Cuba’s firm rejection of US sanctions | Washington “lacks the moral authority” to impose sanctions, Havana says

Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez said on Friday that The United States “does not have the moral authority” to continue imposing sanctions, a day after Washington imposed a fourth round of sanctions on Cuban officials for the “violent crackdown” on last month’s protests on the island. “Persistent rejection of the US will to attack Cuba and the Cubans, and to strengthen the economic blockade ”, declared the chief of diplomacy of the island, a few hours after the government of the American president, Joe Biden, make the sanctions public.

In addition to the sanctions of the Biden government, Cuba is subject to the longest known US trade blockade in modern history, which has been condemned 29 times by the United Nations and the international community for violating international law, this year by 184 votes for and two against: the United States and Israel.

Cuban Prime Minister Manuel Marrero Cruz he also criticized US sanctions. “The US government’s aggression and hostility against Cuba has intensified. Joseph Biden’s administration chose not only to maintain, but to intensify the package of unilateral coercive measures against Cuba, which President Donald Trump has opportunistically, deliberately and cruelly reinforced in the midst of the battle against COVID-19 in my country, ”he said on the Cuban State Portal portal Granny.

The last names to join the US blacklist on Thursday were those of Roberto Legra, Deputy Chief of the General Staff and Chief Operating Officer of the Revolutionary Armed Forces (FAR), who during the demonstrations deployed the Preventive Troops (TDP), a unit of the military police. Andrés Laureano González, head of the central army, and Abelardo Jimenez, responsible for the Directorate of Penitentiary Establishments.

Washington has tightened its pressure on the Cuban government after a series of arrests on the island in mid-July, when there was a mobilization against the government. The Secretary of State of the United States, Antoine BlinkHe stressed that his government will continue to support those he calls “courageous” Cuban citizens who are fighting for more rights and freedoms.

In the midst of an economic crisis exacerbated by the pandemic and the consequent disappearance of tourism – the main source of income in Cuba- July 11 and 12 thousands of people have taken to the streets to demand food and greater freedoms.

The first round of US sanctions by the Biden government was applied on July 22 “for suppressing peaceful and pro-democratic protests in Cuba.”, against the head of MinFAR, Álvaro López Miera, and the riot unit of the Special National Brigade (BEN) of MinInt. A few days later, Biden warned Havana that there would be more sanctions “unless there is a radical change in Cuba”.

On July 30, Washington applied financial measures against the Revolutionary National Police (PNR) and its most senior officials: the director, Oscar Callejas placeholder image, and the deputy director, Sierra de Foucault; and August 13 was the third round, with measures against the so-called “Red Berets”, and the heads of the political leadership of the MinInt, Romarico Vidal Sotomayor, and the Political Directorate of the PNR, Pedro Orlando Martinez.

On this occasion, the Cuban Minister of Foreign Affairs replied that the sanctions “reflect the double standard of a government accustomed to manipulation and lies to maintain the blockade against Cuba“.

The sanctions, enforced under the global Magnitsky Law, which punishes those who have committed human rights violations in other countries, provide for freezing all property in the United States and prohibiting transactions through the American financial system.

“Washington will continue to hold accountable those who allow the Cuban government to perpetuate human rights violations,” he added. the director of the Office of the Treasury for the Control of Foreign Assets (OFAC), Andrea Gacki“Cuban security forces have arrested more than 800 people in response to the protests, many of whom are in ‘preventive detention’ and the fate of several is still unknown. Dozens of people have already been sentenced to terms of up to a year. in prison or in correctional work as a result of “summary trials.”

In turn, the Cuban prime minister accused the United States of launching a campaign of disinformation to harm his government. “Cuba continues to be the object of the dissemination of false information, circulating on Social Networks about an alleged continuity of unrest in the country, acts of repression and arbitrary arrests, which have been picked up by some international media, with well-known references to the far right. This is all part of a ploy that the United States has tested against Cuba and other sister countries on several occasions, ”he said.