Longest-lasting Blockade in World History: “Cuba Is not Alone, this Tribunal Proves It”

By Katrien Demuynck on November 21, 2023

On Nov. 16 and 17, 2023, a tribunal against the U.S. blockade of Cuba took place in the buildings of the European Parliament in Brussels Belgium. 263 attendees from 21 countries attended. It concluded with a strong condemnation of one of the biggest scandals of the 21st century through a firmly based legal verdict. The economic, commercial, and financial blockade, officially established since 1960, is backed by more than 30 US laws and provisions. It is the longest-running and most comprehensive blockade of a country in world history. Eighty percent of the Cuban population was born during the blockade.

An international panel of five judges, led by professor emeritus of law at Hamburg University, Norman Paech, presided over the tribunal.

Chief Prosecutor Jan Fermon argued, among other things, that the blockade violates the principles of self-determination, sovereign equality among nations, and prohibition of the use of force or coercion by one country against another, which are enshrined in numerous international treaties.

The formulation of the charges was followed by a wide range of witnesses and experts on various aspects.

Public health damages

A first group addressed the public health damage caused by the blockade. The two testimonies of mothers of a child with cancer and that of a cancer specialist at the William Soler pediatric hospital in Havana were downright harrowing.

Dr. Belinda Sánchez, director of immunology and immunotherapy at the Centro de Inmonulogía Molecular (CIM), testified about the blockade hindering the production of cancer drugs and vaccines. In 2022, the additional cost of seeking raw materials further away was one million dollars. That obviously limits the Cuban government’s purchasing capacity. Moreover, replacement parts for the machines are often very difficult to purchase.

The problems of making international payments mean that patents cannot be established or maintained, meaning a loss of income on patented drugs and a loss of access to Cuban drugs by the other citizens of the world. Publications in international journals cannot be paid for. Those publications on the effects of drugs and vaccines are a requirement for international approval, resulting in innovative Cuban drugs, like their lung cancer vaccine, remaining unavailable to people outside of Cuba.

Due to visa restrictions, Cuban specialists cannot attend international conferences and or cancer or diabetes patients from the U.S. cannot seek treatment in Cuba. Conversely, foreign scientists also cannot go to Cuba for study or exchange because they are then made difficult or denied entry to the US.

Dr. Sánchez pointed out that there were unnecessary casualties in the Covid pandemic in Cuba, because the problems caused by the blockade meant that vaccines could be produced a lot later and not always in sufficient quantities.

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U.S. imperialism adds fuel to the fire, but from afar
Economic, commercial and financial sanctions, as a means to exert pressure on a country, do not solve the current crisis, but rather add fuel to the fire and aggravate the international economic situation

Author: Madeleine Sautié Rodríguez | informacion@granmai.cu
march 16, 2022 11:03:58

Photo: Artwork by Pawel Kuczynski
Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez Communist Party of Cuba Central Committee First Secretary and President of the Republic cited three elements that are sustaining and aggravating the world’s current difficulties, during his closing remarks at the Ministry of Culture’s annual review for the year 2021, held at José Martí National Library.
The tightened United States’ economic, commercial and financial blockade of Cuba; the aggressiveness of the United States internationally; and the uncertainty created by covid-19 were the three issues impacting the current situation he emphasized.
With regard to the blockade, the President said that we are now experiencing a different moment, a particular feature of recent years, “Things began to get very complicated in the second half of 2019, when the Trump administration adopted more than 240 measures that cut off our sources of financing. They placed us on their list of countries that allegedly support terrorism. And all this has been maintained under Joe Biden’s administration,” he explained.
The blockade, he recalled, has caused shortages, financial persecution, persecution of fuel suppliers, in particular, and to this was added the even greater aggressiveness of the U.S. government against Cuba, with a broad media campaign demonizing our country, in an attempt to discredit all elements of the Cuban Revolution, seeking to construct the appearance of total failure, that everything is wrong and everything the country does to mitigate current conditions does nothing to solve the problems, he stated.
The President pointed out that this aggressiveness can be seen in the way the events of July 11 were addressed and the way a play was staged, announcing to the world that on November 15 the Cuban Revolution would collapse, and now they are attempting to distort Cuba’s position with respect to the current events in Europe. This imperialist hostility is not only directed toward Cuba; it is evident at a global level, he noted. Continue reading U.S. imperialism adds fuel to the fire →