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