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New Roman',serif;" valign="top"><a
href="https://go.ind.media/e/546932/the-blockade-and-the-pandemic-/klhcw5/871833228?h=LPD0hM9Q027h3YTRx5AOPmfQRyEjC7B9JotIdxQmTAk"
target="_blank" moz-do-not-send="true"><b>The
United States Tries to Take Advantage of the
Price Cubans Are Paying for the Blockade and
the Pandemic</b></a></td>
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<div><b>By Manolo De Los Santos and Vijay
Prashad</b><br>
<br>
Cuba, like every other country on the planet,
is struggling with the impact of COVID-19.
This small island of 11 million people has <a
href="https://go.ind.media/e/546932/sletterissue-26-cuba-vaccines-/klhcw7/871833228?h=LPD0hM9Q027h3YTRx5AOPmfQRyEjC7B9JotIdxQmTAk"
moz-do-not-send="true">created</a> five
vaccine candidates and <a
href="https://go.ind.media/e/546932/2021-07-14/klhcw9/871833228?h=LPD0hM9Q027h3YTRx5AOPmfQRyEjC7B9JotIdxQmTAk"
moz-do-not-send="true">sent</a> its medical
workers through the Henry Reeve International
Medical Brigade to heal people around the
world. Meanwhile, the United States hardens a
cruel and illegal blockade of the island, a
medieval siege that has been in place for six
decades. In April 2020, seven United Nations
special rapporteurs wrote an open <a
href="https://go.ind.media/e/546932/ews-aspx-NewsID-25848-LangID-E/klhcwc/871833228?h=LPD0hM9Q027h3YTRx5AOPmfQRyEjC7B9JotIdxQmTAk"
moz-do-not-send="true">letter</a> to
the United States government about the
blockade. “In the pandemic emergency,” they
wrote, “the lack of will of the U.S.
government to suspend sanctions may lead to a
higher risk of such suffering in Cuba and
other countries targeted by its sanctions.”
The special rapporteurs noted the “risks to
the right to life, health and other critical
rights of the most vulnerable sections of the
Cuban population.”<br>
<br>
On July 12, 2021, Cuba’s President Miguel
Díaz-Canel told a press conference that Cuba
is facing serious shortages of food and
medicine. “What is the origin of all these
issues?” he asked. The answer, he said, “is
the blockade.” If the U.S.-imposed blockade
ended, many of the great challenges facing
Cuba would lift. Of course, there are other
challenges, such as the collapse of the
crucial tourism sector due to the pandemic.
Both problems—the pandemic and the
blockade—have increased the challenges for the
Cuban people. The pandemic is a problem that
people all over the world now face; the
U.S.-imposed blockade is a problem unique to
Cuba (as well as about 30 other countries
struck by unilateral U.S. sanctions).<br>
<br>
<b>Protests</b><br>
<br>
On July 11, people in several parts of
Cuba—such as San Antonio de los Baños—took to
the streets to protest the social crisis.
Frustration about the lack of goods in shops
and an uptick in COVID-19 infections seemed to
motivate the protests. President Díaz-Canel
said of the people that most of them are
“dissatisfied,” but that their dissatisfaction
is fueled by “confusion, misunderstandings,
lack of information and the desire to express
a particular situation.”<br>
<br>
On the morning of July 12, U.S. President Joe
Biden hastily put out a statement that reeked
of hypocrisy. “We stand with the Cuban
people,” Biden <a
href="https://go.ind.media/e/546932/-biden-jr-on-protests-in-cuba-/klhcwf/871833228?h=LPD0hM9Q027h3YTRx5AOPmfQRyEjC7B9JotIdxQmTAk"
moz-do-not-send="true">said</a>, “and their
clarion call for freedom.” If the U.S.
government actually cared about the Cuban
people, then the Biden administration would at
the very least withdraw the 243 unilateral
coercive measures implemented by the
presidency of Donald Trump before he left
office in January 2021; Biden—contrary to his
own campaign <a
href="https://go.ind.media/e/546932/ps-cuba-policy-in-miami-visit-/klhcwh/871833228?h=LPD0hM9Q027h3YTRx5AOPmfQRyEjC7B9JotIdxQmTAk"
moz-do-not-send="true">promises</a>—has not
started the process to reverse Trump’s <a
href="https://go.ind.media/e/546932/state-sponsors-of-terrorism-/klhcwk/871833228?h=LPD0hM9Q027h3YTRx5AOPmfQRyEjC7B9JotIdxQmTAk"
moz-do-not-send="true">designation</a> of
Cuba as a “state sponsor of terrorism.” On
March 9, 2021, Biden’s spokesperson Jen Psaki
said, “A Cuba policy shift is not currently
among President Biden’s top priorities.”
