A Statement by Vancouver Communities in Solidarity with Cuba (VCSC)

March 19, 2024

On Sunday March 17, 2024, in Santiago de Cuba some community members protested in the streets demanding electricity and food. Members of local government and the Communist Party of Cuba went to the rally to speak with protestors, to address their concerns and grievances. This included high ranking officials including, Beatriz Jhonson Urrutia, First Secretary of the Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba in Santiago de Cuba, as well as a member of Cuba's national assembly and the council of State.

While protests in Cuba are uncommon, they are not unheard of. Unfortunately protests in Cuba are often taken out of context by the international media, which try to turn protests on any issue into so-called “anti-government” protests. Unsurprisingly, March 17 was no different. For example, a Bloomberg news headline proclaimed, "Communist Cuba Is on the Brink of Collapse." In Europe, Le Monde headlines read, "Cubans' anger at the regime grows as they suffer from shortages." While in Canada, the Toronto Star reported, "In Cuba, hundreds take to the streets in rare protests as economic crisis deepens."

Meanwhile, Brian A. Nichols, Assistant Secretary for Western Hemisphere Affairs of the U.S. Department of State, tweeted, "The United States stands with the Cuban people as they exercise their rights to assemble peacefully. The Cuban government will not be able to meet the needs of its people until it embraces democracy and the rule of law and respects the rights of Cuban citizens."

Mr. Nichols never explains how democracy turns on electricity or provides food to the hungry. He also completely ignores the fact that his government, the United States of America, has had a cruel and inhuman blockade against Cuba for over 60 years now. It is the blockade that is responsible for Cuba facing challenges to import the resources needed to power the electrical grid and provide staple food items to each Cuban family for free through the Libreta system. Anytime the blockade or other U.S. restrictions have been lessened over the past 60 years life for the average Cuban has improved, as the revolutionary Cuban government works to provide a dignified life for all.

A famous declassified 1960 document from the U.S. government known as the Mallory memorandum, explains the popularity of the Cuban government and expresses that the goal of this blockade is that “in denying money and supplies to Cuba” the U.S government will be able “to decrease monetary and real wages, to bring about hunger, desperation and overthrow of government.” The blockade has never been about democracy or human rights, it is a form of collective punishment against the Cuban people for supporting the revolutionary Cuban government that has stood up for the interests of working and oppressed people. This is unacceptable for the colonial and imperial interests of the United States’ government.

Any protests in Cuba should not be used by malicious forces to call for ‘regime change’ or other interventionist rhetoric against Cuba. We must respect Cuba’s right to self-determination and sovereignty. Vancouver Communities in Solidarity with Cuba knows that the best way to provide for the Cuban people is for the Biden administration to end the criminal blockade against Cuba and remove Cuba from its so-called ‘State Sponsors of Terrorism’ list. We condemn the U.S. government’s ongoing meddling in Cuba’s internal affairs. 

Lift the U.S. blockade on Cuba!

Biden, Remove Ccuba from your so-called ‘Sate Sponsors Of Terrorism’ List NOW!

(PA)