By Elizabeth Borrego Rodriguez
Chief correspondent of Prensa Latina at the United Nations
With 187 votes in favor, two against (USA and Israel) and Ukraine’s abstention, the largest political forum in the world called for the thirty-first time for the right of the Antillean nation to develop without the obstacles imposed for it in more than six decades. .
In addition to the near-universal assertion, the report presented by UN Secretary-General António Guterres recognized that the continuation of the siege of Cuba and its inclusion on the list of state sponsors of terrorism were acts incompatible with an international law-based system.
Both actions by the United States are a blatant expression of the exercise of political and economic power in clear violation of human rights, including the right to development, he stressed.
Nevertheless, Cuba remained committed to South-South cooperation and support in addressing global issues such as access to medical treatments and vaccines during the Covid-19 pandemic.
The resolution presented by Cuba estimates the damage caused by this illegal US policy to be approximately $4,867 million from March 1, 2022 to February 28, 2023.
From 1962 to the present, economic losses amount to 159,84.3 million dollars based on current prices and more than 1,337,000 billion if one takes into account the behavior of the dollar relative to the value of gold in the international market.
ACT OF WAR IN TIMES OF PEACE
In his speech to the forum, Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez described the siege imposed by the United States as an act of war in peacetime.
The decision to strengthen them in an unprecedented way during Covid-19 and to exploit the economic crisis to further the destabilization of the country shows the perverse nature of this policy, he denounced.
The owner recalled how this package of measures affects the well-being of fellow citizens, in vital areas such as nutrition, energy or access to medicines, including drugs to treat cancer, diabetes and other diseases.
“With malice and surgical precision, the most sensitive sectors of the economy are being attacked in a targeted attempt to inflict the greatest possible damage on Cuban families,” he noted.
At the same time, the persecution was intensified by the arbitrary inclusion of Cuba on the State Department’s biased list of supporters of terrorism.
According to the Chancellor, the decision was “a deadly measure by the Republican administration of Donald Trump (2016-2020), just nine days after it left the White House.”
However, current President Joe Biden could and would have corrected it tomorrow with just one signature.
The United States government is lying and doing enormous damage to international efforts to combat terrorism when it baselessly accuses Cuba of being a sponsor of this scourge, he stressed.
The blockade is an act of peacetime economic warfare aimed at destroying the government’s ability to meet the needs of the people, creating a situation of ungovernability and destroying the constitutional order, he stressed.
“It is neither legal nor ethical for the government of a power to subject a small nation to decades of incessant economic warfare in order to impose an alien political system and reappropriate its resources,” he rejected.
ONE BLOCK WITH ALL LETTERS
After nearly 30 years of promoting efforts to deliver medical supplies to Cuba and working with health care facilities, Bob Schwartz recognizes that United States policy toward the Caribbean nation is a blockade.
The managing director of the non-governmental organization Global Health Partners (GHP) considers it a “different case” to establish donations for his health system precisely because of the fence.
GHP, a solidarity organization supported by public health institutions in Latin America and the Caribbean, is committed to building self-sufficient health care systems.
However, its work on Cuba has made it a special target since it began in 1994 and especially after Trump came to power.
Among other obstacles, the representative noted the lack of commercial air transport from North American territory, forcing them to use “very creative routes” to bring medicine to the Cuban capital.
“We have moved refrigerated shipments from New York to Brussels and then to Madrid to arrive in Havana, which takes several days,” he explained in an interview with Prensa Latina.
In a normal relationship we could fly directly from the United States and it would take three hours by air and even by sea, but that is not the case.
Schwartz also deplored the inflexibility of the Joe Biden administration, which forces us to rely on ever slower export licenses and hinders the procurement of necessary products.
“It is very difficult for us to buy from companies that simply do not want to sell to us, even though they know the product is going to Cuba,” he lamented.
Although GHP’s work focuses on donations and health assistance, this does not constitute an advantage to circumvent the blockade policy.
Among the hundreds of provisions is an exception for shipments addressed to individuals or nonprofits, which is not the case for major donors to the Department of Health.
In addition, Cuba is unable to obtain diagnostic equipment from American manufacturers and other companies refuse to trade with the island for fear of so-called sanctions.
FENCE AGAINST DEVELOPMENT
According to Francisco Pichón, the United Nations Resident Coordinator in Cuba, the small nation’s path to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) also faces a particular and complex context shaped by external pressures.
Coercive measures and its involvement as a suspected sponsor of terrorism represent the main challenge in financing the 2030 Agenda, the representative assured in statements to Prensa Latina.
“It requires intensive work to ensure that the country’s achievements – benchmarks in the Latin American region in areas such as health and education – are maintained and their quality is not lost,” he stressed.
While in most countries there is talk of getting the Sustainable Development Goals back on track, in Cuba there is an insistence on not losing what has been achieved, he added.
In addition to the national economy, supporting the United Nations on this path also faces its own challenges, such as access to financing – be it credit or loans -, finding suppliers or transitioning to providing assistance for emergencies.
“The Secretary General has talked about reforming the international financial system for countries with high debts, but we are talking about excluding Cuba from this system, imperfect as it is,” he admitted.
The United Nations system faces the great challenge of not leaving the country without options; Cuba remains true to the 2030 Agenda and is doing what it can and more with its public resources, he emphasized.
Pichón recalled that the country has drawn up a roadmap aligned with the UN goals called “National Economic and Social Development Plan 2030” and this year strengthened its commitment to multilateralism at the forefront of the G77 and China.
“We have the energy to respond and find a way forward,” said the resident coordinator, citing important areas of joint work such as new forms of economic governance, responding to natural disasters or social protection focused on vulnerable groups.
arc/ebr