The Cuban Minister of Foreign Affairs, Bruno Rodríguez, assured this Saturday that the minors residing on the island directly suffer from the tightening of the commercial embargo imposed by the United States. The head of Cuban diplomacy described the limitations and the blockade on fuel access as a "collective, cruel, and indiscriminate punishment" that would be having devastating effects on the child population.
"Cuban boys and girls are direct victims of greed, economic suffocation, and US aggression (...) Examples of this are the doubling of the infant mortality rate from 4.0 to 9.9 per thousand live births, and the reduction in life expectancy for children with cancer from 85% to 65%," the Cuban minister denounced in a publication on his social networks.
According to Rodríguez, the effect of Washington's sanctions has led to a serious deterioration of the country's main public health indicators. Cuban authorities link the shortage of medicines and sanitary materials, as well as the financial tensions derived from the embargo, with the doubling of infant mortality, which would have gone from 4 to almost 10 children deceased per 1,000 live births, and with the drop in life expectancy for minors with cancer, which would have been reduced from 85% to 65%.
Faced with this situation, the Cuban government has officially demanded the immediate end of the political and economic pressure exerted by the United States, and has asked for conditions of stability and peace to be guaranteed that allow for the integral development of the island's children.
The increase in tension occurs after the United States has intensified its offensive against the Cuban leadership, following the indictment of former president Raúl Castro and the imposition of sanctions against the current president, Miguel Díaz-Canel.