Chile Hosts Event Rejecting Blockade on Cuba

The Broad Command of Solidarity with Cuba has issued a letter rejecting the U.S. blockade on the Caribbean nation, and calling on President Barack Obama to make more efforts to normalize those relations.

At a press conference near La Moneda Presidential Palace and later in a meeting in the capital, the solidarity group and several Chilean unions such as Constramet and the United Labor Federation (CUT) detailed their demands.

The text urges the U.S. president to implement new measures in favor of easing the economic, commercial and financial siege that Washington has maintained over Cuba for more than 50 years.

The document stated that during the recent United Nations General Assembly, and for the first time in history, 191 countries voted to eliminate the blockade, while the United States and Israel abstained.

Although it is true that the U.S congress has authority over the total lifting of the U.S. blockade, Obama has the power to improve bilateral relations, the text stated.

Lily Zamora, an official of the Cuban Institute of Friendship with the Peoples (ICAP), added that Havana has also required the closure of the U.S. Naval Base in Guantanamo and the return of the occupied territory.

The cessation of hostile acts in the attempt to subvert the Cuban Revolution was also mentioned.

Zamora has announced that the National Meeting of Solidarity with Cuba in Chile will be held in June 2017 and ´Por los caminos del Che Guevara' will visit the island in January.