Venezuela reaffirms solidarity with Cuban people against US blockade

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro reaffirmed his solidarity with the Cuban people on Wednesday, after recalling that the economic, commercial, and financial blockade imposed on Cuba by the United States began on February 7, 1962.

“Cuba adds 62 years of resistance to the most inhumane act of war and economic blockade ever committed against any nation,” Maduro wrote on his X account.

The head of State noted that the “heroic Cuban people” remain firm in defending its sovereignty, demanding the definitive end of the illegal, interventionist and genocidal policy by the Government of the United States.

On the same social platform, Foreign Minister Yván Gil wrote that Cuba is a “living legacy of the heroic struggle against imperialism,” and its social and scientific progress is a source of inspiration for those countries that follow its example.

The United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) recalled on its website the words of Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs Lester D. Mallory in 1960, who said that this policy aims to “cause disappointment and discouragement through economic dissatisfaction and hardship (…), provoke hunger, despair, and overthrow the government.”

On February 7, 1962, then US President John Kennedy declared a unilateral blockade against Cuba through the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961.

According to official statistics, more than 80 percent of Cuba’s current population has been subjected to the punitive US policy.

At current prices, the accumulated damages during more than six decades of enforcement of this policy amount to 159.084 billion dollars.