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50anivrevolution
US Hostility Hurts Cuba, Region
CANADA, May 8, 2009. The United States will never be able to create a believable relationship with Latin America and the Caribbean if it does not change its position regarding Cuba, said an official of the Cuban Ministry of Foreign Affairs. According to Cuban Foreign Ministry North America Department Director Josefina Vidal, Washington and the present US government must take unilateral steps to end the blockade and other hostile policies towards Cuba.
Vidal, who is taking part in an academic conference on the 50th anniversary of the Cuban Revolution, organized by Queens University in this Canadian city, recalled that Cuba has never blockaded the United States or prohibited that US citizens visit the island.
We are not the ones who prevent US companies from doing business with our country nor have we implemented an aggressive policy against the United States, she added.
Cuba is the attacked country and therefore, it corresponds to the United States to change this policy, said Vidal to over 200 academics from 14 countries attending the event entitled The Importance of the Cuban Revolution, 1959-2009: understanding the past and evaluating the future.
She said Washington should abandon its habit of trying to impose conditions on Cuba as a requirement to change its policy.
We cannot accept that the US government imposes conditions on us that it does not demand from others, Vidal explained, after recalling that her government has often expressed its willingness to hold an open dialogue with Washington, based on respect for its sovereignty.
According to the Cuban official, normalization of relations with the Caribbean island would not represent humiliation for the United States. It would rather build credibility for the US government in view of its isolation regarding its anti-Cuban policy.
Our wish is to coexist in harmony and a civilized manner with the United States. That would be the most beneficial result for both countries, she emphasized.(Cubaminrex- PL)