Decades-long U.S. sanctions cost Cuba $5 billion in 2023: Video

The US embargo, first imposed in 1962, has been a contentious issue for over six decades. Initially enacted in response to the nationalisation of American-owned properties in Cuba, the embargo has evolved into a comprehensive set of economic, commercial, and financial restrictions.

Despite numerous calls from the international community to lift the embargo, it remains firmly in place, significantly affecting Cuba's economy and its people.

During a press conference on Thursday, September 13, The foreign affairs minister of the country, Bruno Rodriguez, explained that "From March 1, 2023, to February 29 of this year, the blockade caused material damage and losses to Cuba amounting to 5.056 billion dollars."

In response, he urged the current US President, Joe Biden, to ease the sanctions in the remaining months of his tenure.

"The only honest, responsible, and serious thing the current occupant of the White House (President Joe Biden) could do would be to modify, in the remaining period of his term, the blockade policies he inherited earlier but has applied intensely and strictly."

The island nation's efforts to get the sanctions off its back is reflected in its unrelenting submission of documents of dissolution to the United Nations General Assembly for almost three decades.

In a recent document presented to the assembly, the country stated “It is not permissible, legal or ethical, that for decades a small country be subjected to a criminal policy of suffocation, with economic damages that exceed 164.,141.1 billion dollars at current prices.”