Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador celebrated this Tuesday that his American counterpart, Joe Biden, softened his policy towards Cuba, although he still described the embargo as “genocidal”.
“We celebrate the progress in this direction, it is a step, although I would like there to be no blockade, because that is a violation of human rights, that is a medieval policy that has nothing to do with our time and brotherhood that should exist in our towns or with universal brotherhood,” said López Obrador during his morning press conference.
The Mexican head of state recognized that the decision of the US government is an advance “albeit limited”. However, he said there shouldn’t be a blackout policy because it hurts a lot of people.
“Imagine that you can’t buy food, that people can’t buy the basics because the company that sells it is sanctioned for that isolation. It’s a genocidal policy.”
Alluding to the language of baseball, a sport that he practices and that is very popular in the United States, he said that those blocking policies “look bad”.
“This is how it is said in baseball when someone does not do things well, they looked bad. That should not be done. On the other hand, which is also part of the same thing, it is the sovereign right of peoples to have the form of their government already that no nation, no matter how powerful, intervenes in internal affairs,” he narrowed down.
Monday, Joe Biden softened his policy towards Cuba by restoring commercial flights beyond Havana, suspending limits on remittances and authorizing certain types of travel, although tourism to the island will remain prohibited.
Biden’s announcement marks a reversal of some of the policies implemented by his predecessor, Republican Donald Trump (2017-2021), and which marked the end of the “thaw” era, orchestrated by the American Barack Obama (2009- 2017) and his Cuban counterpart, Raúl Castro.
The shift in policy towards Cuba comes after an internal review within the Biden Administration which has taken months.
The announced measures will come into force in the coming weeks, a senior official who spoke on condition of anonymity told reporters.
Will respect summit decision
López Obrador assured that the meeting they will hold this Wednesday with those in charge of organizing the Summit of the Americas in California will be with a US senator and said that until now they have acted with prudence and tolerance.
“We, regardless of what is resolved, we will always have a relationship of friendship and respect with the United States government and more, much more, with the people of the United States,” he said.
He ruled out that a break with the US government could occur if his request is not accepted to invite “all countries”, in reference to Nicaragua, Venezuela and Cuba, to the Summit to be held next June in Los Angeles, California.