Cuba denounces U.S. trade sanctions against the island

Cuban officials on Tuesday restated their opposition to United States trade sanctions against the island at a press conference in the Dominican Republic capital, Santo Domingo, according to reports reaching here.

Berta Verdura, a councilor at the Cuban embassy to the Dominican Republic, said there was growing repulsion toward the hostile U.S. policy.

She described the sanctions as an act of genocide, citing the fact that 80 percent of Cuban citizens had been born and had lived under the restrictions which first began in 1962. She added that the sanctions had cost the Cuban economy an estimated 86 billion U.S. dollars.

Councilor Carlos de la Nuez said the U.S. laws and policies targeting Cuba were "markedly extraterritorial and in violation of international law".

Both diplomats lashed out at Washington's decision to approve 59 million U.S. dollars in 2004 and a further 80 million this year to activities designed to bring down the Cuban government, describing the decision as "global aggression."

A further 47 million U.S. dollars had been dedicated to broadcasts pumping 2,425 hours of propaganda programs into Cuba each week, the diplomats said.

In addition, the U.S. Interests Office in Havana refuses 73 percent of visa applications, in what the diplomats described as a deliberate ploy to stimulate illegal migration.

The two diplomats also decried the banning of humanitarian donations and medical equipment sales, and the reduction to once every three years for family visits to the island by U.S. residents.

Source: Xinhua