Founder of the Ojai WILPF Branch Nuri Ronaghy, fourth from left and standing between the banners, at the International Seminar for Peace and the Abolition of Foreign Military Bases. Credit: Cynthia Roberts.

By Cindy Domingo, chair of the Cuba, Women, and the Bolivarian Alliance Issues Committee

Return Guantanamo Naval Base to the Cuban People

Last month, WILPF members Cynthia Roberts, Nuri Ronaghy, and Alan Shorb attended the Fifth International Seminar for Peace and the Abolition of Foreign Military Bases in the town of Guantanamo, Cuba—the town adjacent to the illegally occupied US naval base.

Representatives from the US and around the world joined in issuing a statement demanding that the US return to the Cuban people the territory occupied by Guantanamo Naval Base and to end the economic, commercial, financial blockade of the country that is still in existence. Conference participants also called for the closure of foreign bases and military enclaves around the world, and immediate withdrawal of foreign occupation troops from countries where they have been deployed. Last, the statement also called for expanding efforts to disseminate the Proclamation of Latin America and the Caribbean as a Zone of Peace and to condemn the imperialist powers and local oligarchy actions in Venezuela directed toward destroying the Bolivarian Revolution as a threat to peace in the entire region.

Please read the article by Cuba and the Bolivarian Alliance Issues Committee member Cynthia Roberts for a complete report on the conference and background on Guantanamo Naval Base.