Cuba denounced before a UNESCO intergovernmental forum the intensification of the U.S. blockade, including an oil embargo, and its consequences for the cultural sector.
On Thursday, speaking at the Nineteenth Session of the Intergovernmental Committee on the 2005 Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions, Cuban diplomat Laura Álvarez detailed the impact of the escalating US aggression in areas such as public policy, arts education, and cultural exchange.
We regret that, when we could be celebrating with you Cuba’s contribution to the 20th anniversary of this Convention, both through the participation of our artists here and from across the country, we must instead use this space to denounce the crime being committed.”
On January 29, President Donald Trump declared that the Caribbean nation represents an “unusual and extraordinary threat” to U.S. national security and threatened to impose tariffs on countries that supply or sell it oil.
According to the member of the island’s Permanent Delegation to UNESCO, this decision intensifies an illegal policy of strangulation and collective punishment, maintained for more than six decades.
Among its effects, which violate the human rights of the Cuban people, are those related to culture.”
The diplomat reiterated at the forum that Cuba is a peaceful and safe country, forced by Washington’s new crusade, and particularly its consequences for the energy system, to cancel important cultural events and to move numerous initiatives from in-person to digital formats, with serious technical limitations.
All of this affects the artistic and creative life of our people, and the US blockade and its intensification severely threaten compliance with the 2005 Convention, limit the development of our artists and creators, and also restrict other peoples’ access to Cuba’s cultural wealth.
In her address at UNESCO headquarters in Paris, Álvarez affirmed that the Caribbean nation is not alone, as it has the support and solidarity of hundreds of artists and intellectuals from around the world, whom she thanked for their support.
[ SOURCE: PRENSA LATINA ]
