Resolution adopted at the National Meeting of Solidarity organisations with Cuba held in the auditorium of the Petroleum Corporation of Jamaica on Saturday November 30, 2019.
We who are gathered at this National Meeting of Solidarity Organizations with Cuba, 3 years following the anniversary of the transition of the historic leader of the Cuban Revolution, Fidel, call on the administration of the United States of America to unconditionally lift the criminal economic blockade of our sister country, whose anachronistic retention is a bare-faced and arrogant repudiation of international law, a systematic violation of the Human Rights of the Cuban People and an act of Genocide under the 1948 United Nations ‘Convention on the Punishment of the Crime of Genocide’.
The US blockade violates international law, is contrary to the purposes and principles enshrined in the United Nations Charter, constitutes a flagrant transgression to the peaceful development of Cuba’s right to self-determination, a permanent threat to the stability to the country, and a unilateral act of war.
This criminal blockade along with its extra-territorial application of the Helms Burton and Toricelli Acts, and lasting almost 6 decades, constitutes the single and primary obstacle to the development of the economy of Cuba, where its estimated that USD 922,630,000.00 (taken against the devaluation of the US dollar in relation to the gold standard) of punitive damages have been inflicted on the courageous Cuban people, for standing up in defense of their sovereignty and the right to a particular path of economic and social development.
Despite the unprecedented choke-hold on a single nation by imperialism, Cuba, because of its astute leadership and the determined and resilient spirit of the people, has made phenomenal gains in all sectors of industry and in the delivery of health, housing and education to its people. Not only that: Cuba is known for internationalist support to nations across the world, fighting Ebola in Africa, eradicating illiteracy in some Latin American countries, and providing support in education and healthcare through the deployment of doctors, nurses and other specialists. This beacon of hope for all of us who struggle for a better world, has developed cures to several common diseases which afflict people all over the world. Cuba also delivers immediate non-military responses to nations in and outside the region to cope with the effects of natural disasters. In many cases they are the first to respond to the needs as they arise. Imagine what Cuba could do without the cruel and crippling US blockade?
The region has been designated a zone of peace under the Tlatelolco Treaty for Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons in Latin America and the Caribbean. The continued existence of the US military base at Guantanamo Bay contravenes this treaty. It is a constant threat to the peace and stability of Cuba and the entire region.
We therefore urge the US to join the majority of humanity’s people, which for 28 consecutive years has been reflected in the United Nations, to lift the economic blockade, in honoring this beacon of peace and progress that Cuba represents to the world, and to retreat from the path of aggression manifested in the blockade and the maintenance of the military base at Guantanamo.