{"id":188890,"date":"2021-07-19T12:00:44","date_gmt":"2021-07-19T11:00:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=188890"},"modified":"2021-07-14T05:50:33","modified_gmt":"2021-07-14T04:50:33","slug":"the-united-states-tries-to-take-advantage-of-the-price-cubans-are-paying-for-the-blockade-and-the-pandemic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2021\/07\/the-united-states-tries-to-take-advantage-of-the-price-cubans-are-paying-for-the-blockade-and-the-pandemic\/","title":{"rendered":"The United States Tries to Take Advantage of the Price Cubans Are Paying for the Blockade and the Pandemic"},"content":{"rendered":"

13 Jul 2021 – <\/em>Cuba, like every other country on the planet, is struggling with the impact of COVID-19. This small island of 11 million people has created<\/a> five vaccine candidates and sent<\/a> its medical workers through the Henry Reeve International Medical Brigade to heal people around the world. Meanwhile, the United States hardens a cruel and illegal blockade of the island, a medieval siege that has been in place for six decades. In April 2020, seven United Nations special rapporteurs wrote an open letter<\/a> to the United States government about the blockade. \u201cIn the pandemic emergency,\u201d they wrote, \u201cthe lack of will of the U.S. government to suspend sanctions may lead to a higher risk of such suffering in Cuba and other countries targeted by its sanctions.\u201d The special rapporteurs noted the \u201crisks to the right to life, health and other critical rights of the most vulnerable sections of the Cuban population.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yesterday Cuba\u2019s President Miguel D\u00edaz-Canel told a press conference that Cuba is facing serious shortages of food and medicine. \u201cWhat is the origin of all these issues?\u201d he asked. The answer, he said, \u201cis the blockade.\u201d If the U.S.-imposed blockade ended, many of the great challenges facing Cuba would lift. Of course, there are other challenges, such as the collapse of the crucial tourism sector due to the pandemic. Both problems\u2014the pandemic and the blockade\u2014have increased the challenges for the Cuban people. The pandemic is a problem that people all over the world now face; the U.S.-imposed blockade is a problem unique to Cuba (as well as about 30 other countries struck by unilateral U.S. sanctions).<\/p>\n

Protests<\/strong><\/p>\n

On July 11, people in several parts of Cuba\u2014such as San Antonio de los Ba\u00f1os\u2014took to the streets to protest the social crisis. Frustration about the lack of goods in shops and an uptick in COVID-19 infections seemed to motivate the protests. President D\u00edaz-Canel said of the people that most of them are \u201cdissatisfied,\u201d but that their dissatisfaction is fueled by \u201cconfusion, misunderstandings, lack of information and the desire to express a particular situation.\u201d<\/p>\n

On the morning of July 12, U.S. President Joe Biden hastily put out a statement that reeked of hypocrisy. \u201cWe stand with the Cuban people,\u201d Biden said<\/a>, \u201cand their clarion call for freedom.\u201d If the U.S. government actually cared about the Cuban people, then the Biden administration would at the very least withdraw the 243 unilateral coercive measures implemented by the presidency of Donald Trump before he left office in January 2021; Biden\u2014contrary to his own campaign promises<\/a>\u2014has not started the process to reverse Trump\u2019s designation<\/a> of Cuba as a \u201cstate sponsor of terrorism.\u201d On March 9, 2021, Biden\u2019s spokesperson Jen Psaki said, \u201cA Cuba policy shift is not currently among President Biden\u2019s top priorities.\u201d Rather, the Trump \u201cmaximum pressure\u201d policy intended to overthrow the Cuban government remains intact.<\/p>\n

The United States has a six-decade history of trying to overthrow the Cuban government, including using assassinations and invasions as policy. In recent years, the U.S. government has increased its financial support of people inside Cuba and in the Cuban \u00e9migr\u00e9 community in Miami, Florida; some of this money comes directly from the National Endowment for Democracy<\/a> and from USAID<\/a>. Their mandate is to accelerate any dissatisfaction inside Cuba into a political challenge to the Cuban Revolution.<\/p>\n

On June 23, Cuba\u2019s Foreign Minister Bruno Rodr\u00edguez said that the Trump \u201cmeasures remain very much in place.\u201d They shape the \u201cconduct of the current U.S. administration precisely during the months in which Cuba has experienced the highest infection rates, the highest death toll and a higher economic cost associated with the COVID-19 pandemic.\u201d<\/p>\n

