The Party for Socialism and Liberation and the Gloria La Riva/Eugene Puryear Presidential Campaign salute the courageous work of the Antonio Maceo Brigade on the 30th anniversary of the organization’s founding.
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Besides the Casa de las Americas center in New York City—which housed supporters of the Cuban revolution even before 1959—the birth of the Antonio Maceo Brigade shattered the image of Cubans living in the United States. No longer would Cubans living in Miami be viewed solely as an entrenched group of counterrevolutionaries. Defying this sea of U.S.-backed reaction rose a group of brave young Cubans.
Those who joined the brigade to travel and work in Cuba and then return to the United to defend Cuba’s revolution did so with great personal sacrifice.
In 1979, Carlos Muñiz Varela, a leader of the Antonio Maceo Brigade, was assassinated by terrorist right-wing Cubans in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Throughout the 1980s, Miami experienced more bombings than any other U.S. city at the hands of the counterrevolutionaries.
It was in this climate that the heroic members of the Antonio Maceo Brigade carried out their important work to defend socialist Cuba and to fight for the normalization of relations between Cuba and the United States.
The work of the brigade has forged ahead and inspired many all around the country. The Brigade has also inspired patriotic Cubans living in other countries to renew ties with their homeland.
The brigade is a key component in the fight to end the illegal blockade of Cuba and, through its participation in La Alianza Martiana, in the struggle for the freedom of the five Cuban heroes being held in U.S. prisons.
Long live the heroism of the Antonio Maceo Brigade! Long live socialist Cuba! Free the Cuban Five!
