Blockade Blocks IBM from Cuba Contest

Terry Fox Run in Cuba held each March. Photo: Caridad
Terry Fox Run in Cuba held each March. Photo: Caridad

HAVANA TIMES, Oct. 15 – The U.S. blockade prevented the IBM Company from sponsoring one of the regional stages of the International Programming Collegiate Competition, carried out by the Association of Computing Machinery (ACM), to be held in the Cuban capital on October 22-24.

The event will take place at the University of Computer Sciences (UCI), announced Dovier Ripoll, director of the contest on the island, reported IPS on Thursday.

The ACM is a scientific and educational society that offers publications, lectures and resources to professionals.

Despite signals of opening, the Obama administration continues to block most scientific, academic and cultural exchange between the US and Cuba; enforces the travel ban prohibiting ordinary US citizens from visiting the island, and extended the nearly 50-year economic blockade imposed back during the Kennedy administration and maintained ever since.