Facebook Instagram Twitter YouTube

United States Blocks Medical Supplies to Cuba

In the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, the Trump administration is blocking purchases by and deliveries to Cuba of medicines, ventilators, and other health supplies.

Diego Dalai

April 15, 2020
Facebook Twitter Share

On April 13, the director of international relations at the Cuban Ministry of Health denounced a U.S.-imposed blockade on Cuban purchases of medical supplies. This took place after U.S. corporation Vyaire Medical acquired two companies that have regularly supplied the Cuban health system: Swiss manufacturer IMT Medical and ventilator company Autronic. After the acquisition, both companies told Cuba they would no longer be able to provide supplies.

This is part of the economic blockade the United States has imposed on the island since 1962, which includes sanctions against companies that do business with Cuba. Since then, and after the fall of the “Soviet bloc,” basic intermediate goods not produced on the island, or those that cannot be produced in sufficient quantities, must often be paid for in advance at inflated prices—conditions imposed by companies seeking to protect themselves from potential U.S. sanctions. In addition, many products must be purchased from distant countries, leading to much higher transportation costs.

IMT Medical and Autronic informed the Cuban state company in charge of importing health supplies of the change: “Unfortunately, the corporate directive we have today is to suspend all commercial relations with Medicuba; the only way that we can resume joint work is through an OFAC1Office of Foreign Assets Control license issued by the United States Treasury Department and which we don’t have yet.”

Since it was first imposed, the blockade has cost Cuba losses valued at more than $100 billion. It is an aggression almost unparalleled in the world, and one that is denounced year after year by the United Nations — which has repudiated the blockade 15 times in the General Assembly, each time systematically ignored by successive U.S. administrations. After a brief and partial relaxation during the Obama administration, Trump’s arrival in the White House led to a further tightening of the blockade.

Today, with the coronavirus pandemic upon us, blocking medical supplies is a direct act of criminality. But it’s not the only criminal action the Trump administration has committed during the pandemic.

On March 12, the United States launched several rockets, hitting five targets in southern Iraq, damaging a civilian airport, and killing three Iraqi soldiers, two policemen, and one civilian worker. For months now, ever since the savage attack in December on a military convoy that killed the leader of Iranian militias in Iraq, Trump has been reinforcing several of his military bases in the country, even as the Iraqi government has demanded a U.S. withdrawal.

The American tycoon continues to allocate resources for imperialist aggression, striking not only the Iraqi people — who have already surpassed 1,300 infected and 70 dead from Covid-19 — but also his own people, already the most affected by the virus, with hundreds of deaths every day and who drastically need all those resources for fighting the pandemic.

The same is happening in Venezuela. In the midst of the coronavirus crisis, Trump turned the screws even further in the economic war being waged against the country, forcing Russian oil company Rosneft to stop trading with the state-owned oil and natural gas company PDVSA. The United States had already confiscated Citgo, its U.S. subsidiary, and then imposed a blockade on trade with PDVSA. Venezuela was trying to circumvent these illegitimate and illegal sanctions through Rosneft as a way to refine its oil and purchase gasoline. But the new measures, which take Rosneft out of the equation, are seriously aggravating Venezuela’s fuel shortage, and are likely to lead to an even greater deterioration of an already critical economic situation right in the middle of the pandemic.

Imperialist aggression in the form of sanctions, blockades, and offensive military attacks should be repudiated. We must demand their immediate lifting and cessation as a matter of life and death for countries such as Cuba, Iran and Venezuela. 

First published on April 14 in Spanish in La Izquierda Diario.

Translation: Scott Cooper

Notes

Notes
1 Office of Foreign Assets Control
Facebook Twitter Share

Diego Dalai

Diego is an international editor at our sister site in Argentina, La Izquierda Diario.

Latin America

Declaration: End Imperialist Intervention in Haiti, Solidarity with the Haitian People

The “Multinational Security Support Mission” announced by the United States marks a new imperialist-colonial intervention in Haiti by the United States, the UN, and their allies.

The Fight against Javier Milei Has Set The Stage For a Whole New Wave of Struggle

The defeat of the Omnibus Law is a key victory for the movement against Javier Milei’s austerity plan and attacks on democratic rights. It shows that the working class and oppressed have the power to fight against the advance of the Far Right in Argentina and across the world.

Tatiana Cozzarelli

February 9, 2024

Defying Repression: Socialist Electeds in Argentina Show Us What Revolutionary Parliamentarism Looks Like

Workers in Argentina are defying police repression and fighting back against the far-right government’s shock therapy. Trotskyist members of congress are not just protesting inside the chamber — they are on the front lines of the demonstrations, getting pepper sprayed and shot with rubber bullets.

Nathaniel Flakin

February 9, 2024

Crisis for Javier Milei as Austerity Bill Is Defeated 

After a national strike and days of mobilizations, the movement in the streets has defeated far-right president Javier Milei’s anti-worker Omnibus Bill.

Otto Fors

February 7, 2024

MOST RECENT

Former president Donald Trump standing at a podium in front of American flags.

To Stop Trump, We Need Much More Democracy, Not Less

Democrats have been trying to kick Trump off the ballot as an "insurrectionist." Liberals say we have to restrict democracy in order to save it. As socialists, we think they have it backwards: to beat the Far Right, we need a mass movement fighting for radical democracy.

Nathaniel Flakin

March 18, 2024

“Poor Things” Floats Like a Butterfly and Stings Like a Butterfly

Poor Things is a fantastical comedy with beautiful set design and costumes and an Oscar-winning performance from Emma Stone. So why did it leave me feeling so empty? Despite juggling feminist and socialist ideas, the film is ideologically muddled and often self-contradictory.

Basil Rozlaban

March 16, 2024

New Jersey Democrats Attack the Public’s Right to Government Records

The New Jersey state assembly, led by the Democratic Party, just tried to fast-track a bill that would have gutted the Open Public Records Act. This is a reminder that their party is an obstacle, not an ally, in the fight to preserve democracy.

Samuel Karlin

March 15, 2024
President Biden giving his State of the Union speech at a podium in March, 2024.

Biden’s State of the Union: Hyper-Nationalism and Eroding Legitimacy

President Biden’s hyper-nationalistic State of the Union speech focused on selling himself as a defender of democracy at home and abroad. But it’s not enough to solve his — and the whole U.S. regime’s — crisis of legitimacy.

Tatiana Cozzarelli

March 14, 2024