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The Nigeria Labour Congress has asked the United States to lift the 60-year economic blockade against Cuba, saying the embargo has worsened the COVID-19 infections in the country.
The congress noted that most hospitals have run out of essential supplies while stores and supermarkets in Havana and other cities have also exhausted their supplies of basic goods, leading to anti-government protests across the country.
The union in a statement in Abuja on Thursday, by its President, Ayuba Wabba, titled, ‘Give the Cubans a break-enough is enough,’ asked the US and her allies to immediately rescind and remove all the economic sanctions and blockade against the people of Cuba, which it said are at the root of the current deterioration of living conditions in the Latin America country.
It could be recalled that after the revolution that ushered in the Socialist Government in Cuba in 1958, the US Congress passed a series of laws imposing economic blockade on the Caribbean nation.
The US in the 90s expanded the economic sanctions against the people of Cuba by introducing the Torricelli and the Helms Burton laws. These laws barred US companies and other countries from doing business with Cuba.
Wabba stated that for nearly 60 years, the Cuban people have stoically shown resilience and resisted the economic blockade against their country, noting that Cuba, despite the sanctions, has made great progress in education and healthcare innovation and services.
Successive Cuban governments, he added, have managed to maintain a reasonable level of public services.
Wabba said, “But there is so much that a people can achieve amidst a debilitating blockade. COVID-19 which has brought many nations not experiencing prolonged economic sanctions to their knees has hit Cuba very hard.
‘’The will of a section of the Cuban people is currently broken – that is the intendment of the sanctions. Syndicated media umbrage enabled by social media and sponsored anti-establishment civil society activities are the hammers being used to break down the will of the Cuban people and to construct a wedge between the Cuban people and their government. The result is the widespread protest. This is unfortunate.
“We call on the United States government and her allies to end the economic blockade against Cuba. Clearly, there is no morally defensible reason for the United States of America to sustain the six decades punishment against Cuba.”
