MIAMI — A successful caravan of well over 100 participants in more than 80 cars and bikes took place here Nov. 29 demanding an end to the U.S. economic sanctions against Cuba.
The march was organized by a number of organizations and prominent individuals, including Carlos Lazo of Puentes de Amor, a teacher from Washington state who had organized a group that cycled across the country to protest the embargo; Code Pink; the U.S. Hands Off Cuba and Venezuela South Florida Coalition; Yadira Escobar; Angela Maria Callis Vicente (La florecita cubana); El Invicto (Roberto Garcia); Mamboy (Emilio Juarez Amoros); the Socialist Workers Party; and others.
Members of the Alianza Martiana — the most prominent group in Miami that defends revolutionary Cuba, calls for the U.S. to normalize relations and demands an end to the embargo — participated and helped organize the action.
Many riders on the over-an-hour-long caravan carried Cuban flags as well as posters and banners saying “No more blockade” and “End the embargo” in English and Spanish. The caravan passed through part of Miami’s Little Havana.
The monthly protests were initially called by Jorge Medina, known on YouTube as El Protestón Cubano, to take place on the last Sunday of every month.
“Democrats, Republicans, Cubans and non-Cubans, as well as people of diverse political views are united here to demand an end to U.S. sanctions against Cuba,” Lazo said at a rally shortly before the start of the caravan. “We ask that President-elect Joe Biden, when he takes office, repeal the economic sanctions that weigh so heavily upon the Cuban people. We are raising our voices to inaugurate a new era of ‘bridges of love’ between the peoples of Cuba and the United States.”
The caravan is part of a series of protest actions around the country announced during a Nov. 14-15 webinar on Normalization of Relations between Cuba and the United States, including one on the 17th of every month.
Actions on that date were also promoted during the program by Fernando González, president of the Cuban Institute for Friendship with the Peoples. Dec. 17, 2014, was the date the last of the Cuban Five were released from U.S. prisons and returned to Havana, and when Cuban President Raúl Castro and U.S. President Barack Obama announced they would hold talks aimed at restoring diplomatic relations between Washington and Havana.
A number of coalitions and groups around the country who oppose the U.S. rulers’ economic war against Cuba are making plans for Dec. 17 protests now. For further information, contact the National Network on Cuba at nnoc20012002@yahoo.com.