Sanctions Are Like Genocide, Cause Sufferings of Majority Population: Cuba’s Ambassador

Addis Ababa, April 9/ 2022 /ENA/ Imposing sanctions on a sovereign country is like declaring a genocide and punishing the majority of population, Ambassador Jorge Lefebre Nicolás of Cuba noted.

No matter what the differences are, there is always a way to deal with them through diplomatic means before applying sanctions on any sovereign nation, he added.

In an exclusive interview with ENA, Ambassador Jorge Lefebre Nicolás stated that when superpowers impose sanctions on others they say normally that the sanction is to improve the people’s life.

But, he pointed out that what they are doing is to punish the people and make the lives of the people harder.

According to him, this is not the way to get political objective. “I mean punishing the majority of the population with hunger is not the way to achieve political goals.”

The superpowers believe that the idea of democracy is one-size-fits all countries approach, which does not allow a country to have its own way of practicing democracy, Ambassador  Nicolás elaborated.

Criticizing the damaging approach of the western powers to change a government of  sovereign country whenever they want, he said “we think all countries have their own problems, but all the countries have also their own way to solve the problems as well.”

So, if the western powers really stand for the rights and better lives of the people, they have to support others on how to deal with problems, the ambassador argued. “If you apply sanctions, you kill the hope of the people to have a better life.”  

He underscored that “sanction is like genocide. If you prohibit or stop the access of a country to the international financial institutions, how will they solve their problems and how will the economy  grow?”   

Ambassador  Nicolás pointed out that when they try to punish a government, they punish the whole population of a country; and millions of people are victims of those sanctions.

Commenting on the role of diplomacy rather than sanctions to solve differences, he said  diplomacy was created to resolve differences through discussions and dialogue. That is the reason for having diplomacy and diplomats.

“No matter the difference, there is always a way to deal with it. By sitting face-to-face and discussing differences,  you can find a common ground to cooperate with countries.”