The United Nations General Assembly will debate and vote on the draft resolution entitled “Necessity of Ending the Economic, Commercial, and Financial Blockade Imposed by the United States of America against Cuba” on November 1-2.

When presenting the document at a press briefing on Thursday, Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez described Washington’s unilateral blockade as genocidal, and denounced the losses caused to Cuba, which exceeded one billion dollars.

Rodríguez explained that the damage caused by this measure represents an impact of more than 405 million dollars a month, which accounts for one million dollars every two hours.

According to estimates, Cuba’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) could have grown by around 9 percent in 2022 if not for US policy, the diplomat explained.

He stated that if we calculate the damage caused by the blockade in these 60 years, based on the value of gold, it amounts to 1.337 trillion dollars, a huge figure for any economy in the world.

The blockade against Cuba has a lethal impact with direct and indirect economic damage and aims to deprive the country of financial income that is essential to acquire food, technologies, and supplies, and also causes losses in tourism, he pointed out.

The head of Cuban diplomacy added that due to that policy, 909 discriminatory actions to cancel contracts and services by foreign banks were taken against Cuba from January 2021 to February 2023.

Rodríguez recalled that during the most critical times of the Covid-19 pandemic in Cuba, Washington tightened the economic, commercial, and financial blockade, a position that he described as a cruel and genocidal act.

jg/iff/mgt/evm