Correa calls US blockade of Cuba an outrage against rights

August 24, 2014

Correa calls US blockade of Cuba an outrage against rights

Ecuadorian president Rafael Correa has called the economic, financial and trade blockade of Cuba, imposed by the United States for more than 50 years, as the worst outrage against the human rights, international and inter-American law.

Giving a key lecture in the 5th Forum of Esquipulas, the Ecuadorian president said the blockade does not even pretend to comply with the OAS foundation chart, and recalled that he himself has been condemned 22 consecutive times at the United Nations.

He said the last condemnation of the blockade, in October, 2013, was supported by 188 of the 193 UN member countries.

Correa was given a standing ovation by thousands of members of the audience at the conclusion of his address entitled Human Beings above Profits: A
Different Economic Vision for Development.

The 51-year-old president remarked that although his country is small and has limitations, it would not passively accept the role assigned to it in this new
international labour division.

In his speech, he criticized neo-dependency, neoliberalism and neocolonialism: one of the most glaring demonstrations of neocolonialism was the Organization of American States (OAS) itself, he said.

“Why do we have to discuss our problems in Washington?” he asked, to whole-hearted applause.

He defended the need to establish the region’s own space for processing regional conflicts and saw the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States as a great opportunity and a hope for the future.

The US blockade of Cuba had an extra-territorial nature, he said, pointing out that Cuban representatives at the UN had expressed this opinion in several speeches at the UN General Assembly.

The Cuban spokespeople explained many time in the UN forum that the economic blockade had extended the sanctions and extra-territorial persecution to citizens, institutions and companies in Third-World countries that kept open economic, trade, financial or technical-scientific relations with Cuba.

Most Cubans now were born after the implementation of the blockade, which has had a deep impact on the Cuban economy and the food, health and transport options of its citizens.

© Scoop Media