitomized combativeness. The crucial importance of that attribute was clear with the timely appearance on Dec. 16 of a report on electricity generation in Cuba. According to resumenlatinoamericano.org:
“The destruction of the Cuban electrical system, which U.S. strategists consider the main vulnerability of the Revolution, is a top priority for the CIA. They have allocated substantial funds.”
The report indicates that sabotage set to increase during the coming months will aggravate the impact of chronic financial disabilities and shortages of spare parts stemming from the economic blockade.
Anti-blockade rallies and demonstrations took place on Dec. 20 in not only Havana but also in cities throughout the island. Cienfuegos staged a “cantata against the blockade.” In Santiago de Cuba, polyclinic doctor Suniel Johnson Valenciano told listeners that Ernesto, a child under his care diagnosed with childhood spinal muscular atrophy, needs the drug nusinersen in order to prolong his life. Because of the blockade, the producer, the U.S. Biogen Corporation, doesn’t send it.
At the same rally, Yamayli Almenares, president of the University Student Federation at Oriente University, reported that Dec. 20 represented the 102nd anniversary of that organization’s foundation. Student members have long been “ready and in the first rank of combat, always mambises (Cuban guerrilla fighters for independence), rebels, and revolutionaries.” For students, the U.S. blockade “acts as a force tending to cut off [our] aspirations and opportunities.”
In advance of the march, Cuba-friendly organizations throughout the world sent messages of solidarity. These included statements from Argentina, Japan, Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, and from the São Paulo Forum in Brazil and the Communist Party USA.
Colombian President Gustavo Petro took note of the march as he condemned the U.S. blockade and extolled a shipment of humanitarian aid from Colombia to Cuba.
On Dec. 29, a few days after the mass marches, the People’s Republic of China dispatched a large donation of essential parts and accessories for power generators to help strengthen Cuba’s power grid.
The 69-ton shipment was part of an agreement concluded between Díaz-Canel and Chinese President Xi Jinping focused on restoring approximately 400 megawatts of power at more than 70 diesel and fuel oil plants across Cuba.
This first delivery will reactivate 38 generators, enough to supply approximately 53,000 homes in Cuba.
Socialist Cuba serves as a model worldwide for its achievements in healthcare, education, and solidarity with other peoples. But having resisted U.S. imperialism and its anti-Cuban blockade for over six decades, Cuba is a model for resistance also.
Looking ahead, young people see a world in distress. They note that the U.S.-dominated world capitalist system coexists all too easily with the prospect of rampant inequalities, environmental collapse, and worsening wars. For them, Cuba’s message of continuing always to struggle and never to relent very likely exerts considerable appeal.
The solidarity message sent by the Young Communist League USA on the occasion of the march reflected that special contribution. These excerpts make the point:
“…For young Americans disillusioned with an economy built for war and profits and a system rooted in racism, sexism, and exploitation, Cuba represents an alternative path. We pledge to mobilize the masses of anti-imperialist youth to demand an immediate end to the blockade and Cuba’s removal from the State Sponsors of Terrorism list … [It] is clear who the real sponsors of terror are. Cuba, by contrast, has shown the world what peace and justice can look like, even under immense pressure. To our Cuban comrades, we stand with you in solidarity. Together, we will fight to end the genocidal blockade and foster peaceful, cooperative relations among all nations.”
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