Mexico City, Mexico.- The economic, commercial, and financial blockade imposed by the United States on Cuba is completely contrary to international law and is abominable given the suffering it has inflicted on millions of civilians, the Mexican newspaper La Jornada stated this Sunday.
“Whatever justification the occupants of the White House may give to maintain and intensify the blockade, it must be remembered that it is completely contrary to international law,” the prestigious media outlet stated in an editorial.
The newspaper also notes that this blockade—condemned each year by the United Nations General Assembly—“is abominable given the endless suffering inflicted on millions of civilians who have nothing to do with geopolitical conflicts.”
According to the report, Mike Hammer, the United States’ top diplomat in Havana, announced on Friday that “Washington plans to toughen its policy of annihilating the Cuban economy, in continuity with the measures taken” by President Donald Trump.
Since his return to the White House, the Republican has carried out actions such as re-inserting the island on the unilateral list of alleged state sponsors of terrorism, tightening regulations on remittances, and canceling immigration programs from the previous administration.
“It is difficult to imagine what new mechanisms the magnate and his subordinates can devise to punish the Cuban population because their authorities do not submit to the superpower’s whims,” ??asserts La Jornada, which later refers to Trump’s first term.
“Not only did he undo,” it adds, “all the progress made in the last phase of Barack Obama’s administration” toward détente and understanding, “but he also added new layers of oppression and sadism that have plunged Cuba into a desperate situation.”
In his opinion, while during his first presidential term (2017-2021) Trump’s attack on Cuba seemed driven primarily by his fixation on dismantling any Obama-era policy or program, now this virulence has become an organic part of his administration.
The editorial, titled “Trump vs. Cuba: Hardening the Sadism,” says this is due to the front-line presence of figures such as “Secretary of State Marco Rubio, a member of the most radical and interventionist wing of the Cuban-American community in Florida.”
“Rubio, like Trump himself, continues to view Cuba through Cold War blinders, despite the fact that the Soviet bloc disappeared more than 30 years ago and that, paradoxically, the tycoon cultivates much more sensible relations with Russia than those of his predecessors,” he comments.
“In this way,” he states, “millions of Cubans are being made victims of the outdated ideological phobias of a political group that has no regard for the liberal democratic institutions in whose name Washington has endeavored to destroy the Cuban Revolution.”