Madrid/We have reliable information of intimidating and deceptive pressures that the United States Government is exerting on several countries, especially in Latin America and Europe, with the aim of compelling them, forcing them to modify the traditional, historical position that they have assumed and maintain in support of the resolution against the blockade.” With these words, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Bruno Rodríguez, introduced himself in a press conference convened in Havana this Wednesday.
In it, he denounced the “policy of extreme pressure” that Donald Trump’s Administration is carrying out in view of the debate on the resolution that Havana presents annually in the UN General Assembly to demand the lifting of US sanctions against the Island, which will be held on October 28 and 29.
The Cuban Foreign Minister accuses the United States of carrying out a “slanderous” and “totally unusual campaign” aimed at generating “confusion”, “hopelessness”, “demoralization”, “insecurity” and “fear” in those countries that he assures he is putting pressure on. Regarding this, the chancellor said he had “irrefutable evidence.”
In this regard, he cites a note published by the Reuters agency on October 5, prepared from cables from the US State Department that would demonstrate the diplomatic offensive aimed at allied nations to vote against lifting the embargo on Cuba, which Rodríguez refers to at all times as a “blockade.”
For Rodríguez, it is “nonsense, but very dangerous nonsense because this is how aggressive actions begin, which can have incalculable consequences.”
The minister read several of the phrases contained in that information, such as “The blockade is not the cause of the problems of the Cuban economy”, “Human rights abuses in Cuba are greater than ever” or “Cuba is a threat to international peace and security”, describing them as “mendacious and slanderous messages”.
“The blockade is the main cause of the problems of our economy,” Rodríguez reiterated following the usual mantra of the Cuban regime, despite the fact that the country’s president, Miguel Díaz-Canel, himself, recognized last year that the US embargo is not the cause of all the island’s ills. “Many things have nothing to do with the blockade or with resources. It has to do with the way in which we organize ourselves, the way in which we take up the fight and say: we have to solve this, we can address this,” the president declared then in a meeting in Las Tunas.
Rodríguez did not refer to this, and on the contrary insisted on demonizing US foreign policy regarding the Island. “It is not diplomacy, it is pressure with arguments that no one believes in and that no one will believe,” he said. And he continued: “Behind the blackouts and the fragility of our national electrical system is the North American persecution of fuel supplies.”
A second “evidence” that the minister read is another document issued by the State Department on October 17, in which the Trump Administration explained why “there is no no lock against Cuba”, because “there is nothing that prevents Cuba from establishing economic interactions with third countries.” For Rodríguez, this is “nonsense, but very dangerous nonsense because this is how aggressive actions begin, which can have incalculable consequences, as has been seen in the past with numerous countries in various regions.”
At no time did it specify that, in effect, Havana can carry out transactions with third nations, or that it imports food, medicine and other products from the United States itself, with the obligation to pay for them in cash.
Thirdly, the chancellor denounced the sending of “threatening letters to a lot of countries”, urging them to vote against the resolution. In one of them, without saying which nation it was sent to, the intervention of 20,000 Cubans in the invasion of Ukraine was referred to.
That information, in fact, was provided last May by the Assembly of the Cuban Resistance and the Ukrainian parliamentarian Maryan Zablotskyy. Washington has pointed out that Cuba “actively” supports Russia “with up to 5,000 Cubans.” The estimates came from data from the General Intelligence Directorate of the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense, which reported a list of 1,028 Cuban mercenaries with contracts with the Russian Armed Forces between June 2023 and February 2024.
“I urge your Government to show the same clarity and conviction of objectives and ethics by resolutely opposing this resolution,” Rodríguez read from the letter, which he considered a “direct threat,” including that it was sent “in accordance with applicable legal measures.”
According to the Cuban Foreign Minister, the “unusual anxiety” of the United States Government is due to “the conviction that the blockade causes total isolation and deep discredit for foreign policy.”
The resolution, non-binding and presented every year by Cuba since 1992, has had practically unanimous support from the international community in recent years (187 votes in favor and only two against, from the United States and Israel).
