ENDING the Cuban blockade is an issue supported by the majority of countries in the world and on September 16 and 17, as part of the ‘Days of Action’ against the blockade in Washington D.C., people from around the United States and Canada visited elected officials to raise awareness about the impact of the U.S. blockade on the Cuban people, according to President of the Guyana-Cuba Solidarity Movement (GCSM), Haleem Khan.

Explaining that these visits are part of a grassroots “alternative advocacy” calling for the end of the U.S. blockade against Cuba as well as an end to regime change programmes, Khan said the issue of the closure of Guantanamo was discussed in addition to the right of Cubans to travel to Cuba without restrictions.

“In July 2015, a poll from the Pew Research Center showed that support for re-establishing relations with Cuba has increased from 63% in January 2015 to 73% in July 2015. Also equally broad, and growing, is the support for ending the U.S. blockade against Cuba, from 66% in January 2015 to 72% in July 2015,” the GCSM President noted. The advocate for Cuban solidarity further noted that in 2014 the United Nations General Assembly voted overwhelmingly for the need to put an end to the economic blockade imposed unilaterally by the United States on Cuba.
Last month, the U.S. re-opened its embassy in Cuba after 54 years in a symbolic step signalling the warming of ties between both countries. John Kerry, the first U.S. Secretary of State to visit Cuba in 70 years, presided over the ceremony in Havana.
The U.S. flag was presented by the same U.S. marines who brought it down in 1961. Mr Kerry said the U.S. administration wanted to lift the trade embargo on the island – something that the Republican-controlled U.S. Congress has blocked. Former Cuban leader Fidel Castro said the U.S. owed Cuba millions of dollars because of its 53-year-long embargo. Mr Kerry described the hoisting of the flag as a “historic moment.”