Cuba plans to submit a draft resolution to the UN General Assembly in early November for the 30th time demanding that the US end the blockade. This was announced on Wednesday at a briefing by the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic, Bruno Rodriguez Parrilla.
According to him, the draft resolution notes that the embargo imposed by the United States has led to accumulated economic damage in the amount of more than $1 trillion.
B. Rodríguez Parrilla stated that between August 2021 and February 2022 alone, Cuba’s economic losses caused by the US economic blockade reached a record high of US$3.8 billion.
The head of diplomacy noted that at the current dollar rate, the 60-year US embargo against Cuba inflicted cumulative losses on the republic in the amount of more than $154.2 billion. Taking into account the depreciation of the US dollar against gold prices on the international market, this figure exceeds 1.39 trillion US dollars.
The United States tightened sanctions against Cuba even during the novel coronavirus /COVID-19 / pandemic, preventing Cuba from purchasing medicines from the United States and third countries, the diplomat recalled, stressing that the Cuban people have the right to live without an embargo that harms all Cuban businesses and families.
The United States adopted a hostile policy towards Cuba after the victory of the Cuban Revolution in 1959. In 1961, the United States and Cuba severed diplomatic relations. The following year, the US imposed an economic and financial blockade and trade embargo against Cuba. In 2015, the two countries resumed diplomatic relations, but the United States did not fully lift the blockade against Cuba. After the Donald Trump administration came to power in 2017, the United States again tightened its policy towards Cuba. Since 2019, the US has continued to tighten sanctions against Cuba.
Since 1992, the UNGA has overwhelmingly approved in succession 29 draft resolutions submitted by Cuba demanding that the United States end the economic, financial and commercial blockade against Cuba.
