By Prensa Latina, in collaboration with EmbaCuba Jamaica
Kingston, Jamaica, 20 September 2020. Jamaican scholar and columnist Louis E. A. Moyston advocated today before the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) for an end to the U.S. blockade against Cuba, imposed for six decades.
In a request letter sent to CARICOM’s current chair and Prime Minister of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Ralph Gonsalves, Moyston asked to explore the possibility of building alliances at the United Nations to demand the end of Washington's blockade on Havana.
In sending his considerations to the leader of the regional group, the also radio presenter pointed out the challenges posed to the region by the Covid-19 pandemic and the global race against time to produce a vaccine against the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2.
In this context, the prestigious intellectual ̶ honoured in 2015 with a Silver Quill by The Gleaner (the oldest newspaper in continuous publication in the Western Hemisphere) ̶ asked CARICOM to establish links in the United Nations with the United Kingdom and Spain to ask the United States to lift the blockade for humanitarian reasons and allow developing countries to acquire Cuban medicine.
In his letter, Moyston highlighted the aid of the largest of the Antilles to other peoples of the world in times of need, and called for members to remain united in the international outcry to abolish the US blockade.
He gave as an example the initiative of more than 50 British parliamentarians who joined their voices to demand the suspension of the illegal blockade that prevents the delivery of medicines and equipment to combat Covid-19 worldwide.
Likewise, he acknowledged the use of the Cuban antiviral Inteferon Alpha 2B among the treatments used in patients with Covid-19 and also effective in the treatment of viral diseases like hepatitis B and C, herpes, HIV-AIDS and dengue.
The letter also served the columnist to recognize Cuba's efforts in fighting Ebola in West African nations such as Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia.
Referring to the increase in Covid-19 infections and deaths in several CARICOM countries, the prominent Jamaican scholar made a peremptory call for international cooperation and for ending the US blockade against the Cuban people, as a contribution to the effort to save peoples’ lives.