The time has come for Ireland to take its place among the nations of the world committed to ending the tyranny of unilateral coercive sanctions on any country by any country. We should do this as an act of solidarity with all nations who struggle, as we struggled, to free themselves from the tyranny of imperialism. We should do it to underpin a rules-based international order based on international law.

Cuba Support Group Ireland call on the Minister of Foreign Affairs to discharge Ireland’s obligations as a signatory state to the UN Charter and condemn, in the strongest possible terms, the illegal unilateral coercive measures imposed by the United States on the people of Cuba. These measures amount to a genocide against the people of Cuba and constitute a crime against humanity.

We consider the US denial of trade in a time of pandemic, when urgent medical supplies are required to prevent the spread of the virus, to be a deliberate attempt to inhibit the control of the infection and cause increased suffering in the civilian population with genocidal intent.  Cuba has not had a severe outbreak of the Covid19 virus only because of its exemplary public health system and the commitment of the people to follow the sanitary advice of the Cuban government.

Meanwhile, the US is blockading essential medical supplies to Cuba. Preventing the delivery of PPE to Cuba is not the action of a civilised nation. It is precisely the opposite of the actions requested of the United States by the UN Secretary General, António Guiterres, who, in a letter to the G20 nations on 24 March, 2020, called for “the waiving of sanctions imposed on countries to ensure access to food, essential health supplies and Covid-19 supports.”

The first step in ending the global extortion racket underpinning the genocidal blockade waged by the United States is to enforce Irish law, in Ireland, to stop Irish banks illegally implementing the US sanctions on bank transfers to Cuba. Bank transfers conducted by Irish banks are routinely supervised by the US State Department through its Office of Foreign Assets Control for possible Cuba connections, in contravention of EU regulation. Without the Irish bank’s complicity in such illegality, the blockade would crumble.

Finally we applaud the medical assistance that Cuba has provided, through the volunteers of the Henry Reeve Medical Brigade, to some thirty-six countries on four continents in support of their fight to save human life in the face of this pandemic. 

UNBLOCK CUBA – END THE BLOCKADE