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Cuba welcomes UN demand to suspend sanctions in the face of Covid-19

Havana, March 25.- Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez welcomed on Twitter the statements of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, who demanded the suspension of the sanctions in the face of Covid-19.

 

The Minister of Foreign Affairs reminded the social network that the blockades and economic sanctions cause cruel impacts on the health sector and human rights.

Rodriguez stressed that, in this way, the ex-president of Chile (2006-2010 and 2014-2018) joined the universal and urgent demand of the international community.

On Tuesday, Bachelet considered that the sanctions imposed by the United States, the European Union and other powers on other countries have a negative impact on public health due to the lack of medicines and equipment to fight the current coronavirus pandemic.

She said these measures ‘should be attenuated or suspended’ since they hinder medical care in any country and increase the risk.

A wide range of sanctions would hamper health efforts in Cuba, Venezuela, Iran, Zimbabwe and other nations that are under sanctions, Bachelet said.

In the Cuban case, the health sector is one of the most affected by the economic blockade imposed by the United States for almost six decades.

Between April 2018 and March 2019, the impact on the health sector amounted to 104,148,178 U.S. dollars, which is 6,123,498 dollars more than reported last year, according to Cuban authorities.

Official data exemplify that Cuba can’ t acquire on the U.S. market the Nitric Oxide, used for the prevention or effective treatment of the acute pulmonary hypertension crises, which can be serious and even deadly.

She mentions that about 10 percent of the annual operations at the William Soler Pediatric Cardiocenter are performed on children with this disease.