Mexican president demands suspension of US blockade against Cuba

Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador on Monday reiterated his call to the United States to suspend the economic, commercial and financial blockade against Cuba, and celebrated a recent decision on remittances to the Caribbean island.

In response to a question regarding the talks on migration issues with Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall, White House advisor for Homeland Security, at his regular press conference, the president insisted that it is necessary to address the causes of these flows.

Among other issues, he mentioned the existence of the blockade imposed by Washington on Cuba for more than six decades and urged to eliminate it.

“They have just made a decision -I was just informed today-, which I welcome, if it is true, that they are lifting the ban so that relatives who have decided to live in Cuba can receive remittances, because they had been forbidden to do so. Imagine that,” the President added.

“In Mexico’s case, we are very grateful to our migrant countrymen, who send 63 billion dollars to their relatives, but how is it that in the case of Cuba it is forbidden for a relative who is in the United States to send support to a father, a mother or a grandfather?

“Yesterday it seems that they took a measure so that they can receive remittances. Not as it should be, without limits,” said López Obrador, adding that it seems to be something still incipient.

Nevertheless, he described it as a good step and expressed his wish that the rulers of the United States continue with these actions, and that politicians from both parties understand that, above economic and ideological interests, are human rights and universal brotherhood.

“We can fight at the top, have our political and ideological positions, but what is the people’s fault and why do they have to suffer from these differences?” said the president, adding that this “has nothing to do with freedom, democracy and much less with humanism”, added.