Mexico is the older brother in Latin America, it has been a brother to Cuba for many years and today it plays an important role so that United States I’m done with him “economic blockade against the island and the series of sanctions that have even broken with family integration, assures Carlos Lazo.
The Cuban-American activist has spent the last few years touring the United States and the world to promote the end of the economic “blockade” that has been imposed on the largest of the Antilles by the US government for 63 years.
His story, as he describes it to THE UNIVERSALis like that of any Cuban: he had a first attempt to leave his country in 1988, but ended up in jail for trying to do it illegally.
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The second attempt was in 1991, when he got on a raft and reached US territory, where he settled and became a citizen.
“When I arrived in Miami, the first thing that struck me was hatred, that is, my father was a communist, I was not a revolutionary, but it was my family and I said: ‘damn, I can’t deny my father,’ who was the one who I went to see when I was in jail and he never told me that I had to be a revolutionary or a communist. I started to change the way I see things,” he says.
He first lived in Miami, Florida and then moved to Seattle, Washington, where he enlisted in the National Guard.
The attack occurred at Twin Towers from New York in 2001, and by 2002, Lazo ended up in the military ranks that went to fight in Iraq.
Creator of the Factory of Dreams project and the Bridges of Love caravan, while in the war zone in Iraq, he decided to ensure that —as he describes them— his mother, Cuba, and his father, the United States, were not in confrontation.
However, things have not been easy, because so far in the 21st century, US governments have imposed a series of new measures to “block” Cuba, not only in the economic area.
For example, when he returned from Iraq, he was unable to travel to Cuba due to provisions imposed at the time by President George W. Bush. Consequently, he testified before the United States Senate to request the lifting of sanctions on the island.
“I think that’s where my activism began,” he acknowledges.
Carlos Lazo’s main flag is campaigning to end the US “blockade” against Cuba, which, he mentions, has not only impeded the development of his country, but has also generated great family disintegration.
Lazo considers what the United States does and even says about Cuba “cynical and hypocritical.” He criticizes the fact that President Joe Biden has promised to end the imposition of Donald Trumpbut that at the moment has not fulfilled.
“Since he became president [Joe Biden]nothing has fallen. Whether due to political cowardice, either due to opportunism, or due to misguidance, he has been the victim of the most retrograde forces in the Cuban community that do not want a change in policy,” she exclaims.
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Family disintegration, he underlines, is something that has entrenched the “blockade”, because people seek to leave a poor country and where young people know that staying is not reaching the maximum human potentialwith everything and that they have the possibility of studying.
“The problem is that the country is blocked. I say that the blockade is not between governments, it is a blockade and sanctions that punish Cuban families”, she highlights.
With this, Carlos Lazo started the caravans. He first traveled 5,000 kilometers by bicycle from Seattle to Washington DC, with the aim of making the US population aware of the “blockade” of Cuba.
After that, he walked 2,000 kilometers from Miami to Washington DC
“Right now there is more solidary support from the American people, we have achieved that. This is a 63-year economic war against the Cuban people. It is a war that has cost lives, development, that has cost health, resources and that is not talked about. The press in the United States does not talk about it, ”he says.
For this man who came to visit Mexico to lead one of his caravans that demand the cessation of the “blockade”, his mission has paid off because today in the United States, in Miami, there is talk of that economic embargo and beyond the borders of that North American country.
What they are asking for: that the United States embassy in Cuba be reopened, that the family reunification program be restored, that flights to Cuban provinces be restored, that remittances be sent to the island, that Americans be able to travel freely to that nation and that bonds of cooperation be established between peoples.
That is why he sees Mexico as an important piece in all this effort.
“Mexico has an important role here because it is our older brother in Latin America, it has been Cuba’s brother for many years, but it also has a very close relationship with the United States. I believe that the voice of Mexico, the voice of the government and of the Mexican people is important in solidarity with our people”, he concludes.