The foreign minister says that without the “blockade” the GDP would have grown by 8% instead of falling by 1.9% in 2023
14ymedio, Madrid, 13 September 2024 — The wear and tear of the speech about the “blockade”* is noticeable in Cuba. Few would have expected a few years ago that the official press would tolerate the appearance of comments that question the regime’s argument in this regard, but it is happening. An article in Cubadebate includes the press conference of the foreign minister, Bruno Rodríguez, presenting to the international media the report that the Island prepares for its traditional resolution before the General Assembly of the United Nations on the economic consequences of the US embargo.
“Sadly we don’t produce. That’s the sad reality. The blockade affects us, but the grass-filled fields are our responsibility,” says a user. Early this Friday there were only eleven comments on the report, but there were questions in several of them. “Without a doubt, the blockade has an influence on the critical state of our economy, but, personally, I often don’t have the arguments to back that up,” writes a reader who asks for precise examples – with figures and sources – from each ministry.
Another, more incredulous, asks for seriousness in the arguments: “I don’t understand how the cost can exceed the profit (minus expenses) of the country. The cost can be a percent of income but never double or triple. The calculation of the cost cannot be based on assumptions because it’s no longer credible.”
“Without a doubt, the blockade has an influence on the critical state of our economy, but, personally, I often don’t have the arguments to back that up”
But it’s not an isolated case. In addition to this report, the document itself was released this Thursday, in a preview, for download. The first comment is devastating for a speech set in stone for more than 60 years. “I don’t think there is a blockade; rather, we have to eliminate corruption, usury, influence peddling and tax evasion. Stop complaining,” it says. This message opens another debate, when a user accuses the author of being a “blockade denier” and reminds him that all the countries of the United Nations General Assembly – except the United States and Israel – have condemned it year after year for decades.
“What is voted on in the United Nations Assembly is the end of the embargo measures, not a blockade. Ergo, what the UN and the international community recognize is an embargo, not a blockade. They are different categories and have different meanings,” argues a third.
In view of that vote and the November elections in the United States, Rodríguez said on Thursday that Washington’s sanctions against the Island constitute an “economic war” of a “genocidal” nature and urged the US president, Democrat Joe Biden, to lift them “immediately.”
According to the official estimate, the impact between March 2023 and February of this year amounts to 5.057 billion dollars, 189.8 million dollars more than a year ago. Havana says that in more than 60 years of sanctions, the impact exceeds 164.141 billion dollars at current prices.
The regime argues that, without US sanctions, the Island would have achieved a growth “at current prices” of 8% in 2023, in contrast to the 1.9% drop with which it closed last year, according to official figures.
The regime argues that, without US sanctions, the Island would have achieved a growth “at current prices” of 8%
According to the foreign minister, the consequences can be perceived in the daily lives of Cubans “like never before” in “many facets of daily life.” He cited blackouts, the shortage of food, medicines and fuel, the lack of transport, high inflation and the “deterioration of other basic services.”
For Rodríguez, US sanctions are the “fundamental and determining” factor in the serious crisis that the country has been suffering for four years, although, surprisingly, he also recognized that the “failures in macroeconomic management” have an influence.
“Not all difficulties are due to the blockade; there are also structural problems, difficulties in economic management, but the fundamental and determining factor is the extreme and unprecedented sharpening and hardening of the blockade since 2019,” he said.
In addition, he stressed that US sanctions – the “most complete and prolonged” system of measures – have led the Island to a situation of a”war economy,” not in “propagandistic” terms but in “technical terms.”
Rodríguez, who reproached Biden for not lifting the measures introduced by his predecessor, Donald Trump, asked the president to act. “He could do it tomorrow if he wanted to,” he said, forgetting that the bulk of the rules depend on the US Congress. The foreign minister asked the US president to remove Cuba from the list of state sponsors of terrorism, something for which he does have “all the executive capabilities.”
Rodríguez, asked about the upcoming US elections, avoided taking a position and indicated that he is indifferent, because the elimination of the embargo “must be unilateral, unconditional, complete and immediate.”
The exemptions from the embargo allow Cuba to buy food and medicine from the US, in addition to, currently, vehicles. According to the most recent report of the US-Cuba Economic and Trade Council, imports of food and agricultural products exceeded 31 million dollars in July alone, and cars reached 36 million. Despite the obstacles of the embargo, the Island has the support of allies that supply it with goods that the United States cannot, mainly China and Russia.
*Translator’s note: There is, in fact, no US ‘blockade’ on Cuba, but this continues to be the term the Cuban government prefers to apply to the ongoing US embargo. During the Cuban Missile Crisis the US ordered a Naval blockade (which it called a ‘quarantine’) on Cuba in 1962, between 22 October and 20 November of that year. The blockade was lifted when Russia agreed to remove its nuclear missiles from the Island. The embargo had been imposed earlier in February of the same year, and although modified from time to time, it is still in force.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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