Latest / THE DAILY BRIEF / Cuban ambassador to the U.N. says island is suffering a collective punishment amid U.S. blockade

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Cuban ambassador to the U.N. says island is suffering a collective punishment amid U.S. blockade · THE DAILY BRIEF

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  Speaker 1: Over the past six months or so, Cuba has undergone
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  Speaker 1: an unprecedented energy crisis. Just over the past four days,
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  Speaker 1: most Cubans have had zero electricity. Chief Correspondent Mac Goverman
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  Speaker 1: spoke with Cuba's ambassador to the UN, or Neestro Sovo Guzman,
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  Speaker 1: about the challenges this country faces.
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  Speaker 2: And that's so how bad is this energy crisis right
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  Speaker 2: now in Cuba?
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  Speaker 3: Well, Matt, thank you very much for having us here
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  Speaker 3: and to give up this opportunity. The Cuban people is
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  Speaker 3: softening a collective ponymagon. This is the only way that
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  Speaker 3: I can describe what my people is softening right now.
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  Speaker 2: Because of the US oil blockade and general blockade the island.
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  Speaker 4: Our main challenge today is the lack of oil.
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  Speaker 3: And the lack of oil is a direct result of
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  Speaker 3: the executive order signed by President Trump on JOHANAD twenty nine,
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  Speaker 3: twenty twenty six. So the lack of oil has a
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  Speaker 3: huge human Italian impact in the daily life of.
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  Speaker 4: The Quban people. Give you example, for example, the health factor.
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  Speaker 3: We have more than one hundred thousand people in a
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  Speaker 3: waiting list for surgery just.
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  Speaker 4: Because the lack of oid.
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  Speaker 3: We have the doctors, we have the nurses, but we
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  Speaker 3: don't have We have the hospital, but.
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  Speaker 4: We don't have oil.
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  Speaker 2: I mean, you can't even turn on the lights to
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  Speaker 2: be able to shine on surgery.
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  Speaker 3: It means that even when they are making surgeries they
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  Speaker 3: have to finish with the light of the cell phone
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  Speaker 3: because the power is off.
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  Speaker 4: Surgery by by cell phone, you know.
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  Speaker 3: And people waiting for surgery because they have not enough
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  Speaker 3: power to do all the surgery that we need. Two
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  Speaker 3: thousands of these people are children, thirty two thousand women
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  Speaker 3: pregnant women waiting for an ultra sound. The rate of
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  Speaker 3: the queue and the infant mortality rate in Quba a
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  Speaker 3: few years ago was around four per thousand newborns right.
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  Speaker 2: Now for deaths per one hundred thousand.
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  Speaker 4: Or one thousand four for one one thousand.
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  Speaker 3: Now it's around ten deaths for one thousand, so it's
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  Speaker 3: almost a double.
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  Speaker 4: So that means you're saying that's a direct cost.
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  Speaker 3: Direct cost of this policy, but also is a direct
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  Speaker 3: cost of the policy of the blockade, because it's not
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  Speaker 3: the lack of oil, it is also that we have
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  Speaker 3: right now around seven thousand containers in Caribbean ports ready
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  Speaker 3: to go to Cuba, and no shipping company wants to
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  Speaker 3: take that and there are some results that we need
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  Speaker 3: in the hospital, some medical things that we need in
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  Speaker 3: the hospital that they cannot reach arrive in queue because
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  Speaker 3: the blockade.
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  Speaker 2: Means that they're actually containers ready to be handed out
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  Speaker 2: to the public sitting in ports in Cuba, but there
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  Speaker 2: isn't enough fuel to be able to power the machines
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  Speaker 2: and the vehicles to get them to the people who
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  Speaker 2: need the aid right now.
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  Speaker 3: Right in that case, we have around more than the
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  Speaker 3: last number that the UN system mentioned was around one thousand,
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  Speaker 3: seven hundred containers, which around six point five million in
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  Speaker 3: humanitarian aids that are already in the Cuban ports. We
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  Speaker 3: are not able to transport that to the final destination
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  Speaker 3: because the lack of oil.
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  Speaker 2: Do you want to said that they need fast and
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  Speaker 2: well resourced humanitarian action right now? How close do you
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  Speaker 2: think Cuba is to the brink?
