THE International People’s Assembly (IPA) announced Monday that it had launched a high-level solidarity mission to Cuba and Venezuela. 

The delegation, which runs from March 9 to 15, includes representatives from Brazil’s Landless Workers’ Movement (MST), the Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL) in the United States, the Socialist Party of Zambia, Potere al Popolo (Italy), Alba Movimientos, and the Tricontinental Institute.

The mission comes just two months after the US bombing of Caracas and the kidnapping of President Nicolas Maduro and First Lady Cilia Flores. 

The IPA leaders will visit social and healthcare centres to see how they function under the economic warfare unleashed by the US, exchange with local movements resisting imperialist intervention, and meet with leaders of the Cuban and Bolivarian revolutions. 

The delegation is also co-ordinating the delivery of humanitarian aid to Cuba, including solar panels, medicine, and food, to help overcome the illegal US blockade.

“We travel to Cuba and Venezuela not as observers, but as comrades in solidarity,” said Joao Pedro Stedile of the MST.

“The aggression these sister nations face is an aggression against all who dream of a world free from exploitation.”

“As people from the US, our presence carries a special responsibility,” said Brian Becker of the PSL.

“The bombs that fell on Caracas and the siege of the Cuban people were done in our name, but not with our consent. We are here to tell them there is another America that stands with them.”

Fred M’membe of Zambia’s Socialist Party added: “What we are witnessing in Cuba and Venezuela is a dress rehearsal for the global South.

“From Palestine to the Congo to Zambia, the fight is the same: it is the fight to control our own destiny.”

The delegation will also assess the crippling effects of the six-decade-long US blockade on Cuba, recently intensified by an executive order blocking fuel sales to the island.

Meanwhile, the Trump administration, which has described Cuban medical brigades as forced labour, has continued to put pressure on governments to end the programmes.

Cuban doctors have worked in Caribbean, African and South American nations for decades under diplomatic agreements that earned the Cuban government money while providing medical care in places where it was otherwise scarce. 

Under pressure from the US, Guyana attempted to subvert the programme by refusing to pay money to Cuba and instead to pay the doctors and nurses directly, so the Cubans decided to withdraw their support.

Last week, Jamaica’s government ended a Cuban medical mission over a similar move.