November 21, 2025
“The lives of all Cubans have been marked by the blockade,” President Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez stated this Friday upon receiving Alena Douhan, Special Rapporteur of the UN Human Rights Council on the negative impacts of unilateral coercive measures.
The Cuban Presidency reported that the president highlighted Alena Douhan’s busy schedule in the country.
During the meeting, the First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba also updated Douhan on the profound effects of the US blockade, now intensified, and on Cuba’s inclusion on the fraudulent list of alleged state sponsors of terrorism.
Díaz-Canel reaffirmed Cuba's commitment to continue cooperating with United Nations mechanisms. He also expressed his gratitude for the aid received from the UN for the territories recently affected by Hurricane Melissa.
During the exchange with the Special Rapporteur, the president shared his experiences from his visits to the provinces that directly suffered the hurricane's impact.
"That right, which is the right to life, was the first thing we defended, which speaks volumes about the nature of the Revolution," he stated.
The Special Rapporteur of the UN Human Rights Council on the negative impact of unilateral coercive measures thanked those who made her visit possible.
"All our solidarity with the Cuban people, who suffered the impact of Hurricane Melissa," she said. Douhan highlighted Cuba's methodology for quantifying the material damages of the blockade, a web of unilateral coercive measures that have a cost in the human rights of Cubans.
(With information from the President's Office)