Cubans March Against U.S Occupation of Guantanamo
Image of Jose Marti (C) at Mariana Grajales Square, Cuba, Feb. 26, 2025. X/ @radiocmhw
February 26, 2025 Hour: 2:08 pm
They demanded that Washington return the territory illegally occupied by the Naval Base for the past 122 years
On Wednesday, Cuban workers and students gathered at Mariana Grajales square in the province of Guantanamo to protest against the United States and its policies toward the Cuban Revolution.
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Around 80,000 citizens denounced the U.S. aggressions caused by an economic, financial, and commercial blockade that has been in place since the 1960s. The protesters demanded that Washington return the territory illegally occupied by the Guantanamo Naval Base for the past 122 years.
They also rejected U.S. President Donald Trump’s proposal to turn that naval base into a detention center for migrants in an irregular situation and subject to deportation.
“We stand against the U.S. blockade and over 240 measures that reinforce it in an attempt to economically strangle the Revolution. They will not break us,” declared Yoel Perez Garcia, the secretary of the Communist Party in the province of Guantanamo.
During his speech, the communist leader recalled 130 years of struggles against Spanish colonialism, including the rebel landings carried out by Antonio Maceo in Duaba and Jose Marti on the beaches of Cajobabo.
“In Guantanamo, whose bay was cut off more than a century ago by the United States, we firmly condemn the illegal occupation of its territory. In the name of Cuba, always anti-imperialist, the people of Guantanamo reiterated this demand in the Mariana Grajales square, a woman who is a symbol of Cubanness and heroism,” President Miguel Diaz-Canel said.
Popularly known as “The Mother of Cuba”, Mariana Grajales (1815-1893) is an icon of the women’s rights and the fight for independence and abolition of slavery. Mariana and her family served in the Ten Years’ War (1868–78) and the 1895 War. During her time serving in the war, Mariana ran hospitals and provision grounds on the base camps of her son, Gen. Antonio Maceo.
teleSUR/ JF
Sources: Venceremos – teleSUR
