For the thirtieth time the UN General Assembly condemned the criminal economic, commercial and financial blockade imposed against Cuba
By María Josefina Arce
For the thirtieth time, the UN General Assembly condemned the criminal economic, commercial and financial blockade imposed against Cuba, which threatens the human rights of an entire people and has caused losses to the country in sixty years amounting to more than 154 BILLION dollars.
At the UN headquarters in the U.S. city of New York, a historic day was once again experienced when 185 countries voted in favor of the draft resolution presented by Cuba on the need to put an end to the genocidal siege, an act of war in times of peace.
In his speech, Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez denounced that in 2019 the government of then President Donald Trump escalated the economic siege to a more cruel and inhuman dimension.
The new Cuban victory once again evidenced the isolation of the United States, supported as is now traditional by its unconditional partner, Israel, while Ukraine and Brazil abstained.
Before the vote, the voices of numerous nations were heard on both days against a policy that has an impact on the daily life of every Cuban family, on every sector of the economy and impedes the country's progress.
Organizations such as CELAC, the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States, the Movement of Non-Aligned Countries, the Caribbean Community and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, among others, also spoke out against the blockade.
All continents repudiated the unilateral measure, which was intensified even during the COVID 19 global health emergency and which the current U.S. administration is maintaining, despite President Joe Biden's campaign promises to review this failed policy.
In this regard, the head of Cuban diplomacy pointed out that in just seven months, from August 2021 to February 2022, it caused losses of almost four BILLION dollars.
A blockade that is also maintained despite the fact that a majority of Americans and the Cuban community in the northern country are in favor of its lifting and the normalization of bilateral relations, which can contribute so much to the benefit of the two peoples.
The speakers also repudiated the extraterritorial nature of this hostile policy, which hinders commercial ties with other nations and discourages foreign investment in Cuban territory.
In contrast to Washington's position, they highlighted Cuba's vocation of solidarity, which for decades has provided assistance in various spheres, mainly in health and education, to numerous peoples of the world, and which was once again demonstrated during the COVID 19 pandemic, with the dispatch of 57 medical brigades to 40 states.
They also expressed their opposition to the inclusion of Cuba in the unilateral US list of nations it considers to be sponsors of terrorism.
The condemnation at the UN was preceded by numerous demonstrations of support for Cuba around the world. The most recent one took place last weekend precisely in New York, led by members of more than a hundred organizations that defend the right of the largest of the Antilles to live without a blockade.
It has been a year of intense solidarity with Cuba. At the end of each month, caravans were held in various cities around the world, at the same time as many other activities were carried out to sensitize the world on the damage caused by the blockade, both economic and human.
Since 1992, the world has said enough to the economic, commercial and financial siege, which constitutes a violation of international law and which, due to its purpose of starving the Cuban people and its political, legal and administrative scaffolding, qualifies as an act of genocide.
