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• The direct economic damage inflicted on the Cuban people by the application of the blockade, taken from preliminary conservative calculations, exceeds 82 thousand million dollars; an average of 1 782 million dollars a year. This sum does not include the more than 54 thousand million dollars attributable to direct damage to the country’s economic and social objectives by way of sabotage and terrorist acts encouraged, organised and financed from the United States; nor does it include the value of the products that were not produced or the damage caused by the onerous credit conditions imposed on Cuba. The detrimental effects to the country this year surpassed 2 thousand 764 million dollars.
• In its second term in office, the Administration of President George W. Bush continues to take its policy of aggression and blockade against the people of Cuba to new heights, in blatant contempt of the principles of the United Nations Charter and International Law, of the freedom of commerce and navigation, and of the repeated and almost unanimous desire of the international community to put an end to this genocidal policy, as expressed in successive resolutions passed by the General Assembly.
• The application of the blockade severely affects not only the Cuban people: it is also detrimental to the interests and rights of the people of the United States and other countries around the world. Last year was marked by an increase in the extraterritorial effect of the blockade, when the regulations, sanctions and threats against foreign citizens and companies were made stricter and more fierce.
• The Cuban people will never renounce their independence, sovereignty and right to free rule. Despite the blockade, this decision has allowed us to build an increasingly just, fair and cultured society that upholds ideals of solidarity with other peoples from countries around the world, including the United States.
• Cuba knows that it can continue to count on the support of the international community in defending its just call for the economic, commercial and financial blockade imposed on the Cuban people by the United States Government to be lifted.
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