WINDHOEK, Oct 30 (The African Portal) – As the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) votes on the longstanding United States (US) trade embargo against Cuba, Swapo shows solidarity and calls for justice.
Swapo secretary general Sophia Shaningwa says this in a statement issued on Wednesday.
“Swapo stands in unwavering solidarity with the people and government of the republic of Cuba in the face of illegal, unilateral-sanctions and economic blockades imposed by the United States,” she says.
For over six decades, Shaningwa says, the US sustained a cruel blockade that has inflicted immense suffering on the Cuban people.
UNGA adopted a draft resolution on Wednesday urging the US to end its economic, commercial and financial embargo against Cuba.
The draft resolution was passed by a vote of 165 in favour, seven against and 12 abstentions. Argentina, Hungary, Israel, North Macedonia, Paraguay, Ukraine and the US voted against it, according to a Reuters report.
Shaningwa adds that the sanctions have deliberately strangled Cuba’s economy, denying access to essential food, medicine and resources, and violating fundamental principles of international law and the United Nations Charter.
She says this is an attempt to obfuscate the truth: the blockade is a deliberate act of economic warfare that prohibits free trade, punishes third world countries for engaging with Cuba and exacerbates shortages in critical sectors like healthcare and agriculture.
“It is a policy rooted in hegemony and aggression, not in the defence of human rights or democracy,” she says.
Cuban ambassador to Namibia Sergio de la Uz, last week Wednesday condemned the blockade as “illegal and inhumane,” saying it continues to inflict deep and measurable economic pain on the island’s 11 million citizens.
He said this during a solidarity demonstration, starting from Agosto Neto Park near the Angolan embassy, for public support for Cuba’s struggle and the removal of the blockade.
Credit: The Namibian
