REPUBLIC OF CUBA
Permanent Mission to the United Nations
315 Lexington Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10016
Press Release
The
United States tightens its blockade policy against Cuba
New York, 9 September 2019. The economic, commercial and
financial blockade imposed by the government of the United States of America
against Cuba for almost six decades is the most unjust, severe and prolonged
system of unilateral sanctions that has been imposed to any country. It is the
main obstacle for the development of the Cuban economy, the implementation of
the National Economic and Social Development Plan of the country, as well as
for the achievement of the 2030 Agenda and its Sustainable Development Goals.
The
strengthening of the blockade continued to be the central focus of the U.S. government
policy towards Cuba, with increasingly significant effects in its
extraterritorial implementation. Because of its declared purpose and its
political, legal and administrative framework sustaining it, these sanctions
qualify as an act of genocide according to the Convention on the Prevention and
Punishment of the Crime of Genocide of 1948 and as an act of economic warfare according
to the London Naval Conference of 1909.
From April
2018 until March 2019, the measures of economic aggression against the island
have increased, causing losses to Cuba of around 4,343.6 million dollars. At
current prices, damages accumulated during almost six decades of implementing this
policy have reached the figure of 138,843.4 million dollars.
During this
same period, the strengthening of the extraterritorial implementation of the
system of sanctions against Cuba was shown in the constant repercussions on Cuban
companies, banks and embassies, which deal with colossal obstacles in their
commercial and financial activities in many countries around the world.
Just to mention
two examples: the U.S. Department of State on three occasions extended the
"List of Restricted Cuban Entities" that are subject to additional
sanctions to those imposed by the blockade regulations, causing considerable harm
to the country's economy due to their intimidating effect on the international
business community. At the same time, Washington decided to permit the
possibility that, under Title III of the Helms-Burton Act, judicial actions may
be taken in U.S. courts before lawsuits filed by U.S. citizens or entities
against Cuban or third-country companies or individuals which have commercial relations
with properties nationalized in Cuba in the 1960s.
Twenty-seven resolutions
have already been adopted by the international community within the framework
of the United Nations General Assembly, which call on the U.S. government to
put an end, without any conditions, to its blockade policy against Cuba.
Cuba will not
cease in its efforts to remove this hostile and aggressive U.S. government policy,
whose ultimate goal is to reverse the will of the Cuban people to build an
independent, sovereign, socialist and prosperous nation, on the basis of its
right to self-determination.
Permanent Mission of Cuba to the United Nations
