The resolution presented by Cuba to request the end of the economic, commercial and financial blockade imposed by the United States was approved this Thursday by the General Assembly with 187 votes in favor. The text received two votes against (the United States and Israel) and one member state abstained (Ukraine).
The resolution recognizes the blockade as the central element of United States policy towards Cuba for more than six decades.
Its effects have not ceased for a single day and are known by 80% of the Cuban population, who only knows one country with a blockade.
When speaking at the plenary session of the 78th period of sessions of the General Assembly, in New York, the Foreign Minister of Cuba, Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla, denounced the violations against the right to life, education, progress and well-being of Cubans caused due to the United States blockade.
“Families in the country feel it in the shortages, excessive prices and devalued salaries,” said the Minister of Foreign Affairs, and recalled the efforts of the Government of Havana to guarantee the basic basket to the population despite the obstacles. imposed.
“Only with one third of the cost of the effects of the blockade from March 2022 to February 2023 could the expenses for this concept have been covered,” he stated.
At the same time, he highlighted that sectors such as agriculture or energy face serious obstacles to acquiring spare parts or machinery.
Under strict licenses, some agricultural products in the United States travel to the island subject to draconian and discriminatory laws that violate international trade regulations, he recalled. “These products – he added – arrive on North American ships that have to return empty due to the blockade itself.”
Rodríguez Parrilla pointed out the intensification of harassment policies during the harshest years of the pandemic, when exemption from sanctions for humanitarian reasons was promoted in some cases.
“Why was Cuba excluded from this temporary relief?” Rodríguez Parrilla questioned in rejection of the use of the pandemic as an ally of Washington in its policy towards Cuba.
“The impact on the quality of life and the services provided to the population is painful,” he emphasized.
He stated that “the United States Government is lying when it states that the blockade does not prevent access to medicines and medical equipment,” and recalled that this was exactly what happened during the covid-19 pandemic.
The Foreign Minister highlighted the intensified effects of the blockade on Cuban exports and the permanent persecution by the United States of the country's banking-financial operations.
He also mentioned the high costs due to geographical relocation of trade, the effects on production and services provided to the population and the obstacles that Cuba faces in accessing advanced technologies.
He stressed that the US Government has not ceased in its intentions to cause the economic collapse of Cuba and that its policy deliberately seeks to inflict harm on the Cuban population and create instability in the country.
“There is not a single Cuban policy aimed at threatening the national security of the United States, nor that interferes in its internal affairs or affects the well-being of its citizens,” Rodríguez Parrilla stressed.
He also referred to the arbitrary inclusion of Cuba on the list of countries sponsoring terrorism, which intensifies the effects of the blockade. “There is not a single valid or reasonable argument for Cuba's permanence on that spurious list,” he stressed.
“The maintenance of the dishonest classification of Cuba as a State sponsor of terrorism, the possibility of taking action in US courts against lawsuits filed under Title III of the Helms-Burton Act, the meticulous persecution of Cuban financial transactions and the consequent obstacles for the supply of fuel to the country, as well as the validity of unilateral lists that prevent financial transactions with Cuban entities, were the most severe provisions applied against Cuba in the period reflected in the report that is presented and put to a vote in this Assembly. said Foreign Minister Rodríguez Parrilla.
Aimed at destabilizing the country, "the blockade is an act of economic warfare in times of peace, aimed at nullifying the Government's ability to meet the needs of the population, creating a situation of ungovernability and destroying the constitutional order," he denounced.
“It is neither legal nor ethical for the government of a power to subject a small nation to an incessant economic war for decades in order to impose an alien political system on it and reappropriate its resources. “It is unacceptable to deprive an entire people of the right to self-determination, development and human progress,” he added.
The chancellor acknowledged that not all of the island's problems are due to the blockade, but he indicated that it is the main cause of suffering.
“Of course, the blockade is not responsible for all the problems that our country faces today, as President Miguel Díaz-Canel has said. But anyone who denies its very serious effects and does not recognize that it is the main cause of the deprivations and shortcomings and suffering of Cuban families would be untruthful.
“Anyone who denies the blockade as a massive, flagrant and systematic violation of the human rights of all our people and as the greatest obstacle to our development would be lying,” he said.
When requesting a vote in favor of the resolution that requests ending the blockade, he stated: “Better without a blockade. Genocidal blockade. Let Cuba live without a blockade.”
