ELLENTON (WSNN) – Cubans seeking liberty continue to rail against the oppressive government. SNN dives deeper into what the Cubans on the Suncoast are crying out for.
“They need help, they need help in Cuba for their freedom,” Cuban-American living in Ellenton, Mercedes Rodriguez said.
Rodriguez came to America from Cuba when she was eight years old.
“We have nothing to lose here,” Rodriguez said. “But, our family is there, our hearts are there. We’re in agony here, because there is nothing we can do.”
People across the nation and on the Suncoast are fired up and manifesting what’s really happening on the island, since all communication is shut down.
“They’re killing our people, they’re going in their houses, taking the young men,” Rodriguez said. “They’re taking the men in the house, literally, pulling them out, beating them going into their homes invading their homes. And they have nothing to fight with.”
A movement that began not because of activists, but by artists.
“They saw there’s more out there than what there is in Cuba,” Rodriguez said. “The grass is greener on the other side.
A group of singers turned the common phrase “Patria y Muerte” to ‘Patria y Vida” which means homeland and death versus homeland and life.
“They weren’t dying for the country, it’s for the communist party,” Rodriguez said. “Why die? We want to live. We want to live in freedom.”
Her dad was a political prisoner for 15 years and witnessed Cubans getting shot when they tried to escape. Instead of change within the nation, a mass migration occurred in the 80s and 90s.
“And they’re still on the same boat,” Rodriguez said. “They’re still oppressive, there’s still communism, they still got no freedom. We don’t want that, well I, Cubans don’t want that. I want freedom. If it doesn’t happen now, it’s going to get worse.”
How can we overcome this humanitarian crisis?
“I don’t have the answer, but I hope that it gets to everybody that it needs to get to so somebody at one point, not too much longer because they’ve been fighting for four days, four days for their freedom,” Rodriguez said. “I hope soon enough that we can have an answer to what’s happening in Cuba.”
She added, “The light is at the end of the tunnel. We gotta get there. Patria y Vida.”
A group of Cuban Americans has been protesting in Washington making their voices heard. Political leaders are listening. But the sanctions imposed by the Trump administration are still in place.
