[NYTr] Cuba Slams US Blockade, Oulines Its International Effects Date: Wed, 19 Sep 2007 00:38:01 -0500 (CDT) Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit Prensa Latina, Havana http://www.plenglish.com Cuba Slams US Blockade, Outlines Its International Effects Havana, Sep 18 (Prensa Latina) Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque stated Tuesday that damages caused by the US blockade are over 89 billion dollars. Perez Roque informed the latter when presenting to the press in this capital the report on the UN resolution 6111 "Necessity to put an end to the economic, commercial and financial blockade imposed by the United States against Cuba." Since the triumph of the Cuban Revolution on January 1, 1959, the US government started the almost five-decade economic siege. He recalled that the General Assembly gave last year an overwhelming defeat to the blockade when 183 nations voted for, four against and one abstained. The Cuban minister said that since 1992, when the report was presented for a first time, the international community's support have been increased and it is an unequivocal signal of world conscience on the blockade's negative effects on Cuba. Perez Roque also talked of the extensive world rejection that policy generates due to extra-territorial measures, denounced the application of those US coercive measures and condemned the blockade's ferocity for trying to subject the Cuban people to hunger and disease. ef iff leg ale PL-29 *** US Targets Cuban Health Havana, Sep 18 (Prensa Latina) The Cuban people have endured nearly fifty years of a sustained US blockade that affects normal life and which, tightened by the Bush administration, inflicts severe losses on the domestic economy; health care is not exempt. The health sector has suffered serious restrictions in acquiring supplies and technology of US origin, and access is blocked to state-of-the-art information, preventing quality assistance. Cuba has regularly denounced the consequences of the US blockade on national public health, repeated in its R61 1 report to the UN General Assembly, "The Need to End the US Economic, Commercial and Financial Blockade on Cuba," estimating over $30 million in losses last year alone in the health sector. The worst hurt were ICUs, emergencies, pregnant women, children and senior citizens unable to access latest generation diagnostic kits and medication produced in the United States. According to the denouncement, under the Treasury license ban, companies like Humphreys-Zeiss and Novartis were unable to export a machine to Cuba to study the retina and medication to treat muscle degeneration. Also, Med Tronic had to stop selling pacemakers for children with arrhythmia, and Saint Jude was banned from supplying prosthetic valves to the William Soler Pediatric Cardiac Hospital. US pressures have forced other labs to cancel sales for anesthetics, cancer serums and other medication that had to be bought at distant markets, making the acquisitions more costly. The US has also banned the development of US-Cuba joint health projects by objecting to free academic and scientific exchange. Yet, and despite adversities, Cuba has developed and run a novel, unique, universal, modern, free health program whose efficiency catapulted the Island to rank among the lowest world infant mortality rates and rising life expectancy. hr ccs emw ale vm PL-51 *** Not Just Cuba Hurt by US Blockade Havana, Sep 18 (Prensa Latina) The economic and financial blockade imposed by the United States against Cuba affected 30 other nations between May 2006 and May 2007, countries hit by the extraterritorial character of that policy. Ever since the White House passed the Torricelli and Helms-Burton Acts and it agreed to execute the Bush Plan to speedup the destruction of Cuban institutional order, the number of those affected inside and outside the country is higher every day. The Cuban report to the UN General Assembly spelled out precisely the need to end the economic blockade because the damage caused reached unprecedented levels last year. The US objective is to prevent other nations from having the right to benefit from the opportunities the Cuban economy generates, by hampering US subsidiaries from doing any kind of transaction with Cuba in other territories. The US would deny US aid to any country that furnishes assistance to Cuba, and still others, Cuba's current trade partners, are targeted by name. Countries like Germany, Australia, Brazil, Canada, United Kingdom, Netherlands, Sweden, Spain, Finland, Japan, Mexico, Norway and Switzerland, among others, withstood the consequences of such an unfair measure against other States and peoples. The blockade applies to any third country company with Cuban nationals on the payroll. Such companies are prohibited from having any financial or commercial dealings with the United States or US citizens. Any property the company may have in the United States will be frozen. This situation intensified due to current alliances and business fusions led by Washington, which limits the foreign economic area of Cuba and makes the search for new trade partners difficult. The policy of the United States is to pressure third country governments and companies to sever ties with Cuba or face the consequences. ccs gdb ale crc PL-48 *** US Citizens' Rights Violated by Blockade Havana, Sep 18 (Prensa Latina) The US administration continues to instate ever stricter travel bans and travel restrictions on most US citizens traveling to Cuba, violating the human rights of the citizens and residents of the United States. The direct economic losses caused by implementation of the blockade imposed by US against Cuba exceeds 89 billion dollars and the attempts by Washington to paralyze Cuban tourism and to stop exchange of delegations of all types continues. The financial prohibitions during the last 12 months include 200 travel bans for all non-licensed US and Puerto Rican experts, who intended to participate in a Congress of the Inter-American Society of Psychology. Fifteen distinguished US scientists could not visit Cuba to attend the 2006 International Immunology Workshop nor could a choir from San Francisco University, causing cancellation of the meeting. Similar prohibitions were implemented by the US government on students and professorial members of the NGO Interlocken, interested in enriching their cultural and professional training and in exchanging experiences with Cuban colleagues. During 2006 the blockade caused a 75 percent decrease in visits to Cuba by US artists and gallery owners. US fines of tourism companies for selling or promoting trips to Cuba multiplied this year, a clear sign that the world demand to end the blockade continues, of which the US government seems unaware. hr ccs gdb jrr PL-54 * ================================================================= NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us Our main website: http://www.blythe.org List Archives: http://blythe-systems.com/pipermail/nytr/ Subscribe: http://blythe-systems.com/mailman/listinfo/nytr =================================================================