Cuba Will Not Give In to Any Blockade
Elio Delgado Legon
HAVANA TIMES — On October 29, the resolution titled “The Need to Put an End to the Economic, Commercial and Financial Blockade Imposed on Cuba by the United States of America” will be subjected to a voting process at the UN General Assembly.
Though Cuba has submitted this resolution on 21 previous occasions and has secured nearly unanimous support from the Assembly’s member states, the blockade remains in place and as intransigent as ever.
In its introduction, the report Cuba has submitted to the General Assembly for the purposes of illustrating the situation created by this unilateral measure against the island states the following:
“Its declared aim, the political, legal and administrative framework that sustains it, make the blockade an act of genocide under the Convention for the Prevention and Sanction of the Crime of Genocide of 1948, as well as an act of economic war, in conformity with the declaration related to maritime warfare adopted by the 1909 London Naval Conference. The blockade imposed on Cuba is the most unjust, severe and protracted series of unilateral sanctions that has ever been applied on any one country.
“As a result of the strict and aggressive application of the laws and norms that comprise the blockade, Cuba continues to be denied the right to freely export and import products and services to and from the United States, to use the United States dollar in its international financial transactions or to hold bank accounts in this currency in the banks of third countries. Cuba is also denied access to loans issued by US banks, its branches in third countries and international financial institutions such as the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) or the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB).”
The notorious enemies of the Cuban revolution, most of them paid by the United States, do not get tired of insisting that Cuba uses the blockade as a pretext to conceal the inefficiency of its system. However, none of them advocates depriving Cuba of this pretext so that the whole world can see just how inefficient Cuban socialism is.
I won’t quote many figures, I will limit myself to pointing out that, in the course of more than fifty years of blockade, Cuba has lost more than a trillion dollars. The most irritating thing of all, that which makes the blockade even more ethically and morally reprehensible, is the fact Cuba is denied the possibility of purchasing medication and medical equipment needed to save lives (particularly children with cancer) from the United States, that it is forced to use intermediaries in order to acquire them, in transactions that are more costly and slower, to the detriment of the health of these individuals.
That fact alone could well be considered an act of genocide, which is punishable under international humanitarian law.
In addition, blockade measures and prohibitions deprive the people of the United States themselves of the possibility of acquiring medications produced exclusively by Cuba, such as Heberprot-P, which can be used to prevent the amputation of diabetic feet, and other drugs developed by Cuba’s biotechnology industry which could save many lives.
The blockade also denies the people of the United States the right to travel freely, and to Cuba per se, something which is in violation of the American constitution. The people of the United States are similarly denied the right to enjoy Cuban rums and cigars, which are the finest in the world.
I have mentioned only a miniscule part of the consequences of the blockade imposed on Cuba, which affects all of the country’s sectors, as Cuba is an underdeveloped country without large reserves of natural resources with which it can cover excessive costs.
That said, Cuba struggles to develop against all odds and very much in spite of those who delude themselves that the Cuban revolution will give in to the United States’ economic pressures.
As everyone knows, the declared aim of the blockade is to bring about so much hunger, disease and despair among Cubans that the people will revolt against the revolutionary government. The Cuban people, however, aren’t stupid and know perfectly well who is responsible for their plight.
In addition to the blockade, the United States has made use (through the CIA) of all kinds of aggression, including terrorist attacks which have caused the deaths of thousands of people, as well as the introduction of hemorrhagic dengue fever, which caused the deaths of more than one hundred children and hundreds of adults.
It has introduced African porcine fever (which decimated the country’s pig population and forced the livestock industry to start production from scratch), and different plagues aimed at destroying harvests, citrus, sugar cane and tobacco plantations – In short, it has done everything in its power to fulfill its aims. The one thing it didn’t count on was the Cuban people’s spirit of resistance and its fidelity to the revolution, which will not give in to any kind of blockade.
The fact is that it not too difficult for the Cuban government. It is too difficult for the American manufacturers. It is very relevant.
Cuban-born fellow democrat and US Senator Robert Menendez would never have allowed pro-Castro legislation to leave the Senate Foreign Relations committee during those two years. In any case, Obama was consumed with the passage of the Affordable Care Act and there was no remaining political capital available to waste on Cuba. I do not mention the level of difficulty to purchase medical equipment and medicines because it is not relevant. After all, we are talking about those poor sick children that the Castros whine about. What is too difficult for children? The reality is the Castros want a handout or they would rather just complain.
He had control of the house and senate for 2 years. And by the way, you’re right when you say “there is no embargo on medicine or medical equipment” but that is just half the truth. The fact is that the process to import equipment is so difficult that manufactures do not even bother. That is also a fact and one you do not mention.
