Solidarity in the US Mobilized to Support Cuba After Melissa

Fundraising for the purchase of medical supplies and food is now one of the top priorities for solidarity groups in the United States mobilized to support Cuba following the devastating impact of Hurricane Melissa.

“Melissa struck with fury. We respond with solidarity,” stated the call from the Pan American Medical Association, comprised here of graduates from the Latin American School of Medicine in Havana.

The announcement emphasized that the hydrometeorological phenomenon hit the Caribbean country on October 29 as a Category 3 hurricane with strong winds and intense rains.

“Entire provinces—Santiago de Cuba, Holguín, Granma, and Guantánamo—are devastated. Families have been displaced. Clinics are overwhelmed. The storm has passed, but the emergency has only just begun,” the text added.

The group noted that “this is not just a natural disaster. It is the breakdown of an already fragile system. Cuba's hospitals already lacked sutures, antibiotics, and basic wound care. Now, they are facing a surge of traumatized patients without the supplies to treat them.”

Meanwhile, on social media, Code Pink co-founder Medea Benjamin wrote that “we are heading to Cuba to deliver humanitarian aid after Hurricane Melissa, the third worst in the island's history.”

“But real relief lies in ending the US blockade that prevents Cuba's reconstruction. Lift the sanctions! Take Cuba off the list of state sponsors of terrorism! Let Cuba live!” the activist stated in her X account.

For its part, The People’s Forum launched a similar plea for help on the same internet platform. “Hurricane Melissa has devastated Cuba. We are urgently sending food, water, and essential supplies to those affected.”

The New York-based organization aims to reach a goal of $50,000 to purchase supplies, the message indicated.

In an article, Mark Friedman, a member of the Hands Off Cuba Committee of Los Angeles, acknowledged the island's decades of experience in facing hurricanes.

“Its civil defense system is organized to evacuate masses of people from vulnerable communities in an organized and safe manner and is consequently recognized as a global model,” he emphasized.

But Cuba's ability to respond to the devastation of Hurricane Melissa is severely hampered by the limitations imposed by the blockade, Friedman added.

Melissa made landfall in Cuba on the same day the UN General Assembly voted for the thirty-third time on a resolution regarding the necessity of ending this unilateral siege imposed over six decades ago by the US government—whether Democratic or Republican—on the largest of the Antilles.