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Under loud applause, the General Assembly today adopted by 187 votes in favor, the opposition of the United States and Israel and the abstention of the Republic of Moldova, its resolution annual report on the need to lift the economic, commercial and financial blockade imposed on Cuba since 1962 by the United States.
In his long speech which he concluded, here too, to loud applause, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Cuba recalled that from October 18 to 23, Cuban families suffered a power outage which affected all sectors of activity. This breakdown due to lack of fuel and the obsolescence of power plants, said Mr. Rodríguez Parilla, is a direct consequence of the savage economic war launched by the United States which wants to ban all exports to Cuba. In one year, 53 ships and 27 companies were hit with sanctions for having worked with my country, alerted the Minister. The message from the United States is clear: anyone against us will be punished.
The United States Government knows that it is violating the United Nations Charter and international law with its ruthless aggression. Served by the Helms-Burton Act, the economic, financial and commercial blockade is a crime of genocide and a massive violation of the rights of Cubans. It is the longest unilateral system of coercion in modern history. If Cuba had had the 164 billion dollars that the blockade deprived it of, what would it be today?
In 2017, the former US Government added other unilateral measures to strengthen the blockade, reaching a scandalous perversity, as seen during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, in a surprising mimicry, President Joe Biden has kept the entire coercive regime of his predecessor.
During his presidency, the losses caused by the blockade reached the sum of 16 billion dollars, a loss of 14 million per day. The Secretary General’s report very clearly shows the terrible consequences of the blockade and its extraterritorial effects.
Four months of blockade is a loss of 1.6 billion dollars, enough to guarantee the household basket for all Cuban families for a year. Twenty-five days of blockade, that’s 339 million dollars, would be enough to distribute essential medicines needed by children, the elderly, pregnant women and even diabetics for a year. Nine days of blockade means $129 million needed to import fungible medical equipment, such as cotton, syringes and reagents. Fifteen minutes of blockade is $144,000, enough to purchase the prostheses needed by the hearing impaired.
No government, the Minister was indignant, should have the policy of impoverishing other countries and causing shortages there. It is collective punishment prohibited by international humanitarian law. r
The inclusion of Cuba on the list of sponsors of terrorism is another scandal, while the United States does nothing to stop terrorist acts against Cuba. On April 30, 2020, someone opened fire and shot 32 times at the Cuban Embassy in Washington, the Minister said. This list is an instrument of political pressure served by measures of economic punishment which are added to the blockade. More than 1,000 banks have refused to work with Cuba for fear of coercive measures from the United States. This country is even attacking the tourism sector, which is very promising for the Cuban economy. The 300,000 Europeans who visited the island are all registered by the American services. The international community knows the truth. Some 123 countries signed a declaration to the Human Rights Council.
The so-called palliative measures of the American Government are a misleading maneuver because none of them are applicable. These supposed opportunities are met with bans and regulations designed to cripple the Cuban economy.
The United States has set in motion a machine of unconventional warfare, misinformation and incitement to violence, through which it intends to promote regime change, impose its domination, cause economic collapse and social explosion. Let Cuba live in peace, exclaimed the Minister, calling on the party that will win the American presidential election to abandon a failed approach and listen to its people and the vast majority of the international community.
Cuba will remain determined to defend its sovereign right to build its independent, socialist future, free from foreign interference and anchored in social justice and solidarity. We are ready to conduct a serious and responsible dialogue for a solution based on sovereign equality and the interests of the two peoples, concluded the Minister.
After the European Union and Timor-Leste explained their votes, the representative of the United States responded, confirming his country’s solidarity with the Cuban people and support for their aspiration for a world where human rights man are respected. He spoke about political prisoners and detentions linked to the historic protests of July 2021. While he is a member of the Human Rights Council, the representative said, the Cuban Government does not even deign to respond to the demands of mandate holders. Some requests have been outstanding for 10 years.
Sanctions, the representative explained, are a way of putting pressure on human rights in Cuba. But aware of their impact, the United States has provided for exemptions and is also the largest exporter to Cuba. It is time, concluded the American representative, for the Cuban Government to listen to its people and take into account their aspiration to determine its own future.
Your cynicism has no limits, replied the representative of Cuba. You said nothing about the list of sponsors of terrorism and you give false data on exports and humanitarian aid to Cuba. The United States, he said, always tries to present itself as a benefactor and an economic partner of Cuba when that is false. They have no moral authority to give lessons about the rights that they manipulate at will to serve their interests. What can we say about human rights, when we see the treatment reserved for Guantanamo prisoners, the situation of black people in the United States or even crime?
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