Costs of the Pandemic<\/strong><\/p>\n

On July 12, Alejandro Gil Fern\u00e1ndez, Cuba\u2019s minister of economy and planning, told the press about the expenses of the pandemic. In 2020, he said, the government spent $102 million on reagents, medical equipment, protective equipment and other material; in the first half of 2021, the government spent $82 million on these kinds of materials. This is money that Cuba did not anticipate spending\u2014money that it does not have as a consequence of the collapsed tourism sector.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have not spared resources to face COVID-19,\u201d Fern\u00e1ndez said. Those with COVID-19 are put in hospitals, where their treatment costs the country $180 per day; if the patient needs intensive care, the cost per day is $550. \u201cNo one is charged a penny for their treatment,\u201d Fern\u00e1ndez reported.<\/p>\n

The socialist government in Cuba shoulders the responsibility of medical care and of social insurance. Despite the severe challenges to the economy, the government guarantees salaries, purchases medicines and distributes food as well as electricity and piped water. That is the reason why the government added $2.4 billion to its already considerable debt overhang. In June, Cuba\u2019s Deputy Prime Minister Ricardo Cabrisas Ru\u00edz met<\/a> with French Minister of Economy and Finance Bruno Le Maire to discuss the economic consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic. France, which manages Cuba\u2019s debt to the public creditors in the Paris Club, led the effort to ameliorate<\/a> the debt servicing demands on Havana.<\/p>\n

Costs of the Blockade<\/strong><\/p>\n

On June 23, 184 countries in the UN General Assembly voted<\/a> to end the U.S.-imposed blockade on Cuba. During the discussion over the vote, Cuba\u2019s Foreign Minister Rodr\u00edguez reported<\/a> that between April 2019 and December 2020, the government lost $9.1 billion due to the blockade ($436 million per month). \u201cAt current prices,\u201d he said, \u201cthe accumulated damages in six decades amount to over $147.8 billion, and against the price of gold, it amounts to over $1.3 trillion.\u201d<\/p>\n

If the blockade were to be lifted, Cuba would be able to fix its great financial challenges and use the resources to pivot away from its reliance upon tourism. \u201cWe stand with the Cuban people,\u201d says Biden; in Havana, the phrase is heard differently, since it sounds like Biden is saying, \u201cWe stand on the Cuban people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cuba\u2019s Prime Minister Manuel Marrero Cruz said that those who took to the streets on July 11 \u201ccalled for foreign intervention and said that the [Cuban] Revolution was falling. They will never enjoy that hope,\u201d he said. In response to those anti-government protests, the streets of Cuba filled with tens of thousands of people who carried Cuban flags and the flags of the Cuban Revolution\u2019s 26th of July Movement. Cruz said, \u201cThe people responded and defended the revolution.\u201d<\/p>\n

____________________________________________<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Manolo De Los Santos is a researcher and a political activist. For 10 years, he worked in the organization of solidarity and education programs to challenge the United States\u2019 regime of illegal sanctions and blockades. Based out of Cuba for many years, Manolo has worked toward building international networks of people\u2019s movements and organizations. In 2018, he became the founding director of the <\/em>People\u2019s Forum<\/a> in New York City, a movement incubator for working-class communities to build unity across historic lines of division at home and abroad. He also collaborates as a researcher with Tricontinental: Institute <\/a>for<\/a> Social Research<\/a> and is a <\/em>Globetrotter\/Peoples Dispatch fellow.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/em>Vijay Prashad<\/em> is an Indian historian, editor and journalist. He is a writing fellow and chief correspondent at Globetrotter. He is the chief editor of LeftWord Books<\/a> and the director of Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research<\/a>. He is a senior non-resident fellow at Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies<\/a>, Renmin University of China. He has written more than 20 books, including <\/em>The Darker Nations<\/a> and<\/em> The Poorer Nations<\/a>. His latest book is <\/em>Washington Bullets<\/a>, with an introduction by Evo Morales Ayma.<\/em><\/p>\n

This article was produced by <\/em>Globetrotter<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

13 Jul 2021 – Yesterday Cuba\u2019s President Miguel D\u00edaz-Canel told a press conference that Cuba is facing serious shortages of food and medicine. \u201cWhat is the origin of all these issues? It is the blockade.\u201d If the U.S.-imposed blockade ended, many of the great challenges facing Cuba would lift. Meanwhile, the United States hardens a cruel and illegal blockade of the island, a medieval siege that has been in place for six decades.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":101331,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[867,1473,1829,1868,530,1126,1050,541,70,888],"class_list":["post-188890","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-latin-america-and-the-caribbean","tag-anglo-america","tag-blockade","tag-coronavirus","tag-covid-19","tag-cuba","tag-hegemony","tag-imperialism","tag-latin-america-caribbean","tag-usa","tag-vaccines"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/188890","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=188890"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/188890\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/101331"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=188890"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=188890"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=188890"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}