Cuba is simultaneously experiencing a serious energy crisis and the recent impact of Hurricane Oscar, warned the letter, promoted by the organization The People’s Forum in its call to Biden.
Ten years ago, President Barack Obama opened a new and hopeful chapter in relations between the United States and Cuba by taking the first steps towards normalization, expressed the open letter to the firm on the Internet platforms.
“However, Trump dismantled that policy, imposing pain and suffering on the Cuban people. As a consequence, Cuba is currently experiencing a national blackout, exacerbated by the cruel US embargo (blockade) that has lasted 60 years,” it stressed.
This unilateral blockade “has prevented the country from buying fuel, accessing essential goods and obtaining spare parts for its electrical grid, leaving millions of people in the dark,” he said.
In more than six decades, the blockade cost Cuba more than 164 billion dollars in damages and about five billion dollars in losses in the last year alone (March 2023 to February 2024), he said, reiterating that annually the United States stands alone before the UN General Assembly while the world condemns this policy.
The blockade was further intensified by Trump’s designation of Cuba as a “state sponsor of terrorism” and the imposition of over 243 new sanctions on the island, it reiterated.
“This represents a grave injustice designed to create severe shortages, making it impossible for the Cuban people to access essential food, medicine and fuel,” the letter denounced.
In their request, they insist that Biden “maintained Trump’s policy for three years and nine months,” but that “with only 90 days left in his term, he has the ability to lift these harmful measures.”
The reality is that sanctions cause irreversible damage to the people of Cuba, not just the government, the message stressed.
“Eliminating the designation of State sponsor of terrorism would allow Cuba to conduct financial transactions and restore its electrical grid, as well as address food and medicine shortages to alleviate the immense hardships faced by the Cuban people, who have endured more than 62 years of economic hardship under the embargo (blockade),” it stated.
This devastating blackout is just one aspect of the United States’ legacy of causing suffering on the island through this policy of suffocation, it argued.
“Trump’s brutal policy must be reversed. It is not too late to do the right thing. You can change this reality with a simple signature. It is time to act. Let Cuba live!” the letter concluded.
Cuba is currently working to return to normality after the total disconnection of the National Electricity System on May 18.
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