Cuban President Demands End to Unilateral Sanctions

Cuban President, Miguel Díaz-Canel, on Wednesday demanded an immediate end to unilateral sanctions against developing nations, considering them as a violation of the principles and norms of international law.
 
Díaz Canel was addressing the high-level chapter of the 9th Summit of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC), which brings together representatives of the 33 member countries of this political coordination mechanism in Honduras.

Before his counterparts from a dozen states, including Honduran President, Xiomara Castro, the host of the meeting, Díaz-Canel lashed out at the United States government for applying criminal methods that seek to “turn people against their governments.”

In his words, these coercive measures have been spreading as a practice that contaminates and strains international economic relations, given the empire’s almost absolute power over global financial institutions.

Cuba is fully aware of the cost of this policy, which has been brutally hardened in recent years, he asserted.

He considered that the US current administration remains bent on suffocating the Cuban people, provoking political instability with its cruel and illegal economic war, and precipitating the forceful overthrow of its government and the constitutional order.

He stated that Washington’s unfounded decision to once again relist Cuba as a state sponsoring terrorism severely impacts development aspirations and serves as a pretext to intensify the siege against Cuba, with extraterritorial effects.

Adding to this, he went on, comes the infamous campaign against Cuban medical cooperation programs in more than 50 nations, based on false accusations against such a solidarity endeavor and its significant impact on the lives of millions of people in Latin America, the Caribbean, and the world at large.

He stated that visa restrictions for anyone on the planet who supports or benefits from such programs constitute vulgar blackmail, a scandalous and flagrant threat, and an unjustified act of aggression.

“This new pressure not only seeks to punish Cuba and the altruistic and humanistic vocation of its professionals, but also reflects an absolute disregard for the health of the people and communities that benefit from Cuban medical services,” he insisted.

For the Cuban dignitary, it is unrealistic to think that the US government, instead of soldiers and weapons, can send doctors under the same supportive and preferential conditions as Cuba, and reaffirmed Havana’s willingness to maintain the cooperation agreed upon with each country through legal agreements, which has been firmly and transparently supported, particularly by the sister nations of the Caribbean.

The Cuban president voiced his gratitude for CELAC’s historic support for the lifting of the illegal US economic, commercial, and financial blockade against Cuba and for the demand for the country’s exclusion from the spurious list of alleged state sponsors of terrorism.

“Only unity can save us. Let us not delay any longer the integration dreamed of and fought for, from Bolívar to the present day, by the bravest sons of Our America,” he concluded.