The criminal policy of the blockade against Cuba

Most Cubans were born under the punishments and conditions of the blockade exercised for more than half a century by the United States against the residents of the neighbouring little island. The result is the longest economic, commercial and financial siege of history, guaranteed by laws and regulations.
 
By Orlando Oramas Leon*,
 
Cuba suffers from the longest economic, commercial and financial siege in history.
The authorities of the USA pursue and punish not only the people of Cuba, but also citizens, businesses and interests of third countries. It is extra-territorial, but in addition, it is criminal, since its main purpose is to submit, sow hunger and disease and work against the needs of the entire human population.

Nobody can escape from this ridiculous and inhuman policy, not even boys with heart disease, nor patients with HIV-AIDS, nor academics and artists, nor athletes, or rather, the whole of this Caribbean country's society.
The blockade is to make it impossible for the lives of Cubans and to prevent the country from making purchases, be these drugs, instruments and other materials for the public health system.

For instance, between May 2012 and April 2013 a country of limited resources such as Cuba had to designate 39 million USD for the acquisition of these vital products for the life of its residents in distant markets or through intermediaries .
But there's more. Cuban health experts face difficulties in their training in techniques of medical care.

The same thing happens with the equipment controlled or supported under Windows XP operating system's 64-bit medical images. Its activation in Cuba is not possible, due to blockage .
Experts from the National Institute of Oncology and Radio biology were banned from participating in the LabWare - LIMS System, celebrated in Colombia, under the pretext that the U.S. company LabWare, sponsor of the event, could not deal with matters related with Cuba.

Also the National Centre for Medical Genetics is the focus of attention of the Office of Foreign Assets (OFAC) of Congress, a leading executive hand in the policy of isolation against the neighboring country.
The Centre carries on working without purchasing a Genetic Analyzer, produced only by U.S. companies like Applied Biosystems, of Life Technologies.

The National Institute of Gastroenterology, in the central district of Vedado, Havana, needs a team of radiofrequency. This is equipment that on our continent is marketed by the company Olympus Latin America Inc. But it is U.S. technology and therefore Cuban patients cannot use it.

...

Another limitation of the blockade affecting pediatric cardiology in Cuba is the inability to access Sevoflurane, the best anesthetic for pediatric cardiovascular surgery and this is reduced only to use in the United States.


Likewise, the Institute of Nephrology confronts difficulties with the availability of kits for HLA tissue disorders. A Company of U.S. origin One Lambda, bans their sale to Cuba. This prohibition is despite the fact that this product is critical to prevent the phenomenon of rejection in transplants or grafts, according to criteria of compatibility. Patients with HIV are discriminated against and treated as enemies, because they are prevented from receiving combinations of antiretroviral drugs that include Gilead's Tenofovir.


Long is the list of affectations of the U.S. blockade against Cuba, in the report already circulating at the UN General Assembly. It is a glossary of losses and punishments causing suffering in a small country in the developing world, but above all it is the demonstration of a criminal policy which endangers the life of a whole nation.
 
* The author is Chief Editor of Prensa Latina

Translated by Olga Santos

Pravda.Ru

 

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Author`s name Timothy Bancroft-Hinchey
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