Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez Parrilla slammed on Thursday the sanctions recently imposed by the United States against seven Cuban organizations, saying that strengthening blockade amid the coronavirus pandemic is "shameful "
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 04th June, 2020) Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez Parrilla slammed on Thursday the sanctions recently imposed by the United States against seven Cuban organizations, saying that strengthening blockade amid the coronavirus pandemic is "shameful."
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has announced that the Trump administration imposed new sanctions on seven Cuban entities, namely military-controlled financial institution FINCIMEX, three military-owned hotels, two military-owned scuba diving centers and one military-owned marine park for tourists. The state secretary stated that they "disproportionately benefit the [Raul] Castro dictatorship, a regime which uses the profits from these businesses to oppress the Cuban people and to fund its interference in Venezuela."
"I strongly reject the sanctions announced by #US Secretary of State Pompeo against 7 #Cuban entities, aimed at harming Cuban families. Tightening the blockade during #COVID19 is both shameful and criminal," Parilla wrote on Twitter.
Following the victory of the Cuban revolutionaries over the US-backed regime, Washington severed diplomatic ties with Cuba and imposed a trade embargo on the country in the 1960s. Washington and Havana expressed their intention to start working on normalizing bilateral relations only in 2014. As a result, many restrictions on exchanges between the United States and Cuba were eased under then-US President Barack Obama.
However, current US President Donald Trump toughened the policy once he came to power in 2016, restricting travel, boosting the economic embargo and imposing sanctions on Raul Castro, Cuba's Communist Party leader, over alleged human rights violations and for supporting the Venezuelan leadership.
