In the plenary session of the event, chaired by King Philip VI of Spain, the diplomat took the opportunity to highlight the support received by Cuba during the United Nations General Assembly in condemning the US blockade.
In this regard, Rodríguez asked the Ibero-American Community to act “without interference, exclusion or external pressure” and reiterated his comments the day before at the ministerial meeting in Madrid, where he stressed that the international scene is “marked by unilateralism. Also, for the imperialist and unfeasible claim of imposing peace by force” and for violations of international law and human rights.
In reviewing the consequences of Washington’s coercive measures, he noted that “the Cuban people have suffered the unprecedented reinforcement of the US economic blockade.”
He specified that the White House established “an energy fence equivalent to a naval blockade” and applies “secondary sanctions on individuals or entities that establish trade relations with Cuba.”
He added that the US “has taken its obsessive war of economic asphyxiation against Cuba to inhumane limits of collective punishment,” which, he pointed out, was rejected by the Ibero-American countries that last week backed the UN resolution that repudiates these policies of Washington.
He took the opportunity, however, to clarify that unlike what traditionally happened, the proximity of several leaders in the region with the Donald Trump administration caused a growing number of governments to abstain or even vote against the text.
Of the countries present at the Ibero-American Summit in Madrid, Argentina, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador and Paraguay voted against the initiative, with abstentions from Chile, Dominican Republic, Honduras and Peru.
Yesterday, speaking at the ministerial segment of the conference in Madrid, the Cuban Foreign Minister warned about ‘interference in the internal affairs of states (…), with a marked extraterritorial character and intimidation, even to hinder cooperation and prevent legitimate trade relations between sovereign states’.
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