Kuala Lumpur, July 4th - The Communist Party of the Philippines PKP 1930 expressed its support for Cuba and condemned the measures taken by US President Donald Trump to tighten the blockade of our country.
The statement signed by Secretary General Antonio Paris, denounces Trump's attitude to justify his actions with alleged violations of human rights in Cuba, when United States violates them daily at the territory that illegally occupies the Guantánamo Naval Base.
The statement concludes by calling on the progressive forces of the world to continue fighting for the end of the blockade of Cuba and the US government to respect the right of our country to choose its economic, political and social system without any interference.
Below is the text of the statement.
PKP-1930 CONDEMNS TRUMP's POLICY
TIGHTENING BLOCKADE AGAINST CUBA
The Partido Komunista ng Pilipinas (PKP-1930, the Philippine Communist Party) strongly condemns US President Donald Trump's hostile anti-Cuba speech and directive of June 16, 2017, which reimposed confrontation as policy, tightened the blockade against Cuba, and abrogated the previous Obama policy on the normalization of relations between the USA and Cuba.
With arrogant ignorance of Cuban reality, Trump has set back Cuba-US relations and the prospect of ending the criminal US blockade against Cuba in the near future. This change in policy only benefits the irrational and miniscule pro-blockade politicians in Florida who have been lobbying to reverse Obama's Cuba policy for the last 2 years.
Aiming to worsen hostility and even confrontation against Cuba, Trump justified the policy reversal with supposed worries about the human rights situation in Cuba, forgetting that human rights violations in Cuba are only happening at the Guantanamo Naval Base which is illegally occupied by the USA. Antagonizing relations between Cuba and the USA, Trump is undoing the goodwill and mutual respect that Cuban and US diplomats have worked hard to build since diplomatic relations were re-established in December 2014.
By ordering the tightening of the criminal US blockade against Cuba, Trump aims to inflict economic hardship and suffering on the Cuban people, to bring about disaffection toward the Cuban government. Reducing the ability of US citizens to travel to Cuba, and limiting the number of Cuban state companies that US businesses can work with, are blatant attempts to damage the Cuban economy and create unrest in the country, with the ultimate aim of regime change. This blockade not only causes harm and deprivations to the Cuban people, and serves as the main obstacle to Cuba's economic development ; this also affects the sovereignty and interests of other countries, thereby also affecting negatively the development of other countries.
Trump's policy of hostility and confrontation serves as a reminder to all friends of Cuba that the blockade is far from over. It is crucial that all friends of Cuba must maintain pressure on the US government to continue on the path of normalizing relations with Cuba, and ultimately to end its 55-year blockade against Cuba, and return the US naval base in Guantanamo Bay to Cuban sovereignty and territorial integrity.
In issuing a directive in October 2016 on the normalization of US-Cuban relations, then-President Barack Obama recognized Cuba's independence and sovereignty, conceded that the blockade is an obsolete policy which should be lifted, and admitted that US hostility towards Cuba only reaped Caribbean and Latin American (and even international) hostility towards the USA. The Trump regime's hostility towards Cuba can only have the same result.
The PKP-1930 reiterates its strong condemnation of this new attempt by the Trump regime to subvert Cuba's independence and sovereignty. The PKP-1930 supports the legitimate and inalienable right of the Cuban state to choose its poltical, economic, social and cultural system, without foreign interference in any form. We demand US and international respect for the right of the Cuban people to decide for themselves their own future.
For almost 6 decades now, the Cuban Revolution has served as a model for the victorious struggle for sovereignty, independence, social justice and democracy. Unfazed by imperialist threats and enjoying solidarity from all peace-loving peoples in the world, the Cuban Revolution will surely gain greater strength and prosperity as it steadfastly advances on the path of further socialist construction.
Long live the Cuban Revolution !
VIVA CUBA SOCIALISTA !
Secretariat of the Central Committee
PKP-1930
By :ANTONIO E. PARIS
General Secretary