European parliamentarians Sira Rego and Manu Pineda.
Havana, February 5 (RHC)-- The extraterritorial effects of the U.S. blockade and the defamatory campaigns against Cuba were denounced in Havana by MEPs visiting the island.
Washington's blockade violates the human rights of all the people of Cuba but also those of other nations, said Sira Rego, vice-president of The Left group of the European Parliament, and Manu Pineda, vice-president of the group of friendship with Cuba in that legislative body, at a press conference. Both are part of a group of nine parliamentarians who are making an official visit to the Caribbean nation invited by the National Assembly of People's Power.
Sira Rego stressed that it is necessary to put an end to that policy imposed by Washington and whose official establishment was 60 years ago, although the pressures began since the triumph of the Cuban Revolution on January 1, 1959. For his part, Manu Pineda pointed out that the blockade generates serious effects in all fields which deteriorate the quality of life of Cubans, but this also affects the citizens of other nations. She explained that, for example, in Cuba they produce medicines that improve the health and life of people, such as those that help fight Alzheimer's disease or cure diabetic foot conditions. However, because of the blockade, it is practically impossible for many people to have access to those drugs that would improve the quality of life of millions of Europeans, he said. Likewise, both criticized that extreme right-wing groups are trying to impose in the European Parliament the agenda of the United States against Cuba.
Pineda pointed out that the extreme right insists on unleashing campaigns against Cuba just as they have done at other times against Venezuela or Nicaragua, following the patterns of U.S. policy. However, they avoid condemning the human rights violations and massacres in Colombia, nor the situation of thousands of migrants trying to reach Europe or how to solve the situation of millions of children who today sleep in the streets around the world, "and none of them is Cuban", he said. He added that now they are trying to generate a campaign about the presence of children in Cuban prisons, without any basis, but they do not talk about the thousands of minors who are imprisoned in the United States, some of them even sentenced to life imprisonment. In this regard, he warned that the Cuban government does not have to prove that there are no children in Cuban prisons, but that those who accuse it of this should present the evidence to confirm it, which they have not been able to do, 聽he assured.
For her part, Sira Rego pointed out that certain campaigns of the European right wing are based on rumors and fake news. She said that Cuba is the target of this propaganda because the island "represents a counter-hegemonic movement that does not sit well with right-wing political sectors", especially when millions of people in the world see in the island a social model that constitutes a real alternative.
Both MEPs said that during their stay in Cuba they had a very full agenda that took them to the provinces of Havana, Matanzas and Mayabeque, where they held meetings and dialogues with authorities and people from the widest sectors.