It is politically unfeasible to consider ending the embargo at this point. Our democratic President struggles to pass immigration reform with the current Congress. Lifting the embargo against an avowed Communist regime will need Tea Party votes. That is simply not realistic.
And what is Cuba allowed to sell to the people of the US ? Posters, books and CDs. Not a thing more.
so why not just end it?
It is true that, “blockade measures … deprive the people of the U.S. … of acquiring … (Cuba’s) Heberprot-P, … which could … prevent amputations … and … save many lives.” Fact is that patents for Heberprot-P® have been awarded in U.S. This product is the only registered drug of its type, there is NO alternative, otherwise there would not be 86,000 amputations per year, according to the National Diabetes Information Clearinghouse. About 26 million Americans suffer from Diabetes at a cost of $174 billion in annual medical expenses, says the American Diabetes Association.
Yet the blind hate of the “Miami Cuban Mafia” (mostly, if not all, Republicans) would rather let these Americans be amputated and die, “Profit over People”, than to allow for some financial benefit to go to the people in Cuba via U.S. import drug royalties in their socialist economy. In other words, their treasonous hate results in two people suffering, a loose-loose. But wait, there’s more. As it happens, this hate is apparently too much for one rank-breaking Bush Republican, John Henry Sununu, Cuban himself, who is now lobbing Washington for a OFAC license for Heberprot-P. Here’s one guy who’s not going to Hell.
Let me leave the ignorant liars, you know who you are, with these two facts. 1) Pedro Adriano Borges fled to Costa Rica after being indicted by the U.S. government in 1997 on charges of sending 18 shipping containers from Miami to Cuba from 1993 to 1996 (during Cuba’s Special Period), via third countries. They carried $93,000 worth of foodstuffs. This aid was sent during Cuba’s period of misery, and yet the U.S. prosecuted the act. 2) U.S. government’s, Diaz-Balart, in agreement with Rubio who has called Heberprot-P Cuba’s new “shinny object”, are prepared to deny 26 million American diabetic patients their limbs and their lives today in 2013.
But despite the outrage of these two U.S. congressmen, the country of Cuba in allegiance with other countries, continues to move forward to provide benefits to the very same People who denied their People food at their worst of times. Now, given those two facts, which country do you think is going to Hell? which country would you hold to be the good one? which country is the most ethical, more humane, and of heart? … you know what you can do with capitalism & hate …
Jajaja! Another fine example of the long-term effect of Castro brain-washing. (Javi, there is no embargo on medicine or medical equipment, hence the half-truth genius)
re: The veracity of the charges made in Elio’s final paragraphs can easily be verified. After finishing my enlistment in the U.S. Navy, in 1965, I was working in the Chemistry Department of the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia. In the building next door, the notorious Dr. Knut Krieger was working on a witches’ brew of such crop diseases for Project Spicerack. If you are interested, Google for details.
There is no blockade other than the internal blockade against the Cuban people. US trade sanctions on food and medicines have been lifted. The US became the 5th trading partner of Cuba and its largest food supplier by 2008. Any reductions in trade or limitations thereof are the result of decisions by the regime.
There are no exaggerations and half truths! Let the Blockade be lifted completely without hindress and then we will see
Elio never fails to disappoint. His shameful use of exaggerations and half-truths to make a time-worn argument over and over again despite a history of failure is testimony to the power of Cuban brainwashing. The truth is most of the enemies of the Castro revolution are NOT paid by the US. The US embargo does NOT preclude Cuba from purchasing medicine and medical equipment from US sellers. Americans have access to a variety of alternative medicines which EXCEED the effectiveness of Herberprot-P. No lives are lost because we do NOT purchase Cuba’s jungle elixirs. Under specified conditions, ALL Americans may travel to Cuba. While certainly top-notch, Cuba’s rums and cigars are NOT the finest in the world. Elio has obviously never had the pleasure of sipping the Peruvian Rum Millonario XO Reserva Especial or smoked a Nicaraguan Flor de Las Antillas cigar. Definitely bucket list for the refined. The US government long ago accepted the fact that the Castros were willing to subject the Cuban people to any measure of sacrifice and suffering in order to stay in power. The tip-off, in hindsight, should have been when the US and the USSR realized that Castro was willing to sacrifice Cubans to nuclear annihilation to pacify his ego. Instead, the continued application of the embargo (read carefully) is to hinder the spread of this fatal regime to the rest of Latin America and Africa and to hasten a more timely demise of the Castro dictatorship. Finally, the same Cuban resolve to withstand the economic pressures brought on by the embargo are embodied in the spirit of the Cuban exiles who tirelessly work to maintain the embargo. It appears neither side is ready to give up. As a result, only time itself will have its way.