The small island of Cuba and its people have suffered decades of hardship as a result of the economic blockade imposed by successive US Governments, the most powerful economic and military nation on Earth.  The blockade began in the 1960s during the cold war, when world powers threatened nuclear war and the world was divided between the two poles of capitalism and communism. The world has changed and we now have the opportunity to implement new approaches to international relations, to express our differences but also to respect the diversity of opinion in the world.

Human beings have achieved many things, in many different fields; achievements of all nations and by people from all world regions.  In the fields of social care, healthcare and education, Cuba sets the standard not only in Latin America, but also in the USA and Europe.  The development seen in Cuba is the envy of many so-called developed countries, built on the principle of to each according to their needs not each according to their means.  Nevertheless, in our globalised world, no country is truly independent and Cuba’s people, especially its children and youth, need goods not produced in Cuba to live a happy and fulfilling life.  Cubans have been deprived of these products by the blockade, violating their rights as set out in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of the United Nations and the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. In the past year as well as in past decades the people of Cuba starved and survived on the bare minimum as a direct result of the blockade.

The blockade impacts on all people, regardless of their opinion of the government of Raúl and Fidel Castro, and effects children disproportionately.  We must unite to fight for the rights of all children in Cuba, just as we fight against poverty in Africa, Asia and Latin America, as we fight against sexual abuse and paedophilia in Europe. Let’s fight against the blockade in Cuba, for the children and for their human rights!

All the governments of Latin America have voted in favor of ending the blockade against Cuba. During the first meeting of a Latin American president with US President Barak Obama, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva transmitted, on behalf of all Latin America governments, the same opinion.

The IFM-SEI must join this act of international solidarity!  The IFM-SEI’s International Committee meeting, gathered in Colombia from the 24^th to the 26^th April 2009, expresses its opposition to the blockade in Cuba and commits to spreading its opinion about this abuse of power, against the economic blockade, for the rights of Cuban children!

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