Havana, September 20 (RHC) -- "The blockade against Cuba is an extraterritorial, cruel and silent economic war that is accompanied by a powerful political machinery of destabilization," denounced President Miguel Díaz-Canel on Tuesday as he condemned the siege imposed by the United States.

During the General Debate of the United Nations, the head of state affirmed that the Cuban people resists and creatively defeats in the face of that ruthless economic war, which since 2019, in full pandemic, opportunistically escalated to an even more extreme dimension.

Among other affectations, Díaz-Canel recalled that this policy pursues and tries to cut fuel and lubricant supplies to Havana while prohibiting access to technologies, including medical equipment, with more than 10 percent of U.S. components.

At the same time, it attempts against the island's medical cooperation with other nations by threatening sovereign governments for requesting this contribution and responding to the public health needs of their populations.

"Under cover of that arbitrary and fraudulent accusation, they extort hundreds of banking and financial entities in all parts of the world and force them to choose between continuing their relations with the United States or maintaining their ties with Cuba," he argued.

The Cuban president added that Washington lies and does enormous damage to international efforts to combat terrorism when it accuses the nation, without any basis whatsoever, of sponsoring that scourge.

"It is a real siege accompanied by a powerful political machinery of destabilization, with millionaire funds approved by the U.S. Congress, to capitalize on the shortcomings caused by the blockade and undermine the constitutional order and the tranquility of the citizenry".

He stressed that the largest island of the Antilles is not the first country under its effects but it is the one that has endured them for the longest time despite the worldwide condemnation that every year is expressed almost unanimously in this Assembly.

In this regard, the President rejected the unilateral coercive measures imposed on countries such as Zimbabwe, Syria, Iran and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

He emphasized that "in spite of the hostility of your government, we will continue to build bridges with the people of the United States, as we do with all the peoples of the world, and we will increasingly strengthen our ties with Cuban emigrants in every corner of the planet".