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Cuban exiles in Miami celebrated this Sunday the historic 1898 Yara cry for independence as a symbol of support to the Cuban people who are organizing a march for next November 15 and a “National Strike every day” against the dictatorship of Miguel Díaz-Canel.
The Cuban Resistance Assembly, made up of organizations from inside and outside Cuba, met today at the Tamiamiami-Kendall Executive Airport to kick off the campaign in support of these mobilizations on the island, Orlando Gutiérrez, its president, explained to EFE news agency.
The event, which was attended by businessmen and civic and religious leaders, and dozens of exiles, was held on a day that commemorates on the island the so-called “Grito de Yara”, as it is known as one of the milestones of the Cuban process of independence from Spain.
Gutiérrez clarified that the idea is to support the march and also the so-called “National Strike”, which does not have a single defined date but is a daily organic movement of Cubans on the island with several initiatives, the activist explained.
Gutiérrez denounced that the island’s regime proposes a “militarization” that seeks to intimidate the march promoted by Cuban artists, such as playwright Yunior García, gathered in the group Archipiélago.
The Civic March for Change was brought forward from November 20 to November 15 following the regime’s announcement to carry out “defense preparation exercises” from November 17 to 20.
“The regime by calling for this military mobilization has shown that it no longer trusts in its mass dominations, what it trusts is brute force,” Gutiérrez indicated.
“It wants to repress, but all dates are strike dates, and one must be intelligent in the face of repression,” he stressed.
He explained that the “National Strike” was born on the island and includes ignoring the regime’s calls and renouncing the organisms it has created for “the people to repress the people”.
Also to start writing slogans in public places and homes about “Cuba’s desire for freedom” and to protest in every place and every moment one can.
“The idea is to mobilize without specifying (dates) until the time comes for the general strike,” he said.
He clarified that the strategy comes from the civic committees of the Cubans on the island to make an organic, decentralized, and horizontally organized mobilization because “if it is done in a traditional way they crush it right away.”
He pointed out that even in several homes in Havana, Cubans have already begun to write messages alluding to the “National Strike.”
The support event in Miami also sent a message of solidarity to the Cubans of different religious tendencies who gathered today on the island for a day of fasting and prayer in favor of freedom.
Cubans in Miami gathered at a monument located at the airport that pays tribute to the Cubans who participated in 1961 in the failed Bay of Pigs invasion (Cuba) with which the United States tried to overthrow dictator Fidel Castro.
