HAVANA, Cuba, Jan 12 (ACN) Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla said today on Twitter that the United States intends to hinder the profound process of changes underway in Cuba with a view to its economic and social development.
Washington’s current aggressiveness tries to curb Cuba’s actions to achieve greater economic sustainability, advance social justice and improve the population’s standard of living, he added.
Rodríguez Parrilla also denounced the tightening of the U.S. economic, commercial and financial blockade and its growing extraterritorial character.
According to official figures, between April 2019 and December 2020 alone, the U.S. blockade caused damages to Cuba amounting to nine billion 157 million dollars at current prices, 436 million dollars a month in damages on average.
Losses in the last five years exceeded 17 billion dollars and the accumulated damages in six decades reach 147 billion dollars.
In June 2021, the General Assembly of the United Nations (UN) reaffirmed its support for the Cuban resolution to put an end to this siege, with 184 votes in favor, two against and three abstentions.
In his report, Rodriguez Parrilla underscored health as one of the main sectors affected by the unilateral policy, a situation made even worse during the current COVID-19 pandemic, and condemned the measures that directly harm the Cuban people, such as the obstacles to the sending of remittances, the normal development of links with Cubans living in the United States and family reunification.
“On top of it all is a standing smear campaign,” he wrote, “paid with the federal budget and intended to destabilize the island.
He described the U.S.’s financial persecution as a ruthless hunt that harms transactions with third countries, the ability to pay and collect payments and the possibility of accessing credits.
Every year since 1992, Cuba has presented before the United Nations a resolution on the need to lift the U.S. economic, commercial and financial blockade, a document supported by the majority of voters.
