Later, some 50,000 medical workers and researchers marched for nearly two hours under a giant banner reading “Live and work Cuba.” The protesters marched through the square with slogans such as long live the Cuban revolution, carrying the Cuban national flag, pictures of the late Cuban revolutionary leader Fidel Castro and revolutionary hero Che Guevara, and slogans such as “No U.S. blockade” and “We are the continuation of the revolution.”

According to Gilat, this year, more than 1,000 representatives of 219 trade unions and social organizations from 60 countries participated in May Day rallies and parades across Cuba to show their support for Cuba.

Since the victory of the Cuban Revolution in 1959, every year on May 1, Cuba held a synchronized grand rally and parade. The May Day rallies and parades in 2020 and 2021 could not be held due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The U.S. government began its hostile policy toward Cuba in 1959, after Fidel Castro led an uprising that overthrew a pro-American dictatorship and installed a revolutionary government. For more than 60 years, the United States has imposed economic sanctions and political repression on Cuba, interfered in its internal affairs and attempted to overthrow the Cuban regime.

Before the victory of the Cuban Revolution, the American government and enterprises dominated the political and economic lifeline of Cuba. After the victory of the Cuban Revolution, the United States first tried to cut off Cuba’s economic sources in order to overthrow the new revolutionary regime in Cuba.

“The majority of Cubans support Castro… The only predictable way to undermine his domestic support is by creating economic hardship and material hardship, creating feelings of disappointment and discontent… Cut off the supply of capital and goods to Cuba, thereby reducing its financial resources and real wages, triggering hunger and despair, and overthrowing the government.” So said a secret State Department document released in April 1960.

The United States began to implement some sanctions, including the suspension of sugar imports from Cuba, the suspension of oil supplies to Cuba, arms sales and so on.

In January 1961, the United States announced the severance of diplomatic relations with Cuba, and the U.S. government subsequently passed the Foreign Aid Act to cut off aid to the Cuban government. The following year, the then US President John F. Kennedy signed an executive Order, the US began to implement a comprehensive economic and financial blockade and trade embargo against Cuba, including a ban on imports from or through Cuba, a ban on exports of US products to Cuba, and a ban on travelL to Cuba by US citizens.

In the early 1990s, with the collapse of the Soviet Union, Cuba lost its main source of aid and trade markets, and its domestic economy was in great trouble. The TORricelli Act of 1992 and the Helms-Burton Act of 1996 were important symbols of the US’s strengthening of sanctions against Cuba.

The prominent characteristics of the two bill for extraterritorial effect, include a ban on U.S. companies in overseas subsidiaries trade with Cuba and setting a foreign ships docked in Cuba had not allowed to enter the United States port within 180 days, or the use of economic trade with Cuba, foreign enterprises to enter the United States market, international financial institutions offering loans to Cuba, etc.

In addition to economic sanctions, the United States has isolated Cuba politically and diplomatically, such as suspending Cuba’s membership in the Organization of American States, in an attempt to exclude Cuba from regional affairs.

In addition, the Cuban government says the United States has repeatedly carried out acts of terrorism against Cuba. The Cuban government said in May 2021 that Cuba had been subjected to 713 acts of terrorism, mostly organized, funded and executed by the United States government, resulting in the deaths of 3,478 Cubans.

In order to overthrow the Cuban regime, the US government also funded anti-Cuban forces. Over the past 20 years, the US government has allocated nearly 250 million dollars to overthrow the Cuban regime, mainly through the US Agency for International Development and the National Endowment for Democracy, according to Cuban media

Since the victory of the Cuban Revolution, successive US presidents have only adjusted the scale of sanctions against Cuba, mainly easing or tightening the trade between Cuba and other countries, and allowing Cuban-Americans to visit relatives and send remittances to Cuba. However, on the whole, they have maintained a policy of containment and suppression against Cuba.

After taking office in 2009, US President Barack Obama eased restrictions on Cuban-Americans visiting relatives and sending remittances abroad, and expanded tourism and trade exchanges with Cuba. At the end of 2014, Cuba and the United States announced the start of the normalization process of relations, and the two countries resumed diplomatic relations in 2015. The first cruise ship to sail from the United States in more than half a century sailed to Cuba, the first shipments of Cuban-made charcoal were exported to the United States… However, the Obama administration has failed to fully lift the embargo.

The detente between Cuba and America did not last long. After Trump took office in 2017, the US government wielded the “big stick” again, first tightening its policy towards Cuba in the areas of economy, trade and tourism, and then expelling its diplomats and withdrawing 60% of its staff in Cuba under the pretext of “sonic attack”.

Since 2019, the government adopted the policy of “extreme pressure” trump, kept increasing of sanctions, including gradually tightening policy to Cuba tourism, expanding sanctions against Cuba entity list, allowing earlier by the former President of the United States the use of presidential power to freeze “holmes – burton law” article 3, prevent Cuba imports such as oil. The Trump administration even put Cuba back on its list of state sponsors of terrorism before the end of its term.

According to the Cuban government, the US government has imposed more than 240 unilateral sanctions against Cuba in the four years since President Trump took office, and more than 50 of them have been implemented against the backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic, bringing a severe impact on the lives of the Cuban people.

Analysts point out that during the trump administration, the US blockade against Cuba has been stepped up and targeted, attempting to cut off major sources of foreign exchange such as tourism, overseas remittance and medical services, thus stifling the Cuban economy and triggering social unrest.

According to the latest statistics from the Cuban government, the US embargo on Cuba cost the country $9.157 billion between April 2019 and December 2020 alone. Since 1962, the US embargo against Cuba has resulted in a cumulative loss of us $147.853 billion.

During his presidential campaign, Biden said he would change the Trump administration’s policy toward Cuba, calling it “harmful to the Cuban people.” But since taking office six months ago, Biden has repeatedly said that Cuba policy is not a priority and has yet to lift any sanctions against Cuba imposed by the Trump administration.

Following the outbreak of anti-government demonstrations in Cuba, the United States government announced sanctions against three officials and two entities of the Ministry of the Revolutionary Armed Forces and the Ministry of the Interior under the so-called Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act. Biden said Wednesday that sanctions will remain in place unless there is a “dramatic change” in Cuba.

Cuba’s foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez on Wednesday condemned the United States’ new sanctions on Cuba as “misinformation and aggression” aimed at justifying the inhumane blockade imposed by the United States against Cuba.