Hany, a nine years old Cuban girl, knows not even policy, blocking or any such thing. Motor and visual disability have limited learning, but not her smile; that, with which every day injected forces and stimulates the creative ingenuity of her beloved teacher, faced with a shortage of equipment, technologies and essential means to teach children with difficulties.
Special education in Cuba now has 982 teacher workshops, dedicated to the training of students in order to integrate them fully into society. However, access to raw materials, utensils and tools for the development of this activity, becomes a limitation due to the restrictions imposed by the Government of the United States more than half a century ago.
On the Affectations of the policy established at the beginning of the 1960s by the White House, Vice Minister of foreign relations of Cuba, Abelardo Moreno, in Conference with the national and foreign press made school special solidarity with Panama, the capital town of Boyeros.
In offered details from the appointment, the official explained to the international community the reasons for which the Antillean Island Washington condemns the measures a policy of extra-territoriality that after 55 years stays and worsens.
That doctrine to cause hunger, desperation and the overthrow of the Cuban Government – exposed by Lester Mallory, Deputy Assistant of State, in April of 1960-, continues to be the purpose declared by the United States, said Moreno.
The rhetoric about a supposed easing of sanctions against Cuba is not more than a fallacy of the administration of Barack Obama, said the Cuban vice Minister. The current mandate has implemented, as an instrument of foreign policy and via spurious to obtain financial resources, the application of unilateral measures to banking institutions.
In this regard, Moreno recalled mega fine applied to BNP Paribas of France, exceeding the 8 billion dollars by making transactions with Cuba, which is one of the most clear and dangerous of the financial war unleashed by Washington in recent years.
Evidence of this are also 130 shares of extraterritorial applied in the period 2010-2014 by the US administration, of which 81 are linked to the financial sector. Moreno also reported that from 2004 until the date the amount of the fines imposed by the Treasury Department exceeds $ 11 billion.
Until March 2014, the damage caused by the blockade on the Cuban people (considering the depreciation of the dollar against the value of gold in the international market) amounts to 1 112 534 000 000 $. At current prices, policy has caused damage estimated at about 116 880 million dollars in 55 years.
Beyond numbers, “there is a single space in the life of any Cuban who is free from destructive and destabilizing action” of the blockade, a policy which, in addition to illegal, is morally untenable, despite intense and increasing the international community claims, calling the U.S. Government a change in their action against Cuba, said Moreno.
On this aspect, the official stressed claims made last year by regional organizations such as the African Union, the community of Latin American and Caribbean and the Group of 77 and China, among others.
These and many more reasons will lead Cuba, twenty second time, to the General Assembly of the United Nations to present its report on the resolution 68/8, entitled “Necessity of ending the economic, commercial and financial embargo imposed by the United States of America” on October 28.
In 2013, 188 countries, 193 that make up the Organization, supported the position of the Caribbean nation against the policy of Washington.
Perhaps for a short or long time – no one knows it – Hany will be without equipment or latest generation tools that facilitate her learning, but a policy will not be enough to block her smile.
By Venus Carrillo Ortega, Cuba contemporanea
September 10, 2014
