UNITED STATES, October 25 2016.- The economic, commercial and financial blockade of the US against Cuba is the main obstacle for the normalization of relations between Havana and Washington, said the Cuban Ambassador José Ramón Cabañas. (Audio)
The Cuban diplomat gave an interview to the journalist Edmundo García, which was broadcasted yesterday in the program 'La tarde se mueve', in Miami, where Cabañas talked about important topics of bilateral interest.
Cabañas reiterated that there is a first issue that is very present ever, and more during these days, which is the economic, commercial and financial blockade that the United States has imposed on Cuba for over half a century. In addition, he recalled that the vote against the blockade will be carried out again on Wednesday morning at the United Nations, where the international community will express its opinion.
'This is the main obstacle for the normalization of relations with Cuba. There are others which we have expressed publicly and repeatedly, the very existence of the Guantánamo Naval Base against the will of the people of Cuba, and the specific and illegal broadcasts against Cuba', he said.
'There is a group of programs that have a subversive essence to change the state of things in Cuba. Those programs continue to be funded in the US annual budget, and we have more than once expressed our rejection to them. '
In the Cuban ambassador's opinion, these are topics 'that we know will continue and will have disagreements.' And he recalled that recently in Havana another round of talks on Human Rights was held, 'where our positions differ on the interpretation of a group of realities' and these are topics we will continue talking about, apparently for a long period.
He also made reference to the Presidential Policy Directive recently announced, which sets out the main points of the US policy toward Cuba in the future.
This directive signed by Obama -the Cuban ambassador highlighted- 'says clearly that the previous policy failed because it did not obtain results, not because the objectives were wrong, and that same directive includes topics that are a total interference in our national sovereignty '
Cabañas reaffirmed that 'Cuba has the experience of having faced all: an economic war, a military war -the Bay of Pig invasion- the media campaigns, even the introduction of diseases in our country to kill the pigs and the own human beings.'
'From Cuba- he insisted- we say we are ready, if the disagreement is in the field of the ideas, so be it, because we are a country that loves peace and has excellent relations with our neighbor nations; but at the same time, we are ready to defend our sovereignty and accept the challenges'.
NORMALIZATION PROCESS OF RELATION BETWEEN CUBA-US
The Cuban ambassador to the US said that Havana and Washington have reached a point in their relations where both parties want no reversal, and it will be a mutual interest to preserve what has been achieved.
Cabañas stressed that from both sides (Cuba and the United States) there is also a mutual interest to lead these relations into the future, and 'we will always have the will to continue talks with officials who have the responsibility for continuing these talks from a perspective of mutual respect and reciprocity '.
'History is not reversible in general, no secondary step has not been given, we must understand that we have reached this point by a group of historical processes related to Cuba and the United States and the regional context,' the ambassador noted.
And he added that "it would be illusory to think that these things can roll back to a previous situation, here we talk about rates, progress, of how Cubans who live in the United States see the future and the relationship with their country of origin, things which cannot be changed, which have a historical nature, and these have been reaffirmed at several times.'
The diplomat explained that even the US authorities have said that the new relation, the new policy and new steps toward Cuba, have created a new context in their regional relations.
'The Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC), recently proclaimed Latin America and the Caribbean as a zone of peace, which is an extremely positive event for the history of this hemisphere, and if the United States is able to be inserted in this regional logic, it will be a positive event. However, we'll see how these trends may evolve into the future. '
The most relevant throughout this period -Cabañas added- has been the dialogue of mutual respect, which has developed with complete reciprocity. From the beginning we knew there was a group of topics on which we could reach agreements more quickly, and others that take longer.
From the very first time we talked about two stages -he noted- to restore relations, which we did on July 1st, 2015, and other topics dealing with the normalization of relations, which was a longer period of time.
It has been publicly reported -he added- that conversations have been held to reach some kind of cooperation in 19 different areas, ranging from the protection of sea areas, restoration of direct flights, postal mail, and health.
He noted that recently the last of the understanding memorandums between Cuban and US authorities on cancer, was signed. So, there are already 13 agreements in different areas that reflect the topics of cooperation. In addition, there is a bilateral commission working, which establishes a kind of route to lead negotiations and the topic to be discussed.
The head of the Cuban diplomatic mission in Washington said that the economic dialogue was established last September, and it will have four sub-groups to discuss a variety of topics, and there is another negotiation table dealing with the different topics on law application, where a group of leading agencies from both Cuban and US sides participate.
(Cubavsbloqueo)
