On the upcoming October 31st, the international community will vote for the seventh occasion the first text where it is proven that the U.S. blockade on Cuba for nearly 60 years will keep and continuing damages to the Cuban people and hindering the nation’s development.

Since 1992, Cuba presents before the United Nations General Assembly a bill on a resolution that demands the end of the U.S. economic, trade and financial blockade imposed by successive US governments.

Since April 2017 to date, that absurd policy has been worsened and applied strictly. However, all the data show that the majority of the U.S. citizens and even a wider majority of the Cuban emigrants are in favor of the bilateral relations’ normalization.

The U.S. blockade’s regulations became a law at the U.S. Congress and the opposition has also increased against that policy.
The adoption of the Presidential National Security Memorandum on the Strengthening of the U.S. Policy against Cuba from June 16th, 2017, had that strengthening process among its objectives.

Nevertheless, leaders, politicians, social activists and intellectuals from all over the world have considered that siege as a human rights’ violation and a murderous act against the Cuban people.

Meanwhile there are millions of people in the world who show their support to Cuba and on September 10th the head of state of the White House renovated the law on Commerce with the Enemy which is a statute from 1917 that was the one that the U.S. President John Kennedy used in 1962 to impose the blockade and all the U.S. head of states have renovated it, ever since.

Contrary to what is pretended to be shown by Washington, the U.S. blockade is not a bilateral issue between the United States and Cuba, besides, its extraterritorial nature is kept and applied with complete impunity as an International Right’s violation.

It is the most unfair, severe and lasting unilateral system of sanctions that has been applied against a nation.

The U.S. government might completely eliminate that absurd policy as an unconditional act. That would be in keeping with the international community’s overwhelming demand and the wide opinion of the majority and varied voices within the U.S. society that ask for the end of the U.S. economic blockade.

On October 31st, the world will show its opposition about that obsolete policy and the recognition on the Cuban people’s resistance.

The Resistance of a People

In the year 1959, the United States began its actions to overthrow the Cuban Revolution and operations which were escalating until they became a complete U.S. blockade aimed at asphyxiating Cuba, economically, and it came into effect since February 1962.

A year before on January 3rd, 1961, the United States broke diplomatic relations with Cuba and on March 31st from that year, the President John F. Kennedy completely abolished the Cuban sugar fee in the U.S. market and it was on February 3rd of the year 1962, through the U.S. Presidential Executive Order number 3447 when it was officially applied the naval blockade on Cuba.

Contrary to what they think and is manipulated by some ones, the actions carried out against Cuba by successive U.S. administrations which are not classified as part of the embargo definition.

On the contrary, it transcends this and classifying as a blockade to pursue the isolation, the asphyxia and the nation’s immobility, along with the evil purpose about drowning a people and taking it to give in its decision about being sovereign and independent.

‘The U.S. blockade is an act of war’ and this is a principle accepted by the International Right since the Naval Conference from London from 1909. However, it was when the U.S. president John F.Kennedy signed its signature, since February 3rd of the year 1962, that the heads of states of the White House either Republicans or Democrats ratified the illegal policy under the false pretext that it was a bilateral issue.

The Torricelli law, which was enacted in 1962, reinforced the economic measures against Cuba and provided a regulations platform for the blockade’s extraterritorial nature. Four years later in 1966, the Helms-Burton law came into effect in order to hinder the foreign investment in Cuba, as well as internationalizing the U.S. blockade.

Certainly, the U.S. Congress is the only one which can repeal the economic blockade on Cuba, but there are four aspects of it in which the President of the United States cannot act as they require the Congress action for its elimination or modification for being regulated by laws.

1. The prohibition for subsidiaries of the United States in third nations to trade goods with Cuba (Torricelli law).
2. The prohibition about carrying out transitions with U.S. proprieties which were nationalized in Cuba (Helms-Burton law).
3. The impediment for the U.S. citizens about travelling to Cuba as tourists. (Trade Sanctions and Expansion of Exportation Reform Law from 2000).
4. The prohibition on providing financing for the sales of U.S. agricultural products to Cuba. (Law on the Reform on Trade Sanctions and Extension of exportations from 2000).

A piece from the past reinforces by the White House

The adoption of the Presidential Memorandum of National Security on the Strengthening of the U.S. Policy by the President Donald Trump against Cuba on June 16th , 2017 which endorsed the strengthening of the U.S. blockade on the island and it represents a series backwards for the bilateral relations with Cuba.

The regulations issued by the U.S. Treasure, State and Trade departments in November 2017 have imposed additional obstacles for the business sector in Cuba and they have restricted even much more the American’s rights about travelling to Cuba.

The new sanctions on Cuba have caused a significant reduction about the visits coming from the United States and they have generated biggest obstacles to the Cuban enterprises’ economic and trade relations with very likely U.S. partners and third nations. Those measures affect not only the Cuban state economy but also the nation’s non-state sector.

The putting into effect of these regulations process ignores the majority support of the U.S. public opinion, the international community and the Cuban emigration in the United States, the lifting of the economic blockade and the normalization of the relation among the nations.

The strengthening on the extraterritorial application of the aforementioned blockade has been another of the different features of the increase of that policy, along with a marked incidence in the international financial and credit relations of Cuba.

In the current year, it has intensified the permanent persecution to the Cuban financial transactions and the bank and credit operations on Cuba worldwide. This has caused serious damages to the nation’s economics, especially the enterprises’ trade activities and the national banks and their links with the international banks.

During 2018, there have been dozens of banks thorough all the regions of the world which decided to close their relations with Cuban or foreign enterprises to eliminate any link of their activity with Cuba, including even related operations linked with Cuban citizens, just for having that nationality.

The U.S. blockade represents a mass and systematic violation of the human rights of all the Cuban people and it qualifies as a murderous act by virtue of the Convention for the Prevention and Sanction of the Murderer Crime from 1948, besides, it violates the United Nation Chart and the International Chart and the International Right and it is an obstacle for the international cooperation.

The World on the U.S. blockade

Cuba will not renounce to its principles, let alone would end its demands for the utter elimination of the economic, trade and financial blockade imposed by the United States and this is why, the next October 31st the Cuban government will denounce the strengthening of that policy and it will present, on the twenty-seventh consecutive occasion, the bill on the resolution entitled’ Necesidad de poner fin al bloqueo económico, comercial y financiero impuesto por el Gobierno de los Estados Unidos contra Cuba (The need to end the economic, trade and financial blockade imposed by the United States government on Cuba).”

Last year, the historic vote was expressed with 191 votes for the end of the blockade, any abstention and there were two nations against with were the United States and Israel.

The current scenery is very complex but Cuba reiterates once again that Cuba will never make concessions about its principles for independence and sovereignty and if the U.S. blockade was not lifted, the Cubans will continue constructing a nation in the most difficult circumstances because the people with a matchless dignity defeated that absurd U.S. policy, long time ago.