Cuban authorities warn that recent sanctions and restrictions are deepening the impact of the blockade on the island’s economy and daily life. Washington seeks to provoke an internal collapse by affecting basic services, income, and economic relations with the outside world.
The United States has a deliberate strategy to strangle the Cuban people so they implode, denounced the ambassador of the Caribbean island in Uruguay, Lissett Pérez, today.
In an interview published by the weekly El Popular, the diplomat stated that such a policy “is combined with a media campaign that seeks to make the population see the Cuban government as guilty, instead of pointing to what really causes these difficulties, which is the aggressive policy of the US.”
Living under the blockade means living with limitations of all kinds, he said, and recalled that in his country, the revolutionary process promoted “transformations that allowed the Cuban people to enjoy concrete and measurable benefits.” He mentioned high rates of education, access to healthcare, complex treatments and surgeries, expansion of culture and scientific benefits.
We came from that development process, but always against the current of the blockade, which was established from the very triumph of the Revolution and was putting increasingly harsh measures in place, he pointed out.
The embargo, once it became law in the 1990s, became a very complex web that affected our relationships with other countries. It was a web designed to prevent Cuba from engaging in normal economic relations with the rest of the world, he stated.
He noted that President Donald Trump’s administration implemented 243 measures “that brutally strengthened the blockade.”
They added the Caribbean island back to the list of state sponsors of terrorism. “They have persecuted tourists visiting the island, they have targeted banks, they have gone after remittances, they have blocked every possible source of income to prevent a single dollar from reaching Cuba.”
He continued, “This is compounded by the oil embargo imposed in January. Without electricity, hospitals, the healthcare system, schools, industries, and research centres cannot function. Everything that generates the country’s gross domestic product is being strangled.”
The ambassador highlighted the role of solidarity and support in the difficult context facing her country.
“If there are governments that, subjected to the designs of Washington, prefer to ignore the heritage that the region has built over the years around self-determination, integration and respect for political diversity, then people have the potential to go beyond that.”
Cuba has received much affection from Uruguay. The Caravan for Peace and Solidarity was part of that expression. “I know that fundraising efforts are underway. All of this is very important, not only as a material gesture but because it shows the world that Cuba is not alone in the region,” he emphasised. PL
(Translated by Susan Seccombe) – Photos: Pixabay
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