Rappers Kneecap have said they joined an international aid convoy to travel to Cuba to “shine a light” on the embargo.
After weeks of electrical blackouts, the national grid suffered a “complete disconnection” on Monday, according to the energy ministry. Cuba generates most of its energy from oil, but in January, the Trump administration ordered Venezuela to stop supplying the island with fuel. Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel said this month that Cuba has had no oil imports in three months.
Speaking at a press conference in Havana, Liam Óg Ó hAnnaidh, known as Mo Chara, said that the Cubans were a “very resilient people”, which they related to.
“We as Irish people were Britain’s first colony, we have grown up our whole lives with an understanding of colonialism and oppression and also forced starvation,” he said.
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“We grew up with Cuban and Palestinian flags from we were kids ... these were countries that always showed solidarity with us. And it is important that we return the favour. It’s our duty to return the favour to these countries, as long as there is injustice in these countries, you know, and as long as we have platform we will continue to do the right thing.”
Naoise Ó Cairealláin, known as Móglaí Bap said they wanted to raise awareness for the “collective punishment that has been dealt to the Cuban people”.
Mo Chara later added that they had brought in 300kg of humanitarian aid with the organisation Nuestra América.
On Friday evening Diaz-Canel spoke to the group of activists and said that the country was preparing for a possible US “aggression”.
“We’re not just crossing our arms. In the first place, we recognise that there could be aggression against Cuba,” said Diaz-Canel, who has struck a more defiant tone recently.
He said on social media on Tuesday that “any external aggressor will face an impenetrable resistance.”
Cuba on Friday rejected any suggestion that its political system or the term of its president were subject to negotiation in talks with the United States, following reports that Washington sought to remove the Cuban president from power.
“I can categorically confirm that ... the political system of Cuba is not up for negotiation, and of course neither the president nor the position of any official in Cuba is subject to negotiation with the United States,” deputy foreign minister Carlos Fernandez de Cossio told a press conference.
Cuba said a week ago that it had entered talks with the US government as an oil blockade imposed by US President Donald Trump pushes the communist-run nation deeper into economic crisis, and as Trump has said he can do “anything I want” with Cuba, a sovereign neighbour.
Authority in Cuba is spread widely among senior Communist Party leaders, other government officials and the armed forces, unlike the concentration of power that characterised the Castro years from the start of the 1959 revolution until Diaz-Canel’s term began in 2018. – Reuters
