The US Embargo Against Cuba: A Mockery of International Law

Cuban Chancellor Bruno Rodriguez Parrilla just presented a report to the U.N. General Assembly about the effects of the American embargo against the island from 2011 to 2012.

Among the big problems that the international community is confronted with today, in a few weeks the General Assembly of the United Nations will debate the Cuban report on the impact of the American embargo over this year that was recently presented to both the national and foreign press in Havana by Chancellor Parrilla.

The 39-page document provides an overview of the unjust, illegal and criminal economic war against Cuba that has, for more than half a century, been applied by the government of the United States, bypassing all laws and international conventions, and against the overwhelming will of a supermajority of U.N. members.

A simple reading of the report and the knowledge that it is composed of incontrovertible facts, figures and authorized testimonials — sector by sector, organization by organization, institution by institution — should elicit an explosion of rage in any person with a basic sense of justice. And they should recognize that the embargo is an abuse of a bigger nation against a smaller one simply based on the argument of force.

But the embargo is also a ridicule of international law and could be classified as genocide against the Cuban people, resulting from a sick eagerness in Washington to render the country hungry and provoke a regime change to fit the tastes and appetites of the superpower.

It is surprising that the “democratic” administration of the supposedly demure Barack Obama has embraced the punitive methods of the embargo, including going above the extreme measures implemented by his ultra-right predecessor, George W. Bush, by increasing the persecution of Cuban business and financial transactions all over the world.

In this sense it is frankly shocking to see the fine imposed in June by the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) of the Department of the Treasury on the Dutch bank ING, which was accused of carrying out transactions with Cuba and other countries, reaching an astonishing figure of $619 million.

Such action is outrageous because in its arrogance, it also offends the intelligence of the people and raises a number of questions.

One question would be, for example: How could the Netherlands permit this outrage against one of its most emblematic financial institutions? Why would the European Union, of which the Netherlands is a member, permit this? Going down this path, the question must be asked of practically all the members, plus Canada, Mexico, Japan…

What were the so-called “antidote laws” that were passed, or almost passed, by some parliaments a little over a decade ago to protect their institutions from the arbitrary measures that the U.S. placed against Cuba and which might affect them?

How is it possible that sovereign nations accept the abuses and disrespect to their institutions when their entities are affected by laws and provisions of a third country based on the principle of extraterritoriality, and also induced by the Cuban-American community that promoted the approval of the Helms-Burton law in February 1996?

Is it not true in practice that these extremist mobsters with Cuban origins are legislating for Europe and the rest of the world from their dens in Miami?

The document presented by Parrilla includes the calculation of the total damages against Cuba by the embargo, reaching a staggering figure of more than $108 billion. This figure is around five times the foreign debt of this Antillean island; it shows the amount of damages faced by the country and its inhabitants.

In just the period calculated, from April 2011 to April 2012, the Cuban economy suffered a loss of $3.55 billion, a number that, taking into account the volume of Cuban foreign trade, equals more than 30 percent of the revenues from exports of goods and services.

This, together with the world economic crisis and high food prices, has become a difficult barrier for the economy of the country that had the audacity to start the first socialist revolution on the continent and is now beginning to upgrade its economic model.

Among the many questions raised earlier, here is one more, for which we know the answer: What is the main reason for United States’ embargo by the United States against Cuba?

The truest and deepest answer is, despite the fact that the embargo will never subdue the people of Maceo and Marti, it is designed to deter the Cuban model from success. Without a doubt, in the next few weeks Cuba will receive its 21st denial at the U.N.