The cost of being Cuban

by Lauren Luis Acosta, Cultural Attaché of the Embassy of Cuba in South Africa

30 October 2024

Is it possible to measure the pain of an individual, a family, or a country? Is it possible to prevent people from becoming cold statistics while they suffer the effects of a prolonged war?

The blockade imposed on Cuba is the most severe and longest-enduring system of unilateral sanctions ever applied against any country. 62 years have passed since former president Kennedy signed the blockade into law, a sort of “death sentence” that has perfected throughout the years the hideous art of strangulation. It´s not a single measure, like people used to think, it´s a complex and well-designed package of them, with the sole purpose of hindering the development of Cuba and its people.

Since 1962, the blockade has had direct negative impacts on the procurement of food, medicine, fuel, power supply, transportation, and other basic services for the Cuban people.

However, to best illustrate this, let us assume for a moment that someone has the power to remove some of the pieces that make up this policy and stop its economic damage. 

With 15 minutes without the blockade, Cuba would be able to cover the demand of hearing aids for disabled children and teenagers studying in the country’s special education system; with half an hour, the electric and conventional wheelchairs required in that system.

If someone could stop the blockade for 8 hours, Cuba could buy the toys and teaching aids needed in all day-care centers throughout the country; for 21 hours, the insulin required to cover national needs during one year; for 38 hours, the logistics required to cover the needs of the national education system for a whole year. 

Once this point is reached, one would assume, immediately, that the current challenges of the Cuban reality would have a better and easier solution if Cuba could have at its disposal the substantial resources that the blockade deprives it of.

If we were to stop the blockade for three days, Cuba could cover the annual maintenance cost of public transportation in the country. Twenty-five days without the blockade is equivalent to the financing necessary to meet the requirements of the country’s National List of Essential Medicines for one year.

The application of this cruel policy has had a devastating effect on an economy as small as Cuba’s. 62 years of the blockade has caused damages amounting to more than 1,499,710,000,000 US dollars, which translates into 13.8 million US dollars on a daily basis. From March 1, 2023 to February 29, 2024 only, the blockade caused material losses to Cuba estimated at around 5,56.8 billion US dollars. 

Nevertheless, the human cost of six decades of unilateral aggression is immeasurable. No other nation has been forced to undertake a social and development program under such conditions of prolonged systematic hostility from the greatest power in history. 

Administration after administration, they have been following the memorandum of Deputy Assistant Secretary of State, Lester Mallory, on April 6, 1960, which stated: “(…) every possible means should be undertaken promptly to weaken the economic life of Cuba (…) a line of action which, while as adroit and inconspicuous as possible, makes the greatest inroads in denying money and supplies to Cuba, to decrease monetary and real wages, to bring about hunger, desperation and over throw of government.” 

The effects of this war on the Cuban economy, society, daily life and dreams of progress of millions of Cubans have been without a single day’s respite. Most of the country´s current population has never seen Cuba without the blockade, which has been and continues to be the main obstacle for the development of the island´s economy and the realization of the aspirations for progress and well-being of several generations of Cubans.

The figures shared in this article are people, daily facing adversity from the streets of Cuba. Statistics of men and women, children who embody the cost of sovereignty, people for whom Cuba will continue to advance in the construction of an independent, socialist and democratic nation, in spite of the blockade. In the words of Nelson Mandela: “We also want to be masters of our own destiny”.

And we know we are not alone, Cuba is not alone. The blockade is one of the few issues that has received such unanimous condemnation from the international community. The number of forces around the world that demand the US to “drop” the blockade grows by the hour, and we are deeply grateful for that.

Over the past two days, the draft resolution on the need to end the US blockade against Cuba was considered at the UN General Assembly. For over 30 years, Washington has ignored successive resolutions by UNGA, where the majority of members have continually called for an end to the blockade. 

This year, 187 countries voted against the blockade, and only the US and Israel voted to maintain it, which may not be binding and may not force the US to lift the sanctions immediately, but it has certainly served to discredit and isolate Washington, for the 32nd time.