One Million Cubans March Against Trade EmbargoOver 1 million Cubans marched Wednesday along the main streets of Havana, led by President Fidel Castro, to protest against the United States' anti-Cuban policy.The demonstration is the biggest ever in the history of the Cuban revolution. Those taking part in the march carried small Cuban flags and flags of the July 26 Movement that started the armed rebellion to topple President Fulgencio Batista (1952-1958). The marchers demanded the elimination of the Cuban Adjustment Act, the Helms-Burton and the Torricelli laws as well as the lifting of the U.S. blockade. Cuban official estimates say that the US sanctions have caused the island economic losses amounting to more than 67 billion US dollars. The march came amid the most significant efforts by Congress in nearly two generations to ease sanctions imposed by the Kennedy administration against the island at the height of the Cold War. The event coincided with the 47th anniversary of the July 26, 1953, attack by Castro and his followers on an army barracks who launched the Cuban Revolution against the dictatorship of the then President Fulgencio Batista. The US House of Representatives last week voted to stop enforcing provisions that ban American food exports and limit sales of US medicine to Cuba and four other nations --Iran, Libya, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea and Sudan. The US Senate passed a bill on the same day to permit food and medical sales to the five countries While Cuba welcomed the moves, it said they do not go far enough and continued to demand a total lifting of the sanctions. Cuba has been under a total trade embargo since February 1962, longer than any other country except the DPRK. The sanctions were tightened in July 1963, and most travels by Americans to the island then were made illegal. |
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