Calls to loosen sanctions as Cuba battles pandemic
HAVANA: As the deadly coronavirus spreads across Cuba, with 726 cases recorded by Monday, a growing chorus of voices is calling for an easing of the decades-long US embargo. During the pandemic, the embargo is “even more cruel” and having a more harmful impact than ever, said Nestor Marimon, head of international relations at the ministry of health.
Marimon and others say that while the blockade may not prevent the delivery of medical supplies, it severely complicates the process. The government said that a recent shipment of masks, testing kits and ventilators that had been offered by Jack Ma, founder of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba, could not make it to the Communistrun island because the US shipping company was worried about US sanctions being imposed.
The embargo was imposed in 1962 to “deny resources to the Castro regime,” resources which could be “used to control & abuse the rights of the Cuban people and interfere in countries around region,” an implicit reference to Venezuela, said Michael Kozak, the Assistant Secretary of State in charge of Latin American affairs. Since 1992, medicinal supplies have been exempted from the sanctions, as long as they are used exclusively to treat the general population.
The Cuba Democracy Act was adopted when the Cuban economy was in free-fall after the collapse of its main backer, the
Soviet Union, and stipulates that the embargo must stay in place until democracy is established in Cuba. The act “permits the export of healthcare products-medical equipment, medical instruments, medical supplies and pharmaceuticals,” said John Kavulich, president of the US-Cuba Trade and Economic Council.
He cited exports worth $1.1 million in 2019, $3.5 million in 2018 and $5.7 million in 2017, and which included penicillin, insulin, dental surgery equipment and ultrasounds, among other medical items. But things are not quite that straightforward, including the shipment of medicine and medical equipment from countries other
than the United States.
‘Fear of sanctions’
Swiss NGO MediCuba, which backs Cuban projects to treat HIV and cancer, knows all about these complications. A few months back, its bank Postfinance refused to transfer funds to Cuba, citing fears of sanctions that have been reinforced since Donald Trump became US president. Since May 2019, Title 3 of the Helms-Burton Act threatens sanctions against anyone doing business with entities that were nationalized during the 1959 revolution, a definition sufficiently fluid to worry Cuba’s overseas partners. — AFP