Georgetown: For almost six decades, the Cuban blockade has caused Cubans to suffer its consequences as its impact is felt in all sectors of society and constitutes a flagrant violation of the human rights of its people.
This is according to President of the Guyana-Cuba Solidarity Movement (GCSM) Halim Khan who said over the past 25 years, Cuba has presented a yearly resolution at UN against the U.S. economic blockade, which has been supported by most member countries.
For last year, he said by a recorded vote of 187 in favour to 3 against (Brazil, Israel, United States) with 2 abstentions (Colombia and Ukraine), the Assembly adopted the resolution titled “Necessity of ending the economic, commercial and financial embargo imposed by the United States of America against Cuba”.
“For almost six decades, Cuba has been victim to the most unjust, severe and longest‑lasting system of sanctions ever applied against any country,” the GCSM President said. “There is not a single Cuban family that has not endured its consequences.”
He explained that twelve U.S. administrations, since 1959, have only managed to isolate themselves, as evidenced by universal rejection of the blockade, evident in many sectors of U.S. society that favor respectful, mutually beneficial ties.
Adding that such acts is one of economic warfare, Khan said it also violates international law along with the purposes and principles of the United Nations Charter and the principles of free trade.
Khan said that the economic, commercial and financial blockade imposed on Cuba by the United States began February 7, 1962, reaching increasingly extreme dimensions recently.
At current prices, he said the accumulated damages over almost six decades of this policy, through March of 2019, reached the figure of US$138.8 billion.
“Taking into account the depreciation of the dollar as compared to the price of gold on the international market, the blockade has caused quantifiable damages of more than US$922.6 billion although its cost within households, neighborhoods and communities is incalculable, given the harm caused to human lives every day,” the GCSM President said.
On February 3, Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, tweeted: “We condemn the genocidal, cruel, murderous blockade. The blockade violates our human rights,” on the occasion of the 58th anniversary of President John F. Kennedy’s signing of Presidential Proclamation 3447 (27 fr 1085), imposing the blockade on trade between the United States and Cuba.
Minister of Foreign Affairs Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla likewise posted a message stating: “58 years after its imposition, the U.S. blockade against Cuba constitutes the most unjust, severe and prolonged system of unilateral coercive measures ever applied against any country. It is genocidal, violates the human rights of an entire people, and must end.
Khan said that the blockade persists and harms families, but it has failed to achieve its central objective of defeating the Cuban Revolution. The unity, perseverance and dignity of our people, our unbreakable spirit has resisted all coercion and pressure.
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