PM Roosevelt Skerrit and the Dominican parliament have urged the United States government to remove Cuba from the economic sanctions imposed since 1959. The Dominican government insists that the sanctions have subjected the people and economy of Cuba to trade restrictions, commercial deprivations, and lack of international aids.
The DLP administration is also calling on the United States under the administration of President Joe Biden to remove Cuba from the list of countries sponsoring terrorism.
According to the Skerrit-led government, the decades-long embargo has not only blocked foreign aids from coming to Cuba, it has also made it impossible for American businesses to conduct trades with Cuban businesses to the detriment of the Cuban people and economy.
Leading the argument, Minister for Foreign Affairs, Kenneth Darroux, said the US placed severe economic blockade on Cuba in 1959 and also placed the Caribbean nation on the list of countries sponsoring terrorism in 2021. Darroux said Cuba has suffered economic damage that exceeds USD$144 billion since the embargo commenced, and this has had the ripple effect of depriving Cuban citizens of their basic human rights and dignity.
Given that Cuba is a strong Dominican ally, Darroux said the US sanctions have been counter-productive to many friends of Cuba in the Caribbean. He said it erodes the spirit of common brotherhood initiated by President Barack Obama which the new President Biden ought to propagate for the viability of the Cuban nation.
PM Skerrit also underscored the sufferings that the people of Cuba have experienced over the past 62 years and called on the Biden administration to lift all sanctions on Cuba. He urged Biden to remove the embargoes as a matter of principle, and called on the American people and Congress to push for this resolution.
The MP for Roseau North Constituency, Danny Lugay, also weighed in on the case, saying the American government must allow common sense to prevail. “To impose a six-decade blockade on Cuba is very unjust,” Lugay said. “I’m hoping with the change of administration in the US that good sense can prevail.”
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