Activists in Massachusetts displayed banners on Saturday with the message: “No to war against Cuba,” in response to the escalating economic and military pressure from the Donald Trump administration.
The initiative took place in four major cities and along four major highways, activist Merri Ansara, a board member of Massachusetts Peace Action, told Prensa Latina.
The coordinated placement of these banners in Boston, Worcester, Leominster, and Holyoke aims to draw public attention to an intensified campaign by Washington that is worsening Cuba’s already dire economic, energy, and humanitarian situation, while increasing the risk of military confrontation, organizers said. Since January, the Trump administration has dramatically increased pressure on Cuba, while also increasing U.S. military activity in the Caribbean and surveillance flights near the island.
Members of Congress from Massachusetts are among the most outspoken critics of the Trump administration’s Cuba policy, activists noted in a statement.
In February, Senators Ed Markey and Elizabeth Warren joined McGovern in urging President Trump to end what they described as “crushing sanctions.”
Representatives Jim McGovern and Ayanna Pressley also joined their colleagues Lori Trahan, Seth Moulton, and Stephen Lynch, as well as Senators Markey and Warren, in demanding that Cuba be removed from the unilateral list of state sponsors of terrorism.
Such a designation, they stressed, creates significant obstacles to Cuba’s access to the international financial system, the statement indicated.
The communities of Boston, Brookline, Cambridge, Somerville, and Medford, Massachusetts, have passed resolutions calling for an end to the long-standing U.S. embargo.
“The Cuban people should not be made to suffer in an attempt to force political change from Washington,” said Brian Garvey, executive director of Massachusetts Peace Action.
“At a time when threats of war and military intervention are becoming increasingly normalized, the people of Massachusetts are saying clearly: negotiate, respect Cuba’s sovereignty, and end the economic war,” he emphasized.
The U.S. blockade against Cuba has survived 11 White House administrations, both Republican and Democratic.
Massachusetts has a long history of commercial, scientific, medical, academic, environmental, agricultural, and cultural ties with Cuba.
These ties should be expanded, not severed through sanctions and threats, activists argue. “Enough is enough. We demand an end to the policies of economic strangulation and the threats of military intervention,” they concluded.
[ SOURCE: PRENSA LATINA ]
