Cuba denounces negative impact of unilateral coercive measures on the fight against COVID-19

New York, 17 February 2021.Cuba declared today at the Open Debate of the Security Council on “Maintenance of international peace and security: implementation of resolution 2532” that: “Seven months after the Security Council adopted resolution 2532 (2020), the COVID-19 pandemic continues to be a global challenge that has sparked a crisis of manifold and ravaging effects, not only for health, but also for the economy, trade and our societies at large”.

The statement by Cuba underscored that due to its severe and multidimensional impact on our societies, the pandemic poses a threat to the sustainable development of the peoples and an additional challenge to the fulfillment of the 2030 Agenda. However, in the deep economic downturn that is looming ahead, the countries of the South will be the hardest hit, and especially those affected by the burden of criminal unilateral coercive measures, in violation of international law and the United Nations Charter.

The declaration also denounced the negative impact of the tightened, protracted and genocidal economic, commercial and financial US blockade against Cuba. It states that the emphasis on hindering our country's main sources of income, crippling fuel supplies and thwarting our trade relations, reached a level of infamy, which ended with the arbitrary and unjustified inclusion of Cuba in the spurious list of State sponsors of terrorism, which is drawn up unilaterally and without any legitimacy whatsoever by the State Department.

Moreover, it expressed that it is up to the United Nations General Assembly, as the most representative and democratic body of the Organization, to assume the central role in coordinating international efforts to address the pandemic and its consequences.

Permanent Mission of Cuba to the United Nations