Cuban ambassador says lifting the embargo will bring change
Prime Minister Barrow’s show of support for Cuba is not only from Belize but also on the behalf of CARICOM. That support has been well received by the Cuban government. And though some travel restrictions of Cuban Americans to the former Spanish colony have been lifted by Barack Obama, Cuba’s Ambassador to Belize Manuel Rubido says that the U.S. government needs to do more. On the other hand, Rubido says that the Cuban government is ready and willing to work with Obama’s administration.
Manuel Rubido, Cuban Ambassador
“The Cuban reaction is actually seeing it as a positive step of the president of the United States to turn back a restrictive measure which was put in by the Bush Administration but we still consider this step as minimal. Evidently, the U.S./Cuba differendum goes far beyond that. I don’t think anything could be truly achieved in the region without the lifting of the blockade on Cuba. And I think that all Latin American and Caribbean countries support that very clearly has been a statement for sixteen years in a row in the U.N. demanding the lifting of this cruel blockade”
“The Government of Cuba and the president of Cuba has made it very clear just today he has reaffirmed it that Cuba absolutely willing to talk and negotiate with the United States all of its differendum and all subjects. Whatever subjects are on the table we are willing to talk with them in the condition that our sovereignty is respected, our self determination is respected and that we will make no concessions in our independence and our principles. But in condition of equals we are willing to talk everything out with the United States and of course work towards a course of normalization of relations. That, at the same time, has to go through the lifting of the blockade; the lifting of the Cuban Adjustment Act and a series of aggressive measures, even extraterritorial measures like the Helms-Burton Law or the Terry-Shelly Act that are clearly obstacles towards the normalization of relations with us.”
