BY – FAISAL IQBAL | UNITED NATIONS | 07 JULY 2026
United Nations – Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez denounced today that the US blockade of his country is silently killing and suffocating it, “constituting a ruthless crime, for which the United Nations also bears responsibility.”
In his speech, “The Need to End the US Economic, Commercial, and Financial Blockade of Cuba,” he explained that this nearly 70-year-old policy has intensified in the last seven months, leading to a decline in the quality of life and harm to the population.
He emphasized that the United States is waging an unconventional war, which has become more brutal and ruthless.
Now, an energy blockade, equivalent to a naval blockade—an act of war—has been added to the mix. This blockade prevents Cuba from receiving fuel supplies, whether for commercial or humanitarian purposes. There are also bilateral coercive actions and even harassment, including “repeated threats of military action from the highest levels of government,” he emphasized.
In his arguments for urgently bringing the current situation in Cuba to the UN for debate, Rodríguez stressed that the economic, commercial, and financial blockade is now compounded by unprecedented and extremely extraterritorial actions, such as the use of secondary sanctions.
These sanctions are part of a macabre plan to provoke a humanitarian crisis in Cuba and the total destabilization of the country. These actions, he added, aim “to pave the way for, or force, a presidential order for, an imperialist military intervention that would cause a bloodbath and countless losses of Cuban and American lives.”
He specified that in recent months, the humanitarian damage to the population has multiplied, with the deterioration of the quality of life, the reduction of sources of livelihood, the limitation of opportunities for personal, family, and social development, and the massive, flagrant, and systematic violation of the human rights of an entire people in an act of collective punishment.
He considered that all these matters of high importance and urgency deserve not only the attention but also the clearest pronouncement from the United Nations and its most universal and representative body, the General Assembly.
By virtue of its mandate to preserve international peace and security and to ensure the enjoyment of human rights, the Foreign Minister warned.
He enumerated the harm to Cuban families, especially children and young people, and mothers, who suffer from prolonged and unbearable blackouts or power outages. Often, when there is no electricity, there is also no drinking water.
“They know the anguish of not having medicine for a sick person. They are burdened by food shortages or the high prices of basic necessities.” “The infant mortality rate of 4 per 1,000 live births has increased to 9.9,” he explained.
This represents the preventable deaths of 1,780 newborns, given the availability of appropriate equipment, devices, and treatments, Rodríguez reflected, demonstrating with data that the number of people dying from cancer in the country has significantly increased. In the case of children and young people, the survival rate fell from 85 percent to 65 percent.
“This trend coincides with the harshest periods of the U.S. embargo. The blockade suffocates and kills silently,” he insisted.
For the diplomat, addressing this ruthless crime is also a responsibility of the United Nations.
The U.S. government, and especially its State Department, spreads the lie that the blockade is not directed against the Cuban people, but only against the government. Ask the Cuban people if they suffer from the blockade or not, the Foreign Minister questioned.
He hasn’t addressed any of the issues I’ve mentioned. This isn’t surprising, given that he represents the government responsible for the nuclear bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, for dozens of military interventions, and for supporting some of the most brutal military dictatorships in Latin America and other regions, he said.
Source: (Prensa Latina News Agency)
