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Vol. 80/No. 20 May 23, 2016
‘Give back Guantánamo,’ says Cuban leader in NZ
BY JANET ROTH
AUCKLAND, New Zealand – Yexenia Calzado, a representative of the Cuban
Institute for Friendship with the Peoples, used her month-long visit to
Australia and New Zealand to explain that last year’s opening of
diplomatic relations between the Cuban and U.S. governments did not mean
that relations had been normalized.
The conflict will continue until Washington “gives back Guantánamo and
lifts the blockade,” she told a public meeting in Auckland April 27. She
was referring to the U.S. naval base on Cuban territory occupied against
the will of the Cuban people since 1903 and the 55-year U.S. economic
embargo.
U.S. President Barack Obama’s March 22 speech in Havana made clear
Washington “hasn’t changed the objectives it has had since the
revolutionary triumph” of overturning Cuba’s socialist revolution,
Calzado said. “Obama said he had no intention of interfering in Cuba’s
internal affairs, but he has put aside millions for subversion in Cuba.”
While in New Zealand, Calzado spoke at meetings organized by the Cuba
Friendship societies in Auckland and Wellington, and by the Caribbean
Council, the FIRST Union, and the NZ Centre for Latin American Studies
at the University of Auckland.
She was given a tour of the Otuataua Stonefields Historic Reserve by
supporters of a campaign to prevent a developer from building 480 houses
on adjacent Maori ancestral lands. Local Maori want to determine what
happens to that land, which was confiscated from them in 1863.
Calzado, 26, was asked about the opinions of Cuba’s youth. “Younger
people in Cuba have no experience with capitalism and some have hopes in
the capitalist system. But the majority believe in the revolution,” she
told a meeting in Wellington April 26. “Lots have heard from their
grandparents about capitalism. My grandmother did not know how to read
and write but because of the revolution was able to learn.”
Related articles:
‘Imperialism is the greatest wolf that ever existed’
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