Today, April 17, is the 65th anniversary of the launching of the U.S.-organized invasion of Cuba. In less than 72 hours of combat in April 1961 near the Bay of Pigs, Cuba’s revolutionary militias, police, and armed forces defeated the assault by 1,500 mercenaries armed, trained, supported, and deployed by Washington. To mark that weighty victory for the world’s working people, we publish the statement Cuba’s revolutionary government issued today on the occasion of this important anniversary.
This is the second of two parts with excerpts from the transcript of a press conference Cuban president Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez gave on March 13, 2026, as the Cuban people continued to resist Washington’s siege on their country. With characteristic frankness and transparency, Díaz-Canel responded to Trump’s threats and to journalists’ questions about the everyday challenges the Cuban people are diligently working to overcome. Challenges resulting from Washington’s relentless economic war, escalated recently with the U.S. blockade preventing any petroleum from reaching the country.
On March 13, 2026, as the Cuban people continued to resist Washington’s siege on their country, Cuba’s president Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez met with reporters in Havana. With characteristic frankness and transparency, Díaz-Canel responded to Trump’s threats and to journalists’ questions about the everyday challenges the Cuban people are diligently working to overcome, resulting from Washington’s economic war, intensified recently with the U.S. blockade preventing any oil from reaching the country. This is the first of two parts.
Cuban leader Ernesto Limia Díaz is a historian and writer. Here he provides historical context to the recent revelations by Cuban president Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermudez that Havana is holding talks with the Trump administration after Washington imposed a blockade of petroleum shipments to Cuba and threatened the overthrow of the Caribbean nation’s revolutionary government.
This is a speech Osmayda Hernández Beleño, director of international relations of the Federation of Cuban Women, gave on March 14, 2026. That day, the FMC leader addressed the opening of a conference at the City University of New York Graduate Center in Manhattan, New York, on normalizing relations between the United States and Cuba.
In this column, Cuban-American Danny Valdes explains that Washington’s myth about the source of the Cuba’s economic challenges has been exposed, most recently and most clearly, by U.S. president Donald Trump. “There’s an embargo. There’s no oil, there’s no money, there’s no anything,” Trump said last month. “There is … a growing shift,” Valdes adds. “Whether in Miami or in New Jersey, we are today seeing a wave of Cuban Americans who are mobilizing to demand engagement, rather than escalation.”
As the widely acknowledged humanitarian crisis in Cuba intensifies, political figures and conservative pundits alike are blaming the island nation’s leadership, government, and socialist revolution, labeling Cuba a “failed state.” José R. Cabañas Rodríguez, the author of this article, was the Cuban ambassador to the United States from September 2015 to December 2020. In this essay, which first appeared on the website of Radio Havana Cuba, he analyzes the criteria that many use to define a “failed state” and suggests that those governing the Yankee “paradise” take a look in the mirror.
This is an article co-published by Drop Site News and Belly of the Beast on how the people of Cuba and their government are grappling with the dire economic situation the Caribbean country faces since Washington imposed a de-facto blockade of sales of oil to the island nation.
On January 29, 2026, U.S. president Donald Trump issued a new executive order declaring a “national emergency” due to the “unusual and extraordinary threat” that Cuba allegedly poses to the United States. The White House announced it will impose harsh punitive tariffs on any country that trades oil with Cuba. This is unvarnished economic warfare, a major escalation of Washington’s unrelenting efforts over more than six decades aimed at asphyxiating the Cuban people and overthrowing their socialist revolution.
On January 29, 2026, U.S. president Donald Trump issued a new executive order declaring a “national emergency” because of the “unusual and extraordinary threat” the island nation allegedly poses to the United States. Trump declared his administration would impose punitive tariffs on any country sending oil to Cuba. Earlier, Trump had threatened to impose a naval blockade around Cuba to completely cut off the supply of oil to the island. We publish in this post the response by Cuban leader Ernesto Limia Diaz and other Cuban revolutionaries to the latest Yankee assault on Cuba.