Rather, the Trump “maximum pressure” policy
intended to overthrow the Cuban government
remains intact.<br>
<br>
The United States has a six-decade history of
trying to overthrow the Cuban government,
including using assassinations and invasions
as policy. In recent years, the U.S.
government has increased its financial support
of people inside Cuba and in the Cuban émigré
community in Miami, Florida; some of this
money comes directly from the <a
href="https://go.ind.media/e/546932/erica-and-caribbean-cuba-2020-/klhcwm/871833228?h=LPD0hM9Q027h3YTRx5AOPmfQRyEjC7B9JotIdxQmTAk"
moz-do-not-send="true">National Endowment
for Democracy</a> and from <a
href="https://go.ind.media/e/546932/o-provoke-a-soft-coup-in-cuba-/klhcwp/871833228?h=LPD0hM9Q027h3YTRx5AOPmfQRyEjC7B9JotIdxQmTAk"
moz-do-not-send="true">USAID</a>. Their
mandate is to accelerate any dissatisfaction
inside Cuba into a political challenge to the
Cuban Revolution.<br>
<br>
On June 23, Cuba’s Foreign Minister Bruno
Rodríguez said that the Trump “measures remain
very much in place.” They shape the “conduct
of the current U.S. administration precisely
during the months in which Cuba has
experienced the highest infection rates, the
highest death toll and a higher economic cost
associated with the COVID-19 pandemic.”<br>
<br>
<b>Costs of the Pandemic</b><br>
<br>
On July 12, Alejandro Gil Fernández, Cuba’s
minister of economy and planning, told the
press about the expenses of the pandemic. In
2020, he said, the government spent $102
million on reagents, medical equipment,
protective equipment and other material; in
the first half of 2021, the government spent
$82 million on these kinds of materials. This
is money that Cuba did not anticipate
spending—money that it does not have as a
consequence of the collapsed tourism sector.<br>
<br>
“We have not spared resources to face
COVID-19,” Fernández said. Those with COVID-19
are put in hospitals, where their treatment
costs the country $180 per day; if the patient
needs intensive care, the cost per day is
$550. “No one is charged a penny for their
treatment,” Fernández reported.<br>
<br>
The socialist government in Cuba shoulders the
responsibility of medical care and of social
insurance. Despite the severe challenges to
the economy, the government guarantees
salaries, purchases medicines and distributes
food as well as electricity and piped water.
That is the reason why the government added
$2.4 billion to its already considerable debt
overhang. In June, Cuba’s Deputy Prime
Minister Ricardo Cabrisas Ruíz <a
href="https://go.ind.media/e/546932/ParC3ADsajustanplazosdeladeuda/klhcwr/871833228?h=LPD0hM9Q027h3YTRx5AOPmfQRyEjC7B9JotIdxQmTAk"
moz-do-not-send="true">met</a> with French
Minister of Economy and Finance Bruno Le Maire
to discuss the economic consequences of the
COVID-19 pandemic. France, which manages
Cuba’s debt to the public creditors in the
Paris Club, led the effort to <a
href="https://go.ind.media/e/546932/uba-status-1403107432503578632/klhcwt/871833228?h=LPD0hM9Q027h3YTRx5AOPmfQRyEjC7B9JotIdxQmTAk"
moz-do-not-send="true">ameliorate</a> the
debt servicing demands on Havana.<br>
<br>
<b>Costs of the Blockade</b><br>
<br>
On June 23, 184 countries in the UN General
Assembly <a
href="https://go.ind.media/e/546932/2021-06-23-the-world-says-no-/klhcww/871833228?h=LPD0hM9Q027h3YTRx5AOPmfQRyEjC7B9JotIdxQmTAk"
moz-do-not-send="true">voted</a> to end the
U.S.-imposed blockade on Cuba. During the
discussion over the vote, Cuba’s Foreign
Minister Rodríguez <a
href="https://go.ind.media/e/546932/3kapBXP/klhcwy/871833228?h=LPD0hM9Q027h3YTRx5AOPmfQRyEjC7B9JotIdxQmTAk"
moz-do-not-send="true">reported</a> that
between April 2019 and December 2020, the
