HAVANA, Cuba.- Until December, 2011, the figure of damages caused to Cuba by the US blockade amounted to over one trillion dollars, as informed on Thursday in this capital by the island’s Foreign Minister, Bruno Rodriguez.

During the presentation of the report “Need to put an end to the economic, commercial and financial blockade imposed by the United States of America on Cuba,” Rodriguez considered that this unilateral and extraterritorial measure is the main cause of the Cuban State’s economic problems.

While presenting the text at the Foreign Ministry, Rodriguez specified that, until December, the economic damage caused to the Cuban people due to the imposition of that siege adds up to one trillion 66 billion dollars, considering the fall in value of dollars as against the value of gold on the international market.

By way of a videoconference from Havana Rodriguez spoke with Cuba’s Permanent Mission at the United Nations.

The human damage of that policy is invaluable, the Minister declared sententiously, and exemplified with the health sector the loses caused by the unjust blockade, since it hinders the purchase of important medicaments, consumables and food supplements produced in the northern country.

The FM stressed that the US hounding of Cuban transactions and the increase in fines worth millions against foreign companies holding exchanges with the island are evidence -all this damages multilateral cooperation between independent and sovereign states.

In 2011, the US government imposed sanctions worth 89 million dollars, and so far this year sanctions go beyond 600 million, illustrated the FM.