Cuba recognized on Wednesday the recent US assistance as something “positive”, but denounced that the US trade embargo of more than six decades has caused record losses and incalculable human suffering in recent months, amid a “special context” after the passage of hurricane Ian around the island
Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez spoke at the start of an annual campaign for the presentation at the United Nations of a report condemning the trade embargo imposed on Havana after Fidel Castro’s leftist revolution in 1959.
The Cuban foreign minister’s press conference was given after the announcement on Tuesday by the government of US President Joe Biden that would provide $2 million in aid emergency after Ian’s whipping to the island.
“Despite the positive announcements (…) the blockade has not changed its scope or its depth,” Rodríguez said at a press conference in Havana. “The blockade is the permanent pandemic, the constant hurricane,” he noted.
Although the recent gestures of rapprochement between Havana and Washington, Rodriguez’s comments make it clear that the relationship between the two governments is not fluid, as is clear from the fact that the aid item granted by the Biden Administration will not be managed by local authorities, but by organizations that would help channel the resources.
In this sense, Vedant Patel, deputy spokesman for the United States Department of State, also assured on Wednesday that the amount assigned to help Cubans affected by Hurricane Ian was granted to independent organizations because “we believe that it is the fastest and most the best vehicle to have a direct impact in helping Cubans rebuild after this disaster.”
Patel assured at a press conference that the US government “continues to monitor” Cuba’s humanitarian needs in coordination with its international partners and will take additional steps “if necessary.”
“Through this aid we seek to work with trusted independent organizations that operate in the country and that have a long presence working in areas impacted by the hurricane,” added the federal agency’s slamming doors.
Regarding the validity of the commercial blockade, it should be noted that the UN General Assembly will vote on November 2 and 3 on a non-binding resolution, which condemns the embargo.
Cuba said damage from the embargo from August 2021 to February 2022 totaled $3.8 billion, a record for that seven-month period, while losses over six decades rose to $154 billion.
[Con información de Reuters y la colaboración de Salomé Ramírez Vargas, periodista de VOA, desde Washington]
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