U.S. blockade affects medicine stocks in Cuba, foreign minister denounces

HAVANA, Cuba, Apr 29 (ACN) Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla denounced today on Twitter the effects of the U.S. economic, commercial and financial blockade on the procurement of medicines for pharmacies, hospitals and health centers in the country and described the unilateral policy that Washington has reinforced in times of COVID-19 as an obstacle to the acquisition of essential consumables and drugs whose suppliers and the banks they work with are the object of threats and reprisals.

According to official sources, the losses caused to Cuba by the blockade in the field of health amounted to USD 160,260,880 dollars between April 2019 and March 2020 alone.

Despite the difficult situation caused by the pandemic, the U.S. government intensified the measures, which the Cuban Foreign Minister called “an act of economic warfare” upon the presentation in December of the report on the effects of the blockade on Cuba.

As an example of this, he cited the obstacles to donations and purchases abroad, the campaign against Cuban medical cooperation, the extreme reduction of air transportation, and the bans on remittances.

“This makes it extremely difficult for Cuba to obtain equipment and raw materials for the production of drugs against SARS-CoV-2,” he said.

Cuba's biopharmaceutical industry business group, BioCubaFarma, denounced Monday that the siege has caused an increase in the cost of consumables required to develop our five COVID-19 vaccine candidates, since Cuba has to get them through third parties. Throw in the fact that the usual suppliers have refused to sell to Cuba for fear of the brutal blockade policy imposed on their companies.

As a maneuver to tighten the siege to Cuba, the Donald Trump Administration also included Cuba in its unilateral list of countries that sponsor terrorism.
According to official figures, the accumulated damages to Cuba during almost six decades of the blockade add up to USD 144,413,400,000.