Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez

Havana, Oct 20 (RHC) Cuba's Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez on Wednesday described the six decades-long embargo that the United States has maintained against the island as a pandemic or a constant hurricane, due to the damage it causes to the country.

After presenting to the press a new report on the losses generated by that unilateral policy in the last six months, the foreign minister recalled that Washington's siege is not merely the prohibition to acquire goods in that nation, but the impossibility of having the financial resources necessary to obtain goods in that market or others.

"It is the denial of medicines, of resources in all areas, of energy, of fuel," he said.

According to data from the report that Cuba will present to the United Nations in November on the subject, between August 2021 and February 2022, that policy caused losses in the order of three thousand 806.5 million dollars.

Likewise, in the first 14 months of the administration of U.S. President Joseph Biden, the damages caused by these provisions reached six thousand 364 million dollars, which represents an affectation of more than 454 million dollars per month and more than 15 million dollars per day.

Rodríguez pointed out that such hostility remains in force amid the international economic crisis, the impact of a pandemic such as Covid-19, and in the face of recent events such as the fire at the Supertanker Base in the western province of Matanzas or the devastation caused by the passage of Hurricane Ian through the island.

He affirmed that given this scenario, the United States should change its policy towards Cuba, cease the persecution of its financial transactions, allow the country to rebuild itself, eliminate the prohibition for U.S. companies to offer contracts to the island or at least make the siege more flexible, apply humanitarian exceptions using executive powers.

"It is what morality, decency, and even what the national interest, politics, and international law demand," he said.

"I am convinced that the U.S. government could do the right thing, using only executive capacities," remarked the head of Cuban diplomacy. (Source: PL)