Don’t touch Cuba!

The Quebec-Cuba Solidarity Concertation Table (TCSQ-C) fraternally supports the Cuban people as well as their government which has to deal with one of the worst economic situations since the year one of the Cuban Revolution, 1959, and the political and social situation tricky that comes from it.

Yesterday, July 11, 2021, in some Cuban cities, demonstrations of citizens wanted to express their irritation at the many challenges of their lives, long queues for food products, power outages due to lack of fuel, some decline in the level of public services, among others in the health field, where there is a lack of certain medicines, which so far have been readily available. By demonstrating, these citizens exercise their rights and do not question the sovereignty of their country.

Unfortunately, Cuba’s sovereignty is not respected by the United States and by organizations where it has a dominant weight such as the Organization of American States (OAS), whose statements falsely exaggerate the country’s internal situation and manipulate national and international opinion. Some demonstrations are also infiltrated by professional provocators, at the balance of a well organized network with entries to the State Department and the CIA among others.

The first obstacle to Cuba’s sovereignty and the main cause of the country’s current economic crisis is, of course, the US embargo. It should be remembered that this measure was imposed in 1960 to spark… disillusion and discouragement based on dissatisfaction and economic hardship (…) and refusal to grant Cuba money and money supplies to reduce real and monetary wages and cause government hunger, despair and overthrow (…)′′ (April 6, 1960, Lester D. Mallory, Assistant Under-Secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs). This is the current scenario that has not had the expected effect for over 60 years and is still failing now, indicating that the government has the support of the majority of the population. In 2017, the US administration even strengthened the blockade when then president Donald Trump signed the ′′ presidential national security memorandum on strengthening US policy towards Cuba “. Some 243 Trump’s measures have added to this declaration of economic war, which makes it almost impossible for Cuba to get funds and credit for the purchase of basic necessities for the country. This situation causes the population and a certain percentage loses patience. A few years ago, Cuba could produce the majority of the medicines that the population needed locally, but today, due to the tightening of the blockade, the country cannot obtain the necessary commodities for production. This fact, in our opinion, clearly illustrates the criminal character of the US embargo of Cuba.

The economic crisis caused by the embargo has been added to the Covid-19 pandemic, which has made it worse and forced the current stop and slowdown of tourism’s important currency source. Social media provocators accuse Cuba of mismanaging the pandemic yet Cuba has one of the lowest mortality rates in the world and has even developed vaccines against Covide-19. The situation is certainly not pink and the province of Matanzas at several Covide outbreaks and medical experts are on site trying to fix the situation.

TCSQ-C supports the Government of Cuba in dialogue with its civil society, to explain the situation and to listen to the concerns of the people of Cuba.

The Quebec-Cuba Solidarity Concertation Table denounces, however, any external intervention in Cuba’s affairs. It’s obvious to us that in this difficult time, people and organizations receiving external support to destabilize the country, especially ′′ humanitarian and development ′′ organizations such as the United States Agency for International development (USAid). They act on behalf of Washington’s interventionist sectors, they are coordinated inside Cuba to discredit the government, and take advantage of the difficult economic situation. At the same time, a strong campaign of denigration from Cuba is being carried out on social media and demonstrations are being held in foreign cities like those held in Montreal and Miami yesterday. Because Cuba is thus being attacked from outside, we support the Government of Cuba, which has the right to take measures to defend its sovereignty and which calls on the people to defend its revolution without violence.