President Diaz-Canel says sanctions are severely impacting health services.
On Thursday, Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel took part in a forum organized by the United Nations on unilateral sanctions around the world.
During his intervention, he denounced that the U.S. energy blockade is causing a severe impact on Cuba’s health sector.
“More than 96,000 Cubans, including 11,000 children, are waiting for surgeries due to the lack of electricity,” Diaz-Canel said, also warning that 16,000 patients who need radiotherapy and nearly 3,000 who depend on dialysis are affected by the shutdown of services amid energy problems.
The Cuban leader also said that public and private transportation are practically paralyzed due to fuel shortages. Companies and food production have also been heavily affected by the U.S. oil blockade implemented since January.
“Beyond these figures, it is impossible to quantify the physical and psychological exhaustion,” the Cuban president said, describing the U.S. blockade as “a flagrant, deliberate and unjustified violation of the human rights of an entire people and of the freedom of trade of third countries.”
Diaz-Canel concluded that “the determination of Cubans to defend our absolute sovereignty is total,” and that the people of Cuba “will not forget those who, in the face of abuse and blackmail, stood on the side of justice and raised their hands and voices without fear.”
The U.N. forum began with a presentation by Venezuela’s ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva, Alexander Yañez, who said that unilateral coercive measures, which his country is also subject to, “are a form of war, as their effects are the same as those of missiles.”
“They damage critical infrastructure, health systems and destroy the economy,” he said at a forum that also included representatives of other countries subject to unilateral sanctions, such as Eritrea, Iran and Zimbabwe.
teleSUR/ JF
Sources: EFE – UN
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