The second European Solidarity Convoy departed for Cuba with the participation of dozens of representatives from various organizations and a shipment of aid for the Cuban people, according to a statement released on Wednesday.
A statement released by the Agency for Cultural and Economic Exchange with Cuba (AICEC), the entity that participated in organizing this initiative, indicates that the participants in this new mission to support the Caribbean nation, in the face of pressure and threats from the United States, departed yesterday from Rome and Milan.
This group will be joined in Havana by members of the delegation from Spain, who will arrive on a flight from Madrid. Their first activity, after being received at José Martí International Airport, will be a welcome reception this Wednesday at the headquarters of the Cuban Institute of Friendship with the Peoples (ICAP).
The members of this delegation are bringing medicines and diagnostic equipment, ventilators, defibrillators, and other supplies to the island for hospitals and communities in several provinces of the eastern region affected by Hurricane Melissa, which devastated the country in late 2015.
A significant contribution comes from the Federation of Agro-Industrial Workers of Italy, which donated food and solar panel systems to bolster the energy supply of health centers, according to a report published on the website of the newspaper La Repubblica.
This second convoy, part of the “Let Cuba Breathe” campaign, follows the one that traveled to Cuba in mid-March, which included some 120 delegates from 19 European countries. This time, as part of the contributions to the Cuban people, sports equipment for schools is included, according to the text.
The organizers anticipate that the members of this new project, which is being carried out under the slogan “Cuba Is Not Alone,” will stay in Cuba for 10 days. After a welcome reception at ICAP headquarters, they will participate in various activities in Havana.
On April 23, the program indicates, they will depart by air for Santiago de Cuba to deliver supplies to health centers in various communities in that eastern province, as well as in Granma and Guantánamo. They will travel through these areas until April 29, when they will return by train to the Cuban capital to participate in the May Day celebrations.
The call for this second convoy stated that “the imperialist blockade that the United States has imposed on Cuba for more than 60 years has intensified even further following the measures adopted in January by the Trump administration.”
The call emphasizes that the purpose of this new solidarity initiative is “to break the US blockade and return, at least in part, the solidarity that Cuba has always offered to the world, demonstrating even today that it is a necessary alternative to a global system marked by barbarism,” the source added.
[ SOURCE: PRENSA LATINA ]
