Cuba’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Ernesto Soberón, has denounced the extremely damaging humanitarian impact of the unilateral coercive measures imposed by the United States government against his country.
In statements to Prensa Latina, regarding the upcoming plenary session of the UN General Assembly against the blockade, Ambassador Soberón emphasized that “it is about reopening Item 38 of the Agenda, related to the blockade.”
A debate will take place in light of current events: the economic war against our country, the energy embargo, the threats of aggression, and the executive orders with extraterritorial impact signed in recent months by President Donald Trump, the diplomat stressed. He said that these measures are having a negative effect “in all areas of society, in all spheres of life, because fuel is essential, despite all the actions our government is taking to increase domestic oil production, refining, electricity generation through renewable energy sources, and so on.”
When one speaks with the other ambassadors accredited to the UN, he noted, one asks them if they could imagine how their countries would be if, for seven months, they hadn’t received a single drop of oil, or if, as in the case of Cuba, only one shipment of 56-70 tankers had arrived, which, in normal times, would have covered the country’s fuel demand for the previous seven months.
Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez announced last week that Cuba has requested a UN session against the US blockade, to be held on Tuesday, July 7th, and denounced Washington’s pressure to try to prevent this debate from taking place.
The United States’ multidimensional aggression against Cuba “is not a danger yet to come or a future threat; it is a crime against humanity in full swing,” warned the Minister of Foreign Affairs during a press conference in Havana.
The energy blockade and other measures of extreme intensification of the blockade constitute “an act of genocide, also classified as collective punishment and a massive, flagrant, and systematic violation of the human rights of Cuban men and women and of international humanitarian law,” the Cuban official stated.
“The blockade and the policy of aggression and hostility of the United States government against Cuba is a threat to the existence and well-being of the people, to the exercise of their human rights,” the Foreign Minister emphasized, reiterating that his country is not and cannot be a threat to the northern nation, a great military and nuclear power.
Rodríguez revealed the maneuvers of the State Department’s diplomatic apparatus to try to prevent the General Assembly from addressing a matter of global interest in plenary session, using pressure and threats to intimidate the member states of the multilateral organization.
The UN General Assembly has condemned the blockade against Cuba on 31 previous occasions, with the majority support of the international community.
[ SOURCE: PRENSA LATINA ]