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  Speaker 4: Now? We are very resilient people.
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  Speaker 3: The point here is that the US government has the
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  Speaker 3: right to have or not have by lateral trade with Cuba.
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  Speaker 3: They have the right to sell or not sell oil
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  Speaker 3: to cure but the US government has not the right
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  Speaker 3: to impose sanctions to third companies, to third countries to
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  Speaker 3: sell oil to cure and not.
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  Speaker 4: So we are doing a lot in order to overcome
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  Speaker 4: this situation.
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  Speaker 3: We are increasing our oil production, we are changing and
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  Speaker 3: we are implementing economic measures to transform our economic system.
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  Speaker 2: You know, yesterday State Department announced new sanctions, new people
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  Speaker 2: who are being targeted within the Cuban regime. And at
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  Speaker 2: this point Secretary Rubio is not mincing words. He said,
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  Speaker 2: what we're trying to teach them is that there is
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  Speaker 2: no or are no escape valves. Rubial told Axios, do
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  Speaker 2: you think that the US is planning and preparing an invasion?
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  Speaker 2: Is that where this blockade and the restrictions and the
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  Speaker 2: targeting of certain individuals, of many individuals in Cuba, is
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  Speaker 2: that where this is leading.
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  Speaker 4: Yes.
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  Speaker 3: First of for, I completely agree that that they are
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  Speaker 3: looking for a pretext to have a military aggradation against prejex.
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  Speaker 3: Military degradation will be which will be a huge mistake
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  Speaker 3: because first of all, we are ready to fight back.
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  Speaker 4: But secondly, they know very well that we.
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  Speaker 3: Have some other options instead to have a military aggredation.
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  Speaker 3: But coming back to the sanctions, it shows the unhealthy
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  Speaker 3: obsession of the Secretary defict State with Cuba. You know,
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  Speaker 3: they have been sanctioned Cuban people ten days every two weeks.
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  Speaker 3: Just ten days ago, the assanctioned the Ministry of Health.
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  Speaker 3: They as sanctioned the Ministry of Toudism. So they are
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  Speaker 3: trying to create a social discouragement in Cuba that give
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  Speaker 3: them the pretext for the military degradation against Q.
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  Speaker 2: Before let you go, the administration will say, and has
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  Speaker 2: said in fact yesterday, that Cuba and the activists who
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  Speaker 2: are working with Cuba are actively planning and plotting against
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  Speaker 2: the United States, essentially accusing the Cuban government of terrorism
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  Speaker 2: against the US.
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  Speaker 4: It's false. This is part of this.
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  Speaker 3: Process that they have been implemented, these policy that they
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  Speaker 3: have been implementing to find a pretext. Q has been
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  Speaker 3: saying many times that we are ready to talk and
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  Speaker 3: to work.
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  Speaker 4: Together with the US and with the US government.
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  Speaker 3: We have a lot of opportunity in terms of investment,
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  Speaker 3: in terms of business, in terms of combating drug traffic,
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  Speaker 3: in terms of adding the illegal migration. All of those
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  Speaker 3: opportunities are beneficial not only for Cuba, but also for
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  Speaker 3: the US companies and the US citizen.
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  Speaker 2: So what you're saying is the Cuba is willing to
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  Speaker 2: talk but the US is reluctant to talk. It wants
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  Speaker 2: to squeeze Cuba into submission exactly.
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  Speaker 4: We have been saying that many times and nothing that
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  Speaker 4: we do. It's enough for the Secretary first date. You know,
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  Speaker 4: we have been charging.
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  Speaker 3: We implemented one hundred and seventy six economic measure just
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  Speaker 3: a few days, a few weeks ago that mainly increased
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  Speaker 3: the role of the private sector in the Quean economy. Okay,
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  Speaker 3: it opens a lot of opportunity for American companies and
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  Speaker 3: American citizen, but they refused to move on this direction.
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  Speaker 2: Hopefully we'll get to continue this conversation. Necess Sir Roan Youn,
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  Speaker 2: ambassador from Cuba, thank you very much, appreciate it.
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  Speaker 4: Thank you very much.