HIALEAH GARDENS, Fla. — Leftist activists from New York and California and Republican lawmakers in Florida are all pushing for change in Cuba.
Inspired by the “Sumud” convoys to Gaza, New York-based Progressive International and California-based Code Pink are organizing the “Nuestra América Flotilla.”
Organizers who have been fundraising online announced that they aim to deliver humanitarian aid to Cubans on March 21 at Havana’s Malecón.
On the right, Republican Cuban-American lawmakers’ pressure campaign for change on the communist island moved to a push to indict Raúl Castro.
Ahead of Tuesday’s 30-year-old anniversary of a Cuban Air Force crime in the Florida Straits, lawmakers held a news conference on Thursday in Hialeah Gardens.
Related story: U.S. lawmakers urge Trump to seek Castro’s indictment for 4 Miami pilots killed
U.S. Rep. Carlos A. Giménez, who was born in Havana, said “the stars are aligning” with President Donald Trump and State Secretary Marco Rubio.
Without Venezuelan oil, Cubans face fuel shortages, power outages, and price increases on basics such as food and medications.
“Negotiating with a mother’s hunger is very hard,” U.S. Rep. María Elvira Salazar, whose parents were born in Cuba, said in Hialeah Gardens.
Related story: Survivor remembers Cuban Air Force shootdown of 2 Brothers to the Rescue aircraft killing 4 men
Tuesday is the 30th anniversary of the deaths of four Miami-based Brothers to the Rescue volunteers after Cuban pilots followed Castro’s order to shoot down their unarmed civilian planes.
Interactive graphic: 4 Brothers to the Rescue killed
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