Havana, Cuba.- Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez on Tuesday condemned the persecution of ships, shipping companies and insurance companies to deprive the Caribbean island of fuel, and described it as a criminal action by the Government of the United States.

On his official Twitter account, the foreign minister explained that in 2019, 53 vessels and 27 companies were blacklisted.

He pointed out that the measure persists with a sensitive impact for the country in a context marked by the Covid-19 pandemic and the crisis it generated in healthcare systems and economies.

The persecution is part of the restrictive provisions imposed by Washington’s blockade on Cuba, a policy of suffocation enforced for more than six decades by both Democratic and Republican presidents.

The longest and most comprehensive economic, commercial and financial blockade against any nation was reinforced during the Donald Trump administration (2017-2021), with 243 coercive measures that are still in force 12 months after Joe Biden occupied the White House.