People Before Profit TD Paul Murphy has said that the government should demand that America lift its embargo on Cuba.
During the Obama presidency, moves were made to lift the embargo imposed on Cuba by President John F Kennedy in the early 1960s, and commercial flights between America and Cuba resumed.
However, the Trump presidency has returned to a policy of hostility towards Cuba, and a fuel blockade imposed on Cuba in January has triggered a humanitarian crisis, leading to rolling blackouts and severe shortages of food and medicines.
Murphy said that the Irish government should “end its silence and subservience” and demand that the US end its embargo on Cuba.
“The United States has subjected Cuba to blockades for decades for no reason other than its aim to crush any resistance to US power. The United Nations General Assembly has voted against the blockades dozens of times, but the blockades remain in place,” the Dublin South-West TD said.
Murphy explained that Cuba had received most of its fuel from Venezuela until the US’s “unprovoked attack” on Venezuela in January, killing an estimated 100 people and extraditing President Maduro and his wife Cilla Flores to the United States.
“The US fuel blockade imposed since then means the people of Cuba are suffering endless electricity blackouts, and life in Cuba is extremely difficult and hunger is common,” Murphy said.
“As is invariably the case in relation to victims of US imperialism, the Irish Government’s response to the blockade of Cuba is silence or, at most, performative expressions of concern.
“I salute the people from Ireland who recently participated in a humanitarian aid flotilla that reached Cuba with medical supplies. Their humanitarianism and bravery are in stark contrast with Micheál Martin who travelled to Washington at the same time to genuflect before the perpetrator of the humanitarian crisis in Cuba,” he said.
“The US blockade of Cuba is inflicting mass suffering on 10 million people. There must be an end to the Taoiseach’s subservience and silence. The Irish government must issue an unequivocal condemnation of the US and a demand for an end to its blockade of Cuba”.