OPINION: The Siege on Cuba’s Right to Grow, Process and Eat its Own Food

Sergio Martínez González. Ambassador of the Republic of Cuba to Antigua and Barbuda.

In recent weeks, the U.S. State Department announced a new round of economic sanctions against Cuba, this time targeting industries that had historically been exempt from the brutal economic warfare measures the U.S. has waged against Cuba for over 66 years. The aim now is to completely block the country’s ability (both public and private sector) to purchase food and agricultural products, food processing equipment, and supplies that would boost domestic agricultural and food production.

For example, a company like the Bühler Group, a Swiss industrial conglomerate, faces the threat of sanctions from the US government if it fulfills its contract with Cuba to sell parts for wheat milling equipment. The same is true for a company from another third country that has been unable to sell Cuba parts needed for the operation of machinery used to clean and sort legumes. This creates enormous difficulties in processing basic agricultural products like wheat and beans, which in turn reduces the amount of basic food reaching Cuban households.

Meanwhile, the measures against Cuban port operators and the threats of draconian sanctions against any shipping company or its insurers that transport goods to Cuba, are significantly worsening the shortage of basic necessities. More than 7,000 containers destined for Havana, containing food, urgently needed medicines of all kinds, and essential parts and components to maintain the functioning of the deteriorating electrical system, among others items, are currently stranded at various points in the Caribbean. This follows the decision by companies such as Germany’s Hapag-Lloyd and France’s CMA CGM to abruptly suspend their operations that for more of 30 years they have practiced with Cuba, while other shipping lines are also refusing to transport these goods to Cuban ports for fear of US sanctions.

With these new measures, the US government seeks to bring about the complete collapse of both domestic food production and food imports to Cuba. In other words, it is also using the fundamental right to food as a deadly weapon against the Cuban population.

The aforementioned sanctions exacerbate the already dire situation and living conditions of more than 9 million people in Cuba, following the imposition of a total oil blockade by the US, which has been in place for over seven months. This blockade, in addition to causing long periods of blackouts of 20 and 30 hours, hinders basic sanitation and food security, paralyzes transportation systems, and has had serious consequences for healthcare services for the entire population. To cite just a few examples of the inhumane health consequences of the energy blockade, today 98,000 patients are currently on waiting lists for the surgical treatment they require. Among them are 12,000 children between the ages of zero and ten, due to the lack of electricity in operating rooms and the necessary resources for these procedures. Meanwhile, 67,000 children under one year old have not yet received their complete vaccination and immunization schedule. In Washington circles, this policy has been named as “the Gaza Plan for Cuba.”

Few days ago, high-ranking officials from the United Nations and its Human Rights Council unequivocally recognized that the illegal and unilateral coercive measures imposed by the United States against Cuba, flagrantly violate Article 2 of the UN Charter and are part of a broader regime change strategy fallen by different US Administrations for more than six decades. In this regard, they stated that “The United States government must end all threats and hostile acts against the sovereignty of Cuba and revoke all measures it has imposed on the country that are contrary to international law,” and that “The Security Council and the General Assembly of the United Nations must urgently address these threats as a matter of international peace and security.”

Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel during his speech on the commemoration of the Day of Rebellion last July 26th, said that “the US blockade only works because of the complicity of those who fear the power of Washington more than the judgment of history. This is a new call to the conscience of the world. Do not become accomplices to another genocide. Every time a part of the world remains silent in the face of aggression against Cuba, international law is weakened. Every time a government accepts the illegitimate sanctions of the US, the principle of non-intervention is eroded. Every time companies are being pressured to abandon their investments in Cuba, and others are hesitant to do so for fear of reprisals, strengthen the economic and global dictatorship of a single power.

A new session of the United Nations General Assembly will soon begin, where, as every year, Cuba will reiterate its condemnation of the criminal blockade imposed by the US government on the Cuban people. Governments must decide whether, on this occasion, they will maintain their brave and independent historical stance of denouncing the illegal and inhumane policy of total economic strangulation against Cuba, or whether, fearing the threats and blackmail of the powerful northern empire, they will choose to abandon Cuba to its fate through their silence, becoming complicit in the genocide carried out by the US against a solidarity people who have always extended its generous hand to all in need.