The criminal and imperialist blockade imposed by the United States against the revolutionary Cuba drags on for more than five decades and is annually renewed by the US government through an anachronistic law dated 1917, among other regulations. In this Oct. 26, 2016, however, the 25th time when the United Nations' members voted for a resolution against the blockade at the General Assembly, a historic score was marked by the abstention from the US, which consistently opposed the resolutions that massively condemned its policy of interference.

Worldwide, the movements for peace, sovereignty of peoples and nations, non-interference and against imperialism are together in the demand for an immediate end to the US blockade against Cuba. At this moment, as Cuban Ambassador to the US, José Ramón Cabañas said, the Cuban people will continue to fight against the blockade and we will be by their side in this struggle.

The World Peace Council (WPC), as an international civil organization comprised of national entities from over 90 countries, also mobilizes in a committed and determined manner in solidarity with the Cuban people, denouncing the arbitrariness of the US anachronistic, aggressive and imperialist policies against the revolutionary island.

The voting records for a resolution against the blockade is persistent and, last year, the only two countries to vote against the resolution were, unsurprisingly, the US itself and its most faithful ally in promoting a comprehensive and imperialist policy of aggression: Israel. This time, however, it was the first time that none of the 193 UN members voted against the resolution, with only two abstentions: the US and Israel.

Together with the heroic Cuban people, the World Peace Council and countless organizations, governments and social movements promote an international campaign for the immediate end of the blockade to Cuba even through an Internet voting.

The CubaVsBloqueo website promoted the campaign with an appeal to vote for an end to the US policy of interference in Cuban affairs, since the US blockade is aimed at trying to undermine the revolutionary government, legitimated, supported and built by a revolutionary people.

For over 50 years, the US blockade directly attacks the Cuban peoples' sovereignty, politics and economy, hampering their relations with the world and their possibilities to share their rich experience in the struggle for social justice, equality and national sovereignty. In all, the Cuban government estimates that the blockade imposed in 1962 by the US, has cost the Cuban people more than 753 billion dollars in current values.

Still, the Cuban people extends their hands to the peoples who fought and fight for their countries' decolonization, for the struggle against ills that should embarrass all humanity – such as hunger itself, or epidemics – and for a sovereign Latin American and Caribbean integration of solidarity.

So we join the call for mass action on a global scale, for the unconditional end of the US blockade! For the end of imperialist interference in Cuba and Latin America, for the respect for national sovereignty and the US accountability for more than five decades of blockade!

This campaign shows, as well as the broader mobilization in solidarity with the Cuban people and with all peoples facing the policies of aggression, interference, colonialism and wars, that together we can defeat imperialism!

Socorro Gomes
President of the World Peace Council