U.S. Encirclement Endangers Cuba's Economy, Provokes Response

JANUARY 3, 2020

by W. T. WHITNEY

Closing a session of Cuba’s National Assembly on December 21, President Miguel Díaz-Canel declared that, “The 61st year of the Revolution has indeed been difficult and challenging.” He blamed these troubles on the “brutal” and “demented” U.S. blockade. Dangers have mounted for Cuba’s socialist revolution, and the government there is responding.

Carlos Fernández de Cossio, the Foreign Ministry’s “director general for the United States,” recently highlighted the gravity of the situation. A report on the Ministry’s website communicated his view, expressed in an interview, that Cuba’s government is “ready” for a rupture of diplomatic relations and that “sustainable progress in favor of bilateral relations” is unlikely as long as the blockade persists.

De Cossio was reacting in part to U.S. economic sanctions instituted in April and solidified in September that target companies and vessels of third countries that transport oil to Cuba – particularly from Venezuela. To deprive Cuba of fuel, he stated, “is an extremely drastic measure.” President Díaz-Canel declared in his speech that sanctions have “deprived us of more than 50% of our fuel needs.”

The U.S. blockade has lasted 58 years and continued even during 2015 and 2016 when the Obama administration had eased some restrictions on travel and commercial exchanges and established diplomatic relations with Cuba. In 2017 Trump’s administration reinstated in full the U.S. bans on travel, commercial ties, and more. In May 2019 that administration implemented Title III of the 1996 Helms Burton Law in order to render foreign investments in Cuba as risky.

More:
https://www.counterpunch.org/2020/01/03/u-s-encirclement-endangers-cubas-economy-provokes-response/