Above Photo: José Manuel Correa
The blockade is real and has lasted more than five decades. Generations of Cubans have suffered its consequences. Its impact is felt in all sectors of society and constitutes a flagrant violation of the human rights of our people, an act of genocide and of economic warfare, the main obstacle to our development, violating international law, the purposes and principles of the United Nations Charter and the principles of free trade.
The economic, commercial and financial blockade imposed on Cuba by the United States began February 7, 1962, reaching increasingly extreme dimensions recently. At current prices, the accumulated damages over almost six decades of this policy, through March of 2019, reached the figure of 138,842,400,000 dollars and, taking into account the depreciation of the dollar as compared to the price of gold on the international market, the blockade has caused quantifiable damages of more than 922,630,000,000 dollars – although its cost within households, neighborhoods and communities is incalculable, given the harm caused to human lives every day.
Yesterday, February 3, Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, tweeted: “We condemn the genocidal, cruel, murderous blockade. The blockade violates our human rights,” on the occasion of the 58th anniversary of President John F. Kennedy’s signing of Presidential Proclamation 3447 (27 fr 1085), imposing the blockade on trade between the United States and Cuba.
Minister of Foreign Affairs Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla likewise posted a message stating: “58 years after its imposition, the U.S. blockade against Cuba constitutes the most unjust, severe and prolonged system of unilateral coercive measures ever applied against any country. It is genocidal, violates the human rights of an entire people, and must end.
The blockade persists and harms families, but it has failed to achieve its central objective of defeating the Cuban Revolution. The unity, perseverance and dignity of our people, our unbreakable spirit has resisted all coercion and pressure.
Twelve U.S. administrations, since 1959, have only managed to isolate themselves, as evidenced by universal rejection of the blockade, evident in many sectors of U.S. society that favor respectful, mutually beneficial ties, and in the international community’s rejection of the hostile policy, including 28 consecutive resolutions adopted by the UN General Assembly, since 1992, condemning the blockade