Kingston, Jamaica, October 18th, 2017. The Association of Friendship Jamaica-Cuba, through its president, Dr. Lorenzo Gordon, issued a statement demanding the unconditional end of blockade against Cuba, who’s archaic retention constitutes an arrogant rejection to the International Law, a systematic violation of the Human Rights of the Cuban people and an act of genocide under the United Nations Convention for the Prevention and Punishment of Crime of Genocide of 1948.
The text denounces the extraterritorial application of the blockade under Helms-Burton and Torricelli laws during more than six decades and it qualifies it as the only and principal obstacle to the development of the economy in Cuba, with damages surrounding 822 280 millions US dollars as well as other punitive affectations suffered by the valiant Cuban people in the fight to defend its sovereignty and the right to a particular path to economic and social development.
Likewise, the statement urges Donald Trump Administration to amend his predecessors’ mistakes by respecting the resolutions adopted by the United Nations General Assembly during 25 years, whose members represent the majority of humankind, to lift unilaterally and unconditionally this failed policy.
The text also request the current US Administration to listen to the words of former president Barack Obama, who, watching the reestablishment of the diplomatic relations with Cuba, declared that “blockade has not served to break the decision of the Cuban people to choose its own political system and to control its future”.