End of Blockade of Cuba and Sabotage on Progressive Govts Demanded

Representatives of 209 guilds, institutions and social movements from 34 countries demanded today the end of the US economic blockade of Cuba and the cease of political sabotage against the Latin American progressive governments and movements.

At Havana's Conference Center, around 1,600 activists that shared on Sunday with the the Cuban people the celebrations on the International Workers' Day, recognized that the policy of economic, trade and financial hostility by Washington against Cuba still persists.

The blockade implemented more than 50 years ago has not disappeared and is still harshly in force, said the president of the Cuban Institute of Friendship with the Peoples, Kenia Serrano, in the plenary of the International Meeting of Solidarity with Cuba, Latin America and the Caribbean.

Serrano expained to the participants that many could have a false perception that the hostile policy, vestige of the Cold War, disappeared after the measures adopted by the Administration of President Barack Obama, starting from the process to normalize the relations that the two countries began.

However, the truth is that despite the measures, the blockade is still rigorously in force.

The need to end that restrictive regulation, the main hindrance to Cuba's normal development, was also justified and demanded by all participants in the meeting, many of whom were members of the 11th Contingent of the Brigade of Solidarity Primero de Mayo (May 1).

The group, composed of representatives of nations in all continents, also demanded the end of what they called political and economic sabotage by the capitalist counter-offensive in the Latin American region, and urged to confront it.