The Cuban ambassador to Bolivia, Elba Rosa Pérez, denounced on Saturday “with the firmness born of the dignity of the people I represent” the criminal policy maintained for six decades by the United States against her country.
“We raise our voices, once again, against the economic, commercial, and financial blockade, a policy that for more than six decades has attempted to subdue a dignified people through hunger and need,” she stated while thanking the organizers of the Revolutionary Cantata “Down with the Blockade,” performed in the courtyard of the diplomatic mission by dozens of Bolivian artists.
Pérez highlighted the strong response to the call from the Bolivian Movement of Solidarity with Cuba-La Paz, which drew ambassadors, other accredited diplomats, and, in particular, a delegation from the Latin American and Caribbean Group in Bolivia. They were joined by hundreds of members of political groups and social movements, as well as artists, intellectuals, and members of the press.
She explained to them that Washington’s reprisals are not simply a political difference, but a systematic strategy of economic strangulation aimed at breaking the sovereign will of the Revolution and punishing millions of families who have nothing to do with geopolitical decisions.
“The new oil blockade measures against the island,” the diplomat said, “constitute a dangerous and profoundly inhumane escalation.”
She described how limiting Cuba’s access to fuel means affecting hospitals, public transportation, food production, and electricity generation.
She indicated that this is a direct attack on the daily lives of the Cuban people. A deliberate attempt to provoke prolonged blackouts, shortages, and despair, to create a scenario of instability and internal unrest.
“That is not foreign policy. It is collective punishment, it is fourth-generation warfare, yet another expression of fascism in the 21st century,” she stated emphatically.
She clarified that the blockade not only violates international law and the principles of free trade, but also recalled that year after year, in multilateral forums, this anachronistic, failed, and morally indefensible policy is overwhelmingly condemned and rejected.
“Faced with the blockade and the oil embargo, we respond with dignity, with unity, and with the firm conviction that no empire can extinguish the will of a people who have decided their own destiny,” the ambassador concluded.
During the evening, in a gesture of solidarity with Cuba, the main practitioner of feather art in Bolivia, Alexandra Bravo, presented the ambassador with a work inspired by José Martí (1853-1895) in which the call of the author of Our America to continental unity was captured, while the Italian filmmaker Walter Uliano Pisteli presented the ambassador with a copy of his documentary Che Guevara in the 21st Century.
[ SOURCE: PRENSA LATINA ]
