Statement by Arturo O'Farrill on #Trump's oil blockade on Cuba (from Facebook)
My name is Arturo O’Farrill. I am a composer, pianist and educator. I am also the founder of Belongó, formerly known as the #Afro#Latin Jazz Alliance, a non-profit which is breaking ground in the next few weeks on a Culture Hub in Harlem called Casa Belongó. I am the Bill Evans fellow at the New School for #Jazz and Contemporary Studies. I am the recipient of 6 #Grammy awards and 2 Latin Grammies. I have an Honoris Causa, an Honorary Doctorate from Tufts University and have served as Distinguished Faculty and Associate Dean for The University of California Los Angeles.
I speak out today in support of the sovereignty of #Cuba. The president of the #UnitedStates and his administration are reinforcing a cruel decades-old economic #blockade and have extended this cruelty to block #oil supplies for the island. [continues]
"At least 196 #environmental defenders were killed last year, most of them #Indigenous or #Afro-descendant. The deadliest country was #Colombia, where at least 79 land, water and climate defenders were killed. '2023 was yet another appalling year for those who want to protect their lands and their environment,' and this violence is likely to 'intensify as the consequences of the climate crisis become more apparent,' says Laura Furones, senior adviser to the land and environmental defenders campaign at #GlobalWitness, which published the numbers in a new report."