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 Technology News | October 2005 
Internet Forum Produces Extensive Rejection of Blockade on Cuba
 Prensa Latina
| | US blockade of Cuba debated on internet. (Photo: M.Viñas) |
Havana - In a two-hour question-and-comment Internet forum Thursday, the Cuban Foreign Affairs Ministry received nearly 200 unanimous rejections of the economic, commercial and financial blockade by the US government against the island of Cuba.
"Blockade, an Attempt to Asphyxiate Cuban Economic Development", fielded questions and comments from institutions, friendship and solidarity associations, social movements and individuals, in an "opportunity to let the world know the truth about the Cuban reality on economic topics," Cuban Economy and Planning Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez told press.
The questions and comments revealed "how little people living abroad know about the economic blockade the US has been applying against Cuba for more than 40 years. There is a need to publicize the impact of the blockade and the price paid by the Cuban people because of it," he said.
The blockade began at the triumph of the Cuban Revolution in 1959, but it was officially and formally proclaimed in February 1962 by then US President John F. Kennedy.
Rodriguez said the forum, although it was supposed to be addressed chiefly to specialists, aroused interest from different sectors, particularly concerning the impact of the blockade on the Cuban public health system.
Some of the participants insisted on defining and distinguishing between blockade, embargo and economic war, words greatly manipulated in media propaganda in an attempt to confuse people and present the case of the Cuban blockade as a bilateral conflict and not as an economic siege.
Rodriguez pointed out that the loss to Cuba of 82 billion dollars by the blockade is equivalent to twice the US Gross Domestic Product that was 36 billion dollars last year.
Damage to education, public health, culture, prohibition from purchasing medical equipment, medication, food and other necessities, were the greatest concerns expressed by forum participants, which came from Russia, Lebanon, Australia, Tunisia, Argentina, Uruguay, Venezuela and the US, among other nations. |
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