A delegation of the Communist Party of Cuba, headed by Luis Morlote Rivas, an official of the Ideological Department of the Central Committee of the PCC is in Turkey at the invitation of the Turkish Communist Party (TKP) to participate in the symposium: “The longest genocide in history: the blockade of Cuba” organized by the Cuba-Turkiye José Martí Friendship Association in Istanbul on September 22, 2024.
The Cuban delegation is also composed of Rosabel Gamón Verde, First Deputy Minister of Justice of the Republic of Cuba, Dilberto Manuel González García, Second Secretary of the Union of Young Communists of Cuba (UJC), Raúl Cardoso Cabrera of the Cuban Institute of Friendship with the Peoples (ICAP) and Ayuban Gutiérrez Quintanilla, professor of the Faculty of Economics of the University of Havana.
The symposium was opened by Nahide Özkan, president of the Cuba-Türkiye Friendship Association, who condemned the unjust blockade against Cuba and demanded the exclusion of the island from the list of countries that allegedly sponsor terrorism. The Cuban Ambassador to Ankara, Dr. Alejandro Díaz Palacios, and the Secretary General of the Communist Party of Türkiye, Kemal Okuyan, also intervened.
The Cuban panelists gave an update on the damages caused by the tightening of the US economic, commercial and financial blockade against Cuba and its consequences for the economy and the daily life of families in our country.
Previously, the Cuban delegation held a press conference on this issue which was attended by several Turkish media. In this framework they answered the journalists' questions on the blockade imposed by the United States on Cuba, the counterrevolutionary provocations and the resistance of the Cuban people.
Intense emotions were experienced in this event of solidarity and support for the Cuban people, unjustly forced to face difficult obstacles in order to move forward with the dignity that characterizes them. At the end of the symposium, the following declaration was issued:
The history of the economic, commercial and financial blockade imposed by the government of the United States on Cuba exceeds 60 years.
The blockade is a tool of imperialist attack which, as stated in official U.S. documents, is aimed at starving the Cuban people into submission. The purpose of the blockade is to eliminate the social support that backs the Cuban revolution and to destroy it.
The blockade, whose total patient cost to date exceeds one trillion 400 billion dollars, constitutes the greatest obstacle to the economic and social development of the country.
The 243 additional sanctions imposed during the Trump era, and especially the inclusion of Cuba in the spurious “list of countries sponsoring terrorism”, have greatly deepened the effects of the blockade.
The energy crisis created by the blockade in the country has reached levels that threaten the healthy functioning of the Cuban economy and the daily life of the Cuban people.
The blockade is dealing a hard blow to the country's agricultural production and food imports, and efforts are being made to starve Cuban society.
Due to the problems generated by the blockade in public services such as education, health and transportation, the Cuban people are being deprived of their right to a dignified screw.
The blockade is the most important factor preventing the Cuban people from developing their enormous potential in the fields of science, culture, art and sports.
The blockade is a genocide that has been condemned 31 times by resolutions of the United Nations General Assembly.
Furthermore, U.S. imperialism is conducting smear campaigns on the “failure” of socialism in Cuba, distorting the reasons for the economic difficulties that have worsened as a result of the blockade imposed on Cuba and is trying to create political instability in the country. Investing millions of dollars in Press and social media campaigns based on lies and distortions. On the other hand, it is implementing a strict censorship policy against the presence of Cuba and its friends in the media and social networks.
The objective of the blockade and the accompanying media campaigns is to pave the way for a “humanitarian” military intervention in Cuba.
The blockade and the accompanying media campaigns, whose objective is to destabilize Cuba and pave the way for foreign intervention, are an attack on Cuba's sovereign rights.
There is still a naval base in Guantanamo, a territory illegally occupied by the United States, as a threat that accompanies the intimidation policy of the blockade.
In this context, the Cuba- Türkiye Friendship Association “José Martí”, organizer of the symposium,
- Condemns as genocide the economic, commercial and financial blockade imposed on Cuba and demands its unconditional end.
- Stresses that there is no legitimate basis for maintaining Cuba on the spurious “list of countries sponsoring terrorism” and calls for the immediate removal of Cuba from this list.
- Declares that it will oppose media campaigns that censor and distort the Cuban reality; Invites all sectors of society, especially communicators, to fight against these lies and deliberate defamations.
- It categorically rejects the existence of the Guantanamo naval base in illegal territory occupied by the United States in Cuba, as well as any attempt to destabilize that nation and intervene militarily.
- Insists that the rights of the Cuban people to self-determination and sovereignty must be unconditionally respected.
- Invites all intellectuals, especially academics, to discuss and disseminate more deeply the negative effects of the blockade, which is genocide, and has repercussions on the economy and social welfare of Cuba with a wider public.
- Take measures to plan new tools and campaigns to strengthen solidarity activities towards the lifting of the blockade against Cuba, both in the ideological struggle and in the material field.
- Invites all our people to increase solidarity with the brotherly Cuban people.
September 22, 2024
