New York, 4 June 2020. Cuba strongly rejected today the new sanctions against Cuba, announced by the US Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, who included 7 new entities in the list of Cuban entities sanctioned by Washington.
“The imperial government applies sanctions that affect the Cuban people, while the US people are being harshly hit by the pandemic and racist repression”, stated the Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel on his personal Twitter account. On the other hand, the Cuban Foreign Minister expressed that such measures are “designed to affect Cuban families. It is shameful and criminal to tighten the blockade during #COVID19”.
The new sanctioned entities include three hotels, two diving centers, a marina park for tourists and the financial institution Fincimex, thereby confirming the intention of the current administration to attack the island tourism activity in order to economically suffocate it. The financial institution Fincimex works as intermediary for family remittances to Cuba, therefore, the sanction against this institution directly attacks the Cuban people, who now will be restricted when receiving family support from abroad.
There are more than 200 Cuban companies sanctioned by Washington, namely companies, corporations, the Mariel Special Development Zone, several ministries and many touristic facilities, which will be prohibited from doing business with US companies or citizens.
These actions are part of Washington efforts to deprive the island of the necessary resources for its development, as part of the hostile policy and the economic, commercial and financial siege imposed by the Government of the United States nearly 60 years ago, tightened by the Trump administration, which was clearly stated in the secret Memorandum by Lester D. Mallory, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs: “The only possible way to make the government lose domestic support is by provoking disappointment and discouragement through economic dissatisfaction and hardships (…) Every possible means should be immediately used to weaken the economic life (…) denying Cuba funds and supplies to reduce nominal and real salaries with the objective of provoking hunger, desperation and the overthrow of the government.”
In times of COVID-19, these blockade measures against Cuba are a new way of genocide and suffocation to the Cuban people.
Permanent Mission of Cuba to the United Nations