The Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque, said today that the economic, commercial and financial embargo imposed by the U.S. government is the main obstacle to economic and social development of Cuba.

The Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque, said today that the economic, commercial and financial embargo imposed by the U.S. government is the main obstacle to economic and social development of Cuba.
Those measures, in place for nearly half a century, are also obstacles to the process of recovery of the Cuban people after the passage of hurricanes, he said.
The minister spoke during the debate in the General Assembly of the item Necessity of ending the economic, commercial and financial embargo imposed by the United States of America against Cuba, which for 16 years has passed a resolution condemning the United States.
As every year since 1992, appearing before the General Assembly to demand the lifting of the illegal and unjust blockade imposed by the U.S. government against Cuba for nearly 50 years.
Seven of every 10 Cubans have spent their entire lives under the policy irrational and pointless, trying unsuccessfully to put our people to their knees, said the foreign minister.
The blockade is older than Mr Barack Obama (presidential candidate for the Democratic Party) and that my whole generation.
In his words, Perez Roque said that this time, debate and vote on the resolution take place in very particular circumstances.
. These circumstances, he said, are devastating step by Cuba of two powerful hurricanes, the holding of elections in the United States in six days and on the stage of a deep financial crisis facing the international none of our countries is immune.
The Minister explained that only in economic terms, it would suffice to indicate that the impact of the U.S. blockade against Cuba in a year almost equals the estimate of damage caused by hurricanes set of Gustav and Ike.
He noted that while the hurricanes are natural phenomena that are exacerbated in terms of climate change and unfortunately, can not be avoided, the blockade is a policy of genocide and illegitimate.
Unlike hurricanes, U.S. authorities can do to stop it and prevent its long suffering people of Cuba, he said.
Very conservative calculations show that the accumulated direct damages that the blockade has caused Cuba to exceed the 93 billion dollars, nearly twice our Gross Domestic Product.
At the current value of the dollar, that amount would amount to no less than 224 thousand $ 600 million. It is not difficult to imagine what Cuba would have attained if during these nearly 50 years had not been subjected to this brutal economic war on a global scale, he added.
He noted that in open defiance of the expressed will of the international community and 16 consecutive resolutions of the General Assembly, the United States government adopted during the last year new and tougher economic sanctions against Cuba.
In that sense was more intensive stressed that the persecution against the activities of Cuban companies and other countries, and deployed a crazy game against our international financial transactions, even when they tried to pay the United Nations.