On January 16, 2026, hundreds of thousands of Cubans marched and rallied in Havana to pay homage to their countrymen killed during the U.S. assault on Venezuela two weeks earlier. Thirty-two Cuban soldiers died while putting up fierce resistance to U.S. forces that stormed the presidential residence in Caracas and ultimately kidnapped Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores. Cuba’s president Miguel Díaz-Canel delivered the speech published here to honor the 32 fallen combatants and respond to Washington’s escalating threats against his nation.
On January 3, 2026, the U.S. military invaded Venezuela and abducted its president Nicolás Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores. Among the approximately 100 civilians and security personnel killed in the assault were 32 Cuban nationals. Since then, there has been rampant speculation about how the U.S. forces were able to breach Maduro’s security, what the Cuban nationals were doing in Venezuela, and the nature of the relationship between Cuba and Venezuela. This article clarifies Cuba’s role in Venezuela and answers many of the claims peddled as part of Washington’s propaganda.
The U.S. military assault on Venezuela today, and the kidnapping of the country’s president Nicolás Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores, is naked imperialist aggression, and a blatant violation of international law and of Venezuela’s sovereignty. Working people in the United States and the world and anyone supporting democracy need to swiftly condemn this Yankee onslaught and turn to the streets to protest it.
“It is elementary that ‘a superior capacity for material production is the necessary basis for a superior cultural superstructure,’” Cannon writes in this 1961 letter. “Even the Cuban leaders, who don’t profess to be practicing Marxists, know that and are working night and day to improve productive capacities to provide the means for all the other things. But in my opinion, there is also merit in [Mills’] concern for ‘moral, cultural, and intellectual superiority,’ because it cannot be taken for granted that this will follow automatically from the reorganization of the productive system. This aim must be deliberately stated and consciously fought for all the time.”
This opinion column was published on Facebook on July 16, 2025. The author, Isaac Saney, is on faculty at the College of Continuing Education, Dalhousie University, and an adjunct professor of International Development Studies at Saint Mary’s University, both in Halifax, Canada. The essay is one among many articles and posts by revolutionaries in Cuba and supporters of the Cuban Revolution in other countries addressing a public debate that erupted in Cuba in the middle of July 2025. The controversy was triggered by contentious remarks that Marta Elena Feitó Cabrera, Cuba’s former Minister of Labor and Social Security, made on July 14 at the National Assembly, the country’s parliament, dismissing begging and homelessness as fictitious problems.
This essay was first published on Facebook on July 18, 2025. The author, Ernesto Limia Díaz, is First Vice-president of the Writers Association of the National Union of Writers and Artists of Cuba. His essay is part of a public discussion that has swept Cuba over the last week. The debate broke out into the open in the aftermath of the resignation of Cuba’s Minister of Labor and Social Security, Marta Elena Feitó Cabrera, on July 15.
This article, published on July 15, 2025, on the website of the Presidency of the Cuban government, reports on the response by Miguel Díaz-Canel, Cuba’s president, to controversial remarks a day earlier by the country’s Minister of Labor and Social Security, Marta Elena Feitó Cabrera. On July 14, Feitó Cabrera told Cuba’s parliament that there are no beggars in Cuba, that the island’s beggars are faking poverty in search of easy money, and that those cleaning windshields on the streets or collecting rubbish from trash bins are actually collecting raw materials without paying taxes. Her televised remarks went viral on social media, causing an uproar by the public and government officials alike. Feitó Cabrera resigned her post on July 15.
About 5.3 million people, nearly half of the country’s population of 11 million, filled the streets of cities, towns, and municipalities across the Caribbean island today to celebrate International Workers’ Day. “A sea marched toward Revolution Square this May Day,” began the report in Trabajadores, the daily newspaper of the Confederation of Cuban Workers, covering the mobilization of 600,000 in Havana. “It was certainly a sea of workers and other people, men, women, old, young, teenagers, and kids who came together to form this multicolored and enthusiastic stream, showing the world once again that Cubans defend their revolution and won’t be intimidated by blockades and other threats.”
