The vice president of the National Assembly of People's Power in Cuba, Ana María Mari, highlighted in Havana the greatness and resilience capacity of the Cuban people.

These statements to Prensa Latina took place on the occasion of the recent Parliamentary Public Hearing "Cuba is not a threat, the blockade is," held at the National Institute of Oncology and Radiobiology.

"Today I am speaking on behalf of millions of Cubans, because there is not a single one of us who can say they are not affected by the blockade inside their home, in their daily life, in their personal fulfillment, in their dreams or in their plans," she assured.

"The economic, financial, commercial, and energy blockade imposed by the United States on the island is a collective punishment, and it is the cost of having made the decision to defend our sovereignty, to build a society under our own rules, and to want to live the self-determination of a people," she added.

The also lawyer referred to the greatness of Cubans and their daily capacity for reinvention. She likewise expressed special admiration for health workers.

"Doctors have the task every morning of sustaining life in their hands, and they do so leaving at home the same problems as any Cuban today. They have long sleepless nights, many times they struggle to cook food for their children, they get frustrated because they know a seriously ill patient is waiting for them, but transportation is lacking because fuel is not enough. They have within themselves that need to arrive on time, with a giant sense of belonging because there is a human being, a person waiting for them," Mari expressed.

"What the Cuban people have done during these years of Revolution has been a constant heroism, above all for the perseverance, resistance, strength, resilience capacity, and desire to do. Even so, the price we pay is extremely high," she stated.

"There is no sensitivity in those people who promote the blockade. What should beat inside their chest is missing. They are not human, they have no heart," she asserted.

She likewise referred to attempts to make the blockade invisible and to campaigns that swear to its non-existence. "If the blockade is a fallacy, why then so many pressures to vote against Cuba, as our main leaders have denounced in recent days?" she reflected.

Ana María thanked the international support the island has received despite U.S. pressures and declared that, although solidarity is a duty, the world is repaying Cuba for all the great, good, and beautiful things it has done.

She also noted that our truth cannot be hidden and assured that our struggle for sovereignty protects the autonomy of all the countries of the planet.

"That is why we reiterate in all scenarios that we are not and will never be a threat to any nation, and that the real threat is the collective punishment against a people that long ago made the decision to be free and that under no concept or any blockade will change it," she concluded.