Brazilian Lawmakers Prepare Solidarity Actions with Cuba

The Brazil-Cuba Parliamentary Friendship Group agreed today on new solidarity initiatives with the island and in rejection of the economic, commercial, and financial embargo that the United States has maintained for more than 60 years.

The president of the group, Alice Portugal, from the Communist Party of Brazil (PCdoB), reported that these activities were discussed during a meeting in the Chamber of Deputies with Vladimir Falcón, counselor at the Cuban Embassy.

The meeting was also attended by the leader of the PCdoB caucus, Jandira Feghali, and the party's Secretary of Policy and International Relations, Ana Prestes.

According to Portugal, during the meeting they defined several high-priority initiatives, such as holding a meeting of the parliamentary group with the Cuban Ambassador to Brazil, Víctor Cairo, at the diplomatic mission's headquarters on December 8.

Likewise, the deputy noted that they will conduct a virtual meeting between Cuban and Brazilian parliamentarians to strengthen joint efforts.

For next year, the lawmaker added, they will organize a conference with the island's ambassador alongside a delegation of Brazilian entrepreneurs, university presidents, and managers "to explore ways of support in the face of the murderous blockade that Cuba has suffered for years from the United States."

"It was a very productive meeting in which we reiterated our solidarity work in favor of the self-determination of the Cuban people and democracy in the world," she highlighted.

At the end of last month, on the occasion of a new vote in the UN General Assembly on the resolution regarding the need to end the US siege, Portugal and Prestes reiterated their solidarity with Cuba and their condemnation of that policy.

In a meeting with the Cuban ambassador, Portugal stated that it was an internationalist obligation to join voices against the embargo.

We expect a stronger voice from the United Nations against this new type of attempted genocide being carried out against Cuba, the lawmaker expressed at the time.

As part of her statements—delivered shortly after the second-round victory of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva against far-right Senator Flávio Bolsonaro—the deputy argued that Brazil had provided an international lesson in popular mobilization in defense of human rights and democracy. "Now it is our turn to support Cuba, and here we are."