For Immediate Release- July 22, 2021
Contact:
Jodie Evans | CODEPINK Co-Founder | [email protected] | (310) 621-5635
Medea Benjamin | CODEPINK Co-Founder | [email protected] | (415) 235-6517
An urgent and public appeal to President Biden signed by over 400 former heads of state, politicians, prominent intellectuals, scientists, clergy, artists, musicians, leaders, and activists from around the world calls on the White House to immediately lift Trump's 243 unilateral and additional sanctions that are hindering Cuba’s efforts to control the pandemic and save the lives of people living in Cuba. Signers include actors Jane Fonda, Susan Sarandon, Danny Glover, and Mark Ruffalo, former presidents Lula da Silva (Brazil) and Rafael Correa (Ecuador), musicians Jackson Browne and Boots Riley, intellectuals Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, Judith Butler, and Cornel West. The letter will appear in the Friday edition of The New York Times.
On Friday at 10 a.m. in Lafayette Square in Washington, D.C., Medea Benjamin and members of CODEPINK will symbolically present this letter, as well as a petition signed by nearly 10,000 people, to the White House.
Cuba – a country of eleven million people – is living through a difficult crisis due to the growing scarcity of food and medicine. Recent protests have drawn the world’s attention to this. These prominent signers write: “it’s unconscionable, especially during a pandemic, to intentionally block remittances and Cuba’s use of global financial institutions, given that access to dollars is necessary for the importation of food and medicine.”
“We stand with the Cuban people,” Biden wrote on July 12. The letter signers respond: “If that is the case, we ask you to immediately sign an executive order and annul Trump’s 243 ‘coercive measures.’”
This open letter is the first of a joint initiative between The People’s Forum, CODEPINK, and the ANSWER Coalition to change the immoral and short-sighted policy of the embargo towards Cuba, and to provide much-needed medicine and medical supplies to the Cuban people.
The Open Letter and full list of signers can be found online at www.LetCubaLive.com
Organizers Manolo De Los Santos, Medea Benjamin, Jodie Evans, and Brian Becker are available for interviews.
