On Saturday, Bordeaux, Le Havre, Toulouse, and Valenciennes marked the beginning of a weekend of protests in French cities to express solidarity with Cuba in the face of escalating US aggression.
Organized by the French Communist Party (PCF), citizens from various sectors of society, including politicians, union members, and members of associations with decades of solidarity work with Cuba, gathered at emblematic sites such as the Place de la Victoire in Bordeaux to denounce the blockade imposed by Washington on the island and its intensification.
Cuban flags, banners with the slogan “Hands Off Cuba,” and demands for the lifting of the economic, commercial, and financial embargo imposed for more than 60 years characterized the street actions, which will continue tomorrow in Paris and Auxerre.
The call to mobilization is a response to the recent measures decreed by US President Donald Trump to strangle the Caribbean nation.
On January 29, Trump declared Cuba an “unusual and extraordinary” threat to US national security and threatened to impose tariffs on countries that supply or sell it hydrocarbons—effectively an oil embargo.
The demonstrators this Saturday in Bordeaux, Toulouse, and other French cities considered the escalation a flagrant violation of international law and a criminal act and rejected its extraterritorial nature.
The Cuban ambassador to France, Otto Vaillant, expressed his gratitude for the solidarity shown to his country and emphasized the importance of international mobilization against these new aggressions.
Since Trump ordered these pressure measures, several voices in France have denounced them and demanded an end to the blockade.
The national secretary of the French Communist Party (PCF), Fabien Roussel, called on President Emmanuel Macron in an open letter to act without delay to prevent a US oil embargo against Cuba and to facilitate aid to the blockaded nation.
Roussell also urged the president to use European Union mechanisms, particularly Regulation 2271 of November 22, 1996, to address the extraterritorial reach of the embargo.
This week, Sophie Binet, general secretary of the General Confederation of Labor (CGT), one of France’s main trade unions, also called on the French president in a letter to condemn Washington’s escalation of actions against Cuba and to support the country with humanitarian assistance.
In this regard, the leader of the union, which claims more than 600,000 members, asked Macron to support the shipment of oil and gas to the island nation and to ensure, with the resources available to the French state, the delivery of food and medicine.
For their part, France Cuba, Cuba Coopération France, Cuba Linda and Cuba Si France, associations with decades of solidarity work with the island, issued statements and calls for mobilization against the suffocating policies promoted by the Trump Administration.
[ SOURCE: PRENSA LATINA ]
