Cuba Reaffirms at UN Its Condemnation of Unilateral Coercive Measures

Cuba reaffirmed today its condemnation of all extraterritorial unilateral coercive measures, particularly the United States’ economic blockade, which it described as “an absolute and ruthless economic war.”

“The U.S. economic blockade against Cuba goes beyond the concept of extraterritorial unilateral coercive measures and even surpasses the notion of a commercial embargo,” said Deputy Foreign Minister Carlos Fernández de Cossío during a Plenary Meeting of the UN General Assembly on the Elimination of Unilateral Extraterritorial Coercive Measures as a Means of Political and Economic Coercion.

He emphasized that it constitutes “an absolute and ruthless economic war that goes far beyond simply prohibiting trade between Cuba and the United States.”

Fernández de Cossío recalled that, since its inception in 1960, the blockade has aimed to depress living standards, reduce real income, generate hunger, scarcity, and despair—in short, to punish the entire population in order to break its political will and subjugate the nation.

“The legislation underpinning the blockade leaves no doubt as to the interventionist, hegemonic, and colonial ambitions of the United States government,” he asserted, emphasizing that the policy “clearly expresses the intention to sever Cuba’s economic ties with the entire world.”

He added that the United States not only refuses to trade with Cuba—to export or import—with extremely limited and restrictive exceptions, but also seeks to pursue, obstruct, or sabotage the Caribbean nation's trade transactions with any other country.

In doing so, he warned, Washington disrespects the sovereign prerogatives of third countries. “It does not consider those countries’ relationships with Cuba, nor their sovereign right to engage with us in the manner they see fit,” he stressed.

The deputy minister highlighted that these nations are subjected to pressure and economic coercion for exercising their right—through their governments, businesses, and economic entities—to engage in relations with Cuba.

“But the aggression does not stop there. The U.S. blockade prohibits the export to Cuba, from any country, of any product made in that country by its companies and workers, if the product contains 10 percent or more of U.S.-origin components,” he noted.

Fernández de Cossío posed the question: in today’s globalized economy, how many products in the world can be found that do not contain at least 10 percent of raw materials, components, parts, software, intellectual property, or capital of U.S. origin?

This, he stated, explains the severe restrictions Cuba has faced—and that any country would face—in ensuring technological development under such conditions; maintaining production capacity; acquiring inputs for food production; and sustaining essential services, including healthcare, transportation, electricity generation, telecommunications, and education.

He also addressed the disproportionate control that the United States wields over the flow and handling of international financial transactions, which it uses “to cruelly and effectively limit Cuba’s ability to obtain credit, receive and execute payments, anywhere in the world.”

He reiterated that by placing Cuba—without any basis—on an arbitrary and selective State Department list of alleged state sponsors of terrorism, the United States unleashed an additional set of coercive measures, particularly financial ones, “also aimed at coercing and taking action against citizens of more than 40 countries, as well as violating their right to travel freely to Cuba.”

Fernández de Cossío also denounced the U.S. government’s recent campaign of intimidation against governments in dozens of countries for exercising their sovereign right to maintain bilateral cooperation programs with Cuba in the field of health—programs whose primary purpose is to provide affordable, quality medical services to the most vulnerable populations.

The deputy minister concluded by stating that all of these actions violate international law and the very pillars upon which the United Nations stands. “Unilateral and extraterritorial coercive measures are a crime, and this General Assembly is right to take a firm stand against them. It is right to express solidarity with all nations and peoples who suffer such cruel and illegitimate punishment,” he said.