government lost $9.1 billion due to the
blockade ($436 million per month). “At current
prices,” he said, “the accumulated damages in
six decades amount to over $147.8 billion, and
against the price of gold, it amounts to over
$1.3 trillion.”<br>
<br>
If the blockade were to be lifted, Cuba would
be able to fix its great financial challenges
and use the resources to pivot away from its
reliance upon tourism. “We stand with the
Cuban people,” says Biden; in Havana, the
phrase is heard differently, since it sounds
like Biden is saying, “We stand on the Cuban
people.”<br>
<br>
Cuba’s Prime Minister Manuel Marrero Cruz said
that those who took to the streets on July 11
“called for foreign intervention and said that
the [Cuban] Revolution was falling. They will
never enjoy that hope,” he said. In response
to those anti-government protests, the streets
of Cuba filled with tens of thousands of
people who carried Cuban flags and the flags
of the Cuban Revolution’s 26th of July
Movement. Cruz said, “The people responded and
defended the revolution.”<br>
<br>
<em><b>Manolo De Los Santos</b> is a
researcher and a political activist. For 10
years, he worked in the organization of
solidarity and education programs to
challenge the United States’ regime of
illegal sanctions and blockades. Based out
of Cuba for many years, Manolo has worked
toward building international networks of
people’s movements and organizations. In
2018, he became the founding director of the
<a
href="https://go.ind.media/e/546932/2021-07-14/klhcx1/871833228?h=LPD0hM9Q027h3YTRx5AOPmfQRyEjC7B9JotIdxQmTAk"
moz-do-not-send="true">People’s Forum</a>
in New York City, a movement incubator for
working-class communities to build unity
across historic lines of division at home
and abroad. He also collaborates as a
researcher with <a
href="https://go.ind.media/e/546932/2021-07-14/klhcx3/871833228?h=LPD0hM9Q027h3YTRx5AOPmfQRyEjC7B9JotIdxQmTAk"
moz-do-not-send="true">Tricontinental:
Institute for Social Research</a>
and is a Globetrotter/Peoples Dispatch
fellow.</em><br>
<br>
<em><b>Vijay Prashad</b> is an Indian
historian, editor and journalist. He is a
writing fellow and chief correspondent at <a
href="https://go.ind.media/e/546932/2021-07-14/klhcx5/871833228?h=LPD0hM9Q027h3YTRx5AOPmfQRyEjC7B9JotIdxQmTAk"
moz-do-not-send="true">Globetrotter</a>.
He is the chief editor of <a
href="https://go.ind.media/e/546932/2021-07-14/klhcx7/871833228?h=LPD0hM9Q027h3YTRx5AOPmfQRyEjC7B9JotIdxQmTAk"
moz-do-not-send="true">LeftWord Books</a>
and the director of <a
href="https://go.ind.media/e/546932/2021-07-14/klhcx9/871833228?h=LPD0hM9Q027h3YTRx5AOPmfQRyEjC7B9JotIdxQmTAk"
moz-do-not-send="true">Tricontinental:
Institute for Social Research</a>. He is a
senior non-resident fellow at <a
href="https://go.ind.media/e/546932/y2hdjcpo/klhcxc/871833228?h=LPD0hM9Q027h3YTRx5AOPmfQRyEjC7B9JotIdxQmTAk"
moz-do-not-send="true">Chongyang Institute
for Financial Studies</a>, Renmin
University of China. He has written more
than 20 books, including</em> <a
href="https://go.ind.media/e/546932/1595583424--tag-alternorg08-20/klhcxf/871833228?h=LPD0hM9Q027h3YTRx5AOPmfQRyEjC7B9JotIdxQmTAk"
moz-do-not-send="true">The Darker Nations</a>
<em>and</em> <a
href="https://go.ind.media/e/546932/1781681589--tag-alternorg08-20/klhcxh/871833228?h=LPD0hM9Q027h3YTRx5AOPmfQRyEjC7B9JotIdxQmTAk"
moz-do-not-send="true">The Poorer Nations</a><em>.
His latest book is</em> <a
href="https://go.ind.media/e/546932/catalog-product-view-id-21820/klhcxk/871833228?h=LPD0hM9Q027h3YTRx5AOPmfQRyEjC7B9JotIdxQmTAk"
moz-do-not-send="true">Washington Bullets</a><em>,
with an introduction by Evo Morales Ayma.</em></div>
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