By Hedelberto López Blanch* / Special Contribution to Resumen Latinoamericano.
It is truly impossible for anyone in their right mind and with a basic sense of humanity to believe that the economic, financial, and commercial blockade that the United States has maintained and reinforced against Cuba for 63 years does not exist, because the data and facts are overwhelming.
Washington has been defeated and humiliated 32 times since 1992 in the UN General Assembly, which has voted almost unanimously (only the United States and Israel opposed) to support the Resolution “Necessity of Ending the Economic, Commercial, and Financial Blockade Imposed by the United States Against Cuba,” updated every year.
This has been the reason why the “uncontrollable mythomaniac” and Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, as a recent book published in Havana exposes, has sent aggressive intimidating and deceptive letters to several countries with the aim of forcing them to modify their traditional and historical position in support of the Resolution against the blockade.
At a press conference, Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla argued that this campaign is aimed not only at distorting Cuba’s image but also at generating pressure on third countries regarding their stance on the blockade against our homeland. Its objective is to create a climate of misinformation and confusion, provoke demoralization, and generate a feeling of insecurity or fear among United Nations member states.
The foreign minister showed the press irrefutable evidence of the US campaign, “which has developed with extraordinary intensity in the last two weeks,” and referred to the Reuters news agency cable that, based on State Department documents to which it had access, revealed Marco Rubio’s active strategy to coerce several governments and change their votes in the General Assembly.
“The most ridiculous part of the document, Rodríguez Parrilla said, is the last chapter, which describes Cuba as “a threat to international peace and security.” “This seems like a mockery (…) Respect our intelligence, respect our seriousness.”
The Foreign Minister stated that “what the State Department, its Secretary of State, and some other Undersecretaries are doing is not diplomatic. It is pressure with arguments they believe, but that no one will believe, to try to alter the debate on the Resolution.” This will be presented for the thirty-third time on October 28 and 29, 2025.
“It is a way,” he denounced, “of diverting the issue to other matters, pressuring others, diverting from the main point: which is the abuse committed by the government of the United States, a great superpower, against a small, noble, hardworking, supportive, and peaceful people.”
And no other nation faces such a prolonged, anachronistic, systematic, and complex framework of laws and policies of aggression and coercion, coupled with the unprecedented intensification of the blockade in recent years and the deployment of systematic persecution actions aimed at cutting off the The Cuban economy’s main sources of income.
The Cuban Foreign Minister assured in statements to the national and international press accredited in Havana that “there is no sector of social and economic life that escapes the effects of the blockade.”
He argued that the United States government intends to ignore or minimize the overwhelming impact of this policy, even blaming the Cuban development model and its authorities through manipulation and disinformation operations mainly on social media.
He indicated that between March 2024 and February 2025, the blockade has caused damages estimated at $7.556 billion. In other words, the damage compared to the previous period has increased by 49% as a result of the additional measures applied in the last 12 months. The impact, compared to the previous year, has increased by $2.499 billion, exceeding the enormous damage caused in the 2023-2024 period.
Due to the long grip of the blockade, more than 80% of the population has lost their jobs. of the current Cuban population was born under the effects of this hostile policy, which is why they do not know a reality other than that of a blockaded country.
No country,” argued Bruno Rodríguez, “even those with economies much more robust than Cuba’s,” could face such a brutal, asymmetric, and prolonged aggression without a considerable cost to their population’s standard of living.”
Since its imposition, the blockade has cost Cuba more than $1.5 trillion, considering the dollar’s performance against gold.
Despite all this pressure and aggressive threats from the United States against numerous countries, the Cuban Foreign Minister stated: “I am sure that the overwhelming majority of member states will vote once again for the truth and with the truth, for justice and with justice. They will vote to demand, to demand the end of the blockade.”
There is no doubt that on October 28 and 29, Washington will fail in its policy because far from leaving Cuba isolated in the international arena, it will be the United States that will be ridiculed before the world.
(*) Cuban journalist. He writes for the newspaper Juventud Rebelde and the weekly Opciones. He is the author of “Cuban Emigration in the United States,” “Secret Stories of Cuban Doctors in Africa,” “Miami, Dirty Money,” “The Rebirth of the Cicadas,” “Rubio: An Uncontrollable Mythomaniac,” among others.
