Photo:   Prensa Latina

Boston, October 14 (RHC)-- With a Pan-African Forum that focused its attention on Cuba, Haiti and the Caribbean, the annual meeting of the National Solidarity Network with our country in the United States began this Friday.

"We have to do everything we can to defend our Cuban family," said activist Gail Walker, co-chair of the National Solidarity Network (NNOC), speaking on a panel at the event that began Friday afternoon and runs through Sunday at the University of Massachusetts in Boston.

The executive director of the Interreligious Foundation for Community Organization, IFCO; highlighted the health internationalism of that Caribbean nation to which she expressed her gratitude "for the efforts it has made to train thousands of young people from 120 countries as doctors, but not just any doctors, doctors trained in Cuba".

The meeting was attended by officials of the Cuban Mission in the United States who referred to the island's contribution in Africa and also, as young diplomat David Ramirez illustrated in his words, his country has had to grow in the midst of the challenge posed by the tightening of the blockade.

Ramirez, who thanked the solidarity of the U.S. people in favor of the elimination of that unilateral siege that has lasted more than six decades, stressed the continuity in the current Democratic administration of the policies of Republican Donald Trump.

He pointed out the impact of these measures of asphyxiation against Cuba in the emigration reported in the last three years.

Ramirez also mentioned the historic struggle of the Palestinian people against Israeli occupation and also referring to Haiti said that what that island needs is doctors, solidarity, not troops, not military intervention.

In declarations to Prensa Latina, Cheryl LaBash, co-president of the NNOC, warned that if President Joe Biden listened to the voice of the American people he would lift the economic, commercial and financial blockade of Cuba.

This is demanded by more than a hundred resolutions passed across the country representing more than 55 million people, LaBash emphasized, insisting that Americans reject "Biden's starvation strategy".

During this weekend, as the activist commented, they will elaborate their strategy to strengthen the movement within the United States until the demand to remove Cuba from the list of sponsors of terrorism and to eliminate the blockade becomes irresistible.

Representatives of some 57 organizations that make up the NNOC arrived in Boston for the conference that hopes to incorporate another 10 new groups in these working days.

Boston, the capital of Massachusetts, is the largest city in the New England region of the state. Founded in 1630, the city ranks as one of the oldest in the U.S.   (Source: Prensa Latina).