HAVANA, Nov 2 (NNN- Xinhua) — The US trade embargo against Cuba has cost the Caribbean country’s sports sector an estimated US$15 million in lost revenue over the past five years, according to an official.
In just seven months, “between August 2021 and February 2022, the US blockade has caused US$2 million worth of losses,” Gisleidy Sosa, a director at the National Institute of Sports, Physical Education and Recreation, told a press conference here on Tuesday.
The sanctions effectively bar Cuban athletes and coaches from participating in international sporting events in the United States by making it difficult to get a visa, Sosa explained ahead of the Cuban government’s annual draft resolution to the United Nations General Assembly, set for Nov 2-3, calling for an end to the embargo.
Yadira Gonzalez, director of Cubadeportes, the island’s sports promotion enterprise, said the sanctions also undermine the sector in Cuba by restricting access to critical sports equipment and supplies on the international market.
“We are systematically subjected to financial persecution, which negatively impacts our capacity to conduct banking transactions with international companies and sports institutions,” Gonzalez said.
First imposed in 1962, the embargo was tightened by former US President Donald Trump, who put in place 243 more sanctions, including banning all flights from the United States to Cuban destinations other than the capital Havana and capping remittances Cuban Americans can send to their families back home.
The current US administration allowed airlines to resume flights to various Cuban cities and lifted the cap on remittances, but the web of sanctions against Cuba remains largely in place.
According to the Cuban government, US sanctions have cost Cuba’s economy a total of US$154.2 billion over the past six decades. — NNN-XINHUA
