A caravan along Havana’s Malecon calls for the end of the U.S. embargo

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – A caravan of dozens of cars, motorcycles, bicycles, skaters, and even a horse-drawn carriage paraded Sunday, March 28, along Havana’s Malecon to call for an end to the U.S. trade embargo on Cuba.

With music and Cuban flags, the participants walked along the famous avenue from the port of the capital to its final meters in the neighborhood of El Vedado, blowing their horns and chanting slogans against the “blockade”, as the U.S. embargo in force for six decades has been known in Cuba.

One of the noisiest moments of the caravan was its passage in front of the U.S. embassy, a stretch that in the 1990s was the scene of massive protest marches for causes such as the return of Elian Fonzalez, the “rafter boy”.

The Union of Young Communists called the initiative to join the actions also called this day in several cities worldwide, some of them in the United States, to demand the end of sanctions against the Caribbean country.

“The blockade, which particularly during the pandemic kills, is criminal, is genocidal and must end,” Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez, who was present at the parade, told Efe.

The Cuban government has repeatedly denounced that Washington – during the previous president’s administration, Donald Trump (2017-2021) – tightened the embargo against the island in the midst of the health crisis due to the coronavirus.

The convocation was also attended by other familiar faces, such as legendary former sprinter Ana Fidelia Quirot, who explained to Efe that athletes are always “present in all kinds of demonstrations in favor of just causes.”

“I am here to say once again ‘no’ to the blockade that the United States has imposed on us for more than 60 years. It is an unjust, inhuman, cruel blockade that wants to suffocate us, but we know how to overcome all obstacles to move forward,” said the Olympic champion.

In the caravan, she highlighted the presence of young people like Abraham Reyes, a university student of Physical Education, who advocated for “building bridges of love between Cuba and the countries of the world”.

“What better way to do it than with sports and with the desire to continue defending our country as we Cubans have always done,” said Reyes, who joined the tour aboard an electric motorcycle.

According to the report, the estimated annual losses that the U.S. embargo causes to Cuba exceeded for the first time the 5 billion dollars between 2019 and 2020, according to the report that the Government of the Caribbean country prepares each year for presentation to the United Nations.

At current prices, the “accumulated damages” in the almost six decades of embargo total 144.413 billion dollars, according to that document.

The arrival of Democrat Joe Biden to the White House last January has stoked hopes that the neighboring country will ease the sanctions, strengthened during the mandate of Donald Trump and which, combined with the pandemic and the delay in implementing the economic reforms planned for a decade ago, have led the country to its worst crisis in three decades.

In his four years in power, the Republican leader suppressed legal channels for sending remittances, tightened requirements for travel to the island, vetoed cruises, banned flights to all Cuban airports except Havana, and returned Cuba to the U.S. list of countries sponsoring terrorism.

On March 9, White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki said that Biden does not have among his priorities a rapprochement with Cuba like the one led by former President Barack Obama (2009-2017), but assured that they would review the decisions regarding Cuba taken by the Trump administration, especially that of including the island in the aforementioned list.

Source: EFE