GUE/NGL last week organised a conference on the 'End of the Blockade against Cuba'.

The main objective of this initiative was to reaffirm the solidarity of GUE/NGL and various movements with the struggle of the Cuban people, and to end the criminal blockade imposed by US imperialism 57 years ago. This was an opportunity to expose and denounce the heavy territorial and extraterritorial consequences as well as the aggressive policy of the US administration against Cuba. This blockade has already been condemned 26 times by the UN General Assembly in successive resolutions, the last of which was only objected by the US and Israel.

Recent developments in relations between Cuba and the EU – which led to the repeal of the Common Position of 1996 in the framework of the signing of the Dialogue and Cooperation Agreement between the EU and Cub – were warmly welcomed.

Participants in this conference included solidarity movements from Belgium, France, Spain, Italy, Germany, Sweden, Denmark, Ireland and Portugal. In bilateral meetings with several Members of the European Parliament, they called for further action to combat the blockade.

The conference also paid tribute to Che Guevara – 50 years on from the death of the Argentine guerrillero – in the presence of one of his sons, Camilo Guevara.

GUE/NGL MEPs welcomed the resistance and determination of the Cuban people in the fight against US interventionism and interventionist policies, and in defending the sovereign right to decide their own fate and to pursue the path of the socialist revolution, resisting against the violent offensive by US imperialism in Latin America and the Caribbean.