Cuba’s ambassador says U.S. ‘suffocating’ people, calls on Canada for aid

Cuba’s ambassador to Canada told MPs on Tuesday that the United States is “suffocating an entire people” and creating an economic and humanitarian crisis, and urged Ottawa to follow through with a promised aid package.

A U.S. oil blockade has curtailed fuel and basic supplies to the increasingly isolated Caribbean island, as the Trump administration puts pressure on Cuba’s socialist government.

Speaking before the House foreign affairs committee Tuesday afternoon, Ambassador Rodrigo Malmierca Diaz said the lack of fuel has affected “every aspect of life in the country,” from food distribution to education to public health.

“The objective of this oil blockade is clear: to create a humanitarian crisis and try to force regime change through it,” the ambassador told MPs.

“The collective punishment of a whole nation is an unjustifiable crime. One may disagree with the country’s political project, but there is no right whatsoever that justifies a great power — based on its economic and military might — interfering in its internal affairs, violating its independence. Much less acceptable is a superpower attempting to achieve its objectives by suffocating an entire people.”

Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand told reporters earlier Tuesday ahead of a cabinet meeting that Ottawa was preparing an aid package for Cuba, but would not share details ahead of its announcement in “the coming days.”

Canada-U.S. Trade Minister Dominic LeBlanc said on Feb. 13 that Canada was working on providing some sort of humanitarian relief to the island.

“I appreciate very much the decision or the news that the Canadian government is considering to approve a package of aid for Cuba,” Diaz said.

2:04 Calls grow for Carney government to support Cuba amid Trump’s oil blockade

Cuba had been weathering economic hardship before U.S. President Donald Trump effectively cut off oil shipments to the island by blockading its chief supplier, Venezuela, and threatening tariffs on any country that stepped in to fill the void.

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Mexico, another major supplier, suspended oil shipments after Trump’s threat, which came alongside a declaration that Cuba represents “an unusual and extraordinary” national security threat to the U.S. due to the alleged harbouring of foreign terrorist groups and Russian and Chinese intelligence bases.

That statement is “ridiculous,” Diaz said Tuesday.

“This entire aggressive escalation against Cuba is based on a campaign of lies. Moreover, we must ask, is the United States acting in accordance with international law and the UN Charter? Does anybody have the right to impose his will by force against another nation?”

After the U.S. captured Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro in early January, Trump predicted Cuba’s government was “ready to fall” next.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio told senators at a hearing late last month that “we would love to see a change” in the regime, but added the U.S. wouldn’t “make” that change.

0:53 White House says its in Cuba’s ‘best interest to make dramatic changes’

Attempts by some committee members to ask Diaz about the Cuban government’s human rights record, including allegations of jailing political activists, were objected to by being outside the scope of the meeting’s focus on the current humanitarian crisis.

Diaz nevertheless defended Cuba’s government while acknowledging “we are not perfect.” He also denied allegations that Cuba has sent its soldiers to Ukraine to fight on behalf of Russia.

The fuel shortage has crippled Cuba’s electricity grid and forced airlines to suspend flights after Havana’s main airport warned of a monthlong jet fuel shortage, threatening Cuba’s struggling tourism industry that has become increasingly reliant on Canadian visitors.

Cuba’s government has launched a fuel rationing program, limiting some services and reducing office and school hours.

Cuba’s health minister, José Ángel Portal Miranda, told the Associated Press last week that the country’s already-debilitated health-care system has been pushed to the brink of collapse by increased U.S. sanctions, threatening “basic human safety.”

Diaz said the health-care situation is “difficult,” including limited access to food, medicine and equipment. The lack of fuel has also affected the ability to transfer patients to hospital and power medical units, he said.

“Cuba has a very good health system that gives access to everybody with no payments, like in Canada, and we are proud of it,” he said. “But it’s being sabotaged by this situation of the U.S. blockade.”

2:16 U.S. oil embargo for Cuba disrupts Canadian aid efforts as charities raise alarm

Although Rubio and other U.S. officials have blamed Cuban economic mismanagement for the current crisis, Diaz said the fault lies with the decades-long American economic blockade that has intensified under Trump.

“There is a (suggestion) that Cuba is in this situation because it’s a failed country, but it’s not true,” he said. “If we are failed, why do they take so much interest in destroying us?”

Mark Entwistle, who served as Canada’s ambassador to Cuba in the 1990s, told Global News in an interview this month that Trump’s pressure campaign on Cuba puts countries like Canada in a “vice grip.”

“The Canadian government … needs to manage the U.S. relationship in a smart-minded way, (but at the same time) nobody wants to see a fellow country of the Americas be bullied and crushed and potentially fall into chaos,” he said.

Diaz urged Canada to step in and partner with other “friends” of Cuba to help its people.

Countries like Mexico that have sent humanitarian aid, Diaz added, “say ‘the Cuban people don’t deserve this. We need to help them.’ … I think this is a good example of what can be done.”

—with files from the Associated Press