On Friday, thousands of Cubans mobilized in solidarity with Venezuela, a country facing a threat of U.S. military aggression.
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More than 50,000 students, young people, workers, and soldiers gathered before the equestrian statue of Simon Bolivar on Presidents Avenue in Havana, where they demanded that the United States respect the Venezuelan nation.
Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel attended the solidarity event, along with Pedro Infante, first vice president of Venezuela’s National Assembly; diplomats and delegates from the Third International Meeting of Theoretical Publications of Leftist Parties and Movements.
During the event, organizers announced that over 4 million signatures had been collected during the campaign in support of the Bolivarian Revolution, carried out by the Cuban people in September.
Diaz-Canel presented Infante with a framed portrait and a copy of the books of signatures, headed by the signature of Gen. Raul Castro, a Cuban Revolution’s historic leader.
“At a time when the empire and its misguided chief approve CIA covert operations against Venezuela, we express our solidarity with that sister nation and, especially, with President Nicolas Maduro,” the Cuban leader said.
Infante declared that Venezuela and Cuba are nations of peace whose peoples are victims of the White House’s supremacism and militarism. He accused U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio of pursuing a hostile agenda against both nations based on the Monroe Doctrine.
On behalf of President Maduro, Infante rejected attempts to link Venezuela to a narco-state or to criminalize its people and migrants. He also accused the United States of killing people at sea under the pretext of fighting drug trafficking.
“Our people are united and aware, and we have the means to defeat any aggression. Venezuela and Cuba will continue to defend peace and the right of nations to live sovereignly. We are ready to give our lives in the name of our freedom,” the Bolivarian lawmaker said.
“We are living proof that empires can be challenged. With a handful of free men, they can be defeated,” Infante said, paraphrasing the words of Liberator Simon Bolivar.
Roberto Morales, a member of the Cuban Communist Party’s political bureau, stressed that the U.S. is now trying to intimidate Venezuela with a display of warships, aircraft, and missiles, but that the imperial power underestimates the determination of Chavez’s heirs to defend their independence.
“We are one soul that does not surrender. Receive these signatures as the greatest and most eloquent expression of love that can be offered to a sister nation led by President Maduro, a nation that displays an admirable military-popular unity preparing to confront and defeat any aggression that may arise,” Morales said.
“Whoever attacks Venezuela attacks Cuba. We are one trench and one heart shared by two peoples. We are united in the conviction that nothing and no one will stop the Bolivarian Revolution,” he stressed.
The solidarity rally included several artistic performances, among them a rendition by Cuban singer Walner Cano of the iconic song “Venezuela,” by Pablo Herrero Ibarz and Jose Luis Armenteros Sanchez.
Annie Garces and rapper Ramon delighted the audience with the song “Latinoamerica” by the group Calle 13. They were joined by the Cuban National Choir and the Revolucion dance company.
Improvisational poets Aramis Padilla and Luis Paz Esquivel emphasized that imperial greed threatens peace in Venezuela and Latin America.
Through decimas that lifted the crowd’s spirits, they declared that “Money outweighed the jury’s morals. It’s all a staged circus so that peace is lost,” referring to the shameful awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to far-right activist Maria Corina Machado, who had called for a foreign military intervention against Venezuela.