HAVANA, Cuba — Keffiyehs and Palestinian flags were among the most visible symbols as Cuban workers began massing at 4:30 a.m. on May 1 for the 200,000-strong rally hosted by the five municipalities closest to the U.S. embassy here. It was one of several May Day rallies in Cuba’s capital. Ten other mass gatherings took place in Havana alone. More than 4 million Cubans celebrated May Day — the international workers’ holiday — in avenues, town centers, and plazas across the island. They gathered within walking distance of their homes and workplaces instead of joining a single, massive march in each city, in order to save fuel, which is in short supply due to the ever-tightening U.S. blockade.
MIAMI — An important frontline engagement in the battle of ideas took place on the main campus of Florida International University (FIU) here on Friday, April 12. About 25 people attended a showing and discussion of the documentary “Cuba’s Life Task: Combatting Climate Change.” The film was made by Helen Yaffe, a lecturer on economic and social history at the University of Glasgow, Scotland, and a frequent visitor to Cuba who is widely respected for well-known books about the Cuban Revolution.
This is an exchange between Karen Lee Wald and Pete Seidman. Wald is a long-time Cuba solidarity activist in the United States; she publishes the “Cuba Inside Out” newsletter. Seidman is a member of the Miami Coalition to End the U.S. Blockade of Cuba. The discussion touches on important questions related to the Palestinian national liberation struggle. These issues are being debated by many today, as Israel is carrying out an increasingly genocidal war on Gaza in response to the October 7 atrocious attack by Hamas.
This article reports on the Oct. 3-Nov. 20 U.S. speaking tour by the award-winning Cuban journalist Liz Oliva Fernández. The tour is promoting two soon-to-be-released documentary films — “Uphill on the Hill” and “Hardliner on the Hudson” — by Belly of the Beast. This is a “U.S.-based media outlet that tells Cuba’s untold stories through hard-hitting journalism and stunning cinematography,” according to the group’s website. The tour is also helping expand support for the campaign to end Washington’s economic war against Cuba.
HAVANA, Cuba — Over 1,300 delegates from 58 countries, representing 271 organizations, congregated here on May 2 to celebrate the “International Meeting of Solidarity with Cuba and Anti-Imperialism – 200 Years After the Monroe Doctrine.” The conference at the Palacio de Convenciones was the closing event in a series of gatherings that, beginning on April 25, brought union activists and other friends of Cuba from outside the island together with workers and other Cuban citizens. The goal was to acquaint international visitors with the growing systemic difficulties faced by the Cuban people due to the economic, commercial, and financial blockade the U.S. government has imposed for 61 years and to give them an opportunity to see first-hand the creative resilience with which many ordinary Cubans face the resulting scarcities and continue to resist.
NEW YORK CITY, March 12, 2023 — About 200 people from across the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico gathered at Fordham University’s Lincoln Center Campus here March 11-12 for the fourth International U.S.-Cuba Normalization Conference. They came to discuss and plan this year’s activities around three demands: 1) Removing Cuba from Washington’s spurious list of “State Sponsors of Terrorism” (SSOT); 2) Ending Washington’s more than six decades long economic, commercial, and financial blockade of Cuba; and 3) Revoking all U.S. travel and economic sanctions against Cuba. More than 100 organizations from the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico endorsed the gathering. It was the second such in-person event since the Covid-19 pandemic.
This is an appeal to encourage donations to help workers from the United States, involved in union organizing efforts at Amazon warehouses, participate in an upcoming trip to Cuba. The Los Angeles US Hands Off Cuba Committee is organizing the delegation, which will coincide with May Day celebrations on the island.
