By Nuria Barbosa León

Havana, January 5 (RHC)-- With the premise that brotherhood and solidarity between Puerto Rico and Cuba cannot be silenced or blocked, the Puerto Rican Solidarity Committee (CSC) worked intensively in 2024 and will remain active throughout 2025.

They stated this in a letter sent to Radio Habana Cuba by Milagros Rivera Pérez, President of the CSC, and Solimar Ortiz Jusino, Coordinator of the organization's Communication Commission, who in turn promote all kinds of initiatives in their territory for the decolonization of Puerto Rico, using the Cuban Revolution as a reference.

Milagros Rivera Pérez, President of the CSC

For the Committee's leadership, the main action revolves around the establishment of the Juan Rius Rivera Brigade, which is about to reach its 34th edition and will visit the Greater Antilles from April 17 to May 3, 2025, with activities symbolizing the challenge to the blockade and exchanges with the Cuban people. To this end, they hold meetings, discussions, and commemorations of anniversaries throughout the year, during which they share the reality of Cuba and collect donations to deliver to the people.

Commemoration event for Carlos Muñiz Varela, to remember his assassination that occurred on April 28, 1978.

"Every 17th of the month, we carry out actions against the blockade of Cuba, and on the 17th of February 2024, we will hold a grand Bohemia dedicated to the former political prisoner for the defense of Cuba, Ana Belén Montes, celebrating the birthdays of Julia de Burgos and Blanca Canales, as well as collecting solidarity aid for Cuban children that the Brigade will deliver," says the text of the letter.

In 2024, the Brigade traveled to Cuba from July 13 to 29, staying for 11 days at the Julio Antonio Mella International Camp in the Artemisa municipality of Caimito and also in Matanzas. The contingent was made up of a cultural delegation, with the Patria y Cultura group, along with young women members of the Colectiva Feminista en Construcción.  
They also participated in the July 26 events in the province of Sancti Spiritus and, for the third time, held a meeting with President Miguel Díaz-Canel on July 25, marking 126 years since the Yankee invasion of Puerto Rico. Upon their return, they celebrated the birthday of Commander-in-Chief Fidel Castro on August 13, establishing the Coordinating Committee of the 34th Brigade, which will travel to Cuba in April 2025. They also honored Juan Rius Rivera on August 26 and held the usual Brigadistas Meeting with an exchange between members of different editions of the brigade. 

Additionally, they commemorated national activities with the patriotic dates of September 23, Day of the Grito de Lares, and October 30, 1950 Revolution, in which solidarity with Cuba and the fight for just causes around the world were highlighted.

On October 10, they joined the World Solidarity Day with Cuba, and from October 25 to the present, they have been running the Christmas Without Blockade for Cuba campaign, gathering more solidarity aid to repair the damage caused by hurricanes Oscar and Rafael and to contribute to the World Marathon of Love for Cuba that will take place in 2025. 

They combine this action with political activism on social media: "We set as a goal to break the media bubble in which they want to keep the Caribbean and the information blockade against Cuba."  We have successfully created a YouTube channel for CSC, Puerto Rico with Cuba, a weekly presence on Cuban television with the program Somos Caribe, and a digital magazine with the same name, to create content that reaches thousands of subscribers.  "We have more than 360 videos hosted there," the letter states, adding that they have a magazine in blog format, which contains over 1000 articles on various topics aimed at highlighting the solidarity struggles in the Caribbean.

For the New Year 2025, they plan to increase the content on all their platforms and maintain the campaign to end the blockade on Cuba and remove it from the list of state sponsors of terrorism, which the United States government unjustly keeps on the list to increase the criminalization of the revolution.

Thus, it concludes: "In short, we summarize that we have been consistently working in favor of the Cuban revolution, with 33 solidarity brigades in open defiance of imperial laws, information campaigns, and actions to break the blockade."  We maintain that political and economic solidarity between friendly governments and peoples is the key to defeating the criminal siege policies against Cuba.