London, Sep 28 (RHC) A unanimous call to redouble solidarity with Cuba in the face of the intensifying U.S. blockade emerged of one of the side events of the Annual Conference of British Labour Party.
We are internationalists, we believe in solidarity, stressed Labor legislator Grahame Morris at the event held in the coastal city of Brighton, in the presence of the Caribbean island's ambassador to the United Kingdom, Barbara Montalvo.
Morris, who chairs the Party Group on Cuba in the British Parliament, pointed out that it is now more important than ever to let the world know the situation Cuban people are going through under the double impact of the blockade and the Covid-19 pandemic.
The fundamental cause of the shortage of food, medicines and fuels suffered by the Cuban people is the cumulative effect of the cruel and unjustified blockade imposed by the United States, he said.
The legislator recalled that this unilateral measure was intensified by the Republican government of President Donald Trump with more than 200 sanctions, and that the current president, Joe Biden, has done nothing to reverse them despite his campaign promises.
Morris recalled the calls made by British and European parliamentarians and U.S. congressmen to Biden to reverse at least some of the measures imposed by Trump, and which cause so much unnecessary harm and suffering to the people of the island in these times of the Covid-19 pandemic.
If the U.S. government really wants to help the Cuban people, the first thing it should do is reverse the sanctions imposed during the Trump era, work for the normalization of relations and eliminate the blockade that is totally unjustified, he reiterated.
The director of the Cuba Solidarity Campaign (CSC), Rob Miller, denounced the extraterritorial nature of the blockade that makes it difficult to make financial transactions even outside the United States to buy medicines and supplies with money raised among British activists.
Nothing has changed under Biden, said Miller, who urged to counteract Washington's growing hostility towards the Caribbean island with more solidarity.
The Cuban ambassador thanked the parliamentarians and members of the CSC for their ongoing support and for their contributions with inputs for the clinical trials of the anti-Covid-19 vaccines developed by Cuban scientists.
In mentioning the efforts made by the government of her country to confront the pandemic and save lives, Montalvo affirmed that the Biden administration has not given a single sign that it intends to relax its genocidal policy.
The diplomat stressed that despite the hostility of the U.S. government, Cuba was able to develop its own anti-Covid-19 vaccines, with which it has already managed to fully immunize 41.7 percent of its population of 11 million inhabitants. (PL)
