Mexico and Cuba: Diplomatic Accord

Mexican Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard reaffirmed Mexico’s opposition to the blockade of Cuba imposed by the United States yesterday. He called attention to the serious suffering being inflicted on the people of the island during the continuing public health crisis. As Ebrard indicated, and as La Jornada reported immediately afterward, Washington’s illegal embargo blocks access by the Cuban authorities to such basic supplies as syringes for vaccination of its citizens and medicines for the treatment of all kinds of diseases.

The hostility of the U.S. government, which feels free to condemn an entire people to inhumane hardships in order to advance its geopolitical objectives, contrasts with the solidarity and generosity of the Cuban people, thanks to whose assistance Mexico succeeded in dodging the most critical phase of the COVID-19 pandemic last year. In recognition of the tremendous support given to our country, Ebrard thanked the Cuban doctors and nurses who stepped up when the spread of COVID-19 was threatening to overwhelm the capacity of our hospitals; yesterday, 92 doctors and nurses returned to the island.

While the Mexican government was expressing its concern about the humanitarian conditions that the Cuban people were experiencing as a result of the prolonged economic blockade, President Joe Biden, in his interventionist rhetoric, insisted on referring to Cuba as a “failed state.” His Cuban counterpart, Miguel Díaz-Canel, responded clearly that “a failed state is one which, in order to please a minority of reactionaries and racketeers, is capable of disseminating harm to 11 million human beings, ignoring the will of Cubans, U.S. residents and the international community.” Díaz-Canel is correct: The unrelenting aggression against the island, designed to pander to the demands of the Cuban-U.S. mafia, is rejected not only by an overwhelming majority of United Nations members, but also by more than half of U.S. citizens.

It is clear that the position taken by the Mexican authorities honors a national diplomatic tradition that has been wrecked by recent neoliberal governments, which have betrayed the country’s principles to ingratiate themselves with the White House, as well as by attachment to their ideological likes and dislikes. In addition, the position with regard to the blockades of Cuba and other countries follows the principles of sovereign equality and free self-determination of nations, enshrined in the United Nations Charter. Because of this, it is appropriate to welcome and support it as a model in the face of Washington’s barrage against the island.