Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez says that the United States economic, commercial and financial blockade is causing the limitations of access to medicines in the Caribbean country, recently admitted by President Donald Trump.
On the social network X, the foreign minister shared a fragment of his interview with CNN en Español, where he addressed the impact of Washington’s hostile policy on the healthcare of the Cuban population.
“In an interview with @CNNEE, I explained that the US president recognizes that the way his country conducts itself with #Cuba prevents the Cuban economy from securing the necessary resources to provide medicines to the entire population,” the foreign minister wrote.
This statement refers to recent comments by Donald Trump, in which he asserts that Cuba “doesn’t have money for Tylenol (paracetamol).”
In the interview, Bruno Rodríguez explains that the blockade includes a ban on sending medications and medical equipment to Cuba, as demonstrated during the COVID-19 pandemic, when that country refused to supply ventilators and medical oxygen through subsidiary companies.
“The US blockade affects health services, causes illness, and causes deaths in Cuba despite our very powerful health system,” the foreign minister concluded.
According to Cuba’s most recent report on the effects of the blockade, this Washington policy affects the acquisition of 69 percent of basic prescription medications on the island.
He specifies that of this list of 651 medications (250 imported and 401 domestically produced), more than 400 are currently not being received regularly in the country’s pharmacies.
Furthermore, 364 medications (56% of the total) are in short supply, the report emphasizes.
The document highlights that Cuba cannot normally access or must do so through third markets and at much higher prices, advanced U.S.-made technologies and medications, or medical equipment in which more than 10% of its components are from the United States.
[ SOURCE: PRENSA LATINA ]
