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"Cuban women protested against the US blockade of the country on Tuesday, as part of celebrations of the 96th anniversary of the birth of Vilma Espin de Castro, former Secretary General of the Federation of Cuban Women and a historic figure of the Cuban revolution. This comes amid the tightening in recent weeks of the longstanding US blockade on Cuba, which US President Donald Trump has described as a 'failing state'. Footage shows hundreds of women waving Cuban flags accompanied by music in a festive atmosphere. "We Cuban women are here against the blockade, a tightened blockade which today is also an energy blockade that mainly affects women, affects families, affects men as well, it affects the whole of society," said Cuba's Deputy Prime Minister Ines Maria Chapman Waugh. "This energy blockade prevents us from being able to develop the entire government programme laid out for the country." Called by the Federation of Cuban Women (FMC), of which Vilma Espin de Castro was a former secretary general, the demonstration was held in response to the energy crisis that has deepened economic difficulties in Cuba amid fuel shortages, power shortages and disruptions to public transport and the healthcare system. "If we want to understand the true inhumane and criminal nature of the blockade, ask a mother who is pregnant and does not have access to a prenatal test, ask a patient suffering from cancer who is in pain and does not have an analgesic to relieve that pain," explained doctor Daily Remon. The gathering also formed part of a global action promoted by the 'World March of Women', which organised a 24-hour initiative on 7 April in several countries. In Cuba, according to its organisers, the aim was to support the resistance of Cuban women in the face of the tightening of United States trade sanctions and to denounce their consequences on an international level."
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