More voices raised at UN calling for end to U.S. blockade against Cuba

United Nations, September 25 (RHC)-- During the fourth day of the UN General Assembly's high-level debate on Friday, more voices were raised to call for an end to the U.S. blockade against Cuba. 

Speaking virtually in the plenary, the Vice President of Benin, Mariam Chabi Talata, said that her country supports the resolution adopted by the 34th summit of the African Union, held in February 2021 in Addis Ababa, on the economic blockade imposed on the Caribbean island. In this regard, she stressed, we call on the Government of Washington to put an end to that mechanism in the name of promoting peace and development. The Vice president also called for 'the normalization of relations between Cuba and the United States'.

In addition, Gambian Vice President Isatou Touray said in her speech to the plenary that it is time for the U.S. siege against the largest of the Antilles to become history.  "We believe in friendly relations between States as a cornerstone of international cooperation and solidarity and therefore, we ask the United States to end the blockade against Cuba and to establish collaboration links," she added. 

The previous day, Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Lesotho, Moeketsi Majoro, also called for the lifting of the unilateral siege against the Cuban people, an issue that must be resolved urgently.  In the last three decades, the General Assembly has systematically voted against the coercive measures of the U.S. blockade against Cuba, he recalled.  Majoro also stressed that the mechanism persists and as a result, the people of that island are subjected to untold suffering and pain, exacerbated in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Mexico was another of the nations that expressed its opposition to the economic, commercial and financial blockade against Cuba in the general debate.  The day before, speaking at the plenary session of the General Assembly, Mexican Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard demanded the lifting of the blockade, a demand repeated by President Andrés Manuel López Obrador in recent months and which he said this cannot be postponed in view of the severe global economic and health crisis. "Instead of unilateral measures, we must implement actions of solidarity and mutual support to promote the economic growth and development of our peoples," he stressed. 

Washington intensified the blockade in an opportunistic and unprecedented manner in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic, as the Government of Havana has repeatedly denounced. Under Donald Trump (2017-2021), the White House launched more than 240 unilateral coercive measures and sanctions against Cuba. To date, Joe Biden's administration applies the same policy in full.