The Canadian Network on Cuba condemns in the strongest possible terms the imposition by the United States of a total blockade on fuel supplies to Cuba. This reprehensible, illegal, and immoral action constitutes a direct and blatant attack on the Cuban people and is an escalation of decades of economic asphyxiation and sabotage.
US sanctions have obstructed Cuba’s national development and inflicted suffering on ordinary Cubans for over six decades and are roundly condemned by the international community in annual resolutions at the United Nations General Assembly. This unilateral blockade and its many harms have been damningly observed; but the new tariff system and the threat of its naval enforcement marks an unprecedented escalation against the Cuban people, undertaken with explicit intent to plunge Cuba into darkness and to grind its economy to a halt.
Members of the US Congress openly admit that this naval blockade will result in desperate hunger and life-threatening medical shortages, but have made it equally clear that they regard this suffering as necessary to their objective—namely, the removal of Cuba’s leadership by any means. As Florida Representative Carlos Gimenez threatens the Cuban people with “no oil, no travel, no oxygen,” we must speak plainly and as one against the cruelty and aggression to come. The US government has never shied away from economic terrorism in its plans to reconquer Cuba, but the severity of this new strategy threatens the Cuban people with annihilation.
Not only does Trump challenge Cuba’s own right to self-determination; his oil blockade targets sovereign trade with Cuba’s sister nations, as seen in US aggression against Venezuela and tariff threats against Mexico. These coordinated attacks reveal the true significance of Cuba to the region, and the real reason for Trump’s claim that Cuba poses “an unusual and extraordinary threat” to US interests. Cuba’s medical internationalism and peaceful diplomacy are a gift without condition to the peoples of the world, and as the US plots regime change, they as surely mean to challenge all that Cuba stands for and the counter-hegemonic movements that it leads.
The Government of Canada must condemn the US blockade of Cuba and its recent measures as a collective punishment of the Cuban population, sure to result in suffering and death. Furthermore, we demand that Canada cease any military cooperation in the US encirclement, including the deployment of the HMCS Yellowknife on “Operation CARIBBE,” and that our government send immediate humanitarian aid to Cuba without coercive political conditions.
In this moment of emergency, the Canadian Network on Cuba is proud to stand with the Cuban people and with progressive forces the world over against the US far-right and its imperialist aggression in Latin America and the Caribbean. For more than sixty years, Cuba has demonstrated the meaning of true independence and internationalism to the world. Now is the time for all peace-loving people to apply these lessons, and to demand as one: LET CUBA LIVE!
Executive Committee,
Canadian Network on Cuba