Havana, Cuba.- According to Prensa Latina news agency, the meeting served as an opportunity to demand the total elimination of this act of economic warfare, in accordance with the provisions of the Declaration on the Law of Maritime War, adopted by the London Naval Conference in 1909.

With their blockade strategy, Washington intends to force the Cuban people to surrender their sovereignty, stated the president of the Cuban Association of the United Nations, Fermín Quiñones.

Speaking at a news conference in Havana, Quiñones noted that on October 31st, the UN General Assembly will vote on a draft resolution on the need to end the U.S. blockade of Cuba. He said it will be the 27th consecutive year -- since 1992 -- that the United Nations votes on the Cuban resolution.

READ MORE: International Bodies Demand End of U.S. Blockade on Cuba

BLOCKADE ON CUBA ALSO AFFECTS FOOD SECTOR

The technical director of the food group of the Ministry of Domestic Trade, Silvio Mora, stated the blockade has a considerable impact on Cuba''s food in areas such as product conservation and transportation.

In a dialogue with Prensa Latina, Mora explained that because of the economic, commercial and financial blockade imposed by the United States, the import of fundamental products for the population is becoming more expensive and must often be made from distant markets, adding to this the cost of equipment to conserve them.

The island cannot acquire products in the United States, so it must manage them through third countries and in markets such as Vietnam, Pakistan, Brazil, Uruguay, China, Spain and Portugal, he said.

These are items which could be procured in the northern country at lower prices and with lower transportation costs; however, successive Washington administrations restricted access to that market.

According to Mora, one of the cases illustrating the effects of the blockade is pea, a grain produced in the United States but imported from Canada only twice a year due to the cost involved.

A few days before the UN General Assembly votes, on October 31, over a new draft resolution to end the blockade, numerous denunciations arise inside and outside Cuba to demand an end to Washington's policy.

NOBEL PRIZE PÉREZ ESQUIVEL SENDS LETTER TO UN CRITICIZING US BLOCKADE

''As long as the United States continues attacking the Cuban people as if the Cold War continued, it will be attacking the right of all peoples to peace, sovereignty and development,'' Nobel Prize winner Adolfo Perez Esquivel stressed in Buenos Aires.

In a letter sent to UN Secretary General, Antonio Guterres, to which Prensa Latina had access, the prominent Argentine human right activist described this genocidal policy imposed almost 60 years ago on the island as 'a war against a country that seeks peace.'

Some few days before the UN votes on the draft resolution against the need to put an end to the economic, commercial and financial blockade imposed by the United States on the island, the Nobel Peace Prize winner stressed that despite the restoration of relations between the two countries, the U.S. financial persecution to Cuban transactions abroad remains in force.

The extraterritorial scope of this unilateral measure, which has brought economic damages to the people amounting to $933.6 million USD, taking into account the depreciation of the dollar against the value of gold on the international market, is also on the list.

Cuba continues unable to export and freely import products and services to or from the United States,the island cannot have direct banking relations with that country or receive U.S. investments in other sectors of the economy, with the exception of telecommunications, he states in his letter.

Perez Esquivel also recalled that fear persists within the U.S. banking sector and third countries to develop relations with the Caribbean nation and the extraterritorial nature of the blockade seriously harms the island, the interests and sovereign rights of third countries is also affected and this is a violation of International Law,the purposes and principles of the UN Charter and free trade rules. (RHC/PL)

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