Statement of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Cuba
Several news agencies and the media have reported an alleged agreement reached in the US Congress aimed at allowing the sale of medications and foodstuffs to Cuba – construed as a substantial change in the blockade that is really not accurate.
It is a proposal that could be included in the Agriculture Appropriations Bill, whose versions in the House and the Senate are currently being harmonized at a Conference Committee. This proposal is not related in any way to the constructive amendments aimed at allowing the sales of US medications and foodstuffs to Cuba – as promoted and largely supported within the US Congress after the effort made by North American farmers and other sectors that increasingly question their country’s sanctions against Cuba.
Since enough support has failed to materialize in order to defeat these amendments, Cuban-American Congresspeople and the Republican leadership have therefore infringed the required legislative procedures to impose – through dirty and anti-democratic tactics – a version intended to annul any positive effects of the original amendments. The version that is being put forth requires companies to secure a special permit from the US Government with a view to authorizing the sales of medications and foodstuffs. It does not matter whether it is a gram of rice or some aspirin. Also excluded is the possibility of gaining access in the United States to any public or private financing to engage in these transactions.
Even worse, this sloppy plan would enshrine in a law the violation of the constitutional rights of North Americans to travel freely, thus perpetuating the ban on US citizens to travel to Cuba.
Should this maneuver come through, the US blockade against Cuba would remain intact. The US market would be closed to both our products and services. Financial flows, air/maritime transportation or the worldwide assistance schemes in foreign trade would then be forbidden. The blockade sanctions in the financial sector would remain in force – as well as the prohibition that those vessels calling at a Cuban port cannot visit the United States until after six months. Investments in Cuba would not be allowed either – and the constraints preventing North Americans from traveling to our country would remain in place. There would be no repeal whatsoever of the Helms-Burton Act, the Torricelli Amendment or the countless anti-Cuban amendments enacted as part of various US laws. In sum, the economic war of the US Government against Cuba is still on.
The amendments put forth by US Congresspeople and Senators with the support of the farming community – that could have meant a step in the right direction – have been dismantled through pressures and anti-democratic maneuvers practiced by Cuban-American legislators and extremist sectors that oppose any modifications to the current policy of hostility against our country.
For Cuba, the real solution lies in the normalization of relations between both countries and the lifting of the genocidal blockade that has been unilaterally imposed against Cuba.
Cuba will not cooperate with those attempting to worsen the blockade – nor will it participate in the public relations stunt of these sectors to pretend some alleviation of the blockade when they are actually setting out to tighten it.
The Cuban Government – while reiterating its willingness to maintain normal trade relations with US companies – makes it clear that should this draft bill pass under such discriminatory and humiliating conditions, Cuba will not engage in any trade transactions whatsoever with the United States.
Havana, 5 October 2000.
