Cuba is not alone.
On 30 October 2024, the General Assembly of the United Nations met once again to consider the item on its agenda “Necessity of ending the economic, commercial and financial blockade imposed by the United States of America against Cuba.”
By an overwhelming majority of 187 votes in favour, 2 against (the US and Israel) and one abstention (Moldova), the resolution calling on the US to end the blockade on the Caribbean island was adopted for the thirty-second consecutive time.
Resolution A/79/L.6, “once again urges those States where such laws and measures exist and continue to be in force to take the necessary steps, as soon as possible and in accordance with their legal systems, to repeal or render them ineffective“.
The resolution also requests the Secretary-General to continue preparing an annual report on the effects of the blockade, which this time, as every year, served as a basis for discussion.
Last 30th October, a total of 58 delegations joined their voices to demand the immediate cessation of this genocidal policy, which in 64 years has cost Cuba 1 trillion 499,710 million US dollars.
During his speech, the Cuban Minister of Foreign Affairs, Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla, said that “the blockade against Cuba is an economic, financial and commercial warfare and qualifies as a crime of genocide. It is a flagrant, massive and systematic violation of the human rights of our people. It is the most encompassing, comprehensive, and longest-standing system of unilateral coercive measures ever applied against any country.”
He pointed out that, in addition to these financial losses, the human damage caused by the blockade is enormous and cannot be quantified. “There is still no access to suitable medical equipment, treatments and drugs from US companies, which we have to buy at exorbitant prices from intermediaries or replace with less effective generics, even for newborn and sick children.”
As if this were not enough, the US government keeps Cuba on an illegitimate list of its Department of State that arbitrarily qualifies countries as sponsors of terrorism, which is a real slander. Anyone who has visited Cuba knows that Cuba is not a threat to any other nation and that it does not promote terrorism as a policy.
But, the Minister continued, “the presence of any country in that list automatically activates a series of coercive measures which, in the case of Cuba, add up to the already existing blockade. Standing out among them is the capacity to threaten financial institutions from other countries that are afraid of suffering US reprisals if they establish links with Cuba.“
The blockade is a senseless aberration that seeks to punish a country for the sole fact of having chosen to be free, sovereign and independent and not to submit to the designs and whims of Washington.
Although the resolution is not binding, the 187 votes in favour of Cuba indicate the support of almost all countries of the international community and constitute a great political victory for Cuba against the largest hegemonic power in the Western hemisphere.
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines has always raised its voice in support of Cuba and has been one of the nations that has most strongly denounced the senseless punishment to which the Cuban people have been subjected, something that Cuba deeply appreciates and never forget.
Next year and the following year, if necessary, Cuba will reintroduce the resolution seeking to lift the US blockade. Every year that passes it is the US who continues to isolate itself from the rest of the world by ignoring humanity’s claim.
Despite the blockade, Cuba will continue to resist and not bend the knee before anyone. It will continue to help other peoples in need. It will remain the island of freedom, justice and solidarity and it will always be accompanied of those who love it and who believe in it.
