Cuban Embassy responds

Cuban Embassy responds

I would not have made such an effort to counter the libelous
The real blockade in Cuba: Ordinary people the victims
by Razl Rivero Castaqeda (The Jakarta Post, May 20), had it not
been for the fact that it was published in your newspaper, which
is read by intellectuals and policy-makers. It is my opinion that
nobody can deny -- unless he is ignorant or ill-intentioned --
that there has been a very harsh economic and financial blockade
imposed by the U.S. government against Cuba for more than four
decades, which has obstructed our social and economic
development.

Despite all the odds our country has developed a lot since the
triumph of the Revolution in 1959, for before that date we were
just an American neocolony, with our riches going to the United
States and our main industries and resources in the hands of big
American transnational companies.

According to Cuban estimates presented to the UN General
Assembly, the U.S. blockade has caused losses to the Cuban
economy on the order of US$121 billion. If anyone reads this
reply with objective criterion and no prejudice there can only be
praise for the Cuban system, because despite this economic war by
the U.S. government against my country, Cuba can show the lowest
infant mortality rate in the Third World, with less than seven
deaths per 1,000 births. And the literacy rate is higher than 99
percent of the population.

It is very sad to see a fellow citizen call his own people a
mediocre country. That speaks more of himself than of my people.
This person talks about the imprisonment of human rights
activists, when in fact these are pawns -- as is the writer of
the article I am replying to -- of the U.S. government's efforts
to subvert the Cuban system to bring it back to the semi-colonial
status it enjoyed before 1959.

How can you believe a person who falsely claims that there is
no U.S. blockade against Cuba, that the blockade is personal
because of the Cuban government? It is not true that his article
constitutes a clear alibi and justification of the U.S. policies
against Cuba. How can a person who justifies and tries to
rationalize the actions of an aggressive foreign power against
his country be called a man? In Cuba, we call him a traitor.

MIGUEL ANGEL RAMIREZ

Cuban Ambassador

Jakarta