ONCE AGAIN THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK.
By Sergio Martínez González.
Ambassador of the Republic of Cuba in Antigua and Barbuda.
I am not going to refer to a new sequence of the famous Star Wars franchise. It is about the sick obsession of nine US Administration, in trying to make an entire nation surrender with the most genocidal economic war in the recent history of humanity.
With all the imperial arrogance that characterizes the new US Administration, on January 31st the Secretary of State of that country proclaimed the return to a tough policy against Cuba as a “great victory.” His words are worthy of a script for a bad tragicomedy or an implausible Kafkaesque novel. Has the criminal policy of blockade that the US has applied against Cuba for more than 63 years not been tough enough, causing all kinds of suffering to the humble and solidary Cuban people?
The current President Donald Trump decided to surround himself with a “select” group of close advisors, among whom stands out Secretary of State Marcos Rubio, who have made aggression against Cuba a way of life, have profited for decades from the anti-Cuban business and today share the intoxication of the new president. From the very first day of his mandate, they eliminated all the steps that, although late, were going in a positive direction, taken by his predecessor Joe Biden. They were steps that, like the exclusion of Cuba from the spurious list of terrorist countries, were applauded and supported by the vast majority of governments and peoples of our region and the world in general. Without any legal or truly credible justification, other than the blind hatred of the current US ruling team towards the Cuban people and their Revolution, the decision to reverse these positive measures demonstrates the total disregard of the current Administration towards the truth and the demands of the majority of the international community. It shows the real objective that has motivated the policy towards Cuba of the current governments in the United States for all these years: to economically suffocate Cuba, cause harm to our people, and expect us to renounce the sovereign prerogatives whose conquest has cost so many years, efforts and lives.
Who is Marcos Rubio fooling with his false pretexts to try to justify this new attack against Cuba and its people? How can he articulate such hypocritical phrases when pointing out that preventing Cubans living in the US from helping their relatives in Cuba with their remittances, blocking the island's ability to obtain the necessary fuel for the generation of electric energy by subjecting Cubans to countless hours of blackouts, denying access to the raw materials necessary for the production of medicines, among other draconian measures of economic asphyxiation, "are measures that seek the benefit and protection of the common citizen."?
As stated in statements by the Cuban government, “the economic blockade, its reinforcement and the new aggressive measures will continue to weigh, with a very damaging effect on our economy, the standard of living, the development potential and the legitimate dreams of justice and well-being of the Cuban people, as has been the case in recent years. It constitutes the empire's reaction of impotence in the face of its inability to bend our will and in the face of the respect, sympathy and support that the Cuban Revolution arouses among the peoples of the world.”
Cuba and its people will never give up their dream of continuing to fight for greater and sustainable economic and social development, characterized by justice and full observance of all the rights of its people, a system where the values of solidarity and brotherhood prevail towards the rest of the peoples who today also fight for a better future for their children. To achieve this, we will continue to defend, at whatever cost, our independence, sovereignty and the right to build our future without foreign interference. The today self-proclaimed emperors of the world, will not be able to subdue or defeat a people that has never surrendered and will never surrender.
Cuba Embassy. Antigua y Barbuda.