After the November 3, 2022, UN vote overwhelmingly favoring the resolution introduced by Cuba on ending the U.S. blockade, U.S. representative John Kelley took the floor to defend his government’s position. Alleging Washington’s commitment to the well-being of the Cuban people, Kelley tried to justify U.S. policy by charging Cuba with human rights violations, pointing to supposed U.S. aid to the Cuban people, and claiming the U.S. Agency for International Development was poised to send “$2 million in funding for emergency relief to those in need in Cuba.” In a 10-minute rebuttal on the floor of the UN General Assembly, Yuri Gala López, Cuba’s alternate permanent representative to the United Nations, rejected Kelley’s allegations. Gala’s rebuttal follows.
In early November, representatives to the United Nations (UN) debated U.S. policy toward Cuba, and — as they have done every time for the last 30 years — overwhelmingly condemned the decades-long U.S. embargo. Speaking before the UN General Assembly on November 3, Cuba’s foreign minister Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla presented a resolution titled, “Necessity of ending the economic, commercial and financial blockade imposed by the United States of America against Cuba. Rodríguez explained the toll that the U.S. economic war — in place for more than six decades — takes on the Cuban people. When the resolution came to a vote, 185 UN member states registered their agreement with Cuba. Only two — the United States and Israel — opposed the resolution; two more — Brazil and Ukraine — abstained. The entire speech by Rodríguez follows.
On November 3, 2022, the United Nations General Assembly voted 185 – 2 to approve a resolution introduced by the government of Cuba. The resolution called on the U.S. government lift its six-decade-old economic, commercial, and financial embargo against the Caribbean nation — what many refer to as the “blockade.” The only UN member states voting no were the United States and Israel. Brazil and Ukraine abstained. It was the 30th year in a row the international body demanded the end of Washington’s economic war against Cuba. To mark this important occasion, we publish here the link to a YouTube video. This Breakthrough News documentary provides a brief but informative overview of how and why the U.S. government launched its economic war against Cuba, the impact the blockade has had on the Cuban people, and why the overwhelming majority of the world stands with Cuba in the battle to end this cruel and inhumane U.S. policy.
On the last Saturday of October, rallies, marches, and other actions took place in dozens of U.S. cities as well as Canada and other countries. Organizers called these actions to coincide and highlight the annual vote scheduled at the United Nations (UN) for November 3 on a resolution introduced by the government of Cuba. The resolution demands the U.S. government lift its economic, commercial, and financial embargo against the Caribbean nation — what many refer to as the “blockade.” About 100 organizations endorsed the call for these actions. We are publishing here reports from two of the most prominent of these activities — in New York and Los Angeles — that organizers sent World-Outlook.
On September 25, at 24,000 polling stations across the Caribbean island, Cuban citizens voted on a new “Families Code,” replacing existing statutes regulating family relationships. The old code — in place since 1975 — has been rendered obsolete by new family structures and the deep social changes that have occurred in Cuba in the ensuing decades.Ratification of the new code is a truly revolutionary achievement. The process of its passage also showed the strength of working-class democracy in Cuba. The referendum was the culmination of years of activism, discussion, and an evolving consensus across the country that ultimately broadened the concept of what the Cuban family looks like today, in its growing diversity.The Code redefines “family” as an association that may take different forms, but is based on values of love, respect, and solidarity. This represents a further break from the traditional “father family” — a heterosexual couple with children and sometimes elders, in which the father is dominant in both financial and social matters. That was the model in pre-revolutionary Cuba. With this new definition, the Code legalizes gay marriage and civil unions, as well as the adoption of children by same-sex couples. The new law also strengthens the rights and protections of children and adolescents, further ensures the rights of women, and promotes equality in sharing domestic rights and responsibilities between parents — regardless of sex or gender. It also strengthens the progress that Cuba has made in addressing domestic violence and codifies the rights of the disabled and the elderly within the family.
On the last weekend of September, local coalitions organized car caravans and other actions demanding an end to Washington’s economic war against Cuba. The activities took place in cities across the United States, as well as other countries. Organizers of these actions in two U.S. cities sent World-Outlook the reports that follow.
