CUBA | Biden administration most vicious in applying economic blockage

HAVANA, Cuba, December 20, 2022 -Cuba's Vice Minister for Foreign Affairs Carlos Fernandez de Cossio, says of all the US governments since the start of the Cuban Revolution, the Joe Biden administration is the one that has "most aggressively and effectively applied the economic blockade. 

Addressing a series of talks in Cuba in relation to Cuba in US Foreign Policy, Vice Minister Fernandez says the Biden administration “is the one that punishes the most, the one that causes the most damage to the daily life of Cubans and the economy as a whole,... and here I include all the Administrations since Eisenhower to date.”

The Cuban Vice Minister said the Biden administration was “applying with absolute and surprising loyalty, not only the blockade as it existed before, but also the policy of maximum economic pressure that was designed by his predecessor, Donald Trump.”

He lamented that president Biden since taking office, “could have removed Cuba from the List of States Sponsors of Terrorism.The U.S. government is aware of the impact of this measure.  It cannot pretend to ignore it,”Fernandez noted.

“Within weeks of the designation, 45 banks and financial institutions with long-standing relations with Cuba severed their ties with our country. This has an impact on our trade, on our possibilities of obtaining credits, in the ways to make payments.

“It is a devastating impact. And even today, on account of its presence on that list, Cuba is still encountering trade and financial organizations that refuse to interact with us for fear of retaliations by the U.S. government,” he explained.

According to Fernandez, “the President of the United States could also have suspended the possibility of taking actions in U.S. courts on lawsuits brought under Title III of the Helms-Burton Act.

“This has a deterrent impact on our developmental purpose of attracting foreign capital.

This administration could have ceased the practice of pressuring governments in Africa, Asia, and Latin America to refuse medical cooperation provided by Cuba. 

“I am referring to pressures exerted only two or three weeks ago, shared with us by governments that tell us "we are receiving a visit from an envoy or from the US embassy to warn us that, if we receive Cuban doctors, we will be incurring in practices of slavery and human trafficking".

“This U.S. action, of course, is intended to prevent dozens of thousands of people from receiving medical services, which is what Cuban doctors provide,” the Cuban Vice Minister explained.

He pointed out that the purpose of the US action, “was to deprive Cuba of financial resources necessary for the economy, for development. This is not consistent with a concern for the well-being of Cubans.

“What the U.S. president could also have done - and has not done - is to put an end to punitive measures, threats and persecution against fuel exporting companies, shipping companies, port agencies, insurance and reinsurance agencies all aimed at depriving Cuba of fuel supplies that our country requires to function.

“Since mid-2019, this has had an extremely severe impact on the economy and the lives of the Cuban people, not only because we have had to close down industries, reduce transportation, reduce the electric service, but also we are obliged to pay premiums for the fuel that we import because of the risk assumed by whoever sells us oil or whoever transports it.

“With this impact, try to explain to the Cuban population that the U.S. government has the well-being of the Cuban people in mind,”Fernandez urged.

“The U.S. government could have abolished a totally arbitrary list of restricted entities put together with dishonest arguments and with total superficiality.  In some cases, the site Trip Advisor was used as a reference; the most popular destinations for U.S. visitors were looked up and then included in the list. Therefore, some of you here are forbidden to visit the Museum of Rum, for example.

“All these measures are aimed at cutting off the sources of income of the Cuban economy. This is how they were designed by the previous government and that is how they are applied, to deprive us of energy sources, of access to technology and to prevent us from attracting the capital that the country’s development requires.

“They all bear the fingerprint of Donald Trump and his government. All of them were established with dishonest arguments that the current government no longer even takes the trouble to disprove," Fernandez pointed out.