Statement by members of the Association of Cuban Residents in Jamaica ‘Antonio Maceo Grajales’ on the Blockade of the United States of America against Cuba:
We hereby declare our support and solidarity with the heroic people of Cuba, in the face of the policy of economic, commercial and financial blockade of the United States government.
Numerous regulations and provisions issued by the US government against Cuba reached unprecedented levels of hostility in recent years. The possibility of lodging claims under Title III of the Helms-Burton Act; the increasing persecution of financial and commercial transactions in Cuba; the ban on flights from the US to all Cuban provinces, except for Havana; the persecution and intimidation of companies that send fuel supplies to Cuba; the discrediting campaign against Cuban medical cooperation programs; and the Trump administration's designation of Cuba as a state sponsor of terrorism; are some of the most distinctive examples of this policy.
The 5 packages of measures adopted in 2019 to monitor and impose punishing measures against companies, ships and shipping companies that transport fuel to Cuba are particularly alarming. In this sense, numerous illegitimate sanctions were imposed against them despite none of them being of American origin or subject to the American jurisdiction; as an open, flagrant violation of the rules and principles of international relations, and the principles of world trade.
Not only the Cuban government has been targeted with blockade measures. No citizen or sector of the Cuban economy escapes the effects derived from those policies. Even Cubans living abroad face blockade regulations as daily obstacles. They are prevented from opening bank accounts, using certain credit cards or normally carrying out transactions, just for being Cuban citizens.
As part of its aggressive escalation, the US government also exerted strong pressure on a group of countries, particularly from Latin America and the Caribbean, with the aim of dismembering support for the draft resolution against the blockade presented by Cuba before the General Assembly of the United Nations, on November 6 and 7, 2019. Despite all maneuvers and blackmailing, voting results demonstrated, once again, the overwhelming support of the international community for the Cuban cause.
The blockade is a massive, flagrant and systematic violation of Cuban men and women’s human rights. Due to its declared purpose and the political, legal and administrative framework on which it is based, it qualifies as an act of genocide under the 1948 Convention for the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.
From April 2019 to March 2020, the blockade has caused losses to Cuba amounting to 5 thousand 570.3 million dollars. This represents an increase of around 1,226 million dollars over the previous period. For the first time, the total amount of damages caused by this policy in a year exceeds the five-billion-dollar barrier, which shows the extent to which the blockade has intensified at this stage. The estimated effects do not include the US government’s actions in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic, as they exceed the end of the period analysed.
In this context, the scourge of a global pandemic such as Covid-19 has posed notable challenges on Cuba, and the country's efforts to combat it have been significantly limited by regulations of the US blockade.
Added to the above actions is the terrorist attack perpetrated against the Cuban Embassy in the US, on April 30, 2020. The complicit silence of the US government and the inability to publicly denounce or speak out against this terrorist act, evidence its commitment to the instigation of violence and hateful messages against Cuba and its nationals, a conduct that encourages the perpetration of acts of this nature.
At the current juncture, in which humanity faces an economic and social crisis accentuated by the Covid-19 pandemic, whose dimensions no one is able to predict with certainty, it is imperative, with more reason than ever, that the international community demand the lifting of the blockade imposed by the US government against Cuba, which constitutes the most complex and prolonged system of unilateral coercive measures ever imposed against any country.
Cuba will be victorious, we will overcome Covid-19 and defeat the blockade and, sooner or later, the relations between the two countries will normalize on the basis of respect and equality.
Ever onward to victory!
Damaris Hernández Mojena, President
Osvaldo Cárdenas Junquera, Vice-president
María Nela Cabrales Romero, member of the Board
Guillermo Torres Fernández, member of the Board
Carlos Watson Sentmanat, member of the Board