Nicosia, Cyprus, September 7: The Cypriot newspaper “Haravgi” included on its front page this Sunday, September 6, a feature and a full-page interview with the Ambassador of the Republic of Cuba in Cyprus, Rubén Pino Martínez, titled “They are trying to suffocate the entire Cuban nation,” which covers—among other topics—the consequences of the U.S. blockade on Cuba’s health, energy, and everyday life sectors.
The interview reveals how the island is facing one of the most difficult periods in recent decades, with energy limitations and shortages that directly affect the daily lives of its people; it reflects on the consequences of the U.S. economic, commercial, and financial blockade and its impact on the national hospital system due to the lack of medicines, energy, and many other aspects of everyday Cuban life.
The Cuban ambassador, Pino Martínez, expands on the extraterritorial sanctions on third countries, talks about the new economic measures the country is taking, and the attitude that Havana expects from the international community in the face of this ongoing hostile and aggressive blockade policy against Cuba.
Rubén Pino Martínez: “They Are Trying to Strangle the Entire Cuban Nation”
Cuba is facing one of the most difficult periods of the last decades, with the energy crisis and shortages directly affecting people’s everyday lives. In an interview, the Cuban ambassador talks about the consequences of the United States’ economic, commercial, and financial blockade, presenting data on the situation in hospitals, the lack of medicines, and obstacles in the transport of goods. He also mentions extraterritorial sanctions, the country’s new economic measures, and the stance that Havana expects from the EU and the international community regarding the ongoing sanctions and blockade policy.
Interview granted to Bisan Imbrahim
How has the strengthening of the U.S. economic and energy blockade currently affected electricity generation, health, food, and, in general, the everyday life of the Cuban people?
It’s no secret that Cuba is currently going through a critical situation as a result of the intensification of the genocidal blockade policy imposed against our nation, worsened by the constant energy siege and measures against third countries, which hinder normal trade between Cuba and the rest of the world. No one can doubt that a crime against humanity is being committed against the Cuban people.
Today, our hospitals cannot guarantee even the most basic medical treatments due to energy instability; in fact, you see how around 118,000 cancer patients and thousands more with kidney failure risk their lives because they can’t receive chemotherapy or hemodialysis cycles. All of this is highly condemnable, and it’s being promoted by the world’s leading economic power against the Cuban people. If you add to that the restrictions on third countries, on banks, on licenses to financial entities, or on denials to shipping companies to transport supplies or resources essential to guarantee the supply of the basic set of medicines needed for the population, the situation looks even more criminal.
Today, the U.S. deprives Cuba of essential resources for the population and continues imposing secondary sanctions on international companies and shipping lines, which are forced to cancel their operations with our country. This has come to affect up to 60% of container sea traffic to Cuba. Moreover, it has directly and significantly impacted the logistics supply chain that supports cooperation with the “United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).” For example, approximately twelve UNDP containers remain held in ports in our region, containing vital resources for our population.
The United States claims that its sanctions are aimed at the Cuban government and not the population. How does Cuba respond to this claim, and what concrete elements show the true humanitarian consequences of the blockade?
I already gave you some points in the previous answer. You can lie once, but not all the time. It's absurd to try to impose that narrative to downplay the crime or the energy, human, and food massacre that the U.S. is promoting against the Cuban population, their families, their elderly and children, and ordinary people.
No one can ignore that today there are more than 98,500 patients — 12,000 of them children — waiting for treatments or surgical operations postponed due to real limitations in resources, supplies, and electricity in our hospitals, and anyone who tries to hide this is lying. Anyone who tries to disguise that reality with political euphemisms —like Secretary of State Marcos Rubio does— by saying they are sanctioning our government when in reality children in Cuba are dying who could grow up normally with a guaranteed future, is also lying.
As a result of the lack of medical resources imposed by that blockade and energy siege, today innocent children in our country die before reaching their first birthday. When thousands of pregnant Cuban women cannot receive their systemic follow-up treatments during pregnancy, or more than 67,000 infants cannot complete their vaccination schedules, and all of this together causes a real and regrettable increase in the infant mortality rate in our country, to more than 9.8 per thousand live births (compared to the previous 4); that has no other name. Anyone who promotes this policy and tries to hide its true consequences is a vile murderer.
Neither the U.S. government nor any of its politicians have the right to attack the lives of Cubans with impunity. The impact of that policy continues to be devastating due to the human cost here on our island; and all of this happens in a context where Cuba can barely provide 30 percent of the essential supply of medicines, as a result of sanctions imposed on shipping companies to transport them, bank account closures, or the suspension of financial licenses with foreign counterparts.
The collective punishment against the largest of the Antilles is reinforced when its people are prevented from receiving the essential resources for medical care and the production of medical supplies and medicines. Today Cuba cannot receive, as part of the international cooperation promoted by UNDP, more than 16,000 rechargeable lamps, 5,000 tarpaulins intended to replenish humanitarian reserves, more than 1,500 mattresses, and structures for 560 housing and shelter modules, a reality timely denounced by Cuba last August 26, during an interactive dialogue with the Administration of that United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
How do U.S. extraterritorial sanctions affect third countries, banks, and companies that want to supply Cuba with fuel, food, medicines, or other necessary equipment?
These extraterritorial sanctions imposed by the U.S. government not only hinder the transportation of containers with food, technology, medical supplies, and medicines, mostly acquired by medium and small Cuban private companies. With this, they not only insist on punishing entrepreneurs and businesses on the island with that hostile will to harm the economic base of our country, but also to obstruct the humanist essence of the Cuban social project and our government's enormous effort to guarantee basic services for our population, in the midst of an already depressed situation worsened by more than six decades of economic, commercial, and financial blockade.
This is a genocidal policy that – despite being condemned every year by the vast majority of the international community at the UN General Assembly, which approves a new resolution each year to end the economic, commercial, and financial blockade imposed on Cuba by Washington – has been unpunishedly ratified by the U.S. government, following the recent renewal – until September 2027 – of the so-called 'Trading with the Enemy Act,' as a legal instrument that empowers the U.S. president to enforce these restrictions amid the multidimensional war waged against the largest of the Antilles.
The goal is to suffocate the entire Cuban nation. The act of prolonging this situation was recently considered by Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla as “the cruelest moment of the U.S. offensive against Cuba in recent years,” referring to the intensification of unilateral coercive measures applied in the current context.
The response to the economic crisis
Cuba's ambassador, Rubén Pino Martínez, mentioned that Cuba cannot function naturally while facing more than six decades of pressures, aggressions, and brutal economic siege. He explained that the situation worsened due to the energy blockade and the new unilateral coercive measures.
At the same time, Cuba is advancing in the implementation of new economic measures aimed at strengthening production, creating new mechanisms and resources for development, and attracting investment. Among other things, this includes greater participation of the private sector and the possibility of facilitating new investments from Cubans living abroad.
The ambassador clarified, however, that these changes do not constitute a concession to the U.S. nor an abandonment of socialist construction. He emphasized that social justice will continue to be the central principle and that social programs remain supported with significant backing from the state budget.
At the same time, he expressed gratitude to the European organizations and institutions that support the country and have decided to stand with Cuba, along with its citizens and supportive friends of the island in condemning the blockade; he also pointed out that Cuba remains open to holding talks with Washington, but without conditions or subordination to foreign interests.
Embassy of Cuba in Cyprus.
