Stéphane Dujarric, spokesperson for the UN Secretary-General, has reiterated that the intensification of the US blockade against Cuba is having grave humanitarian consequences.
Dujarric explained at his daily press conference that the inability to import fuel is affecting hospitals, vital medical treatments, and food distribution.
“I can tell you that we remain deeply concerned about the deteriorating situation caused by the inability to import fuel. This has triggered an energy crisis,” he stressed.
The UN has repeatedly condemned the US blockade of Cuba. In January, the Deputy Spokesperson for the Secretary-General, Farhan Aziz Haq, reaffirmed the organization’s position in favor of lifting this unilateral embargo.
“As you know, the General Assembly has repeatedly called for an end to the blockade against Cuba,” the spokesperson stated in response to a question from Prensa Latina regarding the strengthening of that policy, following the executive order issued by the Donald Trump administration on January 29 that would deprive the island of access to oil.
“We urge all Member States,” he said, “to comply with the resolutions of the General Assembly.”
An executive order issued by the White House on January 29 and signed by the Republican president declared a “national emergency” concerning Cuba and, to address it, deemed it “necessary and appropriate” to establish a system of tariffs (which he later revoked) against countries that provide “directly or indirectly” any type of oil to Cuba.
Days before Trump’s return to the White House last year, the UN confirmed to Prensa Latina that it welcomed “the United States’ announcement of January 14 regarding, among other measures, the removal of Cuba from the State Department’s list of state sponsors of terrorism.”
A belated act by the outgoing Joe Biden administration, but one that was a step in the right direction.
However, after taking office a week later, in his first hours in the White House, Trump reversed Biden’s decision with an executive order, without presenting any new evidence and disregarding the work and judgment of his own federal agencies.
Cuba was first included on the list of State Sponsors of Terrorism in 1982, during the administration of Republican Ronald Reagan, until, in 2015, Democratic President Barack Obama removed the designation, deeming it unjustified.
The economic, commercial, and financial blockade against Cuba constitutes a unilateral, coercive, and extraterritorial policy that violates international law and the purposes and principles of the UN Charter.
After more than six decades of its implementation, the objective has not changed: to deteriorate the population’s standard of living, provoke dissatisfaction, despair, and anger, as a means to bring about a change in the constitutional order that the Cuban people have freely chosen.
The current US administration persists in ignoring the almost unanimous call from the international community to end this illegal and inhumane policy against Cuba, expressed in 33 UN General Assembly resolutions.
IMAGE CREDIT: Stéphane Dujarric, spokesperson for the UN Secretary-General, reiterated that the intensification of the US blockade against Cuba is having grave humanitarian consequences. Photo: United Nations Organization
[ SOURCE: PRENSA LATINA ]
