Cuban leader Miguel Díaz-Canel acknowledged that the country's political system is “loaded with burdens,” but qualified his words by praising the “extraordinary strength of a people who are experts in resisting.”
In his speech given at the closing of the National Assembly of People's Power, reported by the newspaper Granma, the leader spoke about the confrontation with the coronavirus pandemic.
Just the day when the health authorities 39 cases of COVID-19 were confirmed, the president assured that the country “has managed to keep the virus at bay and lower its lethality to minimal levels,” thanks to the work of specialists.
“We have confirmed the capacity of the planned economy and the health system of Cuban socialism to control outbreaks and to provide safe assistance to the entire population,” he said.
“There is no mystery in that trained and talented force, which works for the same objective: it is socialism. A socialism that is still imperfect and loaded with burdens that we must release along the way, but essentially humane and fair, like no other system in history has been,” he added.
"It is not a coincidence. It's a causality. There is a component that is in the Cuban DNA, in the magnificent mix of ethnicities and history of continuous resilience, from which that sweet word emerges: Cuban,” he added.
The leader attacked the North American economic embargo, to which he denied any type of political, legal and moral justification, accusing it of affecting the lives of all Cubans in one way or another.
“The North American Government has to face the indisputable reality that the blockade harms the Cuban people as a whole, but is incapable of breaking our capacity for resistance,” he stressed.
“It punishes families, Cubans residing abroad, violates human rights, makes communication, travel, visas and family reunification difficult…” he explained.
Díaz-Canel asked the deputies to the Assembly to applaud the Cuban people, for the heroic page they are writing in facing the pandemic under the “simultaneous harassment” of the embargo and what he called “a huge campaign of hate, manipulation and disinformation.” on social networks, financed from abroad.”
“Every day a threat, every day a sanction (…) That is not politics. That's outrage. That is an abuse. That's brutality. That is shameful and disgraceful! Economic strangulation, financial persecution, pressure on third parties, the refusal to accept a different way of doing things cannot be called politics,” he said.
In the midst of the worst economic crisis in recent times, which has plunged citizens into extreme shortages and a serious shortage of basic necessities, the president stated that “the country is growing.”
“Those who have insisted on writing the epitaph of this triumphant Revolution will be left wanting again,” he stressed.
The socialist leader also assured that during this period of health emergency, the United States reinforced its persecution of Cuban financial transactions and accentuated its efforts to cut off access to fuel supplies.
“It directly attacked the travel sector, even before we were forced to close borders as a protective measure. To achieve this, it imposed unilateral and unjustified restrictions on air transportation between the two countries and went so far as to instruct its citizens where they can stay in Cuba and where they cannot," he said.
"A few days ago he announced new measures that practically nullify the possibilities that those who live in the United States have to send remittances to their relatives in Cuba through legitimate, safe and institutional means," he stressed, in reference to the next closure of more than 400 offices of the Western Union company on the Island.
In this session of the National Assembly, with some of its members acting remotely due to the epidemic, four laws were approved.
For next year, the communist leader announced transformations in the non-state economy, facilities for exporting and importing, as well as the implementation of a territorial development policy, in addition to the already known monetary regulation.
As he explained, the Government will give “highest priority to the production and marketing of food, promoting savings, mainly of foreign currency and energy carriers, betting first on national production” and simplifying administrative procedures.
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