On September 27, 2022, hurricane Ian made landfall in Cuba. Despite Cuba’s well-known preparedness for natural disasters, the damage from this hurricane has been immense. In the western province of Pinar del Rio, famous for its tobacco production, over 5,000 farms were destroyed. In small towns like San Luis, the storm left damaged 80% of all homes. The hurricane affected Cuba’s power grid and the country’s electrical system collapsed. Concerned organizations and activists in the United States issued an urgent appeal, published in the Sunday, October 2, 2022, edition of the New York Times. The appeal demands that Biden temporarily lift sanctions and allow Cuba to purchase urgently needed supplies for reconstruction after Hurricane Ian. We publish here an article about this appeal that appeared in Spanish in the Cuban news publication CubaDebate; CubaNews translated the article and published it into English. We also publish below the text of the appeal to Biden as it appeared in the Times, along with a link on how people can donate to help Cuba’s recovery effort.
On the last weekend of August, local coalitions organized car caravans and other actions demanding an end to Washington’s economic war against Cuba. The activities took place in more than 20 cities across Canada and the United States, as well as other countries. Organizers of these actions in five Canadian and two U.S. cities sent World-Outlook the reports that follow.
MIAMI — Puentes de Amor (Bridges of Love) leader Carlos Lazo condemned the call by U.S. Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) for the FBI to investigate him as an unregistered agent of a foreign power — a violator of the Foreign Agents Registration Act. Lazo was speaking at an August 13 news conference here, organized by the Miami Caravan Against the U.S. Blockade of Cuba. The group is another target of Rubio’s smears, along with the well-known Cuba solidarity organization Pastors for Peace. Univision’s Channel 23, a major Spanish-language TV station here, broadcast a report on the event the next evening. The Miami Caravan received numerous statements of support in response to Rubio’s threats.
Heroic efforts by Cuban firefighters and other emergency personnel, aided by colleagues from Mexico and Venezuela, have brought under control a major fire at a vital oil facility in Matanzas, Cuba, that began August 5. However, as a statement by six North American organizations explains, “A province and country already suffering from acute shortages of medical supplies and power cuts due to the US blockade has now suffered a major further blow.” The Interreligious Foundation for Community Organization (IFCO), Global Health Partners, and other organizations have launched an emergency appeal to send badly needed supplies to Cuba, says a statement by these North American solidarity groups, which World-Outlook is republishing here.
On July 31, local coalitions organized car caravans and other actions demanding an end to Washington’s economic war on Cuba. The activities took place in a number of U.S. cities, as well as other countries. Organizers of these Cuba solidarity activities in Miami, New York, and Los Angeles sent World-Outlook the three reports that follow.
LOS ANGELES, July 16, 2022 — A diverse crowd, representing more than a dozen organizations, streamed into a meeting here today to raise medical aid for Cuba. The Elliott Cane jazz trio entertained approximately 65 people as they entered the McCarthy Memorial Church in LA’s Black community for the event. Carlos Lazo was the featured speaker. Lazo is a Cuban American, organizer of Puentes de Amor (Bridges of Love), and leader of the international caravan movement demanding an end to the U.S. blockade of Cuba. The Los Angeles Hands-off Cuba Committee sponsored the event.
During the June 25-26 weekend, local coalitions organized car caravans and other actions demanding an end to Washington’s economic war on Cuba. The actions took place in a number of U.S. cities, as well as other countries. Organizers of the monthly Cuba solidarity activities in two cities, Miami and New York, sent World-Outlook the two reports that follow. Pete Seidman writes from Miami that “pent-up frustration with their growing isolation and political impotence boiled over on June 26 when about 30 ultrarightist thugs attacked the Miami Caravan Against the U.S. Blockade of Cuba. Caravanistas made a disciplined and dignified, if hasty, retreat to their vehicles and left. None of them were injured or arrested in the fray. Join the Miami caravan in its campaign to defend free speech!
