Written By Nadine Sanchara
FOR the 22nd time in a row, Cuba will on October 29 submit for the consideration of the United Nations (UN) General Assembly a draft resolution entitled ‘Necessity of ending the economic, commercial and financial embargo imposed by the United States of America against Cuba’.

This was disclosed during a media briefing yesterday by Cuban Ambassador to Guyana, Mr. Julio Cesar Gonzalez Marchante at the Cuban Embassy on High Street, Kingston, Georgetown.
The United States has maintained an economic embargo against Cuba since 1960. Marchante reminded that a memorandum was submitted by Deputy Assistant Secretary of State, Lester Mallory, dated April 6, 1960 which stated: “The majority of Cubans support Castro…There is no effective political opposition…The only foreseeable means of alienating internal support is through disenchantment and disaffection based on economic dissatisfaction and hardship.”
That memorandum had imposed that every means be taken to weaken the economic life of Cuba by denying money and supplies to the country in order to decrease monetary and real wages and bring about hunger and desperation with the ultimate aim of overthrowing the government.
Marchante pointed out that 188 UN member states voted in favour of the resolution submitted by the Cuban government in 2012, which he said is “unquestionable evidence that almost the entire international community recognises and supports the struggle of the Cuban people to lift the blockade.”
He stated that since its conception, the blockade has been and still is a “flagrant violation” of international law and is contrary to the principles and purposes of the UN Charter. In addition, he said that it constitutes a violation of the right to peace, development and security of a sovereign state.
According to him, the embargo also qualifies as an act of genocide under the Geneva Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide of 1948 because of its stated purpose and the complex political, legal and administrative structure on which it is based.
Marchante related that on beginning his first presidential term, US President Barack Obama had announced a fresh start with Cuba. However, five years later, he said, all that has happened is a reinforcement of the extraterritorial nature of the blockade and an intensified persecution of Cuba’s international financial transactions.
The Cuban Ambassador stressed that the US blockade has proven to be the main obstacle for Cuban economic and social development, as well as the largest hindrance for expanding Cuba’s commercial ties with the rest of the world.
He stated that it has also become a serious restraint for the international cooperation that the country both provides and receives.
“Cuba cannot freely export and import goods and services to and from the United States, nor use the dollar in its international financial transactions or open accounts in that currency in third-country banks,” Marchante pointed out.
Noting that the major effects of the blockade are felt in the most sensitive areas of Cuban people’s life, he alluded to the decision by the Zurich Canton Bank to suspend, under US pressure, all transfers to Cuba which affected the cooperation between Cuban public health authorities and the non-governmental organization MediCuba-Suisse in such areas as cancer, pediatrics and HIV/AIDS.
Marchante emphasised that the US government must immediately and unconditionally lift the blockade.
“It is an absurd, obsolete, illegal and morally unsustainable policy that has not and will not fulfil the purpose of bending the patriotic will of the Cuban people to preserve its sovereignty, independence and right to self-determination,” he said.
He further stated that President Obama has all the humanitarian, political and moral reasons to lift the blockade against Cuba.
The Ambassador, on behalf of the Cuban government and people, thanked the authorities and people of Guyana for their “unalterable support”.
Meanwhile, President of the Guyana/Cuba Friendship Association, Mr. Samuel Abdool expressed the association’s support of the call to the US for the lifting of the embargo.

PULL QUOTE: The blockade against Cuba “is an absurd, obsolete, illegal and morally unsustainable policy that has not and will not fulfil the purpose of bending the patriotic will of the Cuban people to preserve its sovereignty, independence and right to self-determination – Cuban Ambassador