Cuba denounces impact of U.S. blockade after 61 years

HAVANA, Cuba, Feb 3 (ACN) On the 61st anniversary of the signing of Proclamation 3447, which established the U.S. economic, commercial and financial blockade of Cuba, Cuban foreign minister Bruno Rodriguez Parrilla said today that this system of coercive measures is the most severe, prolonged and inhumane applied against any nation.

On Twitter, Rodriguez Parrilla recalled the approval of that hostile policy by then U.S. President John F. Kennedy, and pointed out that this February 3 marks more than 60 years of resistance and victories of the Cuban people in the face of the unjust aggression.

According to official figures, the accumulated damages during six decades of application of this policy amount to more than 154.2 billion dollars, and taking into account the behavior of the dollar against the value of gold in the international market, the quantifiable damages reach 391.1 billion dollars.

Rodriguez Parrilla has denounced on several occasions that the U.S. blockade was carefully designed, targeting each one of Cuba's main sources of income, viciously seeking to increase the impact on the daily life of the population.

According to Cuban authorities, the siege has tightened in recent years to unprecedented levels, and an example of this is that only between August 2021 and February 2022, the island recorded losses of 3,806.5 billion dollars, a figure 49 % higher than that reported in the period January-July 2021.

During the most recent session, in November 2022, the UNGA supported Cuba's demand for the end of the blockade, with 185 votes in favor, two against (United States and Israel) and two abstentions (Brazil and Ukraine).

According to the Cuban government, the US persists in ignoring this result and has tightened the blockade to unprecedented levels, applying a policy of economic choking to deliberately seek the collapse of the country.