London, September 27, 2022 (Prensa Latina) Solidarity with Cuba in the face of the unilateral blockade by the United States made an appearance today at the annual conference of the British Labour Party taking place in this city in the northwest of England.
It is absolutely indefensible and immoral that the US government under both Donald Trump and Joe Biden stepped up the blockade during the Covid-19 pandemic, said Paula Barker MP at the side event organised by the Caribbean Island Solidarity Campaign (CSC).
The lawmaker also called it outrageous that the United States keeps Cuba on the list of countries sponsoring terrorism, after recalling that the Antillean nation is one of the guarantors of the 2016 peace agreement in Colombia and was asked to host more such dialogues.
It would be more accurate to describe Cuba as a state sponsor of peace, Barker remarked before several of her colleagues in the British Parliament, other delegates to the Labour Party's annual congress, and the Caribbean island's ambassador to the UK, Bárbara Montalvo.
The chair of the CSC and assistant general secretary of Unite, Diana Holland, recalled that the unilateral US blockade has been in place for 60 years and was reinforced by Trump with 243 other measures, most of which are still in force in Biden's term of office.
Navendu Mishra MP, for his part, highlighted the effort made by Cuba to develop its own vaccines against Covid-19, in the midst of the economic war unleashed by Washington.
We talk a lot about equity in vaccines, but Cuba was the first middle-income country to develop vaccines and immunise more than 90 per cent of its population, he said.
Labour activist Gemma Bolton also recounted her experiences during a recent visit to the Caribbean island as part of a delegation of young British trade unionists, and said she was able to see first-hand the way Cubans live and the achievements in health and education.
In her turn, the Cuban ambassador thanked the CSC, MPs and others in the UK for their expressions of solidarity, and assured the audience that despite the difficulties, no schools, doctors' surgeries or hospitals were closed in her country, nor were neoliberal prescriptions applied.
The blockade will be there for who knows how long, but we have to make things better, without abandoning the struggle to put an end to the longest and most genocidal sanctions regime ever applied against any country, said Montalvo.
After pointing out that the human damage caused by this measure is incalculable, massive and cruel, the diplomat said that as a result of Cuba's inclusion on the list of countries sponsoring terrorism, European citizens visiting the Caribbean island now need to apply for a visa to enter the United States.
The aim of this measure is none other than to affect tourism, which is one of our main sources of foreign currency, she pointed out.