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Unblock Cuba, Delist It from States Supporting Terrorism
After more than 60 years of imposing embargoes and sanctions that amount to a comprehensive economic blockade against Cuba, the US has won nothing but the condemnation of the entire world for its unjust policy and actions against Cuba and for the unimaginable hardship it has caused the Cuban people. The Philippines-Cuba Cultural and Friendship Association (PhilCuba) joins the governments, parties, and people’s organizations around the world in supporting Cuba’s demand to remove all these irrational and arbitrary US sanctions against Cuba and allow this Caribbean country to thrive, progress, and freely foster collaboration with other peoples and states in the Americas and around the world. Indisputably, the US failed in its aim to use the blockade to spur a people’s uprising against Cuba’s revolutionary government that upholds socialism. The suffering of the people is undeniable. But the population is aware that this suffering is largely because the embargo declared by Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1961 intensified throughout the different administrations especially with the enactment of the Torricelli Act in 1992 during the term of President George H.W. Bush and most especially, during President Donald Trump’s presidency, when he decreed 243 measures and reinstated Cuba in the list of States Sponsoring Terrorism (SST), measures that remain in force until now under President Joe Biden’s term. Maintaining the economic blockade against Cuba is pointless. It was ineffective for the proclaimed objective and the usual justifications for the use of sanctions—to force cooperation with international law; to contain a threat to peace; and, to condemn acts of a member or non-member nation—do not apply. Cuba has been elected to the Human Rights Council of the United Nations for the sixth time, a testament to the trust and respect given to it by other UN member nations. Certainly, the US government cannot cite national security, much less their people’s interest. It is not to the American people’s interest that Cuba was able to obtain only 68% of its need for flour for 2022-2023, as it could not afford the entirety at its present price. It does not help US’s national security that Cuba was able to obtain only 21% of the country’s minimal need for powdered milk for the same period because it could not afford its raised price, unless national security means killing Cuban children. Neither does Cuba endanger the security of peoples and even of governments in different countries if it is allowed to have medical collaboration with other countries. In the past six decades, 605,698 health professionals served in 165 different countries in five continents. The people they haves served are appreciative. The US allotted millions of dollars for a campaign against this. No one’s national security would be endangered if athletes who played abroad and won were allowed to receive their prizes. Hence, the blockade should be dismantled. Let Cuba live. Let Cuba advance and be of greater help to other countries in need. PhilCuba, once again calls on the Philippine government to vote on the side of sister Cuba. #UnblockCuba #LetCubaLive #LetCubaBreathe #RemoveCubaFromSSTlist |
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