Central Florida demonstrators continue push to end dictatorship in Cuba

Protests continued in Orlando on Monday

ORLANDO, Fla. – Central Florida demonstrators are continuing their push to end the dictatorship in Cuba.

Demonstrators showed their frustration at a rally at Blue Jacket Park in Orlando on Monday.

“The more of these that happen the better. And we need to keep doing it until the Cuban people are once again able to express themselves like they did (Sunday). This means that the desire for a free Cuba is as strong as it ever has been,” event organizer Marcos Marchena said.

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Marchena is a Cuba native and a lawyer in Orlando who left the island 50 years ago and said the millions of Cubans who took to the streets on Sunday to protest against the communist government shows how bad the situation has gotten.

“We have never really seen just a spontaneous outpouring amount of descent where people basically just said ‘I don’t care what happens to me. I want my freedom,’” Marchena said.

Diddenia Ramos, 24, said she and her mother left Cuba when she was 5 years old.

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“There’s no food, there are no resources, there’s no medicine, the hospitals are collapsing. Our people are dying,” Ramos said.

The rally at Blue Jacket Park was not the only one to take place in Orlando on Monday, another occurred outside a Cuban restaurant.

“They took away so much that they took away our fear and now they’re going to feel our wrath of all these years of being oppressed,” Ramos said.

Ramos said there is a possibility there will be changes made in Cuba.

“I think this is our moment,” Ramos said.

Annia Torres said she has been longing to see the dictatorship be defeated since she left Cuba with her parents 40 years ago.

“I would love for (my family) to see Cuba free actually, that’s one of my dreams,” Torres said.


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