Both organizations invited people, in a press release, to participate in the initiative “From People to People, Let’s End the Blockade,” to gather at Zocalo square from February 14 to 22, so that citizens can show that the Caribbean nation is not alone.

The organizers suggested donations of food such as powdered milk, oil, rice, beans, lentils, sugar, tuna (canned or pouched), sardines, and spaghetti, or medical supplies such as surgical materials, medicines, syringes, sutures, cotton, and surgical gloves.

The announcement comes after US President Donald Trump signed an executive order in January declaring a supposed national emergency and establishing a process to impose tariffs on goods from countries that supply crude oil to Cuba.

This decree, another tightening of the economic siege imposed on Cuba for more than 60 years, is part of Washington’s current policy of maximum pressure on the island and attempts to justify it in the interest of US national security and foreign policy.

Solidarity organizations denounced the Republican’s intention to paralyze the island, as without oil there can be no electricity, or hospitals, schools, and other centers can work, which they labeled “genocide and the greatest violation of the human rights” of the Cuban people.

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