The call comes ahead of the Cuban government’s annual submission to the UN General Assembly of a draft resolution calling for an end to the embargo….reports Asian Lite News
Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez called on the US government to lift its decades-long trade embargo, or blockade, against the country.
“The US blockade has caused Cuba losses valued at $3.806 billion between August 2021 and February 2022,” Xinhua news agency quoted the Minister as saying.
The call comes ahead of the Cuban government’s annual submission to the UN General Assembly of a draft resolution calling for an end to the embargo.
The General Assembly is scheduled to discuss and vote on the draft resolution in early November.
US trade sanctions, Rodriguez said, severely limit Cuba’s access to food, medicine, technology and inputs on the international market.
“The world would be a better place without the US blockade against Cuba,” he added.
First imposed in 1962, the embargo was broadened by former US President Donald Trump, who put in place 243 more sanctions, including banning all flights from American to Cuban destinations except for Havana, and capping remittances Cuban Americans can send to their families back home.
The current US administration allowed airlines to resume flights to other Cuban cities and lifted the cap on remittances, but the web of sanctions against Havana remains largely in place.
For 29 times in a row, the UN General Assembly has voted in favour of the resolution urging the US to end its embargo against Cuba.
Meanwhile, in an unusual but not unprecedented move, the United States has offered critical emergency humanitarian assistance to the Cuban people following the devastating impact of Hurricane Ian which hit the western part of the island in late September, causing extensive damage to its power grid.
The assistance announced by the State Department includes $2 million in provisions and supplies that will be delivered through independent organisations operating in the country who have a long presence in hurricane-affected communities.
“We are currently reviewing applications from organisations such as the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) to provide this assistance,” the State Department said in a statement.
Meanwhile, the Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez expressed his gratitude for the offer from the Biden administration immediately after the announcement, Associated Press reported.
The hurricane left large swathes of Cuba with blackouts, fuelling discontent on the Caribbean island, especially in rural areas where the blackouts are the worst, it was reported.
Cuba already faced a deep energy crisis and economic turmoil before Ian, especially after a fire in August devastated an oil deposit 60 miles (97 kilometers) from Havana that was a key source of energy, AP reported.
The protests sparked by the blackouts are the biggest since mass demonstrations in 2021 triggered by similar problems. Detentions of protesters by Cuban authorities have repeatedly generated human rights complaints from international observers, including the US it was reported.