“It is a beacon that shines a light on those of us who want something better for our people. What brings us together today is not the defense of a government, but the sovereignty of a nation and the sovereignty of the rest of the countries of Latin America,” the legislator said at the event held at the Jean Jaures Cultural Circuit in the Buenos Aires neighborhood of Abasto.
National lawmaker and former Foreign Minister Jorge Taiana, of Union por la Patria (Union for the Homeland, UP) alliance; Mario Santucho, director of Crisis magazine; Luci Cavallero, one of the leaders of the Movida Ciudad political party and the “Ni Una Menos” (NUM) feminist movement, and Leonardo Baster, Charge d’Affaires of the Cuban Embassy, joined Hagman at the discussion before a cultural segment.
The event, organized primarily by the Patria Grande party, was conceived as part of the “Estamos con Cuba” (We Are with Cuba) campaign to raise funds to acquire solar panel systems and send them to the island to help alleviate the severe energy crisis caused by the tightened economic war and oil blockade imposed by the administration of US President Donald Trump and his Secretary of State, Marco Rubio.
Alberto Mas was invited to explain, in his opening remarks, the solidarity campaign and took the opportunity to report that, thanks to the funds raised so far, 50 sets of solar panels with their energy storage and distribution equipment had already been purchased for social, medical, and educational institutions.
Luci Cavallero urged greater awareness of the crisis facing the Cuban people, so that people better understand why it is necessary to support and defend them, and reciprocate the solidarity they have shown to the world.
Santucho explained that he lived on the island for 18 years, from his childhood through his entire youth, “I grew up there and was happy,” and shared details of his life up until 1993 when a profound crisis similar to the current one erupted after the dissolution of the USSR and the socialist camp, “and the Cubans knew how to resist and emerge from that situation.”
Taiana, an experienced Argentine politician, after outlining the current international landscape and Washington’s renewed eagerness to invoke the Monroe Doctrine, stated, “defending Cuba is acting in self-defense.”
Baster, who serves as head of the island’s diplomatic mission, began the discussion by describing the crisis his people are experiencing due to the irrational policy of the fierce economic blockade to which they are subjected.
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