US Recognizes its Isolation with the Cuba Blockade

Elio Delgado Legón

HAVANA TIMES — In a speech given before the UN General Assembly, the United States Ambassador to this international organization, Samantha Power, recognized the fact that the US remained isolated from the rest of the world in its position with regard to the blockade (the term the Cuban government uses to refer to the  embargo) on Cuba and that this policy hasn’t been successful and therefore the US wouldn’t vote against the Resolution presented by Cuba as it has in previous years, but would abstain.

Although the Resolution, which garnered 191 votes in its favor and none against it, isn’t binding, that’s to say, the US isn’t obliged to apply it, it is moral support for Cuba in condemning this policy, which has been labeled, and rightly so, as a genocide, inhuman, immoral and the vestige of the Cold War, which allegedly ended a long time ago.

President Barack Obama himself recognized the fact that this policy has caused unnecessary suffering for the Cuban people and that it should be changed. Of course he didn’t say this because of it being immoral, but because it hasn’t provided the results that they were expecting and because it’s necessary to change their strategy, while they continue to focus on their final objective, which is to take Cuba back in history to what it was in 1958, making it a capitalist nation again and returning to the politicking of the multi-party system, maybe proposing Iliana Ross, Marco Rubio and all these kinds of people for the presidency here in Cuba, transforming Cuba into the Empire’s backyard again, with private healthcare for those who can pay for it, as well as private education… In short, Capitalism.

Everybody knows that the blockade has affected the Cuban economy in all its aspects and as a result, all Cubans. However, the Cuban people’s resistance in the face of every kind of shortage has awoken the world’s solidarity and admiration, and they come to Cuba to see an example of what a nation can do when it doesn’t back down when it is attacked, in every way possible, like Cuba has been.

The blockade’s stated aim was to defeat the Cuban people, at all costs, with hunger, disease and needs so that they would rise up against the government, and Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) attacks went hand-in-hand with this policy, which have caused over 3,000 deaths, another few thousand mutilated people and incalculable economic losses, just with these hot war practices.

Going into all of the blockade against Cuba’s damaging effects would make this post too long; however, I can’t not mention the criminal nature of these policies that have prevented us from getting hold of medicines and medical equipment that can save lives and which are established across the globe because of subsidiary companies that belong to US mother companies. Like saving the life of a child in Cuba could harm the planet’s greatest superpower.

This is also the case with the sale of food, although not to such a great extreme, which forces the Cuban government to import food from faraway countries, paying higher prices and delays in distribution, as well as how expensive it is to receive it by freight.

I’ve given these two examples because they are the ones that are most criminal in nature out of all of the blockade’s harmful effects, which classify this US policy as being nothing but genocide, according to international law.

Even though some people say that this isn’t a victory for Cuba, I repeat that this is indeed a victory for the Cuban people and their resistance, who have won the admiration of people from all over the world, who support us, moreover, because Cuba hasn’t held back with its resources, even with the blockade’s limitations, to help other people, even when they themselves needed them. That’s why, morale in Cuba is higher than it has ever been and I think that the lifting the US blockade is now just a question of time, as it not only harms Cuba, but the US people and every other country in the world whose business opportunities in Cuba are limited by this policy, because of the extraterritorial nature of this law.