MIAMI, May 29, 2022 — The 23rd consecutive monthly caravan to oppose Washington’s economic war against Cuba took place today. What a victory for the fight against the U.S. blockade of Cuba! What a victory for the right to free speech in this city! About 130 people in 75 vehicles assembled along Ponce de Leon Boulevard in Coral Gables to start the event. As one woman who had missed the last few caravans put it, “This is one I had to be at!” Supporters of the right to protest and speak out for ending the U.S. blockade came to show their support from all over: Vancouver, Canada; Minneapolis, Minnesota; New York City; Las Vegas, Nevada; Tampa and Jacksonville, Florida. Prominent activists came to stand with us in defiance of threats by rightist YouTube personality Alex Otaola.
This is the second part of a recent interview the People’s Forum in New York City did with with Cuban revolutionary Esteban Morales Domínguez. Morales died from a heart attack on May 18, 2022. Born in Cárdenas, Matanzas, Cuba, in 1942, he became one of the most prominent Afro-Cuban scholars. He was a member of Cuba’s Communist Party, the National Union of Writers and Artists (UNEAC), and of UNEAC’s José Antonio Aponte Commission. The responsibilities of this commission included U.S.-Cuba relations and the fight against racism in Cuba. Morales was a member of the Cuban Academy of Sciences and held numerous academic posts — including professor at the University of Havana. He is the principal author, or co-author, of 15 books and has published many articles. His 2007 book, Desafios de la problemática racial en Cuba (Challenges of the Racial Question in Cuba) was the first book-length publication on this subject by a scholar in Cuba since the 1959 revolution. A collection of his essays in English can be found in Race In Cuba: Essays on the Revolution and Racial Inequality (Monthly Review Press, 2012).
This is a recent interview the People’s Forum in New York City did with with Cuban revolutionary leader Esteban Morales Domínguez. Morales died from a heart attack on May 18, 2022. Born in Cárdenas, Matanzas, Cuba, in 1942, he became one of the most prominent Afro-Cuban scholars. He was a member of Cuba’s Communist Party, the National Union of Writers and Artists (UNEAC), and of UNEAC’s José Antonio Aponte Commission. The responsibilities of this commission include U.S.-Cuba relations and the fight against racism in Cuba. Morales was a member of the Cuban Academy of Sciences and held numerous academic posts — including professor at the University of Havana. He is the principal author, or co-author, of 15 books and has published many articles. His 2007 book, Desafios de la problemática racial en Cuba (Challenges of the Racial Question in Cuba) was the first book-length publication on this subject by a scholar in Cuba since the 1959 revolution. A collection of his essays in English can be found in Race In Cuba: Essays on the Revolution and Racial Inequality (Monthly Review Press, 2012).
HAVANA, Cuba, May 1, 2022 — The entire city of Havana felt on the move by 3 a.m. today. The excitement was palpable. The Covid-19 pandemic had prevented the Cuban people from celebrating International Workers Day for two years, and, despite the suffocating US-imposed blockade, the working people of Cuba have much to celebrate. Over 700,000 people from all over Havana converged in a spirited, disciplined way on Revolution Square to show the world that “Cuba lives and works for its present, its future, and its continuity” — the theme of the May Day mobilizations. Estimates by the Cuban daily Granma and other Cuban media put total participation throughout the island above 5 million people. That exceeds 43% of the country’s population of 11.4 million!
On February 25, 2022, a top official in Joe Biden’s administration said US sanctions imposed on Russia following the invasion of Ukraine were also intended to hit Cuba, Venezuela, and Nicaragua. That month marked the sixtieth anniversary of the US blockade of Cuba, introduced in February 1962 by President John F. Kennedy’s Embargo on All Trade with Cuba. The embargo of Cuba constitutes the longest and most comprehensive set of sanctions in modern history. It is not merely a legal or a bilateral issue, as proponents claim. It is a key instrument in the US toolkit to pursue regime change on the island. It is an act of war, a violation of human rights designed to obstruct Cuban development, to undermine its example as a revolutionary alternative, and to intentionally cause suffering among the Cuban people.
