United States Strengthens Economic Blockade, Cuba Denounces

Cuba denounced this week the strengthening of the blockade imposed by the United States for almost six decades, by publishing the Foreign Ministry''s annual report on the effects of the siege on society and the impact of its extraterritorial component.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the island released on Friday the text of United Nations General Assembly resolution 72/4, entitled 'Necessity of ending the economic, commercial and financial blockade imposed by the United States of America against Cuba'.

According to the document, which includes the damages of the unilateral measure between April 2017 and March 2018, Washington not only maintains the laws and regulations which support the blockade, but applies them rigorously.

According to the Cuban government, after the arrival of President Donald Trump at the White House in January 2017, an economic siege described here as genocide has been strengthened, based on his intention to render an entire people to hunger and disease.

The Foreign Ministry cites concrete examples of the intensification of the blockade in recent months, citing fines for US and foreign banks and companies for their ties with Cuba, including American Honda Finance Corporation, AIG, ASB Bank, HSBC and Barclays.

The report released yesterday illustrates the impact of the blockade in the run-up to a new vote in the UN General Assembly on October 31 on a draft resolution on the need to put an end to unilateral sanctions.

The international community has consistently since 1992 approved similar initiatives in the General Assembly, where the U.S. blockade is often referred to as crime, injustice, human rights violations, obstacles to development, and Cold War relics.

In 2015, 2016 and 2017, the draft resolution received the support of 191 out of 193 member States of the multilateral body in the main deliberative body of the United Nations, an area in which Washington is proving its isolation year after year.