I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart, for your support and understanding, said Montalvo, speaking this Saturday at the annual meeting of the Campaign for Solidarity with Cuba (CSC) in London.
The diplomat highlighted the Order of Solidarity delivered by President Miguel Díaz-Canel last month in Havana to the director of the CSC, Rob Miller, in recognition of the work carried out by the members of the organization, the unions and friends of the country. West Indian in the UK.
Montalvo said that Cuba is going through a very difficult situation as a result of the unilateral blockade imposed by Washington 60 years ago, intensified under the administration of Republican President Donald Trump (2017-2021), and that it remains practically unchanged in the Democratic government of Joe Biden.
Since mid-2019, the economic situation has worsened due to the impact of the measures and sanctions applied (by Trump) to suffocate our economy, he remarked, after stating that until the second half of last year, the country stopped receiving more than three billion dollars in profits, and the Gross Domestic Product contracted by 13 percent between 2020 and September 2021.
The ambassador clarified, however, that despite the problems and shortcomings caused by the US blockade, in Cuba, schools and hospitals continue to provide services, and social assistance and care for the most needy people are guaranteed.
The official of the European Directorate of the Cuban Institute of Friendship with the Peoples (ICAP) Elizabeth Ribalta also thanked the support of the CSC in the fight against the US blockade, and warned that the anti-Cuban campaign is also being waged on social networks.
Coupled with suffocating economic sanctions, there is a media war to try to discredit us, she warned.
At the beginning of the meeting, the first to be held in person since 2019, due to the stoppage imposed by the pandemic, Ribalta presented a recognition granted by ICAP to the CSC for its more than 40 years of solidarity with Cuba.
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