Correa calls for End of US Blockade against Cuba ECUADOR, June 30, 2011.- President of Ecuador Rafael Correa called for putting an end to the US economic, commercial and financial blockade against Cuba, describing it as an insult to international law. In an interview with Prensa Latina, Correa said that this action applied for over 50 years against Cuba is another example of international double standards and is unjustifiable at this time in the history of the human race. "As an economist, one can see the hypocrisy when the pseudo-analysts speak of the failure of the Cuban model, a government that has been blockaded for over fifty years by the major world market," he said. Correa, who is attending the Mercosur summit in Paraguay, wondered which Latin American country would be able to survive under a US blockade. He added that ignoring such an essential factor is like "finding a person drowned at the bottom of a swimming pool with his/her feet encased in a bucket of cement and conclude that the person drowned because he/she did not know how to swim." "It is hypocritical to discuss the Cuban situation, the Cuban model's success or failure, ignoring this determining factor, which is the blockade," he said. The Ecuadorian president insisted that "this atrocity has to end; this insult to international law, this abuse, this example of double standards must end as soon as possible." Questioned about the unfair imprisonment in the US of five anti-terrorist Cuban fighters for 13 years, Correa again referred to international double standards and imperial arrogance, because due process was broken there and human rights were violated. Gerardo Hernandez, Antonio Guerrero, Rene Gonzalez, Ramon Labanino and Fernando Gonzalez, internationally known as The Cuban Five, were given harsh sentences by a Miami court for warning Cuba of violent actions by anti-Cuban groups. "What is outrageous is that every year they draft reports on human rights about us," he noted. "That's why the last time they drafted a report about us, we did the same about the United States, citing how they allowed torture in Guantanamo, the case of The Cuban Five and the bombings of sovereign countries like Irak and Afghanistan, among others," said Correa. He suggested bringing the issue of human rights in the United States to the Union of South American Nations and wondered who appointed the United States as world judge and why the United States has to judge other countries on things it fails to practice. "They think they are above everyone else, everything they do is well done; it is the others who have to be judged and condemned," he said. Correa said that no country has the quality or trustworthiness to become the judge of others on this issue, even less so when it has legalized torture or applies things as questionable as the death penalty. (Cubaminrex-Prensa Latina) |