Durante el pasado fin de semana diferentes medios de prensa de Antigua y Barbuda reprodujeron un comunicado emitido por la Emabjada de Cuba en dicho país, donde se denuncia las acciones de chantaje y amenazas contra terceros países, realizadas por el Gobierno de EEUU a través de sus embajadas, con el objetivo de tratar de impedir que se lleve a cabo el debate solicitado por Cuba en la Asamblea General de las Naciones Unidas, sobre los inhumanos efectos causados por la política de total asfixia económica llevada a cabo por la Administración de Donald Trump contra el pueblo cubano, y las reiteradasd amenazas de agresión militar de Washington contra contra la mayor de las Antillas. A continuación texto del comunicado emitido por la Emabjada cubana.
PRESS RELEASE FROM THE EMBASSY OF CUBA IN ANTIGUA AND BARBUDA.
In recent days, an article published by the American newspaper The Nation has circulated widely on social media and in the press . It reveals how the U.S. State Department, under the direction of Secretary Marco Rubio, sent precise instructions to its embassies ordering them to pressure governments worldwide to prevent the United Nations General Assembly from debating the inhumane effects of the U.S. government's policy of total economic strangulation against the Cuban population.
The publication of this document confirms once again what Cuba has denounced in multiple forums: Washington not only maintains a criminal blockade, a total energy embargo and the most draconian financial sanctions against the largest of the Antilles, but also does everything possible to silence the debate and international condemnation of its devastating humanitarian consequences.
According to the article, Marco Rubio has ordered all US embassies to pressure the governments of host countries to oppose the debate requested by Cuba at the UN General Assembly on July 7 regarding the inhumane consequences of Washington's aggressive policies on the lives of more than 10 million Cubans. If the debate proceeds, the United States is asking its allies to attack Cuba in their speeches, accusing it of incompetence, corruption, and economic failure, and to avoid blaming the blocked for the extreme difficult situation the country faces as a direct result of the measures adopted by the Trump Administration.
Even more serious: Washington is issuing direct threats to the countries that have traditionally supported Cuba at the United Nations. It demands that they be “extremely careful” in their interventions and warns them that comments favorable to Cuba could generate “friction” in their bilateral relations with the United States, with the “negative consequences that this would supposedly have for these countries.” This means that the United States is attempting to impose a global gag order: it is pressuring governments not to speak out, not to denounce the blockade, not to mention it, and not to acknowledge the suffering that this policy inflicts on the Cuban people. Marco Rubio is now trying to prevent even the issue from being debated, because he knows that the majority of the world rejects this illegal, cruel, and extraterritorial policy, as demonstrated by the fact that the UN General Assembly has overwhelmingly condemned the blockade against Cuba for 31 consecutive years.
Washington's genocidal policy of economic strangulation against the Cuban people prevents even recognized international institutions of the United Nations system from delivering food, medicine, and other essential goods to the Cuban population. After recently suffering a crushing defeat in its attempt to prevent the World Food Programme (WFP) from approving a donation of 2,900 tons of food for distribution in Cuba, the US government, through an unprecedented campaign of threats and pressure against logistics companies, shipping lines, insurance companies, and others, has obstructed the transport of this food to Cuba. The same has happened with a shipment valued at US$630,000 approved by UNICEF, which includes emergency medical kits, supplies for newborns, and nutritional supplements for pregnant women. The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk recently warned that such severe sanctions, directed against entire sectors of an economy and with indiscriminate effects on the population, are incompatible with international law and with human rights treaties and principles.
As Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla recently pointed out, Cuba does not represent any threat to the United States. Cuba is not a military or nuclear power. The real threat is the blockade: a policy of collective punishment that affects food, medicine, fuel, hospitals, transportation, electricity, and the daily lives of millions of Cubans. It is a crime against humanity that is happening right now.
The United States, through blackmail, threats, and pressure of all kinds, seeks to impose a new international order based on the total subjugation of the rest of the world to its hegemonic interests. It will be up to the will of the international community and the dignity of their governments, to oppose these designs and prevent crimes against humanity, such as the genocidal blockade against Cuba, from going without the most clear and unequivocal condemnation.