NEW YORK CITY, March 20, 2022 — About 150 people from across the United States and Canada gathered at the People’s Forum here March 19-20 for the International US-Cuba Normalization Conference. It was the first such in-person event in two years. Previous conferences were cancelled due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The meeting’s focus was coordinating efforts to end Washington’s economic war against the Caribbean nation, launched six decades ago after a popular revolution overthrew a U.S.-backed dictatorship on the island and opened the socialist revolution in the Americas. Co-sponsoring organizations included the Canadian Network on Cuba, Cuba Solidarity Committee in Puerto Rico, National Network on Cuba (NNOC), New York-New Jersey Cuba Sí Coalition, and Saving Lives Campaign US. A large delegation from Cuba — including several leaders of the Federation of Cuban Women (FMC) — participated in the event.
The last weekend of February, car caravans and other actions demanding an end to the U.S. embargo against Cuba took place in several cities across the United States, as well as other countries. This roundup consists of reports from four of these actions in the U.S., written by organizers and participants.
February 13, 2022—The Canadian theater The Opera House recently canceled the concerts of the Cuban duo Buena Fe scheduled for the month of May in the cities of Montreal, Toronto, and Edmonton. This is because the Canadian government does not recognize Cuba’s highly effective anti-Covid vaccines. Ottawa has asked the Buena Fe musicians to be inoculated by vaccines it does recognize—such as those made by Big Pharma in the U.S. or Europe: Pfizer, Moderna, or Astra Zeneca—in order to be allowed to enter the country. Buena Fe’s response? As Israel Rojas, one of the two members of the group, can be seen saying in the video posted here, “We will play only where our vaccines are recognized.”
On January 30, 2022, car caravans and other actions demanding an end to the U.S. embargo against Cuba took place in several cities and towns across the United States, as well as other countries. These are reports from two of these actions in the U.S., written by organizers and participants.
Cuba may be responsible for only 0.08 percent of global CO2 emissions, but this Caribbean island is disproportionately hard-hit by the effects of climate change. The frequency and severity of extreme weather events — hurricanes, drought, torrential rain, flooding — is increasing, to the detriment of ecosystems, food production, and public health. Without action to protect the coastline from rising sea levels, up to 10 percent of Cuban territory could be submerged by the end of the century. This risks wiping out coastal towns, polluting water supplies, destroying agricultural lands, ruining tourist beaches, and forcing one million people to relocate — some 9 percent of the population. But unlike many countries, where climate action is always something promised for the future, in Cuba, serious action is being taken now.
Candlelight vigils and other actions in solidarity with Cuba took place in about half a dozen U.S. cities, as well as other countries, on December 23. This compilation includes reports from three of these actions – in Miami, New York City, and Los Angeles – written by participants. Demands included ending the U.S. blockade of Cuba, restoring family remittances, beginning again the family reunification program, opening consular services in Havana, re-starting flights to all of Cuba’s major cities, establishing scientific and medical collaboration with Cuba against Covid-19, and allowing U.S. citizens to travel to the island freely.
I embrace you with all my revolutionary fervor: Letters 1947-1967 by Ernesto Che Guevara with a foreword by Aleida Guevara. Published on November 10, 2021, by Seven Stories Press, New York, NY. Che Guevara[1] is one of the most recognized and inspiring revolutionary figures of the 20th century. He is also one of its outstanding Marxists. The publication of this new collection of letters is, therefore, a welcome event. As the introduction explains, “A few of the letters are well known, but most have only now been released from Che Guevara’s personal archive held at the Che Guevara Studies Center in Havana, directed by his widow Aleida March, and are published in English for the first time.”