It is something “inhuman, cruel, crazy and I hope that our friends can travel to Cuba,” said the award-winning instrumentalist in a message for a special broadcast on occasion of the 60th anniversary of the officialization of that unilateral siege signed by then US President John F. .Kennedy.
“Sixty years of blockade, 60 years of resistance of the Cuban people have passed”, stressed the also musical director, composer and arranger.
Sometimes perspective is lost because someone might think this policy “is against the Cuban government, but it is actually against the families on the island, to make them explode and that is why they impose those measures and that is why the United States prevents our families to be together,” he said.
The blockade violates human rights of the 11 million Cubans on the island and also of those who reside outside of Cuba, Herrera pointed out.
It is time for that policy of suffocation to be lifted and for Cubans to live in a country without a blockade, he concluded.
Executive Order 3447 signed by Kennedy on February 3, 1962 gave legal effect to this unilateral fence, the longest in history against any country.
During his term, Republican President Donald Trump (2017-2021) reinforced the blockade with 243 coercive measures, still in force by his Democratic successor, Joe Biden.
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