May 2, 2026 at the Palace of the Conventions in Havana Cuba
Graciela Ramirez, Fotos: Presidencia de Cuba.
Remarks by Graciela Ramírez Cruz, coordinator of the International Committee for Peace, Justice, and Dignity at the International Meeting of Solidarity with Cuba.
First of all, comrades, I want to thank you, thank you from the bottom of my heart. I live here—I’ve lived here for 30 years—and I work, live, and resist alongside the Cuban people, as one of them.
I want to tell you that we will never forget what the Mexican government, President Claudia Sheinbaum, has done, for the people of Cuba, when they needed it most. At my home, because there are elderly people in the household we received part of the donations from the ship she sent: the first ship that arrived here, with beans, with food, from Claudia Sheinbaum.
But it’s not, it’s not simply that food that arrived and that we needed and that helps us, but which eventually runs out. It’s the fact of feeling that we are not alone, that someone is speaking out, that a government is speaking out, that it is taking action, and that even though it has to endure hardship—because it is subject to a ban on sending oil under an absolutely lawful trade agreement—it does everything it can so that the Cuban people does not suffer alone
I want to express my deepest gratitude to our comrades in Italy, to our comrades in the United States, to the “Nuestra América” Convoy. Who would have thought that, last year, on May 1st, we were speaking here and focusing on our shattered Palestine, on Gaza, and talking about supporting the Global SUMUD Flotilla? Yet, the advance of fascism, the advance of the right wing, has been relentless in its cruelty ! This despot Trump, this Machiavellian figure Marco Rubio—who think they own the world, own our lives—never letting up harming the American people themselves, the immigrants, all of Our Latin American sisters and brothers living there. They have a special sinister focus on Bolivarian Venezuela, with the January 3 invasion, the kidnapping of Maduro, a constitutional president, and the terrible immediate threat to Cuba.
Every day the Cuban people wake up to a new threat. Yesterday we were happy marching for the Cuban Revolution, telling everyone, “Long live our socialist Revolution!” expressing love for the Cuban workers, honoring the 32 fighters—the 32 Cubans who fell defending the dignity of Venezuela and defending the life of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro—and also the great joy of just being in the streets with the determination of international solidarity and the resistance of the Cuban people.
And in the afternoon after the march we heard of the new measure from Trump., How is this possible? How could the sanctions become even more severe? Another measure from Trump! Yet another one! How far will this suffocation go? How far, comrades, how far? The arrogance and the threats of Trump knows no boundries.
There it was in the evening news from Russia Today and other new agencies, the arrogance, the barbarity. Who does he think he is to threaten a sovereign nation? Who does he think he is? He’s the fascist, pedophile tycoon with 34 legal cases against him, a convicted criminal. We’re not afraid to speak the truth and stand up to him because we’ve given our lives for our people! And we’re ready to give them for the Cuban Revolution!
Yesterday he said something very serious that was broadcast on Russia Today: “As soon as I’m done with Iran, I’m going to Cuba,” and I’m going to station the largest submarine in the world there—the most powerful one, the Abraham Lincoln. It’s not a submarine; it’s a warship. And I’m going to station it 100 yards off the Cuban coast. So that later they’ll tell me: ‘Thank you very much, we surrender.’ It is not a coincidence that he used May 1 to sign this new tightening of the blockade, because he knows, the world knows, just how powerful our expression of solidarity with the workers and oppressed of the world is here on this island especially on this day.
There will be no surrender here! And what I want to tell you, comrades, when you ask me whether to bring solar panels or medicine: I say solar panels, medicine, all the aid you can… Bring tourists back to Cuba, come here, do what our comrades from Italy do, do what the “Nuestra América” Convoy does, the “Brigada Primero de Mayo” Convoy. Don’t leave Cuba alone, comrades! Just as we cannot leave Thiago alone!
This Palestinian keffiyeh was brought to me by Thiago Ávila when he came on the “Nuestra América” Convoy from Mexico, because he also participated in that. Today Thiago is now imprisoned along with Saif Abu Keshek, a comrade of Palestinian-Spanish origin—the only two Israel has detained in this latest flotilla that was attacked by the Israeli military hundreds of miles from their shores
This happened the day before yesterday: 21 ships from the SUMUD Global Flotilla were confiscated by the murderer of the children of Gaza, by Israel: 21 ships, 160 comrades, and due to international pressure, they had to release them. But they did not release Thiago.
We demand Thiago’s life! I demand freedom for Thiago and Saif! I demand freedom for Maduro and Cilia! I demand respect for Cuba’s sovereignty! I demand peace, comrades! And I demand life!
Graciela Ramirez is the coordinator of the International Committee for Peace, Justice and Dignity and is the Editor of Resumen Latinoamericano in Cuba
Source: Resumen Latinoamericano – English