The president of Cuba, Miguel Díaz-Canel, thanked this Wednesday the request of several former Latin American and Caribbean leaders to Joe Biden to lift the restrictions on the island, which is going through a serious economic crisis.
“I deeply appreciate former Latin American and Caribbean presidents and prime ministers who ask the President of the United States to remove Cuba from the terrorist list and lift blockade restrictions,” Díaz-Canel wrote on his Twitter profile.
I deeply thank former presidents and former Latin American and Caribbean prime ministers who ask the President of the United States to remove #Cuba from the terrorist list and lift blockade restrictions. It is an act of friendship and honesty that moves the Cuban people.#BestNoBlock pic.twitter.com/Pgkzlo385e
– Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez (@DiazCanelB) November 2, 2022
The Cuban head of state affirmed that the request of the former dignitaries “is an act of friendship and honesty that moves the Cuban people.”
In the joint letter addressed to Biden, the former presidents regret that “the Cuban people” are “suffering enormous difficulties in the supply of medicines, the arrival of humanitarian aid, the restrictions imposed on financial services, the arrival of tourists and third-party investments. ”.
Signatories include former presidents José Mujica (Uruguay), Dilma Rousseff (Brazil), Juan Manuel Santos and Ernesto Samper (Colombia), Evo Morales (Bolivia), Martín Torrijos (Panama), Rafael Correa (Ecuador), Vinicio Cerezo (Guatemala ) and Leonel Fernández (Dominican Republic).
The signatories also pointed out the “harmful” impact that the “limitations on travel, the sending of remittances, and donations from the United States” represent both for the Cubans on the island and the Cuban-American people “who are prevented from having the right to visit to their relatives”.
The letter also calls for the withdrawal of Cuba from the list of countries that sponsor terrorism prepared by the US Department of State, given its “support for the peace process in Colombia with the National Liberation Army (ELN)” and its commitment to “compliance with the protocols signed with the Colombian State.”
Cuba is immersed in one of its biggest economic crises in decades, reflected in the shortage of basic products and food, rampant inflation, currency devaluation and foreign exchange shortages.
Former Latin American leaders ask Joe Biden to lift sanctions against Cuba
The Cuban government blames most of the burdens on the island’s economy on the embargo imposed by the US, tightened with 243 new sanctions in the Trump Administration, and reproaches the Biden government for maintaining it, as well as for the increase in economic and financial pressure during the pandemic.
This Wednesday, the General Assembly of the United Nations addresses a Cuban resolution on the need to end the economic, commercial and financial blockade (embargo), which Cuba calculates it has generated losses for 3,806.5 million dollars in the last year alone.
Efe/OnCuba.
