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Volume 54 Number 28, November 2, 2024 ARCHIVE HOME JBCENTRE SUBSCRIBE

US Hands Off Cuba!

UN General Assembly Overwhelmingly Adopts Resolution to End US Blockade of Cuba


Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla addressing UN General Assembly

On Wednesday, October 30, the United Nations' General Assembly reiterated its call on the United States to end its economic, commercial and financial blockade against Cuba, which Cuba's Minister for Foreign Affairs Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla called "commercial warfare" and "a crime of genocide".

The 193-member Assembly adopted its annual resolution on the "Necessity of ending the economic, commercial and financial embargo imposed by the United States of America against Cuba" (document A/79/L.6), by a recorded vote of 187 in favour and 2 against (United States, Israel), with one abstention (Republic of Moldova). It began its debate on the topic on the previous day.

By the terms of the adopted resolution, the Assembly urged other states that have applied and continue to apply laws or measures in support of the blockade on Cuba to repeal or invalidate them as soon as possible.


UN Vote against US blockade of Cuba

"How long will this go on?" Rodríguez Parrilla asked the Assembly, recalling that the body has urged for an end to the blockade since 1992.

"Let Cuba live; let Cuba live in peace," he emphasised, calling the blockade "a flagrant, massive and systematic violation of the human rights of our people" and "the most encompassing, comprehensive and longest-standing system of unilateral coercive measures ever applied against any country."

Cuba's Foreign Minister recalled how from October 18 to 23 Cuban families had no electricity, except for maybe a few hours. "Many Cuban families lacked running water; hospitals worked under emergency conditions, schools and universities suspended their classes; businesses interrupted their activity," he said.

Since 2019, the United States has adopted harsher measures of "economic warfare" designed to prevent the supply of fuel and spare parts needed to maintain Cuba's power plants and electricity grid. "President Joseph Biden's administration tends to claim that its policy is to help and support the Cuban people," Rodríguez Parrilla said, also asking: "Who would believe such an assertion?"

The damage done to Cuba since the blockade was imposed some 62 years ago amounts to $1.499 trillion, considering the United States dollar value against the price of gold, the Foreign Minister said. During the last 18 years of the blockade, Cuba has lost $252 trillion.

"Imperialism is warning the whole world that any nation daring to firmly defend its sovereignty and to build its own future will pay a price for that rebelliousness," he emphasised.

"The right to food is a human right," Rodríguez Parrilla went on to say, adding that the accumulated cost of four months of economic blockade is equivalent to $1.6 billion. That amount would be enough to guarantee for an entire year the "delivery to all Cuban families a ration food basket". With $12 million, Cuba could buy the insulin necessary to treat all its diabetic patients. The losses incurred by the blockade within a single day exceed that amount. "The United States government is perfectly aware of the direct and indirect impact that its policy has on the Cuban health system," and the "consequences of incomplete treatments, delayed treatments and postponed surgeries," he said.

(UN News, Prensa Latina)


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