HAVANA (AP) — Hundreds of Cuban women gathered Tuesday in Havana to decry a U.S. energy embargo and other measures imposed by U.S. President Donald Trump that are strangling the Caribbean island.
The rally was organized by the Federation of Cuban Women, a massive organization with close ties to the government and the Communist Party, to honor the late Vilma Espín, the federation’s founder, a guerrilla fighter and Raúl Castro’s wife.
The crowd that gathered at a park commemorating a 19th-century independence patriot waved Cuban flags, held signs that read “Down with the Blockade” and clutched pictures of Fidel Castro and Espín.
Deputy Prime Minister Inés María Chapman and Deputy Foreign Minister Josefina Vidal led the demonstration along with Mariela Castro, daughter of Espín and former President Raúl Castro.
“This policy of abuse has to stop,” Vidal told The Associated Press. “The Cuban people don’t deserve this. It’s the most comprehensive, all-encompassing, and longest-running system of coercive measures ever imposed against an entire country.”
Vidal, a key negotiator in a historic rapprochement between Cuba and the United States in 2014 under the administration of former U.S. President Barack Obama, added: “It subjects us to collective punishment, recognized as such under international law, and we couldn’t fail to be here.”
In early January, the U.S. attacked Venezuela and arrested its then-leader, disrupting critical oil shipments to Cuba. Later that month, Trump threatened tariffs against any country that sells or supplies oil to the island.
However, Trump said he didn’t mind when a Russian tanker carrying 730,000 barrels of crude oil arrived in Cuba last week, marking the island’s first oil shipment in three months. Russia has since said it would send a second tanker.
Cuba produces only 40% of the fuel it consumes, and the shortage has paralyzed the Caribbean nation, affecting its health system, public transportation and the production of goods and services, and deepened an economic crisis that has plagued the island for the past five years.
“I am here fighting for the people of Cuba,” said Leydys de la Cruz, a 57-year-old seamstress who joined Tuesday’s rally. “I would ask Trump to leave us in peace. The situation is very bad because of the blockade he’s imposed on us.”
Georgina Reyes, a 36-year-old IT technician, also pleaded with Trump: “I would tell him that we don’t hurt anyone. … Please don’t hurt us.”
Trump has pressured for regime change in Cuba and threatened to take over the island while U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio — the son of Cuban immigrants — has demanded the release of political prisoners and liberal economic reforms.
The U.S. and Cuban governments have confirmed talks, but the extent of those is unclear.
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