Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez today considered significant the reiterated condemnation at the UN General Assembly of the inclusion of his country in the unilateral and spurious list of countries called sponsors of terrorism.
This list has "slanderous political implications, in very diverse matters", but it has a truly extreme impact on the international financial system, said the head of state during an interview with the multi-state television channel Telesur.
The head of the island's diplomacy stressed that the inclusion of this list has "a devastating impact on world financial transactions, over which Washington exercises a disproportionate and absolute influence" in the control of international finances, transactions and flows, including electronic or digital ones.
Rodriguez explained that the list has not only these scopes, but also very direct practical effects such as the increase of the so-called country risk, which forces to compete at a disadvantage in the international market and to pay prices above the ordinary ones in the market.
It also implies, he pointed out, the refusal of numerous banks around the world to establish or maintain financial relations with Cuba, "because they would be subject to sanctions" by the U.S. government, in addition to losing their financial links with international institutions or U.S. banks.
The Cuban foreign minister denounced that in recent years there were 909 direct actions that cut off services to the Antillean nation by financial entities of third countries, all as a result of the inclusion in the spurious list by the government of Donald Trump (2017-2021).
He remarked that there are dozens of Cuban embassies that lost financial and banking services due to the intimidating and punitive effect of placing a country on that list, and added that any Cuban transaction is persecuted, which has very direct impacts.
The Cuban Foreign Minister referred to the extraterritoriality and the impact of the economic, commercial and financial blockade imposed on Cuba for more than 60 years by the United States, which has a very negative impact on the political, social and economic life of his country.
He commented on the serious punitive effects against travel and tourism, which have practical repercussions on the Cuban economy and on the relations with third countries due to its marked extraterritorial nature.
Rodriguez pointed out that this fundamental quality of the blockade makes it a violation of international law and the sovereignty of countries, because it obliges third countries to submit to blockade regulations and intends to extend US jurisdiction against third nations.
Regarding the term genocide applied to that policy of economic asphyxiation, the head of Cuban diplomacy affirmed that it is not a phrase that reflects a sentiment, an emotional expression or a definition of political scope, but a qualifier of international law, a criminal and penal punishable act that causes damage to human collectives.