Cuba welcomes condemnation of U.S. blockade at UN

HAVANA, Cuba, Sep 20 (ACN) Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel thanked world leaders who spoke at the General Debate of the 78th UN General Assembly against the 60-plus year old U.S. blockade of the island.

In their speeches, the representatives of Brazil, Colombia, Bolivia, Argentina and South Africa called for both the end of the said U.S. policy and the unjust inclusion of Cuba on the list of state sponsors of terrorism.

“Brazil will continue to denounce measures adopted without the protection of the United Nations Charter, such as the economic and financial embargo imposed on Cuba and any attempt to classify this country as a state sponsor of terrorism,” Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said.

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa referred to the blockade’s harmful effects on the Cuban economy and people, whereas the Argentinian head of state Alberto Fernández remarked that year after year an overwhelming majority of countries demand at the UN the end of the blockade and similar anti-Cuban policies.

In his words to the General Assembly, Díaz-Canel stressed that the blockade stifles the Cuban people’s standards of living and deprives them of food, medicines and other basic supplies.

“Those are the nature and goals of the said policy of economic coercion and pressure imposed by the U.S. government on Cuba in violation of International Law and of the UN Charter,” he pointed out.