(12 Sep 2024)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Havana, Cuba – 12 September 2024
1. Various of foreign minister Bruno Rodriguez and Cuban officials at a press conference
2. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Bruno Rodríguez, Cuban foreign minister:
++AUDIO AS INCOMING++
“Of course, not all the difficulties that determine the complicated situation of the Cuban economy today are due to the blockade (U.S. economic embargo against Cuba), there are also structural problems of the economy, and difficulties in our economic management. But there is no doubt that the fundamental and determining weight is due to the worsening, the unprecedented extreme tightening, of the (U.S.) blockade since 2019.”
3. Press conference
4. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Bruno Rodríguez, Cuban foreign minister:
“Cuba has always been ready for a serious and responsible dialogue, on the basis of equality and without shading our independence and sovereignty with any Republican or Democratic government of the United States.”
5. Rodriguez talking to journalists leaves the room
STORYLINE:
The Cuban government acknowledged in Havana Thursday its part in the deep economic crisis the island is going through but accused the United States of pressuring it to the point of suffocation with tough financial sanctions.
“Of course, not all the difficulties that determine the complicated situation of the Cuban economy today are due to the blockade (U.S. economic embargo against Cuba), there are also structural problems of the economy, difficulties in our economic management,” said Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez at a press conference.
“But there is no doubt that the fundamental and determining weight is due to the worsening, the unprecedented extreme tightening, of the blockade since 2019.”
Rodriguez called a news conference ahead of a yearly vote on a resolution at the United Nations to end the embargo against Cuba.
Cuba suffered damage of more than 5 billion dollars between March 2023 and February 2024 due to the U.S. sanctions, according to a government report, almost 200 million dollars more than in the previous time period.
According to Rodriguez, the island would have grown by 8% of its Gross Domestic Product if there were no embargo by the United States.
Cuba is suffering a deepening economic crisis, with high inflation and food and fuel shortages.
The loss of tourism caused by the pandemic and by the tightening of Trump-era economic sanctions and little change during the Biden administration, has had devastating consequences for the island’s economy.
Rodriguez declined to reveal whether the island’s authorities would prefer a new Democratic or Republican White House leader after the November elections in the neighbouring country and instead offered to dialogue with whomever wins.
“Cuba has always been ready for a serious and responsible dialogue, on the basis of equality and without shading our independence and sovereignty with any Republican or Democratic government of the United States,” Rodriguez said.
The 2023 vote recorded at the UN, 187 members voted in favour of lifting the embargo with 2 against – the United States and Israel. Ukraine abstained.
AP Video shot by Osvaldo Angulo
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