AFP, Prensa Latina and Ap
La Jornada newspaper
Friday, November 4, 2022, p. 28
New York., With the United States and Israel voting against, and Brazil and Ukraine abstaining, the United Nations (UN) General Assembly yesterday overwhelmingly approved a Cuban-sponsored resolution calling for an end to the US economic blockade imposed on the island 60 years ago .
With 185 votes in favor, including Mexico’s, the non-binding resolution, approved for the thirtieth time since 1992, calls for to end the economic, trade and financial blockade that the United States of America has imposed against Cuba
and defend sovereign equality
state, non-interference in their internal affairs
Mr freedom of international trade and navigation
.
full tax cold war by then US President John F. Kennedy, before the victory of the revolution led by Fidel Castro on the island, the blockade was gradually tightened to suffocate the Cuban government and population. It has the effect of a constant pandemic, a constant hurricane
lamented Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez to the speaker of the international organization before the vote.
The head of Cuban diplomacy specified that in the first 14 months of the administration of US President Joe Biden damage
caused by the blockade increased to 6 thousand 364 million dollars -15 million per day-, and in six decades to 154 thousand 217 million dollars. We do not attribute all the difficulties our country is facing today to the blockade, but anyone who denies its very serious consequences and does not admit that it is the main cause of hardship, shortages and suffering of Cuban families would be untruthful.
he assured, after warning that creates conditions that encourage migration
.
Rodríguez spoke about the harmfulness of covid-19 on the island and said that while the virus took millions of lives on the planet and filled my land with pain
the lock increased and created difficulties and delays in the arrival of basic medical supplies and equipment to deal with this, especially for the industrialization of Cuban vaccines. Even the procurement of medical oxygen in third countries was difficult
.
The United States’ representation to the UN justified the blockade’s maintenance due to anti-government protests on July 11, 2021 on the island, political prisoners, alleged restrictions on the Internet and versions of minors in prison, among other aspects. .
unfair and illegal
The day before yesterday, a discussion began in the General Assembly in which 30 countries spoke against this coercive measure. Yesterday, the representatives of the global south stamped the blockade again unfair
, illegally
, unacceptable
, criminal
, inhuman
, disproportionate
.
Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel said on social media that this is a coercive measure brutal
and highlighted Rodríguez’s speech at the United Nations. Once again today the voice of Cuba will be raised in the United Nations condemning the genocidal blockade and supported by the vast majority of the international community
he tweeted.
In Plaza Cadenas of the University of Havana, about 200 Cuban students received the resolution with cheers down lock
Mr Long live Cuba
.
After the vote, Marcos Rodríguez Costa, the island’s ambassador to Mexican soil, thanked Mexico and President Andrés Manuel López Obrador for their support for the Cuban people. We reiterate our gratitude for your dignified stand against the inhumane and genocidal blockade the United States government maintains against my country.
he tweeted.
Former President Donald Trump (2017-2021) tightened the blockade by imposing sanctions 243 days before the end of his term by reactivating Title III of the 1996 Helms-Burton Act, targeting trade, exports, visas, travel and remittances.
Biden, his successor, relaxed some of those measures and has not moved forward under pressure from the anti-Castro community in the state of Florida, despite his campaign promises to reach the White House and normalize diplomatic relations with Cuba.
Only the US Congress can lift the blockade, not the president through his executive actions, because it is the law.
The Biden administration offered $2 million to Cuba last October as part of post-hurricane relief Ianwhich seriously affected the electrical system and local industry.
With information from Arturo Sánchez Jiménez