Paris: Associations and platforms of solidarity, parliamentarians and unions in Europe launch other initiatives this year to denounce the US economic, commercial and financial blockade against Cuba and demand its end, Prensa Latina publishes.
They served as a context to promote new actions in rejection of the policy of 13 administrations in Washington, scenarios and dates such as the 63rd anniversary of the triumph of the Revolution, France’s rotating presidency of the Council of the European Union (EU) and the confrontation with the Covid-19.
And also for the 60th anniversary -completed on February 3- of the signing of executive order 3447 by then US President John F. Kennedy, who put on paper hostile measures that his country was already applying to the island in sectors such as energy and the sugar bowl.
In France, deputy François-Michel Lambert urged the government to increase pressure against the blockade, which he repudiated, from his rotating presidency of the Council of the EU.
In addition to affecting the island’s inhabitants and causing them severe difficulties, Washington’s siege hits European interests with its extraterritorial scope, the environmentalist parliamentarian, who heads the France-Cuba Friendship Group in the National Assembly, told Prensa Latina.
Lambert cited a report by his colleague Raphael Gauvain, a document that estimates French losses at 30 billion euros as a result of extraterritorial sanctions applied by the United States to other countries.
Therefore, there is an urgent need for effective protection of the interests of European companies, banks and citizens against positions such as the blockade of Cuba, because it is not admissible that the EU continues to show submission to the United States, which with its policy causes economic damage due to the imposition of of fines and businesses that cease to be carried out, he stressed.
Lambert stressed that despite the hostility faced, the largest of the Antilles was able to develop and produce its own vaccines against Covid-19, but it lacks resources to do it on a larger scale for the benefit of the international community.
France and the EU should assume that the blockade is also against humanity, because here we are not dealing with a disease that attacks some nations, affects us all, and it is urgent to take advantage of the available capacities to put an end to it, he stated.
The deputy proposed in the National Assembly to include Cuban vaccines among those authorized in the country to protect the population from Covid-19, particularly in overseas territories.
Also in France, the Cuba Linda association called on the candidates for the presidential elections on April 10 to take a stand against the US economic, commercial and financial blockade applied to the island for more than six decades.
The organization recalled that this is a criminal action, the longest of its kind imposed on any country, “and in all this time it has been intensified under the argument of surrendering a people out of hunger and desperation, violating rules and principles of law. International and the UN Charter?.
For their part, French unions affiliated with the General Confederation of Labor (CGT) launched the ?Containers for Cuba? operation, through which they plan to send an initial solidarity load of food and other essential products in the first quarter of the year.
The general secretary of the CGT Railway Workers, Laurent Brun, commented to Prensa Latina that they have accumulated dozens of tons of donations, in a campaign that involves more than twenty union organizations of the Confederation.
During last summer we saw the news about the difficult situation in Cuba due to the blockade and the impact of Covid-19, so we asked ourselves how to help it in a concrete way and after discussions the idea of ??the project came up, he specified
MEDIA MARATHON
After organizing world caravans in rejection of the US blockade, the Europa por Cuba channel called for a media marathon to be held on the five continents, on April 2 and 3, to denounce and condemn it.
The objective of the platform activated in October 2020 is to broadcast for 24 uninterrupted hours through social networks, radio, television and the written press, starting at 20:00, Central European Time, on April 2.
The channel’s coordinators, José Antonio Toledo and Patricia Pérez, explained that the intention is to add all possible actors to the initiative, aimed at breaking the information monopoly, which manipulates the reality of the largest of the Antilles and hides the damage caused by so many decades of aggressiveness.
Regarding the contents of the programming, they insisted to Prensa Latina on the freedom of each participant in the marathon to contribute ideas and ways to reach their audiences with the complaint, which may consist of testimonies, opinions and criteria of experts about a policy that violates International Law, categorically rejected in the UN.
Together with traditional and alternative media from various nations, the World Federation of Trade Unions (WFTU) advanced its support for the media marathon, an announcement that it took advantage of to condemn the blockade imposed on Cuba.
For us this call is very important in order to visualize the situation caused by the blockade and promote solidarity with the island, said Maria Barouti, responsible for Latin America, the Caribbean and the Arab countries of the Federation that brings together 105 million workers. from 133 countries on five continents.
MEPs ACTIVE AGAINST THE BLOCKADE
From January 31 to February 5, MEPs from The Left traveled to Havana to assess the devastating consequences of the blockade and the limitation it represents in the materialization of the rights of the Cuban people.
The group of 11 members of the European Parliament suffered first-hand the impact of the siege applied by the United States and its extraterritorial reach, when the CWT travel agency, official provider of services to the European Parliament, refused to sell them tickets for the trip. of work to Cuba.
In a letter addressed to the President of the European Parliament, Roberta Metsola, and the High Representative of the European Union (EU) for Foreign Affairs, Josep Borrell, MEPs detailed that the refusal occurred because the entity in question belongs to a US company. , forced to follow the dictates of the blockade.
This action shows one more facet of the criminal blockade imposed for more than six decades, which continues to be an unacceptable coercive measure against a sovereign State, adopted unilaterally and on an extraterritorial basis, in clear violation of the principles of the Charter of the United Nations and the International Law, they denounced.
The letter, also addressed to the President of the European Council, Charles Michel, and to the Secretary General of the European Parliament, Klaus Welle, recalled the resurgence of Washington’s aggressiveness towards the Antillean nation during the administration of Donald Trump (2017-2021), conduct that the signatories described as brutal.
For her part, Belgian MEP Kathleen Van Brempt, from the group of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats, sent written questions to the EU about the execution of the Helms-Burton law, decreed by the United States in 1996 to tighten its blockade against Cuba and its impact in Europe.
In response, the Commissioner for Financial Services, Mairead McGuinness, confirmed in February that the EU does not recognize the extraterritorial application of that law, and lamented the activation in 2019 by then President Donald Trump of Titles III and IV of the initiative, dedicated to tightening the economic, commercial and financial siege on the island, in particular in order to deprive it of access to foreign investment.
McGuinness insisted that the “Blocking Statute”, Regulation 2271 of the European Council of November 22, 1996, protects EU economic agents and nullifies the effects of any foreign rule or administrative decision.
The commissioner also warned that the activation of Title III of the Helms-Burton Act represents a breach of the commitments assumed by Washington in the EU-United States agreements of 1997 and 1998.
Likewise, she assured that the European Commission supervises the effective implementation of the “Blocking Statute” and supports European operators in its application.