Activists in Massachusetts deployed banners across the state with a clear message: “No to the war against Cuba,” in response to the growing escalation of economic and military pressure from the Donald Trump administration.

The initiative took place across four major cities and along an equal number of main highways, activist Merri Ansara, a board member of Massachusetts Peace Action, stated in a message to Prensa Latina.

The coordinated placement of these signs in Boston, Worcester, Leominster, and Holyoke aims to draw public attention to an intensified campaign by Washington that is worsening Cuba's severe economic, energy, and humanitarian situation, while increasing the danger of a military confrontation, organizers noted. Since January, the Trump administration has drastically ramped up pressure on Cuba, while increasing U.S. military activity in the Caribbean as well as surveillance flights near the island.

Members of Congress from Massachusetts are among the most outspoken critics of the Trump administration's policy toward Cuba, the activists pointed out in a statement.

In February, Senators Ed Markey and Elizabeth Warren joined McGovern in urging President Trump to end what they described as “crushing sanctions.”

Representatives Jim McGovern and Ayanna Pressley also joined colleagues Lori Trahan, Seth Moulton, and Stephen Lynch, alongside Senators Markey and Warren, to demand that Cuba be removed from the unilateral list of State Sponsors of Terrorism.

Such a designation, they emphasized, creates significant obstacles for Cuba's access to the international financial system, the text indicated.

Communities in Boston, Brookline, Cambridge, Somerville, and Medford, Massachusetts, have passed resolutions calling for an end to the long-standing U.S. embargo.

“The Cuban people should not be made to suffer in an attempt to force political change from Washington,” said Brian Garvey, Executive Director of Massachusetts Peace Action.

“At a time when threats of war and military intervention are becoming increasingly normalized, people across Massachusetts are saying clearly: negotiate, respect Cuba's sovereignty, and end the economic war,” he stressed.

The U.S. embargo against Cuba has outlasted 11 White House administrations, both Republican and Democratic.

Massachusetts shares a long history of commercial, scientific, medical, academic, environmental, agricultural, and cultural ties with Cuba.

Those ties should be expanded rather than severed through sanctions and threats, activists maintain. “Enough is enough. We demand an end to policies of economic strangulation and threats of military intervention,” they concluded.