CubaMinrex. Sitio del Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores de Cuba

Chileans Ask Obama to Lift Blockade to Cuba.

CHILE, March 21, 2011.- More than 200 institutions, political parties, social organizations and intellectuals in Chile asked U.S. President Barack Obama to lift the blockade against Cuba and free the five anti-terrorist fighters known as the Cuban Five, imprisoned in the U.S.A.

A letter delivered to the U.S. Embassy making the demand is signed by 20 Chilean Members of Parliament, besides mayors, councilors, students, members of the Teachers’ College and the Chilean Movement of Solidarity with Cuba.

Other institutions such as the Communist, Socialist and Christian Left-wing Parties and trade unions, artist and writers organizations also support the demand, asking Obama for the total elimination of the brutal economic and commercial blockade and the immediate liberation of the Cuban Five.

The Cuban Five were accused and arbitrarily convicted, in the longest legal process in U.S. history, and have endured constant human rights violations, the letter stresses.

It recalls the demands of the international community through successive United Nations resolutions to lift the blockade, all of which have been ignored by the White House.

The message says the blockade against Cuba has been the longest and most ferocious in the history of the U.S. against any other country, and a transgression to peace, development and national security.

"This is an absurd policy, which has not fulfilled and will never fulfill its purpose of breaking the spirit of the Cuban people in preserving their freedom and sovereignty," the document reads.

Obama is visiting Chile in the second leg of his Latin American tour.

In statements to Prensa Latina, a leader of the Chilean Movement of Solidarity with Cuba, Pedro Bronzic, highlighted the gratitude of the Chilean people towards Cuba, regarding the Cuban international vocation of helping other nations in the world.