Blockade or Embargo? / Rebeca Monzo

Yesterday I ran into a former colleague, who now contracts out his services in exactly the same ministry where, very young, we started our working lives.

Then I realized he was being careful about what he said, because as we hadn’t seen each other for years, he felt a certain discomfort about what my position might be regarding the current situation in the country.

He started to talk to me about the blockade. Embargo, I corrected, thus putting my cards on the table. Then he confessed that he was advising precisely the company that imported food, and said that as of four years ago, our country was currently the fourth largest trading partner of the U.S.

It’s quite clear, I said, when you go to the hard currency stores you always find on the shelves more than ten products from that enemy country, some with the flag and everything. It’s the same thing in the pharmacies in hard currency, you see a variety of medicines from the same country. So, I demanded, “What is the blockade?”

“The one our government has imposed on our pockets,” he answered.

March 7 2011