The International Relations Committee of the National Assembly of the People’s Power of the Republic of Cuba calls on the lawmakers of the United States and the world at large to add their voices to the universal call that the UN General Assembly has been making for the last 30 years, for an end to the greatest and most unjust, severe and prolonged system of unilateral coercive measures ever applied against any country in the world.
The unjust economic, financial and commercial blockade imposed by Washington on our country and our people, by its nature and scope, constitutes an inhuman policy and a massive, flagrant and systematic violation of the human rights of Cuba’s citizens. This outrageous strategy, applied with the aim of domination, is also the main obstacle to Cuba’s efforts to realize its true capability and is impeding implementation of our national plan for economic and social development and the fulfilling of Agenda 2030 and our sustainable development goals (SDGs).
Since 2019, the blockade has escalated to a qualitatively more cruel and damaging level. In the context of a global crisis in the public health, energy, food and environmental sectors, Cuba has been confronted also with new coercive measures, applied during the Trump administration with the sole purpose of closing off all the country’s sources of revenue and thereby sabotaging the economy and the Cubans’ means of subsistence.
Despite his campaign promises, president Biden’s government has maintained this policy of maximum pressure, excluding Cuba alone from the review following a presidential directive suspending unilateral coercive measures against other countries which have been hampered by these in their responses to the COVID-19 pandemic. Regardless of the human cost of this iniquitous design, Washington chose to use the pandemic to cause destabilization, attempt to overthrow our country’s constitutional order and force a change of government, violating Cuba’s sovereignty, the human rights of its population, international law and the will of the people as expressed in the results of the recent elections.
The punitive measures resulting from the arbitrary and unjustified inclusion of Cuba on Washington’s unilateral, bogus list of alleged states sponsoring terrorism are causing a further undermining of the means of subsistence of the Cuban population. This shameful decision to label as terrorist a country that is nothing of the kind, combined with the pressures, under Title III of the Helms-Burton Act, on prospective foreign investors in Cuba, the medieval persecution of firms, vessels and shipping lines participating in legitimate operations of oil purchase and supply to Cuba, the attack on our sources of revenue, the intimidation and extorsion practiced against third parties and the stepping up of pressure on governments, banks and entrepreneurs all over the world, intensify the US’s immoral strategy for isolating Cuba and causing its economic breakdown. Washington has not achieved its aim of destroying the Cuban Revolution, but these measures have been effective in undermining the living conditions of millions of women, children and men.
More banks in third countries have responded to the threat of US reprisals by suspending operations with Cuba, including transfers for the purchase of food, medicines, fuel, spare parts for the national energy system and goods for the population.
In the public health sector, despite our ability to produce over 60% of the basic range of medicines, it has not been possible to guarantee these levels, due to the effects of the blockade, which impede payment for purchases of the necessary raw materials and supplies. At the same time, our access to medical technologies having over 10% US components is being even more effectively blocked all over the world, affecting items essential for treating the sick and increasing the need for recourse to alternative transport routes, involving substantially increased costs, multiple shortages and deficiencies of supply within the national health system.
In attempting to justify the intensification of the blockade, Washington has stepped up its operations of disinformation and political, media-based and communicational aggression, financed with federal funds. In deploying these measures contrary to the principle of non-interference in the domestic affairs of other states, the US has thwarted life plans, encouraged irregular migration and caused the painful break-up of thousands of families.
Once again, we call on the United States Congress to heed the views of the Cuban people, the American people and the international community, in favor relief measures and the lifting of the blockade. We urge you to foster dialogue, exchange and cooperation, ending the practices of aggression against which Cuba has never retaliated - so as to avoid uncontrolled escalation leading to new scenarios of confrontation.
We urge the world’s legislatures to intensify the international call for an end to a policy that violates the rights of the Cuban people and of third states and we call on the lawmakers of all nations to speak out, to encourage and support their respective foreign ministries to vote for the proposed resolution entitled “Necessity of ending the economic, commercial and financial embargo imposed by the United States of America against Cuba" which will be submitted once again to the UN General Assembly on 3rd November next.
Havana, October 27, 2022.
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