Cuba Lost $5.6 Billion Over Last Year Due to the US Blockade

By teleSUR

23 October 20

Accumulated damages over six decades reach US$144.4 billion at current prices, Foreign Affairs Ministry Rodriguez recalled.

ver the last year, the damage caused by the U.S. financial, commercial, and economic blockade against Cuba reached US$5.6 billion, Foreign Affairs Minister Bruno Rodriguez denounced before the United Nations General Assambly on Thursday.

"Accumulated damages over six decades reach the colossal figure of US$144.4 billion at current prices, which is an overwhelming burden for a small country like Cuba," he stressed, and explained that the sum is much greater in real terms.

"Taking into account the dollar depreciation against the value of gold on the international market, the blockade has caused quantifiable damages of over US$1,098 billlion."

Rodriguez reproached President Donald Trump's administration for having increased the arbitrary sanctions against his country and stressed that such a policy is a form of genocide and economic warfare.

"The cruelty of the blockade amid a pandemic is unprecedented," the Cuban minister affirmed and warned that the next U.S. president "will have to face the tangible reality that the blockade harms the Cuban people and violates human rights."

Among the new problems that the U.S. blockade causes to the Cuban revolution are difficulties or the impossibility of acquiring drugs, medical equipment, or protective material.

The information sent to the UN General Secretariat is the basis of the draft resolution that Cuba presents to call for the end of the U.S. blockade.

Every year since 1992, the Cuban proposal usually receives the support of most countries, except for the United States and Israel.