Cuba Lost $5.6 Billion Over Last Year Due to the US Blockade
By teleSUR
23 October 20
Accumulated damages over six decades reach US$144.4 billion at current
prices, Foreign Affairs Ministry Rodriguez recalled.
Over the last year, the damage caused by the U.S. financial, commercial, and
economic blockade against Cuba reached US$5.6 billion, Foreign Affairs
Minister Bruno Rodriguez denounced before the United Nations General
Assambly on Thursday.
"Accumulated damages over six decades reach the colossal figure of US$144.4
billion at current prices, which is an overwhelming burden for a small
country like Cuba," he stressed, and explained that the sum is much greater
in real terms.
"Taking into account the dollar depreciation against the value of gold on
the international market, the blockade has caused quantifiable damages of
over US$1,098 billlion."
Rodriguez reproached President Donald Trump's administration for having
increased the arbitrary sanctions against his country and stressed that such
a policy is a form of genocide and economic warfare.
"The cruelty of the blockade amid a pandemic is unprecedented," the Cuban
minister affirmed and warned that the next U.S. president "will have to face
the tangible reality that the blockade harms the Cuban people and violates
human rights."
Among the new problems that the U.S. blockade causes to the Cuban revolution
are difficulties or the impossibility of acquiring drugs, medical equipment,
or protective material.
The information sent to the UN General Secretariat is the basis of the draft
resolution that Cuba presents to call for the end of the U.S. blockade.
Every year since 1992, the Cuban proposal usually receives the support of
most countries, except for the United States and Israel.
