by the Manitoba Cuba Solidarity Committee
For more than 63 years, the Cuban people have struggled under a merciless US blockade that impacts every aspect of life: agriculture, science and medicine, transportation, electricity, and more. The blockade limits access to essential goods such as food, fuel, and medicine, and it exacerbates hunger and poverty – by design, as the infamous Mallory memorandum of 1960, titled “The Decline and Fall of Castro,” makes clear. The Mallory memo, written by US official Lester Mallory, explained that the US government would take measures to deny money and supplies to Cuba in order to, in the document’s own words, “bring about hunger, desperation and overthrow of government.”
At times of crisis in Cuba, such as the “Special Period” of the 1990s and the COVID-19 pandemic, the US government has intensified the blockade, hoping to devastate living conditions on the island and topple the Cuban government. During the pandemic, the US even prevented Cuba from importing syringes to administer its Cuban-made vaccines. Currently, Cuba is suffering through its worst humanitarian crisis in decades because of US aggression. The Trump administration imposed 243 new sanctions on Cuba and absurdly designated the country a “state sponsor of terrorism” (SSOT) in 2021. These impositions, maintained under Biden, have led to further shortages of food and fuel, a massive decrease in purchasing power, and increased inflation, which have inflamed the precarious conditions that cause some Cubans to migrate.
You can help the Cuban people! A new petition to the Government of Canada is urging Ottawa to ask US representatives to lift the blockade and remove Cuba from the SSOT list. Please read it, sign it, and forward it to your friends.
Canadians around the country are committed to the struggle against US aggression toward Cuba. Earlier this month, the Canadian Network on Cuba organized an 11-city tour for Leima Martinez, Director of the North American Division of the Cuban Institute for Friendship with the Peoples (ICAP), to speak about Cuba’s many contributions to the global struggle for peace and freedom. In Winnipeg, Martinez also spoke about the history of strong relations between Cuba and Palestine, and Cuba’s support for the struggles of the Palestinian people at this extremely difficult time. Cuba has contributed so much to the world. US aggression against Cuba must end.
