Cuba condemns U.S. manipulation of the human rights issue

Geneva, March 3 (RHC)--Cuba repudiated today in the voice of its ambassador to the UN in Geneva, Juan Antonio Quintanilla, the manipulation of the issue of human rights as a weapon to attack sovereign countries.

In the continued debates of the 49th session of the Human Rights Council, the island's permanent representative denounced the politicization of the issue by the United States after Secretary of State Antony Blinken singled out Cuba and other nations in his speech in that multilateral forum.

It is curious that almost all the countries Blinken mentioned have been or are victims of coercive measures and actions of political interference by the United States, Quintanilla warned.

The diplomat condemned the fact that the Secretary of State, in his accusations about the violation of human rights, forgot to express concern about the criminal and illegal economic, commercial and financial blockade imposed by his country against Cuba.

That policy of Washington has been causing hardship and suffering to the Cuban population for more than 60 years and affects all spheres of national life, said the ambassador at the Palais des Nations. Quintanilla recalled that the blockade is the main obstacle to the development of the island and a massive and flagrant violation of the human rights of its people.

The Cuban diplomat also mentioned in his speech the universal repudiation of the U.S. siege, whose end is demanded year after year by the international community at the UN General Assembly, through a resolution that the United States insists on ignoring.