In a press conference to the Austrian media, the Ambassador of Cuba to Austria, H.E. Mr. Juan Antonio Fernández Palacios denounces the damages caused by the economic, financial, and commercial blockade that U.S maintains against Cuba for almost 60 years and, particularly the tightening of this policy by the current U.S Administration.
The Ambassador announced that as this policy persists, once again this year Cuba will submit the draft resolution entitled “Necessity of ending the economic, commercial and financial embargo imposed by the United States of America against Cuba” to the United Nations General Assembly. The debate and the decision-making on the text will take place on 6 and 7 November 2019.
The Cuban diplomat offered extensive information on the damages caused by the blockade against Cuba through its history. It can be quantified in more than $922,630 million; that is added to the serious limitations imposed by this policy to have access to technologies, medicaments and the overall development of the economy and Cuban life.
He highlighted that the blockade has been tightened in this last year by the current Administration; including measures like the application of Title III of the Helms-Burton Act and the naval blockade that hinders the arrival of the necessary fuel for the economy and social development, among other actions with extraterritorial scope and which violate the International Law.
The Ambassador replied to questions of the press regarding the direct consequences that these measures have provoked in the Cuban population and how it has faced it. Likewise, he stressed the international repudiation to the blockade through the almost unanimous support of the UN General Assembly to the Cuban resolution and the strengthening of the Cuban bonds with the European Union and with other regional blocs and countries.
Representatives of the Austrian News Agency (APA, by its German initials), Kurier journal, Cuba Sí magazine, among other news media, participated in the press conference. The journalists were also interested in addressing other topics of the Cuban domestic and foreign policy.
(Embacuba Austria)