The United States has reiterated that it will continue to use "all tools at its disposal" to "promote" "political and economic" reforms in Cuba and end "decades of repression and economic incompetence of its communist regime."
Secretary of State Marco Rubio marked this Saturday the fifth anniversary of the "July 11 protests," the large wave of demonstrations that erupted in various parts of the country to denounce the lack of food and medicine in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic.
To the historic embargo that has weighed on the island for six decades, Washington has added since the beginning of the year an energy blockade that at times has completely halted supply. As an example, Cuban authorities confirmed this Friday a new nationwide power outage, the second in the same week after Monday's and the fourth so far this year.
Rubio maintains that the United States "has always supported the Cuban people with humanitarian assistance and food exports" and states that the Trump administration offered "a new bilateral relationship" conditioned on the reforms demanded by Washington, a proposal that has been met with rejection by the Cuban government.
In this context, "the Cuban economy is in free fall and its people continue to suffer blackouts, hunger, and deprivation," Rubio has stated, without responding to the accusations made just this week in the United Nations General Assembly by the Cuban Foreign Minister, Bruno Rodríguez, who denounced that the island is the victim of collective punishment promoted from the White House.
Rodríguez reiterated these criticisms this Saturday. "The new disconnection of the National Electric System is a direct consequence of the energy blockade and the extreme intensification of the US blockade against Cuba," he stated in a statement disseminated on social media.
The blackout, he added, "is part of the collective punishment of the Cuban people that the US government is betting on to destroy the Cuban Revolution," while guaranteeing that the Communist Party, the Government, and "the brave electrical workers will continue to work permanently for the restoration of the service and its gradual improvement."
Rubio, on the other hand, holds "the communist rulers of Cuba responsible, who continue to consolidate economic control, stealing and hoarding abroad the few resources that remain and blaming others for their failures."
The Secretary of State concludes with a final warning. After remarking that his country will continue to employ all tools "to address the national security threats posed by the Cuban communist regime and promote economic and political reforms to give Cuba a better future," he urges the island's leaders to "opt to commit to real reforms, peace, and prosperity, before it is too late."