The blockade undermines lives of millions of Cubans, Cuban FM affirms

HAVANA, Cuba, Jun 21 (ACN) Bruno Rodriguez Parrilla, Cuban foreign minister, said today on Twitter that every economic, commercial and financial blockade measure in force by the U.S. government threatens the health and lives of millions of people in Cuba.

The Cuban diplomat denounced that his country has had to face the opportunistic tightening of this blockade, in addition to the economic and epidemiological effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.

According to the most recent report on the effects of the blockade on Cuba, during the year 2020 the U.S. government deliberately hindered the import of supplies necessary to face COVID-19, denying requests for flights with humanitarian cargo.

Furthermore, the extraterritorial scope of this policy has prevented the acquisition of more than 30 products and supplies that are urgently required for the prevention and treatment protocols of COVID-19; and it continues to hinder Cuba's access to medical technologies with more than 10 % of components coming from the United States.

The document also indicates that the Caribbean nation could not have access to a total of 32 equipment and supplies related to the production of vaccine candidates against COVID-19 or to the execution of stages that allow the completion of clinical studies.

As a consequence, the island had to appeal to other suppliers as intermediaries, which entailed a price increase that ranged between 50 and 65 % of that previously established, given the impossibility of contracting directly with the manufacturer.

The official figures indicate that only between April and December 2020, the affectations to the health sector amounted to 198,348,000 dollars, which exceeds by 38 million dollars the figure reported between April 2019 and March 2020.

In the almost six decades of application of this policy, the accumulated damages amount to 147,853 billion dollars.

Cuba will speak out against the blockade this Wednesday, June 23 at the United Nations General Assembly, in a vote that for more than 25 years has demonstrated the broad rejection of the international community to Washington's unilateral policy.