Cuba, the blockade and the crisis | Opinion

Washington believes the time has come to step up its attacks on any unruly government under its command in the region. In recent days, we have witnessed the suspicious assassination of the President of Haiti, with a modus operandi that bears the imprint of the CIA. Also the brutal attack by Colombian paramilitaries and drug traffickers, equipped with weapons of war, on Cota 905 in the outskirts of Caracas and the shooting at close range on residents surprised by the unusual and unexpected aggression. The offensive against Nicaragua was gathering momentum as opinion polls predicted a resounding victory for Sandinism in the upcoming presidential elections.

And now Cuba, subjected for sixty years to a campaign of attacks of all kinds which, obviously, could not fail to have profound impacts on economic life Cuban. Imagine what would have happened in any other country that has been subjected to such brutal harassment for so long. It’s easy to say, but there is no precedent in the universal history of a nation that has been relentlessly attacked by another for sixty years! I am convinced that even the United States would not have resisted this attack for so long. It would surely have imploded worse than the Soviet Union, in an orgy of blood fueled by the gigantic arsenal of firearms in the hands of the civilian population. Not to mention what would have happened in Argentina, Brazil, Mexico or Colombia if they had suffered the harassment that Cuba suffers.

What Washington did is called genocide because the blockade, condemned almost unanimously by the international community, causes enormous suffering among the population. These policies kill, make sick, cause hunger and unspeakable deprivation. They are, in short, a crime against humanity. The United States has been preparing for several years the ground for the current assault, with a systematic bombardment of several million dollars, buying weak or ambitious wills, appealing to social networks and their fateful algorithms, to “fake news” and to the chorus formed by their pawn of cheap politicians and perfidious propaganda agents disguised as “serious and independent journalists”. With immeasurable harm Washington stepped up blockade measures when the pandemic broke outA gesture that is enough to denounce the moral infamy of the empire, its true nature.

Some current protests are understandable; others, probably the majority, are the product of money and the huge campaign of destabilization hatched by the White House. Although they have a much smaller scale than what the corrupt hegemonic press says, the leadership of the Revolution took charge of them and explained the genesis of these sufferings which mobilized a few hundred Cuban men and women in the street. That there were errors in macroeconomic management; or that the recent measures to unify exchange rates were inappropriate, perhaps belated; or that the relative prices were significantly lagged is indisputable. But it would be absolutely wrong to attempt to explain these problems and the reaction of certain social sectors to them without taking into account the exasperating effects of a blockade which has lasted for six decades. These days, I have seen and heard astute analysts talk about the problems of the Cuban economy without once uttering the word “blockade”. Their anxiety to receive Uncle Sam’s affectionate slap is so great that it leads them to completely ignore the fundamental role Uncle Sam plays in the (dysfunction) of the Cuban economy.

Import and export restrictions, to acquire food, medicine, medical supplies, spare parts for transport or electricity; or having to pay extravagant freight for goods entering or leaving the island, with banks and commercial agents reluctant to do business with Cuba because of the sanctions that the brutal Goliath of the North promises to those who violate the blockade. If under these conditions the Cuban Revolution was the only country in the region to be able to produce its own vaccines to fight against covid-19 (to the chagrin of Argentina, Brazil, Chile or Mexico) and if During all these decades, he has been able to guarantee universal and free access to high standards of medical care, education, social security., sport, music and culture is because the Revolution was a huge success. Otherwise, none of this would have been achieved.

Consequently, those who become judges of Cuba and do not take into account in their explanations the decisive and inescapable role played by the American obsession to seize this island in their current misfortunes do not deserve more consideration than what is required. A commentator who talks about World War II and its devastation, he avoided mentioning the word “Hitler”. How would we rate this character? Like an immoral man, a hired charlatan, in this case of the empire which reproduces, with an air of “scientific objectivity”, the discourse legitimizing the genocide.

Throughout history, Cuba – the homeland of Martí and Fidel, Camilo and Che – has shown many signs of patriotism. His people will be able to complain strongly about the current problems, but from there kneel down to submit to the yoke of the heirs of the marines who urinated on the statue of the Apostle in Central Park; or of the oligarchy which aspires only to bring Cuba back to its colonial condition; or bloggers and “influencers” willing to throw their national dignity to dogs for a fistful of dollars, there is a giant leap forward. And the Cuban people will never give it, even if they have to die trying.