United Nations, November 7 (RHC-PL) -- The president of the Cuban Institute of Friendship with the Peoples (ICAP), Kenia Serrano, said that global solidarity with the island has the end to the U.S. blockade as their main goal.
That is the priority, beginning with the impact of the economic, commercial and financial blockade that has been imposed on Cuba for over half a century, she said in an interview with Prensa Latina during a visit to the Permanent Mission of Cuba to the UN.
According to Serrano, media dominance makes some people associate the restoration of diplomatic relations between Havana and Washington with the end of the blockade.
Solidarity plays an important role in clarifying this confusion, which is a daunting task given the current information gap, said the parliamentarian, who was invited by friends of the island in the United States to participate in a tour that includes New York, Washington DC and San Francisco.
Cuba says that despite the bilateral approach that began last December 17th, and the resumption of diplomatic ties and the re-opening of embassies in July, unilateral and extraterritorial sanctions remain in full.
According to the president of ICAP, another priority is the claim of compensation demanded by the island based on the economic and human damage caused by decades of Washington’s hostility, with the blockade as its spearhead.
Support for Cuba further includes the struggle for the return of part of Guantánamo occupied by the United States Naval Base, the end of the illegal radio and television programs aimed at regime change, she said.
Serrano says that Cuba is committed to a respectful and equal relationship between the two countries, recognized and supported by the solidarity stance.
The leader and deputy to the National Assembly of People's Power highlighted the firmness and strength of the Cubans arouses admiration in sectors of American society.
"We see that they celebrate the consistent foreign policy of the Cuban Revolution and its unalterable commitment with the just causes of the world, internationalism and selfless cooperation."
She also referred to the meetings held during their first days in the U.S., including those that took place in New York, with activists Harry Belafonte and Sandra Levinson, representatives of the African American community, and members of the Pastors for Peace organization for solidarity with Cuba for more than two decades.
Serrano traveled yesterday to the U.S. Capital, Washington DC, where she will attend a national meeting of the Network of Solidarity with Cuba in the United States.
In the coming days, she will be in San Francisco, California, the home of very active committees during the campaigns for the release of Gerardo Hernandez, Ramon Labañino, Fernando Gonzalez, Antonio Guerrero and Rene Gonzalez -- the Cuban Five -- who served long sentences in prisons of the United States.
