Central University of Las Villas affected by U.S. blockade

SANTA CLARA, Cuba, May 26 (ACN) The lack of fuel for transportation, the inability to use ICT platforms for virtual interaction in times of pandemic, and the purchase at excessive prices of scientific equipment in distant markets are some of the main impacts of the blockade on the Marta Abreu Central University of Las Villas (UCLV).

The staff and students of this house of higher studies are affected as never before by intensification of a hostile economic Cuba policy that the U.S. government has kept in place for over 60 years.

Alina Montero Torres, director of international relations at UCLV, told ACN that between 2020 and early 2021 the school had losses of more than 72,000 dollars as a result of fuel shortages.

“Regarding research, we are engaged in international projects with funds to buy infrastructure and equipment, but we must get them in Europe or China rather than in much closer places, so the costs increase by more than 10% in terms of freightage,” she said.

“In the case of Geproy, a UCLV-run local development project to provide consultancy to state and non-state economic entities, we have not been able to buy consumables precisely because the blockade prevents suppliers from accepting payments from Geproy's bank account.”

Other damages include more than 300,000 dollars in losses of valuable items for research, such as X-ray diffraction equipment used in the School of Mechanical Engineering. In the ICT sector, the blockade limits UCLV’s access to services such as Google analytics, one of the main tools for monitoring web pages, and Zoom, preferred around the world for videoconference exchanges, very necessary now because of the pandemic.

“The U.S. blockade also makes it impossible for us to make legal use of computer programs to work with text, images and information management such as Microsoft Office, which obviously tampers with and puts an end to several projects.”