Design: Yelemny Estopiñán/Radio COCO
A hundred members of the twenty-fifth Puerto Rican Brigade “Juan Rius Rivera” are already in the “Julio Antonio Mella” International Encampment, which belongs to the Cuban Institute of Friendship with the People (ICAP), in Artemisa Province.
They will visit the Provinces: Havana, Villa Clara, Camagüey, Granma, Holguín and Sancti Spíritus, where they will develop a program dedicated to its 25th anniversary, to Fidel Castro’s ninety years of age, to the sixty years of the landing of the expeditionaries of the Yacht Granma, and to the fifty of the heroic deed of the Cuban sportspeople who travelled on board of the Ship “Cerro Pelado”.
Some of its members will also take part in the Eighth Continental Meeting of Solidarity with Cuba, which will take place in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, by the end of this month.
The participation of the international brigades increases this year, to contribute to disprove the news media campaign that is going after the stopping of the solidarity with Cuba.
This campaign, like a hungry snake, bites its own tail; while, on the one hand, they subtly elaborate the idea that the relations between Cuba and the United States have already taken a normal course, and; therefore it is not necessary now to demand the end of the blockade imposed by Washington; on the other hand, the difficulties of our economy are magnified, with the same catastrophic omens of the last 57 years.
At the same time, alarmist announcements swarm about a supposed return to the crudest days of the “special period””, with long and daily blackouts and an acute shortage of any resources.
The powerful machinery of disinformation dodges any reference to the very long stretch we still have ahead, until we attain- at least- a civilized relationship between both countries.
Their spokesmen say nothing about the pending affairs; such as, the continuity of the millionaire financing which federal agencies deliver to their mercenaries, within and without Cuba, so as to keep a manufactured “dissidence”.
The illegal naval base, which usurps a valuable Cuban territory, in Guantánamo Bay, is not mentioned. Furthermore, when people talk about the infamous prison and torture center installed there, the wording of the news or the comment, dodges carefully the geographic details. In such a way that it seems as if that prison were not in any concrete place of the planet.
On the contrary, the measures adopted by the White House have a wide diffusion “to lessen the embargo”, it always happens by means of summary enunciates, which avoid crucial details; such as the fact, that almost none of those actions is achievable, since all of them, exclude the interaction with state doers, in such economy as that of Cuba, 90% state-owned.
The “flexibility” of the trips to Cuba is proclaimed, as if an inconceivable violation to the rights of North-American citizens had been solved. They are asked to get a license to bind them to swear they come, not to enjoy our proverbial hospitality, but to try to subvert our political system.
That’s why, next Monday, the XXVII Caravan of Pastor for Peace will arrive in Havana. It will arrive, as usual, without asking for the humiliating authorization of theSubvertNorth-American authorities, because as its unforgettable leader-Lucius Walker- used to say, “Our license is love.”
Under the same condition, contingent 47 of the Venceremos Brigade will come. As usual, it will be integrated of North-American citizens, who will go to Guantánamo in order to continue to point at the need to return the territory snatched from its legitimate owner, the Cuban people.
The José Martí Brigade is also present in Cuba integrated by friends coming from 17 European countries, who come to Cuba every year to reaffirm the solidarity of those peoples with the Cuban cause. Cuba.
Their most important aim of this brigade– from all over the world– has with this visit is to know on the spot, without any limitations, the truth about this country, of our people, and take home that life experience to their family, friends and fellow citizens.
We, Cubans, ought to take advantage of every opportunity to explain to all people we can. The truth; may it be through the social networks, or face to face, when we interact with foreign visitors, by any means, or when we travel abroad for any reasons.
It is our duty, not only because we need to increase the wave of solidarity to contribute to put an end to the blockade, but also to be consistent with the efforts so many good people do for us in the world.
Translated by Reynaldo Fernández
