On 28 October, the United Nations General Assembly will discuss and vote on the resolution condemning the Bloqueo, the economic, commercial and financial blockade that the United States has imposed on the Cuban people for more than 60 years. We call on the Italian government not to yield to any external pressure and to maintain its vote in support of the Cuban people, in keeping with the position Italy has upheld since the 1990s.
This appeal is no mere formality. It takes on particular significance in the current circumstances. Since last January, the United States has intensified the Bloqueo, tightening its stranglehold on Cuba and imposing an energy blockade that prevents fuel from reaching the island, with severe economic and social consequences. This is an imperialist and criminal policy of a genocidal nature, aimed at provoking a humanitarian crisis in Cuba. At the same time, provocations, threats of aggression and armed intervention against the island, as well as the promotion of terrorist activities, are intensifying. US imperialism seeks to strike at an entire people and subject it to an extreme form of collective punishment, with the ultimate goal of dismantling the socialist system born of the Cuban Revolution.
In this context, it is well known that the United States has long been putting pressure on its allies, including Italy, to further reduce all forms of cooperation with Cuba. Recent pressure from the US diplomatic mission, for example, calling on Italy to terminate the agreement under which hundreds of Cuban doctors continue to keep Calabria’s healthcare system afloat, is well documented.
Cuba has shown great solidarity with Italy, sending two medical brigades to support our people during the darkest years of the COVID-19 pandemic. If Calabria’s healthcare system is able to provide citizens with even a minimum level of services, the credit goes to Cuban doctors, who bring solidarity and brotherhood to people around the world.
Tomorrow, 27 October, at 5:30 pm, we will be gathering in Piazza Montecitorio in Rome to reaffirm that turning our backs on Cuba today would not only be morally and politically unjust, but also a disgrace that our country does not deserve.
We will take to the streets as communists defending the Cuban Revolution, its message of change and its socialist system, standing alongside the Communist Party of Cuba and its youth organization. We are fully aware that one need not be a communist to be outraged by a policy of siege that forces 10 million people to endure economic hardship and continuous blackouts, while causing a drastic rise in infant mortality.
The workers and people of our country stand with the Cuban people, not with the Bloqueo. The Italian government must act accordingly.
