Dear Editor,

February 3 passed quietly — without fanfare. However, the Cuban people remember that it was on this day in 1962 that US President John F Kennedy issued a proclamation which put a total embargo on trade with Cuba.

The justification given by the US Government was that Cuba’s ties with socialist countries threatened their security and the security of the region.

Of course, it is now common knowledge that a memo concerning the embargo from Undersecretary of State Lester Mallory in 1960 stated, among other things, that there should be “disenchantment and disaffection based on economic dissatisfaction and hardship…denying money and supplies to Cuba to decrease monetary and real wages to bring about hunger, desperation, and overthrow of Government”.

The US Government has been successful in its objective of stifling the country’s potential economic development and increasing the hardship facing the Cuban people. To quote the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Cuba, “The blockade has evolved to become the most complex, prolonged, and inhumane act of economic warfare committed against any nation. Its impact has limited the possibilities of economic development, being designed to prevent trade relations with third countries, hinder banking and financial operations as much as possible, limit foreign investment, and cut off all sources of income.”

The Cuban Government has estimated the accumulated cost to Cuba over the period, at today’s prices, to be in excess of US$100 billion.

Since Donald Trump became president, the situation has reached crises proportions. The Cuban Government has been prevented from acquiring sufficient oil supplies, forcing the country to live with daily power cuts and the resulting challenges to the economy.

In addition, since President Trump took office, remittances to the island have been stopped. And all of this has been happening at a time when Cuba has had to deal with the novel coronavirus pandemic.

I sometimes wonder which other country could survive such an onslaught. Yet Cuba has not simply survived but has continued to give a helping hand to many countries that hav faced natural disasters or required medical assistance — earthquake in Pakistan and Haiti, cholera in Haiti, Ebola in West Africa, and COVID-19 in Italy and elsewhere.

The continued 60-year-old US blockade against Cuba is an international disgrace and were it not for their socialist system and the resilience, awareness, and unity of the people, the country would have already collapsed.

Like many Jamaicans who believe that each country has the right to determine its own destiny, I am adding my voice to the 187 countries that, at the UN General Assembly in 2021, called on the US to remove the blockade against the Cuban people.

C Bell

carl_bell@hotmail.com