VIENNA, June 19, 2017.- Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez on Monday highlighted the strong rejection of the policy announced recently by U.S. President Donald Trump regarding the Caribbean island.
'These unpopular measures ignore the majority's support for the lifting of the blockade and the normalization of relations between Cuba and the United States by Congress people, including many members of the Republican Party, the business sector, several civil society organizations, Cuban migration, the press, social media and U.S. public opinion,' Rodriguez said in a press conference in this capital.
He pointed out that those measures also ignore the opinion of the overwhelming majority of the Cuban people, who want to have a better relationship with the U.S. people.
The diplomat noted that the new Cuba policy announced by Trump during a speech in Miami is a backward step in the relations reestablished two years ago.
'Several people have acknowledged that in the United States and abroad, who are expressing their strong rejection of the announced changes, he pointed out.
The head of Cuban diplomacy warned that it is possible to predict that those measures will affect relations between Washington and Latin America and the Caribbean, as well as U.S. foreign policy.
Referring to the future implications of Trump's measures, Rodriguez underlined that they will cause human damage and privations, and will be an additional mass, flagrant and systematic violation of the Cubans' human rights.
The measures 'will affect families and will cause economic damage, not only to State companies but also to cooperatives and self-employed or private workers. They will also damage Cuban migration,' he predicted.
Rodriguez pointed out that 'that the prediction that this policy will separate the people from the government, or the citizens from our glorious Revolutionary Armed Forces and the Ministry of the Interior, which are the people in uniforms, seems childish.'
On the contrary, he added, it will only reinforce 'our patriotism, dignity and decision to defend our independence by all means.' (Cubaminrex-PL)