During a talk held on Tuesday night in Quito, Miño recounted how the blockade against Cuba is a continuation of the Monroe Doctrine, articulated in 1823, and which dictated “America for Americans.”

Two centuries later, the expression is part of Washington’s foreign policy, the academic said during his speech at the meeting, which was organized by the Ecuadorian Coordinator of the Movement of Friendship and Solidarity with Cuba.

He also compared the 9,157 million dollars in losses the blockade caused for Cuba during the pandemic with the loan requested by Ecuador from the International Monetary Fund.

For his part, the Cuban ambassador to Ecuador, Basilio Gutiérrez, emphasized that the economic war against Cuba is unjustified, and reiterated that the blockade is the main obstacle to the development of his country.

Cuba’s accumulated losses are estimated at more than 159 billion dollars at current prices, an immense figure for a small economy, said the diplomat, who pointed out that if the sanctions did not exist, Cuba’s Gross Domestic Product in 2022 may have been nine percent.

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