The forum continued the one held in March, 2021 with the same topic on the agenda, so the delegation of the Caribbean country updated its counterpart about the consequences in the last three years of the economic, commercial and financial blockade applied by Washington more than six decades ago.

The Cuban representation was headed by the general director of Multilateral Affairs and International Law of the Foreign Ministry, Rodolfo Benítez, while the host was led by the deputy director general for the Americas of the European External Action Service, Pelayo Castro.

In the dialogue, the visiting delegation detailed the actions carried out by the United States as part of its policy of maximum pressure to suffocate the largest of the Antilles, put into practice by the Administration of President Donald Trump (2017-2021) and maintained by his successor in the White House, Joseph Biden.

We exposed the unjustified reinclusion of Cuba in the list of countries that Washington unilaterally considers sponsors of terrorism and the effects that this causes in the financial sphere and in relations with the EU itself, the director of Legal Affairs and Analysis of the General Directorate of the United States, Rodney González.

Just days after handing over the position, in January 2021, Trump ordered the reinclusion to tighten the siege on the island’s commercial and financial operations, with the aim of isolating it and causing hardship to its population.

Another of the measures to tighten the blockade addressed at the meeting –the official continued– is the non-application of the Electronic System for Travel Authorization (ESTA) for European citizens who visited Cuba, forcing them to carry out a lengthy visa application process if They want to travel to the northern country, with the intention of affecting tourism.

We also denounced in the fourth Dialogue on Unilateral Coercive Measures the extraterritoriality of the siege, codified by laws such as Torricelli (1992) and Helms-Burton (1996), the attack on international medical cooperation and the persecution to prevent our country from purchasing fuel, he added.

The issue of extraterritoriality has a particular impact on EU Member States, materialized in pressures and sanctions on European citizens, companies and banks that maintain or seek ties with the Antillean nation.

In summarizing what was discussed at the Brussels-based forum, González pointed out that it was once again very clear the deliberate human damage caused by the United States blockade, the obstacle it represents to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals of the 2030 Agenda of the UN and its effects on third parties, in this case the EU.

These days, representatives of Cuba and the EU are carrying out a busy agenda of meetings and exchanges of criteria in this capital in the context of the Fourth Implementation Cycle of the Political Dialogue and Cooperation Agreement signed by Havana and Brussels in 2016.

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