Article 2 of the convention defines genocide as

any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such: (a) Killing members of the group; (b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; (c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; (d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; (e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.

Defining Genocide: The Nürnberg Charter And The Genocide Convention

FarmaCuba reported that in March a shipping company returned two containers of raw materials to the port of origin, even though they were already in Havana, as they warned it would be sanctioned. This translates into costs and in the unavailability of drugs for hospitalized and critically ill patients; and for community pharmacies.

In March, when trying to acquire raw materials for the pharmaceutical industry, in the midst of the confrontation with COVID-19, Cuba suffered the consequences of the economic, commercial and financial blockade imposed by the United States.

Neyra Muguercia, general director of FarmaCuba, informed the Trabajadores newspaper that last month a shipping company returned two containers of raw materials to the port of origin even though they were already in Havana, as they warned her that she would be sanctioned

That meant the loss of 30 days of crossing (we have also had cases of 60 days), the same term for the return, new steps (ours, the suppliers and Cuban freight forwarders) to ship them with another shipping company that took 30 more days, he said. .

Muguercia pointed out that this translates not only into costs, but also into the unavailability of medicines.

We are talking about long shortages, because the financial situation of FarmaCuba – also compromised by the difficulties that the United States puts up to bring in the money derived from our own exports – prevents us from guaranteeing the so-called ties of the production cycles, he stressed.

The lack of raw materials causes the industry to lose production capacities, and cannot always recover them, however, when certain volumes arrive, the effort they make in the factories is extraordinary, they are organized in daily shifts so as not to stop and recover the time lost, although sometimes it is impossible, said Muguercia.

He highlighted that these types of situations have been experienced with drugs that go to medical assistance in general (admitted and seriously ill patients), and to the community pharmacy, where people approach with a prescription or their card and do not find what they are looking for .

These highly sensitive drugs are for us what some of the products in the family basket for the Ministry of Foreign Trade are: priority one, he said.

Another area in which we suffer directly from the blockade is the bank, he said, while mentioning that approximately 21 days ago, to cite a recent example, they had financed a supplier the equivalent of more than one million dollars for the purchase of a raw material.

When the containers were ready, the intermediary bank returned the funds arguing that it could not make that transfer because it would be penalized under the blockade laws, the directive indicated.

He added that the supplier could not ship the merchandise and it was necessary to find another bank route to send the funds, again wasting time, which leads to loss of capacity and shortages.

Ultimately, the blockade translates into human suffering, since not having access to a medicine directly affects the quality of life and compromises people’s health.

At FarmaCuba we have found suppliers who say: “I’ll look for the product for you,” and for the moment they write canceling because the manufacturer cannot sell it if the destination is Cuba. We have evidence of how they are pursuing our operations, the banks have sent us questionnaires that make us desist from certain operations because they would put the country’s financial resources at risk, he warned.

FarmaCuba, an import-export company of the Higher Organization for Business Management of the Biotechnology and Pharmaceutical Industries, BioCubaFarma, works with more than 400 foreign suppliers, mostly European.

Several have earned the category of collaborators, because despite the situation of the organization, in which they do not always have the necessary financial resources, they guarantee a stable flow of supplies and that we could say is one of the first responses to the blockade .

The actions of the United States against Cuba are increasingly aggressive, they persecute all the operations of the Island, and many times they are forced to import from a second, third and even a fourth country for fear of suppliers to be sanctioned, he said .

The pharmaceutical industry concentrates its main market for raw materials in India and China, with the Asian giant there is a large volume of operations, but with the former they need intermediaries, as happens with producers from other nations who are not always willing or not they can trade directly with the largest of the Antilles.

There are essential products that are only made in the United States; if the block did not exist, accessing these could be easy and cheap, perhaps, but we must strive very hard to obtain them or, if possible, do without them, he said.

He alleged that in the work of overcoming the obstacles, the collaboration of several Cuban institutions is decisive, including the Central Bank and banking entities in general, which collaborate in the search for solutions, either to finance purchases or to return profits. of exports.

We have also had the support of the Ministry of Foreign Trade, especially in recent weeks, to guarantee the necessary supply and manufacture the drugs used for the prophylaxis and treatment of COVID-19 such as Interferon Alpha-2B, azithromycin , chloroquine and biomodulin T, he mentioned.

He stressed that the blockade also tests the management capacity and skills of buyers, since it is necessary to operate with limited financial resources and multiply them, which requires professional preparation and moral commitment to the country.